Agenda item

(To receive a report from Andrew McLean, Head of Service – Children's Commissioning, which invites the Committee to endorse the Child Poverty Action Plan and the governance arrangements to monitor and review progress against the action plan)

The Committee gave consideration to a report from the Executive Director of Children's Services, which provided the Committee with a background to the duties of the Child Poverty Act 2010 on local authorities, and provided an overview of the latest HMRC 2011 data released, which identified how Lincolnshire compared to its statistical neighbours, regional authorities and nationally against the 'Children in Low-Income Families Local Measure'.

It was noted that the Council's Executive had agreed that the monitoring of the Child Poverty Strategy was to be governed through the Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership (CYPSP), in line with the requirement for Partner co-operation in mitigating the effects of Child Poverty.

The report focussed on the progress, content and governance arrangements of the Child Poverty Action Plan and outlined the development of a (CYPSP) Child Poverty Sub-Group, which was chaired by Dr Tony Hill, Director of Public Health.

Appended to the report were the following documents:-

Appendix A – A copy of the Child Poverty Strategy;

Appendix B – A copy of the Child Poverty Action Plan;

Appendix C - The CYPSP Child Poverty Governance Map; and

Appendix D – A copy of the CYPSP Child Poverty Scorecard.

The Committee received a joint presentation of the report from the Head of Service – Children's Commissioning and the Commissioning Officer.

It was highlighted that the CYPSP monitored and reviewed progress against the Action Plan, which identified key resource activity areas, which were to be focussed on for review for the next 12 months.  Due to the extensive scope of the Action Plan, it had been agreed that a Child Poverty Sub-Group was to be established and would be chaired by the Director of Public Health.  The membership of the group would include key partners involved in the delivery of the Action Plan and the Committee was advised that a workshop had been arranged for early 2014, to assist sub-group members in understanding the wider implications of child poverty and the impact their own project had in tackling it.

Full details of the consultation undertaken were detailed in the report presented.

Discussion ensued, from which reference was made to the following issues:-

·         Page 115 – Reference was made to the fact that the strategy was not just a Children's Services Strategy, it was a joint strategy which required all stakeholders to work together in an integrated way to target shared priorities and eliminate duplication of effort;

·         Page 118  - It was noted that worklessness not only put a strain on resources because of direct costs relating to benefit payments, but that there was also considerable loss of revenue from the lack of tax and National Insurance contributions;

·         Page 125 -  Economic poverty - Reference was made to the fact that if people were paid the living wage, this would help them move out of the poverty trap;

·         Page 144 Lincolnshire Community Assistance Scheme – It was reported that arrangements were in place to manage the Social Fund and levels of take up;

·         Action Plan – Members expressed some concern that the Action Plan was not robust enough.  The Committee was reassured that for each project, there were multiple projects feeding in.  It would be part of the of the Sub – Committees remit to keep a watching brief on the progress;

·         A question was asked as to whether the uptake of free schools meals was going to be monitored.  The Committee was advised that it was the intention to increase the uptake of free school meals.  It was highlighted that a scheme was to be instigated in Lincoln through Housing Benefit claimants.  The District Council would contact the family to identify who the County Council should contact; and

·         Some concern was expressed as to the conflicting data included in the report.  Officers explained the reasoning behind data provided and the discrepancies between actual number and statistical percentages.

In conclusion, the Committee was unhappy about accountability, and how that was to be achieved, as there were no targets in the Action Plan to measure the outcomes.  A suggestion was made for a more thematic approach, which identified what each of the component areas had to achieve and what effect this would have for children in poverty. 

RESOLVED

1.    That the progress made so far against the Child Poverty Action Plan be noted.

2.    That a further more detailed progress report for each identified theme be scheduled in for future meetings, which identifies the outcomes to be achieved, and highlights the benefits for children in poverty. Theme leads to attend and provide a detailed update.