Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED: That all items on the agenda be webcast.

Apologies were received from:

·  Councillor Round;

·  Councillor Wilson;

·  Councillor Joy;

·  Councillor Watson; and,

·  Councillor Munford.

·  Councillor Black was present as substitute for Councillor Wilson;

·  Councillor Butler was present as substitute for Councillor Round; and,

·  Councillor Vizzard was present as substitute for Councillor Joy.

There were no visiting members present.

There were no disclosures.

RESOLVED: That all items on the agenda be taken in public as proposed.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 12 August 2014 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Interview with Sarah Robson, Community Partnerships Manager

Sarah Robson, Community Partnerships Manager and Sarah Shearsmith, Community Development Team Leader, presented the update to the committee on the recommendations made as a result of the committees review entitled ‘Accessing Mental Health Services Before the Point of Crisis 2013.

Sarah Robson highlighted the main points to note since the update was published and responded to questions raised by the committee.

The updates and discussion on the recommendations were as follows:

Update and discussion - Review Recommendation 1 (a-d)

Alison Broom, Maidstone Borough Council’s Chief Executive and the council’s representative on the West Kent Health and Wellbeing Board was championing, on an on-going basis, a single point of access to mental health services.

The Assertive Outreach Service (AOS) provided with several local partner agencies was going well and had been extended to October 2014.  Outreach work provided support to clients with finding accommodation and work etc.  However, there were some cases where support was provided and the client returned to living on the street because of complex mental health issues.  Sarah Robson explained the difficulty was engaging with a wider range of partners to provide the services required to support these clients, such as substance misuse.

Sarah Robson explained two additional police officers had recently taken up their post and staff were engaging with them and sharing the knowledge and information gathered by the service.

The Street Triage service was provided mainly in the town centre where there was easy access to parks and urban areas where drug misuse was greater.  However, needles were being found in suburban areas too.

Sarah Robson advised the committee of the many reasons people lived on the streets.  The reasons ranged from substance misuse (choosing to fund a habit rather than pay their rent); inability to find accommodation because of no local connection; foreign nationals; choosing it as a lifestyle.

Professional begging was an issue with the street population.  This was people who received benefits and begged on the street.  Sweeps of the town were being carried out with local police officers to tackle this problem.  The issue was how to instigate sanctions to disrupt this behaviour.

Sarah Robson went on to explain there was a need to engage with and support addicts.

Councillors were encouraged to increase their knowledge and understanding of street populations by getting involved, e.g. working on the Urban Blue bus, attending the Crime and Disorder Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 14 October 2014, where a report on the Street Population would be presented.

The committee was informed there were particular times of the day when the street population was high, e.g. before 8am when people were going to work; when people were coming home from work, and; before and after the opening of the day care centres.

The committee discussed a new piece of work being carried out with people who hoard.  The difficulty was hoarders have complex mental health issues but were still deemed to have mental capacity to live independently.  This made it difficult to get agencies  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

Interview with Neil Coles, Housing Services Manager

In the absence of an officer the committee agreed to discuss the report.

The council’s Empty Homes Plan was adopted in January 2013 and set out three priorities to support empty homes being brought back into use across the borough:

·  Priority 1 – Minimise the number of empty homes through the council’s interventions;

·  Priority 2 – Maximise opportunities for returning homes back into use through initiatives and incentives, and;

·  Priority 3 – Maximise the effectiveness of enforcement action to bring empty homes back into use.

The Empty Homes Plan included an action plan to return empty homes back into use.  Performance against the action plan was reported as follows:

·  Between January 2013 and July 2014 212 empty homes had been returned to use following the council’s intervention;

·  Between November 2012 and October 2013 statistics showed the number of empty homes across Maidstone reduced by 11% from 1,401 to 1,239;

·  The number of long-term empty homes reduced by 1.4% from 420 to 414;

·  The number of empty homes across Maidstone as a percentage of the total dwelling stock fell from 2.11% to 1.85%.

During discussion the following questions were raised:

·  Would funding beyond 2015 be available to staff the Empty Homes initiative?

·  Would the empty homes bought back into use be used as ‘windfall’ figures to reduce the objectively assessed housing need figure for the Local Plan?

RESOLVED: That,

The Community, Environment and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted the contents of the report.

The following questions be send to the Head of Housing and Community Services:

·  Would funding beyond 2015 be available to staff the Empty Homes initiative?

·  Would the empty homes bought back into use be used as ‘windfall’ figures to reduce the objectively assessed housing need figure for the Local Plan?

Report attached for consideration

RESOLVED: that,

1.  The Private Rented Sector Update report be programmed in for a future meeting;

2.  An update report on the second collective switching campaign be presented to the committee at their 10 February 2015 meeting by Programme Manager (Financial Inclusion and Maidstone Families Matter);

3.  The CAMHS review topic be replaced with Maternity Services in the Borough (are they working?) Review at the meeting of 9 December 2014;

4.  Ann Barnes, Police Crime Commissioner (PCC) and the Borough Commander be invited to the Crime and Disorder meeting scheduled for the 14 October 2014 to provide:

·  An overview of the role of the PCC;

·  An update on performance to date;

·  Outline of the plans for the future;

·  Their views on the Crime and Disorder Overview and Scrutiny Committee and how they can work together in the future.

6:30pm to 8:35pm