Agenda and minutes

(Director of Communities) To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

There were no substitutions made for the meeting.

(Director of Governance) To agree the notes of the meeting of the Select Committee held on 16 January 2018.

RESOLVED:

That the notes of the last meeting of the Select Committee held on 16 January 2018 be agreed.

(Director of Governance). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a pecuniary or a non-pecuniary interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 9 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a non-pecuniary interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 9 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

There were no declarations of interest made pursuant to the Member’s Code of Conduct.

(Chairman / Lead Officer) The Overview and Scrutiny Committee has agreed the Terms of Reference of this Committee. This is attached along with an ongoing work

programme. Members are asked at each meeting to review both documents.

The Committee noted their terms of reference and work programme.

Director of Communities) To receive a presentation and background report (attached) from members of the Youth Council on completed and proposed activities.

Five members of the Youth Council gave an illustrated talk on the work and projects they carried out during the year, their request for £8,000 DDF.

The Youth Councillors that made the presentation were, Annabelle Yaman from Epping St Johns School; Adam Freeman from Davenant Foundation School; Marley Chick from Epping St Johns School; Ashwin Gohil from Debden Park High School; and Finlay Jordan from Davenant Foundation School.

They thanked the Council for their involvement with and loyalty to the Youth Council over the past ten years. 2018 was the tenth anniversary of the Youth Council and they would be holding a celebration evening at the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday 4th July. This event would be sponsored by the Right Honourable Eleanor Laing.

They were now in their second and last year and were working hard to promote the 2018 Youth Elections to fill the 25, soon to be vacant, seats. They had enjoyed their time learning about the Council, working with the District Councillors and getting involved in numerous community projects.

They thanked the Council for granting them the £5,000 project money for 2017/18 which enabled them to carry out a drugs project to raise the awareness of the dangers of using ‘gateway drugs’. They also devised an online survey asking young people about their awareness of drug use in their area. To date the survey had been completed by 2884 young people.

Past projects have included Mental Health, Bullying Awareness and Safety and Drug awareness. Their next project for the new cohort would be ‘Gang Awareness’ as this was deemed to be a big issue in the district and a major concern nationally.

They were proud of the mental health project ‘MiLife’ that was set up by the Youth Council in 2016 and was a finalist in the National Crimebeat Awards 2018, endorsed by the High Sherriff. The results would be announced on 18^th April.

MiLife continues to be developed as funding has been secured for a three year period, from 2016 to 2019.  Over 6000 pupils have attended the roadshows and officers had been invited to deliver MiLife workshop at the Essex County Council Schools mental health conference. A primary school version has also been developed. This will be delivered to 6,500 pupils in reception up to year 6.

They ensured their peers and schools continued to have a voice and they attend individual School Councils and regularly give updates and presentations via school assemblies about their work. They also promoted the use of suggestion boxes and use of their youth councillors to report any issues in their school or community.

In 2017 they held a Youth Conference at the Civic Offices with the aim of promoting Local Democracy Week. They had over 70 delegates representing ten secondary schools from around the District. They identified 5 top issues of concern. These were:

·         Skills for work;

·         Mental Health;

·         Bullying;

·         Drug Misuse; and

·         Gangs

Social media was an important part of their work, promoting their work and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

With the agreement of the Committee agenda item 9, the MiLife report was taken next.

(Director of Communities) to consider the attached report.

The Community Health and Wellbeing Manager, Gill Wallis, introduced the report on the MiLife project. She noted that at a 2015 youth conference their priority concern was mental health issues. Young people reported high levels of stress and anxiety as a result of a range of issues including; exam pressure, bullying, family relationship breakdown, negative body image and low self-esteem.

Working with staff from the Council`s Community, Health & Wellbeing Team, Youth Councillors formulated and co-designed a project, which they named MiLife, to address the issue of mental health via a programme to be delivered in schools. As the design of the project gathered pace, wider partners were brought on board to provide professional advice and facilitate delivery. These partners included; adolescent mental health staff from the NHS North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT), school representatives and the Red Balloon Family Foundation organisation.

The objective of the MiLife project was to support children and young people to help them understand mental health, dispel stigma, and to equip them with tools to develop personal resilience. It would also help them find information to wider support services.

