To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on the 29 July 2010.

In the absence of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman,

Mrs Jan Godfrey assumed the chair.

Subject to an amendment to note that Lucinda Leonard and Tony Trotman had been present for the meeting, the Minutes of the meeting held on 29 July 2010 were confirmed as a correct record.

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence had been received from Jonathan Clemo, Maureen Carson, Chief Superintendant Paul Durham, George Hayes, Shirley Matthews, William Nunn, David Ovenden, John Rogers, Tony Trotman and Rob Walker.

To note whether the Chairman proposes to accept any items of urgent business.

There was none.

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

There were none.

Report by Richard Wills, Pride Co-ordinator.

The Pride Co-ordinator presented the report and explained the background of the project which had been launched in July 2008 to address issues of community cohesion.

He drew Partners’ attention to the list of projects completed and to those planned, in particular the Wayland Celebration of Culture which had been very well attended and had involved 14 different nationalities.

The Youth Awards would be held soon and the second Pride in Breckland Awards would take place in March 2011 and RAF Marham would provide the venue.

The report was noted.

Verbal update by Tony Trotman, Programme Manager.

The Chairman asked what legacy there would be for the rest of the District from the Thetford Health Town project.

It was agreed that a breakdown of the budget as requested at the previous Board meeting would be actioned.

The Partnership (LSP) Officer said that he would ask the Programme Manager to explain how the benefits could be extended to other towns.  The information would be brought to the next meeting.

Report and presentation by Adam Jackson, Service Connector Manager.

In the absence of Adam Jackson the Customer Services Manager gave the PowerPoint presentation and presented the report.

She explained that the recommendations in the report asked Partners to consider their financial commitment to the project and also to determine the best way to deliver key messages and services to where they were most needed. 

To achieve maximum effect it was proposed to amend the current timetable of the One-Stop bus to omit some villages from the route where the service was not required.  This would free up capacity to allow visits to places such as industrial estates, where it was hoped that the community would receive more benefit.

The META (Mobile Europeans Take Action) project was fully operational.  An Eastern European speaker and a Portuguese speaker were working with officers and being shown where to find information so that they could continue to provide a service when officers were not present.  Different websites were utilised and National Insurance was one of the most common enquiries.  They were also involved in the Worklessness Project in partnership with Keystone Development Trust in offering help with CV writing, interview skills, etc.

Adrian Stasiak said that he had visited the Job Centre and they sent a lot of people to META, he asked if any funding was received from them for providing that service.

Mark Fretwell advised that there had been a suggestion that the National Insurance service would be taken on at a cost.  The key to sustainability was for partners to buy into the service.  More partners would be attracted if additional services were on offer.

Returning to the presentation, Monica advised that statistics were being collected on the queries being received and on the numbers using the One-Stop bus at different locations.  It was becoming clear that literature would need to be made available in other languages.

She asked Partners to provide information about the messages that they wanted disseminated.  Future visits were planned to Saturday Farmers’ Markets and the Town & Parish Council Forum.

Cynthia Wake was concerned that the bus had not been well publicised and she said that it was important that when it did visit villages it parked in the best location to attract customers.  She also suggested that local firms with large migrant workforces should be approached for permission to visit.

Monica explained that the team had liaised with all Town and Parish Clerks to agree locations for the bus.  However, it was a large vehicle and had to be positioned to allow satellite access, so sometimes the agreed locations had not been suitable. 

Publicity had been provided by flyers being distributed to all households within the communities to be visited.  There had also been press releases and information on the website.  Clerks and Ward Representatives had been encouraged to spread the word and had been provided with information for their notice-boards. 

Large employers of migrant workers were about to be contacted and it was intended to visit at shift change times to provide accessibility  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44c

To receive a presentation by Richard Wills, Pride Co-ordinator.

The Pride Co-ordinator gave a PowerPoint presentation about the work done by the group of young people employed by the Council through the Future Jobs Fund.

The long-term aim of the project was to increase employability by giving the young people new skills, enhancing their CVs, providing them with new experiences and interview training and promoting their work ethic.

The project had commenced in July and the group would be employed for six months.  They had already completed a number of environmental based tasks including creating a BMX track in Swanton Morley.  Their future work programme was almost completely booked and included community clean-ups and other environmental improvement initiatives.

The Assistant Director Communications and Communities thanked Richard for his hard work which was delivering real community projects adding considerable value. 

He pointed out that the funding for the Pride in Breckland project ended in 2011 and he proposed that it should continue.  A report would be presented to the next meeting but he asked Partners to consider, in the meantime, whether they would be minded to continue funding this initiative.

Val Jenkins could not believe what had been achieved and was sure that the project had helped to reduce crime and disorder.  She supported the proposal to continue 100%.

Debbie Bartlett suggested that the project was sustainable because local groups could take over responsibility themselves and they should be encouraged to seek funding from other sources.

The Pride Co-ordinator agreed and said they wanted people to have pride and ownership of their own areas.  He suggested that if the project was to continue the same level of funding would not be required.

The Chairman concluded by saying that it was Richard’s personal input that had made the key difference.

The report was noted.

To receive a report from Terry Scott, Breckland Operational Partnership Team.

