To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on the 2 December 2010.

Introductions were made round the table.

The minutes of the meeting held on 2 December 2010 were confirmed as a correct record.

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Jonathan Clemo, Paul Durham, Stuart Gunn, Brian Horner, William Nunn, Neil Stott and Caroline Williams.

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

None.

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

None.

Report by Richard Wills, Pride Coordinator.

Richard Wills, Pride Co-ordinator, updated Partners on the progress of the Pride in Breckland project.

At the previous meeting Partners had agreed to additional funding to extend the project for a further 12 months and the report included a list of future projects and a table showing those already completed.

A significant achievement to date had been the success of the Future Jobs Fund team.  They had participated in a large number of local environmental community projects and four of the six were now in full time employment.

Upcoming events included the Pride in Breckland awards to be hosted at RAF Marham and the “I Spy Spring in Breckland” campaign to get families out into the countryside.  The latter had been re-named to “Spring Detectives” due to copyright issues.

The Director for Community informed Partners that the Sustainable Communities Team had been shortlisted as finalists in the LG Chronicle awards for their work in the community and much of that work was based around Pride in Breckland projects.  About 600 volunteers had been recruited to take part in projects that mattered to the local communities and he congratulated the Pride Co-ordinator for his enthusiasm and the team as a whole.

The Chairman also congratulated the Sustainable Communities team on behalf of the Partnership.

A member asked about the Staff Away Days in the list of projects and Richard explained that some departments at Breckland had decided to take on community projects as their ‘team-building’ activity.  The Assistant Director, Communications and Communities said that this had worked so well that other Companies were expressing an interest in doing the same.

Finally a member noted that if there was ever a shortage of volunteers, the Probation Service could be approached for assistance.

Presentation by Tony Trotman, Programme Manager.

Tony Trotman, Thetford Healthy Town Manager, gave members a short presentation and interim review of the project which was originally due to finish at the end of March 2011.

The main aims of the project were to encourage Thetford residents to engage in physical activity and to eat more healthily.  There were three main strands:

Ø      Background Work: to enhance knowledge and understanding of health needs in Thetford and provide comprehensive marketing and communication campaign.

Ø      Primary Objective: embedding a healthy lifestyle culture in a rapidly growing town through infrastructure and policy work.

Ø      Secondary Objective: a portfolio of discreet, relatively short term projects, to foster a culture of healthy lifestyle within existing communities.

Partners were shown a table of some of the projects with a breakdown of attendance figures and cost per head. Overall there had been 6,359 participants which equated to almost 25% of the population.  About twelve of the projects were self-sustaining and would continue after March. 

A plan was being put forward to NHS Norfolk to keep the Healthy Town project going for another twelve months.  Due to the timing of the funding award, the project had only been in effect for about 18 months and it was therefore difficult to evaluate its impact.  The future was uncertain but it would be good to keep the Healthy Town principles alive.  An update would be provided to the Board after the meeting with the new Director of Health for Norfolk.

It would not take a huge amount of funding to take the project into other towns and it was not just health in relation to weight that could be addressed.  The same principles applied to mental health and drug and alcohol abuse.

The Director for Communities hoped that the NHS could support the project moving forward as he felt that 18 months was too short a time to reap the full benefits.  In the last six months projects had made a lot of progress and the fact that some were already sustainable was reassuring.

A Partner noted that it was often the healthy people that took part in such schemes.  She asked if there was any way to analyse which people were participating.  The Thetford Healthy Town Manager said that that was something they wanted to do to by starting with a health check and following up with a six month review, as well as assessing outcomes and crossover effects between mental health and physical activity. 

Research had been commissioned from an external consultant and their final report would be received in April, although national evaluation information would not be available until 2014.

The Chairman thanked the Thetford Healthy Town Manager for his report and said he was proud of the good work done.

Report by Deborah Smith, Curator of Thetford Arts Project.

In the absence of the Curator, Mark Fretwell, Partnership (LSP) Officer gave Partners a brief overview of the project which was part of the Migration Impact Funding project.

There were two strands focussing on cohesion and positive interaction:

1. using animals and local folk tales to trigger memories and deal with issues of displacement, settlement and change; and
2. creating a digital portrait of Thetford over a 24 hour period.

Discussions were on-going in relation to outcomes and legacy.  There would be a double page insert in the local press and a local sponsor was sought.  Once the digital portrait was complete a decision on future funding would be made.

The Chairman said that it was important for the Curator to be at the next meeting to provide more detail when funding was discussed.

The Director for Communities mentioned the Film and Theatre Festivals run by Breckland Council which took the arts into the community.  Some of these were being held in pubs, which helped those venues struggling to survive by showing ways to diversify.  The standard of the productions was very high and he encouraged Partners to attend and to spread the word.

Report by Adam Jackson, Service Connector.

Adam Jackson, Service Connector Manager, gave a short presentation updating Partners on the three strands of the project.

1. The META partnership was working well and they had been successful in housing several people and had repatriated one homeless person and found shelter for others.  They were able to accompany clients to appointments and support them in discussions.  Lots of other advice services were being withdrawn and more and more people were presenting for help.