Pupils from every state secondary school in the district participate in an interactive workshop facilitated by professional youth workers from the Red Balloon Family Foundation, which is a local third sector organisation based in the district. Workshops are also supported by the Council`s Community, Health & Wellbeing staff and representatives from the NHS.

A key element of the MiLife Project was its interactive website (www.milife.org.uk) which is hosted by the Red Balloon Family Foundation. Research undertaken by the Youth Council identified a plethora of information available on line but raised concerns around the validity of much of this. Consequently, a dedicated local website was developed as part of the MiLife Project which supported young people, parents and teachers.

Additionally, teachers were provided with Ofsted appropriate teaching resources in order to deliver sessions within lessons over the academic year.

Since the roll out in 2016, over 6,000 Epping Forest young people had taken part in the Adolescent MiLife Programme to date. The programme was continuously evaluated using a range of methods including pupil, teacher and professional agency feedback.

Following the overwhelming success of the Adolescent MiLife Programme, requests for an age appropriate version of the workshop for the district`s primary schools began to be received from local teachers, parents and wider agencies.

Evaluation of the Primary MiLife Project has shown it to be a resounding success. To date 6,500 pupils had participated in the programme. Overall, over four in five children have said they had learned something new about emotions through taking part in the day and over half reported that they were more likely to talk to a trusted adult about their emotional state having experienced the presentations and taken part in the workshops. 

Parents are invited to be proactively involved in the Primary MiLife initiative. Information about the programme was shared through letters, Parent Mail and face to face parents sessions before and after school. 

Reception  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58.

(Director of Communities) to consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director (Housing Operations), Mr Wilson and the Safer Communities Officer, Mr Gardener, introduced the report on the draft Strategy and Statement on Anti-Social Behaviour (Policies and Procedures). The Select Committee were asked to consider and endorse the draft and provide any comments to the Housing Portfolio Holder.

The Statement had been formulated in accordance with the provisions of the Housing Act 1996 and the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014.  It met the requirement under Section 218 (A) of the Housing Act 1996, that social landlords must publish a Statement of their policies and procedures, and an associated summary.  The summary was produced in leaflet form and will be updated when the draft Statement has been agreed by the Housing Portfolio Holder.

The Community Safety Team will be consulted on the Statement and their comments will be incorporated. The Community Safety Partnership had also been consulted but had no comments. The Tenants and Leaseholders Panel would be consulted in the near future.

The meeting went through the draft statement on a page by page basis.

Councillor Baldwin noted that this only addressed anti social behaviour in Council owned properties; what were the measures the Council could take against them. Mr Wilson replied that there were a lot of things they could do with tenants as well as a lot of things that were tenant neutral that could be done such as Civil Injunctions and Criminal Behaviour Orders. Mr Gardener noted that his team deals with the District as a whole, council housing or not. The biggest problems they faced were the physical enforcing of their powers once they had them. They did as much as they could for residents but could not arrest transgressors.

Councillor Sam Kane commented that this was an area that he, as the relevant Portfolio Holder, would be focusing on with the Council funded Police Officers. This type of work had gone down the Police agenda, but will be at the top of the Council’s list.

RESOLVED:

That the Communities Select Committee considered and endorsed the draft Strategy and Statement on Anti-Social Behaviour Policies and Procedures.

(Director of Communities) to consider the attached report.

The Director of Communities, Mr Hall, introduced the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Financial Plan for the forthcoming year. The Financial Plan set out the forecast income and expenditure for the Council’s HRA for the following 30 years, to enable early decisions to be made based on these long term forecasts.  Each year, the Financial Plan takes account of the latest budget figures, Council policy, Government policy and Council decisions, and makes assumptions for a range of future income and costs.

As in previous years, the HRA Financial Plan had been produced by Simon Smith, the Council’s HRA financial planning consultant with SD Smith Consultancy, in consultation with the Director of Communities and Finance Officers.

The Financial Plan demonstrated that, despite the Government’s policy that all social rents must be reduced by 1% per annum for four years, which clearly had an effect on rental income, the HRA continued to be in a reasonably healthy state, and that all of the current and planned HRA loans were able to be repaid within 24 years (or 25 years from April 2018), whilst maintaining a minimum HRA balance of £2 million throughout the Plan period.

Councillor Baldwin asked if we were allowed to borrow money to finance Council House building. He was told that the Council could do so, up to a stipulated cap and had to be certain that it could repay this loan in a reasonable time. The Council was about £30million below this at present. Most Councils had borrowed up to their limit and the Housing Minister was considering raising this cap for some local authorities.

