To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 11 December 2008 .

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 December 2008 were agreed as a true record.

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Debbie Bartlett, Ian Clarke, Katie Elliott, Andrew Heginbotham, Trevor Holden, Brian Horner, Dave Seaton and Caroline Williams.

To receive an update from Mark Fretwell, Breckland Partnership (LSP) Officer.

Mark Fretwell gave an update on the SCS six priorities (Developing Safer & Stronger Communities, Improving Homes, Promoting & Developing a Thriving Economy, Improving the Health & Wellbeing of Local People, Ensuring the accessibility of all Services and Environmental Sustainability).  Project Groups had been set up for all but two.  The aim was to deliver priorities and provide an evidence base to prove that the Partnership was adding value.

The Project Groups were meeting bi-monthly with reports to the LSP Board. Where there were cross-cutting links between the priorities and Project Groups these should be demonstrable and developed further.

Partners were asked to let Mark know which Project Groups they would like to be involved with so that he could target e-mails to those that were interested.

Project Groups Update would be a standing agenda item in future.

(Rob Walker – Project Lead)

Rob Walker told the Board that over 200 nominations had been received for the Pride Awards which would be presented at Lynford Hall on 20 March 2009.  A panel had met to decide the winners last week. 

A ‘Breckland’s Got Talent’ event would be held in the Memorial Hall in Dereham on Wednesday 25 February 2009 and all Partners were welcome to attend.

The Clean-Up Campaigns and Arts Project had made a reasonable start but needed to gain momentum.

With the support of £15,000 funding from the Fire Service the Community Rangers Scheme was being revitalised and would take a more pro-active role in future.

Other events planned included improvements to the Queen Mother’s Garden in Dereham to mark its 25^th anniversary and looking at ways to improve the lay-by at Roudham Heath.

It was also hoped to mark St George’s Day (Thursday 23 April 2009) in some way and Partners were asked to put forward suggestions.

A Partner suggested that there was enormous potential to involve the community but that the focus should be on bigger issues, such as Carbon reduction.

Rob confirmed that this was one of the longer-term aims, together with improving the environment.  More community involvement was sought and Mike Onassis had been out meeting agencies, individuals, communities and groups.  He had also visited schools to encourage children to be more environmentally aware.

The Chairman noted that most of the projects were being lead by Breckland Council and asked the Partners to be more pro-active.  There was money available (£35,000 per year) but the response had been disappointing and few projects were coming forward.

(Martin Seymour, Project Lead)

Andrew Egerton-Smith regretted that as Martin Seymour was unavailable he was unable to give an update.

As Martin was leaving the PCT another representative would be invited to the next meeting to update the Board on the Falls programme.

(Mark Stanton, Project Lead)

Mark Stanton told the Board that the Economic Project Group had taken ownership of this project.  He would bring a full progress report on the Action Plan to the next meeting.  They were focussing on where to concentrate resources to maximise delivery.

34 grants had been made by the BELA 2 Project for equipment, training, etc to help start up businesses.  This had been a very successful and over-subscribed project.  As such it had not been necessary to use the marketing budget.  Mark asked the Board to agree to the re-use of this money, together with the funds left over from the BELA 1 project.  He also asked for a further £5,000 allocation from the Board, to continue the work.  Match funding would also be sought from Breckland.

Partners discussed the importance of being able to evidence the success of this Project and Mark Fretwell mentioned that they hoped to hold a networking event, such as a breakfast or lunch and invite all grant recipients to see how they were progressing and to offer further business advice.

RESOLVED

(1)               that £5,000 funding be provided to continue the BELA 2 Project;

(2)               that money remaining from the BELA 1 project and the marketing budget be re-allocated to the BELA 2 Project.

Mark Stanton updated Members on the IT training arranged with Poultec in Mattishall.  15 hours of one-to-one training courses were booked for March, six delegates had already signed up.

The UEA had also offered training at no cost working mainly with professionals and skilled people who had been made redundant.

Mark Fretwell told the Board that £2,000 was set aside for ‘Train the Trainer’ and a meeting with CAB would take place next week to ensure the focus was targeted to provide consistent and professional advice across the district.

Mark Fretwell also advised the Board that £5,000 was set-aside for Pre-ESOL (English as a Second Language).  The tender was out and a decision would be made on 2 March 2009.  This had a natural linkage to the ESOL training. 

Reacting to the current climate two job fairs had been arranged in Dereham on 6 March 2009 and Watton on 1 April 2009.  Partners were asked for their help to promote these events (flyer attached).

Finally, as part of the Pride Campaign, the BLISS (Breckland Local Independent Shop Stars) nominations were running with people being able to vote on-line (www.breckland.gov.uk/bliss_awards) and at publicity stalls being held in the market towns on market days.  Currently 80 businesses had signed up to participate and others were added to the list as they put themselves forward.  Two awards would be presented at the Lynford Hall event on 20 March 2009, for Best Market Town Shop and Best Rural Shop.

(Rob Walker and Martin Seymour)

Rob Walker told Partners that the Project Initiation Document (PID) attached to the agenda represented stage one in the project planning process.  Delivery proper would start on 1 April 2009, which was one year into the project.  At that point the first £90,000 would be released.

Currently a Project Manager was being recruited by the PCT.  They were the accountable body.

Update by Rob Walker.

The final report was being drafted and would be circulated to Partners for comment when it was available.

No big problems had been found in the district, though there were some areas to improve on.  

