Agenda item

Health and Social Care Services

It was moved by Councillor Joe Otten, seconded by Councillor Roger Davison, that this Council:-

(a)       notes the greater pressures on the NHS and care services due to an ageing population;

(b)       believes that integrating health and social care services will ease pressure on hospitals and help to improve home care services for patients who need it;

(c)        thanks the Government for the introduction of the Better Care Fund, made up of £3.8 billion of local services to improve care for the elderly and vulnerable to join up health and care services around the needs of patients, so that people can stay at home more and be in hospital less;

(d)       further thanks the Government for the introduction of the first ever limit of personal liability on the cost of social care, so older people no longer have to sell their home to pay for their care;

(e)       welcomes the recent news of the planned devolution of Manchester’s NHS budget to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority; and

(f)        therefore calls for the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority to work towards winning a similar deal for the Sheffield City Region.

Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor Mary Lea, seconded by Councillor Mike Drabble, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by:-

1.         the addition of the following words at the end of paragraph (a):-

            “, and believes this has been compounded by the Government’s disastrous re-organisation of the NHS and crippling government cuts, noting for example that the Government’s 50% cut to Revenue Support Grant is impacting upon care services and despite the present Administration’s priority of giving greater protection to social care, the level of cuts the Council is facing means that it is not possible to protect care from cuts;

2.         the deletion of paragraphs (c) to (f) and the addition of new paragraphs (c) to (f) as follows:-

(c)        regrets that the Government’s Better Care Fund has proven to be inadequate in meeting these challenges and believes that the Government has sought to spin and mislead over the amount of investment in the Better Care Fund, noting the following comments in the revenue budget report submitted to the meeting of the Council on 6th March 2015 “contrary to what is implied in the Settlement figures, the Council will not receive £37.8m from the Better Care Fund; this figure represents the total amount of the pooled budget shared with the NHS, and the actual amount which the Council will receive from the BCF is subject to ongoing discussions with the Clinical Commissioning Group”;

(d)       whilst welcoming the principle of devolution of NHS budgets to a local level, believes that following the Manchester model would not necessarily be the best solution for realising this for Sheffield, and is becoming increasingly concerned with what this Council believes is the chaotic, haphazard and patchwork attempts of this Government in its dying days to create the impression that they are devolving resources to northern cities when the reality does not match the rhetoric;

(e)       welcomes the proposals outlined by the Rt. Hon. Andy Burnham MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, to create a genuinely integrated health and social care system; and

(f)        resolves to work with any future government to secure integration of health and social care services.

On being put to the vote, the amendment was carried. 

Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor Jillian Creasy, seconded by Councillor Sarah Jane Smalley, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the deletion of paragraphs (c) to (f) and the addition of new paragraphs (c) to (f) as follows:-

(c)        notes that the Better Care Fund is not new money and, in the context of deep cuts to local authorities, threatens to reduce funding for hard-pressed health services in order to support much needed social care;

(d)       supports the recommendations of the Barker report to provide free social care for the elderly, funded through general taxation;

(e)       supports better integration and local accountability of health and social care, but does not want to see the National Health Service split up with different organisational and funding arrangements in different local authority areas; and

(f)        is extremely concerned about the way the devolution of Manchester’s NHS budget has been brought about, without consultation and at breakneck speed.

On being put to the vote, the amendment was negatived. 

(Note: Councillors Jack Clarkson and John Booker voted for paragraphs (e) and (f) and against paragraphs (c) and (d) of the Amendment and asked for this to be recorded.)

The original Motion, as amended, was put as a Substantive Motion in the following form and carried:-

2. Councillors Jillian Creasy, Robert Murphy, Sarah Jane Smalley and Brian Webster voted for paragraphs (a) to (c), (e) and (f) and abstained on paragraph (d) of the Substantive Motion and asked for this to be recorded.

3. Councillors, Jack Clarkson and John Booker voted for paragraphs (b), (c), (d), and against paragraphs (a), (e) and (f) of the Substantive Motion and asked for this to be recorded.)