Agenda item

Gloucestershire Health Community and Care O&S Committee (3 March) and Gloucestershire Economic Growth O&S Committee (18 March) – updates from Councillor Clucas

Police and Crime Panel (2 April)   - update from Councillor McCloskey

Councillor Clucas provided a brief update on recent meetings of the Health Community Care O&S Committee and Gloucestershire Economic Growth O&S Committee. 

She confirmed that she had fed back comments from the last meeting of this committee at the 3 March meeting of the HCC O&S Committee; relating to alcohol and difficulties getting those responsible for the administration of the Trust to attend a meeting.  Cheltenham was a top locality for alcohol and alcohol related crime and members of the HCC were happy to discuss how we could work together to tackle this issue.  The committee were advised that senior officials from the Trust already met with senior officials from Cheltenham Borough Council but there was a suggestion that if they were approached at another time, they would be more open to attending.  The HCC had also discussed:

Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIAs): of those patients who present at Doctors with TIAs prior to a stroke, fewer than 60% were being put through the system.  The hospitals saw over 1000 cases a year, but there were no specialists between Friday p.m. and Monday a.m.  There were plans to employ weekend specialists but she was not sure that this would apply to all hospitals.  

GP contracts: the Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust budgets (£17m dental, £18m pharmacy, etc.) were significant sums of money and members were assured that Doctors being able to award themselves contracts was not a problem.

The committee had started planning for 2015-16 scrutiny arrangements and domiciliary care would be a key focus in relation to drug and alcohol services, with the suggestion being that this might be something that this committee wanted to look at.  Other areas included respiratory care and mental health, and some workshops had been arranged, a review of the suicide prevention strategy (June/July) and end of life care which would be tied in with the review of respiratory care.

A member pointed out that work was being done locally to address alcohol issues by partnerships and that they must be included if any scrutiny work was to be undertaken in Cheltenham. 

In relation to the Gloucestershire Economic Growth O&S Committee which met on the 18 March, she advised that concerns had been raised regarding economic development, what was being done in Gloucestershire and what this meant in terms of governance and devolution.  In considering devolution the committee had looked at Manchester.  Her personal view was that the future of economic development was dependant on devolution and that everyone should be involved in a discussion about what should and will happen at a local level.

An update from Councillor McCloskey on the 2 April meeting of the Police and Crime Panel had been circulated with the agenda.  This included details of an investment to save initiative, which would see police being provided with Samsung Galaxy phones and enabling them to undertake a number of tasks without having to return to their base.  This would result in a saving of £4m pa and the loss (through retirement and resignations) of approximately 80 officers.  There would also be some changes to the estate.  It was still the intention to leave Lansdown Road and find another location in the town centre and have another in Whaddon.  Grants for projects relating to the police and crime plan had reached 146 and 88 projects were under consideration for the latest bidding round.  Both the chair and vice-chair of the Police and Crime Panel were standing down on the 7 May elections and there were likely to be other changes to the membership for the next meeting on the 16 July.  

Members were reminded that Martin Surl, the Police Commissioner for Gloucestershire was scheduled to attend the next meeting of the committee (29 June) and referred members to the pro-forma at the back of the agenda.