Agenda and minutes

(Assistant to the Chief Executive)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

The Panel noted that there were no substitute members.

To agree the minutes from the last meeting of this Panel.

The notes from the meeting held on 21 September 2010 were agreed as a correct record.

To receive a report from the Youth Council on their recent Mystery Shopping exercise on youth clubs and venues in our District.

The Community Development Officer, Gill Wallis, introduced the Youth Council’s mystery shopping report on youth clubs and venues in the district. Youth Councillors had taken on board the comments collated at their March Youth Conference which highlighted the fact that local young people felt there was a lack of places for them to go in the district. Members of the Youth Council initially mapped, then visited 12 youth projects over a three month period from July to September 2010. They went ‘undercover’ in two or threes to each of the venues and assessed them on such things as friendliness of staff, the range of activities on offer, opening times, promotion of the club and disability access. They later turned these into a star rating (given out of five stars) and gave feedback to each of the clubs. The ratings are to be published on the Council’s website along with the text of the report and contact details for each club. The settings visited were Essex County Council, District Council and Third Sector providers. The Youth Council were surprised at the amount of venues spread out over the district although they found the quality of the settings varied greatly.

Youth Councillors then arranged a Presentation Evening on 26 October 2010 and awarded certificates and feedback sheets to each provider, along with a trophy to the “5 Star” winner, Youth Plus in Ongar.

Councillor Mrs Wagland suggested that the tube map style information poster designed by the Youth Council be placed on the Council’s website and maybe awards be given out at the annual Civic Awards for best club and facilities to enable them to raise their profile. She also wanted the Youth Council to know about this Panel’s enthusiasm and appreciation for their work and gave a standing invitation for any members of the Youth Council who wished to, to come and talk to this meeting.

For members to report back to the Panel on the various aspects of research they have carried out since the last meeting.

It was noted that members of the Panel were asked to briefly report back to the other Panel members on progress made on their allotted research tasks.

1.         Councillor Janet Hedges reported that she had been looking into childhood obesity and in particular at the ‘MEND’ scheme. ‘MEND’ stands for “Mind, Exercise, Nutrition…Do it” and was started by Great Ormond Street Hospital and University College London to work with local, regional and national partners to deliver  healthy lifestyle programmes for children and their families. It was a 9 to 10 week intervention aimed at reducing childhood obesity. This had proved to be more sustainable in the long run and the participation of parents was essential to the success of the programme. The recipients could be self referred, or referred by a nurse or a GP, and would be in the age range of 7 to 13. There was evidence that any improvements made were sustained over a year later. In our District this programme was carried out in partnership with the County and Tottenham Football Club. Costs were mainly covered by the NHS although we put in some resources (mainly officer time) and so did Tottenham FC. It was a very time intensive programme and one or two families did tend to drop out after the first one or two sessions as they had to commit to two sessions a week for ten weeks. There was no evaluations built into the programme but the PCT did review it after six months.

The Panel wondered what would happen once Tottenham FC moved out of the area and went to Enfield; but officers were minded to think that the club wanted to keep working in this area. They were at present having some formal discussions with them and it may be that there will eventually be some costs to the Council.

2.         Councillor T Cochrane reported back to the Panel on two playgrounds, one in Debden and the other in Waltham Abbey, that were due to be completed by March 2011, at a cost of total of £44 thousand. This was a one off Capital Funding to enhance play facilities and enable disabled and able-bodied children to get together.

The Councillor had found out that there were also some special ability sports clubs that enabled kids try out various sports, including a special educational needs trampolining project for primary school children. There was also a co-ordination programme for children with Dyspraxia and a lot of arts programmes, all project based, for people with special needs. The Panel were surprised at the amount of programmes that were available. The real difficulty was communicating this to the individuals concerned who, understandably, did not want to go to a place especially set up for “disabled” people.

3.         Councillor R Brookes had looked into general activities for children including the trampolining programme for Children with additional needs. She had produced a written report which she tabled and which is attached to this set of minutes. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

To receive update reports from various officers subsequent to the general update provided at the last meeting by the lead officer.

Updates to be received are from:

• Gill Wallace, Community Leisure Officer;
• Felicity Hall, Arts Officer;
• James Warwick, Sports Development Officer;  and
• Julie Chandler, Assistant Director Community Services and Customer Relations.

Officers played the Panel a short DVD on the various events and initiatives that the council put on over the years.

Gill Wallis, the Community Development Officer, then reported on the Council’s programme for children and young persons from her team’s perspective.

1.         Crucial Crew was for year  6s (10 to 11 years old) and held  once a year at Gilwell Park where various organisations (West Essex PCT, Essex Police, Essex Fire & Rescue Services, Road Safety Officers etc.) worked with the children on safety scenarios.

2.         The Reality Road show was held for older (year 9s) young people. Officers went out to secondary schools, where they gave them more sophisticated messages about drugs and road accidents etc. this was first piloted last year and proved very successful.

3.         The Safer Communities Team were also having a campaign called ‘Bang out of order’ which centred around Halloween and Fireworks night by talking to Primary schools about behaviour and consequences.

4.         A Positive Introductions programme was set up to get skate ramps and a synthetic skating rink and then use the ‘captive audience’ to involve them in work on drugs awareness etc.

All these were funded by the Home Office and not from Council funds.

Other things that Community Development delivers include:

• Play schemes for 5 to 11 year olds are run in the school holidays with funded places for children from disadvantaged families;
• They also have a ‘play in the park’ Play Ranger initiative that encourages families to use open spaces;
• In conjunction with Country Care, the Green Team initiative is delivered which encourages environmental volunteers for the future; and
• There was also the EFDC Youth Council and Young Citizen of the Year.

The Panel noted that nowadays funding was becoming scarcer, with smaller pots of money being available and more people/organisations applying for it. They decided that it was important to show how EFDC make use of its resources and how it innovates and how well it works with its partners.

Felicity Hall, the Council’s Arts Officer, said they were currently raising the profile of the Cripsey Brook, nature reserve. They have an artist working with year 5 primary school children who take them on site to work on various projects. They had made a film and had created and performed a dance performance, all to launch Cripsey Brook.

The Arts section also runs a variety of events throughout the summer including:

• Various family fun days;
• Theatre groups – touring around libraries;
• Animation workshops;
• Films that are taken around to various venues in the district (as there are no cinemas in our district);
• In 2012 they will hold a 4 day film festival; and
• Dance classes for schools.

James Warwick, the Sport Development Officer, informed the Panel of three projects coming up. They were:

• Healthy Living Festival coming up in January 2011 in Ongar then Debden. This was six weeks of activities, courses and classes on food and cooking and also looking to have various sports classes;
• To re-launch the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

(Chairman/Lead Officer) To note the attached Terms of Reference. The Panel are asked to review the document at each meeting.

The Panel then looked at their terms of reference and noted for item 3, as ECC were currently looking at how youth services are provided, the District may have some say on how it was developed.

The Panel also voiced their concerns about the ECC restructuring of the Children and Youth services in April.

Item 4 of the Terms of Reference referred to the safeguarding children’s board and the Panel noted that they were not reporting back on referred cases within the seven day period specified and were taking much longer.

To agree a date and start time for the next meeting of this Panel.

The Panel agreed that the next meeting should be held at the beginning of January 2011 if possible. The Democratic Services Officer was to find a suitable date and agree it with the Panel Chairman.