Agenda and minutes

No apologies for absence were received.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the Scrutiny Commission for Rural Communities meeting held on 26 March 2013 were approved subject to the following.  Members wished to record that at the meeting held on 26 March 2013 they had requested that an item on Solar and Wind Farms be added to the work programme for 2013-2014.  This request had not been recorded in the minutes.

The Social Inclusion Manager introduced the report which provided the Commission with information on the impacts of Welfare Reform and the work being undertaken through the Peterborough Community Assistance Scheme (PCAS) to tackle poverty and destitution.  Members were informed that one of the key issues for rural residents was that all services were based in the City Centre.  Anyone needing to be assessed to see if they were eligible for PCAS assistance would be required to come into the City Centre to attend the Department for Work and Pensions (DwP).  Only those people eligible for welfare and benefits are able to access the PCAS Scheme.   This enabled the scheme to ensure that those most in need and eligible for support were assisted to maximise income and reduce debt.  Once eligible for the scheme they would be referred to the Citizens Advice Bureau for screening and advice. Members were advised that all Councillors which included those who were rural based had been contacted and informed of what the PCAS could offer.

Peterborough Community Assistance Scheme (PCAS) was set up to provide:

• Peterborough’s first Credit Union (managed by Rainbow Saver Credit Union)
• A basic needs facility for furniture, white goods and general crisis provision (managed by Carezone, Kingsgate)
• A specialist voluntary information and advice network (incorporating Age UK, Citizens Advice Bureau, Disability Information and Advice Line, Peterborough Council for Voluntary Service and Peterborough and Fenland MIND)
• Peterborough’s first citywide Foodbank with six outlets to date (led by Kingsgate Church)

Representatives from Peterborough Food Bank / Care Zone, Citizens Advice Bureau and the

Credit Union were in attendance and each spoke about the work of their organisations in relation to the Peterborough Community Assistance Scheme.

The following comments, observations and questions were raised:

·         Members commented that a lot of services relied on access to the internet e.g. signing on, and access to welfare benefits. Access to the internet in rural areas was often limited.  It was also difficult for some rural residents to get transport into the city centre to access food banks, places like Carezone and debt counselling.  Extra steps needed to be taken to deal with the equality issues of rural residents.  Officers acknowledged that more work needed to be done with rural residents.  Internet access had been a problem and equality assessments were being carried out and a piece of work called ‘Channel Shift’ which was about the need to shift to apply for benefits on line was being carried out.  This was part of Phase one of the programme.  Phase two of the programme was about the Citizens Advice Bureau going out to all of the community representatives including Parish Councils and training them in triage to help people who were destitute or in poverty.

·         Members were concerned about people in the rural areas who might find themselves in destitute situations.  An example might be that their fridge had broken but had no insurance or money to replace it and no food.   The added complication would be having no  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The report provided the Commission with an update on superfast broadband in rural areas. It was confirmed that the contract for broadband had been awarded to BT in March. The Broadband Delivery Group was currently in the process of planning where the fibre broadband would be laid.  A number of areas had been identified where the roll-out could take place quickly which were shown in Appendix A of the report. It was confirmed that the Broadband Delivery Group was still on target to provide fibre base broadband to 98% of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough by 2015.

The following comments, observations and questions were raised:

·         Members expressed concern that no rural villages have been selected and wanted to know why the areas chosen had been selected and not the villages. What phase would the villages get the upgrade. Members were advised that the areas selected had been put forward by BT as ‘quick wins’ and were unable to advise when the villages would receive the upgrade as this was dependent on the roll-out of the BT model.

·         Members commented that BT should not be allowed to dictate to the council. While it was agreed to use the first phase for ‘quick wins’ it was highlighted that the Broadband Delivery Group should be influencing BT regarding where to roll-out in the following phases. Members were advised that the group did discuss this with BT but the difficulty was prioritising and keeping the process as cost-efficient as possible.

·         Members noted that Lincolnshire was involved in high-speed broadband and asked if the villages to the north of Peterborough could link up to the villages south of Lincolnshire that were currently being given high speed broadband. Members were advised that there was an overlap of approximately 10K into each of the counties that border Peterborough and therefore Peterborough villages may well benefit from Lincolnshire upgrades.

