Agenda item
Partners for Brent - Partnership achievements 2010/11
This report sets out the highlights and achievements of Partners for Brent 2010/11.
Minutes:
Joanna McCormick (Partnerships Coordinator, Strategy, Partnerships and Improvement) outlined a report to the Committee, setting out the highlights from partnership projects in 2010/11. A new approach to partnership working had been employed by the borough, with a view to consolidating existing partnership working and prioritising successful practices. The new approach involved the separation of the focus on engagement with strategic issues from the focus on practical delivery of projects through a restructuring of partnership activity. One of the key achievements highlighted to members was the production of a high quality analysis of the state of the borough. This analysis drew on a range of statistics to enhance the evidence base for Brent’s partnership strategies and aided the development of the Community Plan – ‘Brent – Our Future’ which detailed the priorities for the years ahead. A set of partnership groups, ‘Partners for Brent’, had worked to deliver projects to achieve the outcomes set out in the Community Plan. Members were advised that 2010/11 also saw the launch of the Cultural Strategy and the Climate Change Strategy and the Regeneration Strategy. Other key highlights for 2010/11 touched upon a wide range of different areas including crime, health, children and families, sustainability and culture.
Joanna McCormick highlighted the fact that the changing financial context would undoubtedly impact upon partnership working and that partners would need to make better use of existing resources and have a more detailed understanding of the impact of actions on other organisations in the borough, with an overriding focus on the overall provision of services to residents. However, 2010/11 had seen the formulation of enhanced governance arrangements for Brent’s partnership group and in planning for 2011/12, partners had agreed to several unified actions. These included, a thematic approach to partnership projects to deliver the Community Plan, the establishment of further formal partnership principles, the development of an intelligence hub, making intelligent use of staff and looking at options for sharing assets and procuring together.
During members’ discussion, several queries were raised in relation to a variety of community issues. With reference to the practices of chewing of Paan and Khat in particular communities, a query was raised regarding the level of punitive action taken against individuals caught spitting. It was acknowledged that this was an important issue with which the council and its partners had to engage and Joanna McCormick advised that Paan related campaigns had been run via ward working. Cathy Tyson (Assistant Director- Policy) further noted a piece of work would be required to educate people in relation to the different negative effects of chewing Paan and Khat and to raise awareness’s of the public health consequences of the related habit of spitting. Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) could issue fixed penalty notices to those caught spitting, however this clearly relied on the presence of those officers.
A member noted that due to cultural barriers some Asian women might fail to engage with health services through their GP and noted that actions should be taken to mitigate this. Joanna McCormick advised that the PCT had previously completed a lot of work to raise awareness of the accessibility of the health services and this had been very successful. It was agreed that this issue would be raised with the appropriate organisations. Cathy Tyson also noted that women could often be encouraged to engage with health services through their children and that the PCT had been very successful in doing so via their immunisation programmes. A further query was raised regarding work around forced marriages and the committee was advised that raising awareness had formed a part of some of the council’s diversity team campaigns and the issue is covered in the violence against women and girls strategy presently being put together by partners on the Crime Prevention Strategy Group.
The Chair noted that it was reported that the achievement of children and young people from low income families and those with special educational needs (SEN) had improved but queried why this was not reflected in the LAA performance indicator. Joanna McCormick advised that the improvement was evident in relation to young people from deprived backgrounds, but the LAA indicators reported at previous meetings related specifically to the timeframes for completing assessments for all SEN assessments rather than the educational attainment of SEN pupils. Performance Indicators for Quarter 3 would be available at the next meeting of the Committee. Cathy Tyson advised that Brent performance was ahead of the national and regional average with regard to SEN achievement of 5 A* - C GCSEs including English and Maths.
RESOLVED: -
that the report be noted.
Supporting documents: