Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee.

During 2014/15 the Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee undertook a review of Alcohol Services in Stockport. This was in response to a series of public health indicators suggesting that Stockport had significantly worse rates of alcohol related liver problems than elsewhere in England. As part of the Review the Scrutiny Committee heard evidence from commissioners, service providers and users about the effectiveness of the current model of service delivery and how it might be improved to ensure it was more focussed on longer recovery.

The report attached is the outcome of that Review. The report does not include any recommendations, but poses a number of questions to commissioners and other partners.

The Executive is invited to receive the report and request that the Director of Public Health co-ordinate the preparation of a response to the questions posed in the report.

Officer contact: Jonathan Vali, 0161 474 3201, jonathan.vali@stockport.gov.uk

The Chair (Councillor Tom McGee) of the Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee attended the meeting to present the final report of the Committee’s Alcohol Misuse Scrutiny Review (copies of which had been circulated) to the Executive and to answer questions from executive councillors.

RESOLVED – (1) That the Director of Public Health, in conjunction with NHS partners, be requested to prepare a response to the “Alcohol Misuse Services” Scrutiny Review and the questions posed therein for consideration by the Executive at a future meeting.

(2) That the gratitude of the Executive be recorded for the excellent work undertaken by the Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee and others involved in the ‘Alcohol Misuse Services’ Scrutiny Review.

To consider the Scrutiny Committee’s draft Final Report.

The report has been prepared following the Scrutiny Committee’s Review of Alcohol Services in Stockport, and includes a series of recommendations (posed in the form of questions) to the Council, CCG and other partners about ensuring the effectiveness of alcohol misuse treatment and preventative services in Stockport.

The Scrutiny Committee will be invited to comment on and approve the final report for submission to the Executive and other relevant bodies.

Officer contact: Jonathan Vali, 0161 474 3201, jonathan.vali@stockport.gov.uk

A representative of the Democratic Services Manager submitted the draft final report of the Scrutiny Committee’s Review of Alcohol Services (copies of which had been circulated) that contained the findings and key questions from the Review. The Scrutiny Committee were invited to make amendments to the report before submission to the Council’s Executive and the Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group Board. The report had been written to pose key questions to commissioners, rather than to make specific recommendations.

The Chair reported that he had recently attended an event for recovering alcoholics to recognise their completion of a peer support course. The Chair emphasised the importance of recovery and support after a substance misuser had left mainstream services.

The following additional comments were made / issues raised:-

·         Greater emphasis on recovery was to be encouraged, such as repeating the provision of a ‘recovery conference’ held in previous years.

·         There was a stigma attached to alcohol and excessive consumption that was not necessarily the case with smoking. It meant that people were often unwilling to engage with services.

·         Rates of referrals by GPs to alcohol and lifestyle services was a concern, but reflected the variability amongst GP practices against a range of indicators.

RESOLVED – (1) That the draft Alcohol Services Scrutiny Review Final Report be approved and adopted, subject to:-

·         the inclusion in the 3^rd paragraph of the foreword of the word ‘friends’;

·         the separation of the question relating to the training of front-line staff from the question relating to the monitoring of GP referral rates to ensure greater emphasis was given to the latter element;

·         the inclusion of a ‘case study’ in relation to the difficulties of service users making benefit claims.

(2) That the thanks of the Scrutiny Committee be extended to all those who took part in the Scrutiny Review.