Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting on the 21 September 2017 be agreed as an accurate record of proceedings.

Councillor Pauline Morrison declared a personal interest in item 5 as she received the single person’s Council Tax discount.

Councillor James-J Walsh declared a personal interest in item 4 as he was one of the founders of the LGBT staff forum and in item 5 as he received the single person’s Council Tax discount.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

4.1       Danny Ruta, Director of Public Health gave a presentation to the Committee, a copy of which will be included in the agenda documentation. During the presentation the following key points were highlighted:         

·         There was a lack of information on the LGBT community and the Council’s Public Health Team would welcome any recommendations around ways to improve the quantity and quality of data available.

·         Public Health had the same equalities responsibilities as the Council overall and must have respect to the protected characteristics as set out in the Equalities Act 2010 and not discriminate against anyone. Public Health also had a responsibility for identifying any inequalities in health.

·         Public Health were responsible for updating the Lewisham Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. This was a requirement introduced following the Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 and is used to ensure the needs of the local population are understood and considered as a central part of the commissioning process.

·         Currently 10 public health outcomes performance dashboards were produced which aimed to monitor how the borough performed against key indicators. These were routinely monitored and updated and were based on the following areas: alcohol usage; cancer mortality; healthy weight; immunisation; maternal and child health; mental health; physical activity; sexual health; tobacco usage; and health checks for cardiovascular disease.

·         There was currently very little data available on the LGBT population and the team relied on surveys such as the ONS Annual Population Survey and the What About Youth (WAY) survey conducted on behalf of the Department of Health.

·         There were currently only 5 service user indicators where data on sexual orientation of users was collected. These were: HIV late diagnosis; health related quality of life for older people; smoking (adults); smoking (15 year olds); and proportion of the population meeting the recommended “5-a-day” at age 15. The data was, however, based on very small numbers and therefore had to be used with caution.

·         The Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board had statutory responsibility for the JSNA. Data review was an on-going process and they had a prioritisation process for reviewing data as it took 2 to 3 months to review each area.

·         The Health and Wellbeing board had agreed to set up a steering group who were inviting anyone to submit areas to be reviewed which would then be prioritised. It would be possible to submit a suggestion for a needs assessment looking at LGBT inequality in Lewisham for example. This would then be prioritised for action according to their process.

4.2       In the discussion that followed, the following key points were highlighted:

·         The website was going to be redesigned to make it more user-friendly and accessible.

·         Members of the Committee highlighted their surprise that there was so little information available on the LGBT community and that there had not been work done on all the equalities strands and how important it was that they were all fully covered.

·         A large percentage of the HIV population in England lived in London and it was a very  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.1       David Austin, Head of Corporate Resources introduced the report to the Committee and highlighted the following key points:

·         The savings proposals were part of the on-going budget reductions made since 2010 and would continue until at least 2020.

·         Partner organisations were now increasingly feeling the pressure from their own budget reductions, in particular in Health and Education.

·         Policy changes were also challenging in terms of managing uncertainty. Changes included: the introduction of the adult social care precept; new homes bonus; business rates retention and the Fair Funding Review; welfare changes; and Brexit.

·         The Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy included £160 million of previously agreed savings of which £153 million had been delivered. An additional £33 million of savings were needed over the next 2 years.

·         There was a projected £13 million overspend for 2017/18 of which £7 million was previous undelivered savings.

·         Currently overspends at the end of the year were being met by using the Council’s financial reserves. This issue needed to be addressed as soon as possible.

·         The report highlighted £4.9 million of savings for the 2018/19 financial year. The 2018/19 budget was predicted to be set using £17.15 million of reserves.

5.2       In the discussion that followed, the following key points were raised:

·         It was very difficult to compare positions with other local authorities. A proxy measure in London was the level of a Council’s reserves. Lewisham was in the 50-75% quartile of reserves held but without knowing the specific details of savings achieved etc. by other authorities and what local circumstances reserves were held for and committed to, it was very difficult to compare.

·         The Fair Funding review was important as the effects of Business Rate retention would affect authorities very differently.

