Meeting documents

Community Partnerships Board
Tuesday 17 February 2015 8.30 am



v

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP BOARD

Tuesday 17 February 2015 at 8.30am
Council Chamber, Town Hall, Maidenhead

Present:

Andy Dulay DWP
Kate Ford TVP
Bernadette Fry Radian
Ramesh Kukar WAM Get Involved
Viki Wadd Head of Operations for WAM CCG

Andrew Elkington RBWM Head of Policy & Performance
(Acting-Chairman)
Cllr Mrs Bateson (Vice-Chairman) RBWM Lead Member for Partnerships
Wendy Binmore RBWM Democratic Services Officer
Andrew Green RBWM Community Partnerships Coordinator
Joanne Horton RBWM Grow Our Own
Harjit Hunjan RBWM Community & Business Partnerships Manager
Brian Martin RBWM Community Safety Co-ordinator
David Mason RBWM Interim Head of Adult Social Care & Health
Partnerships
Craig Miller RBWM Community Protection & Enforcement Service
Lead
Safia Mohamud RBWM Community Learning Manager
Catherine Mullins RBWM Adult Services
David Scott RBWM Head of Education, Strategy & Commissioning

Apologies

Alison Alexander RBWM Strategic Director of Children's Services
Chris Hilton RBWM Regeneration & Economic Development Director
Naveed Mohammed RBWM Public Health Programme Manager
Karnail Pannu WAMCF


1. Welcome by Chairman

The Chairman welcomed the Members of the Community Partnership Board.

2. Minutes of the meeting held on 7 October 2014

The Minutes were approved as a true record of the meeting. The Community & Business Partnerships Manager confirmed the Community Partnerships Team were working with WAM Get Involved to plan a calendar of Big Society events, including two volunteer awards and a Big Society day. Catherin Mullins, Adult Services stated a list of events would be useful for Adult Services as they could promote volunteering. She confirmed the calendar of events would be supported and promoted by Adult Services.
WAM Get Involved had been promoting the Council’s Grants through their website and a paper had been taken to Cabinet regarding how grants were allocated and what criteria organisations should meet before a grant is awarded
    Action: Calendar of events to be circulated to all Members of the Community Partnership Board and the One Borough Group.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT UPDATE

Andrew Green, Community Partnership Coordinator stated the three main objectives were:
    To share information about current and planned consultation to minimise duplication of effort and identify scope for collaboration.
    Establish a mechanism for sharing the outcome of consultations across partners to maximise its value
    Establish a database of community organisations, consultative forums and stakeholder groups to facilitate future consultation.

The Community Partnerships Coordinator stated the survey he had issued had only received a modest response but it was possible to draw conclusions from the responses received. He had identified from feedback a number of surveys which might be useful to other users. The Royal Borough undertook an annual resident’s survey and once the outcome was available, it would be of interest to a number of groups.

Some of the results from the survey included:
    JHWS – people were aware of ongoing work.
    BCF work – not sure if people were aware of their work.
    WAM Get Involved – carrying out work on priorities in voluntary sector which would be good to bring to the Board along with the CAB.

The Community Partnerships Coordinator concluded there were not enough resources across the Council to undertake work which would bring all organisations together but, by bringing them to the Community Partnership Board, all the relevant information could be shared by partners and then they could get together outside of the Board to work on initiatives. WAM Get Involved were producing a database of volunteers so the mechanism would be there to collate all groups and information. However, there was a need to encourage groups to register with the Website.

David Scott, Head of Education, Strategy & Commissioning stated the Children’s Partnership were a group which had been learning from other groups collaboratively over the previous 18 months. The feedback was positive as groups were able to signpost people to specific organisations. It was a powerful tool in providing support. The outcomes from round table discussions and networking had proved to be a valued mechanism; WAM Get Involved had strengthened that.

Bernadette Fry, Radian stated she was looking for opportunities for networking with smaller meetings for collaborating with other groups. Brilliant ideas often came from chance meetings and networking. Andy Dulay, DWP commented there was often a crossover in a lot of the work carried out but he was not often aware of others doing the same work. Collaborations and meetings would help reduce the duplication of work and save on costs too.

The Chairman agreed there should be unstructured sessions within the Community Partnership Board meetings to give organisations a chance to meet, talk freely and see if they could find ways to collaborate with each other; therefore reducing the amount of duplicated work. He also suggested it was a good idea to refresh the Terms of Reference of the Board. Cllr Bates requested that at the next Partnership Board meeting, the room should not be set out in boardroom style so that Members could sit in a more informal gathering and have two or three minutes to explain what their role was within the partnership. The Community & Business Partnership Manager stated several groups were all working on the same issues; for example, the Fire & Rescue Service and the Police were both carrying out work to help reduce loneliness. To establish a theme for each Board meeting to be worked on would be very important. The Community Partnerships Coordinator suggested having one theme per meeting; this would help members to work together. The Community & Business Partnerships Manager confirmed themes had been established during a workshop approximately one year ago so it would be an idea to revisit that and possibly carryout another workshop moving forward.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That:
    1. There should be a regular slot at the Community Partnership Board for partners to update each other on current and planned activities including key consultations of potential interest to other parties.
    2. The outcome of key consultations should be presented to the Community Partnership Board.
    3. Partners should register their key consultation networks: area and local forums, service user groups etc. with the WAM Get Involved Database.