Councillor Baldwin asked if the Council could refinance some of the loans to get more favourable interest rates. He was told that the council received very good rates as a public authority through the Public Works Loan Board. The majority of loans were fixed term loans that would mature in 25 years time and were kept under constant review and the one variable 10 year loan may need to be refinanced some time over the next few years.

RESOLVED:

That the Select Committee reviewed the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Financial Plan 2018-19.

Members will recall that O & S had requested that Portfolio Holders present their Business Plans at the last meeting of the year, in readiness for the new Municipal year, to each Select Committee. 

It was sensible for the Business Plans to be presented to the relevant Select Committee, where there would be better alignment.  This way the Select Committees would have time to undertake a more in-depth scrutiny role regarding the numerous services which make up their Select Committees. 

On this basis, the relevant Portfolio Holders are requested to attend this meeting and take the Select Committee through their plans for the coming year.

In the absence of the Housing Portfolio Holder, the Director of Communities introduced the Housing Portfolio’s elements on the Communities Business Pan for the coming year 2018/19. This was the second year of operating with a slimmed down business plan.

He explained the key points relating to the Housing Service, which were that:

·         the Cabinet had agreed to continue with the Council Housebuilding Programme and good progress had now been made on Phases 2 and 3 and will continue with Phases 4 – 6 once consultants and contractors had been consulted;

·         the new Homelessness Reduction Act placed additional responsibilities on the Council, with some funding provided by central government;

·         there was additional income of £452,000 mainly due to the government homelessness funding;

·         the decision had been made to co-locate the Housing Repairs Service to the Oakwood Hill Depot;

·         the Careline Monitoring Service had been successfully out-sourced; and

·         the new 5 year Housing Strategy had been approved;

Under the elements relating to Community and Safety Councillor Sam Kane explained that:

concerns had been raised about the level of policing in the district, which had led to a growth to the budget of £215,000 for three EFDC funded Police Officers.

Councillor Helen Kane explained that:

·         the application for Arts Council National Portfolio Status had been unsuccessful;

·         a new Epping Forest Health and Wellbeing Strategy was produced; and

·         that ‘Culture without Borders Development Trust’ had been successfully established.

Councillor Sam Kane noted that when he joined the Cabinet he was soon alerted to a range of serious ASB issues and a significant increase in crime in several areas of the District. Parkguard Security company was therefore commissioned to undertake patrolling of key areas where high levels of ASB were occurring, but soon became evident that additional Police officers were needed in the area to provide visibility and deter ASB and criminality.  This idea led to a Cabinet report recommending that the Council should fund three extra Police officers in the Epping Forest District to be tasked jointly by the Community Safety Officer and local Police Inspector. This report was agreed by the Council and Essex police were currently recruiting one police sergeant and two police constables, who would commence work in the district as from June. Their role would be to prioritise key crime and ASB hotspots in the district and to support Council officers in a range of work where police presence was required. 

Councillor Helen Kane presented two items from her portfolio and initially advised the Committee about a funding bid that Museum, Heritage and Culture had submitted to Arts Council England for National Portfolio Organisation Status for Museum partnership of Epping Forest, Broxbourne and Chelmsford. This had been a highly contested scheme and although the partnership had lost out to the National Horseracing Museum at Newmarket, the bid had been highly commended by the Arts Council who had advised that alternative funding was available for some the projects identified.

The council was now also embarking on a five year action  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.

(Chief Executive) to consider the attached report.

The Select Committee noted the Quarter 3 performance of the key performance indicators within its area of responsibility.

Nine indicators fell within the responsibility of the Communities Select Committee. The overall position with regard to the achievement of target performance at Q3 for these nine indicators was as follows:

(a)    9 (100%) indicators achieved target;

(b)    0 (0%) indicators did not achieve target, and

(c)    0 (0%) of these KPI’s performed within the agreed tolerance for the indicator

(d)    9 (100%) indicators are currently anticipated to achieve year-end target

RESOLVED:

That the Select Committee reviewed and noted the Q3 performance in relation to the key performance indicators within its areas of responsibility.

(Chief Executive) to consider the attached report.

The Select Committee reviewed the third quarter progress of the Corporate Plan Key Action Plan for 2017/18. Progress against the Key Action Plan was reviewed on a quarterly basis to ensure the timely identification and implementation of appropriate further initiatives or corrective action where necessary.

