Minutes of regional NEOPAG

These minutes do not become active until next meeting of NEOPAG.
The meeting was welcomed to Middlesbrough by Peter Thomas,Development Officer for Middlesbrough Council. He also introduced Councillor Brenda Thompson the new Older Persons Champion for the local authority.
Three apologies were received.
1 minutes of previous meeting were accepted as a true record proposed by ER seconded by AP
2 Matters arrising
Letter to BS family has been sent.
Ken Brown appealed again for examples of photographs for the calendar.
On Conncil Tax there was confusion, it was agreed that individual relief on circumstances had to be applied for personally. The lump sum announced by the chancellor was automatic with the winter fuel payment.
The MRSA issue continued to give concern.
The Green Paper "Independancee. Well Being and Choice".
The chair invited members to watch a short film on the green paper and complete a consultation document. There was a discussion on the content of the paper and the likely outcomes. The point of the proposals being "cost neutral" was noted and it was generally agreed that this was virtually impossible due to the fact that existing services would still need funding whilst savings from proactive and preventative measures would only occur in the future years.
MW raised the complexity of the consultation document. She was also very concerned at the proposals for individul budgets and "unknown quantity" of private providers providing services for elderly people.
The position of blind and patially sighted people was also discussed.
KB asked for the questionaires to be returned to him before the end of the month.
4 KB opened a discussion of local models of representation by describing the links between Darlington Older peoples Partnership Group and their Local Implementation Team.
The suggestion was made that the differnet models should be written up by representatives and sent to KB
The point was made that models of practice in other areas would help to ensure that Partnerships and Local Implementation Teams were properly representative.
ER suggested that we should come together before the next meeting when we had models to study.
KB said that if people would send reports by the 22nd a small group could meet soon after.
5 Terms of Reference
KB reported on the discussions which have taken place at national level on new terms of reference. Some areas had been concluded but they were still talking of a disciplinary proceedure, it had never been needed before.
6 Meetings Timetable and date of next meeting
In future, meetings should be about 6 weeks before national ones which indicated 4 meetings per year plus one awayday or event. Next meeting would be 12 or 13th September at MEA House in Newcastle at 11a.m.
7 Any other business
a) MW opened a debate on a possible southern group. She felt the worth of OPAG could be strenghtened by more participation from Redcar, Stockton and Durham (The Dales). It was explained that this could not be funded by NEOPAG. It was agreed that a pilot meeting could be held. MW undertook to make arrangements.
b) KB asked that areas should appoint deputies to ensure representation was maintained.