Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, Councillor Edgar, welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Eildon Area Partnership and thanked Community Councillors, Partners and local organisations for their attendance.    Councillor Edgar explained, that prior to a facilitated discussion on issues and local priorities around the theme ‘Our Health, Care and Wellbeing’, the meeting would begin with introductory talks and a short presentation by two young people from Galashiels Academy.   

Presentation followed by a facilitated discussion.

2.1       Mr Robert McCulloch-Graham, Chief Officer Health and Social Care, explained that the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 required Health Boards and Local Authorities to integrate Health and Social Care services.  In the Scottish Borders this included all Social Care Services, Home Care, District Nurses, GPs, Community Hospitals, Mental Health Services, Dentists and Physiotherapists.  The Integration Joint Board (IJB) was established to oversee these services and was made up of 5 Councillors, 5 Non-Executive Directors and other representatives.  The Joint Board determined how the budget, currently £160m, was spent.  The IJB focus was: to improve the health of the population to minimise help required from health professionals; to identify quickly when help was needed from health professionals and to make a quick diagnosis; and to provide support within the community for people to manage their own conditions, through home care etc and avoid hospital readmissions.  Driven by work and engagement with local communities the local objectives set out in 5 Locality Plans dovetailed into the IJB’s Strategic Plan. Local priorities were to increase the availability of locally based rehabilitation services; improve the availability of services including access in rural areas; look at housing needs; assess and support unpaid carers; shift the balance of care from hospital to communities for some conditions; and to reduce problems associated with disability and access to services.  As part of the objective to direct service users and families to the right services at the right time Community Link Workers had been recruited.

2.2       Dr Keith Allan, Consultant in Public Health, referred to six new Public Health Priorities identified in a recent report by the Joint Director of Public Health.  In particular regional and local work was being carried out around type 2 diabetes prevention by encouragement of healthy eating, the Scottish Borders having a higher rate of occurrence of diabetes than the national average. Ms Fiona Doig, from the Alcohol and Drug Partnership, summarised three areas of work being carried out.  In terms of the supply of alcohol from local outlets the Local Licensing Forum produced an annual Alcohol Profile which pulled together statistics on the impact of alcohol consumption in the community.  The Profile was used as a reference to assist the Scottish Borders Licensing Board in its decision making.  Health Improvement work was also directed towards smoking information services including interaction with other behaviours and towards schools and other groups to encourage engagement in activity and healthy eating.  Ms Fiona Jackson was in attendance as Project Manager for the ‘Respect’ project currently being introduced by NHS Borders for roll-out in this area.  She explained that Respect was a guide that reflected the need to document conversations with family and health professionals for a person’s clinical care in a future emergency, in which they were unable to make or express choices.  It provided health and care professionals with a summary of recommendations to enable decisions to be made about that person’s care and treatment.  This would be complementary to a person’s anticipatory  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

The Minute of the meeting of the Eildon Area Partnership held on 22 November 2018 had been circulated along with a summary of the discussion on the Council Budget 2019/20 attached as an appendix.   The Locality Development Co-ordinator, Gillian Jardine, summarised the feedback which highlighted priority spending issues identified by those present at the meeting.

Update.

Ms Jardine gave an update on the Localities Bid Fund (LBF).  She gave a reminder that the second funding round of LBF was currently open, with applications being accepted until 5 pm on Thursday 28 February.    Bids were invited to the £119k available in the Eildon area; a maximum bid of £15k from constituted groups and £5k from those which were un-constituted.  She confirmed that advice and help with applications was available on request from the Council’s localities team.

Update.

Lists of schemes approved and funded from the Small Schemes and Quality of Life Budgets, within the three Eildon Wards in the current financial year, had been provided on the tables for information.  In an update on the balances remaining within each budget, Ms Jardine advised that there was £2,374 left to be allocated in the Small Schemes budget for the Eildon area. Of the £20k annual budget for Quality of Life, divided between the three Wards, Galashiels had zero remaining, Selkirkshire had £1,758 and Melrose and Leaderdale £2,456 (although funding was not available to all Community Councils in this Ward due to the agreement to divide the budget between the Community Councils).  Any queries or requests for funding from these budgets should be directed to the Council’s Neighbourhood Area Manager, Mr Craig Blackie.

7 March 2019 - venue to be confirmed.

The next meeting of the Eildon Area Partnership was scheduled for Thursday 7 March 2019. The Chairman explained that the focus of this meeting would be the preparation of a Locality Plan for the Eildon area. A draft plan, based on all the priority issues raised under the five themes at previous meetings, would be circulated prior to the meeting.  The venue would be confirmed in due course.