To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on the 19 February 2009.

The minutes of the meeting held on 19 February 2009 were agreed as a true record.

Mark Fretwell had received requests from the Probation Board and the East of England Faiths Council to join the Partnership.

AGREED that both groups be invited to nominate a representative to join the Partnership.

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Mike Austin, Debbie Bartlett, Andrew Egerton-Smith, Katie Elliott and Trevor Holden.

Members are asked at this stage to declare any interests they may have in any of the following items on the agenda.

Jan Godfrey declared a personal interest in Agenda Item 9 – Project Rainbow.

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

Mark Fretwell gave an update on the status of the working groups.

Currently the Economic, Environment and Pride Project groups were meeting.  They had been affected by the loss of the Pride Co-ordinator.  The Environment Project was in its early stages and the Health & Wellbeing Project was holding its first workshop the next day (10 June 2009).

There was work to be done on achieving the priorities of Housing, Access to Services and Safer Communities.

The Migration bid (to be discussed at Agenda Item 12) could lead to a multi-group forum, if successful.

Mark suggested that an Away Day could be arranged for the Board to review the Sustainable Community Strategy achievements to date and looking at all areas including CAA, performance management, budgets, outcomes, etc.

There was more money available than had been expected due to an increase from Second Homes Council Tax.  The Chairman wanted Partners to come forward with projects.  He wanted the money spent, but proposals had to add value.

Sandy Brady introduced herself; she had taken over from Martin Seymour.  She said that NHS Norfolk would be sending one non-executive Director and one Executive Director to represent them on the Board in future.  They would like to look at the strategic plan and make it the focus of the Health & Wellbeing Group as the previous action plan was considered to be too big.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 4 April 2009.

Rob Walker – Lead.

Rob Walker told the Board that since the Pride Co-ordinator had left they had tried to recruit a successor through the National Graduate Scheme, but had been unsuccessful.  The post would now be advertised internally for five days before being publicised externally.

Rob gave the Board details of some of the grants, totalling about £4,000, that had been awarded by the previous Co-ordinator.  These included:

-        Donations to all five Town Councils towards Breckland in Bloom and dog waste schemes

-        Grants for spring bulb planting to several Parish Councils and other village groups

He wanted to formalise the process to make it fair and transparent, and no new grants would be awarded until a new Co-ordinator was appointed.  However, £5,000 had been set aside for small grant schemes – up to £250.

Allocation of the rest of the money, which was about £40,000, would be discussed at the next meeting of the Pride Project Group.

The Community Rangers and Fire Service Project was doing well but needed officer resources to support it.

Andrew Egerton-Smith – Lead.

Lucy MacLeod gave a presentation on the PCT’s five year Strategic Plan.  She said that funding had been allocated, but was not ‘set in stone’.

Four Strategic Challenges had been identified:

-        To halt and reduce the increasing gap in health inequalities across specific health issues and communities

-        To design and commission world class healthcare for the elderly and ageing population

-        To enable fair and equal access to all services for all communities; especially for those living in rural areas

-        To shift high quality care closer to home from acute to community settings.

Focus would be on three areas:

1.      Lifestyle and Prevention

-        Inequalities

-        Lifestyle

-        Empowering Communities

-        Empowering High Risk Groups

2.         Personalisation, Independence and Choice

-        Choice

-        Older People

-        Prevention and Independence

3.         Right Care, Right Time, Right Place

-        Fair and Equal Access

-        Integrated Care Closer to Home

The PCTs would work with Partners to put these things in place for local and rural communities.  They would be looking at cardio-vascular disease first then broadening their scope to include diabetes and cancer.  Services would be mapped to see where they fell short and resources would then be targeted to address these areas.

A member asked what the NHS saw as ‘hard to reach groups’ and was advised that they included Travellers, migrant workers, asylum seekers, looked-after children and prisoners.  Other groups could also be included in the list.

Another member asked if information on such individuals was being communicated to other Project groups and Rob Walker agreed that this needed to be done.

Mark Fretwell informed the Board that the Falls Prevention project was still running and that £10,000 had been committed from the LSP to provide one-to-one support for the over 60s and vulnerable people.  Volunteers were being trained to level 2 – Understanding Health Improvement and providing community help on falls, diet, smoking and alcohol.  In terms of Breckland, nine people had expressed an interest in volunteering; six volunteers were currently being trained.  Nine clients wished to access the service (two in Thetford and seven in Dereham) and three clients had been assessed and were being matched (one in Thetford and two in Dereham).  The achievements would be publicised to show people where the money was being spent.

Mark Stanton – Lead.

Mark Fretwell gave a brief update on the BELA Project.  This had initially been intended to last one year and £10,000 had been committed.  42 micro-businesses had been supported and it had been so successful that a second year BELA 2 project had been allocated a further £10,000.  This had provided assistance to 19 companies.

At the last Board meeting £5,000 had been allocated to BELA 3.  This project provided ICT training and support to individuals and companies.  The real benefits of this project were documented providing an audit trail.  ICT training had been given to 16 people who had completed the course and 15 companies had received bespoke in company ICT training.  In total 35 people had received ICT support through Poultec. 

Train the Trainer was due to be run by the CAB at Thetford and Pre-ESOL was being provided with the Dereham Area Partnership and Iceni acting as facilitators.  Russian and Polish classes would also be delivered in the Thetford area through GMB.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 1 April 2009.

Jonathan Clemo – Lead.

Jonathan Clemo introduced himself; he had taken over recently and said he wanted to focus on behavioural change.  The project was in its early stages.