20 actions fell within the areas of responsibility of the Communities Select Committee. At the end of Q3:

·         13 (65%) of these actions had been ‘Achieved’ or were ‘On-Target’

·         3 (15%) of these actions were ‘Under Control’

·         1 (5%) of these actions were ‘Pending’

·         3 (15%) of these actions were ‘Behind Schedule’

The Committee reviewed each of the 20 actions as set out in the report.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee reviewed and noted the third quarter (Q3) progress of the Corporate Plan Key Action Plan for 2017/18 in relation to its areas of responsibility.

(Chief Executive) to consider the attached report.

The Head of Transformation, Mr Bailey introduced the report on the progress of the projects and programmes within the Transformation Programme. This was the first time that this had come to this committee after the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had requested it.

The Corporate Plan provides a framework to demonstrate how the work of the Council fits together at a strategic level. It provided a focus to establish a set of corporate priorities, describing how the organisation would deliver positive change.

An annual Corporate Specification detailed how the Corporate Plan would be delivered through a set of operational objectives for that year. Operational objectives can concern Business As Usual (BAU) or business transformation.

The Committee were asked to consider and review the list of active High and Medium complexity projects, known formally as the Project Dossier.

They went on to consider and review the 9 project dossiers linked to the Communities Directorate. Mr Bailey noted that the Committee was at liberty to ask for a full report on any of the projects that they may want to scrutinise to come to a subsequent meeting.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee reviewed and noted the updated Project Dossier for the Transformation Programme for the Communities Directorate.

(Chief Executive) to consider the attached report.

The Head of Transformation, Mr Bailey introduced the report on the Council’s Corporate Plan for 2018-2023. This would become the authority’s key strategic planning document linking the key external drivers influencing the Council services, with a set of corporate aims and objectives, grouped under three corporate ambitions. This report would be going to all the Select Committees for information.

A Corporate Specification for each year (previously called the Key Action Plan) details how the Corporate Plan was being delivered through operational objectives, with these in turn linked to annual Service business plans.

The success of the new Corporate Plan would be assessed through the achievement of a set of benefits, focussed on what the Council achieves for customers. These benefits in turn were evidenced through a set of performance measures. A new format for reporting the Council’s performance was also proposed.

Management Board, Leadership Team and Cabinet Members were involved in developing the draft Corporate Plan 2018-2023. The content of the Plan – including drivers, objectives and benefits – were the subject of consultation with customers, businesses, partners and staff. The views of Councillors were also sought through the four Select Committees as well as the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The views of the Cabinet were gained through a report to the Finance and Performance Management Cabinet Committee. Feedback from local councils was taken through a report to the Local Councils’ Liaison Committee (LCLC).

To minimise expenditure associated with its production, the new Corporate Plan will only be available as an electronic download via the Council’s website or for customers to view as a hard copy at the Council’s Civic Offices.

An annual Corporate Specification detailed how the Corporate Plan would be delivered through a set of operational objectives for that year. The Council had a number of Key Action Plans, so to avoid confusion the yearly action plan for the Corporate Plan would in future be referred to as the Corporate Specification. This name denoted that it specifies the operational objectives for a given year, which in turn are responded to through annual Service Business Plans.

The report presented various ways to show the performance measures and benefits including a benefits map on A3 paper, although feedback on this particular ‘map’ indicated that it was too busy and difficult to read. A simpler ‘map’ on A4 was also included which updated the way it used to be displayed and this was likely to be the way it would develop.

Councillor Beales said that she preferred this new design as it was easier to understand. Councillor Knight agreed saying she preferred the traffic light system. 

Councillor Baldwin commented that the aims and objectives were fairly abstract and therefore would be hard to represent and measure. Mr Bailey noted that these were just examples and were for illustrative purposes only. As for being abstract the proper plans would contain fewer objectives. The indicators would continue to be developed and would change over time and be refined over the next five years.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.

To consider which reports are ready to be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its next meeting.

That the report on the Youth Council and the recommendations that they be given the £8,000 DDF money and that they give an annual presentation to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee  be reported to the April 2018 O&S Committee meeting.

To note that this is the last meeting for this Municipal Year. Meetings scheduled for the new year are as follows:

The Committee noted that this was their last meeting of this municipal year.