Agenda item

The Committee received a presentation from Charlotte Brooks (Director of Local Change, LocalMotion). During consideration of the presentation, the following points were noted: -

• LocalMotion was founded on building a social, economic, and environmental justice movement of six communities across the UK.
• It was created by six established funders in the UK who shared a desire to find new and better ways to tackle the common social, economic and environmental issues communities faced.
• The six places were Lincoln, Enfield, Torbay, Middlesborough, Oldham and Carmarthen.
• Lincoln was selected to benefit from additional funding from LocalMotion until November 2023.
• After investigating what was happening from the perspective of individuals and organisations over the eleven wards within Lincoln, three common themes occurred: community prosperity, aspiration, and sustainability.
• The purpose of the Commission was to hear from people who had a story to share or who had experienced struggle. This may include those who suffered from issues surrounding mental health, housing, education, employment, and digital poverty.
• Launched in September 2022, Poverty Truth Lincoln sought to identify approximately fifteen community commissioners to take part in the overall commission. In addition, the cohort of collaborative working would include fifteen civic/business commissioners.
• The ten-year LocalMotion programme was currently in the exploration stage, phase 2. This phase was less ‘outcome focused’ and more person centred.
• The ambition was to have tested a number of projects by June/July 2023 and to secure future funding up to 2030/31.
• The Commission was resourced until August 2024 with an 8-year collaboration action plan to be co-designed by the commissioners.
• There would be an annual impact report and analysis post 2024.
• The 2025-30 strategy plan, by Lincoln, for Lincoln, would ensure that delivery of ideas.

The Chair thanked guest speaker Charlotte Brooks for her work, informative update and presentation and welcomed comments and questions from the Committee. As a result of the discussions between Members and Charlotte Brooks, the following points were made: -

• The scheme would address absolute and relative poverty. Within the eleven wards of Lincoln, there were approximately 17,000 people Just About Managing (JAM’S). If the cost of living continued to rise, it was suspected that over the duration of the next six months this figure could significantly increase.
• The panic and pressures of poverty could not be understood unless experienced and the exit routes from poverty could not be executed in isolation – a collaborative and holistic approach was essential.
• Concerns were raised about the difficulties of reaching those in need and whether individuals that suffered from poverty realised that they were in poverty. This was often subjective.
• Development Plus allowed community connectors who worked with communities in Lincoln to have personal conversations. In addition, Civic commissioners could potentially share their stories of struggle.
• There was a positive working relationship with Poverty Truth Network and the term ‘Poverty Truth’ was chosen to represent the reality of the crisis faced.
• Rather than be spoken about, people needed to be involved.
• There appeared to be a bias towards those in financial hardship by way of significantly higher interest rates for borrowing money and a resolve to the bias was needed.
• The commission was embedded in the voluntary sector in Lincoln.
• National organisations or institutions that had an interest in supporting people but could not formally commit officers to the process, would continue to engage and offer expertise through a ‘friends of the commission’ network.
• Commissioners would be recognised for their contributions to the commission.

NOTE: - Councillor Matthew Fido joined proceedings at this stage.

• Members recognised that a number of community groups that would have ordinarily been leant upon would have been inactive due to the pandemic and therefore people requiring help may have been missed.
• The concept for LocalMotion began prior to the pandemic however the process of early collaboration was made difficult in an online world.
• There would be a review of the core group every six months.
• It was noted that the regular commitment for the group of 30 commissioners would not begin until January 2023 when regular meetings would begin with capped numbers to ensure sensitivity of subject content.
• The Chief Executive’s remit will be to appoint representation from the Council and would be guided by the Chair and relevant Portfolio Holder.

The Chair thanked Charlotte Brooks for her attendance, contributions to discussions and inspiring presentation.