Member of Staffordshire County Council representing Lichfield Rural East – Cabinet Member for Adults and Wellbeing

The Health White Paper provides challenges, risks and opportunities for better health and care service here…

But, as long as there is an obsessive focus on better health outcomes for Staffordshire people and not on artificial Health organisational issues which could re-create many smaller PCTs in all but name, the opportunities will be greater.

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Full County Council on the road visiting Newcastle Borough Council

The key changes the proposals bring are moving health commissioning responsibility from existing Primary Care Trusts to GPs and moving the budget and responsibility around Public Health to Counties and Unitary local government.

It’s bigger than it sounds. There are currently three PCTs in Staffordshire, one for the southern six districts, one for the two northern districts and one for Stoke with a combined total spend of around £1.6billion.

The County has been working in earnest for ten months to bring together community NHS services with social care services across Staffordshire.

That will mean significant improvements, efficiency wise and, most importantly, to the parity and quality of healthcare services across the whole county and the work to do that is ongoing and will be completed in the next nine months.

The demise of the three PCTs by 2013 and the move of well over a billion pound health commissioning money to doctors in the community is huge. The County already has a successful Joint Commissioning Unit which brings together the NHS and Social Care commissioning to maximise efficiencies and align much better the provision of services.

Clearly, it is important that we continue the same principles under the new arrangements. How we do that and how we can support GPs in their new role whilst ensuring the joint approach between care and health deepens has been, and will be, the subject of dozens of hours of talks.

And why does greater collaboration matter? Well, because high quality social care services prevent many people going into high cost acute services (hospitals) and also get people out faster if they are in hospital.

It’s partly about money and partly about the quality of life and future prospects for individuals. In every aspect it makes sense.

I’ll be writing far more about this whole agenda as things move on and as negotiations take place over the summer. It’s hugely important for Staffordshire and the people who live and work here. I’ll also write about the Public Health changes which, again, will potentially enhance what we are already doing around things such as obesity and alcohol abuse.

So, a very busy time which is going to get even busyer. 

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As Staffordshire cuts costs, unelected Police Authority ‘bods’ choose bureaucracy over front line services…

Just amazing, particularly because under Government plans in 18 months time Staffordshire Police Authority will be scrapped completely.

And so the thick end of £100k annual salary for a brand new Police Authority Chief Exec seems extraordinary just as they are looking to cut front line services by disbanding the motorcycle police unit.

Non-elected independents & Liberal Democrats outvote Conservatives

This despite protests from Conservatives on the Police Authority. And the fact the CXO will only be around until the demise of Staffordshire Police Authority means they’ll likely be a second decent severance payout in due course.

Until a couple of years ago the Police Authority was administered, on a relative shoestring, by the County and the CXO then was the County’s Chief Officer on a very part time basis. Not so now, as recently the Police Authority has grown in admin and massively in costs.

The County even offered to have Staffordshire’s Chief Officer cover the interim for the Police Authority as in the past but no. This was debated by the County today and every Party but the Liberal Democrats were utterly appalled at the likely scrapping of the police motor cycles in favour of a new and expensive bureaucrat.

To be clear, this is public money being wasted by unelected Police Authority appointees despite Staffordshire as a whole being run by Conservatives. Nonsense.

Financial crisis… what crisis?

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It wasn’t until I sat down with a group from MENCAP that the things most take for granted really hit home…

And when I had that hour ’roundtable’ recently with a dozen or so individuals with severe disabilities and listened, with the help of their carers, to what they had to say about their lives, the basis of this post became very clear.

So when MENCAP Staffordshire asked me to actively back their campaign for specialist toilet facilities in each main town in the county I was very happy to do so. 

Most of us take completely for granted our flexibility when it comes to needing the loo but people with severe disabilities and mental health issues often do not have that flexibility.

And on top of that, normal public toilets are unsuitable for those with the greatest disabilities. Practically, they do need much more elaborate toilet changing facilities so their carers are able to help them with what we take for granted.

Changing Places facilities offer those extra features, space and special equipment to allow people with the greatest needs to have a little bit more of a normal life when it comes to going out and about with their carers.

The County development currently being built in Stafford town will have Changing Places facilities open for public use and I recently wrote to every district council in Staffordshire encouraging them to consider requiring new builds to include the specialist changing and toilet facilities under planning rules.

They are only marginally more expensive than decent normal disability toilets and so the extra bit of expense, even in these difficult times, is well worth it when you account for the real difference it will make to lives.

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A million quid to help establish services aimed at helping older people stay in their community…

A significant investment, yes, but one that will help older and vulnerable people stay in their homes, in their communities, safely and for longer.

Chance for community groups to play a part in delivering support services

And because the services to support them could be locally delivered it means they would be entirely focussed on that local need… and, yes, of course it’s less expensive than people giving in and ending up in the institutionalised care system when, with some lighter touch support, they need not.

The money made available by Staffordshire Social Care and Health via the new Community Wellbeing Fund will be used to kick start new services or expand existing ones which support independent living and wellbeing.

It could be to start lunch clubs, offer befriending services, undertake home safety audits, local transport provision… in fact anything which contributes to safe, healthy and independent living. And if new services are successful and meet the need as expected they can then move to continued funding via the Department’s joint commissioning unit.

So this is all about expanding the voluntary sector in a managed way whilst providing parish councils and other local groups with an opportunity to further enhance the communities and people they serve.

Initial response has been exceptional with far more expressions of interest and formal funding applications than we could possibly have expected. So if you are involved with a local community group and have ideas about a service which will support older or more vulnerable people live safely in their community you can find out more here.

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