BOROUGH OF POOLE
MINUTES OF THE COMMUNITY SUPPORT OVERVIEW GROUP
THE MEETING WAS HELD ON 25TH NOVEMBER 2003
The meeting commenced at 7.00 p.m. and concluded at 8.50 p.m.
Present:
Councillor Bulteel (Chairman)
Councillor Mrs Hillman (Vice Chairman)
Councillors Mrs Deas, Eades, Gillard (substitute for Councillor Ms Atkinson), Mrs James, Meachin, Newell, White and Wretham.
- APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Ms Atkinson and Dugdale.
- MINUTES
Councillor Mrs James stated that in respect of M.2 she had declared her interest as a non-executive Member of the Dorset Health Care Trust and not the Health Authority.
The Minutes of the meeting held on 30th September 2003, as amended above were confirmed as a true record.
- DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Councillors Bulteel and Mrs Hillman declared prejudicial interests in respect of M.5(b) as Members of the ALMO Board. The Councillors left the meeting during this item and took no part in the vote.
Councillor Bulteel declared a personal interest in respect of M.5 (c) as a Care Worker employed by the Leonard Cheshire Foundation.
Councillor Mrs James declared a personal interest as a Non-Executive Member of Dorset Health Care Trust.
Councillor Meachin declared personal interest as a Non-Executive Director of Poole Primary Care Trust.
Councillor Wretham declared a personal interest as a Trustee of the Dorset Trust.
- WELCOME
The Chairman welcomed Neelam Bhardwaja the new Head of Children and Families.
5.LOOKING FORWARD
(a) Performance standard and comprehensive performance assessment for Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit
The Head of Revenues and Benefits Services presented a report on the results of the self assessment of the Housing Benefit Performance Standards, the Housing Benefit Comprehensive Performance Assessment 2003 and the Performance Standards Bids process.
With regard to Performance Standards he stated that the results of the assessments indicated that in many areas the service was at or close to standard. Of the 629 elements, the self-assessment showed Poole to be at standard in 537, some 85%. However, there were some areas which needed investigation and consideration and in particular, attention needed to be given to areas within the Strategic Management function if the standard was to be met. In order to consider this, Officers wished to work with a small group of Members to consider how to best achieve the standards required.
With regard to Performance Fund Bids he stated that these were set up by the DWP to provide additional funding over 3 years to help Local Authorities improve their performance in the administration of Housing and Council Tax benefits. For 2004/05 the DWP had allocated a budget of £70million for Performance Fund Bids. Officers wished to make bids for the following projects:
- Workflow and home working
- Training Analysis project, which would lead to the continual development of all benefits staff.
- Take up, to encourage maximisation of all benefits by Poole citizens, this hopefully could be achieved by working with local partners and advisors.
- Improved verification of claims by working with the new job centre plus.
Also working with the National User Group for Computer Software it was proposed that the Group submit bids to:
- Produce an on-line claim form
- Improve the decision letter to “plain English” standards
- Provide training materials
It was suggested that officers could work with a small group of Members to help identify areas for bidding in future rounds.
Finally, he referred to the CPA results, stating that Poole had been classified as providing a “fair” service. This was the same result as the previous year. The report highlighted many areas where improvement had made and that on those improvements the result would have been “fair to good”. However, the results of the Best Value Performance Indicators in particular processing claims, were not as good as 2001/2 and this had given this years result.
AGREED that:
(i) A working party be set up (2 Conservative and 1 Liberal Democrat) to work with Officers to achieve full compliance with the required performance standards;
(ii) bids for Department for Work and Pensions performance funding be approved in principle and referred to the Portfolio Holder for decision; and
(iii) that the contents of the CPA report be noted.
FOR: Unanimous
(b) ALMO – Action Plan and staffing structures
(Councillor Wretham took the Chair for this item)
The Head of Housing Management Services presented a joint report on behalf of himself and the Head of Housing and Community Services relating to progress on the ALMO.
To “go live” the Council would have to submit a Section 27 application to the ODPM and receive Government approval. The ALMO must ensure all aspects of its service had been subjected to Best Value Reviews prior to the Audit Commission ALMO inspection. The ALMO inspection would take place at least 6 months after the ALMO “go live” date. The Audit Commission had now confirmed that they would inspect in October or November 2004. Given the difficulty of completing all preparations for an ALMO “go live” date, it was proposed to aim for an April “go live” date and an October or November inspection. Subject to achieving a minimum 2 star assessment, funding would be released approximately 2 months after the ALMO inspection.
