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MINUTES OF THE MAIDSTONE LOCALITY BOARD
25 June 2012, 2.00pm – 4.00pm, Council Chamber, Maidstone Town Hall
Present |
Cllr Chris Garland (CG)
Cllr Paulina Stockell (PS)
Cllr Stephen Beerling (SB) Cllr Fay Gooch (FG) Cllr Malcolm Greer (MG)
Cllr Eric Hotson (EH)
Cllr Derek Mortimer (DM) Cllr Marion Ring (MR) Cllr John A Wilson (JAW)
Cllr Paul Carter (PC) Cllr Alan Chell (AC) Cllr Ian Chittenden (IT) Cllr Gary Cooke (GC)
Cllr Dan Daley (DD) Cllr Jenny Whittle (JW)
Cllr Paul Butcher (PB)
Martin Adams (MA)
Jon Bumpus (JB)
Terry Hall (TH) Charlotte Osborne-Forde (COF) John Taylor (JT)
Lucy Anderson (LA) Emma Barrett (EB) Alison Broom (AB) Duncan Bruce (DB) Zena Cooke (ZC) Debra Exall (DE) Christine Henderson (CH) Sam Hopley (SH) Abi Jessop (AJ)
John Littlemore (JL) Kathy Melling (KM) Sarah Robson (SR) Emma Ockelford (EO) |
Leader of Maidstone Borough Council (MBC), and Chair of the Maidstone Locality Board Maidstone Rural West Division, Kent County Council (KCC) and Vice-Chair of the Maidstone Locality Board Liberal Democrat Councillor, Fant Ward, MBC
Independent Councillor, Barming Ward, MBC Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Transport, MBC Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, MBC and Maidstone Rural South, KCC Shadow Cabinet Member, Communities and Leisure, MBC Cabinet Member for Environment, MBC Cabinet Member for Community Services and Leisure, MBC KCC Leader, Maidstone Rural North Division Maidstone South Division, KCC Maidstone North East Division, KCC Deputy Cabinet Member for Education, Learning and Skills, Maidstone South East Division, KCC Maidstone Central Division, KCC Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services, Maidstone Rural East Division, KCC Maidstone Area Committee, Kent Association of Local Councils (KALC)
Area Manager, Kent Fire & Rescue Service, Chair of Safer Maidstone Partnership Chief Inspector, Kent Police Health Inequalities Manager, West Kent PCT Chief Executive, Voluntary Action Maidstone
Director of Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce and Chair of Economic Development and Regeneration Group Skills Training UK SILK Programme Manager, KCC Chief Executive, MBC Community Partnerships Officer, MBC Director of Regeneration & Communities, MBC Strategic Relationships Adviser, KCC Community Partnerships Support Officer, MBC
CEO, Time Banking UK Community Engagement Officer for Maidstone, KCC Head of Housing and Community Services, MBC Adult Social Services, KCC Community Partnerships Manager, MBC Management Trainee, KCC (observer |
Apologies |
Cllr Fran Wilson Cllr Stephen Paine
Cllr Malcolm Robertson Cllr John Hughes Jackie Pye |
Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, MBC Cabinet Member for Planning, Transport and Development, MBC Maidstone Central Liberal Democrat KCC Kent Association of Local Councils (KALC) Park Wood Time Banking |
Substitutes |
Terry Hall, Health Inequalities Manager, West Kent PCT substituting for Jay Edwins, Head of Strategic Partnerships, NHS West Kent
Cllr Paul Butcher, substituting for Cllr John Hughes, representing Kent Association of Local Councils KALC |
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MINUTES |
1.
1.1
1.2
1.3
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Welcome by the Chair Cllr Chris Garland, Leader of Maidstone Borough Council.
Cllr Garland welcomed everyone present to the meeting of the Maidstone Locality Board.
Apologies for absence and substitutes were noted as listed above.
