Agenda and minutes

Councillor Jack welcomed three new members to the panel who were:

• Russell Wells from the National Autistic Society
• Councillor Jim Richardson, Parish Councillor from Aston-cum-Aughton Parish Council
• Kingsley Jack, co-opted member from Speakability.

Start Time of Meetings

Councillor Jack referred to a comment made at the previous meeting in relation to the start time of the meeting.  She confirmed that the reason for the change had been to allow those members with caring responsibilities to attend also allow those with bus passes to use them to travel to the meeting. 

Some panel members felt that it wasn’t so much the start time that was a problem, but the finish time. It was therefore agreed that the start time of the meeting would remain at 10.00 am but that finish time would be no later than 12.30 pm.

Panel Training Session

Delia Watts reminded panel members that a training session had been arranged on Tuesday 29 July 2008 from 10.00 am to 12.00 noon.  The session would cover what the Darzi Review, giving an understanding of the national and regional picture and what it means for Rotherham.

Nominations

The following nominations were made to outside bodies:

Members Training Panel

Councillor Barron

Churches Together Group

Councillor Doyle

Janet Mullins expressed a personal interest in item 173 (PTS Update).

There were no members of the public and press present.

A DVD was shown in relation to a communication disability known as aphasia and the work undertaken by Speakability a national charity who support those people who suffer from aphasia.

Around 250,000 people in the UK have problems with speaking, reading, writing and understanding language as the result of a stroke, head injuries, brain tumours and other neurological illness.  Speakability offer training for carers, hold aphasia self help groups, produce fact sheets which deal with most frequently asked questions and campaign both nationally and locally to improve the services for people with aphasia.

Adam Hurst, Complaints Manager presented the submitted report which provided information about complaints made during the twelve months between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2008 under the complaints and representations procedures established through the Local Authority Social Services Complaints (England) Regulations, 2006.

Over the last 12 months the total number of complaints received had reduced from 425 to 228 (46%).  A centralised system of recording complaints had been implemented to ensure that performance in handling complaints was consistent across all directorates.  Details of each customer, each contact they make and each complaint point were recorded.  125 customers had submitted complaints compared with 159 in 2006/07.

94% of all complaints were responded to within the statutory timescales, compared to 88% in 2006/07 and 72% in 2005/06.  This was an improvement on the previous years figure with a significant improvement in responding to Stage 2 complaints, none of which had been responded to out of timescales.  The performance was the best in the Council for services who had more than 10 complaints.

The merger of the Adult Social Services and Neighbourhoods had completed in April 2008 and the complaints function was now fully integrated and worked to an established customer defined service standard.  Significant progress had been made in terms of improving performance in the following areas:

• Improving the timeliness of responses to customers
• Improving the quality of responses
• Learning from Complaints to identify service improvements, recognised nationally by the Cabinet Office
• Strengthening our performance management of complaints with monthly reports being presented to DMT
• Improving satisfaction of the complaint management process
• Promoting and increasing accessibility of the complaints procedure through the development of the internet, information packs and campaigns in our reception areas
• Training of complaint handling which had been delivered to all MS managers in Adult Services
• Meeting the new Government Customer Service Excellence Standard, one of the first organisations in the country.

The panel queried how complaints were identified and monitored.  Adam Hurst confirmed that all Complaints Managers received training on how to identify complaints and work was also being undertaken to ensure that all complaints were captured. 

Reference was made to the policy of placing people over 65 in provision based on their age as opposed to other difficulties including disability, and a concern was raised that people under 65 with disabilities were being overlooked.  Adam Hurst agreed that emphasis was placed mainly on the over 65’s but he felt that there was no reason why this couldn’t include people under that age.

A discussion ensued about the overall handling of complaints and how significant progress had been made, particularly at Stage 1 and 2.  A key priority for the forthcoming year would be to improve the performance in respect of Stage 3 complaints and Ombudsman enquiries.

Resolved:- that the report be received.

Keeley Townend gave a presentation in respect of the Yorkshire Ambulance Service and the recent move of the Service Communications Centre to Wakefield.

The presentation drew attention to:

• Developing Access and Response Services
• The new 999 Communications Centre
• The staff and the changes made as a result of the move
• The service provided

A discussion took place about the reliability of the locality checker and whether there were any measures in place in the event of the system failing.  Keeley confirmed that there were systems in both York and Wakefield which were integrated and in the event of one of them becoming disabled the other would take over.  In addition there were a number of back up systems and which included more than one telephone system.

Councillor Jack asked whether there had been any difficulties experienced as a result of the loss of staff in Rotherham, whilst recruiting to fill their posts.  Keeley confirmed that recruitment had not been a problem as most of the staff had been relocated to other posts within the Ambulance Service and those posts which had been advertised had received an overwhelming response.

Councillor Jack also asked whether there were any plans for the Moorgate buildings.  Keeley confirmed that no decision had been taken by the Trust in relation to this at present.

Councillor Jack thanked Keeley for her presentation.

Craig Danks, Business and Service Manager for operational services at RFT presented the submitted report which provided an update on the contract performance for Patient Transport Services to Rotherham NHS Foundation Hospitals Trust (RFT) for the period 1^st April 2007 to 31^st March 2008.

The report detailed the activity undertaken by YAS on behalf of Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.  The contract allowed for a threshold of +/- 5% in activity overall and throughout the year the activity variance had ranged from -5.1% to +9.8%.  The activity levels for The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust showed an overall performance of 3.8%.

The contract allowed for financial deductions to be made against underachievement of the performance standards.  These calculations and discussions were ongoing with YAS.

There had been revised contract activity and performance standards for 2008/09 which were as a result of contract negotiations.  Work was also being undertaken with YAS to improve their performance standards in the forthcoming months.

A question and answer session ensued and the following issues were raised:

• There appeared to be a problem with bringing patients in too early for their appointments – why was this and there anything being done to reduce it?  The introduction of lots of smaller PTS vehicles was beginning to have a positive impact on the timing for picking up patients.
• Concerns about the length of time patients were being kept waiting after an appointment for transport home.  This was an initiative that was being investigated, but again it was hoped that the introduction of the smaller vehicles would alleviate the problem
• What relationship did Rotherham have with Sheffield? There was a liaison facility in all the main hospitals and crews are available to take patients to Sheffield if necessary.  However the main partnership was with Barnsley.
• Some patients were missing appointments because there were not receiving their letters until after the date.  A trial was being undertaken in relation to appointments, whereby if an appointment was within 5 days, the patient would receive a telephone call to confirm the date and time.

Resolved:- That the report be received.

Resolved:- That the minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 26 June 2008 be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chair, subject to the inclusion of Councillor Jack’s apologies.

Resolved:-  That the minutes the meetings of the Cabinet Member and Advisors for Adult Social Care and Health held on the 19 May and 23 June 2008 be received and their content noted