Minutes:
The Chairman made the following announcements:
a) Pre-meeting information briefing
That a briefing giving an overview of health system finances had been organised for the Committee’s next meeting on 7 March.
b) Overview & Scrutiny Legacy Workshop 2013-2017
The Chairman drew the meetings attention to the “Overview & Scrutiny Legacy Workshop 2013-2017” arranged for the 17th Jan , 2-4pm Council Chamber, County Hall Trowbridge
c) Joint Scrutiny of Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust
In September the Chairman announced that CQC had published a follow-up report following its full inspection AWP’s services in May 2016 and rated the Trust overall as 'requires improvement'.
Members were reminded that AWP attended a meeting in April to present their Quality Account and gave a verbal update on the CQC inspection, which was ongoing at the time.
Wiltshire was previously a member of a Joint Scrutiny Working Group looking at AWP’s improvement programme (chaired by Cllr John Noeken). When endorsing the working group’s final report the committee resolved that any decision regarding further joint scrutiny of AWP should await their CQC inspection results.
Having reviewed this in September the Committee agreed to assess other councils’ interest in taking part before making a decision. Officers had done this and the following was reported:
· North Somerset District Council support the idea of continuing the joint working group in principle, but would need to confirm whether a member or members will put themselves forward to take part.
· BANES have declined to take part due to a lack of resources.
· Bristol have not given a firm answer, but AWP only now provide a small proportion of their mental health provision so may be unlikely to take part.
The meeting was asked to consider how they would wish to proceed. Following a short debate, the meeting;
Resolved
That scrutiny of Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust’s improvement programme be referred as a legacy issue to Overview and Scrutiny to consider under the 2017-21 Council.
d) Update on the Obesity and Child Poverty Task Group
In March the Committee endorsed the final report of this task group, which was formed jointly with Children’s Select Committee, and referred the report to Cabinet for response. In December, Children’s Select Committee received a further response from the Cabinet Member for Waste and Planning to Recommendation 12.
The recommendation reads;
“The Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care, and the Cabinet Member for Planning, Property, Waste and Strategic Housing, to advise if the council currently seeks to influence the proliferation of fast food outlets (particularly near schools) through the planning process and, if not, whether there are plans to consider doing so.”
The full minutes of Children’s Select Committee’s discussion would be available at a later date but in summary:
· Cllr Sturgis advised that the Council considered each application on its own merits, taking into account of all the material considerations. Matters such as highway safety and residential amenity are normally the more critical issues. Proximity to a school might be considered but would by itself rarely be a determining factor in a planning application in the absence of any planning policy setting out such criteria.
· There is currently no specific policy within the Core Strategy that would enable the provision of new fast food outlets to be restricted near to schools and college campuses.
· However, Public Health and Public Protection are working together to research local data and evidence in order to establish if there are any areas in Wiltshire where there appears to be a proliferation of fast food outlets near to schools and colleges.
· Ultimately, Children’s Select resolved to consider this as a possible legacy issue for referral to OS in the next Council .