Great Yarmouth People Steering Group Minutes 11/09/08
Great Yarmouth People
Steering Group
Minutes of the meeting 11th Sept 2008
Jargon Buster
BWCF Borough Wide Churches Forum
CC Community Connections
GYVSP Great Yarmouth Voluntary Sector Partnership
CG Community Grants
CDW Community Development Worker
DCLG Department for Community and Local Government
GYST Great Yarmouth Support Team
CP Community Partnership
GO-East Government Office – East of England
GYBC Great Yarmouth Borough Council
GYIA Great Yarmouth International Association
GYLC Great Yarmouth Learning Community
GYLSP Great Yarmouth Local Strategic Partnership
GYP Great Yarmouth People
GYPSG Great Yarmouth People Steering Group
LAA Local Area Agreement
LSP Local Strategic Partnership
NCC Norfolk County Council
NM Neighbourhood Management
NRF Neighbourhood Renewal Fund
SCS Sustainable Communities Strategy
SSCF Safer and Stronger Community Fund
WNF Working Neighbourhoods Fund
NM Neighbourhood Management
NRF Neighbourhood Renewal Fund
SSCF Safer and Stronger Communities Fund
VSP Voluntary Sector Partnership
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1. Welcomes and Introductions:
Mike Hewitt welcomed us all to the meeting. We introduced ourselves around the table
2. Attendance:
Mike Hewitt (North Yarmouth Rep), Trish Aydin (CC), Peter Paine (Port Chaplain), Judith Edmonds (BWCF), Lindsey Seward (Disability Forum) Pam Cranston (GYVC) Michael Collins (CDW Team Leader) Alan Ellison (Mag Rep), Julia Dyson (International Association) Simon O’Leary (VSP Development Worker) Brian McDonnell (OPN), Mary Legard (LINks) Stephanie Vincent (Gorleston Central Rep) Tracey Souter (CC Admin) Jackie Hughes (Children and Families)
Apologies: John Watt (Disability Forum) Penny Carpenter (Norfolk Constabulary) Carol Congreve (Norfolk Constabulary) Diana Baxter (GFS Platform), John Drinkill (Finance Officer CC), Paul Cheeseman (VSP) David Wilkinson (South Yarmouth1), Tim Leonard (LSP Officer)
3. Minutes of Last Meeting (14th August 2008)
Minutes were checked and Judith noted that the Faith Report was not included with the minutes. There was also no written record that Judith had submitted a faith report. The Faith Report from August will be included with these minutes.
4. Matters Arising:
4.1 Events 2008/2009 GYP/LSP Event
The second Event planning meeting is scheduled to take place on the 17th of September at 9.30am at Electra House. Michael has spoken to the College and a representative from the college will be attending the next meeting to discuss how they can become involved with Community Connections, GYP and the LSP in coordinating the event. Any GYP member wishing to be included in that meeting and to be included with the planning of the event, are to contact Michael. Michael reminds the group that this event is a GYP event and therefore GYP members should have some involvement in the coordination and planning.
Alan asks if the Sixth Form College have been contacted and will they be included in the event? Michael informs Alan that they have not yet been contacted, but hopefully Michael will be able to make contact and gain interest.
Julia Dyson has expressed an interest and would like to be involved to bring on board the International Association.
Trish wants to remind the group that the last year’s event was very successful, it took a lot of staff time to organise and many people attended. Next years event needs to be equally successful, to engage with the community and inform them what Great Yarmouth has to offer.
Maritime Festival 6th and 7th of September – Peter
This year’s festival was a success despite the bad weather. Up to 40,000 people attended over the 2 days and if GYP want to be involved in next years event, an application request, by letter, needs to be submitted to The Tourist Authority as soon as possible. The application forms will be posted towards the end of 2008 and once application are submitted, it will be a first come, first served basis on allocation of stands. Charitable organisations can hold an information stand for free, but there are limits on the number of tables that are allocated to charities. It has been suggested that there be one table for GYP that can be shared by hosting other organisations information, rather than all the smaller organisations holding separate tables. Peter did remind the group that promotional material can be handed to the public if they express an interest at the table, but it is not permitted for organisations to walk around distributing leaflets. This is because of litter accumulating on the quay side.
Smaller events:
Trish informs the group that she has £700 of funds to spend on an event focusing on “Cohesion”. The aim is to have an event that integrates different cultures and or different age groups e.g young people and the older generation. If anybody has ideas on what can be done with the fund then please forward on any suggestions.
Lindsay asks if this money has got to be used on one event, several smaller events, or can it be used to contribute to a larger event?
Trish states that the money ideally is to be spent as a separate event, not to part fund a larger event and must meet the remits of cohesion and social inclusion.
