(1)       Councillor Griffiths disclosed an interest in Minute 66 as he was a Doctor and a Member of the Clinical Commissioning Group.

(2)       Councillor Pollard disclosed an interest in Minute 68 as she was on the Board for Eccleshill Mechanics Institute.

(3)       Councillor Jamil disclosed an interest in Minute 64 as she ran a business that provided immigration advice.

(4)       Councillor Ahmed disclosed an interest in Minute 64 as he was a Board Member on the Thornbury Centre.

(5)       Councillor Salam disclosed an interest in Minute 64 as he was on the Board for Better Start Bradford.

Action:            City Solicitor

Recommended –

That the minutes of the meetings held on 12 January 2016 and 16 February 2017 be signed as a correct record (previously circulated).

(Fatima Butt – 01274 432227)

Resolved-

That the minutes of the meetings held on 12 January 2016 and 16 February 2017 be signed as a correct record.

Action:           City Solicitor

There were no appeals submitted by the public to review decisions to restrict documents.

There were no questions submitted by the public.

The Strategic Director of Health and Wellbeing will present a report (Document AD) which outlines the new approach to the delivery of welfare advice services across the District.

The report includes details of the new approach to Welfare Advice; the commissioning and procurement processes employed; who the successful bidders were and a description of the services to be delivered.

Recommended –

(1)  That the report be accepted and that it be noted that time is required for the new services to embed and commence their change priorities.

(2)  That services be encouraged to work closely with their ward members and to ensure that service access data which will be used by a wide range of stakeholders and referrers is kept up to date.

(Sarah Possingham/Julie Robinson-Royce – 01274 431319/434143)

The Strategic Director of Health and Wellbeing presented a report (Document AD) which outlined the new approach to the delivery of welfare advice services across the District.

The report included details of the new approach to Welfare Advice; the commissioning and procurement processes employed; who the successful bidders were and a description of the services to be delivered.

Members commented on a number of issues which included:

·         The working hours of advice centres needed looking at as well as the advice that was being offered and the lengthy queues in seeing an advice worker.

·         Advice centres needed to inform Members of the public that Councils did not own any housing stock and refer them to social housing such as inCommunities.

·         Was there anything in the contract specification that defined welfare? 

·         Would the centres cope with the increased demand when all the services were rolled out?

·         How were decisions made on locations where sessions had reduced such as Thorpe Edge and Fagley where there was high dependency, poor health and where people needed extra welfare advice; what was the consultation that had been undertaken?

·         Location of welfare advice centres needed looking at to ensure there was appropriate coverage in Bradford East.

·         What was the process for ensuring that quality debt advice was being provided? there was not enough information available to members of the public on the services that were being provided by advice centres.

·         Were the advices centres working with children’s centres?

·         Needed to look at creating an appointment system at advice centres; if a member of the public could not access a particular centre could they attend a centre out of area for advice?

·         Providers needed to work with Ward Councillors on the best place for siting the welfare advice centres.

·         Would be useful to see information on new users of the centres and previous users.

In response to Members comments it was reported that:

·         As part of the service specification there was a requirement to extend service access outside of routine working hours. This could be through the use of new media; internet and/or face to face.  There was also a need to improve service users’ experience, where there were simpler queries and requests dealing with these in a timely manner-getting it right first time.

·         Advice Centres were required to provide specialist welfare advice such as benefits and tax credits; all the Centres also had links with Cancer Support,  Age UK and other relevant agencies such as Girlington Centre was accredited to provide Immigration advice.

·         It was expected that all advice centres would be providing specialist advice relating to debt, immigration and housing as their staff were trained and accredited.

·         Providers were expected to work with the Council’s Revenues and Benefits Section; Universal Credits started last year for single people, by 2019 everyone would be accessing Universal Credit; advice centres would work across other Social Housing Landlords to ensure they were on board too.

·         Providers were open to hear and engage with people to ensure that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.

The Strategic Director, Children’s Services will present a report (Document “AE”) which provides an overview of employability and skills in the Bradford East area; outlines support available for residents and gives details of future plans for the area.

Recommended –

That the report and the future plans to continue support in East Bradford be noted.

(Phil Hunter – 01274 439575)

Members agreed to defer consideration of the Strategic Director, Children’s Services report (Document “AE”) to a future meeting as no officer was in attendance to present the report.

Resolved-

That Document “AE” be deferred to a future meeting.  Members expressed disappointment that no officer was in attendance at the meeting to present the report.

Action:           Strategic Director, Children’s Services

Document “AF” informs the Area Committee about the work of the Public Health Department, in particular how the work contributes to the Health and Well-being of the population of the Bradford East Area.

In addition, the report includes an update about the work being undertaken through the Clinical Commissioning Groups.

Recommended –

1.    That this Committee supports the on-going work to improve health and well-being in Bradford East.

2.    That this Committee encourages its Members to attend the “Make Every Contact Count” training in order to raise awareness of unhealthy behaviours amongst local residents and signpost residents into existing support services.

3.    That local residents be given key health messages to raise awareness of risk and what they can do to reduce those risks.

4.    That this Committee undertakes to work with public health and clinical commissioning groups where needed to understand communities and how to access “hard to reach” groups or “at risk” groups.

(Sarah Muckle/Michael Horsley – 01274 433533)

Document “AF” informed the Area Committee about the work of the Public Health Department, in particular how the work contributed to the Health and Well-being of the population of the Bradford East Area.

In addition, the report included an update about the work being undertaken through the Clinical Commissioning Groups.

