Agenda and minutes

(Head of Research and Democratic Services)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

Noted that there were no substitute members.

(Head of Research and Democratic Services). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a personal or a prejudicial interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 11 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a personal and prejudicial interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 11 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

Pursuant to the Council’s Code of Member Conduct, Councillor D Kelly declared a personal interest by virtue of being the Chairman of the Epping Forest Older People Advisory Group. He declared that his interest was not prejudicial and he would remain in the meeting.

Pursuant to the Council’s Code of Member Conduct, Councillor Mrs Whitehouse declared a personal interest by virtue of being a member of the Epping Forest Older People Advisory Group. She declared that her interest was not prejudicial and she would remain in the meeting.

Attached to this agenda is a copy of the proposal presented to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, which led to the setting up of this Panel.  However, Members now need to determine the scope of the study and produce a set of Terms of Reference, which reflect those objectives for approval by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. To this end a Task and Finish Planning Form is attached.

In order to help the Panel, a set of ‘Notes for Guidance’ for the operating of a Task and Finish Panel is also attached. This sets out how a Task and Finish Panel should ideally go about scoping its programme of work, gathering information and evidence and finally reporting back to the main Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the larger Council. A draft layout for a final report is also attached. Please note that these are still in draft and may alter over the next few weeks, until endorsed by the July Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting.

The Chairman declared that if they wanted to meet the deadline for the budget fixing round for next year, the Task and Finish Panel should make any recommendations that identified a need for extra spending, by 18 September 2006.

The meeting wanted to:

• Identify gaps in the system;
• Be made aware of the people not in the system;
• Find a way to get messages through to people who do not know about the services on offer;
• Find out about the specialist transport on offer;
• Find out what services the Council provides; and
• What services VAEF provided.

With the impending Disabled Discrimination Act coming into being – does EFDC have to do anything in preparation?

The Task and Finish Panel would also like to meet with the Joint Management Team for Older People’s Services and the Older People Advisory Group.

Housing and Leisure officers have a lot of input into Older and Disabled Persons services and should be included with the meeting with the Joint Management Team.

The Panel should consider co-opting Kay Ellis, Chairman of the Joint Management Team, onto this T&F panel.

Another problem identified was the need to find replacements for the volunteers who presently help out/run the day centres etc. as they too are aging.

Councillor Mrs Cooper would like to look at the Taxi Card System operated elsewhere.

Councillor Mrs Whitehouse would like panel members to visit older peoples clubs etc. within their wards to talk to and question them about their needs. She thought that a standard set of questions/ topics might prove useful.

The panel decided that when looking at people with disabilities that they would not limit themselves to just older people with disabilities but consider the whole age spectrum.

The Assistant Head of Housing informed the Panel:

• That they had contact with a Sheltered Housing Forum that would provide interesting input to the Panel and he would arrange a meeting with them;
• There is also a Supporting People group that could provide interesting input to the Panel;
• That they were setting up a project team to look at the future of Sheltered Housing;
• A Housing review of care-line services was also in progress; also
• There was a new issue about ‘Tele-Care’ equipment that can be added to existing alarm systems.

The Head of Leisure Services commented that they provide a range of services with the PCT, work with people with dispraxia and provide specialist sessions in the Leisure Centres/Swimming Pools. They also go to schools, do arts development work, and access to museums. The Panel should go and see these things in person, talk to the parents and meet the children.

RESOLVED:

1.            To make any initial recommendations that may have an impact on the Council budget, by 18 September 2006, in time to be considered for the next financial year.

2.            To consider disabled people of all ages and not just the older age range.

3.                  To arrange a meeting with the Joint Management Team for Older People Services at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Having agreed the scope of the study and the aims and objectives that the Panel hopes to achieve, it is necessary to agree a work programme to achieve the outcomes. A draft timetable should also be agreed.

Information is currently being gathered about the services the District Council provides for older people and disabled people and will be presented to the Panel in due course. It will most likely be available towards the end of July.

At the same time there exists a Joint Management Team for Older People’s Services, which comprises of representatives from Epping Forest Primary Care Trust, Essex Social Services, Epping Forest District Council and Voluntary Action Epping Forest.  The team exists to co-ordinate the services available to the elderly, to identify gaps in service and explore ways to fill those gaps and to meet the requirements of the NHS National Service Framework for Old People.  The Panel may wish to consider a meeting with the Joint Management Team and whether there may be benefit in co-opting a Member of that Team to join the Panel.

There are various other groups that exist locally to serve the needs of older people and or disabled people and the Panel needs to identify those organisations and how they are to be involved in the study.  The Joint Management Team will be able to assist in relation to those groups serving older people.

The Panel needs to consider the most effective way in which to engage in order to get the maximum benefit out of the interaction.   This could be meetings of the full Panel in some cases or appointment of a smaller group to carry out visits/interviews in others.

Outcomes and timescale:

The Panel needs to give consideration to the outcomes it would like to achieve.  The study area is potentially massive and consideration must be given to the resources available, both to take forward the study but also to secure the implementation of any recommendations.  To that end the Panel should be aiming to put forward at least an interim report with recommendations by the date of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 5 October 2006 if it wants to make a bid to fund any recommendation in the financial year 2007/08.

1.         Any recommendations to do with budgets to be finalised by 18 September 2006.

2.         To arrange a meeting with the Joint Management Team for Older People Services to be arranged for the 20^th July meeting.

3.         A more detailed Work Programme is to be worked out as more information is gathered and timescales can be better approximated by the size of the workload anticipated.

Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, together with paragraphs 6 and 25 of the Council Procedure Rules contained in the Constitution require that the permission of the Chairman be obtained, after prior notice to the Chief Executive, before urgent business not specified in the agenda (including a supplementary agenda of which the statutory period of notice has been given) may be transacted.

In accordance with Operational Standing Order 6 (non-executive bodies), any item raised by a non-member shall require the support of a member of the Committee concerned and the Chairman of that Committee. Two weeks’ notice of non-urgent items is required.

None.

To be agreed.

The next meeting was agreed to be held on Thursday 20 July 2006 at 7pm. It was hoped that visits to the Sheltered Housing Forum, Careline and the Parsonage Court Day Club, and some of the Leisure Services venues could be arranged to take place before 20 July.