Agenda and minutes

The Chair will draw attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as set out under Note 5.

There were none.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest, (as defined in Part 4.4 Appendix B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

Councillor Gerry Curran declared an other interest with regard to agenda item 10 ‘Adult Social Care – 6 Month Update’ as he is an employee of HCRG Care Group.

Councillor Paul May declared an other interest with regard to agenda item 10 ‘Adult Social Care – 6 Month Update’ as he is a non-executive Sirona board member.

There were none.

The Chair referred to page 7(61) and asked if it could be confirmed that the funding mentioned was for training purposes.

The Director of Children's Services & Education confirmed that the funding would be used for training.

Kevin Burnett asked for the following sentence to be added to his comments at the bottom of page 6(60) ‘However, Kevin Burnett added that there was a woeful lack of funding for Early Years and this money wouldn’t help that problem.’

The Panel were happy to approve this addition.

The Chair referred to page 7(61) and Councillor May’s comment that he would welcome further information on what progress has been achieved by Youth Connect South West and that he had asked Councillor Romero to integrate that information into her next Cabinet Member Update to the Panel.

Councillor Romero replied that she would respond in due course to that request and that her Cabinet Member Update was due at the March meeting of the Panel.

The Chair referred to page 7(61) and Councillor Wright’s comment that she had heard that should university students complete their courses and not initially gain employment on conclusion of that course then it may be cut from that university’s curriculum. She asked the Cabinet Member to investigate this matter.

The Chair asked for Councillor Romero to provide an update.

The Chair referred to page 10(64) and Councillor Wright’s question as to whether the work of the Southwest Collaborative Commissioning Hub would lead to further dentist appointments being available locally. He asked if any further information was yet available.

Laura Ambler, Place Director for Bath and North East Somerset, BSW ICB replied that there was none currently.

The Chair referred to page 10(64) and asked if the information relating to Dentaid had been passed onto colleagues as requested.

Laura Ambler replied that the information had been passed on as requested.

The Chair referred to page 16(70) and Kevin Burnett’s question about if the bid to form a tri-LA shared music service with North Somerset and South Gloucestershire had support from MATs and schools within B&NES.

Councillor Romero replied that she would follow up this matter and reply to the Panel in due course.

The Chair referred to page 20(74) and Kevin Burnett’s question about if there was any update on when Avon & Somerset Police will fully put into place Operation Encompass.

The Director of Children's Services & Education replied that they are committed to its implementation, but that no date had been confirmed yet.

The Panel confirmed the minutes of the previous meeting as a true record and they were duly signed by the Chairman.

The Panel will receive an update from the B&NES, Swindon & Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (BSW ICB) on current issues.

Laura Ambler, Place Director for Bath and North East Somerset, BSW ICB addressed the Panel, a copy of the update will be available as an online appendix to these minutes, a summary is set out below.

Expansion of elective care at Sulis Hospital Bath

Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (BSW ICB) and the Royal United Hospital Bath (RUH) are jointly developing a plan to provide additional capacity for elective surgery to reduce waiting times across Bath and North East Somerset Swindon and Wiltshire.

The expansion of elective surgery will be provided through the addition of three new operating theatres at the Sulis Hospital Bath in Peasedown St John. The new Sulis Elective Orthopaedic Centre (SEOC) could offer treatment for 4,000 NHS orthopaedic patients a year and address the high number of patients currently waiting for elective orthopaedic procedures.

£30m of national capital is available to help create this facility by 2025; the RUH and system colleagues are currently working up the business case to enable access to this funding.

The new facility would also help to free up capacity at the RUH’s main site at Combe Park and help patients awaiting treatment from other surgical specialties, complex cancer cases and managing non-elective care. The SEOC would support around 2,000 patients within the local catchment, with the remaining capacity available to orthopaedic patients across the wider BSW patch and beyond.

Care coordination project

Over the last few weeks, health and care partners across BSW ICB have been

working together as part of an ambitious programme to coordinate elements of care across the entire system, from pre-hospital and acute admission through to discharge and community response.