Minutes of the last meeting 28 March 2012: These were agreed as a true record with no amendments. |
2. |
Matters and Actions Arising LMB meeting 28 March 2012 Refer to separate Action/Matters Arising Log
All actions completed, except for two which are on this agenda. |
3. 3.1
3.2
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Tackling Worklessness Introductory presentation by Zena Cooke, Director of Regeneration and Communities, MBC The presentation gave the current position concerning the extent of youth unemployment and barriers to employment. It also set out a series of practical actions to address this priority. (See presentation slides attached to these minutes.)
Comments PC – Reminded the meeting of the £2m Kent apprenticeships scheme and of the need for linking up initiatives in a cohesive way. ZC – MBC’s co-ordinating function is confirmed. GC – It may be that up to 25% of the Kent apprenticeships scheme could be directed towards Maidstone. CG – Can that 25% be confirmed? GC – No, but we need to keep a Maidstone context.
Case Studies 1. Supporting communities back into work – Time banking: developing the model in Maidstone (presentations) http://www.timebanking.org/about/what-is-a-timebank/ Sam Hopley, CEO, Timebanking UK and CEO HCCT, Camden Shares Vicky Butler, SILK Team, KCC · Timebanking started in 1996 and has grown to over 3m hrs a year. The principle is an hour for an hour, and is used for the co-production of community services; · A grant of e.g. £5,000 is good, but it is even better if it comes with 100 people hours; · Timebanking aims to build solutions at local level, with self-sustaining and cost neutral schemes; · Participants earn credits for hours worked and often find that time banking is a stepping stone into paid work; · Parkwood is a large scheme with over 1,000 credits currently in circulation http://socialinnovation.typepad.com/silk/2010/09/time-banking-in-parkwood.html ; · Credits are ‘recycled’ around e.g. from school to Fusion Café to volunteer time; · Some people have made the transition in to work. A good example is John who now runs his own handyman service.
Discussion SH – In answer to a question on costs, start-up costs are minimal; MR – Need one point of contact for youth, older people. So many groups are overlapping in their work. Accountability is needed as to where NEETS end up; CG – Timebanking is about a long term commitment to finding work, not endless volunteering; VB – Parkwood decided that they did not want a paid worker to promote the scheme; DD – Need to focus down on one target – 50 work experience placements. What return to work courses are available? Could incentivise/contract with young people NEET; GC – Timebanking needs more flexibility as to how to spend time credits. Is it possible to widen the range of ‘outlets’, and add value to the time banking hour; ZC – The Parkwood scheme could be widened to include e.g. subsidised cinema tickets, subsidised transport.
2. Progress! Programme – supporting local people into employment – (Presentation) Kathy Melling, KCC Adult Social Services, & Lucy Anderson, Skills Training UK LA – Skills Training UK deliver employment training across the whole south-east.
http://www.skillstraininguk.com/
KM – In answer to a query on the two Troubled Families ‘strands’ (European Social Foundation and Dept Work & Pensions), the main difference between the two is the referral route. The referral route for ESF puts local authorities in control. Eligibility has recently been relaxed so that only one family member has to be in receipt of a work-related benefit.
Discussion EH – Will agencies e.g. Police, HNS, Courts give the savings from the troubled families scheme back to local authorities? ZC – Funding is not really the problem, getting and keeping co-ordinated is. IC – How many potential clients are there in Kent? LA – There is an allocation of 2,600 in Kent, the largest allocation in South-East. The aim is to identify them by June 2014. There are 222 indicative clients in Maidstone, and 73 individuals have been referred so far in Kent. Kent is rolling out the scheme local authority by local authority – 6 Councils so far referring into the scheme; JW – Is the referral criteria the same as for the DWP scheme? KM – There is no attachment fee, only payment by results on progress measures. DWP have set a target of 30% of clients in sustained employment. JW – What is the cost? LA - £14m in the South-East, but will find the figure for Kent; CG – Do we know where the NEETS are? ZC – Yes – Connexions track them; JAW – How are we joining up? LA – Intensive family intervention in the home ¢ then work with Skills Training UK to get into employment; ZC – The two strands are: ü DWP ¢ ESF ¢ employment based ü DCLG ¢ Troubled Families; PC – The two streams have potential for massive overlap, well intentioned silos; GC – There is a need to keep it simple, add clarity
PC – KCC will recruit 12 local authority co-ordinators; JT – Employers have barriers to employing people – reasons why they might not recruit – need to talk to employers to gain real understanding; PC – If 10,000 Eastern Europeans can find work, why can’t our unemployed – the attractiveness of work should increase as the welfare/benefits regime changes; JT – Youth unemployment is high, but are they prepared for work? Abilities and attitude; ZC – There are sufficient vacancies; The co-ordinating function applies not just to the public sector, but to the private sector as well; Work placements do lead to permanent employment; PC – Is it possible to circulate the profile of those vacancies; GC – Maidstone’s Core Strategy 2026 pledges jobs growth, we must build a model that ensures the ‘supply’ of NEETS is cut of; CG – Proceed to vote.
