Agenda and minutes
Venue: Virtual meeting via MS teams
Contact: Clare Gray
Media
Webcast: View the webcast
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Apologies for absence/ change in membership Additional documents: Minutes: There were no apologies for absence. |
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Declarations of interest Additional documents: Minutes: The following Members declared an interest under item 7 :-
· Cllr Peter Cooper declared a personal interest as Chairman of Queens Park Arts Centre. · Cllr Graham Peart declared a personal interest as Trustee of One Can Trust. · Cllr Mimi Harker declared a personal interest as Chairman of Community Impact Bucks and Patron and Vice Patron of various charities. · Cllr Paul Irwin declared a personal interest as Chairman of Trustees of Bernwode Community Bus and Waddesdon Cricket Club.
Under item 7 and 8 :- · Cllr Linda Smith declared a personal interest as Chairman of Chalfont St Peter Parish Council and Chairman of the Village Action Group. · Cllr Tom Hunter-Watts declared a personal interest as a Member of Aylesbury Town Council and a Board Member of the Mid Thames and Buckinghamshire Relate |
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The minutes of the meeting held on 24th September 2020 to be confirmed as a correct record. Additional documents: Minutes: The Minutes of the Meeting held on 24 September 2020 were agreed as a correct record. |
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Public questions No public questions have been submitted for this meeting. Additional documents: Minutes: There were no public questions. |
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Chairman's Update For the Chairman to update Members on Communities and Localism scrutiny activities since the last meeting. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman provided the following update:-
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Covid Update - Verbal Update from the Cabinet Member for Communities and Public Health Additional documents: Minutes:
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Voluntary and Community Strategy (VCS) update PDF 846 KB The Committee will receive an update on the Voluntary and Community Strategy. The intention is that the Strategy would provide a high-level framework to guide partners across Buckinghamshire in how to work together towards a whole system, place-based approach to working with the Voluntary Community Sector (VCS) and local communities to address needs.
Presenters:- Gareth Williams – Cabinet Member for Communities and Public Health Mark Ormerod – Director of Leap Claire Hawkes – Service Director Localities and Strategic Partnerships Additional documents: Minutes: The Cabinet Member for Communities and Public Health reported that one of the areas that the Covid 19 pandemic had highlighted was the impressive partnership collaboration with the voluntary and community sector. The response from the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) from the very first week of lockdown had been phenomenal. Buckinghamshire had a population of 550,000 with a diverse spread of needs. 1800 volunteers stepped forward through the Clare Foundation and Community Impact Bucks. The partnership had been working together through key disciplines such as financial insecurity, providing food to those in need and supporting mental health issues.
The partnership already had strong foundations before the pandemic and have worked together as a VCS Strategic Group for the last three years. The Cabinet Member commented that the Strategic Funding Group worked together to co-ordinate funding across Buckinghamshire and with the Covid-19 pandemic was more enmeshed with the Council than it was before. They were represented on the Strategic Partners Board, Health and Wellbeing Board, Children’s Partnerships and the Corporate Plan.
Mark Ormerod (Chairman of the VCS Recovery Partnership Board and Director of Leap) reported that this year had seen the fastest period of change in the voluntary and community sector with the covid-19 pandemic with groups and individuals coming together to help support their communities. The response nationally and in Buckinghamshire had been incredible with unification against this common threat. There were 4,700 community organisations and 2,500 charities in Buckinghamshire. The funding partners have invested £1.6million in assisting communities. The Board was at an evolutionary stage and he commented that it was important to keep the momentum going and to recognise the vulnerability of the voluntary sector and to monitor resilience as it would be difficult to replace if it was lost. Many charities were dipping into their reserves. In terms of charity donors and corporate responsibility they were looking at a ‘cliff edge’ in the next 12-14 months as many individuals and companies were feeling the squeeze from the pandemic.
It was important to ensure that there was cohesion and connection into the Community Boards with the VCS sector and at the micro level that there was granular insight and solutions to fixing problems locally. Through issues like food poverty, homelessness etc. they were connected at a local level and you could get a number of organisations tackling this issue but not working together as well as they could be.
The Service Director for Localities and Strategic Partnerships reported that the VCS were critical partners and that they have been connected into every part of the discussion and if any decisions were required, the Council could go the VCS Recovery Board who acted as a sounding board. A Workshop was held on 25 August hosted by the Clare Foundation to look at co-designing the VCS Strategy.
During discussion the following points were made:-
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Town and Parish Council Charter PDF 623 KB The Committee will receive an update on the Town and Parish Council Charter. The charter will act as a framework (memorandum of understanding) to support partnership working and inform Buckinghamshire Council’s approach to liaison with local councils. It will set out the relationship between the new Buckinghamshire Council and the 169 town and parish councils in Buckinghamshire, including how to harness the opportunities to strengthen partnership working and improve services for residents. It sets out the joint principles and respective roles, responsibilities and expectations, and it will be a live document which will be refreshed regularly in consultation with town and parish councils.
Presenters:- Gareth Williams – Cabinet Member for Communities and Public Health Claire Hawkes – Service Director for Localities and Strategic Partnership Additional documents: Minutes: The Cabinet Member for Communities and Public Health introduced the report and stated that the Charter was still under development given the time lost due to coronavirus, but a lot of preparation work and focus on building collaborative cultures had been done. The Service area had focused on developing key relationships and many of the operational aspects, such as regular liaison arrangements with BMKALC (Bucks & MK Association of Local Councils), clerks and communications, were in place.
The charter would act as a framework (memorandum of understanding) to support partnership working and inform Buckinghamshire Council’s approach to liaison with local councils. It would set out the relationship between the new Buckinghamshire Council and the 169 town and parish councils in Buckinghamshire, including how to harness the opportunities to strengthen partnership working and improve services for residents. It set out the joint principles and respective roles, responsibilities and expectations, and it would be a live document which would be refreshed regularly in consultation with town and parish councils.
A working group of clerks had been established ahead of vesting day, their expertise and shared vision was helping the charter evolve. There was appetite from local councils to not simply produce a product that sits on the shelf but instead took time to co-design a charter so the dynamic end product added value. The group had met again since the pandemic started to ease to check on progress and consider how a ‘launch’ might now work given social distancing measures and a parish conference no longer appropriate. They were currently reviewing a second draft ahead of sharing this wider across all town and parish councils.
In particular the Cabinet Member referred to the following:-
During discussion the following points were made:-
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Domestic Violence and Abuse update PDF 734 KB The Committee will receive an update of recent and planned activity regarding Domestic Violence and Abuse. This report will help inform the Work Programme of this Select Committee by identifying possible areas of focus for the meeting in March 2021.
Presenters:- Gareth Williams - Cabinet Member for Communities and Public Health Rebecca Carley – Communities Engagement and Safety Manager Faye Blunstone – Communities Project Manager (Domestic Violence and Abuse)
Additional documents: Minutes:
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Draft Work Programme and update on Inquiry PDF 339 KB The Committee will note the Work Programme. Additional documents: Minutes: In terms of the Inquiry Group which was looking at the effectiveness of the community grants during the covid-19 pandemic Members were provided with the following update:-
If Members have any views about which community groups they would like to invite to an informal session please could they inform the Scrutiny Officer urgently including whether any Committee Members were interested in attending any of the sessions. |
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Date of Next Meeting The date of the next meeting is 21 January 2021 at 10am. Additional documents: Minutes: 21 January 2021 at 10am. |