To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received Councillors A E Gray and M D Lloyd-Hayes.

To receive details of any Member nominated to attend the meeting in place of a Member of the Committee

Councillor P J Edwards substituted for Councillor A E Gray.

To receive any declarations of interest by Members in respect of items on the Agenda.

GUIDANCE ON DECLARING PERSONAL AND PREJUDICIAL INTERESTS AT MEETINGS

The Council’s Members’ Code of Conduct requires Councillors to declare against an Agenda item(s) the nature of an interest and whether the interest is personal or prejudicial.  Councillors have to decide first whether or not they have a personal interest in the matter under discussion.  They will then have to decide whether that personal interest is also prejudicial.

A personal interest is an interest that affects the Councillor more than most other people in the area.  People in the area include those who live, work or have property in the area of the Council.  Councillors will also have a personal interest if their partner, relative or a close friend, or an organisation that they or the member works for, is affected more than other people in the area.  If they do have a personal interest, they must declare it but can stay and take part and vote in the meeting. 

Whether an interest is prejudicial is a matter of judgement for each Councillor.  What Councillors have to do is ask themselves whether a member of the public – if he or she knew all the facts – would think that the Councillor’s interest was so important that their decision would be affected by it.  If a Councillor has a prejudicial interest then they must declare what that interest is and leave the meeting room.

Councillor Attfield declared a personal interest in respect of agenda item 6: Report on the Assessments of 18-64 Year Olds’ Future Needs and Services: Mental Health and Physical Disabilities, as a Trustee of MIND.  Mr R Kelly declared a personal interest in respect of agenda item 6: Report on the Assessments of 18-64 Year Olds’ Future Needs and Services: Mental Health and Physical Disabilities, as Executive Director of MIND.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 10 December.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting held on 10th December, 2007 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To consider suggestions from members of the public on issues the Committee could scrutinise in the future.

There were no suggestions from Members of the Public.

The Chairman reported her intention to add an item to the Committee’s work programme on Support provided by the Council to Carers.

To consider proposals for the development of high-performing health and social care services by 2012 to meet the expected future needs of 18-64 year-olds in Herefordshire with mental health problems and physical disabilities.

The Committee considered proposals for the development of high-performing health and social care services by 2012 to meet the expected future needs of 18-64 year-olds in Herefordshire with mental health problems and physical disabilities. The Chairman expressed some general reservations about the robustness of the data upon which the reports were based.

The Corporate Policy & Research Manager concurred: the reports themselves identified the deficiencies in the available data both locally and nationally and recommended action to address the local elements, as well as a further review of the levels of need for services by 2012 in the light of the better data that should be available by that time.  These were not matters that were unique to Herefordshire, as similar issues existed across many local and health authorities.  It was, nonetheless, possible to regard the estimates of need to 2012, which was the time-horizon for the recommended improvements in services, to be reasonably robust. What was clear, from the comparisons that had been made with high-performing areas similar to Herefordshire, was the nature and broad extent of the service improvements that were needed.   He emphasised that the report had been prepared under the direction of a steering group involving a range of partners and had been quality assured by two national expert advisers, whose qualifications for the role were outlined in Appendix 3 of the report.

He first presented the section of the report on the future care needs and services for 18-64 year olds with mental health problems.  He based his remarks on Appendix 1, the summary of the report, on pages 9 and 10.

He went on to say that Herefordshire spent far more on secure and high-dependency residential nursing care than the other authorities that had been used as comparators in this study.  The County also provided less support for users and carers than the comparators. Whilst there was a feeling in these groups that services had improved, they still left a lot to be desired, including in respect of communication issues between users and staff and between different groups of professional staff.  Direct access to secondary services as well as more training and work opportunities had also been highlighted as being of concern to users and carers.

He said that the report found it reasonable to conclude that the aggregate level of spending by the Council and the PCT in 2006-07 (including the overspend of £1.3 million against budget) was the minimum necessary recurrent funding to meet the needs of those with the most serious and the most common mental health problems up to 2012.  This conclusion should be reviewed by 2012 in the light of better data, including the actual demand for fully modernised services.  Since it was not possible to stop current provision before more efficient and effective services had been put in place, non-recurrent bridging funding would be required.  The transformation plans to bring about the new pattern of services should be fully integrated with the steps taken to manage current in-year over-spending  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.