Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from, Abigail Pogson, Sandra Brydon, Helen Matthews, Ian Renwick, Andrew Sugden, Alison Dunn and Jane Mulholland.

The minutes of the meeting held on 6 September 2016.

The minutes of the meeting held on 6 September 2016 were agreed as a correct record.

Including verbal update on GSP Review.

The GSP review is ongoing, and a mapping exercise has been undertaken. Discussions are being held with partners and other partnerships within the region to look at best practice.  A development session has been held with the Community Safety Board and the Children’s Trust Board and a session is also planned for the Health and Wellbeing Board.

A further report will be brought back to the Steering Group in February.  It was agreed that a specific meeting would be organised with the voluntary and community sector.

A chance for partners to raise current issues and activities as well as updates from the Partnership Boards and networks.

Gateshead Council

Interviews for the position of Chief Executive have taken place and the Special Appointments Panel has recommended that Council ratify the appointment of Sheena Ramsay as Chief Executive of Gateshead Council.

The LGA have carried out a peer challenge to help the Council improve and move forward. Cabinet has received feedback and a draft report on the findings is expected in the next few weeks, this will be shared to the Steering Group. It was noted that overall the peer challenge was a positive experience and positive comments were received about the strong partnership work in Gateshead.

The Council is up for three LGC awards for; Supported Independence Service, Taster Flats and Public Health, Environment and Planning in relation to limiting hot food takeaways.  It will be known in the new year whether the Council has been successful.

Tyne & Wear Fire & Rescue Service

During the bonfire period, 1^st until 6^th November, incidents were up by 0.22% although overall the number of incidents on 5^th and 6^th November were down. It was acknowledged that this is due to there being more organised events. Calls were up by 6.1% and attacks on firefighters doubled, from four last year to nine this year.  In terms of Gateshead, incidents were up by 18.8%, it was noted that this has been the trend over the last few months in relation to deliberate fires and work is ongoing to tackle anti-social behaviour. There were no firework related incidents and there was one attack on a firefighter in Gateshead.

Older People’s Assembly

The AGM was held recently at the Thomas Wilson Social Club, with 150 members attending. Information was provided on the Wellness Hub which aims at preventing loneliness and isolation, falls and malnutrition.

Diversity Forum

Gateshead Interfaith Forum hosted an event for the national interfaith week, positive messages came through the event around faith and non-faith communities coming together in Gateshead.

Voluntary and Community Sector

The recent AGM was attended by 100 people, with a focus on working together and brokering relationships between people. Outreach work is underway and work with community and voluntary groups around campaigning skills.

BALTIC

The Playground Project at the Baltic received 108,000 visitors, this is more people than visited the Turner Prize and more than the visitors to it in London. Work is continuing to build new relationships with a more diverse audience. A forum of cultural organisations across Gateshead is expected to convene by December, the forum will look at how to collaborate and provide impact to the community.

Northumbria Police

Richie Jackson is retiring and Neil Hutchison is the new Area Commander for Newcastle and Gateshead, Neil is new to Northumbria Police and previously worked for the Met.

(Steve Anderson, TWFRS)
Update on the changes to TWFRS structures.

A presentation was given on the outcome of the organisational review of the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service (TWFRS).  Over a week the service receives 444 calls, attend 276 incidents, conduct 568 home safety checks. It was also reported that there are 120 false alarms over a week, this includes mostly public buildings for example hospitals, work is ongoing with such organisations in order to bring the number of false alarms down.

Since 2011/12 a number of financial savings have been made including; Community Safety Review, fire stations flex working, dual staffing, back office review, day crew close call, fire safety and control, response front line stations and catering and cleaning. In addition, Targeted Response Vehicles (TRV) have been introduced to attend lower risk incidents, this allows fire engines to attend life risk incidents.

It was reported that there has been zero fire deaths in Gateshead in 2015/16 and a low number of injuries. There has been a steady decline in incidents and it was acknowledged that this is due to the prevention and protection work carried out by the service. It was also reported that TWFRS is the fastest responders in the country.

It was noted that service delivery in the future will move to three groups; North, East and West. Gateshead will come under the West  which also includes Sunderland.

It was questioned if it was possible to extract from their data how many fires were a result of alcohol or smoking? It was confirmed that there are a number of fires recorded as a result of smoking, however for fires related to alcohol the numbers are small as this is subjective and therefore not always reported officially.

RESOLVED    -           That the information presented be noted.

(Marisa Jobling, Gateshead Council)

Context to the budget proposals currently being consulted on.

The Group viewed a video around the Council’s budget consultation. It was noted that the consultation ends on 6 January 2017 and following that reports will go to Cabinet and Council in February.

It was noted that partners have the opportunity to feed into the process and work is ongoing to get the message out to residents as to the scale of the challenge.

The point was made that a lot of cuts to services are not visible to many in the community and therefore a hard message about capital and revenue needs to get out to the public. It was acknowledged that work is ongoing to ensure the messages to the community are clear and understood.

RESOLVED    -           That the information be noted and partners to take part in theconsultation.

(Alice Wiseman, Gateshead Council)

Recap on the AMT approach, discuss the issues faced and the next steps.

A presentation was given and a discussion took place around the Achieving More Together (AMT) approach. This is aimed to promote resilience and early help.

There are challenges in this approach, for example there are inequalities across Gateshead and there are issues in managing demand, for instance there is increased life expectancy but this does not translate to an increase in healthy lives. This is also at a time of reducing resources.

The approach itself is looking at what the citizens of Gateshead and their communities are best placed to do, what can they do with help from the Council and partners. It was noted that this is not about replacing services but rather shifting the balance and recognising assets within the community where the Council does not need to respond. It was acknowledged that there is still a need for some services, for example specialist intervention and supported provision.

AMT is a different way of thinking, looking at assets within the community i.e. skills, co-production, and strengthening participation in community life and learning from initiatives.  The method for this work is to look at how a particular problem manifests, what potential there is in the community to solve the problem, how can this be built on and create local initiatives and then what can be learnt and how it can be sustained.  A number of current initiatives were identified and the role of the Steering Group in taking some of this work forward was recognised.

Place based understanding was explained and it was suggested that the GSP has a role in leading this work and recommending which place should be looked at to better understand the demand on it.

The point was made that in a lot of place based initiatives a lot of resource is put into signposting rather than resource being put into the initiative itself. It was suggested that a consistent approach or formula is required to look at the impact.

RESOLVED    -           That the information be noted.

The next meeting will take place at 2.00pm on Tuesday 14 February 2017, in the Whickham Room, Gateshead Civic Centre.