Maidstone Borough Council

Community, Environment and Housing Overview & Scrutiny Committee

Tuesday 12 August 2014

Adults and Older People Services - review of Loneliness and Isolation

Report of: Tessa Mallett, Overview & Scrutiny Officer

1.          Introduction

1.1        At their Future Work Programming workshop on 17 June 2014 the Committee agreed to focus on an overview of health services in the Maidstone Borough for the municipal year 2014-2015.

1.2        At their meeting of 15 July the Committee agreed the overview of health services would include:

·         Adults and Older People’s services;

·         Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) provision;

·         Maternity Services in the borough – are they working, and;

·         Young carers

1.3        A Working Group was appointed to develop and scope the review of Adult and Older Peoples’ Services.

1.4        To assist the Working Group in their scoping a report, Older People Services Background Information, was written by the Director of Regeneration and Communities and the Community Partnerships Manager. This report is attached as Appendix A.

1.5        The Working Group met with the Director of Regeneration and Communities and the Community Development Team Leader on 22 July to scope the review.

1.6        The Working Group agreed to focus their review on the issue of Isolation and Loneliness of Older People.  The scoping document is attached as Appendix B.

2     Recommendation

2.1        The Committee are recommended to agree the:

·         Scope of the review as outlined in Appendix B;

·         Witnesses they wish to invite to interview, and the;

·         Meeting date the Committee wish to interview the witnesses.

2.2        The Committee are recommended to use the meeting of 11 November to interview witnesses.  This will mean moving the following agenda items on the Future Work Programme:

·         Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services - from 9 September to 9 December

·         Maternity Services – are they working – from 11 November to 13 January 2015;

·         Young Carers – from 9 December to 10 February 2015;

·         Draft final report on Overview of Health Services in Maidstone Borough – from 13 January 2015 to 10 March 2015.

3.      Reasons for Recommendation

3.1     The Committee agreed to review Adult and Older Peoples’ services in the Maidstone Borough as part of their Overview of Health Services in the Borough.

3.2     The Committees Future Work Programme for 2014-2015 is very full.  In order to fulfil the commitments of the work programme the Committee will need to decide how they want to programme the review items in.

4.      Impact on Corporate Objectives

4.1        The review will primarily impact on the Council priorities: ‘For Maidstone to be a decent place to live’ and ‘Corporate and Customer Excellence’

5     Relevant Documents and information

5.1        Appendix A – Older People Services Background Information

5.2        Appendix B - Adults and Older People Services - review of Loneliness and Isolation