Agenda and minutes

The Minutes of the meeting held on 17 May 2011 were taken as read and signed as a correct record.

            The Board received a report of the Strategic Director, Communities on Local HealthWatch Pathfinders.

            The Board was advised that Local Involvement Network (LINks), currently in place, were contractually managed and administered by St Helens and Halton Voluntary and Community Action, with each Borough having a separate Board. The Government had announced that HealthWatch would replace LINks and build on the current remit and strengthen the ways in which commissioners and providers took the views of patients and the public into account when improving the quality and safety of health and social care services.

            The report outlined the remit of Local HealthWatch subject to the passing of the Health and Social Care Bill. Local Authorities would continue their role as commissioners for Local HealthWatch as they did for LINks.

In March 2011, Local Authorities and their LINks had been invited to apply to become a Pathfinder.  HealthWatch Pathfinders would be able to test and challenge emerging models with and alongside other Local Authorities and LINks. However, the Council had already been accepted as an Early Implementer for the establishment of Health & Wellbeing Boards and had supported the GP Consortia Pathfinders.  As the Council was working with the new Mersey NHS Clusters and with Ashton, Wigan & Leigh NHS Trust and would shortly address the transfer of Public Health functions to the Council, supporting a further Pathfinder would stretch current Council Officer and Elected Member time. 

RESOLVED: That Council note that, after consultation with the Leader and Members of the Executive Board, the Chief Executive, under delegated powers (Matters of Urgency, Constitution) determined not to submit a Local HealthWatch Pathfinders proposal.

            The Board received a report of the Strategic Director, Communities on the NHS Listening Exercise.

            The report provided information on some of the key elements of the extensive range of measures contained within the Health and Social Care Bill.

The Board was advised that on 4 April 2011, the Health Secretary announced that the Government would take “ the opportunity of a natural break in the passage of the bill to pause, to listen and to engage with all those who wanted the NHS to succeed”. A ‘Listening Exercise’ was announced by the Department of Health which established the NHS Future Forum to oversee the process. The Forum membership included clinicians, patient representatives, voluntary sector representatives and others from the health field including front line staff. It was intended to drive the process of engagement with staff, patients and communities, reporting back on four themes:

·        the role of choice and competition for improving quality;

·        how to ensure public accountability and patient involvement in the new system;

·        how new arrangements for education and training could support the modernisation process; and 

·        how advice from across a range of healthcare professions could improve patient care.

Halton Borough Council’s response to the Listening Exercise was attached to the report at Appendix 1 and was based on the issues that had been raised during the early stages of the implementation of the Health and Wellbeing Boards, the recent Commissioning event and the other observations during preparation for the implementation of the legislation.

During the Executive Board debate concerns were expressed about the timescales to implement the proposals as they currently stand, opportunities to extend the role of ‘Monitor’ should be further considered and that in certain circumstances there should be opportunities for GPs to opt out of the GP Commissioning consortia.

            RESOLVED: That

1)         the contents of the report be noted; and

2)         the response, as set out in Appendix 1, the additional areas debated and subject to agreement, be submitted to the Department of Health on behalf of Halton Borough Council, and any subsequent amendments be approved by the Leader in consultation with the relevant Portfolio Holder.

            The Board received a report of the Strategic Director, Policy and Resources on the Transport Capital Implementation Programme 2011/12.

The Board was reminded that Halton’s third Local Transport Plan (LTP3) was approved by the Executive Board on 17^th March 2011. The key issues for Transport in Halton, identified through the public consultation exercise for LTP3 were listed in Appendix 1.  LTP3 contained within its Implementation Plan Appendix (and also within the Executive Summary) details of the Government’s final local transport capital block settlements for 2011/12 and 2012/13 and indicative settlements for 2013/14 and 2014/15, which covered the whole period of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR10). 

As part of CSR10, the Board noted that the Department for Transport  announced a radical simplification of local transport funding, moving from 26 separate grant streams to just four:

·        block funding for small transport improvement schemes – the Integrated Transport Block (capital);

·        block funding for highways maintenance (capital);

·        major schemes (capital); and

·        a new local sustainable transport fund (capital and revenue).

All other specific grants were ended with reduced allocations incorporated within the main Local Government Formula Grant administered by the Department for Communities and Local Government.   The grants no longer available to the Council were listed in Appendix 2.

The report provided supporting information on the local authority integrated transport block and highway capital maintenance allocations, calculated through needs-based formulae. The settlement represented a significant reduction in transport funding from previous years.  It was noted that the Integrated Transport budget was cut by 61% (to £1.087 million) and the Highway Capital Maintenance budget was cut by 9% (to £207,000), compared with the original 2010/11 allocations. 

RESOLVED: That

(1)         the Local Transport Settlement and indicative allocations covering the Comprehensive Spending Review Period be noted;

(2)         Council be recommended to approve the following sums for incorporation into the Council’s Capital Programme for 2011/12:

Transport Implementation Programme £2,663,000;

Transport Major Scheme Capital Funding (SJB) £4,416,000;

Street Lighting £200,000;

Flood Defence £106,000;

Fleet Replacements £370,000.

(1)         authority to agree the detailed programme of schemes, based where appropriate upon the four year implementation Programme described in the Local Transport Plan 3, be delegated to the Strategic Director Policy and Resources, in consultation with the Executive Board Member for Transportation; and

(2)         a bid for funding from the Government’s Sustainable Transport Fund be prepared for presentation to the Board before submission to Department for Transport by 24^th February 2012.

MINUTES ISSUED:  2 June 2011

CALL IN:  9 June 2011

Any matter decided by the Executive Board Sub Committee may be called in no later than 9 June 2011