Agenda and minutes

The Council welcomes engagement from members of the public. To speak at this meeting please register no later than 24 hours prior to the date of the meeting via democracy@southkesteven.gov.uk

There were none.

Apologies for absence had been received from Councillors Penny Milnes and Virginia Moran.

Councillor Peter Stephens substituted for Councillor Penny Milnes.

Councillor Tim Harrison substituted for Councillor Virginia Moran.

Members are asked to disclose any interest in matters for consideration at the meeting.

There were none.

It was proposed, seconded and AGREED that the minutes of the meeting held on 14 December 2023, were a correct and accurate record.

To receive updates on actions agreed at the previous meeting.

 The Head of Service (Revenues, Benefits, Customer and Community) and the Community Engagement Manager provided an update on Safeguarding:

‘At the last meeting of this committee on 14 December 2023, the Mid-year KPI report was presented for ‘’Healthy and Strong Communities’’.

The action ‘’protect our most vulnerable residents with robust safeguarding processes’’ had an action status of ‘’Significantly Below Target’’.

As a result of this, it was proposed, seconded and AGREED that the Committee:

             1.         Review and scrutinise the performance against the Corporate Plan Key Performance Indicators in relation to the delivery of the Corporate Plan priorities and outcomes.

             2.         Use this report to inform and support the ongoing work programme of the Committee

             3.         For the Committee to receive a further report on a breakdown of staff training and the type of training they require, as well as the progress made against each service area, including contractors and the safeguarding process within Housing.

I would like to take this opportunity to update the Committee on the actions taken since this meeting.

On 19 January 2024, Carol Drury, myself, Jodie Archer and Sarah McQueen met to discuss the actions from the Committee meeting and agreed a formal approach to the training.

Officers felt that a cross team approach to be taken in regard to safeguarding would be the best way forward, to maximise and make best use of officer expertise. The following officers would have responsibilities for areas of safeguarding:

Ø Carol Drury

o   Review of information reported through ITrent (resulting in the figure within the KPI measure)

o  Training

§  Review current levels

§  Undertake awareness sessions with senior management

§  Provide in-person training to those teams who do not have access to a PC

§  Regular monitoring of progress for individual officers and against the KPI target

Ø Jodie Archer and Sarah McQueen

o  Are our dedicated safeguarding Officers

o  Leading on the Section 11 Safeguarding Children Audit

o  Presenting the annual safeguarding report to Governance and Audit on 13 March)

o  Day-to-day accountability for safeguarding (including supporting staff with referrals and understanding of their role in the process)

The KPI within Healthy and Strong Communities with the action to:

Protect our most vulnerable residents with robust safeguarding processes relates to the percentage of ‘relevant staff’ trained in applying effective safeguarding processes. This was reported to be at 45%.

The % reported is based on the number of officers from across the Council that have accessed the induction training “An introduction to Safeguarding Everyone in Lincolnshire” so there relates to a % of new starters.

Relevant staff are those who interact regularly with potentially vulnerable residents so the percentage reported should be based on that figure (and their levels of completed training) and not across the whole staff.

To clarify more generally, I will remind Members as stated at the last meeting of this Committee – all officers and elected Members are required to complete safeguarding training – relevant to their role.

Training

At this time, I  ...  view the full minutes text for item 46.

One Member requested comments from the relevant Officers regarding recent flooding in the area.

The Chairman informed the Committee that the issue was being investigated and would be considered by a Joint Meeting of the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Rural and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committtee.

This report provides an update on the council’s actions to meet its responsibilities under the Armed Forces Act and the Armed Forces Covenant, achievements under the Council’s Defence Employer Recognition Scheme Gold Award engagement and advocacy agendas and plans for the coming year.

The Armed Forces Covenant Action Plan was presented by the Cabinet Member for People and Communities. The plan outlined the Council’s action on the past year and future proposals.

The Armed Forces Champion commended the report.

Members reiterated the District’s pride to hold the gold award.

One Member queried whether the report took into consideration the reserve forces of all three branches of the armed forces: Army, Navy, and Air Force.

The Armed Forces Officer stated that officers were working with the Chief Executive of the East Midlands Reserve Forces and Cadets Association to raise awareness to inform employers of the value of hiring reservists.

An update was requested on how Officers were communicating with relevant charities to ensure that efforts were not duplicated.

The Armed Forces Officer stated that officers regularly meet with charities (Royal British Legion and SAFFA) and view them as support forces to help the Officers in their efforts.

