Agenda item - Formal Public Involvement

This is the part of the meeting when members of the public can formally ask questions of the Board or present a petition.  These need to be notified to the Board by 12 noon, 4 July 2018. Please contact barbara.deacon@brighton-hove.gov.uk

17.1    The Chair noted that four public questions had been received and invited Sophie to ask her question:

““Why has the St Mungo's Contract for outreach servicesbeen extended without the authority of Councillors (contrary to advice from the Council’s auditors) and without an examination of effectiveness, results, value for money, or competence of work prior to March 2018?”

17.2    The Chair responded:

“In 2015 a competitive tender was undertaken by Brighton & Hove City Council for the Rough Sleeper Street Outreach Service.  Following a successful bid, St Mungos was awarded the contract and replaced CRI (now CGL) the previous provider. 

“The Street Outreach Service contract contains an extension clause which can be utilised upon mutual agreement by both parties. This is standard and applies to the majority of the contracts awarded to homeless services through Health & Adult Social Care.  The contract can be extended beyond the current expiry date of 01/09/2018 for an additional period of up to two years. The Council should give 3 months’ notice should they wish to utilise this option. The use of the extension is permitted under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, as the option was included in the original Contract Notice dated 24/04/2015.

“We can find no record of auditors making any recommendations regarding this contract.”

17.3    Sophie put a supplementary question to the chair:

“Does the Committee believe that the views of those who are homeless and those who attempt to represent their interests should have an input into the renewal of this contract?” 

17.4    The Chair responded:

“Where ever possible, stakeholders including service user representative feedback is utilised as part of the contract monitoring process. This service has received consistently positive feedback with stakeholders commenting on quick responses and good partnership working.”

17.5    The Chair invited Ms Garrett-Gotch to ask a question on behalf of Nichole Brennan who was not in attendance:

            “At the Committee meeting held 13.6.18 the Chairperson stated ‘We are proposing to recommission Serve Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) provision this year and a timetable is currently being drawn up by our procurement department based on available resources.’ What progress has been made and what measures have been taken to ensure the process is transparent and accountable?”

17.6    The Chair responded:

“Brighton & Hove City Council is due to go out to tender in summer 2018 for severe weather provision for rough sleepers.  As part of the recommissioning process the trigger for opening severe weather provision is subject to a public consultation.  We are also gathering feedback from agencies working with rough sleepers and supporting SWEP.  The consultation closes on Friday 6th July.  Once collated the feedback will inform the development of the specification for the newly tendered service. The tender will be issued publicly and Service Providers who are interested in running severe weather provision will need to submit a proposal and answer a series of evaluation questions which will be evaluated by a panel.  The tender will be evaluated and awarded in early Autumn 2018.”

17.7    Ms Garrett-Gotch asked if the Council had considered bringing the SWEP provision in house rather than using an external contractor.

17.8    The Chair responded that the responses to the consultation would have to be considered before a decision could be made about what form the SWEP provision would take. The Council would be approaching the process with an open mind and no options had yet been ruled out.

17.9    The Chair invited Dr Tredgold to ask his question. Dr Tredgold stated that his question followed from the response to the GP survey which was presented at June 2018 Board meeting. He stated that he was pleased to learn that the social care budget was being protected but there was still a lack of provision and of coherent signposting and support for GPs. He asked the Chair how many hospital admissions in Brighton & Hove might have been avoided with more support in the community.

17.10  The Chair responded that it was an almost impossible question to answer as most admissions bar urgent accident and emergency could be avoided if there was robust preventative services, people made appropriate lifestyle chouces and there were an infinite level of resources available in the community from all areas including health and social care.

17.11  Dr Tredgold stated that he disagreed with the assertion in the response to the GP survey that GPs were confused about where to direct patients but that there was an issue with lack of capacity in the Rapid Response service. He asked how many patients had been referred to social services who had then been transferred to Rapid Response and how many referrals had been made to Rapid Response at times when there was no capacity in the service.

17.12  The Chair thanked Dr Tredgold for raising the issues as the Council was always looking to remove any confusion and ensure that access and pathways were clear to all parties in the system. This is an ongoing activity which reflected the improvement and changes in care pathways. Access Point was the single route into social care services or for sign posting to community provision. Last year 60 people were referred from Access Point to Rapid Response.

17.13  The Chair stated that she did not have the figures for how many referrals were made to Rapid Response at a time when there was not capacity to accept them and she would provide a written response to Dr Tredgold.

17.14  The Chair invited Ms Garrett-Gotch forward to ask her question:

            “It has come to our understanding that the meals on wheels contract had come to an end with BHCC. What would replace this and were there any provisions for the city’s food poverty action plan for people who were living with malnutrition in your accommodation?”

17.15  The Chair responded that:

“The Health & Wellbeing Board have had several reports covering the community meals provision over the past 2 years.

“Brighton & Hove City Council’s Community Meals Service contract (meals delivered to people in their own homes) with the Royal Voluntary Service (‘the RVS’) ended on the 31st of March 2016. This was due to a significant reduction in the numbers of people requesting the service. The increase in funding needed by the RVS to continue running the service was not available.

“Therefore in December 2015, in advance of this end of contract, the Council sought new providers who could offer multiple choice menus of wholesome and nutritious meals. At the end of February 2016 three providers had come forward, two providing hot & chilled meals (License to Freeze and Mother Theresa’s) and one providing frozen meals (Oakhouse). All satisfied the nutrition and Safe & Well criteria and all are available to residents of emergency accommodation. 

“In addition a list of lunch clubs/coffee clubs was created which can be obtained, via AccessPoint, by individuals sourcing food options for themselves or a family member.

“As mentioned earlier, there have been several reports about the change to the service at this board. The last one came to the Board on 13th June 2017. This report covered the post transition user survey which showed that people were happy with the new provision, that they felt it was less restrictive and also provided a wider range of meals for varied tastes and needs. The report is available online: https://present.brighton-hove.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=3794”

17.16  Ms Garret-Gotch asked the Chair if she could provide the figures for the number of people suffering from malnutrition in 2016 compared to now as through her work with Sussex Homeless Support she had encountered a lot of individuals in temporary accommodation who were coming to them for food.

17.17  The Chair thanked Ms Garret-Gotch for her question and stated that she would provide a written response which was sent to Ms Garret-Gotch on 26 July 2018:

            “Thank you for your question. As you may be aware there are  statutory responsibilities  for ensuring safeguarding of vulnerable people. Care Assessments  are undertaken to assess the ability to access adequate food and nutrition as well as being able to eat and drink.  The Board understands  that this issue has come up in previous committees and would like to stress that if anyone has any concerns about any individual in our city please contact AccessPoint, the first point of contact for Adult Social Care.

Phone 01273 295555

Minicom 01273 296205

Email: accesspoint@brighton-hove.gov.uk”