Month: November 2011

Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 10 Department for Work and Pensions Work Programme

The Chair asked if there were any questions on the Department for Work and Pensions Work Programme. Cllr Wittingham said there may be movement on Department of Work and Pensions rules which stated they couldn’t share statistics them externally. Eventually he hoped this would change and the statistics would be made available to councillors. David … Continue reading “Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 10 Department for Work and Pensions Work Programme”

The Chair asked if there were any questions on the Department for Work and Pensions Work Programme.

Cllr Wittingham said there may be movement on Department of Work and Pensions rules which stated they couldn’t share statistics them externally. Eventually he hoped this would change and the statistics would be made available to councillors.

David Ball said he was concerned with the work program as they can’t check or understand the effect of interventions on the labour market. There had been discussions that they may release them on a confidential basis, if it was helpful they could be shared with councillors once officers had been informed. He said it was important to understand what was going on and tackle a number of issues on the worklessness agenda.

The Chair said he wanted it minuted and invited any other questions. There were no more so the report was noted.

The Chair asked for questions or concerns on the second quarter performance and financial review.

Cllr Wittingham in reference to the table on page 63, asked if they had enough capacity of smaller homes to meet their social housing target? Ian answered that in terms of numbers, looking at the occupation strategy of existing users, registered social landlords and housing association would work with tenants to find opportunities within the existing housing stock. They would be encouraged to move into smaller accommodation, which was difficult for the elderly and could get emotional if they felt they were being forced out. His view on future supply was that the Welfare Reform Bill would lead to existing tenants moving to smaller properties that would free up units for larger families.

Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 9 Child Poverty Strategy and Action Plan, European Social Fund

Cllr Steve Niblock said he was curious about the method used. He said the ward he represents was not in there and he wanted a map of all of Wirral made available to councillors.

Jane Morgan said it was in more detail in the needs assessment by super output area. They had drawn out comparison between the ten most and ten least deprived areas to show the disparity and pockets of deprivation.

The Chair, Cllr Johnston said he was happy to move to the recommendations. They would make a note of the report and required regular updates. There were two work streams it related to, working out of poverty & neighbourhood regeneration. He wanted to “keep on top of it”.

The Chair moved the meeting to a report on the European Social Fund. He asked for any questions and asked one of his own. He said if the IT system was found not to be fit for purposes would this put at risk the grants?

David Ball said Hanlon was complicated to use, but was a grant requirement of the funders. It didn’t put the grant at risk because they now understood how to use it and could give the information requested. They were looking at how to uncomplicate it and tackle performance.

The Chair said the performance on the intermediate labour market target was well below what it should be and required remedial work, was there a claw back risk? David Ball responded that clawback could only happen if they had spent the money and not delivered. The intermediate labour market project had had delays since the start however it had been accelerated significantly. There were a hundred to a hundred and twenty posts on offer with thirty-six to be filled over the next few weeks. They were trying to negotiate extensions with the funders which would enable them to meet the targets in a longer amount of time.

Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 8 Child Poverty Strategy, childcare, Bidston, Claughton, Joint Strategic Needs Assessment

The Chair thanked Paula Basnett and said that if councillors had a couple of hours that Invest Wirral was well worth their while visiting.

The Chair, Cllr Johnston said he hoped councillors had read the Child Poverty Strategy and Action Plan Progress Report and that Jane Morgan was here to answer any questions. He asked councillors if they had any questions? They didn’t, Cllr Johnston asked about the timetable for the action plan.

Jane Morgan said in the appendix it was not detailed as there were things to develop further regarding childcare where they wanted to understand the issues. There would be work done on this over the next couple of months, there were already meetings in the diary, it would go back to scrutiny in the New Year and Cabinet which would define what would happen for the next three years.

The Chair said he had attended an event at the Floral Pavillion, but what were they doing regarding engagement.

Jane Morgan explained that following the event people would be invited to targetted workshops involving providers and practitioners. Through the website they were trying to get people to be champions.

Cllr Realey asked if Bidston/Claughton was the worst in Europe for child poverty? Jane replied that it was the highest on Wirral with 72% living in poverty in parts of Bidston & Claughton.

Cllr Realey asked where Prenton was in the statistics. Jane Morgan pointed Cllr Realey to the detailed needs assessment which was a “complex technical document”.

Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 7 relationship managers, IT, construction, business forum (a local forum for local businesses), inward investment manager, Birkenhead Town Hall

Cllr Mountney asked where the relationship managers were from and what their skillsets are? Paula Basnett said some were from industry and the others were long term local authority employees. Two were long term local authority officers and three were fairly new but all of them had degrees. One was based on the IT sector, the construction sector relationship manager was a woman (who previously had had no background in construction but had learnt over the last two years). The other three had been longer in the team but had had no sector experience except for the last two years. In future they wouldn’t recruit local authority officers but buy in from sector experts instead.

Cllr Stuart Wittingham asked about the business forum. Paula Basnett replied that it is password protected, but they check the address and contact details. They had had lots of enquiries from Liverpool companies with offices in Wirral, but it was only for Wirral companies and businesses.

Cllr Pat Hackett said it was hard to find investment. Cllr Phil Davies arrived. Cllr Pat Hackett asked if there was proactive matching done between investors and businesses to invest in? He said it was important not to rest on their laurels and to have vision, strategy and ideas.

Paula Basnett said the appointment of an inward investment manager would help them to work closely with investors, to go out and be proactive and make organisations aware of the development sites on the Wirral. They also supported indiginous businesses. An investor was looking at Birkenhead Town Hall which had been a referral from Cllr George Davies. The investment manager would develop the inward investment strategy which would identify potential investors.

Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 6, manufacturing, business forum website

The officer said that they [Wirral Council] also worked with the Manufacturing Advisory Service on culture and had made eighty-one referrals in the last year. They go in with MAS who had a list of practitioners who helped with office or shop culture and worked to add value to the business, attract industry and keep the manufacturing base. Manufacturing hadn’t gone from Wirral, Teledyne CML and Cammell Lairds were examples of positive news on jobs.

Cllr Simon Mountney commented that it was getting increasingly difficult for businesses.

Paula Basnett said their aim was to increase membership on the business forum. According to their CRM system they had had contact with four thousand businesses over the last decade. Their aim was to have an extra five hundred register each year for the business forum, but it as getting difficult to get new business users.

Cllr Mountney asked if it was a local or national target. She replied it was a local target. Cllr Mountney asked how many hits a month it was getting.

Paula Basnett said it was password protected but they measured how long visitors spent on the site and what areas were of interest to them. Cllr Mountney asked how long on average each visitor stayed for?

The Chair, Cllr Johnston asked for a report on this to a future meeting.