Minutes:
Strategic Lead for Housing, Health and Environment presented Members with a draft Poverty Action Plan which had been based on a format used by Cambridge City Council. The draft Action Plan included the five objectives agreed at the last Panel meeting which were:
· Helping people on low income to maximise their household income and minimise their costs, buildings financial resilience and reducing indebtedness;
· Strengthening families and communities, including supporting groups that are more likely to experience poverty and community and volunteer groups working to combat poverty;
· Promoting an inclusive economy by raising skills and improving access to a range of employment opportunities for people on low income;
· Addressing the high cost housing, improving housing conditions, creating affordable warmth and reducing homelessness;
· Improving health outcomes for people on low incomes, including access to good diet, health and ill health prevention.
Members noted that many of the poverty activities are already being undertaken by the Council and had been for some time. The Action Plan suggests enhancements and new activities that extend the current poverty interventions. It focuses on interventions that we can deliver as a District Council where we can make a positive difference.
The Strategic Lead for Housing, Health and Environment invited Members to help populate and refine the draft Action Plan as it develops and when completed it is anticipated that it will be presented alongside a strategy document in which the action plan will sit as an annexe.
The Chair invited Members to focus their comments and questions on the third objective (the theme of this meeting) - Promoting an inclusive economy by raising skills and improving access to a range of employment opportunities for people on low income;
Discussion included the following points by members outside of the Panel:
· A suggestion was made to include an qualitative evaluation of the actions to determine which actions were more important (prioritisation of actions);
Discussion included the following points by Panel members:
· The need to consider digital inclusion and connectivity as both play an important role in accessing benefits and shopping in the high street;
· The performance measures and outcomes need to be smart targets and suggested using a balance scorecard approach;
· Digital inclusion needs to be better across East Devon and rural areas are significantly disadvantaged;
· There is a big difference between actions that can be achieved and aspirations and concerns were raised about the council having efforts diluted by chasing matters that cannot get results;
· The need to focus on the defined scope that the council is able to do;
· Councillor Allen sought clarification on a promise to incorporate some of the ideas he had put forward in August 2019 into the draft action plan addressing career advice and laptops/IT devices that are critical for the future of young people, and for the 50+ people and working with the voluntary sector which is an economic area that has not been seen as an economic opportunity. In response the Chair advised his earlier report was taken into account and many of his concerns mentioned were already happening. The Strategic Lead advised Councillor Allen had submitted a really good report and he hoped he had captured a lot of the spirit of what was in the report in the draft actions;
· This council should be declaring a poverty emergency to ensure the issue of poverty is given the appropriate parity of esteem in the upcoming council plan. In response the Strategic Lead for Housing advised poverty is a priority for the council in the recently published Statement of Intent and advised the timetable for Panel sessions can be condensed if this was the wish of the Panel;
· A suggestion was made to commission a new poverty report to raise awareness. In response to this suggestion the Strategic Lead advised this was being done as part of this Panel’s sessions and will be considered at Cabinet and Council by March 2021 as part of the Poverty Strategy;
· A suggestion was made for the need to learn from other councils on how to implement the actions;
· Concerns were raised about debt and how the Citizens Advice Bureau would be able to cope with demand after Christmas and New Year as a lot of people would be in debt. Following the meeting it was advised Citizens Advice East Devon had confirmed that they had increased their phone line capacity locally and they were confident they could deal with the demand after Christmas. They had also invested in a 4 person team to address the need for specialised debt advisors. The council had already agreed that officers working on financial resilience could refer directly into the team while waiting for them to start. It is hoped further discussions would take place with Tim Bridger on 16 December. Providing it is possible to sort this out it was advised that our officers would be able to identify cases that require debt advice now and after Christmas, and either signpost or refer them to the team. Monthly update meetings with Tim will be taking place so if not in place before Christmas this should be in place before we reach March.
The Chair suggested we hold more frequent meetings to be able to achieve the Panel’s purpose and terms of reference sooner and advised this would be discussed with the Strategic Lead for Housing, Health and Environment after the meeting. In response Councillor Millar suggested, with the agreement of the Chair and officers, to hold informal meetings and Councillor de Saram suggested Panel members submit questions about the draft documents in advance of the meeting to ensure answers were ready and meetings were quicker.