Transcript

I would like to remind everyone present that this meeting will be broadcast live to the internet and will be capable of subsequent repeated viewing with copies of the recording made available for those that request it. By being present at this meeting, it is likely that the recording cameras will capture your image and this will result in your image becoming part of the broadcast. You should be aware that this may infringe your human and data protection rights and if you have any concerns then please speak to the webcasting officer and please also remind members and officers to activate their microphones before speaking and to switch them off afterwards. Thank you. So if we move on to the first item on the agenda, well perhaps before I do that I will welcome the youth council here, it is that time of the year I think we always look forward to having the youth council here, so it is very nice to see you here again and we are always impressed. I understand that you are the current youth council and that there were elections which I think took place in March and I had read somewhere that the new council was going to take office on the 8th of April but I think, so I did initially think it would be an entire new youth council but what I have subsequently been told it is a bit of a hybrid situation because we need the existing council to report on what they have been doing the past year and I think we have got a couple of youth councilors for the next council if I understand it correctly. Right, if I can just go on to apologise to absence, do we have any of those? There are apologies from absence Chairman from Councillor Puxley and Councillor Haddell and both Councillor McCai and Councillor McKai have been late to my meeting. So my voice Chairman may be late, I hope he turns out. We have got these substitute members, sorry. The fireworks have stopped outside so that's served in 20 minutes. Right, any substitute members? No substitute members to that Chairman. Okay, any decorations of interest? The minutes of the meeting, the last meeting held on the 23rd of January, it can now be agreed. Anybody got any questions about them? No. Are we going to agree those? Thank you very much. Some things matters are rising or outstanding actions. I think they've been dealt with. No, no, I stand in. Yeah, generally good. Any public questions and requesters, rest of the over here and go to the committee? There have been no requests. No, no, no, no. There's no, no, no, no. I'm not ruling the clear there. Executive decisions, Colleen. I don't think I've had any of those. No, they've done but in calling question. Right, so this is where we get to the youth council agenda item 9, it's annual review of the work undertaken by the Epping Forest Youth Council. There is a report on pages 11 to 13 and it says to receive the annual progress report on the work undertaken by the community and culture and well-being team with the Essex, sorry, Epping Forest Youth Council. Should we look at the report first to see if there are any questions which is on pages 11 to 13 and then I think we're going to be addressed by members of the youth council. So if members would like to, or if they've got any questions about that perhaps they can ask them now, doesn't look as if they're arguing. So we can just go straight on to the, oh sorry, Councillor MARRIE. It's the presentation going to cover some of these because that might stop my question I think. Okay, so if the presentation is going to cover some of these pages, I think it's probably better to have my presentation then, Jamie, thank you. I'm sure you'll get a chance to ask questions, one word, I don't know. I don't know, does somebody want to explain how, I've got a list of the speakers here. The first name I've got down is Erica Skingsley, I don't know if that's the order we're taking them in, so. Chair, I think Lex is going to introduce you. Oh, right, sir. Lexi, I understand you're going to do it in introductions, is that correct? Okay, so we're going to kick off with Erica then. Thank you very much, Chairman, Councillor Wixley, and good evening, everyone. Thank you for inviting us along this evening to update you about our work. First some introductions, I'm Erica Skingsley, I'm 16 years old and live in Chicoire. I currently attend New City College. Hi everyone, my name is Chris Gohill, I'm 15 years old, I live in Loudton and I attend Debden Park High School. Hi, I'm Ada Lour, I'm 15 years old, I live in Loudton and I attend Roading Valley High School. Good evening, I'm Willette, I'm 16, I live in Loudton and I attend Chicoire School. Good evening, I am Jack Brinsley. I am 14 years old, I also live in Loudton and I attend Development Foundation School. All right, thank you very much, you start with the presentation now, Eric. We're all incredibly proud to report to you tonight, we've strived hard to represent the young people in the district and we aim to continue to raise the profile of young people and addressing issues facing them. There are currently 24 newly elected youth counsellors, six of the members were reelected and the remaining 18 youth counsellors have just begun their introduction training. The 2024 to 2026 youth counsellors are made up of 13 girls and 11 boys. We represent 11 schools, one college and three of those youth counsellors are independent. We took up office three weeks ago, there was a record number of 60 applicants standing as a candidate for the 24 states. Roding Valley High School had 17 candidates standing. The candidates were aged between 12 and 17 years old and they campaigned hard in their respective schools. School pupils were given the opportunity to vote for the candidate they believed would best represent them. The future youth counsellors have pledged to their voters that they will give them a voice on current and local issues affecting young people, that they will make a difference and that they will work hard to achieve their goals. The induction training is essential to building the team to get to know