It was queried whether the benefits for reservists under the current plan would continue, once they leave the reserve forces.

It was reiterated that the current focus was on engaging the business community with regards to the benefits of hiring reservists. It was estimated that 2000 reserves graduate and pass through Prince William of Gloucester Barracks per year, advocating support back to their employers.

That the Committee:

Notes the Annual Armed Forces Engagement Report and comments on the content.

The purpose of this report is to provide an update on two outreach initiatives that were instigated in 2023, namely Council in the Community and SK Funding Workshops. This report provides an overview of both initiatives, their impact and outlines future plans for such community engagement.

The Community Engagement Manager presented the report which was provided as an update on two outreach initiatives undertaken during 2023/24.

The first ‘Council in the Community’ was developed on request as a way to support those residents who struggled to attend Council offices to deal with queries. It was noted that, there was no actual evidence to support this. 

None the less, 2 pilot events were arranged, one in an urban setting, and one in a rural setting.

As part of the planning, service areas of high demand were looked into:

·       Council Tax

·       Benefits

·       Housing (social and private sector)

·       Antisocial Behaviour

·       Cost of Living support. 

Details around the events were outlined:

·       A team of 8 officers was put together to cover the topics.

·       The first event took place in Bourne.  The event was held in the Corn Exchange on a market day as it was felt there would be greater potential for footfall.

·       The events were advertised via the Council’s recognised social media channels and also with flyers. 

·       During the event in Bourne, attendees sought support from housing colleagues and from community engagement (community funding)

·       No queries were presented relating to cost of living, ASB or benefits.  The event attracted 21 visitors including 8 elected Members.

·       The second event took place in Belvoir Ward at the request of one of its elected Members.

·       For the Belvoir Ward event, a team of nine officers attended this event representing: Community Engagement, Neighbourhoods (ASB), Homelessness, Tenancy Support and Engagement, Cost of Living, Private Sector Housing, and Revenues and Benefits.

·       Publicity for the Belvoir Ward event also went out to all residents of the Ward in the parish newsletter.

Both elected Members from the Belvoir Ward attended the event. Disappointingly, no members of the public attended this event.

However, having piloted events in both a rural and an urban setting with little evidence of need identified, it is considered that an alternative method of engaging with residents should be explored.

There was a proposal for officers to attend pre-existing community events (festivals, carnivals, fun days etc) with an information stand to allow for less formal engagement with the public but still with the absolute intention of being able to offer support and information to anyone who needs it.

The second initiative to update Members on was the funding workshops which had been delivered by the Community Engagement Team along with colleagues managing the UKSPF.

The workshops had been provided in support of the charity, voluntary and community sector across the District and have, to date, taken place in the evening.

The workshops covered information on the SK Community Fund, Lottery SK, UKSPF and a pre-recorded presentation from colleagues at the National Lottery.

Attendees to these workshops were asked to book a place through Eventbrite.  Although free to attend, the workshops were held in community venues, so places were limited.  Events had been held in Deepings, Stamford and Grantham.

Collectively, the workshops had attracted 107 participants representing 83 voluntary and community groups across the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 49.

The purpose of this report is to provide the Committee with a background regarding Household Support Fund, the formation of the Cost of Living Team and an update regarding the activity undertaken by the team, number of residents supported, value of support provided and an update regarding District, County and National activities.

The Head of service (Revenues, Benefits, Customer and Community) presented the report which outlined the first Cost of Living update report for 2023/24.

By way of background, in August 2022, the South Kesteven Cost of Living Strategic Working Group (COL SWG) was formed in response to increasing cost of living concerns and energy price increases.

As a result of the activities undertaken by the COL SWG, it was identified a business case could be put forward for a dedicated Cost of Living Co-Ordinator.

A successful bid was put forward to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund on 26 January 2023 and following successful recruitment, the two Cost of Living Co-Ordinators commenced their roles from 5 June 2023.

Since 5 June 2023, the Cost of Living Team had been working to objectives set out within the action plan, which is included within Appendix Oneof the report.

One of the main responsibilities of the Cost of Living Team is to administer and distribute the Household Support Fund. The Household Support Fund (HSF) was first announced by Government in October 2021 and has continued through to 31 March 2024.The expectation was that it should primarily be used to support households in most need for help with food, energy, and water bills.

The table in paragraph 2.14 of the report confirmed the value of Household Support Funding for 2023/24 for South Kesteven of £177,342.

