Minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 21 November 2012.

It was clarified that the name of the Kent County Council (KCC) Cabinet Member for Education, Learning and skills was Mike Whiting.

Cllr. Davison also stated that the Eden Centre would not have been open at the time of the last meeting but may have been open by 2 January 2013 when the Library Sub-Group visited it.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting of the Sevenoaks District Kent Locality Board held on 21 November 2012, as amended, be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Any interests not already registered

There were no declarations of interest.                   

Action 1

Dot maps showing where the attendees of Orchards Academy, Hextable School and Knole Academy came from would be provided to the Board after the meeting. The Chairman asked that such maps be circulated to Members electronically.

Action 1: The Sevenoaks District Council (SDC) Head of Community Development to circulate these dot maps to Members of the Board electronically.

Action 2

Following a request from the Chairman, the Board agreed to allow non-Members of the Board to become Members of the Education Sub-Group. The Chairman confirmed he would investigate other District Councillors who would want to join the Sub-Group.

Action 3

This completed action was noted.

Action 4

This action was discussed under minute item 29.

·         Update on formation of Education Sub Group

A Member enquired what the terms of reference would be for the Education Sub-Group. The SDC Head of Community Development suggested that KCC might provide these in line with similar groups being set up across the County. The Member proposed that the Sub-Groups also be allowed to consider any impacts related to adjoining districts.

Verbal update

The first meeting of the West Kent Health and Wellbeing Board was to be held on 15 January 2013 and would mostly be an exploratory meeting. The Sevenoaks area had been asked to provide 2 District Councillors and 1 County Member.

The County Council  would be holding a workshop on health inequalities on 10^th January 2013 provided by Professor Chris Bentley who was an expert in the field and was involved in the Marmot Review.

On 25 January 2013 there would be a similar workshop to discuss health inequalities in the whole Sevenoaks District. This meeting will be open to all Members and agencies. Details would be sent out to all Members of the Board.

In response to a question Officers confirmed they did not have information about the definite boundary between the West Kent and Weald and the Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley Health and Wellbeing Boards. It was likely that Otford would be to the north and Shoreham and Knockholt to the south. It was noted that these boundaries aimed to reflect CCG boundaries and that Otford Surgery was the northernmost surgery in the West Kent and Weald CCG. KCC were trying to confirm this information.

It was noted that the CCGs were at differing stages of development, but West Kent seemed to be at the forefront. The Chairman felt it was a shame that they were progressing at differing speeds in the different parts of the District.

Verbal Update

The KCC Project Manger of Libraries, Registration and Archives reported that discussions had begun regarding future service provision for each library in the District and this included discussions with the local parish or town council. In many cases partners had been sought to share library buildings. In Kemsing the tennis academy had shown interest in moving in and Westerham Town Council was exploring sponsors. Dunton Green Parish Council had considered provision in the new community centre but felt that the building would not be big enough and in the case of Sevenoaks Library the building was already shared with the Gallery, Museum and Citizens Advice Bureau. Otford Library was exploring opening outside of regular times. Officers were asked to ensure that local Members were informed when such meetings were held in future.

The new Edenbridge Library had opened on 2 January 2013 and stocks were already comparable to previous provision. It was thought that management of the Eden Centre may move away from the County Council and it was noted this could affect the process for agreeing partners to join. Work had begun on deciding the final management arrangements for the Centre.

The site of the former library had been put on the open market with a local agent. Further details on the future of the site could be provided by the KCC Property Department on request. A Member advised he had been told differently when contacted by KCC to say that a 6 week consultation was still necessary on the old site.

Officers invited suggestions from Members of the Board on future service provision.

·         Verbal update on new delivery model for youth services and tender process

In light of Members’ concerns at the last meeting regarding the evaluation and award of contracts to deliver youth services across the District, the KCC Director of Service Improvement confirmed that some very general information had been sent to Members soon after the meeting which related to awarding the contracts across the County. She had since identified further information about the awarding of individual contracts which could be disclosed to Members. This would include information about the types of service to be provided but would not include the value of the contracts as this information would still be sensitive. Further, it was only once the contracts had been awarded that local negotiations were taking place for the detail of service provision.

