Agenda and minutes

• Councillor Azad Choudhry – leave
• Councillor Mohammed Ibrahim – other Council business
• Councillor Toby Neal – other Council business
• Councillor Mohammed Saghir – other Council business
• Councillor Roger Steel – other Council business
• Beverley Denby – 3^rd Sector Advocate

None

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting held on 5 February 2014

The Committee confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 5 February 2014 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Councillor Parbutt introduced the workshop item and the following potential topics were introduced by colleagues and discussed as a group:

 

(a)  Probation reforms - how will a newly established probation service in Nottingham mitigate the risks associated with transformation? 

 

The Government is currently in the process of reforming the probation service and at the heart of this is the introduction of private-sector Community Rehabilitation Companies who will be responsible for managing low to medium risk offenders in the community.  CRCs will work alongside a newly established public sector National Probation Service which will retain responsibility for high risk offenders.  The changes mean that all offenders serving short custodial sentences (between one day and two years) will receive a minimum of 12 months mandatory supervision on release.  Currently this group of offenders does not receive any supervision or support.

 

Key points for Nottingham:

 

(i)  Nottingham has a higher (4.6%) re-offending rate than the national average;

(ii)  The New Probation Service will be established in April 2014 and retain responsibility for all offenders caseloads until the private providers take control in 2015;

(iii)  Eight private companies have been short-listed as lead providers and the contracts will be awarded by autumn 2014;

(iv)  CRCs will be rewarded on a Payment by Results (PbR) basis and there is limited evidence to date which suggests that PbR works in reducing rates of re-offending.

 

The main consideration is to recognise the work being undertaken by Nottinghamshire Probation Trust and Nottingham’s Crime and Drugs Partnership and to consider how well the risks of transition are being managed.

 

(b)  Encouraging democracy – how is Nottingham mitigating the risks associated with the transformation of electoral registration?  The Electoral Registration Act 2013 has made provision for the introduction of individual electoral registration (IER) (to replace household) registration with effect from 10 June 2014 in England and Wales.  The Coalition Government chose to speed up the introduction of IER in light of concerns expressed by the Electoral Commission about electoral fraud and the integrity of the register.  The new system will mean that electors will be registered individually and will have to provide identification in order to verify their application; this will be their date of birth and National Insurance Number.  Transitional arrangements have been made so that those electors who are on the register and match against records held by the Department of Work and Pensions will be automatically confirmed on the new IER register published on 1 December 2014. This matching process will start in June/July 2014.  These electors will continue to be entitled to vote in elections including the 2015 general election, whether or note they have registered individually.  Household enquiry forms and invitations to register  will be sent to addresses and individuals respectively where the EROs are not certain whether all the residents who are eligible to be registered have been transferred to the new EIR system.  The transition to IER will coincide with a national public awareness campaign about the introduction of the new registration system by the Electoral Commission.

 

(c)  Supporting Further Education Colleges – How far is the Council supporting Nottingham’s Further Education colleges in order to equip young people with the right skills for local employment? 

 

(i)  Nottingham is the 20^th most deprived local authority in the country.  Whilst the percentage of young people achieving 5 A*-C GCSE’s has increased significantly over the last fifteen years Nottingham still remains 3% behind the national average.  The percentage of 16 to 18 year olds not in education, employment and training had fallen from 9.1% to 5.2% between 2005 and 2010.  The number of young people between 16-24 years of age claiming Job Seekers Allowance currently stands at 3070 (4.8%).  Nottingham has two FE colleges who receive funding from Government to deliver education and training to 16 to 19 year olds and adult learners.  The Council works closely with both colleges to support the alignment of their provision to local need however, the Council only has an influencing role rather than a commissioning role. 

 

(ii)  The Nottingham Jobs Fund is an incentive for employers to employ City residents, aged 18 or over, who are claiming benefits by match funding the National Minimum Wage for one year.

 

(iii)  The Council’s Apprenticeship Hub has supported 590 employers and young people to start an apprenticeship and has pledged to get 1000 young people into apprenticeships by March 2015.

 

(iv)  The Council has recently secured £3million additional funding through the Youth Contract to further reduce youth unemployment within the City.

 

(v)  Key consideration – to acknowledge the significant amount of work being undertaken by the Council to assist young people into work and the existing collaborative work between the Council and FE colleges and decide if this partnership is doing enough to equip young people with the skills suited to the needs of the local economy.

 

 

 

 

 

(d)  Citizens Survey 2013 results - the Citizens Survey involves face to face surveys with approximately 2,000 Nottingham citizens.  Due to the sample size it is possible to look at the views of sub-groups of the population, including the differing views by area and demographic factors such as age, ethnicity and disability.  Survey has been carried out since 2006 and there is a wealth of historical data which allows trends to be tracked.  Some of the headline data includes:

 

 

(i)  87% think information provided by the Council is easy to understand all or most of the time;

(ii)  49% feel they can influence decisions;

(iii)  64% agree the Council acts on the concerns of citizens;

(iv)  88% are satisfied with their local area;

(v)  77% are satisfied with the Council;

(vi)  88% think that local services treat people fairly;

(vii)  Cohesion remains high at 90%.

