Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Councillor R J Phillips.

Councillor R Wootten declared an interest in item 9 (minute 57 refers) as the Vice Chair of the Lincolnshire Police and Crime Panel.

RESOLVED

That the minutes from the meeting held on 25 November 2015 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

(To receive a report by Peter Wright, Governor, HMP Lincoln, which provides an update for members on progress at HMP Lincoln)

Consideration was given to a report which provided an update for members on progress at HMP Lincoln.  The Governor of the prison, Peter Wright, was present to discuss the report with the Committee.

HMP Lincoln was a 19^th century local prison holding adult males. It received prisoners direct from court and also held sentenced prisoners awaiting transfer to training prisons or who were serving short sentences.  The prison received from Lincolnshire courts and also received overcrowding drafts from HMP Nottingham and HMP Leicester as well as court diversions from those establishments' catchment areas and elsewhere.

The prison's uncrowded capacity was 408. However, it was significantly overcrowded and its operational capacity was now 729.

Peter Wright spoke to the Committee about the prison and the following points were noted:

1. Central Government felt that 19^thcentury prisons might not be an appropriate place to hold prisoners anymore. However, the Governor felt that holding prisoners within communities was important;

2. The long term view for the Government was to build mega-prisons with fewer staff and lower building costs;

3. Lincoln prison was overcrowded. However, each prisoner was the subject of a risk assessment to see whether they could be housed in a cell with another prisoner.  Some were too dangerous to share a cell;

4. The main reason for violence was retaliation, which the prison would attempt to tackle within the next financial year and the use of substances was coming back under control;

5. The main risk to prisoners was self-harm. There were 47 reported incidents of self-harm in November 2015 and 41 incidents in December 2015.  It was likely that there were further incidents which would go unreported;

6. Re-settlement services were sub-contracted out to Shelter;

7. Attendance at workshops aimed at getting prisoners involved in activities had risen.  This was an attempt to get more prisoners into part time work on release;

8. Lincolnshire County Council had a good relationship with the prison.

Questions from Members were invited and, in answering, the following information was confirmed:

1. Childhood neglect often led the victim to prison, by a route of school exclusion, personality disorder, self-medicating/substance misuse and crime;

2. Work was done with the British Legion to help those veterans who became incarcerated.  For some, joining the armed forces provided much needed discipline and structure, which civilian life lacked.  Post-traumatic Stress Disorder could also be a route to crime;

3. Troubled male adults were difficult to connect to in order to provide medical treatment;

4. Preventing entry into the criminal justice system, at a young age, was very effective and the work of the Youth Offending Service was commended;

5. Training and qualifications of staff was important. New prison officers received eight weeks of training.  If prisons were to transform inmates, the staff needed to be equipped to do so;

6. There was no access to bank staff to cover staff sickness. Some work could be managed flexibly to cover staff absence;

7. Self-harmers could have constant supervision  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

The Committee considered a report which described the budget proposals arising from the Local Government Finance Settlement, issued on 17 December 2015 and its implications on certain commissioning strategies. 

The budget proposals were now open to consultation and members of the Committee had this opportunity to scrutinise them and make comment prior to the Executive making its final budget proposals on 2 February 2016.

Community Resilience and Assets

Savings of £3.031m would have to be made in 2016/17 from this strategy.  The savings reflected that a number of the activities within this strategy were discretionary and therefore it was proposed to reduce the funding to zero for the following:

·         Community Grants;

·         Big Society Fund;

·         The Local Welfare Support Scheme (would run until existing funding ran out);

·         Chance to Share (would run until existing Lottery funding ran out).

Instead of funding the above services, the Council would try to support volunteers to run similar services in their own communities.

Members sought clarification on the further efficiencies listed in respect of the procurement process of the library provision. Officers confirmed that expected savings of £1 million would be achieved and that greater savings of an additional £0.4 million were also expected and would be built into the 2017/18 budget.

Members highlighted that it was positive that some efficiencies had already been achieved under the provision of libraries due to a better than expected procurement process.

Members highlighted concerns with regard to the Local Welfare Support Scheme as this responsibility transferred from the Department for Work and Pensions. Officers confirmed that significant savings had been made in how the scheme had been administered and confirmed that the grant had now ceased. It was proposed that the scheme would be reduced to operate on the residual grant reserved from previous underspends.  It was requested that a report on the Local Welfare Support Scheme be brought to a future meeting of the Committee.

