Agenda item

The report details the work of the Ward Working Team in 2012/13.  The report reviews the actions taken over the last year by Ward Working including some of the challenges the team have dealt with as well as positive achievements. It also identifies issues to be addressed over the coming year.

Councillor Denselow, lead member for Customers and Citizens, introduced the report by thanking his predecessor Councillor Jones for all the work that she had done in this area. He then selected some of the highlights from the report. He explained that £40,000 had been spent per ward in the last year, which was a record high. He stated that this had funded 276 projects and over 25 walkabouts with councillors.

He informed Councillors that there had been one Ward Working project that had been referred to Audit and Investigation. The Committee were assured that it was concluded that no money had been used fraudulently. However the Council were given a number of recommendations that were being implemented to avoid a similar situation in the future.

Christine Collins, Community Engagement Manager, provided further details about the outreach work that her team had conducted in the past year, including a number of festivals and community events that they had attended. She directed the Committee to the breakdown of how the budget was spent in each ward which was detailed in the appendix to the report. She stated that at request of this Committee, they had tried to seek more feedback from younger people. She explained that they had been very successful at this by going to sporting events and youth clubs. However, she added that the majority of respondents were 65-85 but they were still working to readdress this. At the request of this committee, hey had also compared the ethnicity data against the census figures so that the data was put in some context and was more meaningful.

It was stated that 160 of the 276 projects that were funded were projects in the voluntary and community sector (VCS). Due to this partnership working with the VCS, schools, housing associations and other departments they had managed to obtain match funding totalling over £930,000.

In regards to the issues that Ward Working had faced over the past year, other than the project referred to audit, the other main issue had been how the team dealt with project proposals that were not in line with council policy. The Ward Working Member Reference Group (MRG) agreed that it was not conducive to forward projects for consideration that would be later rejected as they were not in line with council policy. However it was agreed that a copy of each proposal that fell into this category and email explaining why it had been rejected would be sent to the relevant ward councillors.

The committee thanked Christine Collins and Councillor Denselow for their report and presentation. The committee questioned the number of meetings that Councillors should expect to have with officers in Ward Working per year. The Committee asked if it would be possible to get more analysis and feedback on the projects and how they helped the groups they targeted in the long run. The Committee then asked for more information regarding the project to help people in the Borough affected by the welfare reforms. The committee concluded their questions by asking what the Officers and Lead Member believed were the risks facing Ward Working at the moment.

In response to the questions raised, Christine Collins explained that there should be at least three meetings per year between Councillors and Ward Working. She stated that the level of workload and the number of projects varied between each Ward and therefore some Councillors may have more meetings per year. In regards to analysing projects and the effects that the project had had, she stated that it was hard to quantify this as the projects were often small, one off projects. She added that they did work with bidders to pass on the knowledge they had gathered to ensure that the proposals were as robust as possible. David Murray added that it was important to get the balance between bureaucracy and analysis to ensure the process did not become too consumed with paperwork.

Christine Collins explained to the Committee that they accumulated over £90,000 to help people in the borough affected by the changes to the welfare system. She stated that they were currently in the procurement stage to determine who to award the money too.

In regards to the risks that ward working faced in the future, Councillor Denselow stated that it was the same risks that the rest of the council faced in the current times of economic hardship. David Murray stated that there was a big risk that at a time of extensive budget cuts the Council would find it increasingly difficult to respond rapidly and effectively to the information that Ward Working gathered from residents and that this issue required careful thought.