The Chairman, with support of other Members advised he did not consider the value of tenders to be confidential after they had been awarded and asked that the KCC Director of Service Improvement reconsider this aspect. He was still unclear on what basis the contracts had been awarded beyond the three questions the Locality Board had been asked to consider.

A Member informed the Officer of his concern for the provision of the Sevenoaks Isolated and Rural Areas contract. The service was due to begin on 14 January 2013 but there was to be no continuity between this and the former Hartley, Ash and West Kingsdown (HAWK) Project provision. Between ten and twelve areas had been identified for provision but it was unclear whether the HAWK sites counted as three distinct areas or just one. If it were one it could lead to a significant reduction in service. Following a meeting between the existing and new providers (CXK and Kent Children’s Fund Network) it had been discovered there had been no procurement of vehicles and staff interviews were only just taking place. There was also concern about the lack of structured engagement with young people.

These concerns were echoed by other Members of the Board. They noted the contracts had been awarded in November 2012 but there was still a lack of detail. The delays in preparing and procuring were too long.

The Director of Service Improvement advised that some delays could be caused by employment law matters and where a new service was taking over an existing building the process had been more simple. The bids had been strong in showing how they would engage with young people. The SDC Head of Community Development added that CXK were happy to engage regarding the details of provision.

It was felt that any information available should be disclosed to Members as soon as possible rather than wait until the following meeting. Subject to the information arising from this being satisfactory, the KCC Head of Integrated Youth was to be invited to a future meeting to answer Members’ questions.

Action 2: The KCC Director of Service Improvement to provide as much information as possible concerning the award of contracts and details of future youth service provision in the District.

Action 3:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.

Verbal Update

The SDC Head of Community Development informed Members that  the Board was continuing to bid for funding. On 1 February 2013 the new Troubled Family Co-Ordinator would be in place.

All data had now been collected in preparation for the programme but Officers were still looking  at how to record future data in order to show an audit trail of delivery. More progress was also required on worklessness aspects, in particular referrals from Jobcentre Plus. The final total number of families to work with in the District was 42.

The Chairman said that there had been a suggestion the programme ought be given an alternative name He hoped Members joined him in feeling that the programme should adhere to the national ‘Troubled Families’ title so as to show how the national programme was being delivered locally.

·         Draft Community Plan for Public Consultation attached

The SDC Head of Community Development introduced the draft Sevenoaks District Community Plan (2013-2028) which was currently a public consultation document. The Plan was based on data and the views of consultees and it set out the wide range of parties which had already been consulted including the Locality Board itself, Members, Town and Parish Council, local residents, businesses and several harder to reach groups. Members’ views were now sought on the draft document.

The Board agreed with the aspirations of the Community Plan as a strategic document but it was suggested that the real complication will be in measuring output. Officers confirmed that partners had been asked for suggestions on appropriate measurements and the deadline for responses was soon.  It was proposed that the Board identify some priorities for which stretched targets could be applied so as to try to achieve more.

A Member recommended to Officers that they include the close rail connectivity Sevenoaks has with London and that transport problems may often be linked to difficulties at London Bridge station.

The Chairman reminded the Board that they would be the body with primary responsibility for the Community Plan, including performance.. It was suggested that they keep a high level overview with performance indicator monitoring to be provided twice a year, looking forwards and backwards.  A Member commented that Officers were accustomed to detailed monitoring of the existing Community Plan and he assumed that this would continue.

The closing date for comments on the Community Plan was 15 February 2013. At the next meeting the Board would see a fully-formed copy of the Plan with success measures  included. Members could then further discuss how the Plan should be delivered.

Wednesday 6 March 2013