Minutes

Name of Subgroup: Housing and Short Stay
Date: Tuesday 3rd February 2015
Time: 2pm till 4pm
Venue: Hightown Sports & Arts Centre
Who came:
Val Sheridan – LBC
Sheila Smith – Service User
Alan Fletcher – Healthwatch
Tracey Finlan – Service User
Peter Vallely – Service User
Catherine Winstanley – LBC
Mariam Reske - POhWER
Who let us know they couldn’t make it:
Serena Carter – Service User - Co-chair
Bridget Moffat – LBC Tracey Brennan –LBC
Julie Richie - LBC Karen Howell - LBC
Linda Ambrose – LBC Karen Yates - LBC
Lynda Rees – Luton Community Housing
Diane Walsh – LBC Yvonne McKinlay – POhWER
Charlotte Worker – Priory Group
Andrea Nettleton – Parent/Carer
Andy Assan - Healthwatch




/ This meeting was poorly attended; this may have been due to the bad weather.
Those that had arrived agreed for the meeting to go ahead as 3 service users had arrived and they wanted it to continue.
VS told the group that BM, the lead for this group, was unable to attend today due to sickness. Val said she would do her best to lead the group through today’s agenda.
The group introduced themselves to each other.
The group went through the previous minutes and these were agreed, with the following updates:
Page 2;
ACTION: BM will remind the Community Safety Team that people would like more hate crime and community safety sessions.
  • It is not known if this has been done.
Page 7;
·  AF spoke about the past conversations around a code word for the emergency services. This word would be for when someone phones the emergency services but has difficulty engaging with these services.
ACTION: BM said she will look into this again through any contacts she may have.
·  AN will look out a health related form that she had for her son when he was accessing schools and transitions, as she felt that this information was a matter of record for the emergency services and had always been of benefit in the past.
  • Neither Bridget nor Andrea was available today to feedback on this to the group.



/ Action Pad Update:
No’s 14 and 20) These are agenda items today
No’s 22, 30 and 37) These will be ongoing as POhWER is not here today to give any updates
No’s 26, 36 and 43) These will remain as ongoing as BM is not here today to give any updates
No 38) Current position with Community Safety launch;
VS told the group that the final consultation, held with the service users, confirmed that the Community Safety programme in Luton will be ‘Keep Safe’ and that there is still work going on to have it in place within a few months.
No 44) Subgroup Meetings:
The question as to whether the subgroups should become task and finish groups was taken to the full learning disability partnership meeting in January. The response from that meeting was unclear; Bridget will feedback at the next meeting.
  • AF suggested that we could choose one long standing item from the action pad and concentrate on that as a ‘task and finish’ item within the existing group, if that was what people wanted to do.
Updated Action Pad:

/ Agenda Items for today.
20) Moving in and out of supported living;
Since the last meeting 1 person has moved into Hitchin Road, 1 person has passed away in one of the Mencap provisions and Luton has 2 vacancies in-house; so there are 3 vacancies at this time.

/ 14) Update on respite re-provision;
Planning permission has been passed for the new build and the land is currently being prepared. Procurement for a contractor starts this month and it is hoped they will be on site by the end of April 2015.
Thought has been given as to how the respite service will be delivered in the future and we will need to look at how much it will cost for LBC to do this.
TB has visited 6 different providers to see what they do, in order to decide if there are other providers able to deliver the service; we would them have to consider starting a commissioning process.
If a new service specification is needed then TB will ensure that parent/carers are included in this process.
/ Winterbourne: Housing Needs
This could not be discussed today as BM was unable to make this meeting.
/ Review the purpose of this group through the terms of reference:
Current Terms of Reference:
The current terms of reference are embedded here. Action: The amendments suggested at this meeting will be made and passed on to BM. Please look at this document and send any amendments/additions to Val Sheridan on 01582 547242 or by 18th March ’15. This will ensure that a revised draft paper can be brought along to the next meeting of this group.

/ Any Other Business:
Joint Commissioning Strategy Delivery Plan;
The group looked at this section of the delivery plan and made some suggestions for additional information to be added. No RAG ratings were changed.
This plan will now go to BM for consideration.



/ Any Other Business:
  • PV spoke to the group about access to disabled toilets and that people need to have a radar key if these are locked, or they have to find someone with a key and that this is not always easy and takes up valuable time.
The group thought it would be a good idea if people know they could purchase their own key to carry around with them, and where they could buy one from.
Action; VS said she would look into getting this information and also how this could be sent out to people.
  • AF informed the group that he had heard of proposed changes to some Arriva bus services. He believes many of these changes will affect the services going to the L&D Hospital, as routes are changing to go directly up the busway and not straight up Dunstable Road. He feels this could also mean less wheelchair and disabled spaces available as well as people having to cross over the main Dunstable Road.
Objections could be raised on the internet or at the Arriva office in The Mall, this consultation finished at the end of January with a proposed start date of April. AF feels that this consultation was not very well promoted and that many people would not have known about it.
The next meeting for this group will be:
Date: 25th June 2015
Time; 2pm till 4pm - with coffee served on arrival
At: Hightown Sports & Arts Centre, Concorde Street
If you have any pressing issues that need to be discussed before the next meeting please contact the chair person

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Learning Disability Partnership and subgroups - some pictures used are from the Valuing People Clipart Collection