Agenda and minutes

Apologies had been received from Councillors S Day, M Fletcher and N Sandford.  Apologies were also received from Ansar Ali, Co-opted Member Representing the Police Authority.  John Reynolds was in attendance as substitute for Ansar Ali.

At this point Members must declare whether they have an interest, whether personal or prejudicial, in any of the items on the agenda. Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the Strong and Supportive Communities Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 10 September 2009 were approved as an accurate record.

The decision notice for each decision will bear the date on which it is published and will specify that the decision may then be implemented on the expiry of 3 working days after the publication of the decision (not including the date of publication), unless a request for call-in of the decision is received from any two Members of a Scrutiny Committee or Scrutiny Commissions.  If a request for call-in of a decision is received, implementation of the decision remains suspended for consideration by the relevant Scrutiny Committee or Commission.

There were no requests for Call-in to consider.

The purpose of this report is to inform the Committee of the responses to recommendations made at previous meetings.

The Committee were advised that responses had been received to their recommendations from the meeting held on 10 September 2009. 

ACTION AGREED

The committee noted the responses to the recommendations made at the meeting held on 10 September 2009

The Cabinet Members for Environment Capital and Culture, Regional and Business Engagement and Neighbourhoods, Housing and Community Development each gave a presentation to the Committee on the progress they had made on their respective portfolios.

The Cabinet Member for Environment Capital and Culture spoke to Members about the Cultural Services elements of his portfolio.

·         Library Services.   A great deal of money had been invested in the Library Service and the ground floor of the building had been transformed.  The new mobile library service had been well received by residents.  Emails were now sent to remind people when books were due back and this meant that there had been a drop in income from fines. 

·         Sports.  The Great Eastern run had been a success and even more people had entered. Due to the free swimming for under 16 and over 60 year olds swimming attendance was up with 41,000 young people and 10,000 senior people swimming.  The Jack Hunt facilities and pool had been refurbished.  The Peterborough athletics track was due to be refurbished.  A new initiative called Active Workplaces would help employees to keep fit as there was a need to increase the number of people taking part in sports to meet the Healthy Active Workplaces Agenda.

·         Bereavement Services.  The Children’s Woodland Memorial Garden at the Crematorium had now been completed.  The crematorium had received a Green Flag status and the installation of a mercury abatement plant for 2010/11 was being progressed.  A new mausoleum is also being developed at Fletton cemetery.

·         Heritage and Arts.  There had been 85,000 visitors to the museum; the most visited tourist attraction locally.  Two million pounds was to be invested in the museum building and a project team had been working with the heritage lottery fund to gain more funding.  The new Key Theatre studios had opened.  The Peterborough Festival was successful with an increase in attendance from last year.

·         Culture and Leisure Trust.  The Cabinet had noted and wished to explore the proposal to establish a Culture and Leisure Trust in October and a business plan would be presented to Cabinet in February 2010 for a decision.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         The Cabinet Member advised Members that he truly believed that a Culture and Leisure Trust was the way forward.  The Council was a big organisation and by creating a trust there would be the ability to focus on generating more income and it would also be a smaller more agile organisation, selling products such as gym memberships.  If the Council leased its buildings to the Charitable Trust then business rates would be reduced.

·         Members asked if the Trust failed would it be brought back into the Council.  The Cabinet Member advised the Committee that the Council would have to be supportive and work with the Trust particularly in the early years to ensure it succeeded.

·         Members asked what services would be included in the Trust.  The Committee were advised that the following services would be included:

§         Library  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Head of Neighbourhood Services updated the Committee on the performance of the Local Area Agreement for the 2^nd Quarter. Particular attention was paid to the indicators where the RAG (Red/Amber/Green) Status had changed since the last report. 

NI 16 - Serious acquisitive crime rate had gone from red to green showing that initiatives like integrated offender management had now started to take effect.  There were still concerns regarding robbery of personal property including for example mobile phone theft amongst young people and work was being done on these areas.

NI 33 - Arson incidents had gone from green to amber as there had been an increase in secondary arson.  New solutions were being looked at for managing arson.

