Our Current Investigations

Over the next couple of months we're planning to look at the following areas of work:

Francis Report (Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups will respond to this report which outlines the failings of healthcare at Mid Staffordshire Hospital Trust)
Prevention of Falls for Older People
Maternity & Related Hospital Services

Latest News

Quality Account
Health Scrutiny Committee were due to look at the Quality Account at the May meeting but decided to do this outside of Committee and focus in May instead on our local NHS Trust's responses to the Francis Report. Quality Accounts are annual reports to the public from providers of NHS healthcare services about the quality of services they provide. We receive a copy of the Quality Account each year for University Hospital South Manchester, Central Manchester Foundation Trust and Manchester Mental Health Trust and are invited to comment on them. A statement of the Committee's comments is added to the accounts which are then published on the NHS Choices web-site (or copies can be viewed/requested from the relevant NHS Trust). Quality Accounts aim to enhance the NHS's accountability to the public and engage the leaders of its organisation in quality improvement.

13/03/2013 - Public Health
In March the Committee received a report from the Director of Public Health. Public health functions and resources transferred to the City Council on 1 April 2013 and the Committee provided input into the detail of this transition, including the functions transferring, the staffing and budgets concerned, and the legal and constitutional implications.

7/03/2013 - Commissioning Framework for Domiciliary Care
We were really interested in this topic as we all seemed to know someone who used these services and had different experiences to share! We want to ensure that people using these services are properly looked after. We noted home care workers were often poorly paid and may not receive payment for travelling time between jobs or adequate training. We thought it was important to attract the right people and encourage them to stay working in these jobs. We made a number of recommendations regarding this and will continue to monitor this going forward.

7/02/2013 - NHS Commissioning Structures
We received a lot of visitors this month as representatives from each of the newly established Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG's) and the Local Area Team attended and gave presentations. The Health and Social Care Act 2012 made changes to the commissioning arrangements for the NHS and they told us about their new structure and operation, the services that will be commissioned by the CCG's and the National Commissioning Board, how the changes will be implemented in Manchester, the budget of each CCG and how their funding will be prioritised, and the impact of these changes on Manchester residents. We welcomed the opportunity to ask questions and provide input to the changes that were taking place and develop relationships with the newly established bodies. We liked the way real-life case studies were used in order to understand how and why NHS services are delivered in a certain way.

21/02/2031 - Business Plans
Also in February, Health Scrutiny Committee considered the draft Business Plan of the Directorate for Families Health and Wellbeing and the Directorate for Children and Commissioning Services. The business plan would then go to the Finance Scrutiny Committee who would review all of our comments before making recommendations to Council who would decide whether to implement it. We wanted to make sure it was scrutinised in detail before this approval was sought. This was the first year a joint business plan had been produced with the aim of integrating services where it made sense in order to reduce costs. We were assured it was not a return to a generic social services and that required specialisms would remain in adult social care. We were keen to find out how and whether services could be maintained and indeed improved in the current climate of funding cuts. We were dissappointed at the funding cuts but acknowledged that the movement of Public Health Functions and associated funding to the Council could help

10/01/2013 - A new health deal for Trafford
In January we heard about further developments with the NHS proposals for Trafford and how this would impact on Manchester residents. We were strongly against the closure of Trafford General's Accident and Emergency Department, and felt this would lead to more people having to use Wythenshawe hospital instead. We have been looking at this in more detail at the Joint Health Scrutiny Committee established between Manchester and Trafford Councils. As they have been unable to reach agreement with the NHS the Joint Committee has recently referred the matter to the Secretary of State to investigate as a 'substantial variation in health services which are not in the interests of the health service or patients of Trafford and Manchester'. We will keep you updated as things progress.

Get Involved

To find out more information have a look at our full work programme. This includes what topics we will be looking at, what specific issues we will be considering and who we will be hearing from. Please bear in mind that the programme is continually updated, and so dates and agenda items may change from those listed in the programme.

If there's an issue you want to contribute to, let us know. You can either send a written contribution to scrutiny@manchester.gov.uk or you can attend a meeting and ask the Chair if you can speak. You can also suggest a topic for us to look into by filling in our 'suggestions form.'

If you want to speak to somebody about contributing to the committee, please call our scrutiny support officer on 0161 234 3011 or e mail scrutiny@manchester.gov.uk.

The Role of the Committee

"As members of the Health Scrutiny Committee, we are dedicated to looking at how the Council and its partners in the NHS deliver health and social care services to improve the health and wellbeing of Manchester residents. We take a broad view of the health and social care services that are commissioned and provided by both the NHS and the Council so that we can make recommendations about how they can improve these services for you.

Our areas of interest include social care for adults, health inequalities, health services, the protection and safeguarding of adults in receipt of health and social care services, mental health and wellbeing, experiences and outcomes for patients, public health and healthy living.

Through this page you'll be able to keep in touch with what we've been doing, find out what we'll be investigating over the next few months and how you can get involved." Councillor Eddy Newman, Chair of Health Scrutiny Committee

The Council & democracy Health Scrutiny Committee