Agenda item

Members received the report, noting its content.

The Area Council Manager advised that the Healthier Communities Service funded a Barnsley town-centre based core welfare provision, offering information, advice, and guidance. Members were signposted to section 3.4 of the report which requested a review of Area Council arrangements for the commissioning and procurement of welfare services to determine whether there was any efficiency which could be derived from a more coordinated approach.

As part of Member discussion, it was considered that management costs could be reduced, and joint tenders may be more encouraged if partnership commissioning took place between Area Councils. Concerns over duplication of statistics being reported from central data and localised area data were also raised. It was however also acknowledged that there had been a significant take up of welfare services in the Dearne area in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

It was suggested that the Area Council commissioned a year-long service from CAB from January 2023 onwards, in line with the contract with DIAL that was forecast to run until the end of 2023. CAB had confirmed they could report statistics for the current period where a service wasn’t being commissioned, as a means of comparative data.

RESOLVED:-

i)   That the report be noted; and

ii)  That members agreed to continue to commission a welfare provision service for the Dearne Area on an independent cycle, based on local need through the Dearne Development Fund.