Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Gugnani, Councillor Bhatti, Councillor Sood (Assistant City Mayor for Community Involvement, Partnerships and Equalities) and Iris Lightfoote (TREC).

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

Members were asked to declare any interests they might have in the business on the agenda.

No such declarations were declared other than at a previous meeting Councillor Gugnani and Councillor Sood had declared their interests in the Voluntary and Community Sector Review item as they held very active roles in the Leicester Council of Faiths and that was the reason for their non-attendance at the meeting today.

The Minutes of the previous meeting of the Neighbourhood Services and Community Involvement Scrutiny Committee held on 9 April 2014 are attached and Members will be asked to confirm them as a correct record.

Members were asked to confirm the minutes of the previous meeting of the Neighbourhood Services and Community Involvement Scrutiny Commission held on 9^th April 2014.

RESOLVED:

                        that the minutes of the meeting of the Neighbourhood Services

and Community Involvement Scrutiny Commission held on 9^th

April 2014 be confirmed as a correct record.

Minute item 115

(94) The Impact of Welfare Reform

·         The Chair explained that the Job Centre Plus had previously been invited to send a representative to a future meeting of the commission but it had later been decided to have a general briefing for all councillors. Talks had taken place with Caroline Jackson to arrange that and a date would be arranged in due course.

Minute item 118

Update on Neighbourhood Policing

·         In relation to the Change Programme it was felt that the commission might want to see the results of the consultation by KPMG and that would be programmed into a future meeting.

Minute item 119

Food Bank Provision in the City

·         The Race Equality Centre (TREC) was thanked for their representation with regard to the section of the report titled “Equality Assessment Impact” (EAI) which had proved confusing. Clarity had been sought from the Corporate Equalities Lead officer and it had been resolved that all future reports to commissions would include the new wording “Equality Implications”.

Minute item 120

City Warden Service

·         The final annual figures for fixed penalty notices would be brought back to the commission at a future meeting. Clarity was requested of the city warden’s role on parking enforcement and whether they were actively involved in the review of it,  Assistant City Mayor for Neighbourhood Services confirmed that they were engaged in the process.

The Monitoring Officer will report on the receipt of any petitions submitted in accordance with the council’s procedures.

There were no Petitions.

The Monitoring Officer to report on the receipt of any questions, representations and statements of case submitted in accordance with the council’s procedures.

There were no questions, representations or statements of case.

The Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance submits a report that seeks scrutiny views on the findings and proposals arising from consultation on the future model for three strands of activity:

·         Strand 1 – support for the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS)

·         Strand 2 – working with the VCS to engage with key communities to support a cohesive Leicester; and

·         Strand 3 – support for volunteering in the city.

Members of the Neighbourhood Services and Community Involvement Scrutiny Commission are recommended to provide their views on the proposals arising from the consultation findings for consideration by the City Mayor and Executive.

The Chair explained the procedure to be followed in relation to the discussion of the item. Two organisations had sent representatives to speak, Mr Fayyaz Suleman, Vice-Chair for the Leicester Council of Faiths and Mr Surinder Sharma, Chair of The Race Equalities Centre (TREC) with Mr Chino Cabon, Senior Race Equalities officer (TREC).

In the interests of fairness the Chair also asked if there were others present at the meeting who wanted to speak on the item, no one came forward.

The City Mayor outlined a report to the commission that included the findings and proposals from the public consultation on the future model for the three strands of activity under a review relating to the Voluntary and Community Sector as follows:

·         Strand 1         support for the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS);

·         Strand 2         working with the VCS to engage with key communities to

support a cohesive Leicester;

·         Strand 3         support for Volunteering in the City.

The commission were informed that:-

·         Leicester City Council had a long and proud tradition of supporting the VCS who were often better placed and more appropriate to provide services to communities.

·         Leicester City Council currently provided far more funding through and to the VCS than any other comparable authority within the UK.

·         It was estimated that £18 million of the council’s budget was spent on the VCS each year to provide a wide range of service.

·         Most organisations within the VCS were subject to arrangements and agreements with various departments of the council and as part of that they were subject to the reviews that all departments of the council were undergoing as a result of the need to achieve substantial reductions to budgets.

·         Systematic reviews had been undertaken across the council that looked at services and service impacts on users before any actions had been agreed or taken. The Council listened and responded to service users and providers before decisions were taken.

·         Seven organisations were directly in the scope of the VCS review as set out in the report; the arrangements with these providers had been in place for a long time and the context of the city and the needs of the VCS had changed over time. Future arrangements needed to reflect those changes whilst meeting the needs of the VCS and the city’s communities.

·         With budget pressure in mind and the absence of any previous strategic review of the seven organisations a consultation had taken place over a 12 week period.

·         No decision had yet been taken on the report to the executive and if a decision was taken as recommended there would still be provisions for the seven organisations to make proposals for future funding.

·         The three strands reported on were wide ranging and within those were opportunities for organisations to make a case for funding.

In conclusion the City Mayor acknowledged this was a time of considerable uncertainty and funding had been extended to each organisation to the end of September so full consideration could be given to identify  ...  view the full minutes text for item 129.

The Director of Culture and Neighbourhood Services submits a report that provides an update on a range of issues for library service that scrutiny may wish to examine. These issues include Strategic and Operational matters and Performance.

The recommendations for the commission are set out in paragraph 2 of the report.

The Director of Culture and Neighbourhood Services presented a report providing an update on library services, which included:

·         Strategic and Operational Matters –

o   the role of Libraries as part of the wider Transforming Neighbourhood Services (TNS) programme

o   the impact of the refreshed library systems

o   how Libraries support community members with extra needs

·         Performance –

o   comparative key usage figures for 2012/13 and 2013/14 for each library 2012/13

o   a summary of statistics submitted to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) which provide information on performance against comparator services

o   Public Library User Survey 2013 results for Leicester Libraries.

The update to the commission included the following points:

·         A new Library Management System was implemented in January 2013 and all 167 public computers were replaced in early 2013. In relation to performance, the number of hours spent on computers had increased and Leicester libraries had fewer machines than many other authorities but also a higher % usage.

·         Self-service kiosks had been piloted at Aylestone and then introduced to a further four libraries for basic library operations freeing staff to help other customers.

·         The Book Bus service had been improved with new routes around the City. The Book Bus routes were usually specific and linked to areas of deprivation and school links.

·         Libraries provided support and a place to meet for many activities and community groups such as:

o   Regular Toddler Time sessions, there were very well attended and gave young families the opportunity to see the importance of books,

o   Study Support sessions/Homework clubs for older children who needed guidance on reading and homework, which had between 10-30 children attending voluntarily, getting support and access to computers that they might not get at home,

o   Maths Support sessions were to be introduced as part of a project with Children’s Services,

o   For older people there were a number of activity based social groups which included craft groups and Local History groups.

·         By reorganising, focusing and engaging with other partners such as SPARK the quality and content in libraries had been kept at a high level.

Councillor Russell, Assistant City Mayor (Neighbourhood Services) summarised the overall context of the report and confirmed that delivery and performance had improved despite a 28% reduction of the library services budget. Thanks were extended to the officers who led the changes and also to the library services staff who rose to the challenges and had hugely improved the service across the city. Libraries equalised opportunities for people and gave most city residents access to a library within a mile of where they lived.

The commission were informed that it was important to note library services received an enormous range of enquiries and lots of people did not know how to navigate the internet so library staff dealt with those enquiries too.

The number of staff in post showed value for money and reflected the reviews that had been carried out and showed library services had been able to provide a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 130.

The commission will receive a verbal update on partnering agreements in Community Centres.

The Chair addressed the commission and reminded Members that there had been a number of verbal updates previously. It had been hoped that it would be possible to follow up with the views of the experiences of groups that had entered into a partnership agreement but unfortunately this had not been possible to arrange.

The Chair explained that she would contact the groups to re-engage on the subject and would debrief the new Chair of the commission and would include an explanation of the commission’s concerns.

RESOLVED:

1.    the Chair to contact and re-engage with the groups that have entered into partnership agreements.

2.    the Chair to provide a full handover and debrief including Members concerns to the new Chair of the commission.

The Scrutiny Commission is asked to receive the work programme for consideration and comment.

The Scrutiny Support officer submitted a summary overview of the Commission’s activities and outcomes from the year.

The Chair thanked all those involved in the work of the commission throughout the year and advised Members that she would provide a full handover on the commission’s work to the new Chair.

The Chair extended thanks to the Scrutiny Support Officer and the various Democratic Support Officers, throughout the year, who had been involved in the commission.

Members thanked the Chair for her work on the commission.

There were no suggestions for items to be added to the work programme for the new municipal year.

RESOLVED:

                        that the annual summary overview of the commission’s work be

noted.

The meeting closed at 8.10 pm