Julia distributes a programme of events for Black History Month and informs the group that between 4th of October and 25th of October there will be several activities going on in the market place. There will be comedians, singers, dance groups and many other talents being showcased in great Yarmouth. Please see the programme for a full and comprehensive list of dates and acts. There will also be a variety of workshops being held at the Library, Cobholm and Lichfield Health and Resource centre and community centres across GY. These workshops and activities are open to all ages.
SeaChange will be organising different workshops around filming, acting, singing etc. For more information please contact Julia for a letter and an application form for the workshops. Julia also has flyers on these workshops that could be distributed via CLIP offices and racks.
On the 28th of September a “Cultural Café” will be held at the Time and Tide Museum, this will showcase histories from different Cultures.
All of the above workshops and events are linked to the International Cultural Festival in October.
4.2 Representation across GYP and LSP
Michael reports that on the 15th of October, all community Partnership members are being invited to attend a meeting at the Hamilton Hotel to voice their ideas on how community Partnerships should progress. A Letter will be going out to all community partnership members inviting them to attend the meeting. The meeting will be called “Community Partnerships –The Way Forward”
LINKS:
Mary Legard has attended the meeting today to discuss LINks in more detail. Brenda Cook came to the August meeting to give a presentation of LINks and LTCA and Mary has come to introduce herself to GYP. Mary is the Chair of the Norfolk LINk. Mary informed the group that membership forms and leaflets will be sent to Tracey at Community Connections for distribution.
Jackie wanted to know how LINks will fit in with the work of Community Connections and the Health Trainers?
Mary assures Jackie that there will be no duplication of the Health Trainer work, the emphasis is to work with organisations to strengthen the established links between the community and the PCT.
Trish mentioned that there are currently 2 LINks working in the area as the Great Yarmouth and Waveney PCT work in both Suffolk and Norfolk, and suggests that GYP steering group should be used as a forum to feedback to LINks and visa versa. GYP could collate the info at community Level and then pass on to LINK meeting.
Brian agrees with Trish because the Old People Network group that he represents are used to reporting through smaller local groups such as GYP. There is currently only 1 LINk for Norfolk and that is such a large area for only one LINk.
Mary suggests that GYP join the LINk as one organisation and then the smaller grassroots issues can be filtered through to GYP and then on to the LINk.
Lindsay has not been able to attend any of the PCT transitional group meetings and was unaware how to join the LINk.
Mary informs the group that currently 15-20 people sit on the LINk strategy group. This is made up of a series of smaller working groups focusing on one topic per group. I.e. Drugs and Alcohol, Older people Care, Patient Transport etc. Issues at Community Level decide what the working groups are focusing on. Until the Launch has taken place, the membership numbers will not be known. The Launch will take place at the end of October where there will be one big event.
Mary will send Tracey back issues of the LINks Newsletters for distribution as the newsletters hold all the relevant information that GYP members have requested.
5. Communication Strategy – update
The Communication Strategy meeting is being held on Monday 15th of September at Electra House, 9.30am. Michael Is currently looking for more GYP members and other interested parties to attend. Lindsay has already expressed an interest in attending the meeting but other members should use this opportunity to have an input into the strategy. Drafts will be circulated for comments.
Lindsay asks if the document is going to be a large publication, as this sometimes discourages people reading it.
Trish and Michael both said that the document will be a detailed as possible but will also be user friendly and should be easy to read and understand.
Peter asks for positive ideas but also to send in things that haven’t worked in the past so as to avoid replication.
6. Boundary Change Meeting:
Lindsay reports that the Boundary Change meeting was very good. It was a positive outcome for partnerships and how effective they will be when issues have to be raised at County Hall level.
Mike mentions that under a unitary council there will be 100 councillors for the whole of Norfolk, who will sit on community boards. The Community Board councillors would then take back the issues etc to County Hall. Great Yarmouth will be divided into 3 areas, Gorleston, Yarmouth and Rural.
It was then asked how would GYP have a voice on all 3 of the community boards?
Lindsay also raises the question of volunteers that are on the GYP steering group, would they have to volunteer more of their time to attend more meetings across Great Yarmouth?
Brian mentioned that there have been advertisements of possible council tax bills being lowered if one of the proposed plans was to come into force. This is an unfair “hook” to draw people into agreeing to the proposals.
7. Sustainable Community Strategy and LAA Targets- update
Trish reports that although the community had given a lot of input previously there is still time to comment and have further input into the strategy. Further comments on the LSP Stocktake document were taken to the LSP Executive meeting.
Simon mentions that there is too much emphasis on structure and buildings, there needs to be more on education, work and cohesion.
The LSP board meeting is scheduled for Thursday the 25th of September. Brian asks if there will be a pre-meeting? Trish informs Brian that if possible there should be a pre meeting for a chance to pull together the ideas, views and thoughts of GYP and all of the third sector comments.
8. WNF Update:
Tim is absent this meeting. Simon informs the group that there has now been a group formed for the Commissioning of WNF. This group will decide how, where and when the commissioning process will take place.
