Venue: Exe Room, Phoenix House
Contact: Julia Stuckey Member Services Officer
Link: audio recording
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APOLOGIES AND SUBSTITUTE MEMBERS To receive any apologies for absence and notices of appointment of substitute Members (if any). Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillor B A Moore. |
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PUBLIC QUESTION TIME To receive any questions relating to items on the Agenda from members of the public and replies thereto. Note: A maximum of 30 minutes is allowed for this item. Minutes: There were no questions from the members of the public present. |
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MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING PDF 149 KB To approve as a correct record the minutes of the last meeting of the Group (attached). Minutes: The Minutes of the last meeting of the Group were approved as a correct record and SIGNED by the Chairman. |
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CHAIRMAN'S ANNOUNCEMENTS To receive any announcements that the Chairman may wish to make. Minutes: The Chairman reminded the Group that a Special Meeting had been put in place for 3rd November 2015 to consider the Grants Report. |
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MEETING MANAGEMENT Minutes: The Chairman informed the Group of her intention to take item 7 on the agenda before item 5. |
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YOUTH SERVICES At the request of Councillor Ms C Slade, Ms Jenny Lindow, Area Youth Worker from the Tiverton Youth Centre will be in attendance to answer questions from Members regarding Youth Services provided by Devon County Council. Minutes: The Chairman introduced Jenny Lindow, Youth Worker for Devon County Council based at Tiverton Youth Centre.
Ms Lindow gave the background to current youth provision, explaining that 12 months ago cut backs were made and some towns had lost their Youth Centres. Tiverton remained and had seen a busy year. The Centre held generic open access youth sessions three nights a week, which were very popular. These were split into senior and junior sessions. Topics covered included legal highs, health and safety and discussions on current hot topics. There could be up to 50 youths attending in the evening. Targeted work took place with ‘hard to reach youngsters’ who could be referred by the local school, health or social carers. A package could be put together for one to one work. A lot of young people dropped into the Youth Centre for help with CV’s, to job search or just for a chat. There was also a lunchtime drop in session.
Discussion took place regarding:
· The budget for the centre: Ms Lindow did not know the budget for youth provision in Tiverton but informed the Group that her budget for activities was £1k. She offered to find out the full budget for the Centre and report back to the Group;
· Summer activities that were provided by the Youth Centre, which included trips to the beach, Crealy Adventure Park and a cake sale;
· Sessions available for teenagers with Autism;
· Studies that had been undertaken to find the reasons for young people self-harming and what was being done to help them.
The Chairman thanked Ms Lindow for her attendance.
Councillor F W Letch updated the Group on youth provision in Crediton. He explained that there were secular and non-secular activities being provided by the Crediton Methodist Church and Crediton Congregational Church. Currently the Town Council was grant funding Crediton Methodist Church £4k per year in order to support its relatively new secular youth cafe. The funding had enabled the Methodist Church to recruit two part-time youth workers to support its full time JNC qualified youth worker.
During September, the youth of Crediton were being consulted on what they liked about the current arrangements and what they would like in future. The findings of this survey would enable the Town Council to work with the Methodist Church and the Congregational Church to meet the needs of its youth and where possible expand the services provided. |
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CLINICAL COMMISIONING GROUP (00:23:11) Mr John Finn of the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) will be in attendance. Cllr Mrs J Binks has asked that in view of the CCG decision to permanently remove inpatient beds at Crediton Hospital, the Group discuss the process and impact of this and put questions to Mr Finn, in particular regarding the future of Crediton Hospital.
Minutes: The Chairman welcomed Mr John Finn of the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Cllr Mrs J Binks had asked that in view of the CCG decision to permanently remove inpatient beds at Crediton Hospital, the Group discuss the process and impact of this and put questions to Mr Finn, in particular regarding the future of Crediton Hospital.
