Agenda and minutes

The Minutes of the previous Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee held on the 23^rd July 2019 were approved and signed as a correct record.

(Moved by Councillor K Norchi and seconded by Councillor P Brindley)

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive an update on Anti-Social Behaviour policy from the Assistant Director, Partnerships and the Assistant Director, Neighbourhoods.

The members of the Infrastructure Safety and Growth Scrutiny Committee have been invited to attend the meeting for this item.

The Chair reported that the members of the Infrastructure Safety and Growth Scrutiny committee had been invited to attend the meeting for this update, as the committees had considered that it was of relevance to both committees. 

The Chair welcomed the Assistant Directors for Partnerships and Neighbourhoods to the meeting to provide an update on the work within the Council regarding Anti-Social Behaviour. 

The Assistant Director, Neighbourhoods set out how the Council’s anti-social behaviour activities fitted in with the Council’s vision and purpose and its place based approach, including by building resilient communities and developing and safeguarding our environment and open spaces.

The Assistant Directors reported to the Committee on how the staff within each of their areas supported activities to reduce anti-social behaviour, as well as highlighting those staff which had day to day responsibility for this area, which sat with the Anti-social Behaviour manager, within the Neighbourhoods team.  It was reported that the teams worked closely to ensure that relevant information was captured and feed into the work of the Partnerships team to ensure that appropriate services were commissioned.

The Assistant Director Neighbourhoods highlighted that the ambition was to ensure that the strategies developed were tenure neutral, and involved the effective triaging of matters raised, that they were aimed to support prevention, earliest help as well as enforcement.  It was reported that when the HRA Business Plan was updated, a fund of £749,000 per annum was identified to support neighbourhood regeneration including community safety, and work was underway to identify areas where investment was required.

The Assistant Director, Partnerships reported that an Anti-social behaviour Policy had been adopted by the Council 2 years ago and highlighted that it set out the roles which the Council had, in particular:

·         As a landlord in respect of the properties it manages;

·         As an environmental protection champion, in respect environmental anti-social behaviour such as noise, dog fouling, graffiti, litter, rubbish and abandoned vehicles;

·         As a community champion to support communities by promoting campaigns and projects to raise awareness of and improve the perception of ASB.

The Assistant Director, Partnerships outlined the Community Safety Plan and its priorities which included anti-social behaviour as well as domestic abuse, protecting the vulnerable in our communities, public place violence and disorder and road safety and the arrangements in place to work with our partners in this area, in particular with the police, where daily and weekly meetings took place. 

The Committee sought clarification on the following areas:

·         How the plans to invest in neighbourhoods were being rolled out, which it was reported included community engagement through the Tenant Consultative Group (TCG) in order to identify problems and then work on action plans, in partnership with communities.  It was noted that in previous years members of scrutiny committees had attended the TCG, and the Chair agreed to contact the Leader of the Council to identify members for nomination from scrutiny to attend the TCG.  It was highlighted that it was important to ensure that all plans developed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

To receive an update from the Chair

The Chair updated the Committee on the following matters:

·         the Engagement Event regarding George Bryan Centre services – two sessions (afternoon and evening) on 16 October at Coton Green Church.  The Chair reminded members that if they wanted to attend they needed to sign up to a session on the Eventbrite website. 

·         the Briefing session for all Councillors on Primary Care on 23 October.  The Chair requested members consider any specific questions they would like addressed and forward them to the Chair.

·         the Housing Allocations item on 15 October Health & Wellbeing committee meeting.  The Chair requested that members consider any questions in advance once the report is circulated with the agenda on 7^th October and provide them to the Chair.

·         the appointment of the Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust as the interim provider of autism services for children and young people in south Staffordshire.

(To receive an update)

The Chair reported that in the absence of Councillor M Oates, who had attended the last Healthy Staffordshire Select Committee meeting on 16 September, a written update would be circulated to members.

To receive the Healthy Staffordshire Select Committee Digest

The Chair highlighted the summary of the business transacted at the meeting of the Healthy Staffordshire Select Committee held on 15 July 2019, which County Councillor T Clements had reported on at the previous meeting of this Committee.

To receive an update on working groups

The Chair updated the Committee on the following working group activities:

·         GCSE Attainment – a meeting would be held soon and the focus of this group was to understand the differences in local schools performance;

·         Priority Service Register – the Chair circulated a brief note summarising what priority service registers were and the services offered to customers who were identified as in need.  The report included a recommendation to Cabinet. The Committee considered the report and supported the recommendation contained in it.

RESOLVED that the Committee recommend that Tamworth Borough Council utilise its social media profiles to encourage those eligible, or those who know people who are eligible, to sign up for Public Service Registers across all sectors.

(Moved by Councillor R Ford and seconded by Councillor P Brindley)

Please see the link to the Forward Plan:

http://democracy.tamworth.gov.uk/mgListPlans.aspx?RPId=120&RD=0&bcr=1

No additional items were identified from the Forward Plan for consideration by this Committee.

To consider items for 2019/2020 Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee Work Plan

To consider the Staffordshire Observatory Data Pack – see link to document:

https://www.staffordshireobservatory.org.uk/publications/thestaffordshirestory/Locality-Data-Packs.aspx

The Committee considered the Staffordshire Observatory Data Pack for Tamworth.

The Chair noted comments made by the Committee in terms of the statements made at paragraph 2.1 regarding population and the age demographics, and at paragraph 2.2 in terms of the percentage of the population which were reported to be financially stressed.  The Chair agreed to report the comments through to the authors of the report at Staffordshire County Council.

To consider items 2019/2020 Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee Work Plan

The Committee discussed the Work Plan and agreed to update it as follows:

Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Work Plan