The Care Coordination project brings together BSW ICB, South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, local acute hospitals, providers, Medvivo, Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership, local authorities, primary care services and hospices.

Partners have been working together at a central location in Chippenham to provide patients with the right level of response. Often patients access emergency care via the ambulance service. The care coordination centre is looking to get patients to the right service for their needs.

The project is helping to ease pressures on the ambulance service as well as the wider health and care system.

Paediatric Urgent Service Hub

From 16th January, BaNES-based GP Federation BEMS will be mobilising the rollout of a Paediatric Urgent Service Hub for children aged five and under who are presenting with symptoms of fever, with the aim to reduce pressures on both primary and secondary care.

GPs are currently being recruited to work in this service. Clinics will run between 1pm and 5.30pm on weekdays from one location per day at a GP Surgery in Bath and North East Somerset.

Appointments will be same-day bookable, 15-minute slots, with full access to the patient record and direct access to support from the RUH Paediatric team.

Community Services Transformation

Laura informed the Panel that they are currently assessing different organisational options  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72.

This report sets out the current position on the Council’s draft Joint Community Safety Plan to the Panel for consideration and feedback.

The Inclusive Communities Manager introduced the report to the Panel and highlighted the following areas.

The Joint Community Safety Plan sets out how all partners will work together to protect vulnerable people, prevent crime and build strong, resilient communities.

It focuses on collective priorities with a shared vision, and actions. The Joint

Community Safety Plan serves as both the Community Safety Plan and the local Police & Crime Plan for Bath & North East Somerset.

It sets out the PCC and Council’s community safety objectives and planned activities for the next three years, identifying the key issues upon which we will focus to tackle crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour in Bath & North East Somerset. The plan utilises the data we hold on crime in Bath and North East Somerset and reflects priorities and concerns raised by local people.

She stated that a decision to approve the Plan was required by Council at their meeting in March.

She offered to provide the Panel with a specific Community Safety Update at a future meeting.

Councillor Liz Hardman commented that she knows teams are working hard to keep us safe, but said there has been a rise in violent offences over the past year. She asked would it be possible to compare this year’s offences with last year’s so that we are able to make a comparison as to how successful strategies have been in some areas.

Inspector Ruth Gawler, Avon & Somerset Police replied that although violent crime incidents had gone up in the past 12 months, these numbers were now similar to pre-Pandemic times. She added that they were working on issues relating to the night time economy and violence against women and girls.

Councillor Hardman referred to the Voice Box service and said that the Panel have been supplied four charts with answers to questions asked. She said that they have been given percentages but asked if they could have information about the actual numbers involved. She also asked if only the four questions with related answers were put forward.

The Inclusive Communities Manager acknowledged that the relevant figures need to be inputted into the charts before submitting the report to Council and that they could include their Action Plans as an appendix to the report. She added only four community safety questions were contained within the Voice Box survey. She informed the Panel that the survey was circulated to 3,000 people and an average of 1,083 people responded to those four questions.

The Chair asked how the circulation of the survey was decided.

The Inclusive Communities Manager replied that it was sent randomly and that there was no obligation to reply.

Councillor Hardman said that it is worrying to see that 39% of adults felt not very safe or not safe at all at night in BANES and similarly for children, 37% of children felt not very safe or not safe at all outside the home at night. She asked if there were strategies in place to deal with this.

Inspector Ruth  ...  view the full minutes text for item 73.

The Director of Adult Social Care introduced the report to the Panel.

She began by explaining some of recent funding decisions that had been announced. She said that in December £50m had been allocated nationally to allow for international recruitment to take place and that B&NES was still awaiting its precise allocation.

She stated that a Discharge Grant of £0.6m had also been announced in December specifically for B&NES and that the ICB had also received the same grant for £1m to help with local services.

She added that on 16^th January it had been announced that £200m had been allocated nationally for work to help with hospital discharges and that this would be allocated through the ICB.

