Council and Democracy

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 2, Town Hall, Rose Hill, Chesterfield

Contact: Graham Ibberson  01246 345229

Items
No. Item

22.

Declarations of Members' and Officers' interests relating to items on the Agenda.

5.00pm to 5.05pm

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were received.

23.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Blakemore, Hollingworth and Kellman.

24.

Scrutiny Project Groups Progress Updates

5.45pm to 5.50pm

Minutes:

The Senior Democratic and Scrutiny Officer gave an update on the progress of the Scrutiny Project Group (SPG) on the Visitor Economy Strategy. The SPG had met twice since the last Committee meeting. On 8 November, the SPG met with the consultants and key officers to be briefed on the draft strategy document which was undergoing public consultation. The SPG then met on 22 November to review the core proposition and the seven priorities in the strategy in order to agree a written response to the consultation by the beginning of December.

 

The SPG were aiming to bring their final report and recommendations to the next meeting of the Committee on 3 February, 2022 to coincide with the timeline for the consideration of the Visitor Economy Strategy by Full Council on 23 February, 2022.

 

Members discussed the Air Quality Scrutiny Project Group which had been temporarily put on hold due to the pandemic and endorsed the plan to hold a final meeting of the SPG with the key officers in order to formally close the project. It was noted that this Scrutiny Project Group reports to the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the update be noted.

25.

Scrutiny Monitoring pdf icon PDF 248 KB

5.50pm to 5.55pm

Minutes:

The Committee considered the scrutiny recommendations implementation monitoring schedule.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the scrutiny monitoring schedule be noted.

26.

Forward Plan

Forward Plan of Key Decisions 1 December – 31 March, 2022 available via
link below

 

https://chesterfieldintranet.moderngov.co.uk/mgListPlanItems.aspx?PlanId=132&RP=134

 

5.55pm to 6.00pm

Minutes:

The Committee considered the Forward Plan for the period 1 December, 2021 to 31 March, 2022.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Forward Plan be noted.

27.

Work Programme for the Community, Customer and Organisational Scrutiny Committee pdf icon PDF 54 KB

6.00pm to 6.05pm

Minutes:

The Committee considered the items on its work programme for 2021/22. Members discussed the item on crime and disorder scheduled for the meeting in March, 2022 and requested that the police be invited to send a representative to this meeting.

 

Members discussed the upcoming Lighting Strategy item which would take the form of a scrutiny project group, following an initial briefing from officers. There was also a request to include the Stephenson Memorial Hall project on the work programme to support the delivery of the project; it was explained that this could be considered as part of the work programme setting process for 2022/23.

 

RESOLVED –

 

1.    That the work programme be noted.

 

2.    That the police be invited to send a representative to the meeting on 31 March, 2022.

28.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 295 KB

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting of the Community, Customer and Organisational Scrutiny Committee held on 16 September, 2021 were presented.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Minutes be approved as a correct record and by signed by the Chair.

29.

Cabinet Member for Business Transformation and Customers - Implementation of Universal Credit pdf icon PDF 228 KB

5.05pm to 5.45pm

Minutes:

The Service Director – Digital, HR and Customer Services presented a progress report on the implementation of Universal Credit in Chesterfield borough and the latest position regarding the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. The Cabinet Member for Business Transformation and Customer was unable to attend and provided a written note that was circulated to members of the Committee.

 

The Universal Credit system had been complex to embed however the staff involved had coped well with all the changes. Relationships had been developed with Job Centre+ and budgeting support had been transferred to voluntary sector organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau.

 

In October, 2021 the Government removed the £20 uplift; the impact of this on residents was still emerging however the number of enquiries about access to housing support fund had increased and it had also placed additional administrative burdens on the team due to the need to re-calculate the Council Tax Support benefit.

 

The team were now working with Derbyshire County Council to develop the Household Support Grant scheme which aimed to provide further additional support to residents in need over the winter period. In addition, opportunities to maximise the discretionary housing support fund were being explored to supplement areas where funding had been cut.

 

Members enquired about the process for moving claimants onto management payments and were advised that there was an additional burden due to the administrative process which increased costs for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The Service Director explained that a different approach to supporting those in rent arrears was needed, targeting those with smaller arrears where there was more chance of making a difference. Members were also advised that behavioural analytics would be used as part of a pilot exercise to get a better outcome for those in rent arrears.

 

Members asked about how they could best support residents who they know are falling into rent arrears. The advice from the Service Director was to notify the team; the more intelligence they had, the better they could tailor their response. A new digital platform, Salesforce, was being introduced that would pull together all information about a person, in compliance with data protection, to enable whichever advisor they are dealing with to understand their situation fully.

 

A need to cross-skill staff had been identified as revenues, benefits and housing were all separate teams. A restructure was under development to put those relationships and skills in place which would be formally consulted on with staff in January, 2022 before consideration by the Joint Cabinet and Employment and General Committee in February, 2022.

 

In response to questions, Members were advised that discretionary housing payments were provided to people who needed extra help with their housing costs and were awarded depending on needs. The payments were often used to support those with arrears in order to prevent homelessness.

 

Members discussed whether the foodbank network could be used as part of the intelligence gathering and acknowledged that foodbanks relied on volunteers who may not have the time  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.