Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Committee Room 3 - 3rd Floor - Civic Centre. View directions

Contact: Deb Breedon  01902 551250 or Email: deborah.breedon@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

No apologies were received.

2.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest made at this meeting.

3.

Nomination for Vice-Chair

Minutes:

Councillor Pat Patten was nominated to serve as Vice-Chair of the Panel for the remainder of the Municipal Year.

 

RESOLVED

 

That Councillor Patten be elected as vice-Chair of the Adults and Safer City Scrutiny Panel for the 2015/16 municipal year.

4.

Minutes of final meeting of the Adults and Community Scrutiny Panel (10.03.2015) pdf icon PDF 97 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of meeting of 10 March 2015 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair

 

There were no matters arising from the minutes of the meeting on 4 November 2014.

 

The panel queried the progress of discussions with residents of Duke Street residential bungalows about proposed changes. Tony Ivko, Service Director- Older People, commented that the work is still on-going.

 

The panel queried the plans for Ekta Centre. Service Director- Older People commented that the work is still on-going and agreed to brief the panel on public feedback on plans when available,

 

  

Resolved

 

Service Director- Older People to brief panel on outcome of public consultation on plans for Ekta Centre when information available.

 

5.

Prevent Duty Implications pdf icon PDF 102 KB

[To provide a report to consider the corporate implications of the duty and identify ways in which implementation can be supported]

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cllr Samuels, Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, introduced the report and outlined the background to the Prevent agenda and its links to the work nationally by Government aimed at stopping people from being drawn into terrorism. Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing outlined the new responsibilities placed on the local authority and other local agencies to have due regards to preventing people from being drawn into terrorism. Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing briefed the panel on the multi-agency partnership work.

 

Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing commented that the threat level in Wolverhampton is assessed as being low risk by the Home Office.

 

Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing outlined the training and

E-learning packages offered to Councillors as part of their induction and other resources to provide training to raise awareness of the Prevent duty and responsibilities.

 

Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing commented on the work of the Channel Panel, a multi-agency panel. The group is chaired by Karen Samuels, Head of Community Safety.

 

The panel commented on the concern about the risk of young people being radicalised in primary schools and that new responsibilities placed on schools was not discussed during a briefing on safeguarding.  Furthermore, the issue is not being discussed at the school that he is a school governor.

 

Head of Community Safety responded that historically, the service has struggled to engage schools in the work of Prevent. However, new responsibilities placed on schools and the inclusion of Prevent in the Ofsted inspection framework has resulted in an increased interest getting training and support. Head of Community Safety commented on the training requests received from schools and staff available.

 

The panel discussed the work of the Chanel Panel and the changes in the role of the Counter Terrorism Unit and the importance of agencies to consider safeguarding issues.

 

The panel discussed the need to extend the role of communities and engage with ethnic and religious groups. The panel discussed concerns about the use of internet and social media to radicalise young people. The panel commented that messages are aimed at all communities.

 

The panel commented on the statutory responsibilities placed on local authority by Government without necessarily providing the necessary resources.

 

Head of Community Safety explained that there is a risk of people being radicalised anywhere. Head of Community Safety accepted the impact of deprivation on young people and explained that areas considered to be a higher risk do get extra funding.

Chief Inspector Tracey Packham discussed the use of internet filters but explained that it presents a challenge on how to monitor its use.  The panel discussed the impact of deprivation and the importance of engaging with all communities.

 

The panel queried the future funding for a post for £35,000 at the end of the fixed term contact. Head of Community Safety explained that the situation about future funding would be reviewed at the end of contract with Safer Wolverhampton Partnership.

 

The panel queried the assessment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Exclusion of press and public

Resolved:

            That, in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business as they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information under paragraphs 1 relating to information in respect of any individual.

 

7.

Better Care technology and strengthening support at home

[To provide Councillors with opportunity to consider and comment on Better Care technology and strengthening support at home and feed any comments from Scrutiny into the Cabinet report.] 

Minutes:

Councillor Mattu, Cabinet Member for Adults, introduced the report and explained the reasons for introducing community reablement based services. Cllr Mattu outlined the themes of the strategy and the priorities that will help to promote independence and support people in their own home.

 

Resolved:

 

The panel supported all the recommendations in the report.

 

The panel requested that a progress report is presented to future meeting about the impact of the changes detailed in the report.

 

The panel noted that the report was being considered as pre-decision scrutiny item and will therefore not be available to call-in once a decision is made by the Executive.

 

The meeting closed at 19:28