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Health and Social Security - Approved Panel Minutes - 23 July 2015

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Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel

Record of Meeting

Date: 23rd July 2015  

 

Present

Deputy R. Renouf , Chairman

Deputy G. Southern , Vice-Chairman [apologies for Item 6] Deputy T. McDonald

Apologies

 

Absent

 

In attendance

Miss K. Boydens , Scrutiny Officer

Miss L. Stoodley , Scrutiny Administrator

 

Ref Back

Agenda matter

Action

 

1. Records of Meetings

The Panel noted and approved the records of its meetings held on 25th and 26th June and 2nd, 7th and 9th July 2015. The Chairman thereby signed them accordingly.

 

07/07/15 Item 1

517/32

2. Staff Recruitment and Retention

The Panel noted that it had received written submissions from Andium Homes  and  the  Minister  for  Housing.  The  Panel  requested  that  it receive hard copies of all the written submissions received to date. The Panel recalled the submission from the Union Prospect and noted that an external report of the Chief Minister's Department was mentioned. The Panel tasked the officer to request the report.

The Panel agreed that several Public Hearings should be organised to take  place  in  September,  including  Union  representatives  and  the Minister for Housing. The officer advised that these would be organised and confirmed in due course.

The Panel requested that letters were drafted to all residential nursing homes  and  Family  Nursing  and  Homecare  to  seek  information regarding  recruitment  and  whether  they  had  to  compete  with  the Hospital particularly for recruiting nurses.

KB KB

KB KB

09/07/15 Item 2

517/33

3. Zero-Hours Contracts

The  Panel  considered  its  survey  questions for  both  employers  and employees.  It  had  discussed  including  an  optional  question  to  ask employees who their employer was. The Panel noted that the advice received from the Statistics Unit was that the question should not be included as it may deter employees from completing the survey. The Panel discussed the matter and agreed that the question was included in  order  to  obtain  the  information  it  was  seeking.  The  Chairman dissented from the decision.

The Panel requested that a statement was included that made it clear that confidentiality and privacy would be maintained.

 

 

 

The officer highlighted a potential repercussion of including the question which was that employees could be identified if very few within an organisation were on a zero-hours contract. The Panel agreed that this may be a risk if it was to ask employers to give evidence. The Panel agreed that this would be considered again once the survey had been completed. Furthermore, it would only ask an employer to give evidence if a significant number of respondents had responded to the question.

The Panel made minor changes to both surveys and requested that the revised versions were circulated for final approval.

The Panel agreed that the review budget should be increased to allow for an advert in the Jersey Evening Post. The officer advised that the Scoping Document would be amended and circulated to the Chairmen's Committee via the Scrutiny Manager.

LS

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19/03/15 Item 5

513/45

4. Medium Term Financial Plan

The Panel noted that the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel (CSSP) had requested that all Panels undertake work on the MTFP. The CSSP had provided a framework of topic areas and the Panel agreed that these should be sent to the Health and Social Services Department and the Social Security Department. The Panel requested that additional areas were added to the framework which included the modernisation programme, income support and health charges.

The officer advised that the additional areas would be included in the framework  and  circulated  for  approval  before  being  sent  to  the Departments.

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09/07/15 Item 1

517/1/1(6)

5. Quarterly Hearing with the Minister for Social Security

The Panel noted that it was due to receive the Minister for Social Security for a Quarterly Hearing on 3rd September. The Panel agreed that the Hearing would primarily focus on the Medium Term Financial Plan and allocated each Panel Member to establish a list of questions in preparation for the Hearing.

The Panel noted that the Social Security Department would be advised that the Hearing would focus on the Medium Term Financial Plan.

RR, GS, TM

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02/07/15 Item 8

517/1/1(4)

6. Back to Work Offices: Site Visit

The Panel visited the Back to Work offices and was given a tour of the building as well as a PowerPoint presentation.

 

 

7. Future Meetings

The Panel noted that it would next meet on Thursday 3rd September at 9:30am in the Le Capelain room, States Building.