Agenda item

An opportunity to question the Cabinet Member for Adults & Health, Cllr Sarah James, on developments within her portfolio.

Cllr Sarah James, Cabinet Member for Adults & Health, took questions from the Panel on issues within her portfolio.

Cllr White raised improving cycling infrastructure as a way of making a positive impact on health and suggested that Cabinet-wide support is needed to drive these changes. While transport is not specifically within Cllr James’ portfolio she said that she is fully signed up to the active travel agenda and recognises the long-term health benefits. Cllr Hakata suggested that healthier travel options should be part of Cllr James’ portfolio as a public health issue. Cllr James said that a lot of public health work was already ongoing in this area including mapping areas of pollution, diabetes, asthma and obesity which often correlate. Cllr Connor suggested that a briefing on the public health implications on this issue could be obtained. (ACTION)

Cllr Da Costa said that at a recent briefing, Members had been told that the take up of direct payments in Haringey is only 22% which is lower than other Boroughs and asked what was being done to address this. Cllr James said that the remedy is to focus on particular groups of social care recipients and new clients to encourage them to switch to direct payments.

Asked about Osborne Grove Nursing Home, Cllr James said that a paper on this would be going to a meeting of the Cabinet in July after the feasibility study was completed in May. Four options were examined by the feasibility study, two of which involved refurbishment of the existing premises and an extension and two of which involved a demolition and rebuild. The study has demonstrated that it is feasible to build a 70-bed nursing home on site and that will be the intended objective but final costing figures are being worked up. Her preference is for demolition and rebuild across the site including the health centre already there. This would enable a state of the art nursing home with outward facing community facilities and possibly also supported housing units. There are difficulties with the existing building which has been found to be at risk of progressive collapse in the event of a fire. There is no lift capable of taking a bed as the doors are not wide enough and some of the rooms are not big enough but enlarging the size of them would be structurally difficult if the refurbishment option was chosen. The whole feasibility study has been conducted with the involvement of the co-design group which has contributed ideas that have been incorporated such as the maximisation of garden space.

Cllr Lucia das Neves, Chair of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee, said that the Cabinet Member’s comments on the risk of progressive collapse should be fed into the Overview & Scrutiny Committee ongoing work on fire safety as Osborne Grove had previously been looked at as part of the fire safety scrutiny review and this particular concern had not emerged. (ACTION) Cllr James said that this risk had only became apparent when the structural plans were looked at.

Cllr Connor raised the issue of social care assessments noting that she had recently been informed that there were 160 residents who had needed to wait for around 6 months for an initial assessment for social care. Cllr Connor requested that clarification be provided on those figures and on what is being done to address the long waiting times. (ACTION)

Cllr Connor asked about the consultation on new charges for managed accounts which had previously been examined by the Panel as part of the budget scrutiny process in January 2019. The specific queries were:

• If people tick the box on the consultation opposing the fees how will this be taken into account?
• As some protected groups have been identified as being impacted by this change by the Equality Impact Assessment how will this be addressed?
• Have the savings already been built into the financial structure for the budget plans or is there scope for this to be adjusted?

Cllr James agreed to come back on the details on the first two questions. (ACTION) The saving had been agreed and built into the budget so if the policy was changed then money would need to be found from elsewhere.

Asked about the timescales for the Adult Social Care Review following the Scrutiny Panel’s recent review on Day Opportunities, Cllr James said that the piece of work on day centres is due to be up and running by May 2020 with the initial report complete by September 2019. 

Cllr da Costa said that the Health Service Journal had recently reported that the Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health Trust had one of the highest rates of inappropriate out of borough placements (1,180 days in the reporting period) and asked what the Trust is doing to address this. Cllr James agreed to follow this up with a written response. (ACTION)