each other, build working relationships, exchange ideas and identify our skills and competencies. During the training we come together to represent all types of young people from various backgrounds. We had different ages from diverse cultures and with different interests. The youth counsellors training is intense and forms the building blocks for being a good youth counsellor. It trains us to be the representatives of our peers and how we conduct ourselves in public. The training enables us to be professional, it includes team building, leadership, presentation skills, time management and public speaking. It gives us an understanding of diversity and equality and embeds the values and behaviours that are important in life. The training will continue throughout our two years of service and will learn about various community projects that we're involved in and also lots of support groups who come and talks as they are. These will include things like healthy lifestyle, intergenerational awareness as well as safer community talks by especially Essex police as well as lots of diversity and equality training. For instance last year we did a lot of training on British sign language which really helped us to know a lot more about the deaf community. The youth counsellors 2024 youth project will address a key priority set out in the Epping for us health and wellbeing strategy 2022 to 2026. That is to tackle alcohol and substance misuse issues. The youth counsellors will aim to improve access to advice, support and education for young people experiencing these issues and to seek feedback on the understanding of the dangers of involvement. In these activities raising awareness in schools will aim to reduce the stigma associated with alcohol and substance misuse. Enabling discussion in a safe and supported environment. It is early days to go into detail but we aim to work with key partners in the health service and collectively develop an outstanding result. To go along with our work in secondary schools largest cohort were able to secure £8800 from Essex County Council's local community funds for the broadcast roadshow to be delivered in 9 secondary schools across the Epping for us district. Arc Theatre's multimedia broadcasting program has been developed to tackle issues on sexual harassment with young people in years 7-10. They use the range of activities and techniques including highly engaging theatre discussions and short films to reinforce the positive messages. Supporting young people and developing counter narratives to challenge violence against women, girls, abuse, misogyny and domestic violence. The program is devised to support schools to successfully deliver the new RSHE which is the relationship, sex and health education to support the health and wellbeing and safety of our pupils. The 9 Epping for us secondary schools are invited to book the roadshow by 30 June 2024 before the Essex County Council's funding expires. Approximately 1800 students will benefit from this awareness training. We continue to ensure that our peers and schools have a voice and that they engage in our work. We continue to do this by conducting our own surveys and we also participate in local, regional and national surveys and consultations. This past year alone we have contributed to numerous surveys and consultations. You might be able to see some on the screen there but a few would include the Youth Voices project which would help the Essex Violence and Vulnerability Unit, a callist consultation, the Essex Police Fire and Crime Commissioners Youth Violence and Vulnerability Survey and the Hearts and West Essex Integrated Care Board for the Youth Panel. We are also keen to promote our work and achievements in the local press, tan newsletter and in school magazines. We have also been keeping our schools informed by producing articles for our school news and student voice pages, giving assemblies and inviting our schools to the Epping for us final youth conference at the civic offices. We will be attending school council meetings and give updates and presentations about the work and achievements of the youth council. We wouldn't exactly be a youth organisation if we weren't heavily involved in social media. So we've got, you can see up there, sort of three of the big social media sites that we're on, so that's Twitter now known as Facebook and Instagram. We're not on TikTok for security reasons but across those three you can see up there. We've got just over 2200 followers across the three. It is important that we have youth representation on various community groups. The Brentwood and Epping for us independent advisory group have supported youth council representation for many years. And we are proud to continue working with IAG members. We also attend the Safer Epping group meetings and are speaking with a Heart for Sheer and West Essex Integrated Care Board as they are keen to involve young people in their group meetings. The Youth Council continue to receive awards and letters of recognition for the work we do. Recently, five youth council have received achievement awards from the Epping Forest District Council's chairman, Councillor Darshansunga, at this year's Civic Awards, and you can see some of the photos up there. And the six youth councils received the Jack Petrie Achievement Awards for the outstanding work throughout the community. Collectively, they received 1,800 pounds from the Jack Petrie Foundation. We also received 1,000 pounds towards our cost of living project and 675 pounds for our educational and environmental visit to Lambo and End during Easter. Our young persons officer was awarded an additional 1,000 pounds in recognition of meeting the required deadlines and for the reports. Overall, the total amount we received this year from the Jack Petrie Foundation is 4,475 pounds. The foundation guarantees that we can apply for up to 4,000 pounds each year for the lifetime of the group. In addition to the money, winners are invited to an event to receive their medallions. And