Mr Finn explained that three community beds had been removed from Crediton Hospital and that this was subject to a task group review by Devon County Council Health and Scrutiny Committee. He further explained that joint funding was providing care at home for some patients that would previously have been admitted to hospital and a review of the service had shown that this was safe and no serious events had been reported. Beds had been consolidated over the area and not reduced, allowing for patients to be admitted to Tiverton or Okehampton if need be. There was some ‘flex’ in the number of beds available to allow for winter pressures. He informed the Group that it had become impossible both financially and clinically to sustain the beds at Crediton and that recruitment had been particularly difficult.
Discussion took place regarding:
· In the past year patients had stayed at Crediton hospital for an average of 21 days, generally these types of patients were now being treated at home;
· Councillors offered to provide Mr Finn with feedback from patients that had received care in Crediton, Mr Finn welcomed this, although he stressed that the decision to remove the beds had already been made;
· The fact that several providers operated from Tiverton Hospital and hopes that in the future this could be reduced;
· The South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust currently operated the Urgent Care Service at Tiverton and that discussions were taking place with regard to extending that contract;
· New services that would be provided at Crediton Hospital, such as Children’s Services.
The Chairman thanked Mr Finn for his attendance at the meeting.
Note: - i) Cllr F W Letch declared a personal interest as he was Chairman of the Save Our Hospital Beds Group. ii) Cllr Mrs J Binks declared a personal interest as she was a founding member of the Hospitals Actions Group, a member of the League of Friends and Vice Chair of the Save Our Hospital Beds Group. iii) Cllr R M Deed declared a personal interest as he had acted as Chairman on behalf of the CCG at meetings regarding beds and minor injury unit provision and was a member of South Western Ambulance Services NHS Trust. |
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GRANT RECIPIENT PRESENTATION (00:45:00) PDF 319 KB Representatives from the Market Street Youth Drop In Centre and Community Housing Aid Nightstop Service will attend the meeting to give a short presentation about their work. A report from the Grants and Funding Officer is attached to provide supporting information. Minutes: Representatives from the Market Street Youth Drop-in Centre and Community Housing Aid Nightstop Service attended the meeting to give a short presentation about their work.
Mr Peter Heckles from Nightstop explained the work carried out by the charity.
He informed the Group that Nightstop was a community project which operated for 365 days of the year. It aimed to provide free, safe, secure emergency accommodation for young people with trained and vetted volunteer hosts. It then worked in partnership with other agencies to help the young person find secure long-term accommodation. There was a 24 hour on-call system to provide support to volunteers and young people.
Help was provided to young people aged 16 – 25 and in the previous year 15 young people had been supported in Mid Devon.
The Chairman thanked Mr Heckles for his presentation.
Mrs Jan Sampson, Chair of the Trustees and Mrs Julie Clarke, Manager of the Market Centre informed the Group about the work that was carried out by the Centre. Mrs Sampson explained that the Centre had opened 20 years ago when a need was identified by the Head Teacher of Tiverton High School, local councillors and the police. The Centre was a charitable trust which had twice been faced with closure and relied totally on donations and grants. It worked with 11 – 19 year olds as a drop-in centre. Staff provided advice and support and worked with other agencies such as Nightstop, drug workers and the police where appropriate. The manager had been in post for 18 years and most staff had been involved with the centre for a long time, providing consistency. Around 43 young people attended on a daily basis and the centre was open from 3 – 6 pm weekdays and 1 – 4 on Saturdays. Other organisations used the premises at other times.
Current plans included a new kitchen to provide cooking lessons on how to make cheap nutritious meals and an allotment for growing produce. Mrs Sampson informed the Group that they were seeking volunteers to work and instruct on the allotment.
The Chairman thanked Mrs Sampson and Mrs Clarke for their presentation. |
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The Committee to review the Councils updated RIPA Policy.
Appendices mentioned in the report attached to this agenda can be found on the Home Office website at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ripa-forms--2. Minutes: The Group had before it a report * from the Head of Communities and Governance requesting that it review and make recommendation to Cabinet regarding the Councils updated RIPA policy.