2. The One-Stop Bus visited 17 locations and there had been expressions of interest from other places.  Visitor numbers were picking up, particularly since they began working in partnership with the BBC computer course “first click”.  They were fully booked for one-to-one courses in February and March, teaching people how to use the internet, e-mails, etc.  The Bus was visiting Parish meetings and the new flyers that were issued daily seemed to be having a positive effect.  Linking in with Pride in Breckland and Norfolk Fire & Rescue Service they would be giving out smoke alarms and booking home safety checks. 

3. ‘Thetford Works! Work Clubs’ were weekly work clubs held in partnership with Keystone Development Trust and Flagship Housing Association to offer the unemployed skills training, CV writing and job application assistance and confidence building help.

The LSP (Partnership) Officer concluded by saying that they were broadening the services they offered and footfall and public involvement was increasing.  There were several more projects to pilot with the emphasis being on targeting hard to reach groups.

The Chairman was delighted that the bus was coming into its own.

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

The Partnership (LSP) Officer updated members on the progress of this project and informed them of the potential to develop further employment opportunities.

The first phase was now complete and the salon in Thetford had taken on three more placements.  The person working for the solicitors in Watton had been taken on, on a permanent, part-time basis at the end of her six months.  Of the six people employed by Breckland, two had found full time employment during their placement and two had secured employment from February/March.  Only two remained unemployed.  This equated to a 47% positive outcome.

Due to changes over the period of the project, some funding remained unallocated and there was the possibility to bid for the spare allocations.  As at 5 January 2011 there had been 200 jobs available. 

The Director for Communities said that the Council had valued the work done by the Pride team and they would be interested in getting more employees in for that.  He asked if other Partners would also be interested.

The Partnership (LSP) Officer explained that bids had to be in by mid-March for commencement by the end of March, so they would need to act fast, but it was feasible.

RESOLVED to:

(1)               promote the placements delivered and the successes achieved by the individuals and employers through a range of media such as Breckland Council’s Voice, website, press releases and through the Bold directory, etc;

(2)               continue to support the employers and the individuals who took up the six month placements and to follow their progress in the labour market beyond the scheme; and

(3)               seek further employment opportunities under the Future Job Fund within Breckland with Norfolk County Council continuing to act as the lead body.

Verbal update by Debbie Bartlett, Head of Planning, Performance & Partnerships, NCC.

Debbie Bartlett, Head of Planning, Performance & Partnerships (NCC) updated Partners on the Big Conversation consultation which had closed on 10 January 2011.  Over 9,000 responses had been received covering more than 25,000 different issues.

Following many meetings, the proposals had been put forward to Cabinet on 24 January 2011 and they had made some amendments and put forward the recommendations to Council for consideration on 4 February 2011. 

The relevance of the proposals to the Partnership would need to be discussed in the future when all the information had been analysed.  Comments concerning the Big Society had raised issues about the barriers preventing community involvement, such as risk, health and safety and insurance.

Once the decision had been made by Council the Partnership would need to address the knock-on effects of the changes to specific services.  The Director for Communities agreed and suggested that the agenda should be structured to focus on particular areas for discussion of the implications and impacts and how they could be worked through.

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

The Partnership (LSP) Officer updated Partners on the start of Year 2 of the PB project.  Year 1 had been successful and he had sought a commitment for more Partner involvement for Year 2. 

Terry Scott from Norfolk Police had presented his proposals for a Safer and Stronger Community project to the Board for Match Funding.  The PTCG had added another £10,000 making a total of £30,000 available for projects: £6,000 in each of the Market Towns.

There had been a total of 91 applications received, including 20 through the on-line application process.  The applications had been fairly evenly spread throughout the district with 13 from Attleborough, 17 each from Dereham and Swaffham, 21 from Thetford and 23 from Watton (unlike Year 1 when applications from Swaffham had exceeded every other area).  There was also a good range of big, small, rural and town projects.

With the number of applications received there would not be enough money to fund them all.  Tough decisions would have to be made.  Short-listing would begin next week and all funding would be allocated by the end of February.

A further report would be presented at the next meeting.

To receive an update on Partnership finances.

The Partnership (LSP) Officer advised members that there was £38,745 available in the budget, which included the funding for the Pride in Breckland project for 2011/12 and the salary for both the Pride Co-ordinator and the Partnership (LSP) Officer.

Debbie Bartlett noted that part of the budget proposals at Norfolk County Council were to continue with the Second Homes Council Tax arrangements.

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

The Chairman advised Partners that the next meeting on 7 April 2011 would be the Annual Meeting and would include the election of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman.

Other items for future agendas were:

• Thetford Healthy Town – update
• Arts Project – update presented by the Curator
• Budget – more information from NCC
• Future Jobs Fund – more information on proposal to extend

The Director for Communities suggested that consideration of the County’s proposals should be done at a separate workshop, to be arranged by the Partnership (LSP) Officer, with all Partners participating.

To note that the next meeting of the LSP Board will be held on 7 April 2011 at 2.00 pm in the Anglia Room, Elizabeth House, Breckland Council.

The arrangements for the next meeting on 7 April 2011 at 2.00pm in the Anglia Room, Elizabeth House, Breckland Council were noted.