 

Possible areas to explore include exploring the emerging trends in the data, investigating differences between the views of people in various sub-groups and the correlations between questions to establish the factors which influence responses to some key question.

 

(e)  Commercialism and demographics – with significant budgetary pressures expected for local government until 2019/20 how can the Council engender a ‘commercial culture’ to help manage these pressures?  How can we maximise the benefits of grants/charitable funding for the City?

 

The Council must get smarter when selecting and managing suppliers and achieve best value for money without impacting on the quality of service delivery for its citizens. 

 

What has worked? – generating income/becoming more commercial

 

(i)  Sharing services – the extent to which current approaches to shared services have been successful eg trade waste, fleet maintenance and parking enforcement

 

(ii)  Changing management and culture approaches – changes to contract management and selective/local application of terms and conditions eg recruitment. 

 

(iii)  In-sourcing – increasing the use of internal services.

 

(iv)  Co-ordinated bidding for grants – the Council in collaboration with Nottingham’s Voluntary and Community Sector successfully secured £9 million in funding from the Big Lottery Fund to improve services for those individuals who lead the most chaotic lifestyles in the City.  This funding was secured through a co-ordinated bidding process and involved One Nottingham bringing all the parties together, agreeing a co-ordinated approach including the lead organisation, signing off all expressions of interest for the bid etc.  By doing this the Council avoided takeover from the national community and voluntary service and enabled a ‘strategic fit’ with the city’s key strategic priorities.  There is a local voluntary sector lead supported by local partners and this has resulted in 2 out of 3 bids got to the final process with 1 being won and still waiting for the outcome of another. 

 

(f)  Demographic changes, trends and challenges in Nottingham City

 

This topic is - considering the changing demographic profile of the City and the potential impact on future services being provided by the Council.  Key information includes:

 

(i)  Nottingham’s population has increased by 38,700 to 305,700 between the 2001 and 2011 censuses.  Half of this increase was due to natural change (more births than deaths) and half due to international migration (eg from Eastern Europe) and an expansion in the number of overseas students in the universities.

 

(ii)  Migration between the City and other parts of the United Kingdom tends to balance itself out.  Nottingham generally has a net increase in 16-24 year olds due to migration (students and other young adults), but has a net loss in all other age groups, particularly those where people are forming families.  These flows are often linked to the affordability and size of housing available.  Between 2011 and 2012, the City had a net loss of 2,700 people to the other Greater Nottingham districts including a net loss of 750 under 16’s.  Our housing policies are seeking to address this loss of population by focussing on the need for family housing in the City.

 

(iii)  Population increases in the future are expected to be smaller.  The universities are not expected to be smaller.  The universities are not expected to expand much further and international migration rates have fallen in recent years.  Current projections suggest an increase of 5,100 people between 2011 and 2016 and a further 12,300 people by 2021.

 

(iv)  The number of babies born in the City has increased in recent years.  This is due to an increase in the number of women of child bearing age and not to an increase in the average family size.  The number of births looks likely to stabilise at this higher level.  This will lead to an increase of 8,000 under 15s between 2011 and 2021 although the numbers in this group are not expected to continue to grow quickly after 2021.

 

(v)  In 2012, 31.8% of babies were born to mothers born outside the United Kingdom which is likely to result in an increase in school children with English as a second language.

 

(vi)  An increase in the population aged 65 or over is expected in Nottingham due to increasing life expectancies, but the increase is likely to be smaller than the national average.  The over 85 age group however is projected to grow by 600 people (12%) between 2011 and 2021.

 

(vii)  Health – for every age group except 16-24 year olds, Nottingham has a higher proportion of people with a long term illness or disability than the national average for that group.  This means demand for health services may rise faster than would normally be expected for an area with a relatively young population.

 

(viii)  Skills – 62.3% of people aged 25-64 in Nottingham have Level 2 (entry level) qualifications or higher compared to 69.6% nationally.  This is improving and the gap to the national average is narrowing as younger people tend to have more formal qualifications, but for every age group, Nottingham has fewer people with this level of qualifications than the national average, meaning the gap will be smaller but will remain for the foreseeable future.

 

(ix)  Benefits – Nottingham has a higher than average proportion of benefit claimants.  Current welfare reforms tend to place more emphasis on people returning to work and have led to an increase in job seekers from groups who are more likely to have issues which restrict their availability to work eg lone parents with childcare commitments, former Incapacity Benefit claimants, or people with long breaks in their employment history.

 

Resolved to

 

(1)   schedule Probation Reforms in June 2014 as a topic for the main Overview and Scrutiny Committee;

 

(2)   schedule Demographic Changes as a topic for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee

 

 

(3)   schedule the Nottingham Citizens Survey as a review topic and draft a scope for the review for approval;

 

(4)   schedule Commercialism as a review topic and draft a scope for the review for approval;

 

(5)   request more information on the current partnership and networking arrangements taking place and how the Council is engaging with the FE Sector before deciding whether to carry out a review;

 

(6)   to request the Head of Democratic Services to provide a policy briefing on the work being carried out to implement the changes to Individual Electoral Registration.