Employment and Skills group had a meeting on Monday 8th of Sept, no update yet.
Lindsay asks who is on the Employment and Skills group. Are there any Community reps in the group?
Trish informs Lindsay that Job Centre Plus, Legi, Learning Skills Council and the PCT were present in the group, but there were no community members.
Brian asks when the money will be released?
Trish hopes that it will be soon as there are groups ready to deliver their services that are waiting on funding to do so.
9. GYP – The Way Forward
At the next meeting discussions will take place regarding how GYP should be structured, how GYP will work with other partnerships/ forums, what GYP need to do to build on strengths, and also to see if GYP has enough diversity in Reps.
Discussions will follow to see how we, as a group, will take GYP forward, and what each individual member contributes to the group. Trish will prepare information to be used on the day.
Everybody should have an action plan (more copies will be taken to the next meeting)
10. Finance – Update
John is absent from the meeting, all claim forms should be submitted to John as soon as possible.
11. Reports from all networks:
Judith issued Faith Report and The Network! reports to the group. These reports are appended to the minutes.
Peter informed the group that BWCF have now moved offices to the Cobholm & Lichfield Health and Resource Centre in Great Yarmouth. He reports that the move did not come without its problems, they currently have no internet access but this should be resolved by 17th September.
Brian reports that the OPN have a new group that focuses on Fuel Poverty. Fuel poverty is a major issue across the board, not just with the elderly. A leaflet was distributed to all community Housing Tenants with “Tips” on energy efficiency and ways in which money can be saved on fuel bills. This leaflet is now due to be sent Borough wide. The group was initially set up for residents of Community Housing, but is now open to resident’s borough wide. There are various groups such as Tenants participation groups across Great Yarmouth and Gorleston that now discuss Fuel Poverty issues as part of their meetings. Information on Grants is being distributed across the Borough. These grants can help towards the cost of Cavity wall insulation and loft insulation. These services are free to those residents claiming benefits, and are available at a reduced cost for those not on benefits.
Pam Cranston introduces Corrine Alderson to the Group. Corrine is now the 2nd rep for Voluntary Norfolk. Pam informs the group that there is now an advocacy service set up for people with learning disabilities and a Volunteer Centre, for signposting volunteers into other possible volunteering opportunities.
Mike reports that the KIN meeting was held on Tuesday and the 3 main areas of concern were; Alcohol related issues in Nicholas Park, Speeding on Caister Road and Cycling on Pavements along Northgate Street.
12. Reports:
12.1 Social Forum – Report issued by Mike and appended to the minutes
12.2 Environmental Forum – St Georges Park is now completed and has proved to be a great success. More work is planned in the area.
12.3 Economic Forum –
An emergency meeting was held to discuss the SCS and the Stocktake Document, this was an additional meeting to the one in June.
12.4 Learning Forum –
Reports that the SAT and GCSE results were excellent and were an improvement on last years results. The Lifelong Learning Targets being; Raising Aspirations and Achievements, Skills for Life, Number of People in Employment and Training. The Learning Skills Council has drafted a document on how to take suggestions forward, such as The Learning Forum becoming a delivery group. Lindsay asks if the Learning Forum becomes a delivery group, where does the strategy come from.
Simon informs the group of new diplomas and apprenticeships being available on a new government scheme.
Alan asks if they are similar to the traditional 2 year apprentices or will they be 6 or 12 week courses?
The apprenticeships will be the 2 year work placement and college positions.
The Learning Forum representatives consist of Lindsay as 1st rep and Jackie Hughes and Simon O’Leary as joint 2ndreps.
Simon is currently attending GYP as the VSP rep in place of Paul Cheeseman.
Lindsay is concerned that the Social Forum has a lot of reps compared to the environmental forum only having 2.
Trish reports that GYP reps can be looked at in detail at next months GYP meeting.
12.5 LSP Board Meeting moved forward to the 25th September
12.6 LSP Exec – worked on SCS
12.7 Partnership for Health – No meeting.
12.8 Runham Vauxhall Fair Shares meeting due on the 1st of October
12.9 Library update meeting due on the 15th of September
END OF MEETING 12pm
GREAT YARMOUTH PEOPLE
meeting held on 11th September 2008
REPORT FROM THE FAITH COMMUNITY
BWCF, Industrial Mission, Port Chaplaincy, and Great Yarmouth Counselling Service have moved into the Cobholm & Lichfield Health and Resource Centre as a temporary office for the coming year
BWCF will hold an extra Open Forum on 29th September at the Cobholm and Lichfield Health and Resource Centre with the specific purpose of discussing and, hopefully, ratifying the final draft of the Constitution. This document is essential for taking forward the process of funding for the building work on the proposed permanent offices at Newtown Methodist Church
Network Yarmouth achieved 29,492 hits in August and is experiencing much support from both faith and non-faith contributors
Judith Edmonds
Borough Wide Churches Forum
THE NETWORK!
