Agenda item

Angela Andrews, Chief Executive and Town Clerk:

a)    provided Performance Scrutiny Committee with an update on the progress towards the Reducing Inequality priority in Vision 2020

b)    explained that it was agreed that the committee would receive a report each quarter from one of these Vision Groups to enable them to look into more detail at the progress of the Vision Groups Work Programme.

c)    highlighted the Council’s aspirations which covered the following:

-       Let’s help people succeed

-       Let’s provide help to the most vulnerable in our City

-       Let’s help people feel safe and welcome in their communities

-       Let’s empower people

-       Let’s ensure the best quality of life for people living in Lincoln

d)    detailed the key achievement over the past year which covered the following main areas:

-       Universal Credit Support Team

-       Customer Services

-       Revenues and Benefits

-       Housing

-       Corporately

-       Human Resources and Work Based Learning

-       Community Services

-       Planning

-       Recreational Services

-       Leisure

-       Communications

-       I.T

-       Civic and Leisure

-       Policy

-       All service areas.

e)    Invited members comments and questions

Question: Members asked whether the Citizens Advice Bureau would be able to support taking over Universal Credit as they were currently having funding taken away?

Response: This approach may be a way nationally to get more money into the Citizens Advice Bureau as there was some funding that came with taking on Universal Credit. The team that we currently have was costing £120,000, If this was funded nationally it would mean a £50,000 shortfall in resources. The skill set at CAB was very different. We had connections which could help claimants with their rent etc. when they transfer over to Universal Credit. We can only hope that the CAB could replicate our approach as it works.

Question: Members asked what would happen to staff in our Benefits Team.

Response: We were hoping that staff could TUPE which would be ideal but we were unsure at this stage.

Question: Members asked for a more detailed version of the Discretionary Rate Relief Policy.

Response: The policies hadn’t been advertised yet. Martin Walmsley had a meeting arranged next week to help promote the scheme.

Question: Members asked if the decision on the transfer of Universal Credit to the CAB could be appealed to government.

Response: The City Council needed a greater understanding on what the Citizens Advice Bureau propose to do.

Question: Due to the skill set there was within the Universal Credit Team, Members asked whether there would be possibility to attract funding by training the Citizens Advice staff.

Response: The scheme would need to be appropriately funded otherwise customers would not get the support that they need. We had currently overachieved by 400%. Since the announcement by Government on the 1^st October there had been no other communication from Government.

Question: Members asked whether we had ever requested feedback from the Citizens Panel regarding how they understood vision 2020.

Response: A discussion took place about Citizens Panel at CMT. The Citizens Panel were asked about specific services such as refuse collection which were fed back and put in service plans. CMT were going to be more involved in what questions were put to the panel so they can be used in a different way. A discussion took place with Education Business Partnership (EBP) a few weeks ago to try and engage a younger generation to take part in our Citizens Panel.

Question: Members requested feedback from the EBP Question time.

Response: Councillor Ric Metcalfe chaired the meeting with Councillor Rosie Kirk, Angela Andrews and Daren Turner with the questions and answers. A lot of the questions asked were around mental health, drugs and health services. Angela Andrews confirmed that she was happy to circulate the information to members.

RESOLVED that:

a)    the report be noted

b)    information regarding the EBP session be circulated to members