Decisions

RESOLVED that, under Section 100A of the Local Government Act, 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 3 and 4 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Members considered the request for grant aid in accordance with the provisions of the Council’s Grant Aid Policy.

Eastwood Food Bank was operated and managed by Eastwood Volunteer Bureau.  The Bureau estimated a current utilisation of the reserve held by the Food Bank at a rate of £200 per week due to a decline in donations. It was not the policy of the Bureau to directly support the Food Bank as its reserves were required to meet the operating expenses of the Bureau.

The service provided by the Food Bank directly benefitted Broxtowe residents and was complimentary to the services provided by the Council. The Food Bank targeted the needs of disadvantaged sections of the community.

RESOLVED that the grant request in the appendix included in the report be approved.

Reason

Consideration for not approving the grant would have been a negative impact for the residents. The Food Bank had seen a large increase in residents using the service and a decline in donations from supermarkets and residents. The grant supported the priority of supporting people to live well.  

Members welcomed the new Apprenticeship Strategy for the Council. The aim of the Strategy was for the Council to optimise the use of its apprenticeship levy contributions and raise the skills of employees to fill skill gaps and produce better outcomes for the residents. The training would be undertaken through vocational, professional, and apprenticeship training.

A range of objectives to support the Strategy included embedding a pro-apprenticeship culture across the organisation, to achieve the target of ten apprentices in training over the period 2022-2024, maximise the use of apprenticeships to develop existing employees to address skill gaps and succession planning and aid recruitment and retention, and promote and advertise the full range of apprenticeships available from Level 2 up to Level 7. 

RESOLVED that the Apprenticeship strategy be approved.

Reason

The Council was committed to invest in its staff, ensuring that skill gaps were filled in order to continue to deliver an excellent, value for money service to the public. With the vision of ‘A greener, safer, healthier Broxtowe where everyone prospers’.

Members were updated with the annual Food Safety Service Plan and were informed that Council was committed to ensure that food produced, sold or consumed in the district was safe for consumption and did not pose a risk to public health.

The COVID-19 pandemic had impacted on the food safety team and the amount of food safety interventions carried out. This was due to the many closures of businesses and the adaptation of businesses to work in different ways along with investigations into workplace and community cases of COVID-19, supporting contact tracing, participation in outbreak management teams, daily outbreak cells, enforcement of the rules on businesses closures and an increase in complaints from residents who were at home affected by noise and bonfires. The backlog of food hygiene interventions had built up, including an increase in food businesses registering once the registrations had eased. This continued to impact on service delivery.

As at 31 March 2022, there were 846 food premises on the Broxtowe food database. The Council use the Food Hygiene Intervention Rating Scheme to determine the frequency that food premises should be inspected.

RESOLVED that the Annual Food Safety Service be approved.

Reason

The provision of the annual Food Safety plan was a statutory requirement and was completed with the nationally agreed Food Standards Agency Framework Agreement. The agreement set out how the Council would meet its statutory obligations. The Food Safety Service aim was to maintain and where possible improve, the health and wellbeing of residents and visitors to the borough of Broxtowe and the success of local food businesses by ensuring the safe production, processing, handling, storage, distribution, and sale of food in the district.

The Food Service Plan accords with the Council’s Vision of a greener, safer healthier Broxtowe where everyone prospers. The Plan contributes directly to the Business Growth and Health priorities which are invest in our towns and our people and support people to live well.

Members were informed that the Council was responsible for ensuring that employees are competent and confident in carrying out their responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of adults.

The Safeguarding Adults Policy sets out how the Council would meet its obligations. The Council has a statutory duty to assist Nottinghamshire County Council in making enquires it thinks necessary to decide if and what kind of action should be taken to protect an adult at risk from suspected abuse. 

RESOLVED that the revised Policy be approved.

Reason

The aim of the Policy was to enable the Council to meet the moral and legal responsibilities necessary to safeguard and promote the welfare of adults with care and support needs in order to keep them safe from abuse or neglect. The Policy incorporates The Council priorities as a safe place for everyone.

Members were asked to seek approval to consult on the renewal of the Borough’s Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs).

PSPOs were designed to deal with a nuisance affecting the whole community in a defined area by imposing conditions on the use of that area. They were introduced through the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 and came into effect in October 2014. Councils were responsible for making PSPOs and could do so on any public space for a maximum period of three years.

There are ten PSPOs currently in place in Broxtowe, six for the control of anti-social behaviour related to Alcohol Consumption, two for car cruising, one for dog control and the once for closure of a footpath. Private land was exempt from inclusion in a PSPO. Members were advised to fill out the consultation if they had any areas that was of concern.

RESOLVED that permission to consult be approved.

