Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meetings held on 4 July and 24 July 2007 are correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman.

(1)       The Chairman thanked Members of the POC for electing him as Chairman at the 24 July meeting.  He placed on record his congratulations to Mr M C Dance on the latter’s appointment as Cabinet Member for Education and School Improvement and his appreciation of Mr Dance’s work as Chairman of the POC.

(2)       Mr Lynes added his congratulations to the Chairman on his election.

(1)       The Chairman emphasised that an annual report on progress towards the ‘Towards 2010’ targets, and a chance to comment on it, gave the POC a key chance to influence the development of policy making.

(2)       The Cabinet Member, Mr K G Lynes, introduced the report and said that he had fought hard to highlight the Directorate’s key aspirations and identify targets which would be most helpful in achieving them.  He said how proud he was of KASS officers and the reputation Kent had for excellence and its innovative approach to service provision, promoting TeleHealth, Telecare, Direct Payments, etc.  The Directorate was always short of resources and funding and was facing a number of ongoing pressures from demographic changes and the changing needs of the aged and those with physical and learning disabilities.

(3)       Mr Lynes and the officer team answered questions and responded to concerns put to them by Members on each of the five targets, which, Mr Mills emphasised, were interdependent.  Comments made by Members, and clarifications, where given by Mr Lynes and officers in response to Members’ questions, were as follows.  Clarifications are in italics.

General Points

 (a)      The report setting out the background of, and progress towards, each of the targets is excellent, very clearly laid out and easy to follow.

Target 52

(b)       Equipment needs to be ready and available to accommodate the expansion of TeleHealth and Telecare, especially now a much bigger expansion is planned following Kent’s successful £4.8m bid in partnership with both Eastern and Coastal and West Kent PCTs for the Whole System Demonstrator (WSD).  The number of Telecare installations, at July 2007, was 750 and the number of TeleHealth, at September 2007, was 247.  WSD money would extend Telecare by 1,500 and TeleHealth by 1,000.  The 2010 target had been set before the outcome of the WSD bid was known. 

(c)        The NHS needs to continue an active role in expanding the use of Telecare and TeleHealth, to match the efforts being put in by KASS.  How can we ensure full involvement of the NHS in this and other preventative work?  The relationship between KASS and the NHS is more effective now and joint working is excellent.  PCTs have huge financial issues but we believe they are doing as much as they can.

(d)       We need to be sure that we will obtain maximum value from the WSD money by using the appropriate tender process.  The £4.8m WSD money is specific, ring-fenced Government money which can only be used for this programme..

(e)       We need to be able to identify demographic trends and plan well ahead to meet them.  Extensive work has been undertaken on demographic predictions for the next 20 years and Kent is good at forward planning in response to these.

(f)         We need to press for an increase in the building of Lifetime homes to avoid the need for future adaptations for the elderly and physically disabled.  How can  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

This will report the Cabinet’s response to the questionnaire, and will be despatched on 20 September 2007.

(1)       The Chairman introduced the paper and noted that the Adult Social Services POC had shown up well amongst other POCs as making the optimum use of its powers.  He said his aim was for the POC to be the best at embracing the scrutiny role and helping the Cabinet Member to form policy.

(2)       In discussion, Members made a number of comments on the report content, as follows:-

(a)       The POC has already done well in contributing to scrutiny and has always engaged well with the Cabinet Member to address issues – I would not seek to change the process we have, including the way the POC challenges the Directorate and his management team in the role of ‘critical friend’.

(b)       The split between Adults’ and Children’s Services meant that we had a reorganisation fairly recently and we need time to settle down again before we make any more changes in the way the Committee works.

(c)        The questionnaire answers said that too much time is spent listening to officers introducing reports.  It would be a better use of time to assume that Members have read the reports.

(d)       Members also engage with the issue outside the formal POC meetings through mechanisms like cross-party subject briefings and District Member briefings.  These raise Members’ awareness and give them a chance to meet and question officers, but the success of these relies on active Member support and attendance.

(e)       Members need to be able to see issues which are coming up in good time to have maximum opportunity to engage with and comment on them.

(3)       Mr Lynes stated that it was his intention at all future meetings to sit alongside the Chairman of the POC as it offered the opportunity for all Members of the Committee to scrutinise issues and question him on any aspect of the portfolio being discussed at those meetings.

(4)       Mr Mills said he found the questionnaire mechanism an excellent way of gaining good practical feedback and that he welcomed the ‘critical friend’ role of the POC.

(5)       RESOLVED that the Cabinet’s response to the POC questionnaire, and the comments made in discussion by Members, listed above, be noted.