Agenda and minutes
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PDF 297 KBVenue: Committee Room 1, Town Hall, Chorley
Contact: Dianne Scambler Email: dianne.scambler@chorley.gov.uk
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Apologies for absence Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Alison Hansford and Harold Heaton |
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Declarations of Any Interests Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any personal interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda. If the interest arises only as result of your membership of another public body or one to which you have been appointed by the Council then you only need to declare it if you intend to speak.
If the personal interest is a prejudicial interest, you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter. Minutes: No declarations of any interest were declared. |
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To confirm the enclosed minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 3 October 2011 Minutes: RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 3 October be held as a correct record for signing by the Chair. |
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Public Questions Members of the public who have requested the opportunity to ask a question(s) on an item on the agenda will be asked to put their question(s) to the Committee. Each member of the public will be allowed to ask one supplementary question within his/her allocated 3 minutes. Minutes: No questions were received by any member of the public. |
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Executive Cabinet Minutes To consider the minutes of the last Executive Cabinet meeting held on 20 October 2011 (enclosed). Minutes: No issues were raised by any Member of the Committee for the Executive Cabinet meeting held on 20 October 2011. |
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Independent Domestic Violence Advocacy (IDVA) Service Members will recall that the last meeting of the Committee received a presentation from Heather Corson on IDVA in preparation for the scrutiny of the service at this meeting. The slides from the presentation are enclosed for information.
As agreed by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee the following organisations/people have been invited to attend and answer questions about the service in particular funding arrangements:
· Chorley Council – Jamie Carson/Simon Clark and Councillor Eric Bell · South Ribble Borough Council – Mark Gaffney and Councillor Peter Mullineaux · Lancashire County Council – Mel Ormesher · Lancashire Constabulary – Superintendent Graham Coulston-Herrmann · PCT – Mary Kiddy · Chorley Community Housing – Debbie Parkinson · Places for People – Gary Melia
Questions have been drafted and when agreed will be sent to the invitees in advance of the meeting. A copy will be sent to Members shortly.
The majority of the invitees have confirmed attendance and those who are unable to attend have agreed to provide a written response.
Additional documents: Minutes: The Overview and Scrutiny Committee is required to scrutinise the work of the Community Safety Partnership through at least one meeting a year. This year the Committee chose to scrutinise the Independent Domestic Violence Advocacy (IDVA) service – to understand the value of the service to residents of Chorley and South Ribble and to look at future delivery of the service.
The Committee heard from a number of partners from the Community Safety Partnership around three key themes: · What value did they put on the IDVA service in the context of their organisation? · How would they plug the gap in provision if the IDVA service ceased when the area based grant ended? · Would their organisation be prepared to contribute to funding, if other partners did?
Acting Chief Superintendent Coulston-Herrmann attended to give the Lancashire Constabulary response:
The value of the IDVA service for the police was in the signposting it gave to victims of domestic violence to ensure they received the necessary help and support – in particular housing; childcare, money etc. where they had left the family home. If IDVA didn’t provide this it was unlikely that another service would and it would therefore be down to the victim to find support. Inevitably this may mean the most vulnerable individuals and their families suffered.
In terms of future funding, the police were undertaking a review of the public protection unit with the aim of making savings. Because of the level of support the police provided to the MARACs (multi agency risk assessment conferences undertaken for all victims) then it was unlikely they would be able to contribute towards the IDVA service. Whilst loss of the IDVA service may ultimately increase the work of the public protection unit, it was felt that an approach to LCC was appropriate in terms of the benefits for adult social care and children’s services.
It was also explained that all police officers are trained to a certain level in this type of work and that they had invested heavily in safeguarding issues and child abuse. The service also had a number of specialised trained officers that could also fulfil an investigative role.
Councillor Eric Bell – Executive Member for Places and Simon Clark, Head of Health, Environment and Neighbourhoods attended to give Chorley Council’s response:
The value of IDVA was in the specialist help available to victims of domestic violence. In Chorley there were 490 incidents of domestic violence for the period April to July 2011 – an average of 4 cases a day. Whilst not all would be IDVA referrals, there was clearly a need for the service and it was an integral part of community safety support providing Specialist Domestic Violence Court services for victims. The service was oversubscribed and the loss of the service would inevitably put more people at risk. There was a clear link between repeat cases and the high incidence of murder or suicide.
In terms of contributing to future funding, this would be a Council budget ... view the full minutes text for item 58. |
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Bus Information Display at Chorley interchange Minutes: As part of the recent budget proposals at Lancashire County Council the decision had been taken to withdraw funding for the Bus Station Information Display Systems at five bus stations (including Chorley) with effect from 1 December 2011.
Lancaster City Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee had contacted all the authorities that were affected to ask if they would be willing to write to the County to submit a number of questions seeking further information about the decision as part of a co-ordinated approach, which were: 1. What was the reason behind choosing the five specific locations (including Chorley) for the withdrawal of the bus station information display systems? We assume there are other systems still being maintained across the County? 2. Whilst we appreciate that difficult budget decisions have to be made, what is the actual direct cost saving in Chorley for the switch off? 3. There are continuing costs in maintaining the poster information, the Traveline and internet bus information systems - has a cost/benefit analysis been undertaken on the impact of the proposed changes? 4. As the information system is to help encourage greater use of public transport, have operators been asked to maintain or contribute to the maintenance of this service? 5. Has the Leader of the County Council raised this matter with his district counterparts? Members at Lancaster were also trying to arrange for a meeting with the County Council to discuss the decision further and were asking Chorley to support them.
RESOLVED – That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed to support Members at Lancaster by requesting the Chief Executive of Chorley Council to write a letter to County Council to ask the questions outlined above and to support them in their request for a meeting. |