Agenda and minutes

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, Members are asked to declare any interest they may have in any matter which is to be considered at this meeting.

There were no declarations of interests.

The minutes of the meeting held on 9 September 2020 were agreed, subject to the following:

Under item 13, the reference made by the Chair to the ‘River Roding’ should be changed to the ‘River Thames’. 

The Council’s Head of Employment and Enterprise Strategy (HEES) delivered a presentation on the Council’s plans into supporting residents back into work.

The HEES provided a summary of the current landscape and the Council’s response to local unemployment for those who had been affected as a result of the COVID-19 restrictions and lockdown. Whilst various mediums had already been in place to mitigate unemployment before the onset of the pandemic, many additional measures had since been instated to support local residents and businesses. The Council’s response to unemployment spanned the following six areas:

1. Providing core back to work support;

2. Launching a local jobs campaign;

3. Maximising external funding options;

4. Mobilising a Green Jobs creation programme;

5. Building a local jobs coalition; and

6. Kicking off a project to tackle long term unemployment.

The HEES highlighted a range of positive actions that had been undertaken by the Council and its partners during the pandemic and described the comprehensive support offer put in place by the Council. She provided Members with the latest statistics on unemployment figures and benefits claims which painted a comprehensive picture of the challenges faced by the Borough, as a result of the impact of the pandemic.

In response to several questions, the HEES confirmed that:

·  The Council had a good relationship with the local Job Centre Plus, who frequently liaised with the Council’s Job Shop team in regards to employment. The Job Centre Plus were delivering additional Central Government funding which had been secured for job seekers, which had led to the doubling of Job Centre staff;

·  The Council was committed to legally enforcing S106 agreements with bigger developers. New employees had also recently joined the Council’s Enterprise and Employment, and Inclusive Growth teams, working closely with developers to ensure that targets and agreements were being met;

·  The Job Shop had moved a lot of their residents’ offer online during the pandemic and had carried out a comprehensive review into what had and had not worked in regards to this. Whilst the Job Shop were phasing in more face to face support for residents as lockdown restrictions eased, they were prepared to revert back to an entirely digital offer should a second full lockdown arise;

·  Many of the funding streams available from Central Government were aimed at younger people, with older people proving more excluded from these. The Kickstart Scheme was targeted specifically at 16-24 year olds and whilst there was funding coming through for apprenticeships which could be accessed at any age, these were only accessed by younger people in practice. The Council were speaking to colleagues at the Barking and Dagenham Adult College to try to increase the range of courses that they offered, with the specific intention to make their offer available to older residents, who may not have felt comfortable learning in a younger environment;

·  The Council was keen to invest more in Health and Social Care, as this was an area that tended to have more flexible working  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

The Council’s Director of Policy and Participation (DPP) delivered a presentation outlining the action plan that had been produced as a result of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s review into Ambition 2020 and its Early Impact.

The action plan detailed the 24 recommendations that arose from the review, the steps that would be taken by Officers to implement these and their target dates for completion. The DPP noted that the presentation of the Action Plan had been delayed by a month due to Officers wanting to check updates against the Council’s recently amended Corporate Plan, to ensure that recommendations could be delivered within current resources and restraints. The DPP noted that this had been verified, with no significant dissent as to the recommendations from Officers and Heads of Services. Nevertheless, it was emphasised that deliverables were subject to the ongoing pandemic.

In response to several questions, the DPP advised that:

·  An item around the equality impact of Covid-19 was scheduled to come before the Committee in November, with the potential for any outcomes arising to shape the 12 May 2021 scrutiny into the impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities;

·  An update into the progress of the new Social Value Coordinator would be scheduled into the Committee’s workplan;

·  The OSC could request that Ambition 2020 reports be presented to them in the format of their choice;

·  Further questions arising from the Committee in relation to affordability would be discussed at the 3 February 2021 meeting, as per the OSC’s workplan and that additional scheduling would be required to ensure that items would have enough time to be discussed in full; and

·  There was a need to undertake small steps to root businesses to the Borough and ensure that they had connections to the local area, highlighting the importance of maintaining contacts and building networks through meetings such as the Business Forum and through local partnerships.

The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee informed Members of two changes that had been made to the Work Programme:

• The Committee was due to receive an update on the recommendations arising from the scrutiny review into ‘Improving household waste, recycling and street cleansing’ at today’s meeting; however, she had agreed to a request by officers that this item be rescheduled to the 2 December 2020 meeting due to new staffing arrangements and the impact of the pandemic; and
• At the 9 September 2020 meeting, having received a report on preparations to produce an Air Quality Action Plan, the Committee made a recommendation that developers be required to make a contribution to offset any negative impacts of development work to the surrounding air quality. The Committee had agreed to receive an update on the Air Quality Action Plan (minute 4 refers) in June 2021 and the Chair confirmed that she had asked officers to incorporate this recommendation into the June 2021 update.

The Work Programme was noted.