Issue - meetings

The Lead Member for Communities and Public Engagement introduced the report and stated that following agreement from the previous Communities, Housing and Environment Committee in November 2021, the service level agreements (SLA) in place with several community organisations had been reviewed. The purpose of the review was to ensure that the services provided met the needs of the Council and its residents and included reviewing performance monitoring and staff consultation; the organisations were the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), Maidstone Mediation and Involve Kent.

It was stated that overall, the Council’s staff were satisfied with the services provided through the SLAs with the CAB and Maidstone Mediation, with no changes to the SLA recommended. The Council and the CAB would continue working together to ensure that the performance monitoring data included the information required to enable the Council to improve the support provided to housing clients. The services provided through the SLA with Involve Kent were not a proactive tool to encourage engagement and reach the borough’s communities that were currently disengaged, with it recommended that the SLA not be renewed. The positive working relationships with Involve were noted.

The Visiting Member declared that they had an interest in the matter as they worked within the sector.  

In response to questions, the Insight, Communities and Governance Manager advised that they did not have data on the housing list wait times. It was reiterated that the Council and the CAB would be reviewing how data was provided, to enable analysis to better understand service demand to take place, to provide proactive and preventative responses where possible. The work between the Council’s Housing Team and the CAB specifically was referenced, to resolve any issues arising from transferring clients between the services.

In response to further questions, the Head of Housing and Regulatory Services explained that the Helping You Home project from the Better Care Fund is still in place. The Lead Member for Communities and Public Engagement stated that the funding from not renewing the SLA in place would be used to commission engagement with communities.

The Committee expressed that they wished to commend the work completed.

RESOLVED: That

1.  The findings of the of the review of Commissioning Support for the Voluntary and Community Sector outlined at paragraphs 2.29-2.32 in the report, be noted;

The Lead Member for Communities and Public Engagement be recommended to approve that:

2.  The SLA with Involve Kent is not renewed; and

3.  The funding instead be used to commission proactive engagement with seldom heard groups within the community.