Previous Reference: Minute 67 (2017/18)

The Strategic Director Place will present a report (Document “Q”) which presents a draft of the Bradford District Anti-Poverty Co-ordination Group’s approach for tackling poverty along with data measures that will be used to evidence the impact of activity at District level and, where available, at ward level.

Recommended –

(1)  That the final draft Bradford District Anti Poverty Co-ordination Group’s Approach for Tackling Poverty 2018-2020 be accepted and endorsed.

(2)  That recommendations of suggested changes to the final draft Approach be made, including endorsement of activity to consult individuals living through the experience of poverty.

(Helen Johnston – 01274 434401) 

Previous Reference: Minute 67 (2017/18)

The Strategic Director Place presented a report (Document “Q”) which contained a draft of the Bradford District Anti-Poverty Co-ordination Group’s approach for tackling poverty along with data measures that would be used to evidence the impact of activity at District level and, where available, at ward level.

The Member who was also the Council’s Anti-Poverty Champion commended the report, stressing the importance of networking and highlighting the recent large families poverty event as a particularly successful and moving event. She also advised that an event including free crafting activities was planned as an alternative to the commercialism and pressure of “Black Friday”. She stressed how proud she was of the work of the Anti Poverty Co-ordination Group.

A Member challenged the view that leaving school with no qualifications was a barrier to success, citing his own experience as an example of success in those circumstances. Officers supported that view , stating that there were many routes to success and that while there was a clear correlation between skills and employment, skills did not always mean formal qualifications. They went on to stress that a young person’s first job was often crucial and that this was the reason behind a joint project on supported recruitment which was currently on-going with the NHS.

A Member expressed some concern about the language used in the report, stating that he would prefer to see a more “nuts and bolts” explanation of service delivery.

Members concurred that, while the amount of work being done across the District to support people experiencing poverty was a credit to all those involved, it would be useful to have a more rigorous report in future in terms of examining statistics and questioning whether some of the priorities listed in the appendix to the report might be duplication of work already done elsewhere. An external partner of the Anti-Poverty Co-ordination Group explained that the list in the appendix of what was currently happening was everything that was taking place in the District under other strategies which linked to the anti-poverty strategy. The strategy’s actions focussed only on the gaps to prevent duplication. The strategy was not yet adopted and implementation would follow shortly so it was too early yet to report on delivery.

A Member explained her own experience of working with families experiencing poverty, especially supporting young people who struggled during schools holidays. She strongly advocated keeping school premises open longer and supporting youth centre and community groups to be as open and accessible as possible.

The Policy Officer involved with the Group explained to the Committee that the Group was very new and would need to understand much more about this topic before it recommended actions which may not be helpful. She advised that the actions currently set out in the appendix to the report were ones that all partners were happy to sign up to at this point.

Resolved –

(1)  That the final draft Bradford District Anti Poverty Co-ordination Group’s Approach for Tackling Poverty 2018-2020 be accepted and endorsed.

(2)  That the draft Anti Poverty Strategy be presented to the Executive for approval taking into consideration the comments raised by this Committee.

(3)  That a progress report in relation to the work of the Bradford District Anti Poverty Co-ordination Group and progress against the delivery plan be presented to this Committee in 12 months time.

ACTION:Strategic Director, Place