Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received form Councillor R Kingstone and Councillor S Smith.

(To receive the minutes of the two previous meetings)

The minutes of the meeting held on 12 July 2022 were approved as an accurate record.

(Moved by Councillor R Claymore and seconded by Councillor R Rogers)

The minutes of the meeting held on 18 October 2022 were approved as an accurate record.

(Moved by Councillor D Maycock and seconded by Councillor J Wadrup)

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chair thanked Councillor R Claymore for her work on the Committee.

(An update from the Portfolio Holder for Homelessness Prevention and Social Housing, Officers and a representative from the Heart of Tamworth Community Project)

The Chair introduced the Portfolio Holder for Homelessness Prevention & Social Housing, Councillor Alex Farrell, the Assistant Director, Neighbourhoods, Tina Mustafa, the Head of Homelessness and Housing Solutions, Sarah Finnegan and Terry O’Brien, a representative of the Heart of Tamworth Community Project who were at the Committee to provide the Homelessness Strategic Update.

Councillor J Jones joined the meeting at 6.08pm.

The presentation covered the following areas:

1.    The national context, including the relevant governmental departments.

2.    Definitions of homelessness, including rough sleeping

3.    Data regarding homelessness, including the rough sleeper count on 3 November 2022, as well as data on the reasons identified in Tamworth for approaches to the Council. The top five reasons for approaches to the Council were as a result of being asked to leave by friends and family, the end of private rented tenancy, relationship break-ups, domestic abuse and the end of social housing tenancies.

4.    Achievements of the homelessness strategy, including the successful delivery of the rough sleeping initiative (July 2021 to June 2022) where 23 clients were assisted.  Since the start of the pandemic 143 people were moved into settled and supported accommodation.

5.    Winter relief project, in collaboration with the Heart of Tamworth Community Project, which would be supporting the homeless this winter by providing a floating support offering befriending services, weekly surgeries, sign posting, supporting day to day activities, providing places of warmth and linking with other service providers such as Everyone Health, local branch of MIND and the Sacred Heart.

6.    Homelessness Hub initiative which would be proposed to Cabinet in February 2023.  This would involve the development of housing first to enable tenancies to be sustained, with the outcome being settled accommodation. This was expected to involve partners and stakeholders to provide a tailored service to prevent homelessness. 

The Committee sought and received the following clarifications:

1.    The reasons for clients refusing help, where it was reported that at times this could be because whilst they present as rough sleeping, this may not be the case or because they want to remain where they are although where this was the case the Council would engage with partner organisations to seek to provide support.

2.    Whether the full £100,000 Government funding provided to the Council for the Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) in July 2021 was spent as expected, where it was confirmed that this had been the case.  It was spent on neighbourhood coaching, mental health worker and a specialist nurse to provide out of hours outreach and included a personal budget to provide specific support to rough sleepers.  For their work on this RSI the Council was identified as best practice by Homelessness Advice and Support Team (HAST).  An impact assessment was required by the Government and the Council had produced metrics and case studies to complete that.

3.    Whether the Council was ready for the coming winter and the expected financial difficulties and the possibility of homelessness figures rising, and how the Council was prepared for this. It was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

(An update on the SMART Working, Third Sector & Vulnerability and Customer Services Offer workstreams from the Assistant Directors, Neighbourhoods, Partnerships and People)

The Chair welcomed the Assistant Director, Neighbourhoods and Recovery & Reset Programme Director, Tina Mustafa, the Assistant Director, People, Zoe Wolicki and the Assistant Director Partnerships, Jo Sands to the meeting to provide an update on the three following workstreams:

1.    SMART Working

2.    Customer Services Offer

3.    Third Sector & Vulnerability

On the SMART Working workstream the Assistant Director, People reported that this was successfully implemented on 1^st April 2022, which was the culmination of an extensive project which involved:

1.    A full review of terms and conditions

2. Agreed the definition of a home, site or hybrid worker and agreed the designation of the staff to those three types of worker:

·         Site based – 37.5% (157 staff)

·         Home based – 41% (172 staff)

·         Hybrid – 21.5% (90 staff)

3.    A summary of agreements reached with the recognised Trade Unions, and then shared with all employees and consultation commenced.  This included 1-2-1 consultation with all staff to implement the new set of terms and conditions and staff designation. 

4.    Devising a rota for 2 days per month team attendance.

5.    Issuing all employees with a new statement of particulars (contract of employment) detailing their designation in advance of 1^st April 2022 and detailing changes to their individual terms and conditions of employment.

6.    Providing an appeals process for employees to appeal their designation. 

Following from this, all HR Policies were being reviewed to reflect the new terms and conditions, check for legal compliance and best practice and to ensure the three designations of home, hybrid or site workers were referenced.

It was reported that a six month review was underway which included an ‘All Staff’ Survey which had been issued on 24^th November 2022 to obtain feedback from staff on their experience of SMART working.  All feedback from this would be reviewed and help to inform building need / space requirements.

The Committee sought clarifications in the following areas:

1.    The wellbeing and loneliness aspect of working from home, where it was reported that there was an option for home workers to work from site up to 2 days a week, and the Assistant Director assured the Committee that significant work had gone into considering staff wellbeing and support and the 2 days per month team days aimed to support staff wellbeing.

2.    Whether the heating costs being incurred by home workers was a factor being highlighted by staff.  The Assistant Director reported that it was too early to know whether this was the case and that home workers were eligible for a home working allowance which reflected the HMRC allowance (when working from home due to COVID).  It was agreed that the home working allowance, which was part of the SMART working policy would be circulated to members. 

On the Customer Services Offer workstream the Assistant Director, People reported that a face to face service had continued through the Tamworth Information Centre at the Assembly Rooms which enabled the Council to provide direct advice, signposting to Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

(Update on responses to the Reports of the Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee)

The Chair reported that the Committee’s recommendation (as below) from 18^th October 2022 meeting, in respect of the Safeguarding Children and Adults at Risk report, was taken to Cabinet.

RESOLVED that the Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee recommend to Cabinet that it consider whether all public facing staff should complete suicide prevention / awareness training.

At 10^th November 2022 Cabinet meeting, Cabinet agreed:

(Discussion item)

No new items.

(To receive the Digest from Staffordshire County Council’s Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee and an update from County Councillor T Jay)

The Chair reported that he would request a written update form County Councillor T Jay which would be circulated to members.

Please see the link to the Forward Plan:

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

No further items were identified.

To consider items for Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee Work Plan

The Committee considered and updated the Work Plan as follows:

Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny Work Plan

In terms of the working groups underway it was reported that:

1.    Public toilets - the aim was to bring any recommendations to the Committee from the public toilets working group by the March meeting, with possibly an interim update in January 2023.

2.    Migrant travelling community – there was planned to be a cross scrutiny committee working group formed with members of the Infrastructure Safety & Growth Scrutiny Committee.