OLDER PEOPLE'S CONSULTATIVE FORUM
MONDAY 16 MARCH 2009
ST ANDREWS HOUSE, EDINBURGH
Attendees:
David Manion - Age Concern Scotland
Barbara Barnes - Alzheimer's Scotland
Ron Culley - CoSLA
Sylvia Murray - CoSLA
George Henderson - National Pensioner's Convention Scotland
Jacqueline Brown - Pensions, Disability and Carers Service
Diana Findlay - Scottish Older People's Advisory Group
Joan Turner - Scottish Pensions Association
Elinor McKenzie - Scottish Pensioners Forum
Eugene Duffy - STUC
Agnes McGroarty - West of Scotland's Senior Forum
Andrew Jackson - Women's Royal Voluntary Service
Apologies:
Shona Robison - MSP Minister for Public Health and Sport
Gurudeo Saluja - Black and Ethnic Minority Elders Group
Cllr Ronnie McColl - CoSLA representative on older people issues
(West Dunbartonshire Council)
Jean Elgar - Dumfries and Galloway Local Authority
Elizabeth Duncan - Help the Aged
Secretariat:
John Storey - Older People and Age Team (chair)
Mabel McDowall - Older People and Age Team
Brian Nisbet - Older People and Age Team (minutes)
Adam Rennie - Deputy Director, Community Care
1. WELCOME, INTRODUCTION AND APOLOGIES
John Storey (Older People and Age Team) opened the meeting, and informed members that it had transpired earlier in the day that Shona Robison (Minister for Public Health and Sport) would be unable to attend: he passed on her apologies. There were also apologies from Cllr Gurudeo Saluja and Cllr Ronnie McColl, who could not attend due to council business.
John welcomed Adam Rennie (Community Care) and Jacqueline Brown (Pensions, Disability and Carers Service) to the meeting as well as two new members Joan Turner (Scottish Pensions Association) and Eugene Duffy (STUC). Thanks were then extended to the previous representatives Irene Sweeney and John Wilson for their contribution to the Forum.
Members noted the minute of the previous meeting held on 29 September 2008.
2. UPDATE ON ISSUES SINCE SEPTEMBER 2008 - PAPER 1:2009
Paper 1 was principally for members to note, but John highlighted several key achievements including the publication of the Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum's final report and subsequent response from the Scottish Government. Two Regional Stakeholder events had been held in Glasgow and Inverness with a further 5 still to take place across the country, and the first progress report on All Our Futures: Planning for a Scotland with an Ageing Population had been presented to the Scottish Parliament on 5 December.
David Manion offered congratulations to members of the Older People and Age team on the success of the regional stakeholder events thus far, and noted they were really useful. Andrew Jackson asked if these events were invitation only or open to all, and it was confirmed they are open to all to apply for a place.
Action - Send programme and invitations to Andrew Jackson as and when received.
3. PRESENTATION ON SINGLE OUTCOME AGREEMENTS
Ron Culley, Health and Social Care, CoSLA gave a presentation on Single Outcome Agreements (SOAs). He explained that SOAs and the Concordat represent a new relationship between Scottish Government and local authorities in which they work in partnership in the governance of Scotland. In adopting the approach the Scottish Government has set out its national performance framework and has agreed to stand back from micro managing service delivery, which allows councils and their partners freedom to meet local needs and priorities.
There are arrangements in place to help keep the concordat and SOA process on track. The Concordat Oversight Group is a high level officers group with representatives from CoSLA, Scottish Government, SOLACE, Improvement Service and Audit Scotland which handles day to day issues on the Concordat. The Third Sector Task Group has been established to strengthen the relationship with the Third Sector; there are bi-monthly meetings that CoSLA have with John Swinney; and, finally, an annual meeting between the Scottish Government Cabinet and the CoSLA presidential team.
On the purpose and scope of SOAs, the focus is now on outcomes and what has been achieved by councils, rather than the previous system of reporting by local authorities where it was difficult to know what services were being delivered.
The new emphasis on the outcome approach should allow people to make a real judgement on the services their local authority are delivering. It should also allow more collaborative efforts from partners in developing new policies and approaches to delivering services. Evidence of this should be more apparent in the second round of SOAs currently being developed, as they will have to be signed off by Community Planning Partnerships; whereas the first round of SOAs in many cases were just signed off by the local authority.
Concern was expressed by Forum members that CPPs were not robust enough to deliver on the commitments laid out in SOAs and there was a lack of governance and accountability to the public. Ron advised that CoSLA recognised the problems that existed in some CPPs in terms of capacity to drive forward the SOAs but this was being addressed. He also assured the Forum that the local authority was the driving force behind SOAs, and that ultimately if the public felt that the SOAs were not delivering they could make this known at the polls. Community engagement is a key part of the ongoing development of the SOA process, and work is being undertaken across local authorities and the Scottish Government to progress this, including the imminent publication of the Community Empowerment Action Plan. Ron confirmed that work was being taken forward to progress the engagement of the Third Sector and agreed to provide the list of task force members who are taking this issue forward.
