To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on the 11 March 2010.

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 March 2010 were confirmed as a correct record.

There were no matters arising.

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Debbie Bartlett, Ian Clarke, Jon Clemo, Tony Dickens, Supt Fawcett, David Ovenden, Shirley Matthews, Dave Seaton and Rob Walker.

Daniel Harry, Sadie Harvey, Lucinda Leonard and Cynthia Wake were present as substitutes.

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

No declarations were made.

Report by Richard Wills.

The Partnership (LSP) Officer presented the report on behalf of the Pride Co-ordinator.

He drew attention to some of the projects including the world record attempt using plastic bottles, which had highlighted environmental protection issues and the Breckland Junior Masterchef competition, which had followed the format of the BBC programme and received good publicity.

Amongst the future projects listed, attention was drawn to the Pride in Breckland Awards to be held in 2011 which would be hosted by RAF Marham.

The report was noted.

Presentation by Tony Trotman, Programme Manager.

Tony Trotman, Programme Manager for Thetford Healthy Town, gave a PowerPoint presentation outlining the background, objectives and current projects being undertaken.

He advised Partners that the Health Needs Assessment had just been received and was being looked at in detail.  Copies would be distributed to all Partners, along with the Workers on the Move 3 report which would be published in September.

He explained that the programme was due to finish next March and it was important to ensure that everything did not just stop then.  Projects needed to be sustainable and on-going leaving a valuable legacy for the people of Thetford.

He then highlighted some of the projects that were now in their second quarter and gave some case study examples.  The cycling projects had been very successful whereas the Green Gym had not – and was in fact in the process of being terminated.  Lessons would be learned for future projects from the successes and the failures.

The referral scheme was well supported by GPs and would have a knock-on effect on health care costs by encouraging healthy lifestyle and postponing illness and disease.

A Partner asked if the other eight Healthy Towns were running schemes that might be adopted in Thetford and was advised that they were all running totally different and much larger schemes which would not be transferrable.  However, there were other organisations running smaller projects and much could be learned from them.

The Chairman asked how much funding had been received and the proportion that had been spent on the community. 

Tony agreed to bring a breakdown of expenditure to a future meeting and advised Partners that the accounts were audited monthly by NHS Norfolk.

In response to a question about marketing and communications, Tony advised that a newsletter (detailing dates and information about current projects) was included in the About Thetford magazine that was delivered to every household in Thetford.  There was also a dedicated website. 

The team went out into the community regularly to publicise their work using a gazebo which they set up in locations such as the Market Place, Sainsbury’s carpark, etc.  They also targeted migrant cafes.  Most importantly they relied upon word-of-mouth and cross promotion with other agencies and organisations.

A Partner said that it was critical to demonstrate the outcomes of the programme to prove that it was worth investing in.  Tony agreed.  It was not enough to change people’s habits temporarily; the change had to be sustained to have been successful.

The Chairman thanked Tony for his report, which was noted.

To receive a presentation from Sadie Harvey, Assistant Director, Keystone Development Trust.

Sadie Harvey (Assistant Director of Keystone Development Trust) introduced herself and then gave Partners a PowerPoint presentation giving a brief overview of the voluntary sector work which formed a small part of the Trust’s operation.

KAVO (Keystone Area Voluntary Organisations) offered a range of services, including a community grant scheme.  Two current projects funded by that scheme were Fast Track Furniture and Local Food Group Box for which they were happy to take referrals.  They also organised training, targeted at community groups and arranged events and activities.

Forthcoming events were a Conference on Friday 22 October – Managing Change; Being Equipped for the Future at which there would be a number of keynote speakers.

They were also organising the Thetford Charity Fun Day as part of the Thetford Festival Week, which would involve lots of different organisations and combine fundraising with reaching out to the local community.

The Active Citizens programme which had been set up by the British Council, also had lots of relevant themes and included partnership working with organisations overseas with the aim of sharing good practice and facilitating community relations and development.

KAVO’s programme was primarily interested in focussing on countries in Eastern Europe to compliment the work done by META with migrant workers from those areas now living in Thetford and Forest Heath.

A Partner asked for clarification of the term ‘under-represented groups’ used on the What is Active Citizens slide (page 33 of the agenda) and Sadie advised that this referred to groups that did not currently participate within the community.

It was clarified that there was no specific bid value and that although partners were able to apply for grants and additional support there were only small amounts of money available.

The Chairman was concerned that all the voluntary organisations were delivering similar schemes and Sadie agreed that it could appear that way, but that they worked closely to provide complimentary services.  Whereas Voluntary Norfolk served the whole county, KAVO did not do voluntary placements and had been set up at a more local level because people were reluctant to access services outside their immediate area.

The Chairman said that with the impending loss of funding for some public sector bodies in October it would be a challenge for the Council to decide who to support.  Hopefully there would still be money available but it would need to be targeted at the right places.

The Chairman thanked Sadie for her presentation.

Report by Mark Fretwell, Partnership (LSP) Officer.

The Partnership (LSP) Officer reminded Partners of the decisions made at the end of the last financial year, to award £25,000 to the Youth Council and £5,000 to each of the market towns for Participatory Budgeting (PB).