NI 47 - People killed or seriously injured in road traffic accidents had moved from red to amber and was now red again.  A detailed report would be presented to the committee at a meeting in January on road safety.

NI 2 - % of people who feel they belong to their neighbourhood had moved from red to amber.  New resources aimed at building cohesive communities were being put in place.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Members asked why arson was such an issue in Peterborough.  The officer advised the Committee that an arson investigation unit had been set up to look at the problem.

·         Members had noted that serious acquisitive crime in particular burglaries in specific areas had increased.  The officer advised that huge efforts were being put into dealing with this.

·         Members wanted to know if there were any potential for flame resistance wheelie bins and had this been looked into?  The officer advised the Committee that this had already been looked at by the Fire Service.

·         Members noted that £54K was being put into anti social behaviour and wanted to know where this money would be spent.  The officer advised that it would probably be spent on training.  A report could be provided on the management of anti social behaviour.

ACTIONS AGREED

That the Head of Neighbourhoods provide a report to a future meeting of the Committee on the management of anti social behaviour.

The Head of Neighbourhood Services reported to the Committee on the approach that Peterborough had taken with regard to the Sustainable Communities Act. The Sustainable Communities Act (SCA) became law on 27^th October 2007. Its principle aim was to provide a process through which Local Authorities could request Central Government to assist it in promoting the sustainability of its communities at a local level.  References to the promotion of ‘sustainability’ were references to encourage the economic, social or environmental well-being of an authority’s area or part of its area.  This could include participation in civic and political activity. It was envisagedthat Local Authorities would be able to use the Act to gain assistance and action from Central Government in the form of for example enabling powers, policy changes, more resources (including financial) and perhaps even new legislation.

Peterborough had not put any proposals forward at the first invitation as a decision had been made to wait and see what other authorities submitted and was accepted. Examples of what other authorities had put forward were shown to the Committee. When the second invitation was sent out Peterborough would put forward its own proposals.  The outcome of the first round of submissions had not been announced yet.

ACTION AGREED

The Head of Neighbourhood Services to bring to a future meeting the proposals for Peterborough to submit proposals under the Sustainable Communities Act (SCA) process prior to presenting to Government.

The Scrutiny Manager reported to the Committee on the proposed protocol and working arrangements for the scrutiny of crime and disorder issues.  The Committee were asked to

·         Note the nomination of Ansar Ali as the Police Authority’s representative on the Crime and Disorder Committee and that a nomination had also been sought from the Fire Authority.

·         That the Committee agrees that the co-opted members will be non-voting at this time and that a review of this position is taken ready for the next municipal year.

·         Approve the draft Protocol

The Committee approved the draft Protocol and agreed that the co-opted members would be non-voting at this time

The Committee also noted the nomination of Ansar Ali as the Police Authority’s representative on the Crime and Disorder Committee.

John Reynolds attended the meeting as a representative of the Police Authority in the absence of Ansar Ali.  He advised the Committee that the Police Authority fully supported the draft Protocol and welcomed working with the Committee and wished it every success.

ACTION AGREED

That the Committee approved the draft Protocol and agreed that the co-opted members would be non-voting at this time.

The Early Intervention and Prevention Manager gave a presentation which updated the Committee on the Restorative Approaches being taken in Peterborough and a proposal to support the future development of the Restorative Justice Approach.

The vision for restorative approaches in Peterborough was to:

•        Work restoratively with partners and members of the public to improve services, resolve conflicts which included anti social behaviour and to enhance relationships within communities.

•        Help achieve the 5 Every Child Matters outcomes for Peterborough Children and young people through working with them using Restorative Approaches.

•        To make restorative approaches sustainable in Peterborough through the development of a restorative approaches business/training unit.

This could be achieved through a three phased pilot. The first step would be to set up and establish a Restorative Approaches Steering Group (RASG) of senior staff including the Police.  The three phases of the pilot would include:

•          Phase 1 have three pathfinder projects.

•          One focusing on anti social behaviour/neighbourhood issues etc - working alongside the Safer Peterborough Partnership anti social behaviour team and neighbourhood management team.

