Friday 9th May 9.30am
Carers Partnership Board Chair’s Briefing
I currently chair the Carers Partnership Board which is one of the many boards which feed into the Sutton Adult Partnership Board and ultimately the Sutton Partnership Board. The Sutton Partnership brings together public, private, voluntary and community organisations to promote a better quality of life now and for future generations.
I met with the vice-chair Ken Fish who is a carer, and Simon Latham as executive head with responsibility for carers services, to receive information about items on the agenda for the meeting on 19th May.
One of the issues that came out of this meeting was the fact that Ken and other carers did not have the opportunity for suggesting agenda items. Currently a suggested agenda was being prepared by the Carers Development Unit and circulated to me for my input. I had not realised that Ken did not also receive a copy. We all agreed that carers should have more opportunity to put items on the agenda so Ken & I continued discussions on this issue after the briefing.
We agreed to hold an agenda planning meeting soon after each Carers Partnership Board meeting and to invite Marilynne Burbage or Nick Nalladorai who are carer representatives on the Carers Partnership Board and also on the Sutton Adult Partnership Board and Sutton Partnership Board, Marilynne also represents the Carers Action Group; and Rachael MacLeod who is chief executive of the Carers Centre & CEN rep on the Sutton Adults Partnership Board and Sutton Partnership Board. It was also agreed that I would invite members of the Carers Groups supported by the Carers Development Unit both to send representatives to the Carers Partnership Board and to feed in agenda suggestions.
Thursday 8th May 7pm
UNDERSTANDING RELATIONSHIPS FOR HEALTH SCRUTINY
MEMBERS DEVELOPMENT TRAINING
This was an information sharing session which I had suggested with the support of the Health & Well Being Scrutiny chair. The aim was for members to learn more about the governance arrangements of our NHS partners and to develop our relationship with them. Often the scrutiny setting can appear combative and we wanted to meet with our health partners in a less formal setting to encourage them to see us more as critical friends. It also gave us a chance to explain the nature of the scrutiny committee’s role as set out in government legislation.
The session was attended by the chief executives of the Espom & St Helier NHS Trust, Sutton & Merton PCT and South West London & St Georges Mental Health Trust along with other representatives from the council and the NHS. It was a useful and informative meeting.
Of most significance was the announcement by the Mental Health Trust that it would be seeking Foundation Status in the near future.
As a Liberal Democrat I believe that the work of politicians should be open & transparent. By detailing some of the work I am engaged with I can be accountable to the residents of Wallington South who voted me to be their representative on Sutton Council.
My blog also gives me the opportunity to express opinions on local issues; however the opinions expressed on this blog are personal and do not necessarily reflect the policy of the Liberal Democrats.
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