Archived decisions

1. DECLARATION OF INTEREST

Members were mindful that, where they believed they

had a personal or personal prejudicial interest in any

matter to be considered at the meeting, they should

normally at the time of the debate declare their interest,

and having regard to the circumstances described in

paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council's

Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the

meeting whilst the matter was discussed save for

exercising any right to speak in accordance with

Paragraph 12 of the Code.

Councillor Jenny Radley declared a personal interest in Item No. 5 (Hampshire Wildlife Trust) in that she is a member of the Trust.

2. MINUTES

The Minutes of the Culture and Communities Select Committee held on 19 March 2009 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

3. CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

a. Budget Briefing

The Chairman reported that one of the areas the Select Committees look at on a regular basis was the budget and performance information. The budget proposals were scrutinised at the January Select Committee meetings, as the departmental budgets were agreed by the Executive Members in January. The whole budget is then debated at full Council in February.

As the budget setting process followed an annual cycle of review and preparation each Select Committee had an informal (i.e. not in public) twice a year on budgets and departmental performance information. This was in addition to the formal public meetings and was intended to provide an opportunity for Members to familiarise themselves with the budget setting process and performance of the County Council. The briefings could highlight to members where the budget pressures and performance issues were in the departments the Select Committees scrutinise. Members could then use this information to help identify areas for further scrutiny. These briefings took place in November/December in the lead in to the new years budget proposals, and July when the end of year results are available. All members of the Committee were urged to attend these to enable them to keep up to date with the budget process prior to consideration by Members of the budget in January.

4. WORK PROGRAMME

The Chief Executive gave a presentation on the Select Committee Structure, the work of the Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs Select Committee, its terms of reference and elements of its work programme (Item 4 in the Minute Book). The Chairman outlined some of the scrutiny that had taken place and suggested that Members may wish to visit the Runways End Project, which had received lottery funding, before work commenced and following its completion.

RESOLVED:

That:

a. the Committee's Work Programme be approved

subject to the issues raised at this meeting.

b. arrangements be made for the Committee to visit the Runways End Project before the commencement of work and following its completion..

5. HAMPSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST

Dr. David Rumble of the Hampshire Wildlife Trust gave a presentation on the work of the Trust highlighting access and biodiversity (wildlife in all forms), the impacts of unmanaged access and proposed solutions. He said that education, raising public awareness and the need to manage public expectations was important.

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6. LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICE STRATEGY

AND VISION

The Director of Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs presented a report updating the Committee on the library and information service strategy and vision following the review undertaken by the Committee in 2007/08 (Item 6 in the Minute Book). The Strategy had now been approved by Cabinet. The vision for the Service was for a creative service at the heart of Hampshire communities which prided itself on meeting their evolving needs for reading, information, learning and enjoyment. It was underpinned by a set of nine strategic objectives and nine key areas for change in the next five years which were:

· To increase use of library services by those who live, work, study or visit.

· To increase use of library services by priority groups and in priority areas.

· To broaden the appeal by providing physical and virtual services that respond to the needs of the local community through new customer led and personalised service offers.

· To increase access to books, information and learning for local people and communities to develop their skills, knowledge and confidence. Library Information Service is committed to encouraging more people to read for pleasure.

· To strengthen and develop effective partnership working within Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs, Hampshire County Council and with strategic external partners in order to develop new services, share resources and increase the opportunities for participation by local people.

· To involve local people in shaping and delivering Library Information Service's services to meet or exceed their expectations.

· To support and train staff to develop the creative skills and flexibility necessary to effectively deliver a continuously improving service.

· to ensure long-term financial sustainability through the most efficient and effective use of all Library Information Service's human and financial resources.

· To Library Information Service, at the forefront of innovation and providing leadership to the rest of the public library sector

The two Discovery Centres have been very successful in terms of increasing the number of people through the doors and the number of book issues. But, outside the two Discovery Centres, LIS has seen a continual decline in visits and issues in the libraries and mobiles, going back over ten years. Traditionally, Library Information Service had tended to operate as a stand alone service, but this had changed in the last few years. The Strategy set out the role Library Information Service could play in meeting some of the targets of key corporate agendas, highlighting the need for more partnership working in the future.

In the future Library Information Service would meet the needs of the communities of Hampshire by offering a wide range of innovative opportunities for individuals to develop their skills, access the information that they need and gain enjoyment from reading throughout their lives.

This would be achieved through listening to customers and communities, developing flexible and effective mechanisms to meet their evolving needs with a skilled and motivated Library Information Service team, working in partnership with others as much as practicably possible.

RESOLVED

That the report be received and noted.

7. HARD TO REACH GROUPS

The Chief Executive presented the report of the Hard to Reach Review Panel (Item 7 in the Minute Book). The scope of the review was to keep a higher level county-wide focus with a view to understanding what the issues were for the County (and its partners) in ensuring that `hard to reach' residents in Hampshire knew about, and were able to access services provided by Hampshire County Council, its partner service providers and by community based initiatives.

