Agenda and minutes

Councillors C Chapman, R Bailey S Pochin and M Warren.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 6 July 2017.

RESOLVED- That the minutes of the meeting held on 6 July 2017 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

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

There were no declarations of interest.

To provide an opportunity for Members to declare the existence of a party whip in relation to any item on the Agenda

There were no declarations of the existence of a party whip.

A total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to make a statement(s) on any matter that falls within the remit of the Committee.

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned, where there are a number of speakers.

Note: in order for officers to undertake and background research, it would be helpful if members of the public notified the Scrutiny Officer listed at the foot of the Agenda at least one working day before the meeting with brief details of the matter to be covered.

Sue Helliwell from Alsager advised the Committee that a grant of £1,500 had been awarded by the Council to a community group in her area specifically to assist children with healthy eating and Zumba classes.  This grant had been well received and had made a big difference to the children who participated, Sue added that she hoped the scheme would be rolled out again in the future.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That Sue be thanked for her comments;

(b)  That Helen Davies feedback to Dan Coyne in the Partnerships team as an example of positive customer service.

Geoffrey Appleton, the Interim Independent Chair of the Local Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) for Cheshire East, to present the LSAB annual report.

This item was postponed until 12 October.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That consideration of this matter be deferred until the 12 October 2017; and

(b)  That the new chair of the Local Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) Chair, Geoffrey Appleton be asked to include the LSA referral process as part of his presentation.

Kirstie Hercules, Partnerships Manager to give the Committee feedback on previous Participatory Budgeting (PB) events and the vision for PB in the future.

Dan Coyne, Engagement Officer within the Partnerships team attended the meeting to present an update on the last Participatory Budgeting (PB) event Cheshire East Council had organised.

Dan explained that PB was a method of community engagement that enabled the community to take on the role of a commissioner and make decisions (that related to grant funding) using part of a public budget.  Cheshire East organised a PB event and invested £400k of grant funding across the borough with local community groups.

The event received national recognition, and received an Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) award in 2017.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That Dan be thanked for his presentation; and

(b)  That the presentation be received and noted.

Kirstie Hercules, Partnerships Manager to give the Committee an overview of the Cheshire East Community Cohesion Strategy.

Loreen Chikwira, Community Cohesion Manager, attended the meeting to update the Committee on the Cheshire East Community Cohesion Strategy.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) had provided guidance to Local Authorities on cohesion, which underpinned the strategy for Cheshire East Council.

The Partnerships team had chosen to develop an asset based approach to community cohesion.  This involved assessment of the resources, skills and experience available within a community, and then identifying the issues relevant to that particular community and encouraging the community to utilise what it already had.

The Council had undertaken a intensive outreach work specifically with multi ethnic groups within Crewe.  This exercise had helped to develop the borough wide Community Cohesion Strategy that would be launched in draft format in March 2018 ahead of public consultation.

The key outputs for the Community Cohesion Strategy were:

·         That it was embedded in all corporate/operational strategies;

·         Community involvement and empowerment;

·         Partnership working;

·         Sustainability;

·         Transparency- working to make things better.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That Loreen Chikwira be thanked for her presentation

(b)  That the presentation be received and noted.

To review the current Work Programme

The Committee reviewed its Work Programme.

RESOLVED-

(a)  That an update on Local Safeguarding Adults Board be rescheduled for the 12 October; and

(b)  That all Members of the Children and Families Scrutiny Committee be invited to the 7 December meeting which will deal with the item relating to the Carers Strategy.

To note the current forward plan, identify any new items, and to determine whether any further examination of new issues is appropriate.

The Committee reviewed the Forward Plan.

RESOLVED- That the Forward Plan be received and noted.