There was an opportunity to take part in a Local Pathfinder Initiative to increase active citizenship.  This was not exclusive to migrant communities.  Rob Walker was keen to speak to colleagues to see how people could be encouraged to volunteer and take part in community projects.

To receive the attached report by Mark Fretwell, Breckland Partnership (LSP) Officer.

A pre-meeting had been held to identify the options available and these were listed in the report.  Most support at that meeting had been for the Eco-House which would be ‘virtual’ and had scope to link to the police, fire, health, etc.

If done professionally this could reach lots of groups and involve Partners and other stakeholders such as the Utilities.  It was also an opportunity to train people to install green initiatives in homes and would meet a lot of Partner requirements.

An initial quote was for between £6,000 and £8,000 to set this up.  Local businesses were willing to get involved.   Match funding might be available.

Mark was also looking for involvement in Environment Awareness events to be held in the market towns between 14 and 18 April and on dates to be confirmed in August.  If the website was up-and-running at that time the virtual house could be publicised at these events. 

Breckland Council was planning to sign up to the Nottingham Declaration by the end of March; this encouraged people to work together to tackle climate change.  Mark asked Partners what their commitment was to working in partnership to tackle climate change.

Mark Fretwell sought agreement for a sum of money to be offered by the Board so that the Project Group could work out match funding and target spending.  However none of the Partners were able to make an offer of funds. 

The Chairman was concerned that almost no money was coming forward for projects apart from that provided by the Council.  He asked Partners to approach outside sources like Norwich Union, if necessary, to try to secure funding.

To receive a presentation by Sarah Hassan and Brigitte Morton, Library and Information Service.

This item was deferred to a later meeting.

To receive a presentation by Lucy Walker, Learning Skills Council (LSC).

Lucy Walker apologised that she was not able to table the report at this time and it was therefore deferred to a later meeting.

To receive an update from Mark Fretwell, Breckland Partnership (LSP) Officer.

This Charter was launched at the Council meeting on 29 January 2009 and was fully endorsed by ENCAMS. 

A flyer would be sent to every household and there was a link to the Charter on the Breckland Council website.  The work was supported by Peddars Way Housing Association.

There were a large number of agencies responsible for different services.  The list on page two was very helpful but needed to be updated regularly.  ENCAMS would come back on a six monthly basis to assist with reviewing the Charter.

It was pointed out that there were actually five SNTs in Breckland, not four as quoted on page 4 and Mark Stokes agreed to change this.

To receive the attached report.

Mark Fretwell had received some responses but urged all Partners to attend the Workshop on 23 March 2009 from 1.30 – 5.00pm in the Anglia Room, Conference Suite at the Council offices.

The Risk Matrix had been adopted by Norfolk County Council as best practice.  It showed how to assess risk in terms of likelihood and impact and to manage risk; gave clear quantative evaluations and was easy to use.

RESOLVED to:

(1)               note the contents of the report; and

(2)               adopt the proposed 3 x 3 risk scoring matrix to assess and prioritise LSP risks and the management of those risks.

To receive the attached report by Mark Fretwell, Breckland Partnership (LSP) Officer.

Following the presentation to the last meeting, Mark Fretwell explained the links between the LDF and the SCS.  Both used the same evidence base and the LDF was required to give due regard to the SCS.

There was a £326 million growth agenda and the LSP could be used to manage this and to ensure that growth contributed to the wider requirements of the district. 

Mark suggested that a separate group could be set up, involving the Utilities, to promote the growth agenda and to act as a fulcrum between the public agencies and the developers to co-ordinate the approach across the whole district.  He asked how the Board felt about this role.

There was already a County-wide group and a Partner wondered if the Utilities would ‘buy-in’ at district level.

Mark was asked to provide more information on how this would work by getting the Terms of Reference of the Huntingdonshire scheme and bringing another report to the Board.

To receive a verbal update by Mark Fretwell, Breckland Partnership (LSP) Officer.

Mark Fretwell updated the Board on the findings of the Audit Commission.  He agreed with the points made; there were weaknesses but these could be built on.  There were also many positives to take from the report. 

The main points were that the people round the table were not able to make the decisions; and that there was a need to look at the bigger picture and not get bogged down in small projects.

A Partner agreed that the decision makers were not at the meetings, but said that because of the structure of different organisations, senior managers were not available to attend.

The Chairman agreed with this and asked Partners to write to the Audit Commission challenging the findings.  The Government targets were still there and the Commission needed to understand the difficulties experienced.

Mark Fretwell said there was a need to develop better partnership working.  He suggested a Partnership website would be a good idea.  He also felt that the structure, constitution and membership of the LSP needed to be looked at.  He wanted more LAA indicator leads involved and a problem solving approach to tackle hard to reach targets collectively.

To receive an update on Partnership finances.

There was currently £43,500 in the budget, of which £5,000 had been committed during the meeting.

Pride campaign currently had about £90,000 uncommitted.

News about Second Homes Council Tax was still awaited.

To agree items for inclusion on the next or future agenda.

It had already been agreed that the Skills Road Map (Agenda Item 10) would appear on a future agenda.

To note that the next meeting of the LSP Board will be held on Thursday 14 May 2009, at 2.00 pm in the Anglia Room, Elizabeth House, Breckland Council.

A list of future LSP Board and Project Group meeting dates is attached for information.

The next meeting of the LSP Board would be on Thursday 14 May 2009, at 2.00pm in the Anglia Room, Elizabeth House, Breckland Council.