The Head of Communities and Governance informed the Group that the RIPA Policy had been considered by a Surveillance Inspector of the Office of Surveillance Commissioner during an inspection in April 2015. The comments of the Surveillance Inspector were that the policy was ‘a succinct and thorough guide which would be of assistance to applicants and authorising officers alike’. The Office of Surveillance had stated that it was good practice to review and update the RIPA Policy on an annual basis. Therefore the policy had been reviewed in light of the Office of Surveillance Commissioners report and in accordance with good practice.
The Officer explained that it was necessary to obtain authorisation from the Magistrate before surveillance could take place.
It was RECOMMENDED to the Cabinet that the updated RIPA Policy be approved.
(Proposed by the Chairman)
Note: - Report previously circulated and attached to Minutes. |
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LEISURE SERVICES UPDATE (01:25:00) The Group to receive a verbal update regarding Leisure Services from the Head of Human Resources and Development. Minutes: The Exe Valley Leisure Centre Manager gave a presentation to the Group outlining the recent restructure of Leisure Services. He explained that managers for all three centres would be appointed and in position by the beginning of December. He informed the Group that each of those managers would take on specialisms for which they would work across the three sites. The specialisms included:
· Business development and performance; · Dry-side and outside facilities; · Front of house, sales and retention; · Health and fitness; · Operations, procedures and health and safety; · Wet-side operation and swimming lesson programme.
Duty Managers would be appointed to look after the day to day running of the centres, allowing the centre managers to work more strategically. Some specialist assistance would be bought in, for areas such as marketing.
The officer informed the Group that the provision of leisure services currently cost the authority in the region of £600K. It was intended that the service be at zero cost to the authority by 2019/20.
Discussion took place regarding:
· Research had shown that social reasons and fun where a high priority to users and that the most common age group using the facilities was the over 45’s;
· Schemes for users on low incomes;
· Managers being given the opportunity to look at all options for improving income;
· Fitness staff being trained to give weight loss and diet advise.
The Chairman thanked the Officer for his presentation. |
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DECLARATION ON TOBACCO CONTROL (01:52:23) PDF 524 KB To receive a report providing Members with information on the Local Government Declaration on Tobacco Control
Minutes: The Committee had before it a report * from the Head of Human Resources and Development, providing information to Members on the Local Government Declaration on Tobacco Control, requesting that the Group support the principle of tobacco control and recommend to Cabinet that this Council signs the Local Government Declaration on Tobacco Control
The Public Health and Professional Services Manager outlined the content of the report, explaining that In common with other areas, smoking was the single greatest cause of premature death and disease in Devon, and the single largest factor in health inequalities. It was also a major driver of poverty. The move of public health to local government presented an opportunity for local authorities at all levels to lead local action to tackle smoking, and to ensure that the tobacco industry was not able to influence local tobacco control policy.
Within Mid Devon, the latest health profile data available from Public Health England indicated that around 18% of the adult population smoked and there were 117 smoking related deaths per year, approximately one every three days.
The Local Government Declaration on Tobacco Control was a response to the huge impact that smoking had on communities. It was a commitment to take action and a statement about this authority’s dedication to protecting local communities from the harm caused by smoking.
The Tobacco Declaration had been signed by 100 authorities since inception in March 2013 including all other Devon Councils. The number of signatories was increasing on average by approximately four authorities per month nationally.
It was RECOMMENDED that the Cabinet support the principle of tobacco control and recommends that this Council sign the Local Government Declaration on Tobacco Control.
(Proposed by Councillor Mrs J B Binks and seconded by Cllr Mrs R Berry)
Note:- Report previously circulated and attached to Minutes. |
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IDENTIFICATION OF ITEMS FOR THE NEXT MEETING Note: This item is limited to 10 minutes. There should be no discussion on the items raised.
Special Meeting Grants
Next Ordinary Meeting - 8 December 2015 Anti-Social Behaviour stats Performance and Risk Financial Monitoring Grant Recipient Presentation Minutes: Special Meeting Grants
Next Ordinary Meeting - 8 December 2015 Anti-Social Behaviour stats Performance and Risk Financial Monitoring Grant Recipient Presentation |