•          The second pathfinder would be to extend restorative practices to one other secondary school

•          The third pathfinder would be as part of the Family Recovery Project to use restorative practices to engage and work with families

•          Phase 2 would be the evaluation and assessment of the three pathfinders and feeding back into the Restorative Approaches Steering Group.

•          Phase 3 would be the development and roll out of restorative practices citywide.

A lead co-ordinator would be required to roll out the initial action plan, engage and work with partners and deliver the necessary training and the costs for this would be approximately £60,000. 

The Committee were asked to endorse the Restorative Approaches in Peterborough, support the development work for Peterborough to become a Restorative Authority and support a recommendation to Cabinet for the requirement of additional resources to secure a full time Restorative Justice Development Officer.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         The Committee gave their support to the development of Restorative Approaches in Peterborough and commended the work that had been done so far.

·         Members wanted to know if the Pilot had worked at Jack Hunt School.  The officer advised that it had been successful and that the school had included restorative practices in all of their policies.

RECOMMENDATIONS

It is recommended that the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services and the Executive Directors for Children’s Services and Operations support the development of restorative justice practices in Peterborough.

This to be done by:

1. identifying resources and funding in the amount of £60,000 to secure a full time Restorative Justice Development Officer;
2. identifying a training budget to enable officers to be trained to deliver restorative justice practices across Peterborough.  These officers will then train other officers in restorative justice practices;
3. working with the Restorative Justice Steering Group and Team to support the ongoing development of restorative justice practices which will ensure that Peterborough becomes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

The Community Safety and Substance Misuse Manager reported to the Committee on the purpose of the Section 75 pooled funding agreement for the commissioning of substance misuse services.  The officer advised that historically adult drug treatment commissioning had been carried out by both the Peterborough Drug and Alcohol Action Team which is now part of the SaferPeterborough Partnership Team and Peterborough Primary Care Trust (PCT) now NHS Peterborough.  Following a review of drug service commissioning it was agreed that Peterborough City Council would take the lead for all local commissioning.  Peterborough PCT had agreed to transfer their drug treatment budget to the Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT)/SPP Team to create a larger pooled budget for adult drug treatment.  The original agreement had been drawn up in April 2008 and since then the amounts of funding within the scope of the agreement had increased.  A variation of the original agreement had been proposed to include the additional funding. The spend of this funding was monitored via the SaferPeterborough Partnership governance processes and reported quarterly to the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA).

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Members wanted to know what the total pooled funding amount was.  The officer advised that it was £2.3 Million.  Mr Reynolds advised that the Police Authority gave broad support to the pooled funding but they would be keeping a watching brief as it was a large amount of money.

·         Members asked who made the decision on where the money would be spent.  The officer advised that every year a needs assessment would take place and a treatment plan would be put in place.

·         Members asked if the money funded Bridgegate.  The officer advised that it did and also the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust and CRi (Crime Reduction Initiatives) who delivered the Drug Interventions Programme (DIP).

·         Members asked if DAAT, the Prolific and Priority Offender Scheme and Integrated Offender Management worked together.  The officer advised that she was the lead officer for the SPP on all of these and that they definitely worked together.

·         Members asked how success and value for money was measured.  The officer advised that success was measured through the national indicators in the Local Area Agreement which were performance measures set by the National Treatment Agency. 

·         Members asked if users were consulted to get feed back on services.  The officer advised that there was a users group of people in the treatment system called SUGAR.  They gave feed back on commissioning decisions and performance and they also sat in on meetings with contract providers.

·         Members asked what would be considered a success.  The officer advised that success would be that there were no more users who were not known and that more users stayed in treatment and left in a planned way drug free.

·         Members requested that the Treatment Plan be brought to the Committee in six months time to scrutinise if it had been successful.

ACTION AGREED

That the Community Safety and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

To consider the latest version of the Forward Plan.

The Committee received the latest version of the Council’s Forward Plan, 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 Forward Plan and agreed that there were no items to bring to the Committee.

To agree the current work programme and discuss future items.

Members considered the Committee’s Work Programme for 2009/2010 and discussed possible items for inclusion.

ACTION AGREED

To confirm the work programme 2009/10.

21 January 2010

21 January 2010