Agenda item

Background:

This report provided details of a proposal to take a lease of premises in order to relocate some Contraceptive and Sexual Health (CASH) services to new central Chatham premises and to seek approval to add the scheme to the Capital Programme.

The report provided a detailed history of the provision of sexual health services in Medway with particular regard to the provision of such services in the Chatham area. The service had previously been provided from Elm House, New Road, Chatham but had been moved to Lordswood Healthy Living Centre on a temporary basis, following the closure of Elm House. The intention was to move services back to Chatham as soon as a suitable location was found. It was also found that from the data available it would appear that the majority of the footfall from Elm House did not attend Lordswood but rather attended the already busy clinics at Balmoral Gardens and possibly the more expensive genito-urinary medicine (GUM) clinics.

The report provided details of the options regarding the reprovision of the service in Chatham. A screening Diversity Impact Assessment was attached at Appendix 2 to the report and a full Diversity Impact Assessment would be prepared before any decisions were made and the Assistant Director Legal and Corporate Services would have due regard to it when deciding whether and how, to exercise the powers delegated to him by Cabinet.

The report noted that it was necessary to recommend the capital costs of fitting out the premises and moving the service (£200,000) to the Council’s Capital Programme, which was a matter for Full Council to decide. However, The next meeting of Full Council was not until 16 October 2014. A long term search, (starting in March 2013) was carried out for suitable premises for CASH and the preferred premises was a very good choice that would not be replaced with an alternative without difficulty and a further delay of several months. Waiting until 16 October for approval at Full Council for the addition of the scheme to the capital programme was likely to result in the owner of the property letting it to another applicant during the next three months and officers would, therefore, be back to needing to look for a new property. Therefore, on this occasion, it was proposed that the Chief Executive use the urgency provisions as set out in paragraph 4.1 of the Employee Delegation Scheme to agree the addition to the Capital Programme, to avoid the risk of losing the opportunity to take a lease on the premises.  The use of these urgency provisions would be reported to Full Council on 16 October 2014 for information.

An Exempt Appendix contained detailed financial information including the proposed terms of the lease.

Reasons:

The provision of a Chatham CASH service will improve access to services for Medway residents, which will result in increased uptake of services. This can then contribute to the preparations and planning for the re-commissioning of sexual health services in 2015. It will also provide a positive contribution to public health work to reduce teenage pregnancy rates as well as reduce sexually transmitted infections.