Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received for Councillors A Dani, J L King and E J Sneath, however, it was noted that they were in attendance via Microsoft Teams as observers.

Councillor A M Key declared a non-pecuniary interest for item 5 as he was a private funeral Celebrant and therefore, would leave the meeting for the duration of item 5.

Councillor M R Clarke thanked Democratic Services for assisting with the responses to a number of queries raised at the last meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED:

           That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 21 September 2021 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

There were no announcements by the Chairman, Executive Councillors and Chief Officers.

(To receive a report by James Chapple, Head of Registration, Celebratory and Coroners Services, which updates the Committee on the service delivered by the Registration and Celebratory Service and outlines the continued impact and disruption the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the service)

10:07am- Councillor A M Key left the meeting for the duration of this item.

Consideration was given to a report by the Head of Registration, Celebratory and Coroners Services, which provided an update on Lincolnshire's Registration and Celebratory Service for the previous year.

The Registration and Celebratory Service had faced a difficult and challenging year with the delivery of services being greatly impacted by the pandemic. Government lockdowns, restrictions and social distancing measures had caused significant disruption across the service.

Despite the challenges faced, the service has remained open to the public throughout 2021 and offices continued to operate as Covid secure environments with protective screens and sanitising stations.

Death registration volumes in 2021 were comparable to the numbers registered in 2020 and were expected to rise further as winter approached. Plans were in place to manage the rise and the service was confident that they could meet the demand for an increase in registrations.  

Marriage and civil partnership ceremonies had also been heavily impacted by the restrictions put in place as a result of the pandemic. The easing of restrictions had seen unprecedented levels of demand which was due to further increase as many weddings had been postponed to 2022. Existing staff had worked incredibly hard to meet the needs of the service and the service had also trained over 40 current Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) employees as ceremony Celebrants to provide cover. 

A full review of Lincolnshire's Registration and Celebratory Service was scheduled for 2022, which would look to make the service more accessible and enhance the current customer offer due to the introduction of a newly accessible IT system which would allow the public with the introduction of online appointment bookings, online prepayment for registration services and certificates, and online communications directly from registration service.

Overall, despite a disrupted and challenging year for the registration service, the service had continued to deliver a high level of customer service with registration volumes across all disciplines exceeding that of 2020.

The Executive Councillor for NHS Liaison, Community Engagement, Registration and Coroners recorded her thanks to the officers and all those involved with the registration service for their hard work to keep the service operating in difficult circumstances. The Executive Councillor also thanked those LCC officers who had trained as Celebrants which had made an enormous difference to the level of service able to be provided.

The Committee considered the report and during the discussion the following points were noted:

• 6 registration staff had left the service due to retirement and to progress a career in another sector. A number of Celebrants were also on relief contracts and could therefore leave the service on their own terms.
• To train a Registrar in all disciplines would take several months, however Celebrants could be deployed quickly once they had completed a short period of training which included classroom work and shadowing.
• Registrations and marriages/civil ceremonies took place seven days a week. The service operated from 12 sites across the county which could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 86.

(To receive a report by Louise Egan, Library and Heritage Client Lead, which provides an update on the Community Hub Model)

10:21am – Councillor A M Key returned to the meeting.

Consideration was given to a report by Louise Egan, Library and Heritage Client Lead which invited the Committee to consider and comment on the information included in the report and highlight any additional priorities for consideration.

Members were advised that community hubs received a small financial support from Lincolnshire County Council and professional operational support from Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL), the Council's outsource library provider and were open for a minimum of six hours a week and that's for 50 weeks of the year.

The community hub model was operating successfully, despite the on-going restrictions that had been put in place as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, many communities had relied on community hubs.

However, the library service had been heavily impacted due to the pandemic, as many of the volunteers were classed as vulnerable and therefore were unable to continue delivering the service at many sites.

In line with the central government requirements sites were shut temporarily during the lockdowns that were put in place in March 2020 and January 2021. Prior to reopening, each site was subject to a rigorous risk assessment process with each and every community hub, to ensure the safety of both the volunteers and customers and services had returned subject to safety measures.

