Agenda and minutes

No apologies for absence were received.

Members and Officers are requested to give notice of any personal or prejudicial interest and the nature of that interest, relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the relevant Code of Conduct.

The following declarations of interest was received:

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 2 March 2011 be confirmed as a correct record.

Report of the Strategic Director - Social Care and Well-Being

The Cabinet Member considered the report of the Strategic Director - Social Care and Well-Being that advised of the statutory responsibility of the Directorate to continue to support the funding of the Sefton Local Involvement Network (LINk) during the transitional year 2011/12 preceding the establishment of HealthWatch in April 2012; and indicating that a decision on this matter was required as approval was needed to continue to financially support the LINk Host Support organisation (Sefton Council for Voluntary Services CVS) for the financial year 2011/12.

RESOLVED:  That

(1)            authority be granted to enter into an extension of the current Service Level Agreement with Sefton CVS, at a cost of £91,500 for one year, to continue support of the Sefton Local Involvement Link; and

(2)       a further report be submitted to the Cabinet Member in six months updating on the specifications for the Local Healthwatch.

Report of the Strategic Director - Social Care and Well-Being

The Cabinet Member considered the report of the Strategic Director - Social Care and Well-Being that advised of "No health without mental health" (the Strategy), a national mental health outcomes strategy for England.

The report indicated that the Strategy was subtitled 'A cross-government mental health outcomes strategy for people of all ages'.  This title supported the contention that mental health was everyone's business; requiring intervention from a wide range of stakeholders and organisations, including national and local government, private and voluntary organisations, employers, users, carers and the wider public.

The report concluded that local government would play a central role in ensuring that local partners and partnership arrangements could deliver the shared mental health objectives via the local health and wellbeing boards; and that the new enhanced role played by local government in delivering public health recognised that the delivery of shared mental health objectives was intrinsic to positive health and wellbeing.

The Cabinet Member indicated that in relation to the strategy, she recognised the importance of employment and commended the work the Council undertook to assist in this area, In particular, Coast and Countryside who’s workshops had, had a positive impact on service users.  

RESOLVED:

That the report that updated on the 'No health without mental health' outcomes strategy for England be noted and fully supported.

Report of the Strategic Director - Social Care and Well-Being

The Cabinet Member considered the report of the Strategic Director - Social Care and Well-Being that sought approval to extend the current Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) contract for a period of up to 3 months and to approve the re-procurement of the service via a competitive tender exercise; and indicating that a decision on this matter was required as the current contract for the provision of an IMCA service was due to end and arrangements needed to be put in place to ensure continuity of service.

RESOLVED:   That

(1)       the current IMCA contract with Advocacy Experience be extended for a period of up to three months; and

(2)       following completion of the competitive procurement exercise, the  successful bidder Advocacy Experience be awarded a contract until 31 March 2014 with an option to extend for a further 2 years subject to satisfactory performance.

Report of the Strategic Director - Social Care and Well-Being

The Cabinet Member considered the report of the Strategic Director - Social Care and Well-Being that detailed the progress in the implementation of the Sefton Dementia Strategy.

RESOLVED:

That the report outlining progress on local implementation of the Dementia Strategy during 2011-2014 be noted.

Report of the Strategic Director - Social Care and Well-Being to follow

This item was withdrawn from the agenda by the Strategic Director - Social Care and Well-Being.

Joint report of the Chief Executive, Sefton Council and the Acting Chief Executive – NHS Sefton to follow

Further to Minute No. 46 of 22 December 2010, the Cabinet Member considered the joint report of the Chief Executive, Sefton Council and the Acting Chief Executive - NHS Sefton that provided a joint strategic response summary by Sefton Council and NHS Sefton on the published White Paper on Public Health ‘Healthy Lives, Healthy People and the two supporting papers; and requested the sign off of the joint strategic response summary and the response to be submitted into the consultation process prior to closure on 31 March 2011.

The report advised that the White Paper outlined the Government's commitment to protecting the population from serious health threats; helping people live longer, healthier and more fulfilling lives; and improving the health of the poorest, fastest; and that the White Paper responded to Professor Sir Michael Marmot's Fair Society, Healthy Lives report and adopted its life course framework for tackling the wider determinants of health.

Councillor Brennan indicated that in his opinion the coalition Government had broken its promise to the British people, not to top down reorganisation of the NHS.

The Cabinet Member responded and indicated that the Authority needed to work together and continue to monitor and feed into the strategy.

RESOLVED: That

(1)                Sefton’s Joint Strategic response to the White Paper - Healthy People, Healthy Lives: Our Strategy for Public Health in England, be approved; and 

(2)           the dissent of Councillor Brennan to the decision referred to in (1) above be recorded. 

The Cabinet Member indicated that Mr Barry Robinson, Mental Health Commissioning Manager would be retiring shortly and on behalf of the Members and officers in relation to Health and Social Care thanked Mr Robinson for his work and commitment to mental health services and wished him a long and happy retirement.

RESOLVED:

Mr Robinson be wished a long and happy retirement.