Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Council Offices, Thorpe Road, Weeley, CO16 9AJ. View directions

Contact: Katie Sullivan  01255 686585.

Items
No. Item

79.

Apologies for Absence and Substitutions

The Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Miles (with Councillor M Stephenson as her substitute).

 

80.

Minutes of the Last Meeting pdf icon PDF 99 KB

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on 7 October 2019.

Minutes:

The minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 7 October 2019 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

 

81.

Declarations of Interest

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Personal Interest, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

 

Minutes:

There were none on this occasion.

 

82.

Questions on Notice pursuant to Council Procedure Rule 38

Subject to providing two working days’ notice, a Member of the Committee may ask the Chairman of the Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the Tendring District and which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee.

 

Minutes:

On this occasion no Councillor had submitted notice of a question.

 

83.

Recommendations Monitoring Report pdf icon PDF 118 KB

To present to the Committee the updated Recommendations Monitoring Report, outlining any recommendations the Committee have sent to Cabinet. The Committee is requested to consider the report and determine whether any further action is required on the recommendations submitted.

Minutes:

The Committee had before it the current Recommendations Monitoring Report. The Committee was aware that this report outlined any recommendations that it had made to the Cabinet, the Cabinet’s response thereto and any relevant updates.

 

The Committee noted the contents of the report.

 

84.

Health and Wellbeing pdf icon PDF 732 KB

The following persons will be attending the meeting to speak to the Committee on the matters indicated:-

 

Mike Gogarty (Director of Public Health) – What is the current state of health in Tendring as evidenced by the latest update to the Index of Multiple Deprivation and what actions is the County proposing, both itself and working with partners to help deliver improved health?

 

Mark Jarman Howe (Chair of the local Health Alliance) – to update on what the Alliance is and to identify the work programmes it is undertaking to deliver improved health in the Tendring area and how it is working to partners to achieve this?

 

Pam Green (Chief Officer North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group) – what actions the CCG is undertaking as part of the Alliance to deliver improved health within Tendring?

 

The aim of the exercise will be to examine the plans for the locality of North East Essex (focussing in on Tendring) in respect of the developing Integrated Care System (ICS) here.  The ICS envisages integration including NHS bodies, local authorities, the voluntary sector and others working in the health and care sector to deliver positive change. The meeting will look at the progress to date and the short to medium term actions identified so as to identify whether the envisaged integration is appropriate, occurring and delivering the stated aims.  The ICSs, in partnership with local authorities, will (it is anticipated) increasingly focus on tackling the wider social determinants of health – like money, work, environment, housing - and health inequalities to reduce the differences in health and life expectancy between the richest and poorest. The meeting will consider to what extent this is occurring.  The implications of the changes for Clacton and Harwich hospitals will be a feature of this scrutiny.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee was aware that the aim of this item was to examine the plans for the locality of North East Essex (focussing in on Tendring) in respect of the developing Integrated Care System (ICS). The ICS envisaged integration including NHS bodies, local authorities, the voluntary sector and others working in the health and care sector to deliver positive change. The Committee looked at the progress to date and the short to medium term actions identified so as to identify whether the envisaged integration was appropriate, occurring and delivering the stated aims. The ICSs, in partnership with local authorities, would (it was anticipated) increasingly focus on tackling the wider social determinants of health which included money, work, environment, housing and health inequalities in order to reduce the differences in health and life expectancy between the richest and poorest.

 

Councillor McWilliams, Portfolio Holder for Partnerships at the Council, was welcomed to the meeting for this item.

 

Mike Gogarty (Director of Public Health for Essex County Council) attended and provided the Committee with a presentation in regards to the current state of health in Tendring, as evidenced by the latest update to the Index of Multiple Deprivation, and what actions the County Council was proposing, both itself and working with partners to help deliver improved health.  In his presentation, he pointed out the increasing deprivation in Tendring; particularly since 2010, such that it was by far the most deprived District/Borough in Essex.  Within the District, by reference to previous District wards, the areas of highest deprivation were Golf , Pier, Rush Green, Alton Park, St Osyth & Point Clear and St Marys.   When looking at these areas by reference to Parliamentary Constituencies, Clacton as a whole was the 14th most deprived Constituency out of 533 Constituencies in England in terms of employment.  The comparable position for education deprivation showed Clacton as 21st worst Constituency.

Mark Jarman Howe (Chair of the North East Essex Local Health Alliance) also attended and provided the Committee with a presentation in regards to what the Alliance was and how to identify the work programmes it was undertaking to deliver improved health in the Tendring area and how it was working with partners to achieve that.  In his presentation, Mr Jarman referenced integrated neighbourhood teams as an intention to drive forward an enhanced community model of care.  The Alliance envisaged three neighbourhood teams for the District of Tendring; Tending West, Tendring East and Tendring South.  By reference to the former District Council Wards, the neighbourhoods would cover:

Tendring West

Tendring East

Tendring South

Ardleigh & Little Bromley

Ramsey & Parkeston

Golf Green

Lawford

Great & Little Oakley

St James

Manningtree, Mistley, Little Bentley & Tendring

Beaumont & Thorpe

Rush Green

Bradfield, Wrabness & Wix

Holland & Kirby

Bockings Elm

Great Bentley

Walton

Pier

Alresford

Harwich West

Alton Park

Brightlingsea

Harwich West Central

Peter Bruff

St Osyth & Point Clear

Harwich East Central

St Marys

Little Clacton & Weeley

Harwich East

St Johns

 

Homelands

St Pauls

 

Hamford

Burrsville

 

Frinton

St Bartholomews

 

 

Haven

 

In view of the data  ...  view the full minutes text for item 84.

