PERFORMANCE AND OVERVIEW
COMMITTEE
COMMUNITY
RECORD OF MEETING
HELD ON 6TH SEPTEMBER 2006
Present:
Councillor G Griffiths, Chair
Councillors T E Ankers, D Bebbington, J D
Bratherton, D H D Charlesworth, S Conquest,
M Grant, J Lewis and M J
Weatherill
In Attendance: (for whole or part of
the meeting)
Mr A
Wenham
Chief Executive
Ms C
Wilson Community
Development Manager
19 DECLARATIONS
OF INTEREST
No Member made any declaration of
interest in any item of business on the agenda.
20 RECORD OF
MEETING
AGREED: That the Record of the
Meeting held on 19th July 2006 be approved as
correct.
21 WHIPPING
DECLARATIONS
In accordance with Paragraph 18 of the
Performance and Overview Procedure Rules, Members were invited to
declare in respect of items where the whip had been applied.
No such declarations were made.
22 BOARD
BUSINESS
22.1 Board
Meeting – 6th September 2006
Members were invited to comment on those
reports falling within the remit of the Committee, which would be
considered by the Board at its meeting on 6th September
2006. No comments were made.
22.2
Provisional Items (Board’s Forward Plan)
The Committee received for information the
Board’s Forward Plan for October and November 2006 (two meetings)
and January
2007.
22.3 Responses from
the Board/Council
The Committee noted that there were no
referrals from Board or Council on this occasion.
23 PERFORMANCE
MONITORING
The Committee received the service monitoring
report on the agreed basket of key National Performance Indicators
for the period April 2006 – June 2006.
(Note: From this point
onwards and in accordance with Procedure Rule 26(2), Councillor
Westwood participated in the meeting with the permission of the
Committee.)
24
WORK PROGRAMME
24.1
Schedule of Work to April 2007
The Committee received, for information, a
copy of the work programme agreed by Members on 19th
July 2006. A request was made for the schedule to be
submitted to each meeting.
24.2
Violent Crime
(Note: The meeting was
briefing adjourned prior to the item being considered, following
which it was reconvened.)
The Safer Communities Manager presented a
report to the Committee on the subject of violent crime which
provided information on –
§ Home Office
definition of violent crime
§ Percentage
increase in violent crime between 2003/04 and 2005/06
§ The manner in
which violent crime was classified and recorded
§ Variances in the
above which might impact on or affect the reported data
Whilst the information contained in the report
was detailed and considered to be of value, the Chair stated that
it had not addressed the key question raised by the Committee
vis-à-vis identifying potential trends in the types of violent
crimes committed. He accepted the argument put forward that
changes in the way offences were classified might ‘skew’ the data,
making it more difficult to quantify but he considered that crimes
such as murder would have been recorded in a consistent manner
therefore enabling analysis to be carried
out.
In response to the comments made, the Safer
Communities Manager undertook to provide a further report to the
November meeting.
A Member referred the Committee to the section
of the report concerning domestic violence and questioned how this
facet of violent crime was being addressed. In his opinion,
work needed to be carried out in partnership with the police to
allow for the intervention of appropriate bodies at an earlier
stage as a means of prevention.
The Assistant Chief Executive (Community
Development and Social Policy) reported that this type of approach
was in the process of being adopted. A number of services
were already working together to provide a holistic approach to
tackling domestic violence with some organisations piloting schemes
which would contribute towards meeting the needs of
families.
25
WULVERN HOUSING – ANNUAL REPORT
Andrea Lowman (Director of Development and
Regeneration) attended the meeting and together with her colleague
Geoff Loughlin (Director of Customer Services) presented to the
Committee Wulvern Housing’s Annual Report.
25.1
Achievements
Delivery of a programme of improvements to
tenants’ properties had been undertaken, with key promises being
achieved or overachieved. Spending in this area was expected
to exceed the original budget with additional expenditure having
recently been approved. Work had also been carried out with
Wulvern’s partners to tackle anti-social behaviour.
25.2
Performance and Service
Delivery
Improvements to the speed by which void
properties were turned around were continuing. Targets for
responding to repairs (within 24 hours for an emergency; 7 days for
urgent and 28 days for routine) were being met. A West End
Action Plan had been drawn up and was being implemented with the
assistance of Wulvern’s stakeholder partners and the
LSP.
25.2
New Development
A town centre office (Housing Options Shop) in
Edleston Road, Crewe was due to open in October 2006. Land
was continuing to be acquired and “banked” for future
development.
