Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 18 December 2012 were presented.

Resolved:

To approve as a correct record and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 18 December 2012.

There were no declarations of interest.

Councillor Keith Humphries, Cabinet Member for Public Health and Public Protection, introduced the report which updated the committee on the production of Wiltshire’s Joint Strategic Assessment (JSA) for Health and Wellbeing 2012/13.  This report formed part of the wider JSA programme which is the mechanism of understanding Wiltshire’s local population through the assessment of intelligence and information.  Councillor Humphries noted that the JSA document had been circulated with the agenda, and that further detailed information was available on the www.intelligencenetwork.org.uk  website.

In relation to life expectancy, it was noted that the gap between men and women in Wiltshire was one of the lowest in the country, and this had remained low, even with population growth.

The Corporate Director for Public Health and Public Protection also confirmed that it was planned to produce JSAs for individual community areas, and that the Area Board Chairs would be consulted on the timescales for this.

Resolved:

That Cabinet notes the production of the 2012/13 JSA report and supporting documents and endorses its use in commissioning and strategy preparation, including the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Reasons for Decision

The JSA programme is the mechanism of understanding our local population through the assessment of intelligence and information.

Our strategies and plans need to be evidenced based, our evidence base is the JSA programme.  This JSA provides the evidence base for all health and wellbeing related strategies and plans.

Councillor Jane Scott, Leader of the Council and Lead Member for Children’s Services, introduced the report which sought to ensure that the Executive of the Council was satisfied that the Adoption Agency was effective and achieving good outcomes for children, young people and service users, as required by the 2011 Statutory Adoption Guidance and the 2011 Adoption National Minimum Standards.

Cabinet noted that a number of new measures had been introduced in the past three years, resulting in significant improvements to the adoption service, and to the speed of the adoption process.  However, it was also noted that the importance of the Council’s duty of care to children in the adoption system meant that the right decision was a higher priority than a fast decision.

Resolved:

That Cabinet notes and accepts the contents of the report

Reasons for Decision

To ensure that the Executive of the Council is satisfied that the Adoption Agency is effective and achieving good outcomes for children, young people and service users, as required by the 2011 Statutory Adoption Guidance and the 2011 Adoption National Minimum Standards.

Councillor Jemima Milton, Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Housing, presented the report on behalf of the Cabinet Member.  The report invited Cabinet to consider a proposal for developing a new model of governance for the Housing Landlord Service.  In moving the recommendations in the report, Councillors Milton asked that the proposed deadline for the setting up of the Management Board (recommendation 1 refers) be amended from April 2013 to May 2013 in view of the elections in May.

Public participation

At the Chairman’s invitation Mr Brian Warwick commented on the report, commenting that he supported the proposed approach, and seeking confirmation that the Council would encourage Housing Associations to take the same approach.  Councillor Milton confirmed that this was the case, and it was agreed that officers and Councillors would put this message to Housing Associations.

It was noted that recommendation 1 referred to “equal numbers of Councillors, tenants and independents”, whereas this was at odds with paragraph 3.2.  Officers noted that the recommendation was correct and that exact numbers would depend on the skills and experience of the individuals.

Resolved:

That Cabinet

1.    Approves the setting up of a Management Board for the governance of council housing consisting of an equal number of Councillors, tenants and independents, with a recommendation that such a panel should be in place by April 2013. This will enable full consultation to take place in line with the Compact and  to  carry out  a transparent recruitment process.

2.    Approves the setting up of an advisory panel of two Councillors and two tenant representatives to oversee the project of setting up a management board.

3.    Endorses the proposal to work with tenants to review other methods of tenant involvement such as the Tenants Panel to ensure that broader tenant participation :

a)    Compliments any governance arrangements that are developed

b)   Develops a strong area base locally

c)    Works for all groups of residents including younger adults and the more vulnerable tenants.

Reasons for Decision

To seek Cabinet approval to extend and strengthen the governance arrangements for delivering an excellent Housing Landlord Service.

The Localism Act has given additional freedoms to councils and tenants to determine their future housing services and priorities under the term ‘co-regulation’ Tenant participation has evolved to an extent where tenants expect and are encouraged to work closely with the Council to have more of a direct say in the decision making process.

Councillor Jemima Milton, Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Housing, presented the report on behalf of the Cabinet Member.  The report sought approval from Cabinet to make an amendment to the Homes4Wiltshire policy that was approved by cabinet on 11 November 2009.  The amendment sought to introduce additional reasonable preference criteria for working age households residing in Wiltshire, who were social housing tenants and under-occupying by 2 bedroom or more and identified as most at risk of suffering financial hardship if they continued to remain in their current property.

The Cabinet welcomed this change to the policy, and it was noted that proactive work was ongoing to mitigate the impact of this and other elements of Welfare reform.  In response to questions it was confirmed that tenants who were over-occupying would not be exempt from the reduction in Housing Benefit if they were on the Housing list for a new property, however, the Housing Service would work with such tenants to identify hardship grants as and where required.

Resolved

That Cabinet:

Introduce an additional reasonable preference criteria within the Gold plus band as follows:-

·         Under Occupation – This applies to any working-age, social sector households in Wiltshire who is under-occupying by two or more bedrooms and who would suffer financial hardship if they remained in their existing home.

Reasons for Decision

To try and facilitate moves for working age housing benefit households to help reduce the impact of arrears and potential evictions we need to prioritise these households within the Homes4Wiltshire policy. 

Currently households who are under occupying are assessed as being Gold.  To ensure we maximise opportunities for households to downsize to more suitable accommodation that meets the needs of the family, and free up larger family accommodation, we propose to introduce an additional local reasonable preference criteria to allow this group to be awarded Gold plus status

Any other items of business, which the Leader agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items.