There was a short debate on obesity and how it should be tackled and the importance all individuals played in looking after their own health.

In response to a Members question it was reported that initiatives such as GP Practices with good ideas to make the district a healthier place had the opportunity to bid for funding of up to £1500 through the Community Chest Grant.

It was reported that there was a lot of preventative work being undertaken by the various partnerships which contributed to improving the health of residents of the district such as the Bradford’s Healthy Heart initiative which was set up to tackle the mortality rate from cardiovascular disease.

A Member stressed the importance of undertaking work to improve air quality and emphasised the impact of poor quality of air and poor quality of housing on peoples health.

Members were informed that further information on the Community Chest funding such as the total budget, take up of the fund, whether it was still available and where implemented would be provided to Members.

Members suggested that the report needed to contain targets and progress being made in the different priority areas.

Resolved-

(1)          That this Committee supports the on-going work to improve health and well-being in Bradford East.

(2)          That this Committee encourages its Members to attend the “Make Every Contact Count” training in order to raise awareness of unhealthy behaviours amongst local residents and signpost residents into existing support services.

(3)          That local residents be given key health messages to raise awareness of risk and what they can do to reduce those risks.

(4)          That this Committee undertakes to work with public health and clinical commissioning groups where needed to understand communities and how to access “hard to reach” groups or “at risk” groups.

Action:           Director of Public Health

The Strategic Director, Place will present a report (Document “AG”) which provides information on Capital Highway Maintenance Funding for 2016/17 – 2017/18 and makes recommendations on the allocation for Non-Classified road resurfacing schemes and Surface Dressing sites for 2017/18.

Recommended –

That the proposed programme of works for 2017/18 as shown in Appendices 2 and 3 to Document “AG” be approved.

(Andrew Whelan – 01274 434409)

The Strategic Director, Place presented a report (Document “AG”) which provided information on Capital Highway Maintenance Funding for 2016/17 – 2017/18 and made recommendations on the allocation for Non-Classified road resurfacing schemes and Surface Dressing sites for 2017/18.

Resolved-

That the proposed programme of works for 2017/18 as shown in Appendices 2 and 3 to Document “AG” be approved.

Action:           Strategic Director, Place

The Assistant Director of Neighbourhoods and Customer Services will present a report (Document “AH”) which outlines the allocation of the Community Chest Budget for the financial year 2016/2017 and asks Members to consider the make-up of the Grants Advisory Group in the Bradford East Area for 2017/2018.

Recommended –

(1)  That the allocation of Community Chest Grants to local groups in the Bradford East Constituency for the financial year 2016/17 be noted.

(2)  That a 2017/2018 Grants Advisory Group made up of the Chair, Deputy Chair and Opposition Spokesperson be established.

(3)  That the Area Co-ordinator be asked to submit a report on the allocation of Community Chest Budget to local groups in Bradford East at the end of the financial year 2017/18.

(Darren Parr – 01274 431066) 

The Assistant Director of Neighbourhoods and Customer Services presented a report (Document “AH”) which outlined the allocation of the Community Chest Budget for the financial year 2016/2017 and asked Members to consider the make-up of the Grants Advisory Group in the Bradford East Area for 2017/2018.

Resolved –

(1)          That the allocation of Community Chest Grants to local groups in the Bradford East Constituency for the financial year 2016/17 be noted.

(2)          That a 2017/2018 Grants Advisory Group made up of the Chair, Deputy Chair and Opposition Spokesperson be established.

(3)          That the Area Co-ordinator be asked to submit a report on the allocation of Community Chest Budget to local groups in Bradford East at the end of the financial year 2017/18.

Action:           Strategic Director, Place

The Assistant Director of Neighbourhood and Customer Services will present a  report (Document “AI”) which invites Members to consider draft Ward Plans for the Bradford East Area covering the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.

In addition, the report provides an update on progress of actions undertaken supporting the delivery of Bradford East Ward Plan priorities for 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017.

Recommended –

(1)  That the six Ward Plans 2017-18 be approved and adopted.

(2)  That Council Officers, partner agencies and community organisations be requested to support the implementation of the six Ward Plans 2017-18

(3)  That the Bradford East Area Co-ordinator report back to this Committee on the progress in addressing the priorities contained in the Ward Plans 2017-18.

(4)  That progress on actions undertaken to support the delivery of Ward Plan priorities for the period between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017 be noted.

(Ishaq Shafiq – 01274 431066)

Please Note that the appendices to Document “AI” have been distributed on a limited basis on the grounds of economy. Anyone wishing to view a copy can do so by accessing them on the minutes and agenda database on bradford.gov.uk    

The Assistant Director of Neighbourhoods and Customer Services presented a report (Document “AH”) which outlined the allocation of the Community Chest Budget for the financial year 2016/2017 and asked Members to consider the make-up of the Grants Advisory Group in the Bradford East Area for 2017/2018.

Resolved-

(1)          That the Ward Plans 2017-18 be approved and adopted with the exception of Eccleshill and Idle and Thackley Ward Plans which require further consultation with Ward Members prior to the final versions being agreed with the Area Co-ordinator.

(2)          That Council Officers, partner agencies and community organisations be requested to support the implementation of the six Ward Plans 2017-18

(3)          That the Bradford East Area Co-ordinator report back to this Committee on the progress in addressing the priorities contained in the Ward Plans 2017-18.

(4)          That progress on actions undertaken to support the delivery of Ward Plan priorities for the period between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017 be noted.

(5)          That the Ward Officers and the Area Co-ordinator be thanked for the work being undertaken in Bradford East.

Action:     Strategic Director, Place