EMPLOYMENT AND SKILLS UPDATE

The Community & Business Partnerships Manager explained there was now a targeted support service called Elevate Me which was part of the City Deal for Berkshire and was being led by Reading.

Jo Horton, Grow Manager stated there was an open door drop in event at the Town Hall twice per week to support residents returning to or looking for work. A number of activities were taking place alongside the DWP to provide support for people looking for either work, education or training.

The service objective was to engage individuals in activities which helped them reach their goal. The Grow Our Own Team had started to notice the jobs market had picked up and there were more job opportunities created.

The Grow Manager explained there was a large group of under-employed people in the Borough and the service had engaged with 400 new resident attendees since April 2014. The aim of the service was to look closely at what the local employment market was doing and tailor the training opportunities along with sector based training and support. There had been a 10% increase in jobs available in construction and a correlating increase for applications for CSCS card training. The service used a very flexible regarding demand in the local area.

The Universal Credit impact was likely to be the biggest change yet. Therefore, the Grow Manager had been working Job Centre Plus and local housing associations to help those impacted by providing budgeting sessions. Until September 2015, that was largest focus of the Grow Our Own service.

The Grow Manager confirmed she would be communicating any information received out to as many partners as possible and if there were any organisations that had individuals they felt needed help, they could signpost them to the Grow Team.

Andy Dulay, DWP confirmed there was a deadline for the Royal Borough of September 2015 to move claimants onto Universal Credit. He added numbers of job seekers had decreased month on month within Berkshire. The Job Centre supported Elevate Me and they found young people were far more engaged with it than older groups.

The Grow Manager stated the Nicholsons Hub supported the City Deal and there was a launch in summer 2014. The way the Hub was working with partners was excellent with colleges now working together. There was also fantastic support from the Job Centre and they too had a base within the Hub which was taking young people out of the Job Centre environment which was helping. However, the biggest challenge was finding work placements and there was still more help needed from partners. The Grow Manager explained the programme was looking for mentors and stated that if anyone was able to offer time or support, it would be greatly appreciated. The Acting-Chairman stated Elevate Me seemed to be an area that everyone could get involved with.

Brian Martin, Community Safety Co-ordinator stated his team were looking to profile offenders; he added that one way to prevent re-offending was to get offenders into work. The Grow Manager confirmed she was receiving support from the Youth Offending Team with City Deal. The Grow Our Own Team took responsibility of working with those services and they complimented ongoing work with the Youth Offending Team. The Behaviour Management Team was also very supportive of the project. It was a priority.
WIDER DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH / HEALTH UPDATE

Catherin Mullins gave a brief update on behalf of the Head of Public Health who had given her apologies. Catherine Mullins stated the Public Health Outcomes Framework measures had been updated and they showed the Borough’s performance covering the wider determinants of health. They included access to education, youth offending and crime. She added she knew Public Health had worked hard and the information gathered was of interest to partners as it showed how the Borough was progressing. The Acting-Chairman confirmed the Outcomes Framework had been circulated.

Catherine Mullins confirmed that under the Care Act, there was a universal duty to look after wellbeing and all partners would have an interest in taking that forward. Bernadette Fry commented that housing and health were linked so perhaps smaller groups could meet outside the Community Partnership Board and come up with strategies for the next meeting. Craig Miller agreed and suggested organising some Task & Finish Groups to help deliver the objectives.
David Mason commented the Board only met three times per year so it should be used for information exchange and relationship building. The Board brought people together and shows how their agencies could work together and become something bigger.
    Action: Circulate pdf of outcomes and Terms of Reference to all members.
    Action: The Community & Business Partnerships Manager to produce a plan on how to divide work and themes for the next meeting.

FAMILY INCLUSION UPDATE.

David Scott gave a brief update on the IFS Programme. He stated the legacy of the project was that it had been extended for a further year and it had reached more than the target number of families under the original criteria. The criteria had since been broadened and teams revisited which families they could or could not support. They had also been building links on which families needed support. The work was ongoing.

Families dealt with multiple agencies and set families up for fail due to the volume of appointments in one week. IFS planned to prevent that and channel everything into one appointment. The programme took referrals from various agencies that without intervention, they would be back in six months. There used to be monthly board meetings to discuss cases but, now those cases were referred straight to the IFS team as there were now have more referrals than could be coped with.

MEETING

The meeting, which began at 8.30am, concluded at 9.35am.



CHAIRMAN: ……………………………………………
                DATE: …………………………………………



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