Reason

The consultation process would ultimately help inform the Council’s view as to whether the requirements under Section 59 of the Act had been fulfilled.

The Cabinet considered the Work Programme, including potential key decisions that would help to achieve the Council’s key priorities and associated objectives.

RESOLVED that the work programme, including key decisions be approved.

Reason

The items included in the work programme would help to achieve the Council’s key priorities and associated objectives.

The Cabinet welcomed the updated Lifeline Policy and the service provided. The policy applied to all customers who had entered into a service contract with the Council for the provision for the domestic Lifeline telecare service within their own homes. It was a two-way speech community alarm system that enabled help to be summoned for customers in an emergency.

The purpose of the policy was to provide an overview of the Lifeline telecare services offered by the Council and how the services offered independence of customers to remain living within their own home. Members considered that further publicity was required of the service and the option to have additional equipment including carbon monoxide detector, key safe, falls detector, bed occupancy detector, and pillow alert.

RESOLVED that the Lifeline Policy be approved.

Reason

The policy provided an overview of the Lifeline telecare services offered by the Council. The services were designed to increase, maintain and improve the independence of customers to remain living within their own home by supporting The Councils aim of a good quality home for everyone and investing to ensure our homes are safe.

The Cabinet was updated with the main projects proposed as part of the Council’s Levelling Up Fund submission to the government in July.

The Levelling up Fund was a £4.8 billion initiative from the government with the core purpose of addressing inequalities nationally. It gave the Councils the opportunity to bid for up to £20 million to invest in areas they had identified as being in need of funding. The applications must come under one of the three themes identified: culture and heritage, transport, or regeneration and town centre investment. Prioritisation was still given to partnerships whose projects could deliver in the next three to four years but projects would need to demonstrate they could spend funding in the 2022/23 financial year.

 In Kimberley the projects included a Swingate Farm Sports Centre, Cycle Path Network and Town Centre Improvements. Eastwood included a new wellbeing hub at Walker Street, transformation of Durban House and Cycle Path Network.

Amion Consulting had been appointed to support the bids submission process. They had been successful with Levelling up Fund bids elsewhere across the Country. Officers and Town Councils were thanked for their work in the process of the Levelling up Fund bids.

Councillor M Radulovic MBE requested a recorded vote and this was seconded by two Councillors.

RESOLVED that the submission of the levelling up bids and generic project areas be approved. With delegation to the Head of Planning and Economic Development for any changes.

Reason

This would support the Council’s corporate priority of Business growth and the aim of investing in our towns and our people.

Members were updated an overview of achievements since the last Learning and Development Policy was approved. This included new Broxtowe Learning Zone courses, work experience placements and data relating to how many employees were qualified to level 2 or above.

The Cabinet was also updated with future plans to promote vocational and professional training, to expand Coaching and Mentoring programmes for Heads of Service and Senior Managers, the introduction of a graduate programme, to raise strategic skills and improve agility, to address skill gaps and link to apprenticeships.

Members discussed the action plan and welcomed the graduate programme which has a focus to create meaningful jobs at the end of the apprenticeship and to retain the investment.  A career structure within each department area was suggested to provide a clear career pathway for staff retention.

RESOLVED that the Learning and Development Policy and Action Plan be approved.

Reason

Learning and Development was closely linked to service delivery underpinning the Council’s Corporate and Business Plans. The Council recognised that in order to deliver quality services to its customers it required continual investment in the development of its staff to increase recruitment and retention, motivation, morale, and job satisfaction of individuals and help them maximise their potential within and outside the organisation. Valuing employees and enabling the active involvement of everyone.

The Committee noted the presentation provided the Council’s external auditors, Mazars.

The Committee noted the update for the Council’s requirement to enhance its complaints procedure.

The Council had reviewed its current procedure and had determined that a complaint consideration threshold was required.

It was recommended that the Council adopt a threshold of 6 months from the incident date in which the Council will investigate complaints.

RESOLVED that the changes to the Complaints Procedure be approved.

The Committee noted the recent work completed by Internal Audit. It was noted that Internal Audit had also reviewed progress made by management in implementing agreed actions within six months of the completion of the respective audits. 

The Committee were informed of action taken to develop and comply with statutory obligations regarding corporate governance and noted the Annual Governance Statement for inclusion in the Council’s published Statement of Accounts for 2021/22.

1.      RESOLVED that the draft Annual Governance Statement as shown in appendix 3 be approved in principle for inclusion in the Council’s Statement of Accounts.

2.   RESOLVED that responsibility be delegated to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Chair of this Committee to make any further amendments deemed necessary.

3.   NOTED compliance with the Code on Delivering Good Governance in Local Government.

The Committee noted the Work Programme.

RESOLVED that the Work Programme be approved.