Agenda item

The meeting considered a report of the Area Council Manager which provided members with an update on the delivery of the Dearne Area Councils commissions and services paid for through the Dearne Development Fund.

The Area Council Manager explained that she had met with Kingdom to ensure that they focused on preventing littering and dog fouling in the area, rather than their current focus on illegal parking. The Area Council agreed that littering and dog fouling were the main issues for the area and it was appropriate that Kingdom focused on these issues. The Area Council Manager explained that she received monthly performance reports from Kingdom and would monitor these to ensure that performance changed as had been requested.

In addition to the work done by Kingdom, the meeting noted that all shops were responsible for keeping the vicinity of their shops clean and noted that Asda could do a better job of complying with this.

In relation to private sector housing, the Area Council Manager reported that good progress had been made in developing relationships with letting agents and landlords. There would be a change in the staff member undertaking this role in January 2018 but significant work would be undertaken to ensure that the relationships were maintained with the new staff member.

The Area Council Manager also noted that the letting agents and landlords had concerns about the proposals in relation to Selective Licencing, but accepted that this was not a decision for the Area Council. Elected Members had been working with letting agents and landlords over the previous 12 months to monitor their performance against agreed standards with a view to their potentially being excluded from the Selective Licensing requirements.

Twiggs had achieved the majority of their targets over the previous quarter and had added an apprentice post in addition to those paid for by the Area Council, which had led to an improvement in performance.

The meeting noted that there the take-up of offers of anti-littering education programmes for schools had been low, but efforts should continue to be made to be made to push this.

The meeting noted that the Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB) had matched the funding from the Dearne Development Fund for a member of staff in the library (allowing two staff members to be present). However, the meeting also noted that the sessions run by Dial tended to be far busier than those run by CAB. Members suggested that, while Dial and CAB had different specialisations, it may be beneficial for residents if Dial was able to refer appropriate cases to CAB. The meeting also suggested that it would be beneficial for Dial and CAB to ask residents at these sessions why they chose to come to each provider specifically, to determine the root cause of the differences in demand.

The meeting discussed the Dearne Development Group, which over 250 people had attended. The meeting was informed that the Communities Directorate would seek to increase the links between the Re-ablement Team and the Assistive Living Service, along with other related services, as there were significant benefits which could be realised from this.

In relation to the ICT Project for Employability, the Area Council Manager reported that a working party had been created to ensure employability services continued to be provided following the closure of the Job Centre in January 2018. Members noted that, once the Job Centre had closed, sanctioning of jobseekers in the Dearne may become a significant issue, as the nearest job centre was in Mexborough. Regular reports on this issue would be collated to ensure that it was monitored.

The meeting agreed that it would be helpful if local employment figures, which were collected for the whole of Barnsley at corporate level, were provided to the Area Councils.

It was reported that the Area Council had contributed £66k through the Dearne Development Fund and £73k of match funding had been received as a result of this.

RESOLVED:- That

a)    The meeting notes the progress of the two Dearne Area Council commissions and service level agreement with BMBC as set out in appendix one.

b)    The meeting notes the progress of the Dearne Development Fund applicants as set out in part C of appendix one to the report.