Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mrs K Cook, Mrs C Lawton and B Young.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED:

          That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 11 June 2019 be   approved as a           correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman welcomed the new Assistant Director – Public Protection to the meeting.

(To receive a report from Nicole Hilton, Assistant Director – Communities on the outcome of the Heritage Service Consultation)

Members were advised that this item would now be considered as part of item 6 of the agenda 'Future of the Heritage Service', in which a detailed analysis of the outcome of the Heritage Service Consultation had been included.

(To receive a report from Nicole Hilton, Assistant Director – Communities on the Future of the Heritage Service, which will be presented to the Executive on the 03 September 2019. The views of the Committee will be reported to the Executive as part of its consideration of this item)

Prior to the report being presented, Councillor K Clarke proposed that items 5 and 6 were deferred and considered at a future meeting of the committee, on the grounds that the report on the Future of the Heritage Service was published three days after the publication of the agenda, and therefore councillors had not had sufficient time to give the report full consideration.

The Chairman advised that the late publication of the report had not breached regulation and therefore there was no legal obligation to defer the consideration of items 5 and 6 of the agenda.

The proposal was not seconded and therefore the proposal fell.

The Chairman welcomed members of the public and thanked those that had responded to the formal consultation on the Future of the Heritage Service.

Members were reminded that the report included a detailed outcome of the consultation, which the public and stakeholders had been invited to respond to between the 13 February and 24 April 2019.

The Chairman allowed two statements from members of the public, a summary of both are detailed below:

Statement from Catherine Wilson OBE

Catherine introduced herself as a career museum professional with many years' experience at heritage sites across Lincolnshire. Catherine had been awarded an OBE for her service to museums and galleries and had voluntarily assisted in offering support to Heritage Services around Lincolnshire.

Catherine acknowledged the current financial restraints on the council, and the possible need for a more commercial approach to heritage services across Lincolnshire. However, it was felt that the council's approach should be driven by ambition, enthusiasm and expertise in order to maximise the benefits to the county's heritage service, and that further discussions needed to be held to agree the best solution for the future of the council's heritage service, in particular the Usher Gallery and The Collection Museum.

On behalf of the Save Lincolnshire Usher Gallery campaign group, Catherine raised a number of concerns about the proposed Future of the Heritage Service decision, which included the following:

·         There were concerns that the consultation process had been lengthy and complicated. 

·         Campaigners were of the view that the responses of the consultation results had not been reflected in the recommendations.

·         It was emphasised that the collections in the Usher Gallery had been donated to Lincoln City Council by James Usher on the understanding that the council would care for the material on behalf of the citizens of Lincolnshire. Catherine echoed the concerns held by the Save Lincolnshire Usher Gallery group that the County Council could possibly serve notice to terminate the collections management agreement and return of the collections owned by the City of Lincoln Council to the City of Lincoln Council. Members were urged to consider the future of these collections and their importance to the people of Lincolnshire and its heritage.

·         It was felt that recommendation 10 required further consideration, and that in order to for a third party to successfully take ownership of some of the council's windmills, they needed to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

(To receive a report from the Louise Egan, Library and Heritage Client Lead, which provides an update of the contract performance information to enable the Committee to fulfil its role in scrutinising performance of the third year of the out-sourced Library Contract to Greenwich Leisure Limited)

Consideration was given to a report by the Library and Heritage Client Lead, which provided an update of the contract performance information to enable the Committee to fulfil its role in scrutinising performance of the third year of the out-sourced Library contract to Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL).

Members were advised that GLL had continued to make significant improvements to the Library Service over the past three years and had now exceeded the 2 million lending milestone, as well as maintaining a 100% satisfaction rate, as reported in the GLL Annual User Survey.

GLL had held a number of successful events over the year, including the annual Summer Reading Challenge, which had proven to be extremely successful.

Members were informed that LCC had approved an IT project across the whole library domain, which should see significant improvements to the IT services offered across all of the libraries.

The Chairman welcomed the Library Partnership Manager - GLL, who provided an insight into the work carried out by GLL across Lincolnshire's libraries and communities.

It was noted that over the last year, GLL had been working to connect with communities outside of the library service by looking at more bespoke services could be offered and communicating to people what GLL can offer as a library service.

GLL had worked on projects with the National Centre for Craft and Design, and Bishop Grosseteste University to offer projects and exhibitions to the public. There was also a strong focus on wellbeing within the library services, having participated in Mental Health Awareness Month and other wellbeing events.

The Library Partnerships Manager emphasised the success of the summer reading challenge and the impact that it could have on children and families within Lincolnshire.

The Library and Heritage Client Lead explained that officers were working with LCC to support Health and Wellbeing within communities, as part of the services offered by the Library Service and community hubs.

Members were invited to ask questions, in which the following points were noted:

·       It was confirmed that Grantham library had not yet transferred to GLL and was still operating as a LCC library. Officers had discussed potential options and were pursuing these further.

·       It was noted that the Key Performance Indicators would be reviewed should LCC renew their contract with GLL.