The Youth Council had funded eight projects and there would be a presentation on 5 August to show the outcomes of those projects.  This scheme had been so popular that the Youth Council had allocated £5,000 from its own budget for future PB projects.

A Member asked why none of the funding had been allocated to Watton and it was pointed out that although applications had been submitted from Watton they had not been successful.  The decisions had been made by the Youth Council (which included representatives from Watton) without external influence.

88 projects had been put forward from the five market towns of which 67 were shortlisted and 49 were funded.  Six monthly evaluations were taking place to assess the success and outcomes from these projects.

The LSP Officer said that the scheme had achieved what it set out to do and he wanted to promote it to a wider audience.  He suggested that future proposals would benefit from a greater team effort. 

The Chairman asked if there were any volunteers for future funding and a Partner suggested that they needed to know the outcomes from the current scheme before making any commitment.

RESOLVED to:

(1)               note the contents of the report;

(2)               provide further publicity to the successful projects utilising a broad range of media and linking it to the mobile one stop bus and the ‘Vocal Local’ campaign;

(3)               submit a report to the next Board meeting evaluating the project and the outcomes achieved to date; and

(4)               defer consideration of the proposal to undertake a further ‘Your Partnership Your Decision’ project until more information on timelines and objectives was available.

To receive a report from Mark Fretwell, Partnership (LSP) Officer.

The Partnership (LSP) Officer updated Partners on the Future Jobs Fund which had secured 19 jobs in the district.

Six jobs had been offered at a hairdressing salon in Thetford over two separate six month placements for three people each time.  The first three successful applicants began work in April.  Since then one had dropped out but the other two were doing well.  The next three candidates would be recruited in October.

One position had been offered by a Solicitor’s office in Watton and the successful applicant had started work in April and was doing very well.

Eight places had been offered, by a partnership of Pride in Breckland, Peddars Way Housing Association (PWHA).  and Serco, to create an environmental task force.  Six employees had been recruited and had commenced work on 19 July on a variety of community based projects.

Finally, four positions had been offered by PWHA.  Unfortunately, due to a reorganisation those jobs were unavailable and discussions were underway to reallocate them within Breckland, subject to approval from NCC.

The report was noted.

Report by Mark Fretwell (Partnership (LSP) Officer.

The Partnership (LSP) Officer advised Partners that the One Stop Bus was in the car park outside and they were all welcome to have a look round after the meeting.

The Bus had been at the Norfolk Show and would be at the Wayland Show that weekend.  It had started a rota visiting 18 locations and the timetable was on the website.  Partners and Councillors were encouraged to support the initiative and spread the word to ensure it was sustainable.

The META service was working well and had received positive feedback.  Monthly monitoring reports were being done and figures would be available for the next meeting.

Three submissions had been received for the arts project and volunteers were sought to for a sub group to determine which project to support.

A Member asked if the Mobile Bus was linking in with the mobile library service and the mobile police station.

It was noted that as the mobile library already had a set timetable and its stops were relatively short, it was not feasible to link with that.  However, the mobile police station had stopped and it was suggested that it might be very useful to have a police presence on the Bus.  Inspector Wheatley agreed to look into that proposal.

RESOLVED to:

(1)               note the report;

(2)               approve the retention of the additional year 2 funding of £15.000 as contingency funds or for it to be used to attract additional match funding;

(3)               encourage Partners to consider how the mobile vehicle could be used to deliver their services and to get other Partners involved; and

(4)               delegate authority to Jan Godfrey, Val Jenkins and Adrian Stasiak to review the arts project submissions with the Partnership (LSP) Officer and the Arts Officer to determine which proposal to support. 

To receive a verbal update on Partnership finances by Mark Fretwell.

The Partnership (LSP) Officer advised that £100,011 had been received from second home Council Tax and that there was £150,000 uncommitted budget for 2010/11 which included the current Officer post during 2010/11.

To note that the next meeting of the LSP Board will be held on Thursday, 9 September 2010 at 2.00 pm (to be confirmed) in the Norfolk Room, The Conference Suite, Breckland Council, Elizabeth House, Dereham.

The arrangements for the next meeting on Thursday 9 September 2010 were noted.

To consider passing the following resolution:

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the disclosure of exempt information as contained in paragraph 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act”.

PART B – ITEM FROM WHICH THE PRESS AND THE PUBLIC ARE EXCLUDED

RESOLVED that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the disclosure of exempt information as contained in paragraph 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

To receive a report by Rob Leigh, Assistant Director, Communications & Communities (Breckland Council).

The Assistant Director, Communications and Communities presented the report which sought agreement to fund the Partnership (LSP) Officer post for an additional year from 2011/12.  The current post was funded until the end of March 2011.

He noted that the Officer had been successful in securing significant funding for Partnership projects and suggested that the Officer could also assist in refreshing the Sustainable Community Strategy which was a statutory requirement.

RESOLVED to

(1)               agree to fund the Breckland Partnership (LSP) Officer for an additional year (March 2011 to March 2012); and

(2)               agree that Breckland Council continues to act as host employer for the Breckland Partnership (LSP) Officer post.