85.

Homelessness Reduction and Rough Sleeping Strategy pdf icon PDF 24 KB

To enable the Committee to consider the draft Homelessness Reduction and Rough Sleeping Strategy.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee had before it the Council’s draft Homelessness Reduction and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2019 – 2024 and accompanying Briefing Note which had been prepared by Peter Russell (the Council’s Executive Projects Manager (Housing)).

 

Councillor Honeywood, Portfolio Holder for Housing at the Council, was welcomed to the meeting for this item.

 

Members were informed that the draft Homelessness Reduction and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2019-2024 had been approved by the Housing Portfolio Holder to go out to public consultation and that the consultation period had been running since 6 January 2020 and would run for six weeks. As part of the consultation process, it had been suggested that the draft strategy be presented to the Community Leadership Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

 

Members were further informed that Section 1 Homelessness Act 2002 required the Council to carry out a review of homelessness in the District and to formulate and publish a homelessness strategy based upon the conclusions in that review and predicted future levels of homelessness in the District. The Council was required to comply with the provisions of the Housing Act 1996 (as amended by the Localism Act 2011 and Homelessness Reduction Act 2017) in assessing, preventing and tackling homelessness in the District.

 

The Homelessness Reduction & Rough Sleeping Strategy had been drafted following the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. This had been the most significant change to homelessness administration and legislation since the first homelessness legislation was passed in 1977. The strategy had been developed to reduce homelessness and rough sleeping in the District at a time when homelessness was increasing locally and nationally with associated social and financial costs.

 

The strategy set out the national and local strategic setting for homelessness and the causes and demographics of homelessness and rough sleeping in the District. It also set out the challenges the Council faced in tackling homelessness and rough sleeping locally and how homelessness was an issue that needed to be tackled in partnership with other agencies. The council, as a community leader, could facilitate earlier prevention and better partnership working.

 

The strategy identified four key strategic priorities to reduce homelessness and rough sleeping in the District as follows:

 

  • Earlier Intervention and Education
  • Better Partnership and Holistic Working
  • Increasing the Supply of Suitable Accommodation
  • Exploring New Ways to Prevent and Tackle Rough Sleeping.

 

Once the consultation period expires, the Council would produce an action plan to deliver the priorities identified in the strategy. 

 

As part of the consultation process, it was felt that the Community Leadership Overview & Scrutiny Committee should have the opportunity to scrutinise the strategy and make any recommendations to the Portfolio Holder for Housing as necessary. 

 

Following the information provided, Members were given the opportunity to ask questions which were responded to by Peter Russell (Executive Projects Manager (Housing)), Tim R Clarke (Head of Housing and Environmental Health) and Councillor P Honeywood (Housing Portfolio Holder). Officers agreed to re-examine the section of the Strategy referencing the levels of deprivation in the area.  A typographical error on page  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85.

86.

Performance Report Quarter 2 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 179 KB

To enable the Committee to scrutinise the performance monitoring system and identify from the relevant performance data future work programme scrutiny items.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee had before it a report of the Head of People, Performance and Projects which presented the Performance Report for Quarter Two (July - September 2019) including the Corporate Plan 2020/24 and Priorities and Projects 2019/20.

 

The Committee was invited to scrutinise the performance monitoring system and whether it was capturing the right level of data to support delivery of the Corporate Plan and its priorities and projects, and to make recommendations thereon.

 

In addition, the Committee was requested to scrutinise whether there was performance, as identified in the monitoring data that warranted scrutiny of an activity and to determine whether and how that scrutiny should take place; including it as appropriate in the Work Programme.

 

Appendix A to that report contained details of the indicators and projects relevant to the terms of reference of this Committee. Those indicators and projects were deemed ‘non measureable’ as this Council’s role was that of ‘influence only’.

 

Members were informed that the Performance Report had been presented to Cabinet on 8 November 2019. Any feedback from this Committee would be presented to a future meeting of the Cabinet as a separate reference report.

 

The Committee noted the contents of the report.

 

87.

Review of the Work Programme pdf icon PDF 108 KB

To present to the Committee a draft detailed Work Programme 2019/2020, to consider the detail and ordering of the Work Programme.

Minutes:

The Committee had before it an updated work programme 2019/20. It was aware that Scrutiny must be Member led and as such the Committee was asked to consider the detail submitted and confirm or amend the scope of the reviews in the work programme. This detail now included whether the relevant Portfolio Holder and others were to be invited to give evidence as part of those reviews and the expectations of this Committee for such scrutiny reviews.

 

Keith Simmons (Head of Democratic Services and Elections) informed the Committee that, at its meeting held on 8 January 2020, the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee had made the following reference requests:

 

“That the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee be requested to consider adding the following to its work programme:

 

a)   The funding and outcomes of the Mental Health Hub; and

b)  A review of the Spendells proposed capital scheme and the contribution the scheme is intended to make to address homelessness.”

 

During discussion, it was requested that the following also be added to the Work Programme for review (although programming of these would need to undertaking once the reviews had been fully scoped):

 

-       The use of the £100K grant funding received from the Government for a housing conditions survey in Jaywick Sands to help shape how the Council engages with landlords and improves conditions for anyone living in substandard accommodation.

-       Rail Fares – the annual increase in fares and the impact on residents and the affordability of commuting from the area.

 

It was AGREED that the Committee would add all of the above items to its provisional Work Programme for 2020/2021 on the basis outlined.