The Head of Housing Management Services stated that staff would transfer to the ALMO under the Transfer of Undertaking Protection of Employment Regulations. The staffing structure for the ALMO was attached to his report and Members asked questions on the details.
He highlighted the fact that there would be costs associated with setting up this new organisation that fell on the ALMO and consequently Housing Revenue account. Currently, provision had been made in the 2003/04 budget of £110,000. Further provision would be required to be identified in 2004/05 to support the provision of new accommodation and other associated issues with the transfer. There were likely to be both residual and ongoing costs that would fall on the general fund consequential to the transfer. These costs were currently being assessed and would be reported to Cabinet along with the development of the 2004/05 budget. Members were advised of the consultation process with tenants and leaseholders to ensure correct and up to date information was being sent out an information sheet had been produced which was attached to his report.
Finally, the Head of Housing Management Services reported that the Shadow Board had recommended the following name for the ALMO: “Poole Housing Partnership Ltd”.
AGREED that the following be recommended to Cabinet:
(i) the staff be transferred to the ALMO in accordance with the staffing structure presented at this meeting and under the TUPE regulations;
(ii) The proposed name for the ALMO be – Poole Housing Partnership Ltd; and
(iii) The “go live” date of the ALMO be 1st April 2004.
FOR: Unanimous
(c) Motion from Council – care places
Mr F Davies, Policy Director reported that the following motion had been referred to the Overview Group by Council:
“This Council notes that a record 13,400 care places have been lost in the UK between January 2002 and April 2003 according to new figures released by Laing and Buisson that since 1996 the capacity of the Care Sector has shrunk by 74,000. The figures also show that closures of homes have outstripped new registrations for the fouth year in a row. The shortage of good quality care homes has a “knock on” effect on the NHS.
This Council calls on the Government to:
- Carry out an urgent review of funding given to Local Authorities for Social Care and to ensure that Local Government has the resources and the freedom to provide a high quality social care service.
- Carry out an Independent Review of the compliance costs of new care standards and the quality of care.
- Ensure that all personal and nursing care is available for fee and on the basis of need, as recommended by the Royal Commission on Long-term Care.”
A Member drew attention to the reasoning behind the motion of identifying that care beds were being lost and more resources to care for the elderly were needed.
A Member stated that difficulties were being faced locally and that the Government should be reminded of these problems.
Mr Davies, Policy Director stated that Officers agreed that not enough money was being given to Local Authorities and that costs had risen due to improved care standards. However, the issue of all personal and nursing care being free was a policy decision and it was necessary for the Overview Group to reflect on this before agreeing its stance.
A proposal was moved and seconded for the item calling for free care to be removed from the motion. On being put to the vote this proposal was supported.
AGREED that the following be supported:
This Council calls on the Government to:
(i) carry out an urgent review of funding given to Local Authorities for Social Care and to ensure that Local Government has the resources and the freedom to provide a high quality Social Care Service; and
(ii) carry out an Independent Review of the compliance costs of new care standards and the quality of care.
FOR: Unanimous
(d) Motion from Council – Community Support Officers
The Head of Housing and Community Services reported that the following motion had been referred to this Group by Council:
“This Council made an application to Government last year for “Neighbourhood Wardens” for Alderney, Newtown, Bourne Valley and Poole Town Centre. The application apparently failed because of the inclusion in the scheme of Poole Town Centre, a commercial area, following representations.
Upon making enquiries, with the help of one of our MP’s, it would seem that a more effective scheme is “Community Support Officers” which is led by the Police.
We applaud the initiative of the Head of Housing and Community Services in making a fresh application around the community support model and ask that this Council get fully behind any scheme. We ask that the Council ensures that the detail of the application takes full account of the area of influence of the anti-social behaviour, rather than based around strict Ward boundaries.
The newspaper report (that we read during the preparation of this Motion) speaks of the application covering Alderney and Turlin Moor. The problems that are sometimes, but not always, generated from within Alderney have a core area of effect from Wallisdown through to Ashley Road, and from Talbot Heath through to Mannings Heath.
We therefore ask that priority be given to a scheme that includes (if Ward boundaries are necessary) Alderney, Newtown and Branksome West. These are areas that have no other additional security for residents.”
A Member stated that he was disappointed with the response from Officers in that Neighbourhood Wardens would not be employed to deal with incidents regarding private cars and property. Problems of anti-social behaviour and criminal damage were not just carried out to Council property.