Forum members asked when SOA progress reports would be available. Ron confirmed that interim reports for the SOAs will be available shortly, and full reports for all 32 Local Authority SOA will be available by September 2009. These reports will be in line with the Single Reporting Framework and will build upon existing public performance reporting frameworks. Ron concluded by saying that the SOAs are adopting a high level corporate approach to tackling issues rather than a group specific one. There were many challenges that lay ahead including strategic issues, tightening resources and demographic changes, but nonetheless older people and social care issues will continue to be well represented in SOAs as there is a strong desire across all local authorities to deliver good services for older people.
Action - Older People and Age Team to provide e-mail link to the National Performance Framework.
Action - CoSLA to provide a list of the Third Sector Task Group's members progressing engagement with the Third Sector [list since provided - members are:
Harry McGuigan (CoSLA Spokesperson on Community Well-being & Safety) and Alison Elliot (SCVO Convener) (joint chairs), John Swinney (Scottish Government), Tracey Slaven, (Director Third Sector Division, Scottish Government), Alan Dickson (Chief Executive, Capability Scotland), Catherine Hughson (CVS Shetland), David Anderson (Chief Executive, South Ayrshire Council, SOLACE), and Alec Nicol, (Deputy Leader, Borders Council).]
4. PENSIONS, DISABILITY AND CARERS SERVICES UPDATE
Jacqueline Brown gave a presentation updating members on current issues. She advised that the Disability and Carers Service (DCS) and the Pension Services had merged to create the Pensions, Disability and Carers Service (PDCS). The merger has provided an opportunity to review the way that the service engages and consults with stakeholders at a national level. This has resulted in the Disability and Carers Service Advisory Forum and the Partnership Against Poverty Forum merging to create the PDCS Advisory Forum. Anyone interested in getting involved should contact Jacqueline direct.
The Forum was provided with an update on the work that PDCS was doing on partnership working. Jacqueline highlighted two good examples of what the PDCS were trying to achieve - on-going training work that DWP were undertaking in relation to the Energy Savings Scotland Advice Centre, and the local level partnerships that were being built up with the likes of MacMillan Cancer support.
The additional Christmas bonus announced in the pre budget report on 24 November 2008 should have been paid alongside the state pension but some people have received it separately: if individuals have not received it by the end of March they should get in contact with their local Pensions Service office.
From 2 February the State Pension telephone claim line has changed its number from an 0845 number charged at local rates to a free 0800 number.
Jacqueline explained that Pension Centre Liaison Officers (PCLO) were part of the management team within Pension Centres and were the central liaison point within the between pension centres and third parties. They also oversee and maintain service level agreements with local authorities, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit offices. However Jacqueline did stress that there was only one PCLO in each Pensions Centre and that their role was to look at escalated problems with certain issues and not to look at particular cases of individuals.
Jacqueline talked briefly about pilots which were currently underway in both Dundee and Motherwell and advised if members of the Forum wished to ask any questions about these, she was happy to take these via e-mail. She also highlighted that when phoning pension centres, the pension service was now operating a 4 in 1 claims process which allows people to arrange their State Pension, Pension Credit, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit at one point of contact.
Finally Jacqueline thanked the Forum for listening and said that the PDCS was always interested in comments, views and ideas from its users and if anybody had any issues they would like to raise they should e-mail her.
5. UPDATE ON OLDER PEOPLES GATHERING
John Storey had sent the Minister for Sport and Public Health a progress note on the gathering, and she had then written to the First Minister asking him to open the event. A response to this request was awaited. David Manion said that he would be submitting a submission to the Events Team at the Scottish Parliament in the coming week strengthening the arguments for using the Scottish Parliament's main chamber for the event on 2 October.
6. ISSUES RAISED BY MEMBERS - APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP FROM SCOTTISH SENIORS ALLIANCE
Agnes McGroarty spoke to Paper 2:2009 about the application for membership from the Scottish Seniors Alliance (SSA). After discussion amongst members, it was agreed that the SSA was a national organisation and should join the Forum.
Action - Older People and Age Team to inform SSA representative of outcome.
7. OTHER MATTERS ARISING
It was noted that the OPCF had not met since September 2008 and members were concerned about this slippage. This was due to difficulties in the Ministerial diary (an earlier date had to be cancelled) and we will look to rectify this in the future.
David Manion informed the group that the Age Concern Scotland Board were holding a meeting on 25 March to decide if the merger with Help the Aged should proceed, which would be followed by an EGM on 26 March to ratify the Board's decision with members. All being well, the new charity should launch in April.
Elinor McKenzie noted the excellent paper on pensions which had been circulated for information by George Henderson of the National Pensions Convention prior to the meeting
8. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The Older People and Age Team will be in contact with members about a date for the next meeting.
Older People and Age Team
April 2009