Agreed: The Proposed Actions in the Director of Regeneration & Communities’ presentation were agreed: i. Invite Job Centre Plus to join the Maidstone Locality Board; ii. Establish a co-ordinating function within MBC; iii. Identify and engage with 10 local employers to support and mentor young people NEET; iv. Secure 50 work experience placements by December 2012; v. Use Connexions data to identify 30 NEETs and work with them into employment within 6 months; vi. Present the findings of barriers to employment and make further recommendations at the next meeting. |
4.
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Locality Board Priorities – Recommendations from Focus Group Update by Councillor Gary Cooke, Deputy Cabinet Member for Education, Learning and Skills, KCC GC updated the meeting as to results from the Priorities Focus Group meeting 28 May where Members concentrated on differentiating between: Population Accountability – concerns the wellbeing of whole populations Performance Accountability – concerns the wellbeing of customer populations, and thereby moving from ends to means, turning talk into action.
Agreed: The full results of the Priorities Focus Group 28 May to be circulated with these Minutes. |
5.
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5.5 |
Any Other Business
Update on Transforming Youth Services in Maidstone (verbal update), Cllr Gary Cooke, Kent County Council GC gave a summary of the results of the Transforming Youth Services Focus Group meetings held in April & May. The PQQ and ITT/Work Specification had been considered in detail, youth facilities in Lenham would remain, and questions regarding the funding of building maintenance raised with KCC property. PB raised the issue that young people themselves seemed not to have been very involved with the Youth Service Transformation, and that KALC would seek to meet with KCC to address the gaps in provision.
Agreed: i) MLB to note the report ii) KALC will seek to meet with the relevant KCC cabinet member.
Maidstone Integrated Local Area Workforce Strategy (InLAWS) (verbal update), Zena Cooke, Maidstone Borough Council InLAWS is a long-term strategy for the health and social care workforce.
Agreed: Actions arising from the report to be considered in greater detail at the next MLB meeting (1 October).
KCC Consultation: Draft Commissioning Plan for Education Provision 2012-17 (paper), Cllr Gary Cooke, Kent County Council and Zena Cooke, Director of Regeneration and Communities, MBC ZC introduced the Draft Commissioning Plan and highlighted its main proposals for Maidstone, including the provision of temporary classrooms and new schools. GC clarified that the Draft Plan was based on standard class sizes of 30 in primary schools, 33 for juniors.
Agreed: To note the consultation document Draft Commissioning Plan for Education Provision 2012-17 and that MLB member organisations will respond individually to it as appropriate.
Maidstone Locality Board Logo and Website (paper), Sarah Robson, Maidstone Borough Council
Agreed: i) The MLB logo design was accepted without change. ii) The Board agreed to the website as it is developed.
Broadband – Make Kent Quicker campaign (verbal update), Abi Jessop, Kent County Council MLB members were asked to encourage to people to register for this campaign (Maidstone has the second highest request rate in the County at 13.3%).
A query was raised regarding DEFRA grant. To be followed-up with relevant KCC/MBC officers. |
6. |
Close Meeting ended 16:10 |