Agenda item

The Central Area Council Manager introduced the item, referring to the report circulated.

Members were reminded of the Area Council’s priorities and underpinning principles.  With regards to the priority of ‘Clean and green/environmental’ Members acknowledged that this was being addressed through the contracts with Twiggs Grounds Maintenance and with Kingdom Security.   It was noted that the previous meeting of the Area Council agreed to the development of a business case for a new private rented housing management service to run from April 2017, for which work was underway.

In order to address the priority of ‘Reducing loneliness and isolation in vulnerable adults and older people’ information was being gathered in order to inform discussion at a task and finish group on the subject, which was to be arranged towards the end of September, 2016.

With reference to the priority ‘Family support’ the meeting heard that a number of initial meetings had taken place with relevant officers with the Family Centre and Family Support service.  However, it was noted that the service only came in to operation on 1st April 2016.  It was therefore suggested that a ‘Check and Challenge’ exercise be undertaken on this subject towards the end of the first year of operation i.e. at the end of March 2017, with the findings feeding into a task and finish group to discuss how the Area Council could address any gaps highlighted.

The priority ‘Building emotional resilience and wellbeing and resilience in children’ was discussed, noting that a task group had met to consider the area.  The group considered a briefing paper, which highlighted the national context and the Barnsley context, including statistical comparisons.  Learning from existing contracts was included, as was current provision.  The preferred option suggested was to procure a service for 8-14 year olds in the area, based on the approaches detailed in the ‘Resilience Framework’ document, with a budget of up to £200,000 delivered through one provider.

The meeting discussed the proposal in depth, including the positives and negatives from such a sizeable commission, and from commissioning a single provider.  It was felt important to balance the difficulties in managing a number of providers, with the desire to support smaller organisations in the area.  It was thought of paramount importance to ensure a sizeable budget was available to ensure any commission had the desired impact, though the finite budget of the Area Council was noted. The meeting also discussed the age range proposed and noted the rationale behind this.

Following the discussion it was agreed that the business case be supported, however rather than the service being delivered by a single provider, it was agreed that opportunities should also be made available for a number of smaller local providers to deliver a supplementary/complementary service. It was agreed that a specification of requirements and procurement strategy (including cost) to procure a main provider to deliver a service to ‘build emotional resilience and wellbeing and resilience in children’ be brought to the next meeting of Central Area Council for approval. A proposal for securing local providers to deliver a complementary/supplementary service would also be presented.

The Area Council Manager drew attention to appendix 4 of the report, and it was noted that £104,704 remained unallocated for the current financial year.  Members heard that a balance of £467,204 remained unallocated for 2017/18, however it was acknowledged that this was subject to formal approval by Full Council, and proposals were being discussed for a reduction in Area Council Budgets.

Members were made aware that Lifeline had recently won a borough-wide young contract to help address young people’s substance misuse in Barnsley, previously delivered by Addaction. As a result Addaction would no longer be in a position to continue delivery of the Youth Programme service commissioned by the Area Council.  Following legal advice and discussion with both organisations, work has been progressed to enable Lifeline to take responsibility for managing the Central Area Council Youth Programme contract.  This would ensure continuity of service.

RESOLVED:-

(i)        That the progress made to date in relation to the revised Central Area Council priorities be noted;

(ii)       The course of action to progress the Family Support Priority, as detailed within the report be approved;

(iii)      That the business case and associated recommendations to procure a service to build the emotional resilience and wellbeing of children and young people aged 8-14 years living in the Central Council area be supported, with the preferred option being delivery through one main provider;

(iv)      That the financial position for 2015/16 and projected financial position for 2016/17 and 2017/18 be noted;

(v)       That the changes to the contractual arrangements for the management of the Youth Programme Immortals Engagement project from 1st October,2016 be noted; and

(vi)      That an additional meeting of the Central Area Council be held on Monday 17^th October, 2016.