25.3
The Future
A retirement village was being considered for
the Crewe area made up of affordable units available either for
rent or shared
ownership.
At the conclusion of the presentation, the
Committee was invited to ask questions of the guest
speakers.
Whilst acknowledging the good works carried
out by Wulven Housing on the interior of its properties, a Member
commented that some tenants did not seem to take pride in their
homes and did not maintain the exteriors to acceptable
standards. In response, it was confirmed that action was
taken where necessary to address this problem but some tenants
experienced difficulties with maintenance and required additional
support. Consideration was being given as to how this
could be provided and whether further work could be carried out
prior to a property being let to new tenants.
As noted in 25.2 above, Wulvern Housing owned
plots of land in the borough which had not been developed or was
awaiting redevelopment. Residents living near these sites had
commented that there was a lack of communication between Wulvern
Housing and the residents over Wulvern’s future intentions.
The Director of Customer Services accepted the point raised and
stated that consideration would be given to improving communication
between the relevant parties.
Ms Lowman and Mr Loughlin were thanked for
their presentation following which they withdrew from the
meeting.
26 MIGRANT
WORKERS
The Committee’s Migrant Workers Working Group
had last met in February 2006, at which it had been agreed that P
& O Community would receive updates on a 6-monthly basis in
respect of work being undertaken with European Migrant Workers.
The report of the Community Development
Manager focused on the following areas:
Ø
Invest to Save Project
Ø
Establishment of Groups and Networks
Ø
Good Practice and Research Projects
Ø
New Initiatives
Ø
Issues Raised
Ø
Statistics
26.1
Invest to Save
The “Invest to Save” Project aimed to bring a
cohesive approach to the way in which various organisations
addressed the needs of migrant workers via three main elements:
communication, education and learning and community
association. The awarding of an Invest to Save bid (ISB)
would enable the Council to develop processes which could be shared
with other authorities facing similar
challenges.
Members noted that reports on the work of the
ISB Team would be submitted to the Committee for information twice
a year.
26.2
Good Practice & Research Projects
The authority was looking to develop a tool
which would identify the number of migrant workers living in the
borough together with their nationalities. The Merseyside
Observatory for Social Inclusion had identified Crewe and Nantwich
as an area of good practice and it was anticipated that the Borough
could become a pilot area for future
projects.
27 CHILDREN ACT
2004
The Assistant Chief Executive, Community
Development and Social Policy gave a verbal presentation to the
Committee on matters arising from 1) the introduction of the
Children Act 2004; and 2) the Joint Area Review.
27.1 Children Act
2004
The Children Act 2004 which came into force in
November 2004, provided the legal underpinning for “Every Child
Matters”, the programme aimed at transforming children’s
services. Whilst the Act placed significant duties on
Cheshire County County, it would also have a significant impact on
the work of the Borough Council.
Examples of the types of duty which would be
imposed on the Council were -
v improved
partnership working
v a duty
to safeguard and promote the well-being of children
v ensuring
the Council’s contractors complied with legislation
v putting
policies in place to allow all of the Council’s employees to be
able to report any concerns with regards to child welfare
The Assistant Chief Executive reported that
there would be budgetary implications to comply with
the requirements of the Act. Training would need to be
provided to all staff and Councillors to ensure that the authority
as a whole was aware of its duties under the Act. However, as
the Act applied nationally it was anticipated that economies of
scale could be achieved with regards to joint training and working
with other Cheshire authorities. In addition, the requirement
to undergo a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check would be extended
and could be applied to staff and Members who had very limited
contact with children as part of their
role.
A Member expressed concern about the
possibility of CRB checks being extended and cautioned that this
approach, if adopted would be unnecessary and an overreaction to
the requirements of the Act. In response, it was noted that
no decision had yet been made on whether this action was considered
appropriate and further discussion would be
required.
27.2
Joint Area Review
All local authority services for children and
young people in Cheshire were to be the subject of a Joint Area
Review (JAR) during September/October 2006. In conjunction
with the JAR, a neighbourhood study would be undertaken and the
West End of Crewe had been nominated as the study area.
Inspectors would conduct a tour of the West End (to be facilitated
by children and young people), following which a discussion would
take place on issues associated with living and growing up in the
area. The outcome of the study would form a key part of the
findings from the JAR.
28 OCTOBER
MEETING
The Committee noted that the following two
topics would be discussed at its meeting on 18th October
2006; Youth Issues and ASPIRE Project (Mental Health).
……….……………………. Chair