To elect a Chairman for the ensuing year.

RESOLVED that Mr A Stasiak be elected as Chairman for the ensuing year.

To elect a Vice-Chairman for the ensuing year.

RESOLVED that Mr D Ovenden be elected as Vice-Chairman for the ensuing year.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 3 February 2011.

Subject to an amendment, noting that Mr R Martin had been in attendance, the Minutes of the meeting held on 3 February 2011 were confirmed as a correct record.

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Mr I Clarke, Mr J Clemo, Chief Inspector P Durham, Mr A Heginbotham, Mr B Horner, Mrs S Matthews and Mr M Stokes.

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

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 Co-ordinator.

Richard Wills, Pride Co-ordinator, presented the report and gave members an update on the project.

He pointed out an amendment to the report.  On pages 12 and 13 Watton War Memorial should read Carbrooke War Memorial.

The biggest completed project was the Pride in Breckland awards which had been held at RAF Marham on 19 March 2011 with 200 guests.  Other projects were on-going like the Spring Detectives booklets and future projects were noted at Appendix B to the report.

The Vice-Chairman said that on behalf of the Partnership he wanted to thank Richard for all the good work at the Pride in Breckland awards and the Chairman agreed that it had been a remarkable occasion.

Mr Rogers told Partners that the Chairman of Norfolk County Council had said it had been the best organised and presented event of its kind he had attended.

The Community Development Manager advised Members that Richard Wills would be taking up a secondment in the HR department which was sad news for the Pride in Breckland Project.  He wanted to thank Richard for all the work he had done and to wish him the best of luck on his secondment.

Report by Deborah Smith, Curator.

In the absence of Deborah Smith the Curator, the Council’s Arts Development Officer, Sam Dawson, presented the report.

She gave an overview of the projects which were now completed.  The aim had been to capture Thetford town and people at a time of change.  Two projects had emerged, the 24 hour digital portrait and the Thetford travelling menagerie.

Members were urged to visit the website www.thetford24.org.uk  to look at the pictures, images and poems gathered from many residents of Thetford for the 24 hour digital portrait.

The travelling menagerie had used stories and images from Thetford history and folklore to inspire people to talk about the complex issues and changes to Thetford influenced by the military airbase, the London overspill and the migrant communities.

The project had had a very broad brief and had generated a lot of local and national press coverage.

Presentation by Tony Trotman, Programme Manager, THT.

Tony Trotman, Thetford Healthy Town Manager presented the last reports from the project as funding had ended in March 2011.  He introduced Carol Doherty and Holly Gilbert, who had done a lot of work for the project.  They joined him in presenting information and a short film.

A two tier evaluation of the project was being carried out at local and national level.  The local report was in draft form and would be circulated to all Partners when finalised.

Key points were the value of co-operation and working together for a common goal.  They had used a cohesive approach with clear pathways, making it transparent, straightforward and easy.  Different projects had worked closely together and there had been referrals from one to another, making each more successful.

Thetford Healthy Town was now a recognised brand.  Participation figures and costs were included in the report.

Carol Doherty presented some case studies showing the success of individuals participating in the projects in losing weight, increasing their confidence and improving their quality of life.

More work would be done to identify the numbers of individuals that had benefitted from the project to provide evidence to support a bid for future permanent funding. 

The Manager advised that NHS Norfolk had agreed 50% of the funding to extend the project for a further 12 months.  Smoking, alcohol and teenage pregnancy would be looked at and it was hoped that the project could move out into rural areas.

Holly Gilbert explained that their vision was to embed health into all areas of lifestyle.  They would be focussing on Attleborough, Dereham and Watton where Practice data showed a lot of child obesity.

There were a large number of projects available on the menu but it was important to find out what support each community wanted.

NHS Norfolk was keen that the project should be taken out to a wider audience, but the Manager wanted to stick to Breckland first, before going county-wide.

£60,000 of match funding was required to launch a range of projects.  He was confident that they could make a difference and provide health benefits to other areas. 

The Partnership (LSP) Officer asked if funding was sought from the LSP and the Manager said that any support would be welcome to help them achieve the £60,000 required.  Funding had been secured for Thetford and Attleborough but was still needed for Dereham and Watton.

It was suggested that the LSP could offer £10-15,000 in the first place and if there was a shortfall the Manager could ask for more at the July meeting.

Neil Stott acknowledged that the project had been a great success but was concerned that due process was not being followed in the distribution of LSP money.

The Partnership (LSP) Officer pointed out that the same process had occurred with Project Rainbow which had made a presentation to the Board and then been offered funding.  However Neill Stott said that it was a question of fairness and transparency and gave the example  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18c

Report / Presentation by Adam Jackson, Service Connector Manager.

