New Forest Borough Council Community & Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Panel Meeting

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 21 January 2020 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

There were no declarations of interest in any agenda items.

There were no issues raised during the public participation period.

The Panel received the Annual Performance and Provisional Budget Outturn report 2019/20.

RESOLVED:

That the Panel:

a) Note the updated position statement, including the highlights from 2019/20;

b) Note the development of the new performance framework in progress;

c) Note the provisional outturn of the General Fund revenue and capital budgets

for 2019/20;

d) Note the provisional outturn of the Housing Revenue Account for 2019/20.

The Panel considered the proposed principles and design of the performance management framework in support of the delivery of the Corporate Plan ‘Community Matters’ and continuous improvement across the organisation.

Members approved of the ‘Dashboard’ format, though some members felt it could be simplified. It was confirmed that targets would be set by Portfolio holders in consultation with Executive Heads and Service Managers and performance against these would be monitored by the scrutiny panels, but it was suggested that the Panel should have input into the targets also.  It was also acknowledged that benchmarking would be part of target setting.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Panel received an update on Covid 19 service impacts. 

Health and Leisure / Customer Services

·         Health and leisure centres closed on 17 March 2020. Direct Debits and memberships were frozen. Phased reopening plans for July.

·         400 staff furloughed, some supporting local response hub.

·         Health and Leisure Review delayed until end of June and Task and Finish Group will review timeline.

·         Final Information Office closed 24 March and teams working from home.

·         LTH and ATC reopening for essential transactions.

·         Weekly Emails for 12K residents and social media updates

·         The Council was in regular contact with the Government regarding funding revenue losses.

CCTV, Appletree Careline

·         Initial steps taken to protect service delivery

·         Operating remotely from 23 March.

·         Community Safety staff working from home, but CCTV and Careline staff continued working from ATC

·         Screening clients for essential services for careline installations

·         Safeguarding vulnerable staff and redeployments

·         Reduced revenue following reduction of careline installations, though these now at 80% pre lockdown

·         Staff appointments and some return to office base.

·         Working on CCTV viewing facility within police stations to reduce need to visit ATC

Community Safety

·         Reduction in ASB and incidents, but adjusting as this re emerges.

·         Community Engagement Plan and partnership work ongoing

·         Speed indicator devices

·         Safer New Forest Conference  - planning for remote meeting

·         Adapting Safeguarding training learning remotely – incidents on the increase.

·         Safeguarding Newsletter

Members thanked staff for their efforts in maintaining services under difficult circumstances.

The Panel received updates from the relevant portfolio holders

Cllr Steele explained that a service recovery plan for leisure services would be presented to the COVID Council Services task and finish group.

It was proposed to have a phased reopening of the centres with Covid  - safe measures.

Cllr Andrews reported on the support hub. Deliveries had reduced to 50 per week, and were now being delivered by Lymington Basics Bank. 1144 referrals had been received and 962 deliveries made to local households. The hub was run by redeployed staff.

Shielding residents could be referred to the HCC scheme.

No recent Police and Crime Commissioner meetings, but one planned for 3 July.  This year’s PCC office initiatives events were held remotely.

The Portfolio holder was pleased to report that after proposing that the recommended Community Grant for Youth and Family Matters in Totton be increased, and this had been agreed.

The Panel received a presentation from representatives of Citizens Advice New Forest (CANF) on current activities, with a view to making a recommendation on future Council grant to CANF for 2022/23.

CANF offered free and independent confidential, impartial advice to residents in the District, dealing with matters such as debt, benefits, housing and employment.  CANF had five offices across the District, with 4.5 full time employees and 120 volunteers.  It dealt with 7000 clients, and since Covid, had helped 1000 clients. Recent rationalisation of the organisation had made it more agile, efficient and responsive, equipping it well to adapt to assisting clients during the pandemic. The Council’s funding was core funding and was vital to its operations. CANF planned to do more outreach and partnership work.

The Chairman of the Task and Finish Group commended the CANF team for their work in transforming the organisation, and for the invaluable service they provided, which was echoed by several members, and felt the recommended funding gave the organisation stability.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That funding from 1 April 2022 is £185,895.

(b)  That the Task and Finish Group be wound up and future funding be considered by the Panel after receiving an annual presentation from CANF.

The Panel received an update on progress with the Council's website upgrade.

The Presentation covered:

·         The 2 phases of the project; Phase 1 included the content and design, and Phase 2 being the addition of more online services.

·         The aim was to build public confidence in digital transactions, leading to further growth

·         Raising profile of digital services within NFDC.

·         Three new roles appointed to manage digital delivery, content ownership and administration.

·         Audit of content for accuracy and relevance, together with rewriting.

·         Choice of design, user tested accessible themes, easier to maintain and quicker to build.

·         Examples of new layout, content and systems used at other councils

·         Usability - emphasis on residents’ perspective

·         Examples of improvement on NFDC website.

·         Future developments and communications.

·         14 July 2020 - launch to staff and residents. A continuous improvement and ongoing user testing and analysis.

Members spoke in support of the changes proposed and felt they would make the site more accessible.  Rendering on various devices, particularly phones, was a priority.

The Panel received an update from the Council's representative on the Hampshire Police and Crime Panel.

It was noted that due to the pandemic, the police commissioners’ elections, which were due in 2020, had been put back for one year.

The Panel considered its future work programme.

Officers gave an update on task and finish group work.  It was noted that four COVID-19 recovery task and finish groups had been set up and the existing task and finish groups had been reviewed.

The Health and Wellbeing task and finish group would now commence its work after the Covid groups complete their work. Other groups would feed their work into the Covid groups. 

It was agreed that an update on the website come to a future meeting.