The Head of Housing and Community Services stated the Management Team was developing a response to the Leader’s priority on making Poole a safer place which might be presented to Cabinet examining a wider set of options. The bid referred to in the Motion was the application of the Local Public Service Agreement to reduce criminal damage over the next three years. The target was to reduce criminal damage in Poole over the next three years by a further 15%. In the last financial year, 2936 incidents of criminal damage have been recorded by the Police and their target for 2007 was to reduce the figure to 2530 and the LPSA target was to reduce still further to 2173. The Partners to the target would receive £90,000 of pump priming grant over the next 3 year period to help achieve this target. If the Partners were successful in achieving the target, they would receive £250,000 in a Reward Grant which would fund 2 Neighbourhood Warden posts.
He stated that the Motion referred to Community Support Officers, but these posts were quite different from Neighbourhood Wardens. The Police Reform Act gave Chief Constables the power to accredit Officers, either Police who are employed by the Council to deal with anti-social behaviour.
He advised Members what was currently proposed regarding the establishment of Neighbourhood Wardens:
(i) The action plan for achieving the LPSA target included the recruitment of 2 Neighbourhood Wardens. The intention was that these wardens would patrol the geographical areas where criminal damage was highest, particularly damage to Council buildings. If they were successful in reducing criminal damage to public buildings, they would reduce Council and other agencies’ expenditure in addressing criminal damage and those savings could be part used to fund the posts.
(ii) The geographical focus of the wardens would be where the most criminal damage had taken place to public buildings.
(iii) The continuation of the warden posts after the 3 years of pump priming grant ran out would be dependent on whether they had been successful in reducing criminal damage and generating savings.
(iv) The work being undertaken by Management Team included an analysis of the existing Council staff that undertook work on the streets of Poole, which could be better co-ordinated into a warden type role.
The Chairman confirmed that the funding would only be available to deal with Council property. It could not be used to deal with issues involving private property. He felt that the Council should not fund Police work in this way.
The Head of Housing and Community Support Services reiterated the point that the work currently being carried out was to fund Neighbourhood Warden posts and not Community Support Officers which would cost a lot more to implement.
AGREED that:
(i) the motion be not supported; and
FOR:Councillors Bulteel, Mrs Deas, Gillard, Mrs Hillman, Newell, White and Wretham
AGAINST:Councillors Eades and Meachin
ABSTENTION:Councillor Mrs James
(ii) this Group notes and supports the proposed actions that are taking place to address the Motion.
FOR: Unanimous
(e) Social Services Annual Review of Performance
Mr F Davies, Policy Director presented a report advising Members of the Social Services Inspectorate’s view of the performance of Social Services in Poole. Each year the SSI reached a judgement regarding the performance of every Social Services Authority. This judgement was informed by a variety of sources such as performance indicators, on-going monitoring information, special audits and joint reviews. The report and the monitoring leading to it, was a useful health check for Social Services in Poole as it was constructed having a view to an extremely broad range of information about the Council Services.
He also stated that in October 2001, the then Secretary of State Alan Milburn, introduced performance ratings for Social Services. The judgements and rating for Poole were as follows:
Serving People well? / Capacity for Improvement?Services for Children / Some / Promising
Services for Adults / Most / Promising
Star Rating – the Social Services Performance Rating was 2 star
Mr Davies, Policy Director stated that it was likely that the score of “Serving some people well” achieved by Children and Families was affected by last years’ relatively low scores on the two key performance indicators of Educational Attainment and Adoption. The judgements on the star rating were the same as last year and maintained the Council above average in both the South West and Unitary Councils. The Chairman congratulated all staff involved in the process in achieving the two star rating.
AGREED that Members note the Performance Review Report and refer it to Cabinet.
FOR: Unanimous
- HOUSING ASSOCIATION DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME 2004/2005 AND 2005/2006
The Head of Housing and Community Services presented a report on the Housing Association Programme in Poole over the next two financial years. In conjunction with this, members were asked to consider a policy change in relation to nominations from surrounding Councils.
He stated that Housing Associations had been asked to bid to the Housing Corporation to fund new developments in Poole by 5th December 2003. The major change in the bidding regime was that now, it would be for the two year period of 2004/5 and 2005/3 whereas before it was an annual bid. A Confidential Appendix to his report set out the potential sites which could be developed for affordable housing across the two years. There was a total 623 units of accommodation proposed of which 133 (21%) would be shared ownership and 15 for key workers with the balance being rented affordable housing. The appendix showed that potentially there was £9,955,000 of available funding in 2004/5 and £8,974,000 in 2005/6 to meet investment requirements in Poole.