Agenda item

The minutes of the meeting of 15 October 2015 were agreed.  For an update on previous actions, please see the attached sheet.

Action 2: March 2015 meeting – Alan Fleming has still not received an update from either Tandra Forster or Mary Page and so there has been no conclusion.  AF will mention it to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) when he meets them tomorrow on a separate issue.  It was noted that this is reflective of a broader issue within West Berkshire Council (WBC) as Board members felt that service users are frightened of complaining.  It was agreed that the Board should look at the complaints around care issues and how service users can be reassured.  An understanding is required of how many complaints are being received and how they are dealt with.  Action 1:  Rachel Craggs to invite the appropriate person to the next meeting to discuss this

Action 1: October 2015 meeting – Alan Fleming and John Carr confirmed that it is Jo England who can provide the information they require on the grants and assistance available to people with disabilities.  This was discussed at a Commissioning Scrutiny Board in December 2014 at which Jo presented a new policy and was asked by Council Members to amend it.  Action 2: Rachel Craggs to locate the report that went to this meeting and invite Jo England to the next meeting

Action 3: October 2015 meeting – Councillor Marcus Franks advised that due to the 44% reduction in the Council’s Revenue Support Grant (RSG), which was announced before Christmas, it was necessary for further spending cuts to be made.  As a result, there will be a second phase of consultation on the proposals which will take place from 15 February – 7 March.  Two Executive meetings will be held on 11 and 25 February to agree phase 1 and phase 2 of the savings proposals which will then be ratified at Full Council on 1 March.  This will be 6 days before the consultation finishes and is due to the tight timescales given by Central Government on the reduction in RSG.  Consequently, the budget may change following the end of the consultation.

Action 5: October 2015 meeting – Rachel Craggs advised the Board of the various health-related pages on the WBC website where the link to the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) could be inserted.  It was agreed that this should be inserted on the Public Health & Wellbeing and the Adult Social Care pages.  It will also be put on the same page as the existing link to the CQC.  Action 3:  Rachel Craggs to arrange for the links to be added

Action 7: October 2015 meeting – Councillor Franks suggested that Board members lobby the local MPs about the fact that it is only possible to take one wheelchair on Reading Buses.  Rachel Craggs was asked to discuss the inaccessibility of the information board on buses to wheelchair users with Matthew Metcalfe and that the PA system is often turned off.  Action 4: Rachel Craggs to contact Matthew Metcalfe

Action 9: October 2015 meeting – Alan Fleming noted that the road markings are not yet in place in Hilden’s Drive.  Action 5: Rachel Craggs to obtain the results of the consultation with residents and find out the next steps for Highways

Action 10: October 2015 meeting – It was noted that Board members were not aware of the Blue Assist Scheme app mentioned by Matthew Metcalfe to help provide information for people with visual impairments.  The Board felt that there was a general issue with the availability of information and leaflets in Braille and John Carr said it would be far cheaper for the Council to purchase a Braille machine enabling these to be printed in-house.  Action 6:  Rachel Craggs to obtain information on the number of requests for information in Braille from Moira Fraser

Action 11: October 2015 meeting – It was  noted that the suggestion of fitting repeaters to the St John’s Post Office Pelican crossing would not help people with visual impairments.  Action 7:  Rachel Craggs to find out the cost and viability of installing the repeaters

Action 12: October 2015 meeting – it was suggested that perhaps the Access Officer being recruited by Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) could assist with the Linear Park audit.  Action 8: Rachel Craggs to discuss this with Stewart Souden

Action 19: October 2015 – Jan Rothwell commented that the change in the Terms of Reference to enable Gwen Mason to attend meant that theoretically Elizabeth O’Keeffe could rejoin the Board.  Jan Rothwell added that Elizabeth O’ Keefe is closely associated with Newbury Town Council and provided a useful link.  Action 9: The Board to reflect on this and revisit at the next meeting