Agenda item

(Mrs M Blanche, LINk Lead and Senior Policy Manager, and Ms R Gardner, Management Trainee, Kent Graduate Programme, were in attendance for this item.)

            (1)       Mr Gibbens thanked the Committee for inviting him to update them on progress on the LINk.  He explained that the LINk project had now reached the stage of launching the tendering process to find the host organisation.  Briefings had taken place with County and District Council Members and meetings with the voluntary sector.  Mr Gibbens outlined KCC’s role in relation to the LINk as being to manage the tendering process, stimulate public interest in the LINk and to performance-manage the host organisation.  He thanked Mrs Blanche and Ms Gardner for their work in developing the LINks project.

            (2)       In response to questions put to them by Members and Patient and Public Involvement Forum (PPIF) representatives, Mr Gibbens and Mrs Blanche explained the following:-

(a)               A key role of LINks was to ensure a better information flow to HOSCs.  A challenge to be addressed was how to ensure representation for hard-to-reach groups, such as gypsies and travellers, refugees, black and minority ethnic groups, etc.

(b)               The LINk, if it worked well, would draw in a good range of service users and organisations.  As the body responsible for commissioning the host organisation, KCC would have more influence over the LINk than it did over PPIFs.  A successful meeting, hosted by the PPIFs and aimed at voluntary organisations, and carer and user groups, as well as PPIF members, had been held at Lenham on 30 January.

(c)               Regarding arrangements for the transition to the LINk, 28 volunteers had so far come forward to join a Steering Group.  The Group would be meeting in March, chaired by the current Chairman of the Medway Steering Group (who could share lessons from Medway’s experience of having been a LINk “early adopter”).

(d)               Every local authority in England, regardless of size, had been allocated the same sum – £10,000 – to cover the cost of setting up LINks; in a large county, such as Kent, this would not go far.  Ten per cent of the overall annual funding allocation for the LINk – £492,000 – would be kept back by KCC to cover the cost of its ongoing performance-management role in respect of the host organisation.

(e)               A Member asked about the possible workload arising from the right of LINks to refer matters to HOSCs. Concerns were also raised by a PPIF representative about whether provision had been made for transitional arrangements from 1 April, in case the LINk was not operational from that date, as planned. He also questioned the planned top-slicing of the LINk funding allocation; some local authorities were not going to top-slice – and a few had actually contributed additional funding to their LINk budgets. Mr Gibbens and Mrs Blanche replied that the HOSC hoped to start the LINk as close to 1 April 2008 as possible. Top-slicing was occurring so that Kent had enough funding to cover its performance-management role in respect of the host organisation, and to support any referrals to the HOSC (the volume of which could not be predicted).

(f)                 Mr Gibbens would be happy to meet with anyone across the county who wished to discuss the plans for setting up the LINk.  Information was available on Kent TV and the KCC website, and there was an extensive mailing list for the LINks newsletter, which included local MPs.

(g)               KCC’s planned Healthwatch body could assist the operation of the LINk by gathering information and signposting queries to the right place.  KCC could not stipulate what the LINk did with this information, but the LINk ought to consider it.  The county council had allocated £300,000 in the Medium Term Plan to fund Healthwatch.

(h)               The draft tender specification for the host organisation was now ready.  The specification could not be published, due to commercial sensitivity – but it was no secret that it was based on Department of Health (DoH) guidance.  There would be 40 days during which tenders could be submitted.

            (3)       RESOLVED that the information given on the set up of the LINks scheme be noted, with thanks