Sgt Terry Scott was in attendance to present the report.  He introduced himself as one of the Operational Partnership Team that had successfully bid for money from the CDRP for a PB project to make £4,000 available to each of the five Breckland ‘neighbourhoods’. 

Bids would be invited for community based schemes aimed at providing public reassurance with regard to crime and disorder, and reducing anti-social behaviour.  Panels would be set up in each area and would make decisions on the allocation of the funds for their neighbourhood.  A Champion would be appointed to each neighbourhood area to advise potential bidders.

The report sought match funding from the Board. 

If match funding was approved, it was proposed to publicise the project through a press release immediately and then get the Champions and panels up and running.  The timescale was tight as bids had to be received in time for decisions to be made before 1^st March 2011.  Expenditure for the projects had to be completed by 31^st March 2011 and outcomes would be provided at six and 12 month intervals.

It was pointed out that to achieve the desired outcomes it would be important to provide a clear baseline to allow success to be measured.  Good quality application forms would be needed.

Sgt Scott agreed with that, saying that they did not want people to spend a lot of time putting bids together that did not meet the criteria, which was why they wanted to appoint community Champions.

The Partnership (LSP) Officer added that they wanted to build on the success of the previous Your Partnership Your Decision project which had attracted 109 applications.  They had a large database of community groups and promotional material that they could use again, saving money and time.  

It was proposed to extend the focus of the PB project bids to include Stronger Communities; this would then take into account their joint inclusion and cross cutting issues within the Breckland Sustainable Community Strategy.  

It would also broaden the appeal to potential bidders and would therefore offer a wider range of projects to be considered for funding and would increase the likelihood of a higher standard of projects being supported.

It was agreed that this proposal would be beneficial and would offer a broader scope in order to deliver an effective PB project.

RESOLVED to approve up to £11,666 match funding for the PB process, subject to there being an equal focus on creating Stronger Communities together with the Safer priority as per the Breckland Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS).

To receive a report from Rob Walker, Director of Community Services.

Sgt Terry Scott presented the report from the Director of Community Services.

In April 2010 it had been agreed to merge the seven district-based community safety partnerships (CSPs) into a single CSP for Norfolk reducing administration and bureaucracy. 

For district issues there would be Partnership Operation Groups which would have responsibility for partnership-led tasking and prioritising of work and initiatives.

The Breckland Operational Partnership Team (OPT) had already been established and consisted of four specialist officers from Norfolk Constabulary, co-located at Elizabeth House with three officers from the Council’s community safety unit.

A successful funding bid would be bringing in another caseworker (one day a week) who would deal with Anti-Social Behaviour problems, working one-on-one with offenders, attending employment interviews and helping with housing and benefits etc.  This system had worked extremely well in Norwich.

The OPT was working well and received full support from Peddars Way and Broadland Housing Association and other landlords.  They could see the benefits of the work being done by the OPT as it reduced the incidence of repeat victims through early identification and intervention.

Sgt Scott had been working with a local company to produce a case managing system, TASBIT (The Anti-Social Behaviour Intelligence Toolkit) which would now be used County wide and might even be used nationally.

He also had access to the police systems and could scroll through all the calls received and brief the SNTs on anti-social behaviour and inform the Environmental Health team about abandoned cards etc.  He worked closely with the emergency housing team and the ease of access to information helped to speed up the decision making process.

Dave Seaton was concerned that the police might be unaware of a lot of anti-social behaviour incidents which landlords did not report and which was therefore not on the police database.

Sgt Scott said that it was early days but it was hoped that TASBIT would help with that and he acknowledged the importance of having all the data available to provide evidence led solutions.  Currently they were recording calls as incidents and they needed to ensure that those calls provided all the information that was needed.

The report was noted.

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

The Partnership (LSP) Officer presented the report which sought to clarify the way forward for the Board. 

At a meeting in June, LSPs from around the county had attended a challenge session at Norfolk County Council to review the ways they worked together and to identify opportunities for improvements.

They had agreed that the way forward was to improve joint working arrangements and to simplify each partnership’s delivery and interactions.  Sharing data would be a key factor.

Many LSPs were also in the process of reviewing their sustainable community strategies (SCS) and a report would be presented to the next Board explaining proposals for refreshing Breckland’s SCS and reviewing the Partnership.

It was suggested that Children’s Services could be invited to link with the Partnership as schools were often at the heart of communities.

RESOLVED to:

(1)               refresh the Sustainable Community Strategy;

(2)               agree the outlined process and timescale for the refresh; and

(3)               carry out a full review of the Breckland Partnership in conjunction with the Strategy refresh to include the current delivery structure, performance, funding allocation and a proposed structure moving forward to deliver the refreshed SCS.

To receive an update on Partnership finances by Mark Fretwell, Partnership (LSP) Officer.

The Partnership (LSP) Officer advised that there was £100,011 in the 2010/11 budget available for future project activities delivered through the LSP. 

Although future funding might be affected the Partnership was currently well placed financially.

To note that the next meeting of the LSP Board will be held on 2 December 2010 at 2.00 pm in the Anglia Room, Elizabeth House, Breckland Council.

Future meeting dates (for information):

3 February, 7 April, 19 May, 21 July, 22 September and 24 November 2011.

All meetings commence at 2.00pm in the Anglia Room.

The arrangements for the next meeting on Thursday 2 December 2010 were noted.