Mark Fretwell agreed that the group had only met twice, but said the group was expanding.  The Council had recently signed up to the Nottingham Declaration and a new Green Agenda Development Panel of Councillors had been set up.   Links were being forged with the LAA indicator lead at Broadland, CPRE and the CRED programme at UEA. 

Now that Jonathan had taken over as lead officer the project would gain momentum.

To receive an update by Mark Taylor, Programme Director for Integrated Care & Market Development, NHS Norfolk & County Council.

A report had been tabled and Mark Taylor gave a brief update.

He explained the history behind the award of Healthy Town Status for Thetford and said that work had been commissioned to provide an evidence base of the health needs of the town.

The Department of Health was happy with the Project Plan.  A range of activities had been delivered and key recruitments had taken place.  At present they reported to NHS Norfolk and the Moving Thetford Forward Board.  He asked if the LSP would like to receive updates.

The Chairman agreed that quarterly reports of outputs would be helpful and would encourage Partners to join in with projects.

Rob Walker explained that it was already the end of year one of the programme and the first money had just been released.  The residents of Thetford wanted to see progress.  Marketing and communication were vital to sign post what was in place and to get the branding publicised.

To receive a report and presentation by Julian Horn & Paul Adcock, Local Businessmen.

Julian Horn gave a presentation and explained why the project was so important.

He showed members the area of land currently available for use in Watton.   Various proposals had been put forward by young people for improvements to the space but these had not been permitted, due to opposition from the surrounding residential properties.

The original land was therefore no longer fit for purpose and so a new venue had been sought.  The old doctor’s surgery was empty and available and the internal layout suited the requirements.  £10,000 had been raised to buy furniture and equipment and the drop-in centre, known as The Surge, had been opened for two nights per week.

The building worked well and was now also used by older people on Wednesdays.  There were plans to expand the facilities.

£350,000 was required to secure the building.  In the first instance about £7,000 was needed to employ a company to prepare a high quality funding bid.  The project had already received about £32,500 from local support, including individual private donations. 

At present the building was leased from the Iceni Partnership.  They had planning permission to convert it to 14 sheltered homes, but in the current market they had no plans to start work. 

Members were keen to support this project which one described as ‘exactly what was needed to stop anti-social behaviour and give children hope for the future’.

It was agreed that interested Partners should attend a meeting to be held at The Surge to discuss what support could be offered.

The Chairman felt that this was an excellent opportunity to prevent crime and improve the interaction between young and old people.  He thought that the Board could provide support and funding and he urged members to attend the meeting.

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

Sarah Hassan and Brigitte Morton gave a presentation on the expanding role of libraries in the community.

Sarah informed the Board that the library had high level objectives to improve people’s lives.  The library had extended their range of facilities and now offered books, newspapers CDs and DVDs on loan as well as providing access to PCs and the internet.  Services were free of charge.  

In some rural areas, PCSO’s were based in mobile libraries.  Some GPs gave prescriptions for recommended reading to people suffering with depression.  Libraries also played an important role in keeping reading levels up for young children, during the school holidays.

Brigitte had run a scheme, during the summer holidays, working with children who had been excluded from school.  Seven young people had attended.  They had not considered that the library had anything to offer them.  Various activities had been used to engage them and one session had included the involvement of elderly people.  The outcome had been very good and the young people had volunteered to visit the old people in their care home at Christmas.  This had led to a further joint visit to Gressenhall.

Progress had been noted in all the young people that had attended the sessions.  A similar scheme would be run again this year.

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

Lucy Walker gave a presentation looking at the skills base within Norfolk and highlighting the information relevant to Breckland. 

The lowest weekly wages in the country were paid in Norfolk but it was also an area of high employment.  In Breckland over 70% of the working population were employed and of the 11% looking for employment, only 5% actually wanted a job.

The presentation gave a breakdown of the different types of employment available and the companies currently offering apprenticeships.  To meet the requirements of the Local Area Agreement (LAA) there was a need to triple the annual delivery of skills.

Change was necessary; to increase the quantity, level and quality of skills and to reflect the needs of businesses.   Skills activism was mentioned.  This was the ability to understand what drives employer spending on skills and deciding whether national and local government could do more to boost the demand for, and supply of, skilled labour.

As the presentation had so much information it was agreed that a full copy should be attached to the minutes for information and that members could raise any points at the next meeting.

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

Mark Fretwell told the Board that integration was at the heart of this project.  The one-stop shop and mobile bus would provide outreach services using highly trained staff.  It was based on the INTI One Stop model already working successfully in Portugal and other European countries.  Training and skills and communication and community engagement elements were also included in the bid.

Bids totalling £12 million had been submitted and only £7 million was available.  The Breckland bid had been short-listed but trimmed by £160,000.  If successful it would provide an excellent opportunity for all Partners to be involved in its delivery.

Mark thanked those Partners that had been able to contribute to the bid.   A decision was expected from the CLG in mid to late June.

To receive an update on Partnership finances by Mark Fretwell.

Approximately £150,000 was available.  This was more than expected due to an increase in the amount from Second Homes Council Tax.

The Chairman stressed that this gave Partners a good opportunity to spend money and realise positive outcomes.

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

Rob Walker suggested that at the next meeting Partners should put forward expressions of interest for Projects to make use of the money that was available.  More detailed proposals would be worked on once the projects were agreed.

Another item for consideration would be an extension to the current LSP Officer’s contract as this was due to end in March 2010.

To note that the next meeting of the LSP Board will be held on Thursday 16 July 2009 at 2.00 pm in the Anglia Room, Elizabeth House, Breckland Council.

The next meeting of the LSP Board would be on Thursday 16 July 2009 at 2.00pm in the Anglia Room, Elizabeth House, Dereham.