The Committee considered the report and during the discussion the following points were noted:

·       In 2017, Learning Communities, who operated the Ermine Community Hub went into administration and ceased the delivery of services to the Ermine Community Hub. Rather than close the site, GLL had taken on the operation of the site until 2020 when sites were closed due the covid-19 pandemic. However, due to staffing issues GLL had needed to prioritise the continuation of services that they were contractually obligated to deliver, and therefore the Ermine Community Hub was temporarily closed. The Council are currently in the process of formalising a contract with Bishop Grosseteste University to undertake the management of the Ermine Community Hub site in the coming months.  Councillor Mrs N F Clarke requested to be kept up to date with progress.

·       Councillor Mrs N F Clarke requested that the St Giles area be considered as a location for community hub.

·       The Executive Councillor for Fire & Rescue and Cultural Services thanked officers and GLL colleagues for their work to continue to offer online services. In spite of the pandemic, the community hub model had continued to be successful. The Executive Councillor also recorded her thanks to the Library and Heritage Client Lead and Councillor K Lee for their work on the proposed contract with Bishop Grosseteste University which would provide a further library service in Lincoln. 

·       Community Hubs were used by LCC, Police and NHS colleagues to hold meetings and operate drop in centres. Officers continued to explore opportunities further to ensure connection point and can meet needs of communities. 

·       The Committee were encouraged by the success and popularity of Community Hubs and their role in combating  ...  view the full minutes text for item 87.

(To receive a report by Ryan Stacey, Assistant Chief Fire Officer, which provides the Committee with an update on progress against the Integrated Risk Management Plan 2020-2024)

Consideration was given to a report by the Assistant Chief Fire Officer committee members with an update on progress against the Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) 2020-2024.

Members were advised that the IRMP and planning process and frameworks had been restructured and to include four delivery frameworks and an overarching framework which articulated the service's approach to evaluation.

Performance of the plan was monitored by a service delivery board which was responsible for the delivery of high risk, high complexity or high value projects to support the IRMP.

The current programme included projects such as:

replacement equipment to mobilise fire engines, both on fire stations and in the

control room

replacement technical response units

replacement emergency services communications equipment and infrastructure

replacement mobile data terminals

A risk identified in the IRMP was the impact of climate change and the increased instances of flooding which had a service level impact on resourcing for protracted periods which resulted in a cost pressure. As a result, LFR had purchased four trailer-mounted, high-capacity flood pumps which would mean that the service could respond to flooding incidents whilst still being able to respond to other incidents.

The report proposed that LFR continued to work with the Executive Councillor for Fire & Rescue and Cultural Services to develop an improved set of performance indicators which could be better scrutinised by the Committee. 

The Committee considered the report and during the discussion the following points were noted:

• The Executive Councillor for Fire & Rescue and Cultural Services thanked LFR officers and colleagues for continuing to respond to challenges during the pandemic.
• The committee welcomed the purchase of new flood pumps. It was confirmed that it was not a statutory duty to respond to flooding events but the Fire Service, however the service wanted to ensure they could respond to the risks communities were experiencing.
• There was sufficient resource within the service to respond to reported incidents, despite the challenges faced by the need to rely on on-call firefighters to maintain a service.
• The failure to meet the target for responding to high risk and critical residents smoke alarms within 5 days was not met for a number of reasons, which was mainly due to the individual being vulnerable or having complex needs meaning there was a request to have somebody else present at the visit. This meant that not all visits were able to be facilitated within the 5 day target.  Members were reassured that the reason that the target had not been met was due to external issues outside of the services control.
• The Assistant Chief Fire Officer emphasised the importance of the What Three Words application for addressing the location of emergency incidents and encouraged Members to promote the message to the public. Opportunity for Councillors to communicate the message.
• The rural nature of Lincolnshire meant that there could be longer response times to incidents. For this reason, LFR benchmarked against councils with a similar demographic.
• The Scrutiny Officer was working to identify dates for potential visits  ...  view the full minutes text for item 88.

(To receive a report by Kiara Chatziioannou, 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)

Consideration was given a report by the Scrutiny Officer, which invited the Committee to consider and comment on the contents of its work programme for the coming year.

The Scrutiny Officer advised the Committee that there had been no further changes to the work programme since the publication of the agenda.

The Chairman also reminded Members of the Committee's remit for consideration when considering the contents of its work programme.

It was suggested that the Committee consider scheduling a future report to analyse the risks posed by cyber fraud and other cyber-crimes.

RESOLVED:

              That the work programme, as detailed in the report, be approved.