Agenda and minutes

Minutes of the Meeting held on 10^th August 2009.

The Minutes of the meeting held on Monday 10 August 2009 were signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Members will hear evidence of the good practice that exists elsewhere for Older People.

Jan Finch, Deputy Chief Executive for Wyre Borough Council gave a verbal presentation to inform members of the good practice which existed at Wyre Borough Council in relation to Older People.

The group was informed of the history of the Older Peoples’ Strategy in Wyre and how the Strategy had been produced.  The council had worked to provide equality of access and outcome for everyone living in the district, including older people.

It was reported that the council had initially identified all the existing services which were provided to older people and built a strategy around what was already being delivered.

The Chairman invited questions from the group.

The group were informed that a lot of the work which had been carried out at Wyre Borough Council was identifying what was already being done for Older People and ensuring that services were not duplicated. The group queried what had changed, and what new initiatives had been introduced as a result of the Older Peoples’ Action Plan. Jan Finch offered to provide members of the group with a copy of Wyre Borough Council’s Older Peoples’ Strategy and the original action plan.

The group discussed the limitations of providing information for older people for the internet, as only a minority of older people would access information in this way.

It was reported that there were many different ways in which Wyre Borough Council was informing Older People of services available to them. For example the council was proactively asking older people if they knew what benefits they were entitled to using resources which were already available to them. This included using people who visited older peoples’ houses, such as handymen, to talk to older people.

The group discussed issues surrounding transport for older people. It was reported that Wyre Borough Council had found that this was particularly problematic in rural areas and had established a Transport Sub-Group to consider these issues.

It was reported that work had been done to address these issues, for example Wyre Borough Council had worked with taxi drivers to increase awareness of disability and provided training to encourage drivers provide assistance to people with disabilities using taxis.

The Chairman thanked Jan Finch for her time.

Members of the Task Group are requested to bring with them their copy of the Draft Strategy that was circulated at the last meeting.

Mark Luraschi, Locality Commissioning Officer, Lancashire County Council presented the draft Lancaster District Strategy for Older People to the Task Group.

He explained how and why the strategy had been put together and invited questions and comments from members.

Members queried whether adequate funding was available to implement all the changes which would be required by the strategy. It was reported that there would be an emphasis on relocating funding and ensuring that services were not duplicated between different service providers.

It was suggested that the Social Services Plan should be included alongside the NHS North Lancashire Strategic Plan on page 18 of the draft, it was agreed that this would be looked at.

The Corporate Director (Community Services) reported that the group needed to consider how they wanted to progress the draft strategy and decide where it should be taken and who should own it. Actions would need to be drawn out of the draft strategy and included in the action plan. The action plan would also need to be reported to the Lancaster Strategic Partnership (LSP) for consideration. 

The group requested that they be allowed more time to consider the draft strategy in detail.

The Democratic Support Officer requested that members email any comments regarding the draft strategy to Democratic Services.

Resolved:

That the draft Lancaster District Strategy for Older People be considered at the next meeting of the task group.