Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor L Anderson and Councillor J Pearson.

Councillor A Moran attended as a substitute for Councillor Anderson.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests, other registerable interests, and non-registerable interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest received.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on 4 September 2025.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 4 September 2025 be approved as a correct record.

There is no facility to allow questions by members of the public at meetings of the Scrutiny Committee. However, a period of 10 minutes will be provided at the beginning of such meetings to allow members of the public to make a statement on any matter that falls within the remit of the committee, subject to individual speakers being restricted to 3 minutes.

There were no registered public speakers.

To receive an update from the Safer Cheshire East Partnership.

The committee received a presentation from the Safer Cheshire East Partnership (SCEP), that provided details of the 2024- 25 Annual Report.  The contents of the report provided information on the work undertaken, details of the SCEP strategy, plans, priorities and engagement carried out with colleagues in partner agencies and residents.

As a statutory requirement of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, SCEP partners included representatives from the Police, Local Authority, Fire, Probation, and others, with the core aim to reduce crime and improve public safety. By developing a Partnership Plan based on Strategic Intelligence Assessments, SCEP had addressed priority community safety concerns, conducted Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews, managed funding, community engagement, and information sharing.

Throughout 2024/25, SCEP Sub Groups had carried out work with Integrated Offender Management Group (Probation), PREVENT – Channel Panel, Serious and Organised Crime Board, Cheshire Water Safety Partnership and the Road Safety Partnership and several Cheshire East Council Departments such as Housing, Licensing and Trading Standards.

Several funding allocations from the Police & Crime Commissioner had been well received, with the UK Scams Aftercare Project having a significant impact on the reduction of repeat scamming victims, and interventions against Anti-Social Behaviour in hotspot areas also reporting a reduction in the number of incidents.

RESOLVED:

That the Safer Cheshire East Partnership Annual Report 2024/25 and presentation be received and noted.

To receive a presentation from Cheshire & Merseyside NHS Health and Care Partnership.  

The committee received a presentation from the Cheshire & Merseyside Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) that detailed its statutory role and strategies in place to help tackle health inequalities for vulnerable populations, including children with SEND.

It was highlighted that in its role, the ICP governance model brings together NHS bodies, local authorities, Primary Care, and voluntary sectors which guided by the Marmot principles and Core20PLUS5 framework, work to eight system-wide recommendations:

-       Best start for children

-       Fair employment

-       Healthy living standards

-       Sustainable communities

-       Ill-health prevention

-       Anti-discrimination

-       Environmental sustainability

Members were informed that the health inequality landscape hadsignificant life expectancy gaps in deprived areas and had worsened since COVID-19 with drivers including poverty, poor housing, unemployment and limited access to healthcare.

The local vision of Integrated Care was to help people live for longer and independently, within communities. To support this, eight care communities had been aligned with Primary Care Networks as Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) who would fully integrate health, social care, and voluntary services for proactive, person-centred care. In addition, the SEND Strategy (2025–2028) would ensure collaboration between the 0–25 SEND Partnership and the HAPI framework: (Happy, Healthy, Achieving potential, Part of communities, Independent) with a focus on early intervention, inclusion, and integrated health-care support.

The Committee noted that the Integrated Care Partnership would work to scale up Integrated Neighbourhood Teams and place-based strategies, along with monitoring progress via Joint Outcome Frameworks, with a vision that outcomes would result in strong governance and community engagement for sustainable health equality.

RESOLVED:

That the content of the presentation be noted.

To consider the Work Programme and determine any required amendments.

The committee considered the work programme.

It was noted that the meeting scheduled to take place in March 2026, would consider Flood Risk Management and also a number of Domestic Homicide Review Reports.

RESOLVED:

That the work programme be noted.