Agenda and minutes

To record apologies for absence and the attendance of substitute members. 

Apologies were received from Councillor Alexandrine Kantor. Councillor Tony Worgan attended as substitute.

Apologies were also received from Councillor Lucy Edwards. Councillor Kiera Bentley attended as substitute.

It was noted that Cllr Maggie Filipova-Rivers, Cabinet Member for Community Wellbeing for South Oxfordshire, and Adrianna Partridge, Deputy Chief Executive for Transformation and Operations, were unable to attend.

To receive notification of any matters which the chair determines should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances which have made the matters urgent, and to receive any announcements from the chair. 

Councillor Stefan Gawrysiak, committee co-chair in the chair, welcomed all to the meeting.

He explained that a draft work programme would be circulated and reflected on the new approach to the work programme which would be more proactive, He urged members to think about items they would like to see on the programme. Please inform the co-chairs by email if you have any ideas.

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests, other registrable interests and non-registrable interests or any conflicts of interest in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting. 

None.

To adopt and sign as a correct record the Joint Scrutiny Committee minutes of the meeting held on 27 February 2023.

The minutes of the joint scrutiny meeting held on 27 February 2023 were agreed as a correct record (including the confidential minutes) and the chair signed them as such.

To receive any questions or statements from members of the public that have registered to speak. 

None.

The Integrated Care Strategy has been created by the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Partnership. Joint Scrutiny Committee is invited to consider the report of the Head of Policy and Programmes and to ask questions about the strategy attached.

Vale cabinet member for Healthy Communities introduced the item. Cabinet member for South was unable to attend, but the South council leader was present remotely, as a South Oxfordshire member of the Integrated Care Partnership.

The cabinet members for Healthy Communities were members of the Oxfordshire Health and Wellbeing Board and contributed to the formation of this strategy over many months with other partners, such as GP’s, Local Authorities, Health Charities and NHS. Both South and Vale cabinets had endorsed the strategy at their last meetings.

The strategy was created by the ICP for Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire (BOB). This replaced the previous Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

Dan Leveson, Place Director for Oxfordshire (referred to as Place Director), gave a presentation on the strategy, which can be found published with these minutes. The committee then asked questions.

The committee gave their observations. Overall, committee were pleased with the focus on prevention.

Observations from the committee:

• Committee members asked about what was perceived to be the difference or improvement in having a multi authority partnership over the previous single Oxfordshire partnership (previously known as a Clinical Commissioning Group, or CCG)? The Place Director explained that on looking at variations in access to services, there were deficiencies that were different across authorities, and working together could help to bridge the differences. It would also help reduce bureaucracy. He also stressed the importance of some areas of work that were done locally and were still important and to be continued.
• Members queried how improvements would be monitored? It was explained that measures were reported at the monthly executive, and that the Place Director reports into boards, such as the ICB. Using the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, we will identify aims and report on them.
• Members asked how they could help at a local level. The Place Director meets with Oxfordshire Chief Executives each week, so members could feed in any comments or queries that way. The Place Director suggested how can we co-locate staff and mentioned “health on the high street” as a potential idea to help revive the high street and access to healthcare.
• Place Director shared a link to the King’s Fund as a suggested read: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/driving-better-health-outcomes-integrated-care-systems-role-district-councils
• The focus on prevention and wellness was commended by committee members. There was discussion around private interests. Place Director commented that if there were underutilised resources privately, they would be considered for use, for example, body scanners
• Committee considered geographical overlap
• Discussion about notoriously difficult IT integration
• A member wanted to better understand the link between strategic, operational and tactical approaches
• Members discussed the issue of people who are hard to reach through IT. Place Director explained that the same approaches would be available for those who don’t use IT  and there will be an inclusion and equality assessment.
• Regarding operational risk, members were asked to consider this with their Cabinet member.
• Members considered the issue of BOBICP not being able to procure property to set up new surgeries etc. Place Director raised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To consider whether to exclude members of the press and public from the meeting for the following items of business under Section 100A and 100I of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that:

(i)             It is likely that there will be disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A, and

(ii)            the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

This item was not required.