Wellbeing

Savings of £6.045m for 2016/17 had been proposed from the Wellbeing Strategy.  The decision on which services to keep was based on whether they were mandatory or discretionary.  The savings would see the discontinuation of the following services;

·         Health improvement programmes (adult weight management, health trainer, food and health, walking, master gardener and health support for probation supervised offenders);

·         Reduced support for smoking cessation.

Both the sexual health and substance misuse programmes had recently been recommissioned and would provide a better value service.

Members highlighted that Health Services such as those under health improvement, prevention and self-management that were no longer proposed to be commissioned would have an impact on people's health. However, this would not be immediate and it was important to consider that personal responsibility sat with individuals. It was noted that adequate assessments on all of the services that were being withdrawn or reduced should be undertaken to reduce the impact on other services.

Protecting the Public

Community Safety would continue to fund domestic abuse services with the Police and Crime Commissioner and the NHS supporting also.

Funding  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.

(To receive a report by Emma Milligan, Principal Trading Standards Officer, which looks at recommendations for the introduction of chargeable advice to Lincolnshire businesses by the County Council's Trading Standards Service.  A decision, based on the recommendations, will be made by the Executive Councillor for Fire and Rescue, Emergency Planning, Trading Standards, Equality and Diversity on 2 February, 2016)

A report was considered on the Bespoke Business Advice provided by Trading Standards on a chargeable basis which was due to be considered by the Executive Councillor for Fire and Rescue, Emergency Planning, Trading Standards, Equality and Diversity on 2 February 2016.

(A verbal update by Nick Borrill, Acting Chief Fire Officer. This project involves the Fire and Ambulance Services working together to transport people to hospital)

The Committee received a verbal update from Nick Borrill (Acting Chief Fire Officer), on the Joint Ambulance Conveyance project which involved Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue and East Midlands Ambulance Service working together to respond to 999 medical emergencies.

The pilot for this project was now working from three sites and firefighters had undertaken medical training.

The outcomes from the final report of the project were summarised as follows:

·         Over the last 12 month period, there had been 1100 callouts.  Of those, 278 had resulted in transporting the patient to hospital;

·         Firefighters spent, on average, 27 minutes at hospital during patient handover;

·         The average time spent away from fire stations, while dealing with calls was 2 hours and 20 minutes;

·         There had been no fire specific calls missed during the time firefighters were away from stations.

Improved patient care provided through the project had reduced the amount of time spent at the scene by the paramedic.

The project had already won two innovation awards and 95% of users had rated the service as excellent or good. 

In response to a question, it was confirmed that Long Sutton was the busiest retained fire station in Lincolnshire. A recruitment campaign had been run in the area to attract more staff. Staff at the station were content with the situation regarding the pilot and contingency plans were in place should they become too busy.

The numbers of calls received were monitored closely and co-responding was balanced at stations to enable them to cope with the load. 

RESOLVED

That the verbal report be noted.

(To receive a report by Tracy Johnson, Senior Scrutiny Officer, which provides the Committee with an opportunity to consider its work programme for the coming months)

The Committee considered its work programme for the coming year.

It was noted that the item on Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils (LALC) would be moved from the agenda on 9 March 2016 to the agenda on 13 April 2016.

An item on the Coroners' Service would be added to the agenda on 9 March in time for the Executive meeting on 5 April.

The Committee agreed that an update on domestic abuse should be scheduled to be considered biannually. 

RESOLVED

That the work programme and the changes made therein be noted.

(A report by Mark Housley, County Officer Public Protection,in respect of planned changes to Neighbourhood Policing across the County. This is an early briefing and will be followed by a more detailed briefing later in 2017)

The Committee considered a report which briefed the Committee in respect of planned changes to Neighbourhood Policing across the county.  This was an early briefing and a more detailed briefing would follow later in 2017, at which point all decisions in respect of this restructure would have been finalised.

Following considerable financial challenge and the need to respond to a number of significant emerging issues, the force had revisited how it utilised its limited resources.  The review had considered some of the significant threats and more resources would be provided for these areas, namely: Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), Cyber Crime and Missing persons.

Decisions had been made on the coverage provided by Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) who would be managed by Community Beat Managers.  However as the Council had just reduced the budget for PCSOs, it might cause problems.

The Committee felt there was a risk that Community Beat Managers could be taken away from the neighbourhood role to do other work. However, Members were assured that the role would sit in a hierarchical arrangement where they would be supported by higher ranks.

Discussion took place regarding how Community Beat Managers would travel, whilst on duty, as the Police Authority had recently reduced their fleet of vehicles.  However, it was felt that travelling on foot would enable officers to meet more people within their area.

RESOLVED

That the report and comments made be noted.