Agenda item

The Area Council Manager provided Members with an overview of Performance for Quarter 3 and all contracted Services.

Members attention was drawn to the comparison chart for the years 2020/21 to 2021/22 showing a positive upward trend in numbers confirming that things were moving forward and Groups were once again starting up and work with volunteers was more active.

Attention was brought to the significant increase in numbers for the quarter for residents and young people receiving advice and support, this was due to the inclusion of one of the young people projects that included providing advice to young people, whereas in previous quarters it had only included the CAB, Age UK and DIAL offers.

Twiggs numbers were exceeding their targets with working with groups, businesses and also with schools as things started to open up once more.

Lot 1 of the Supporting Vulnerable and Isolated Older People’s grant, which had previously been extended had, amongst other things, provided one to one support for 26 existing service users and 23 had been offered information and advice. 

The number of Community Car journeys had increased and had seen a move from just health visits to some leisure and educational visits.   Intergenerational links had been welcomed with Thurlstone Primary school who had made 50 Christmas cards and donated 32 items of biscuits and chocolates which were given to Age UK to distribute to elderly residents.  A number of activities had taken place over the Christmas period with Christmas lunch at Wortley Golf Club, visits to the Penistone Paramount and Cannon Hall.

Lot 2 had seen groups becoming active once again such as the Dementia Café at Penistone Leisure Centre which was making good progress.  Particular attention was brought to the Penistone Men in Sheds group who had been helping Penistone Theatre Group out with set design and building, Age UK had used this as an opportunity to advertise in order to attract more people to join the men in sheds project.

Work had been undertaken around health immobility and healthy bones activities had been carried out in Thurgoland in conjunction with other health and leisure supporters.  The Singing Group was doing well as well as the Tai Chi classes in Penistone which had been well attended.

Lot 3 had created a network which was being diverted and integrated into the larger age friendly agenda across Barnsley.  A number of Berneslai Homes tenants bungalows had been fitted with solar panels in Oxspring had been identified and included in a battery storage project which was a collaboration between Berneslai Homes and Energise Barnsley, in order to produce a report to show what a difference it could make to households.

The Take a Seat Campaign continued to work with Twiggs in order to identify further benches to be included within the scheme.  Age UK had looked at initiatives around helping older people with improved transport in rural areas and fed their findings into the consultation and review in conjunction with the South Yorkshire Mayor.

DIAL had received a significant number of people accessing their service with £115,000 of benefits claims supported with the majority being for Personal Independent Payments.  DIAL had been working in conjunction with Public Health in order to carry out safe and well checks which had revealed a high incidence of loneliness.  DIAL had hoped to commence face to face meetings in Penistone Town Hall but this had been delayed due to the Omicron variant, a date was yet to be agreed when this would commence.

Members were informed that whilst the Penistone Area Council had earmarked further funding from 2022, the project had also benefited from additional funds from the Lottery and the BMBC Advice Line Fund, which together had provided 28 hours of advice line support per week.  DIAL had also provided Well and Warm packs for vulnerable clients by accessing the Local Support Grant allocated for the Penistone area.

Members raised a query as to whether fuel poverty had begun to be a concern, but at the time of the meeting this had not been highlighted as a major issue but that it would be monitored.

A significant impact had been seen with the Supporting Young People Grant Fund projects.  Ad Astra had been continuing its work in Penistone Grammar School with pre 16 pupils providing advice and support.  However due to restrictions in school, the proposed delivery model had required adaptation due to difficulties in securing a private safe space for individual contact, peer support to a group of pupils and planned walk and talk sessions could not be delivered resulting in reduced outcomes.  Plans were in place for the Grammar school to carry out a baseline assessment for pupils to express their needs in order to direct future work. 

Penistone Grammar School had put in place plans for mental wellbeing sessions for the post-16 pupils.  Due to the impacts of Covid it had been unable to deliver on some outcomes detailed on the proposal.  However, the school had recruited a volunteer Counsellor from Leeds Becket University to carry out mindfulness/low mood sessions to pupils alongside the Pastoral Headteacher, with hopes to engage a further volunteer student Counsellor in the future. 

Penistone Girl Guiding had created a project to support young women through positive experiences and activities as part of a ‘Challenge’ Badge and local event.  The number of young women participating in the Girl Guides in the Barnsley West area had slowly increased as a result of the project.  An open invitation for the Barnsley West area was to take place and Kingswood Outdoor Centre on 26^th March, 2022 with 200 places available.

Angel Voices had continued its success with 31 regular attendees.  Work carried on to get out into villages after successfully holding a workshop in Cawthorne.  Two performances had taken place in Penistone Church and Cawthorne Hall resulting in £736 pounds being raised from ticket sales and given back for restoration funds.  Members noted that a positive impact on confidence in the young people coming forward and helping with a variety of mental health issues such as low self esteem and lack of confidence. 

Members heard how one of the projects hoping to come forward for funding from the Schools Out Fund was from Angel Voices in order to hold workshops in the Easter Holidays in greenspaces outdoors.

An update was provided on Penistone Leisure Centre which had unfortunately been delayed with its projects and outcomes due to a number of reasons.  However positive progress had been made by recruiting and training some volunteers in order to operate from February 2022 onwards.  A further update would be provided at a future meeting.

Penistone FM was progressing well with 2 groups of people trained and working on Podcasts.  Links had been established with Penistone Grammar School in order to widen the training out to further young people.  A visit was to be planned in order to see the work being carried out.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.