(previously known as Great Yarmouth Support Team)
meeting held on 22nd August 2008
REPORT TO GREAT YARMOUTH PEOPLE
11/09/08
1. much of the meeting time was spent on fine tuning a skeleton Aims and Objectives. A consensus was reached and the final document will be presented to the next meeting. The document is attached to this report
2. re-branding was discussed and new the name decided. Great Yarmouth Support Team will in future be known as ‘The Network!’
Date of next meeting: 19th September 2008
Judith Edmonds
Great Yarmouth Support Team
The Network!
Aims and Objectives
The Network! is a forum comprising representatives from community enhancement organisations (statutory and voluntary), and interested groups who are involved in community development and empowerment
The forum meets monthly to discuss current community initiatives, issues involved in the enhancement of the Great Yarmouth community, and future planning
The aims of the Forum include:
· to be a forum which exists to support and promote community developments, engagement, and involvement in decision making, in order to improve quality of life, aspirations, and civic pride
· to make best efficient and effective use of members’ resources, whether manpower, time, or financial, to address issues, support difficulties, and identify needs within the community
· to share best practice
· to share information
· to generate ideas
· to share funding opportunities
· to gain support for work involved in
· to avoid duplication
· to encourage joint initiatives
The Network! will nominate a representative to report to Great Yarmouth People who will also report back from Great Yarmouth People
REPORT OF SOCIAL FORUM 4th September 2008
TO G Y P 11th September 2008
1. (A) Stocktake of the Great Yarmouth Local Strategic Partnership:
Pam Fox gave a brief of her consultation paper. She has interviewed between 20/30 people across the LSP as the first option. She said Great Yarmouth was one of the strongest LSP’s she has dealt with.
Trish talked about the GYP report to the LSP.
Others agreed, it was a good paper.
(B) Sustainable Communities Strategy:
Trish talked about local needs. Pam said these would be identified by local groups/people themselves. Trish said this should be included as part of the SCS process. This must be a living document, not just placed on the shelves until the next review in 2012.
2. Working Group Reports were received.
3. Delivery of Social Forum Agenda:
(A) Community Cohesion & Empowerment:
Noting the recent White Paper ‘Real People Real Power’
To work with Stocktake & SCS.
(B) The Role of Neighbourhood Management.
(C ) Health, Housing & Community Safety.
4. We received minutes of the other Fora
Mike Hewitt
North Yarmouth Community Partnership Member
REPORT TO LSP FROM GREAT YARMOUTH PEOPLE AND COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
Friday 15th August 2008
· Where possible more time for consultation in general and in particular for Community members as they are not working in the sector and access to information is not as easy or rapid. (a summary is often required to break down the information.)
· Not every one had been able to read the Stakeholder consultation document or revised sustainable Community Strategy, apart for one or two of the Voluntary Partners that were present at meeting who reported that they and Paul C had a briefing meeting days earlier and Paul C will feedback on this. The other members will access the paperwork via CC website or posted out where necessary and a pre-meeting prior to the social forum meeting will take place to discuss and gather feedback. Will fully discuss at social forum on 4th Sept.
Some feedback however, from discussions at the steering group and with a number of community reps outside of the steering group meeting.
· The paper is a good start to the changes that are needed. It clarifies and acknowledges some of the real issues and raises some concerns. Particularly the delivery models.
· The role of GYP and Social Forum and the implications if one needed to be disbanded with suggestions of which forum that should be and why. We will look at to clarify the different role both could continue to play. E.g. delivery and/ or scrutiny. Also need to look at wider membership of both.
· Need to clarify what is mentioned as community conference. (GYP/LSP event of something else) (page 16)
· Concerns about risk of changes suggested being too top –down, therefore need to keep a focus on balancing and maintaining the bottom-up approach as so much partnership work has gone into achieving that.
· Developing a Commissioning Approach across the LSP was seen as a welcome approach that would be involving the community and frontline staff.
· Acknowledgement that Neighbourhood management process is based on same model as Community Development model that has been developed and being used across other areas in Great Yarmouth, though less concentrated. NM have demonstrated that this model works Therefore roll out of NM process using the infrastructures already in place should be the next stage. However, a lot of resources have been provided to support this process. However, Is the same level of funding and support going to be available for roll-out and if so will this be sustainable?
· What are contingency plans if Government change and or funding streams, also have there been consideration of Unitary and how this will affect what is being developed now?
Community partnerships have worked well over the years in engaging and involving the community and other partners in supporting the LSP partnership on addressing targets for crime, health, housing, environment, employment, learning and skills etc however, change is needed and the process of consultation, discussion and review have started with community partnership members
Trish Aydin
GYP Officer
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