·       Officers explained that other than the requirement to offer a library service, Community Hubs were independent to LCC in terms of the activities they offered. There was regular communication between the Hubs and both GLL and LCC officers and an annual review was undertaken in which officers met with Community Hubs to discuss ideas around improving services or addressing standards of behaviour.

·       Members were advised that as part of the majority of Hubs' tenancy agreements which restricted certain activities.

·       It was explained that each Community Hub had a minimum number of hours that they must be open to the public, but they were able to increase their opening hours if they wished to do so.

·       The Executive Support Councillor for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

(To receive a report from Dan Quinn, Assistant Chief Fire Officer, which provided the committee with an update on the progress and actions completed following the inspection of Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS))

Consideration was given to a report by the Assistant Chief Fire Officer which provided an update on the progress and actions completed following Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) of Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue (LFR).

Members were reminded that the inspection had highlighted one cause for concern which related to the effective recording and monitoring of training for LFR. Members were advised that following a procurement process, LFR had now purchased PDRPro, which was a training recording system which also supported the LFR learning management system and was fully integrated with LFR's eLearing System, LearnPro.

Members were referred to Appendix A of the report, which detailed the HMICFRS Report Action Plan, which addressed the 'Areas of Improvement 'and 'Causes for Concern' that had been raised as part of the inspection process.

Assurance was given that officers would continue to implement the activities associated with LFR's continuous development and progress would be reported to the committee when necessary.

Officers sought approval from the committee to update HMICFRS on the progress against the cause of concern by 31 July 2019, and confirm that an affective recording and monitoring system was in place.

Members were invited to ask questions on the Action Plan, in which the following points were noted:

·       The Assistant Chief Fire Officer confirmed that LFR maintained a good relationship with the Executive Councillors, which contributed to the effective running of the service.

·       The Executive Support Councillor for Culture and Emergency Services reminded Councillors to attend their Local Fire Station Inspection. All Councillors would get an invite to attend at the time of inspection.

·       Assurance was provided that senior officers were working on those areas that had been determined as requiring improvement, and were looking at ways to effectively engage with staff at all levels.

·       It was noted that LFR had received £80,000 of funding from Lincolnshire County Council, which had been used to appoint two Grade 5 Inspectors, who would be trained and supported in order to encourage progression within the service.

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer informed Members that on the 20^th June 2019, HMICFRS had published the reports from their second tranche of inspections of 16 Fire and Rescue Services in England. Members were provided with an overview of the Tranche 2 inspections, which could be found at Appendix C to the report.

RESVOLED:

1.    That the report and associated comments regarding the HMICFRS Action Plan be noted;

2.    That approval be given from the committee for officers to update HMICFRS on the progress against the cause of concern identified;

3.    That the summary of findings from the Tranche 2 inspections be noted;

4.    That the committee were satisfied that progress against the action plan be reviewed on a periodic basis.

(To receive a report from Sara Barry, Head of Safer Communities, which provides an overview of the Safer Together project which has developed a closer collaboration with Lincolnshire Police and the Safer Communities Service of Lincolnshire County Council)

Consideration was given a report from the Head of Safer Communities, which provided an overview of the Safer Together project which had developed a closer working collaboration with Lincolnshire Police and the Safer Communities Service of Lincolnshire County Council.

Members received a presentation on the New Collaboration Agreement between LCC Safer Communities and Police Crime Prevention and Licensing.

Members were informed that the previous County Public Protection Officer had set out to formalise joint working between the council's Safer Communities Service and the Police Crime Prevention and Alcohol Licensing Teams.

The report sought to provide the committee with an overview of the memorandum of understanding that that had been signed by LCC Safer Communities and the Police Crime Prevention and Licensing that had been created to outline how both organisations would work together through a multi-disciplined team structured around the shared work areas of Protection, Prevention and Partnerships. 

As part of the presentation, the Head of Safer communities outlined the benefits of the partnership; the governance arrangements; the working practices in principle; the tasking process and the structure of each service.

12:16 – Councillor A Turner left the meeting and did not return.

Members were invited to ask questions, in which the following points were noted:

• The Safer Communities partnership focussed on early intervention and prevention rather than directly dealing with crimes that had been committed.
• It was clarified that the relationship between the police licensing team and the district council would not change.
• It was confirmed that all trading standards staff had gone through police vetting.

RESOLVED:

            That the report be noted.

(To receive a report by Daniel Steel, Scrutiny Officer, which provides the committee with the opportunity to consider and comment on the content of its work programme for the coming year to ensure that scrutiny activity is focussed where it can be of greatest benefit)

The committee was provided with an opportunity to review it's own work programme.

The Head of Safer Communities agreed to bring the Annual Trading Standards report to the committee at the meeting scheduled for 25^th September 2019.

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer also agreed to bring a report on the Lincolnshire Fire and Rescues Risk Management Plan to the meeting on the 25^th September 2019.

RESOLVED:

          That the work programme be approved, subject to the addition of the             reports detailed above.