Minutes:
(A) Dr Eynon asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:-
"How does the Leader propose to address the concerns raised at the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) - wide Mental Health Summit on 7th March 2015 and how will he evaluate this Council’s progress towards the ideals set out in the Mental Health Charter signed on behalf of this Council in 2014?"
Mr White replied as follows:-
“It was pleasing that the key messages expressed at the summit were consistent with those captured in the Better Care Together (BCT) Mental Health work stream and the priority themes pursued by Leicestershire County Council, Leicester City Council and Rutland Council as part of their Better Care Fund plans, their Health and Well Being Strategies and the LLR Crisis Concordat.
The public health teams in Leicestershire County Council and Leicester City Council are also heavily involved in efforts to reduce the risk of suicide locally through leading the LLR Suicide Audit and Prevention Group, and through the group’s annual audits, strategy and action plans.
While we await the summit report, comprising of summaries of the presentations, action points from table top discussions and pledges made by individuals and organisations, it is clear that the summit stressed:
• That service users should be involved in co-production.
• That the third sector should be a more prominent partner in delivery of a much broader recovery and resilience network.
• That organisations should develop embedded peer support.
The BCT Mental Health workstream is being progressed through inclusive and collaborative involvement of the local authority, the NHS, the Voluntary Sector, patients, service users and carers. The voluntary sector, Healthwatch, patients and carers have been especially influential in developing and shaping the work.
Providing leadership and working with CCG partners and Healthwatch we intend to synthesise the actions from the summit and use these as a basis for forming a clearer BCT implementation plan for Resilience and Recovery. This will include our commitment to, amongst other action, the Crisis Concordat, a social prescribing pilot, the extension of the Leicestershire Partnership Trust recovery college model and our ongoing work on suicide prevention.
Leicestershire County Council recognises that the mental
health charter lays out comprehensive standards of care that every person has the right to expect from
mental health services locally. The County Council is working on a number of
fronts to meet these expectations.
As noted earlier, the BCT mental health programme aims to improve the quality of care of and overall experience for patients with mental illness. The programme adopts a life course approach from the peri-natal period right through to old age and encompasses primary prevention, early detection and treatment and ultimately through to recovery.
In conjunction with the Council’s Mental Health Champion, Mrs Pam Posnett CC we have taken the view that the 13 points in the Charter are more principles than specific, measurable actions.
As such our priority has been to a) promote the Charter and b) try to embed these principles wherever possible. Examples of the latter include:
Finally the Council recognises its responsibilities as guardian of the mental health of its employees and offers mental health and wellbeing programmes to its staff. This includes mindfulness sessions.”
Dr Eynon asked the following supplementary question:-
“I was wondering if I could find out how our Mental Health Champion enjoyed the day and wondered how many officers from the Public Health department were able to accompany her. I agree that the Mental Health Charter is a set of principles rather than measurable actions and I would contend that the list of actions proposed in this answer are also a set of promises so I do need to ask how this Council intends to measure the adequacy of these policies by their impact on population health?”
Mr White replied as
follows:-
“If you look at the Mental Health Charter and the ideals in it, many of them are not measurable in the sense that you would understand measuring other kinds of outputs. Dr Eynon needs to be assured that this Authority takes mental health issues and complying with the charter very seriously. Our Mental Health Champion is of enormous help to me in delivering the portfolio priorities I have. Pam and I have done a lot together on Mental Health and the work that she does should be applauded.”
(B) Mr
Charlesworth asked the following question of the
Leader or his nominee:-
“Will the Lead Member for Heritage, Leisure and Arts be attending the Richard III event on the 26th March?”
Mr Blunt replied as
follows:-
“No. I was not invited, something of which I had been aware for some time. The Cathedral Quarter Partnership Board, which has overseen all the arrangements for reinterment week decided, rightly in my view, to restrict civic and political attendance to the minimum, in order to ensure the best opportunity for the general public to attend.”
(C) Mr
Galton asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:-
“Further to the Cabinet’s decision on 13th October 2014 to delegate authority to the Director of Environment and Transport following consultation with the Cabinet Lead Member to take various decisions relating to Recycling Credits, could the Leader update the Council as follows:
1. How many District Councils as waste collection authorities have entered into new local agreements for green garden waste?
2. Has notice been served on all district councils to terminate the 2006 local arrangements for the payment of recycling credits?
3. Have any district councils been issued with a direction to deliver green garden waste to a facility under the County Council’s waste composting contracts? If so, which District Councils and where to?
4. Have any changes been made to the existing system for the payment of recycling credits to voluntary and community groups and other third parties that collect household waste for recycling? If so, please list the organisations affected.”
Mr Pain replied as
follows:-
“1. Local agreements have been completed with Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, and Harborough District Council. Agreement has been reached with Blaby District Council and it is now with that council for execution.
Charnwood Borough Council has agreed the principles of the agreement and it is in the process of being finalised.
Agreement in principle has been reached with Melton Borough Council and we expect that agreement will also be finalised shortly.
2. & The termination of the 2006 local arrangements for the payment of
3. recycling credits is included in the new local agreements outlined above. Notice to terminate the 2006 arrangements has been included with the directions sent to North West Leicestershire District Council and Oadby and Wigston Borough Council. Those two councils have been issued with a direction to deliver green garden waste under the County Council’s contracts:
North West Leicestershire – to Lount Composting Facility.
Oadby and Wigston – to Welland Waste Management Ltd, Theddingworth, pending the identification of another location closer to Oadby and Wigston.
In addition, a portion of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council’s green waste has been directed to Grendon House Farm, Grendon and to Whetstone Transfer Station. This direction is contained in the local agreement.
The agreement with Charnwood Borough Council provides for a proportion of its green waste to be directed to the Lount composing facility.
4. No changes have been made to the system for the payment of recycling credits to voluntary and community groups and other third parties.
However, we are currently considering options for making changes to reduce the amount that is spent on paying recycling credits to charities and community groups and are currently consulting residents and groups that may be affected. The consultation is open until 26th April 2015 and all responses will be considered before any changes are implemented.
As Mr Galton will be aware from the scrutiny of the MTFS earlier this year, the savings requirement from the waste management budget means that further changes are planned, including ceasing payment for recycling credits for dry materials.”
(D) Mr
Kaufman asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:-
“According to Department for Information (DfE)
figures, Basic Need allocations for Leicestershire in the financial year
2017-18 will be just £4.5m. What are the Leader’s thoughts on the money being
used for purposes other than Basic Need, such as supporting age range changes?”
Mr Ould replied as
follows:-
“Basic Need
funding is given to the local authority to ensure that we meet our duty to make
sure there are enough school places available.
The Local Authority
is working closely and in a creative/flexible way with the DfE/Education Funding Agency to maximise the use of capital
resources for the benefit of Leicestershire children and young people, but it
must be noted that Basic Need
funding is not provided to fund the same number of overall places, albeit that
those places may have transferred into other schools.
The funding is
provided based on the projections of pupil numbers required to meet future
demand. The £4.5m allocated for 2017/18 will be sufficient to meet the anticipated
number of schools places that will be needed.”
Mr Kaufman asked the following supplementary
question:
“As any school reorganisation needs to have a good business plan, would you please clarify that, if a school decides to take in year 6, where would they find the funding from, bearing in mind the answer here?”
Mr Ould replied as
follows:
“The answer makes it quite clear that Basic Need funding is not to maintain the same number of places in schools that reorganise and I haven’t got anything I can add to that because the other issues will be dealt with through the Education Funding Agency which is a quango.”