The definition of `hard to reach' was seen as those who:

· are unaware of services provided by Hampshire County Council or its partners, or

· are unable to take advantage of services provided by Hampshire County Council or its partners, or

· are reluctant to take advantage of services provided by Hampshire County Council or its partners.

The issues identified by the Review panel as of most concern to witnesses were:

· Silos - Working within one's own department

or professional context with little or no

knowledge of what other departments,

organisations, or services are providing or

could be providing for individuals or local communities

· Duplication - Where customers/individuals may receive multiple visits/services from providers in an uncoordinated way, resulting in inefficient use of time and resources.

· Reputation - Where customers associate provider organisations with lack of trust, the suspicion that they will have more to lose than gain by accessing them, or with bureaucratic walls that prevent access to meaningful help.

· Partnership - Where `partnership' was seen as an abstract term that means different things to different people, and could mean investment of time and resources for uncertain return.

Witnesses and Members were keen to identify opportunities and existing good practice that addressed these issues and that therefore had potential to improve the experience of individuals who could be identified as hard to reach which were:

· Eyes and Ears - Where, as a result of special training and provision of routes to escalate information, an employee in one department or service may observe there was scope for other services to provide additional or needed support to a customer/individual.

· Partnership - Where it was recognised that a collaborating partnership of services could provide greater benefit to a customer/individual than any one, or limited group of services can alone, and where the scope of partnership was limited to a specific locality, specific goal, or was otherwise bounded by a context in which there was shared commitment and objectives.

· Protocols - Developed specifically to formally facilitate cross boundary/silo working through agreed procedures and sharing of necessary information about customers/individuals with their consent.

· Life events - Where, for example, illness or the death of a loved one suddenly causes a customer/individual to face new and often stressful circumstances; each life event implying the potential need for a set of supporting services, information and advice and of which the person had little or no previous knowledge

RESOLVED:

That:

a. The recommendations of the Scrutiny Panel be agreed and presented to the Cabinet for consideration.

b. The monitoring of outcomes of the review be

included in the Committee's work

programme.

8. RURAL DELIVERY ACTION PLAN

The Director of Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs presented a report giving an overview of the work undertaken in relation to service delivery to rural communities since July 2008 (Item 8 in the Minute Book). He highlighted the priority areas. The Cabinet had agreed the following aims for the delivery of services to rural areas:

To demonstrate commitment in supporting rural communities by:

· adopting a clear vision underlying the County Council's work in rural communities.

· recognising the crucial role played by rural areas and communities in the social, economic and environmental vitality of the county.

To work effectively both within the County Council and with partner organisations by:

· securing more effective engagement with rural communities and partner organisations.

· providing improved accessibility to services in rural areas.

· strengthening the role for Hampshire County Council at regional and national level by building on the lessons of the Rural Pathfinder.

Developing a Rural Delivery Strategy focused upon the needs of rural communities by:

· working with others, particularly borough, district and parish councils, in developing a new approach to rural spatial planning, recognising the importance of appropriate managed development to support employment, local housing and provision of services in rural areas.

· developing an effective evidence base to inform future action and service development - the Rural Profile of Hampshire.

· achieving more effective corporate collaboration and co-ordination when delivering and developing services within rural communities through "rural proofing" of our work.

Communicating more effectively with the rural communities:

· to identify and publicise sources of information and support, both within and outside the County Council, that could help build capacity within rural communities.

· to provide greater recognition and understanding of the contribution that Hampshire County Council makes to rural communities.

The overall vision underpinning the role of the County Council in supporting rural Hampshire was to work to achieve Rural communities that are resilient and sustainable socially, economically and environmentally.

The work undertaken to date had sought to actively pursue the objectives set by Cabinet in July 2008. It was focussed upon securing the views of key organisations: seeking to develop our evidence base: and to develop an organisation-wide commitment to tackling service delivery issues in rural communities.

Members commented that transportation for young people was a problem in rural areas and the Director advised The Committee that there were proposals to target young people. The action plans were noted and it was agreed that reports on Food, Farming and Forestry and Community Leisure and Culture should be presented to a future meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED;

That the report be received and reports on Food, Farming and Forestry and Community, leisure and Culture be presented to future meetings of the Committee.

9. ACCESS TO THE COUNTRYSIDE - GENERAL

UPDATE

The Director of Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs presented a report giving an update on the Countryside Service's role in managing the public rights of way network and improving access to the countryside (Item 9 in the Minute Book). He highlighted planning and development, countryside access plans, the management of motor vehicles and the rights of way reports - Transforming Customer Experience. All issues showed the importance of involving others in the work and that much could be achieved through consultation and understanding local needs and pressures. It was going to become even more important to make local connections and to work with external partners and funding bodies in order to achieve improvements to people's enjoyment of the countryside.

RESOLVED:

That the report be received and noted

Scrutiny Officer/Director of Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs to arrange visits to Runways End Project.

Scrutiny Officer to arrange for the Review Panel's report to be presented to Cabinet and for the monitoring of the outcomes to be included in the Committee's work programme.

The Director of Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs present reports on Food, Farming and Forestry and Community, Leisure and Culture to future meetings of the Committee and the Scrutiny Officer includes them in the work programme.