Agenda item

Police and Crime Panel (update on Independent Member appointment)   - Councillor McCloskey

Councillor Clucas provided a verbal update on both, the Economic Growth and Health and Care scrutiny committees.  She highlighted the difference between the two committees in their ability to hold the relevant parties to account.  She appreciated that one (HCSC) was statutory and the other (EGSC) was not, but a consequence of this was that, those in power, did not attend meetings of the EGSC scrutiny committee.  The economy was key to devolution and she felt it was important for this committee to be aware of the obstacles such issues presented and decide what it wanted to have in place for the future.  The meeting of the EGSC scheduled for this month had been cancelled. 

The HCSC met two weeks ago and had requested a follow-up report on some of the issues that had been discussed in relation to staffing.  It was clear the difficulties in recruiting clinicians, not just consultants, was having an impact on services and she felt that there was a national debate to be had about how clinicians were trained in this country.  The last meeting had been held at the same time as the strike action and whilst the public had been assured that staff levels would be satisfactory, it was clear that there were issues, not least the confusion that this caused with members of the public, who were unsure about where and when they could access GPs, out of hours services, etc; and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) recognised that this needed to be reviewed.  She also reported that a divert had been put in place just after Christmas, meaning that Gloucester was full and patients were diverted to Cheltenham, but there were not sufficient staff levels at Cheltenham at the time that the divert was put in place.  Another issue that had been raised was that of the £7.1m surplus at the CCG, which would be given back to the Treasury at the end of this financial year and handed back at the CCG at the start of the next, as it was a running surplus.  She hoped that the follow-up reports would include information on all of these issues. 

In response to a member question, Councillor Clucas confirmed that there were not enough training places to meet demand and reiterated her concerns that the requirement for nurses and paramedics to obtain university degrees was part of the problem, though this was obviously a national issue. 

A member explained that scrutiny committees set up by statute would then be able to get access to the Secretary of State and the suggestion was that the EGSC should be set up in this way under the new Joint Committee to give it more importance.  All scrutiny committees had been set up in this way for Joint Committees across Wales. 

Members were advised that they were able to access documents for all Gloucestershire County Council committee meetings via the modern.gov app on their iPads.

The Chairman reminded members that the NHS Trust were scheduled to attend the April meeting of this committee and that members, in line with the Witness Charter, should submit questions in advance. A reminder would be sent in due course.

At the last meeting of the committee, Councillor McCloskey reported that interviews would soon be taking place, for the position of Independent Member on the Police and Crime Panel.  She was now able to confirm that Adrian Connor, Operational Director of Carillion Plc, but who was nearing retirement, had been appointed.  She also confirmed that members of the panel had met with the Commissioner, Martin Surl and his team, to discuss some of the overarching issues which would be the focus of 2016/17.  The Commissioner had been pleased with the Police budget settlement, which whilst reduced, was better than expected.  He gave assurances that Police numbers would remain at December 2015 levels and staff and fleet costs remained the largest expenses.  She was pleased to be able to confirm that funding of projects would continue into 2017, regardless of the outcome of the elections in May, though this was not to say that a new Commissioner might not revaluate priorities.