Agenda item

Giles Adey, Coroner’s Services Manager was in attendance for this item)

(1)       The Cabinet Committee received a report from the Cabinet Member and Corporate Director setting out details of the role of the Coroner’s Officer and an agreement with Kent Police to transfer the employment of 15 FTE Coroner’s Officers from Kent Police to Kent County Council on 1 January 2014. 

(2)       The Cabinet Member introduced the report by stating that the proposed decision brought both challenges and opportunities.  The challenge was that the Council had a statutory duty to deliver the service in question and as a result there would be financial implications for KCC’s budget.  However there would also be an opportunity to rationalise the current arrangements and make significant savings while providing a more efficient service.

(3)       Mr Adey, Coroner’s Services Manager spoke to this item and offered the following information:

(i)        Historically Coroner’s Officers had been employed by the Police, they were responsible for taking statements and making enquiries into circumstances surrounding deaths, making arrangements for post mortems, liaising with families and interested persons and arranging and attending post mortems.

(ii)       The Coroner’s and Justice Act 2009 came into effect on 25 July 2013 and for the first time recognised in law the role of Coroner’s Officers, and placed on local authorities a statutory responsibility for their provision.

(iii)      Currently the service was somewhat disjointed. Coroners were based in solicitors’ offices or their own homes and not employed by KCC, while Coroner’s Officers were employed by Kent Police and KCC with statutory responsibility for the service.  The new legislation offered the opportunity for a much more holistic approach to be taken.

(iv)      In designing the new model co-location of Coroners and Coroner’s Officers offered obvious benefits, as highlighted in the earlier item on emergency planning and the Kent Resilience Team.  Coroners Officers transferred to KCC on 1 January 2014 and once this had happened there would be a formal consultation on a new structure. 

(v)       It would not be necessary to implement TUPE transfer as the function was an administrative one but any staffing issues would be managed under the Cabinet Office Statement of Practice (COSOP) guidelines. 

(vi)      The role of Medical Examiner had arisen from the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and for the past two years KCC had been waiting for a formal consultation from the Department of Health about how this would work in practice.  This was a new role and the intention was that the Medical Examiner would independently assess all deaths not referred to the Coroner.  Currently 50% of deaths were referred to the Coroner but the expectation was that in the future only 25% of deaths would be dealt with by the Coroner and the remaining 75% would be reviewed by the Medical Examiner and referred if necessary.

(vii)    The total cost of implementing this service across England and Wales was estimated at approximately £48m.  The intention was that any costs would be funded by a fee payable by the family of the deceased and therefore would be cost neutral to the local authority.  An announcement from the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt was due later today about the Department of Health’s proposals and timetable for implementation

(4)     In response to comments and questions from Members Mr Adey confirmed the following information:

(i)        Pilots elsewhere in the country had shown that although fewer deaths were being referred to the Coroner, the number of post mortems had increased slightly, as had the number of lengthy inquests and therefore there was a potential for the cost of the Coroner’s Office to increase in the future.  Negotiations continued with Government to establish responsibility for any increase in costs if realised.

(ii)       A ‘Joint Negotiation Committee’ negotiated Coroner payment levels nationally, to which the Local Authority and local Coroners had regard when setting payment levels in Kent.  There were currently four Coroners in Kent, one full time and three part time.  Full time Coroners were paid on a pro-rata basis dependent on case load, those who were part time were able to claim long inquest payments and these could run into large amounts.  The Chief Coroner was working on proposals to standardise pay.

(iii)      In the pilot areas, no charge had been made to families of the deceased for the services of the Medical Examiner.  Representations had been made to government that this aspect of the proposals remained untested and asking that the government fund the cost of the Medical Examiner rather than pass the costs to families.

(iv)      That there was currently no public mortuary in Kent and therefore KCC contracted facilities from the NHS.  There were medium term contracts until 2017 and one option being explored was the construction of one or more public mortuaries to replace those contracts when they expired.  In the future a paper would be prepared looking at the costs of building a public mortuary.

(v)       That the role of the Medical Examiner would be to scrutinise deaths not referred to the Coroner in order to provide independent medical scrutiny of death certificates signed by a Doctor.  The reduction in deaths being referred to the Coroner would be achieved by the Department of Health legislating which deaths would be referred to the Coroner.

(5)       It was RESOLVED that: the proposed decision of the Cabinet Member to transfer the employment of Coroner’s Officers from Kent Police to KCC be endorsed.