Agenda and minutes

Councillor K Thomas declared an interest as a member of a Local Safeguarding Network in her work.

The minutes of the meeting held on 26 April 2018 were approved as a true and accurate record.

Regarding Corporate Safeguarding, it was noted that the discussion had by the Committee at the meeting in March had now been updated in the minutes for that meeting. However Councillors stated that this information should have been included within the report on the agenda for this meeting today.

On page 7, there was mention of a blanket ban of begging being implemented in Kettering, during the meeting the Monitoring Officer was unsure of the legality of this and asked for clarification. The Scrutiny and Governance Manager advised the Committee that the matter was being considered by the Council at its meeting in July.

Councillor C Evans queried the recording of him abstentions during the voting at the last meeting. He was advised that the minutes could only reflect the occasions where the Committee took a vote, and that a paragraph had been included to note Councillor C Evans’s comments regarding not wanting to support any of the recommendations. 

Regarding the City Centre PSPO item, the Committee acknowledged that the meeting had been a thorough and extensive exercise for the Committee, which had been captured and summarised in the minutes.

Invitees:

·        Sally Ann Jenkins (Head of Children and Young People)

·        Mary Ryan (Corporate Safeguarding Manager)

·        James Harris (Strategic Director – People)

The Head of Children and Young People briefly presented an overview of the report to the Committee. Members were reminded that the report had originally presented to the Committee in March 2018, however due to a miscommunication, the officers had not been in attendance. At this meeting, the Committee had raised a number of issues with the report, for which they had asked for answers to be provided when the report was considered next. 

In response to these comments, the Officers had provided the Committee with a summary document, which focused on the red and amber measures within the Corporate and Team action plans, and provided a response to each of the issues raised by the Committee.  The comments around the readability of the original document were noted by the Officers, and the Committee were assured that the report would be redrafted in future years to take into account the Committees comments. The Officers outlined that the original report emphasised the journey of how Safeguarding had been reported to the Members, but acknowledged that it the detail within the report had meant that the report was difficult to read. Now that this detail had been reported to the Committee, the next update to the Committee would be focusing on the actions being taken to meet the obligations around safeguarding.

The Officers reinforced that Safeguarding was not only a Social Services issue, but a Corporate responsibility. It was also noted that Safeguarding covered all vulnerable people, rather than only children.

The Corporate Safeguarding Manager then advised the Members that legalisation had changed recently, and that Safeguarding was now a statutory function for the Authority. The report provided the Committee with an overview of the requirements from Welsh Government placed on all Welsh Councils.  The Committee were advised that there was additional information available on this on a local, regional and national level which could be provided to Members if further information was requested.

The Committee asked the following:

·        How was the role of safeguarding champion defined and what was the purpose of this role? A register was held of who the Safeguarding Champions were in each service area. This role was not intended to replace the line manager’s responsibility but rather to enable information, and processes to be disseminated throughout the organisation effectively. The time requirement for these Champions would be minimal, with meetings set at various points during the year, to inform them of any changes to processes / contacts. The purpose was to ensure there were people at every service area who could signpost any safeguarding issues to the right place/ person within Social Services.

·        Members queried how the Champions role was different to that of Line Managers, who should be able to disseminate information through their teams. It was clarified that this was not intended to replace the role of the line manager, but to add additional  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Invitees:

·        Beverly Owen – Strategic Director – Place

·        Keir Duffin – Head of Regeneration, Investment and Housing

The Strategic Director introduced the report and gave an update on the current progress with the implementation of the Economic Regeneration Strategy. It was advised that a review was undertaken by a Scrutiny Policy Review Group in April 2015 to consider a future Economic Regeneration Strategy for Newport. This final strategy was renamed Newport’s Economic Growth Strategy. A six month progress report was submitted to Scrutiny in April 2017 and the following report details the progress up to the end of December 2017.

The Members asked the following questions:

·        Members discussed the Destination Management Plan, and queried why there was no mention of the Convention Centre. Concerns were also raised about empty units in the city centre the lack of national chains in the city centre. It was advised that this would be taken on board and agreed that there more work to be done on the city centre. It was advised large projects take time to develop so updates were not always available.

·        Members expressed concern about the number of fires that have taken place in numerous properties in the city and asked what safeguarding measures were in place in order to preserve these buildings. The officers advised the Councils enforcement powers regarding derelict buildings were limited to ensuring public safety. The issue with most of the derelict properties was often that they were privately owned. The Members were advised that where the condition of the building was a threat to public safety, the process was to contact the property owners and issue notices

·        Some Members congratulated the Strategic Director for the 2015 Economic Growth Strategy. Comment was made that there was an action plan in the original report that was approved by Council however this was not included in the update to the Committee. It was felt that this action plan should form the focus on the Committees monitoring of this strategy, as it contained relevant measurable actions to implement the strategy effectively. Members asked that this be included in future reports.

·        The Strategic Director agreed that the report needed clearer high level data to clearly demonstrate the actions. It was advised that Inward Investment identified Newport as the 2^nd fastest growing city in the UK. The Council is working closely with Welsh Government to position Newport for key areas for investment. A Destination Development Group had been established, including business representatives from Newport and was being Chaired by Tiny Rebel. The Committee were also advised of the Partnership Marketing Strategy which was looking at developing the city marking strategy and a new website with the Marking Team.

·        Members highlighted the issues and challenges for the Council around the City Centre Development, and capitalising on large events that bring people into the centre.  The Officers advised of the impact of the Cardiff region city deal for Newport. Members queried the Scrutiny arrangements for the City Deal and how this was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Scrutiny Adviser introduced the Draft 2018-19 Annual Forward Work Programme to the Committee and advised that it was best practice and a cornerstone of good scrutiny for Members of a Scrutiny Committee to have ownership of their forward work programme and to be involved in developing, reviewing and updating it. The draft Annual Forward Work Programme had been produced following a review of the outcomes from the Committee’s Work Programme the previous year.

The Adviser presented an overview of the suggested topics for the Committees discussion, which had been included within the draft Work Programme. Key work for the Committee included monitoring items that had previously been considered by the Committee including the Budget and Public Engagement Recommendations Monitoring for the next meeting in July.

Agreed:

The Committee approved the draft Annual Forward Work Programme and the proposed schedule of meetings for 2018/19.