Agenda and draft minutes

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The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business. Where the item is already included on the agenda, it will be dealt with under that item but new items of urgent business will be dealt with at item 5

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A member with a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered must disclose to that meeting the existence and nature of that interest at the commencement of that consideration, or when the interest becomes apparent.

A member with a personal interest in a matter also has a prejudicial interest in that matter if the interest is one which a member of the public with knowledge of the relevant facts would reasonably regard as so significant that it is likely to prejudice the member's judgement of the public interest.

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To receive evidence from Councillor Kate Wynne Executive Member for Social Services and Health.

The Executive Member for Health and Social Services responded to the following questions:-

Q1       Are you happy with the way that the health services and social services work together in this area of provision. Are there any improvements that could be made? Are there any stumbling blocks to the delivery of an integrated service?

A.        Developing in parallel with this scrutiny review was a service review of the Integrated Care Team which was joint with the PCT and in many ways shaped the parameters of Intermediate Care. It was accepted that the definition of Intermediate Care was vague.  In general, Older People’s Services had an excellent working relationship with the PCT and the Team was populated by both clinical and social care staff.  However no-one would pretend that, despite its name, the Team was truly integrated – it was merely co-located with good working relationships between staff.  The purpose of the ongoing service review was to scope the possibility of a really integrated model.  This review aimed to complete in March 2006. Although SAP was not electronically enabled the process was in place. The only stumbling block to the creation of a truly Integrated Care Team was the ability of staff to manage the cultural change needed to bring two organisations together - even in microcosm this was not an easy process. Barriers such as IT, record keeping, language, charging were seen as possible obstacles  to successful integration. Once this Team was truly integrated it could lead the way to integrated practice elsewhere, e.g. between Home Carers and District Nurses

Q2.   In it's current format, is Intermediate care in Haringey able to meet the needs of the population that it sets out to serve and how can Haringey ensure that people don't fall between the various services, because they don't meet the various criteria?

A       A strength was the fact that there were many different services coming together to form Intermediate Care. This allowed the service to be person led. As with every service, health or social care, its availability depended on the resources available.  For example, District Nurses had an invaluable input into rehabilitative working but they were a finite resource as were Home Carers.  Equally the social care component of Intermediate Care was governed by our currently tight eligibility criteria.  Having said that, as set out in the introduction, there was already a wide spectrum of services available within Intermediate Care to meet many of the needs of our local population. The Executive Member was happy with the service providers and she spoke about the block contract with Stamford Nursing home which she considered was very much person led. This service allowed clients to leave hospital  whilst still needing quite intensive care. The use of step down was just being developed which should assist with the prevention of admissions. Preventions was to be a focus area for development.

Q3    Can you tell the Panel how many cases of people under 50 there are on an Annual basis  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

To deal with any new items of urgent business admitted at item 2 above.

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