Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors’ Loades and Sweeney.

There were no declarations of interest stated.

Resolved:              That the minutes of the meeting held on 9 February, 2016 be agreed as a correct record.

To follow

The Council’s Partnerships Manager presented a report updating Members on the progress reports from the nine Locality Action Partnerships (LAPs).

Discussion took place and Members requested that some changes be made to the Summary Progress Report 2015 (Agenda item 5a).  The requested changes were as follows:

(i)              Under the ‘Strengths’ heading, first bullet point – ‘All LAPs reported that they continued….’  Replace ‘All’ with ‘Many’.

(ii)             Under the ‘Areas for Improvement’ heading, first bullet point – add ‘Town and Parish Councils’ to the list of organisations.

Under ‘Key achievements’ the final bullet point, the attendees could be made up of Councillors, officers, residents and police.

Members were advised that under section 2, paragraph 2.4 had been added, regarding the benefits to partners.

Members suggested that the Summary Progress Report should be shared at all of the LAPs meetings so that they each know what the others are doing.  The Chair brought recommendation four to Members stating that it be recommended that the Cabinet provide feedback.

It was further suggested that the LAP Chairs should be asked if the Chair of this Panel, Councillor Amelia Rout, could attend individual meetings to see how they were performing.

The LAPs would like to see an annual celebratory event where all partners are invited. 

Resolved:    That it be recommended that Cabinet:

(i)    Acknowledges and endorses the progress reports produced by each of the nine Locality Action Partnerships (LAPs), which highlights their achievements during the last twelve months – Appendix A.

(ii)   Continues to support the work of the LAPs in the nine localities across the Borough and assists in enabling them to continue to contribute to the delivery of the Council’s Co-operative Strategy through further development

(iii)  Encourages Council departments to proactively use the LAPs for consultation purposes, making information packs available to be disseminated to the groups and the wider community

(iv)Provides feedback to the LAPs of the findings of the Cabinet Panel and encourages a dialogue to ascertain shared benefits of partnership working between the Council and the LAPs.

There is a need to ensure that any feedback goes both ways – between the LAPs and the Council.

At the next catch-up meeting of the Chair and the Partnerships Manager, a decision would be made on how best to visit he meetings of the LAPs.

A solution needed to be sought on how the weaker LAPs could learn from the stronger ones.

The Partnership Manager stated that any problems that the LAPs were having needed to be identified and solutions sought on how they could be supported.

Resolved:    That the comment be noted. 

Resolved:     That a further meeting be held just before Christmas 2016 to see how a celebratory event could be tapped into.