Agenda item

To receive a report regarding the Health Scrutiny Arrangements across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care System.

Councillor Margetts took the Committee through the report.

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

·       Government reforms planned to abolish Clinical Commissioning Groups and to replace them with Integrated Care Systems.

·       It was proposed that Wokingham join a Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee with Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Reading and West Berkshire councils.  Councillor Margetts indicated that he did not want to see scrutiny taken away from Wokingham.  However, if the Council did not join the Committee, it could still proceed, and Wokingham would then not have a voice on that Committee.  The Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee would meet several times a year to scrutinise matters which specifically affected the whole BOB footprint.

·       A toolkit would be used to decide what would be considered by the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  Each Council would have an input into this and be required to sign off the toolkit.

·       The situation was currently in a state of flux as Surrey MPs and councillors had been lobbying that Frimley went into the Surrey ICS as opposed to the Berkshire East ICS.   Should Frimley Park go into the Surrey ICS it was possible that Berkshire West would withdraw from the BOB ICS and join Berkshire East in a Berkshire ICS.  A decision was awaited from the Secretary of State.

·       Members were reminded that the Council was the last of the Councils to sign up to the joint committee.  Matt Pope commented that if agreed by the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee the proposal to join the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee would be presented to Council on 22 July.  He suggested that should the ICS boundaries be amended that the situation be reviewed.

·       In response to a Member question it was clarified the formulation of a joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee was required to be agreed by Full Council.

·       Some Members were concerned that local scrutiny would be diluted.  Members were reminded of the toolkit that would determine what items would be taken to the joint Committee.

·       Councillor Margetts indicated that he had agreed with his counterparts in Reading and West Berkshire that pre meetings would be held to ensure a Berkshire West standpoint.

·       The Clerk clarified that Committee members could not be members of the Executive or Audit Committee members.  Membership would be politically balanced; one Conservative and one Liberal Democrat.

·       In response a Member question regarding whether Frimley Park remained joined up with Wexham Park, Councillor Cunnington indicated that Wexham Park was still part of the Frimley arrangements. Whilst it was on the Buckinghamshire border, it was still some distance from the Borough.

·       Members discussed the involvement of Healthwatch with the Committee.

RESOLVED:  That the Committee:

1)    supports the proposal for a joint health overview and scrutiny committee to consider heath issues at the NHS Integrated Care System (ICS) level across Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire;

2)    recommends that Full Council delegate scrutiny of health issues at the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care System level to the joint health overview and scrutiny committee; and

3)    recommends that Full Council approves the terms of reference for the joint health overview and scrutiny committee as set out in Appendix A of this report.

4)    recommends that Full Council review the situation should the ICS boundaries change in the future.