Adam Jackson, Service Connector Manager, gave Partners and update on the three strands of the project.

META

This was going well and seeing consistent numbers with good client/staff relationships.  In the current financial climate the need for the service had increased. 

One Stop Bus

After a slow start the bus was now seeing increased demand since January 2011.  Clients had many different needs and were provided with one-to-one assistance.  Lots of information was available on the bus and representatives from Norfolk Credit Union and the Fire Safety Awareness Team had been on board.  It had been used in the Planning Consultation process and as a Polling Station in the recent elections.  There had been a lot of positive feedback.  The link with the BBC’s 1^st Click campaign had been very valuable and the team had been invited to the National Digital Champions Celebration by the BBC.

The bus had a full quota of bookings but funding was only available until June.

Thetford Works! Project

The work club for people out of work and those with barriers to work was proving successful.  40 clients had been helped since January and it was hoped to reach the target of 50 by the end of June 2011. 

Looking forward, there were a lot of opportunities to progress the projects. 

Neill Stott said this was an example of a plugged-in project with good Partnership working building on existing services.  A plan was needed to sustain the project.  It would be a shame to let it go because the external funding had run out.  There was a clear need for the services provided.

Verbal update by the Community Development Manager.

The Community Development Manager said that it would be a hard job to fill the boots of the Pride Co-ordinator.  Tthey wanted to maintain the momentum he had built up.  Richard’s secondment would start at the end of May, so a quick solution was required.

He suggested that it was an opportunity to get the whole Communities Team working on the Pride project.  A plan would be presented to the next Board which would reduce replication and save money.  He asked for the Board’s support to recruit in that way.

Although some concern was raised that the Communities Team was busy and there might be a resource issue, the Board supported the suggestion.

The Community Development Manager would bring the plan to the next meeting for approval.

Report of the Partnership (LSP) Officer.

This item was moved up the agenda.

The Partnership (LSP) Officer advised that the Leadership of Place scheme had already commenced.  It was a county wide project with RIEP funding but Breckland had developed a pilot for joint customer service provision in market towns utilising the One Stop Bus.

Funding for the One Stop Bus under the Migration Impact Funding was coming to a close and the associated staff contracts ran until the end of June.  In its present form the project was not sustainable although it was clearly plugging a gap as services were withdrawn locally and it had also received increased support from the BBC and a wide range of external partners.

He proposed that the Migration Impact Funding (MIF) projects which already had £15,000 funding set aside, should be extended for  a further three months at a cost of circa £42,000.  The MIF projects would be joined together with the Leadership of Place project.  This would provide an opportunity to receive up to £35,000 funding, some of which might be lost if the MIF project was not extended, through the linking of the projects.  This in turn, would create greater partnership opportunities.

Neill Stott asked what would happen after the three month extension and the Partnership (LSP) Officer explained that the Learning and Community fund would become available for bids then.

It was RESOLVED:

(1)       to note [for information and planning purposes] the contents of this report;

(2)               to extend the pilot mobile Saturday presence office in Breckland market Towns to research Locality based services under the Improvement East “Leadership of Place” programme;

(3)               to maximise the drawing down of the £35k via Kings Lynn & West Norfolk Council on behalf of the Improvement East programme and set up a Breckland budget to expend that funding as an enhancement to the existing Breckland Partnership  “One Stop Bus”. (Subject to an approved business plan and the proposed future partnership initiatives meeting the terms of the funding).

(4)               To provide up to £15K funding from either the Migration Impact Funding ‘and if required’ the LSP funding resources to support the extension of the pilot project beyond 3 months and the associated Migration Impact Funding projects for a further 3 months covering the period July to end of September 2011.

(5)               To approach Breckland District Council for the remaining shortfall for funding if required.

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

The Partnership (LSP) Officer advised members that there was a balance of £152,068.41 in the budget less salary and on-costs and Pride funding for 2011/12. 

The LSP income for 2011/12 was £95,854.  That would leave a total available budget of £152,922 (minus the £15,000 set aside for Thetford Healthy Town and some funding potentially for the MIF project).

The budget was in a healthy state and the Partnership (LSP) Officer would be trying to attract more funding if possible.

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

The following items were suggested:

• Process for committing LSP resources
• Sustainability of the One Stop Bus service
• Pride options for the future
• Thetford Healthy Town update
• LSP Officer contract extension

It was also noted that Breckland Library Service would like to attend to get the Board’s ideas on opening libraries for wider use.

To note that the next meeting of the LSP Board will be held on 21 July 2011 at 2.00 pm in the Anglia Room, Elizabeth House, Breckland Council.

The arrangements for the next meeting on 21 July 2011 were noted.