She stated that Discharge Grant had already been used for work in the Care Coordination Centre, to buy further domiciliary care and to buy more beds in the community and that this had already helped to improve the flow of patients both in and out of the RUH.

She informed the Panel that she had last week met with ministers for Social Care and Local Government to discuss the challenges and good work going on within B&NES. She added that there is an interest nationally around hospital demand and what social care can do to support that demand. She said that she anticipated that further meetings of this nature will take place in the future.

She stated that the current forecast financial position for Adult Social Care was to break even as the underlying variances will be covered by a transfer from the Adult Social Care Reserve fund.

She addressed the Panel regarding the Community Resource Centres (CRCs). She explained that the Council runs 9 in house services consisting of 3 Care Homes (1 with nursing), 5 Extra Care schemes and a home care agency (United Care BANES – UCB). She said that due to the national shortage of staff in the care sector, these services remain reliant on a high use of agency staff.

The 5 Extra Care services have been inspected and all have a rating of good from the CQC.

She said that the provision of care within the 3 Care Homes was the thing that concerns her most within her role. She stated that it was the team within the Council that identified the safeguarding concerns at Charlton House to the CQC in October following initial concerns having arisen over the summer and having brought in additional clinical leadership and managerial staff to attempt to improve the quality of care.

She said that over the past couple of months that Council staff have been working continuously with the team at Charlton House to make improvements. She informed the Panel that they have recently secured a Senior Nurse from the RUH to work there and that a new registered manager was also now in place. She added that action plans were now in place and that wrap around support was in place from the Corporate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.

The Bath and North East Somerset SACRE Annual Report (September 2021 - August 2022) is attached for the Panel to discuss.

Adam Robertson, SACRE Adviser introduced the report to the Panel. He said that he would like to commend the work that has been done across the area and was pleased to inform the Panel that a locally agreed syllabus was in place until 2026. He stated that he believed that it was a very worthwhile subject and that it was compulsory to be taught until the end of KS4.

Councillor Eleanor Jackson addressed the Panel. She said that it was great to have Adam as part of the SACRE team. She explained that the syllabus is tailored to the local community as much as possible. She added that she believed that it was important for moral values to be upheld.

She stated that additional financial resources were required to help improve teaching standards and pupil’s grades. She added that in the future SACRE would be keen to further develop exemplars for students, such as a possible module on African religious traditions into the syllabus.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked if schools do not comply with having the agreed syllabus in place and if collective worship is not happening, is there anything SACRE can do to enforce these requirements.

Adam Robertson replied that Academies have the freedom to choose the agreed syllabus that they follow, however SACRE has a wider responsibility to look at Religious Education across all schools. He said that should SACRE feel that the curriculum being followed by a school was not deep enough or broad enough they would seek to discuss that directly with the school. He added that if necessary they could refer the school to the DfE.

Councillor Hardman commented that as our demography is changing, especially with refugee families, how are SACRE connecting with population needs for RE provision and what plans are in place for the coming five years.

Adam Robertson replied that SACRE acknowledges that the local demography is changing and said that the syllabus can be tailored as needed within schools. He added that the aim was to give all pupils an understanding of the different religions and traditions within our society. He said that training modules can be added as appropriate.

Councillor Hardman asked how the reduced budget will affect the work that SACRE will be able to do over the coming year.

Adam Robertson replied that the budget allocated leaves very little in terms of discretionary funds to work with schools once the running of the SACRE meetings has been taken into account. He said that they would like to provide more training for teachers, especially Primary, in this subject area.

Councillor Jackson added that additional funding would allow for further training in certain areas, such as the Holocaust. She said that when previous events had been held speakers would simply ask if their train fare could be paid and therefore an addition to the budget could allow for that to happen.

Councillor Rob Appleyard suggested that discussions be held directly with Academies or their Trusts in terms of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75.

This report presents the latest workplan for the Panel. Any suggestions for further items or amendments to the current programme will be logged and scheduled in consultation with the Panel’s Chair and supporting officers.

The Panel RESOLVED to approve the workplan as printed.