·         Some of the areas of overspend included: children’s services; adult social care; environmental services from delays in income being delivered in trade waste and garden waste and additional fleet costs; and technology with the IT costs to get the service to a sufficient standard and income projections not yet being delivered.

·         Full details were available in the reports to the Public Accounts Select Committee.

·         There were proposals for London Councils to work together to pool business rates.

·         The Chair left the room at 8.15pm and returned at 8.20pm. During this time the Vice-Chair took aver chairing the meeting.

5.3       Gary Connors, Strategic Community Safety Services Manager, outlined savings proposal K5 to the Committee. During his introduction and during the discussion that followed, the following key point was raised: 

·         The proposal was for a reduction of £30,000 which represented 50% of a small budget allocated to provide resources to deliver resolutions to small crime problems throughout the year. This could include, for example, moving CCTV cameras or delivering an advertising campaign.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

6.1       Councillor Joe Dromey, Executive Member for Policy and Performance introduced the report to the Committee. Simone van Elk, Cabinet Executive Officer, was also in attendance for this item. During the presentaion and in the discussion that followed, the following key points were highlighted:

·         The Commission was set up following a recommendation from the Safer Stronger Communities Select Committee’s review into Poverty in Lewisham and in the context of the high levels of poverty and child poverty in Lewisham.

·         The process had been very interesting and rewarding, in particular, combining external experts, Scrutiny Councillors and Executive Councillors in a new approach had been very successful.

·         The recommendations included those for the current and any future Mayor, those for partner organisations and those for the National Government.

·         It could be useful to provide a copy of the report to all present Councillors and to any new Councillors to Lewisham.

·         Members of the Committee felt it was a very good example of a new way of working with Executive and Scrutiny Councillors working together with local experts.

·         It was important to support voluntary groups in their work, building a strong community sector. Use of the Social Value Act could be further explored by the Council in its approach to commissioning.

·         Councillor Dromey thanked the Safer Stronger Communities Select Committee for its support and role on the Commission and thanked Council officers in the Policy and Partnership Team and in the Mayor’s Office for their support, and Simone van Elk for her role.

6.2       RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

7.1       Gary Connors, Strategic Community Safety Services Manager, and Megan Mellor, Community Coordinator introduced the report to the Committee. In their presentation and in the subsequent discussion, the following key points were highlighted:

·         The Government’s Counter Extremism strategy had been published in 2015. It was focussed on combatting hate perpetrators and non-violent terrorists and was separate to the Prevent Strategy.

·         The Counter Extremism strategy’s main focus was on: Countering extremist ideology; building a partnership with all those opposed to extremism; disrupting extremists; and building more cohesive communities.

·         The strategy had also introduced new funding that was available for local authorities to employ community coordinators and Lewisham was one of 13 local authorities in London who was successful in gaining funding for this post.

·         Part of the role of the coordinator was engaging community groups and building support and helping community groups to access funding through the Government’s Building a Stronger Britain Together (BSBT) funding scheme.

·         A member of the Committee requested assurances that the funding was not similar to the immigration enforcement part of the Government’s Controlling Migration Fund. It was confirmed that although the post was grant funded by the Home Office, the employee worked directly for the Council.

·         The team was looking to work with organisations such as Anne Frank Trust on initiatives in schools to combat prejudice and tackling extremist views. They also worked with organisations such as Second Wave on commissioning projects in schools and with community groups.

·         A report would be borough back to the Committee outlining the work done by the Council on implementing the Extremism strategy and the outcomes from the funding received.

7.2       RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

That an update report be added to the Committee’s work programme for the meeting on 7 March 2017.

8.1       Katie Wood, Scrutiny Manager, introduced the report to the Committee and highlighted that it would be amended to reflect the request during item 7 of this meeting that an additional report be added on the Council’s approach to implementing the Government’s Extremism strategy.

8.2       RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

That an update report on Lewisham’s approach to implementing the Extremism strategy be added to the work programme for the meeting on 7 March 2018.

RESOLVED:

There were no referrals to Mayor and Cabinet.

That following the evidence session on LGBT Provision in Lewisham, the Committee proposed to make recommendations on improving the JSNA as part of their in-depth review. The Committee would explore this in more detail at their next meeting.