·         Members highlighted the fact that villages were currently getting broadband as slow as 1MB and this was causing great deprivation for those people living in those villages regarding access to facilities.  Members were concerned that need, distance and context should be taken into considered when prioritising roll out. Members were informed that 98% of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough would have fibre based broadband by 2015.

·         Members emphasised the request of allowing villages bordering Lincolnshire to benefit from their upgrade and asked officers to take every opportunity to make this happen.

·         Members requested that the officer report back to the Committee in a short period of time to inform them when each village would be upgraded.

·         Members noted that a lot of villages were in conservation areas and asked if this was being taken into account and how it was being dealt with? Members were advised that the Broadband Delivery Group was working very closely with the planning department and conservation officers to ensure these concerns were covered.

ACTIONS AGREED

The Commission noted the report and requested thatthe ICT & Transactional Services Partnership Manager:

1. Ensure that every opportunity is taken to explore all  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The purpose of this report was to provide an update on the use of electronic homecare monitoring since last presenting to the Commission in September 2012.  Since then the Electronic Call Monitoring System (ECMS) had been implemented. Fifteen of the eighteen providers successfully implemented the ECMS by October 2012. The remaining three providers had implemented the system by January 2013. Ongoing work was being undertaken to ensure invoices and call information was accurate and reconciled. Compliance with the ECMS was also being proactively monitored by the Adult Social Care contracts team. Reviews for renewing Domiciliary Care Contracts were currently being undertaken.

The following comments, observations and questions were raised:

·         Members commented that the ECMS could be a good tool to ensure maximum efficiency for the Council but wanted to know if it was working for the consumer. Was there any confirmation that times allocated to consumers were being met? Members were advised that the whole point of the use of ECMS was to ensure that hours that had been allocated were being delivered by the care agencies. The care agencies submitted invoices and the Finance and Contracts Team reconciled the invoices against the ECMS information. It was confirmed that the invoices were currently reconciling well. A new client record system had been implemented and work was being done to ensure the ECMS data fitted with the data of the new system. The process should be completed in about 3-6 months. Reports would then be produced to show hours paid for, hours commissioned and ECMS hours.

·         Members asked if customer surveys had been conducted. Members were advised that a range of surveys were undertaken including two annual surveys that all Adult Social Care departments in the country take part in. These were used to compare response rates with other local authorities. The most recent survey was the ‘Carer’s Survey’ which had provided promising results.  Customer reviews were also conducted annually to assess needs and the domiciliary care packages being provided.

·         Members asked how many additional local people have been employed as personal assistants to provide support as a result of the use of direct payments. Members were advised that 435 people currently received a direct payment.   The majority of these were people with physical disabilities and people over 56 years of age. No details were kept of who those people had employed. As long as the support they were purchasing was legal and met their assessed needs there was not requirement to enquire who they had employed.  People often used family and neighbours.

·         Members requested that figures were provided for people in rural areas using direct payments in September 2012 compared to current figures.

·         Members requested data showing the number of times non-attendance occurred for the period rural customers expected care. Members were advised that there should be no inference that people in rural communities were being ‘short-changed’. It was confirmed that the Raise system has been replaced with Framework I, which did provide better data than Raise.  This made reconciliation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Committee reviewed the Work Programme and agreed to the below amendments.

ACTIONS AGREED

The Commission requested that the following items be added to the work programme:

·         Solar and Wind Farms – Review of current business model compared to original business case , financials and implications of delay in planning application – September meeting.

·         Parish Plans – Progress Report – September meeting.

·         Education Attainment report in November to include Ofsted reports for Rural Schools for the past three years.

·         Crime and Disorder in Rural Areas including crime statistics.  Invitation to go out to Safer Peterborough Partnership and the Police and Crime Commissioner – January 2014 meeting.

·         British Transport Police – report on crimes at level crossings – January 2014 meeting.

The Committee received the latest version of the Council’s Notice of Intention to Take Key Decisions, containing key decisions that the Leader of the Council anticipated the Cabinet or individual Cabinet Members would make during the course of the following four months.  Members were invited to comment on the Plan and, where appropriate, identify any relevant areas for inclusion in the Committee’s work programme.

ACTION AGREED

The Committee noted the latest version of the Council’s Notice of Intention to take key Decisions. 

15 July 2013