Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Fay Gooch, Cllr John A. Wilson, Cllr Eric Hotson, Cllr Fran Wilson, Cllr Stephen Paine, Cllr Stephen Beerling, Chief Inspector Jon Bumpus, Charlotte Osborne-Forde, Martin Adams and Cllr John Hughes.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the Meeting held on 1 October 2012 be approve as a correct record and signed.

All matters and actions arising agreed and all are on target.

David Weiss, Kent County Council,

Zena Cooke, Maidstone Borough Council

Overview:

The Troubled Families programme is based on a Payment By Results scheme, which will be front loaded in the first year, with an attachment fee of £3,200 per family and an additional Payment by Result payment of £700 per family. Families are identified through the following criteria; school exclusions, worklessness and crime/antisocial behaviour - families identified will need to meet two out of the three criteria. The Troubled Families programme provides the opportunity to redesign and transform services which support these families, aligning and targeting programmes, particularly around early intervention and prevention work. The Troubled Families programme is supported by a multi-agency governance model.

Troubled Families continues the work that was undertaken as part of Kent’s Community Budgets pilot in 2011. The lessons learnt from these pilots, particularly around the success of intensive family intervention and workforce development and support has been fed into the Troubled Families model with Local Project Boards now set up in each of the Kent districts. Central government estimates a £62–75k saving per family engaged and supported through Troubled Families. 

Kent’s Troubled Families programme has established links with the European Social Fund ‘Progress’ programme being delivered by Skills Training UK across Kent. The Progress programme has been designed to move participants closer to the labour market and could potentially provide the ‘exit strategy’ for those families who are participants of the Kent’s Troubled Families.

The district target for Maidstone is to work with 80 families in Year 1 and indicatively in Year 2, starting April 2013, a target of 81 families.  The latest reconciled number is 69.

Ellie Kershaw has been appointed as the Maidstone based local Project Delivery Manager based at Maidstone Borough Council. Maidstone’s next steps will be to agree the establishment of a Project Board from current local bodies and a Local Operational group supported through an expanded Maidstone Community Safety Unit. There are opportunities to align with other services such as the Kent Integrated Adolescent Support Service being piloted and due to be rolled out across Kent in 2013.

Those families engaged through Troubled Families will be asked to consider/agree to a Family CAF. Families will be allocated a Case Worker to provide a wraparound support service linking in with local service providers. For very intensive families, FIP workers will be utilised and two will be allocated from February 2013.

Discussion - key points:

·  Troubled Families will provide intensive, direct support to families tailored around the key issues e.g. educational attainment, offending, antisocial behaviour etc.

·  Most families will have issues they want help with, for example, social housing, help with children and alcohol problems. The FIP workers will trigger a good relationship with each family. Inherent issues such as debt, for example, rental arrears and money management will also be addressed. 

·  Each district will identify different needs and issues to support their approach to Troubled Families in their localities. Through lessons learnt from the pilot projects, Troubled Families will encourage a positive and innovative use of public money to support  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

Priority Focus Group and co-ordination of sub-groups/Localising the performance information, Debra Exall, Kent County Council and Zena Cooke, Maidstone Borough Council

Overview:

In March 2012, the Maidstone Locality Board approved the following three priorities;

Community Budgets; Tackling Worklessness and Poverty; and Local Environmental Improvements. The paper circulated outlines each of the priorities in more depth and provides a performance framework and score card for each.

Discussion - key points:

·  The report is based on a partnership approach with references to Maidstone Borough being the geographical area rather than the District Council.  Other agencies across the borough are part of the approach to tackle issues, particularly around employment, skills and training.

·  It was suggested that the work of the Maidstone Worklessness Forum, being led by Golding Homes, could be reflected into the Reducing Worklessness and Poverty priority.

·  Jobcentre Plus has a structure in place to help support the priorities and is engaged with the Locality Board support officers.

·  Need to consider transport costs and links (particularly buses and trains links), which should be integrated into each priority.

Recommendation:

The Maidstone Locality Board were asked to endorse;

·  The Community Budgets priority becoming Community Budgets (Troubled Families). The sub-group overseeing this priority will therefore effectively become the Local Project Board for the Troubled Families programme in Maidstone.

·  Establishment of Chairs against each priority sub group.

Decisions:
The Maidstone Locality Board approved the following:

·  Agreed a Chair for each of the priority sub groups as follows;

o  Community Budgets (Troubled Families) – Cllr Chris Garland

o  Tackling Worklessness and Poverty – Cllr Gary Cooke

o  Local Environmental Improvements – Cllr Marion Ring

Each Project Lead will establish a Project Group (meeting quarterly), consisting of county and district members and local agencies, subject to approval by the Maidstone Locality Board Chair and Vice Chair.

Mike Whiting, Cabinet Member for Education, Learning and Skills,

David Adams, Area Education Officer, Kent County Council

Overview:

The first draft of Kent’s Commissioning Plan for Education Provision was published in October 2012. Local knowledge is essential to this process, with discussions taking place around future housing needs and development proposals (including Section 106 contributions and Community Infrastructure Levy) with a borough-specific focus sufficiently localised to support school place planning.  Maidstone Locality Board is being asked to look at the locality to ensure children are being allocated spaces within their immediate locality, rather than further away from their locality.  KCC will be working hard to bring all schools up to standard across the county.

Discussion - key points:

·  Funding for new school places via the procurement process needs to be done in partnership with the Borough Council, particularly around planning decisions and future housing needs to ensure this can be factored into pupil forecast numbers and overall infrastructure needs.

·  Enhancing parental choice is essential to support local school places for local children.

·  Enable a balance in the commissioning process and school standards measures - as many secondary schools are now academies, KCC does not have direct control of these and this needs to be factored into plans, particularly through MBC’s planning process.

·  Projected figures in the circulated paper we queried – with projected housing figures and school places not matching - figures need to be brought up to date as soon as possible.

·  Place planning is difficult with the introduction of ‘free’ schools, which do not necessarily take into account locality planning. The Secretary of State has started discussions with KCC.

Recommendation:

The Maidstone Locality Board were asked to agree;

·  The establishment of a focus group, on a task and finish basis, to include elected Member representation from both County and Borough members and other interested Maidstone Locality Board partners.

·  It was noted that a joint KCC and MBC officer group has been established looking at infrastructure demand, including housing, transport, parks and open spaces and school places. It is essential for information is shared as there are limitations to the choice of spatial agreements. A fresh piece of work is underway (due April 2013) regarding land availability and an increased housing target.

Decisions:
The Maidstone Locality Board endorsed the recommendation. GC proposed that Paulina Stockell lead on this focus group. The proposal was approved by the Chair.

o  Future Kent Libraries provision update

Sue Sparks, Kent County Council

Future Kent Libraries provision update (paper)

Paulina Stockell, Maidstone Rural West Division, Kent County Council and Vice-Chair of the Maidstone Locality Board

·  The Libraries provision discussion is ongoing regarding the future service model for each individual library within the borough. The Locality Board will be updated as progress is made.

Information Items

The following papers had been circulated with the agenda and were noted:

·  Youth Services Transformation update (paper), Nigel Baker, Kent County Council

Make Kent Quicker update (paper), Abi Jessop, Kent County Council

2.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m.