The table in paragraph 2.15 of the report pack provided a breakdown of how the funding had been distributed, either by the Council’s own Cost of Living Team or by the support organisations such as Lincolnshire Community Foundation and the Post Office.

Information in paragraphs 2.24 to 2.54 of the report provided more detail regarding the various schemes and how they are administered.

The Team also provide a vital advice service, which, following receipt of referrals the team were able to contact the resident to discuss their current circumstances and determine the best support available to them.  The team utilise the support of other external agencies and also the Tenancy Support team for SKDC tenants.

Between 24 August and 31 December 2023, 682 referrals had been received.

As well as providing advice, the team had also been able to identify £49k of additional financial wrap around support for 235 of these residents.

There had been no announcement so far that HSF will continue in 2024/25. Any HSF funding that had not been issued in 2023/24 i.e. vouchers not redeemed, could be issued during 2024/25, providing it is for the same cohort of residents.

Any such decision would need to be approved by Lincolnshire County Council, as the recipient and distributing authority of the HSF funding.

Once the residual funding amount was known, and a decision had been made, the Cost of Living Team would propose a scheme of support for 2024/25.

Finally, the Cost of Living Team was currently funded to 31 March 2025. The team’s activities, as detailed in Appendix One, would continue and a further update as to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50.

The Council currently provides discretionary disabled facility grants (DFG) for adaptations to private residential dwellings within the district, in addition to its mandatory DFGs requirement. The Council is required to publish a policy if it provides discretionary DFGs and the existing Private Sector Housing Assistance Policy is out of date and due for review. The report provides the updated options of the policy for consideration.

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing presented the report.

South Kesteven District Council provided Disabled Facility Grants for the adaptation of properties of residents who require them be able to remain in their homes and complete everyday activities.

There were two main grant categories – mandatory and discretionary. In order to provide discretionary grants, the Council must have a policy covering this.

The polices for discussion were both for the discretionary grants, one had been created in conjunction with the other districts to try and create a standard offer across Lincolnshire, and the other is an updated South Kesteven District Council policy only.

The Council currently had a policy and either of the discussed policies will replace this once approved.

The funding came from a government awarded grants from the Better Care Fund and can only be used for the delivery of disabled adaptations. The grant award is provided annual and for the financial year 2023/24 the amount provided was £1,060,000.

The policies only covered grants awarded to the Private Housing Sector including Housing Associations and does not cover Council housing stock.

It was queried as to why the statistics used within the report were from 2009.

The Private Sector Housing Team Leader highlighted that it had been difficult to find more recent published information, but once the team had found more updated published information, the committee would be notified.

Clarification was sought around the differences between the two policies (SKDC standalone and Lincolnshire-wide).

The Private Sector Housing Team Leaderstated that the SKDC standalone policy was the current policy, and needed updating. There had been working groups in all seven of the county’s districts workingto develop a county-wide policy.

The main differences of the policies were outlined:

·       The Lincolnshire-wide policy did not specify individual grant types, whereas the SKDC policy did.

·       The cap for the Lincolnshire-wide policy was £15,000, and the cap for the SKDC policy was £10,000.

·       The third main difference was land chargeselements and products in terms of grants fir adaptations.

The Private Sector Housing Team Leader noted that there were no concerns with either policy.

One Member queried whether either of the policies had been means-tested.

It was confirmed that some aspects of the policy, including the mandatory aspects and some of the larger discretionary aspects, had been means-tested.  

It was questioned as to where the money attained from land charges would go.

The money attained from land charges would go into the discretionary funding pot to use on other grants.

Lincolnshire-wide policy may be the best option due to its handling of land charges. 

It was queried whether there was a difference in the costs of the land charges.

It was noted that there was not a difference in administrative costs or Officer time. The land charges were managed within the team.

The Private Sector Housing Team Leaderstated that Officers had no personal preference of either policy, it was noted  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

To receive the Work Programme for 2023-24.  

The Committee noted the Work Programme 2023-24.

The Director of Growth and Culture informed the Committee that the Heritage Action Zone would close on 31 March 2024 and had historically had been reported to Finance and Economic Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Chairman highlighted that the topic of flooding would be discussed at a future meeting.

One Member requested that a representative from Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) could attend the meeting where flooding would be discussed.

Another Member requested that the relevant Officer from the Emergency Planning and Health and Safety team attends the committee meeting in which flooding is discussed. Concerns were raised on the issue of contaminated sandbags and issues around storage. 

One Member queried the remit of the Committee and whether the creation of additional parking bays was included.

There were none.

The Chairman closed the meeting at 15:30.