workers can also attend to show their appreciation of the hard work and achievements of so many young people. This external funding enables us to do additional training, such as British Sign Language and Fast Aid. It helps us to fund educational visits to other youth councils outside of the district, enabling us to share good practice and gain the support and inspiration from other like-minded young people. In addition to the Jack Petrie grants, we have received 180 pounds this year from the Essex Council of Voluntary Youth Services for contributing to their online surveys. As Erica already mentioned, we've got the nearly 9,000 pounds from the County Council and County Councilors for the broadcast road shows which will go into schools. We also received 2,600 pounds from the Epping Forest Community Safety Partnership to work in schools to raise awareness about alcohol abuse and also laughing guests on nitrous oxide abuse as well. Which means, as you can see, we've got a staggering 16,000 pounds worth of external funding for the Youth Council over the coming year. We'd like, on behalf of myself and all the Youth Councilors and our officers, to thank all of our external funders, everyone from all our County Council, including Councillor Whitbread, who's helped us to deliver these high-profile projects and keep working for the young people across the district. We celebrated our 15th birthday in 2023 and feel like it's such an achievement to have a Youth Council that is supported 100% by its members and our senior management team. We'll be working with a smaller budget this year, however, we'll continue to bring innovative projects and do our best with the resources that we have. In order to represent the voice and views of young people, we have youth representation of several groups, which include the Brentwood and Epping Forest Independent Advisory Group, the Young Essex Assembly, the Youth Parliament, Jack Petchew, YCP, Safer Epping Group and Nine School Councils. We feel we can make a valuable contribution to these groups, and we are proud to continue to raise the profile of young people in the district and in the county. Every two years we collaborate with partner agencies to host a youth conference in the civic offices. The recent conference was hailed as a great success. The event is a huge opportunity to consult with 125 pupils and their teachers from eight secondary schools and the newly formed YES-7 at Cooper Sale Hall Prep School. The theme for the recent youth conference was let's talk about money, linking to the Youth Council's cost of living project. Guest organizations on the day talked about managing money with a quiz around financial and employability skills. The children's societies spoke of their school uniform campaign and they will work with the government to ensure that uniform costs are reasonable. A charity spoke about their pre-loved uniform project and youth councils shared their successes with setting up recycling and reuse projects in their schools. We also had all of us the opportunity to take part in a youth debate which was a wonderful example of youth democracy in action. Now my script says that the results were very close, but having won the debate I think that's wrong and it was a vast gaping chasm where a motion was defeated to provide free transport for under-25s. We also asked every school at the youth conference to make a pledge about what they would do to help their community and the people in their school to fight the cost of living crisis and I think we're about to have those displayed somewhere around the civic offices soon, so that should be somewhere soon for you to look at. And then finally we're all asked to be part of a #yoursayconsultation which was about finding out what young people wanted us as the new cohort of youth councils to work on over the next year or so, and the results from that were overwhelmingly that people wanted us to work on substance abuse, so whether that be vaping, alcohol, nitrous oxide or laughing gas. And as part of that we're going to continue to contribute to deliver the objectives detailed in the Epping Forest Health and Wellbeing Survey 2022-26. The youth councilors appreciate the support and encouragement we receive from the members of the district council. We are also appreciative of the budget that you have allocated to us each year. As the Epping Forest Youth Council approaches its 16th anniversary, young people do not want a voice, do want a voice and will give up their time to be a youth councilor. This year's school elections demonstrated that the desire to become a youth councilor and improve the community is even greater. On behalf of my peers we'd like to thank the Opium Scrutally Committee members for enabling us to be the best youth council in the region, for giving young people voice and continuing your support with the work of the projects. I definitely speak for everyone when I say we very much look forward to continuing working together with adult councilors and helping to keep Epping Forest a great and safe place to live, work and learn. We hope that the council will give us the opportunity to apply for further project funds in the next budget year. We are the future and we feel that Epping Forest District Council have put young people at the forefront since the first Epping Forest Youth Council was established 16 years ago in 2008. We very much appreciate you listening this evening and we are happy to take your questions. Okay, well, we're all done for those presentations. All right, we're going on to questions and Councillor MARRIE, as you're saying, it was always a quick offer of blocks. Thank you, Chair. I've got a couple of points I want to make and then two questions if I may. Can I first of all thank you for that presentation? Again, very impressive, very informative and really enjoyable if that's the right word. It's great the range of projects you're undertaking and thinking about in the future. So very good that you're getting that amount of external funding. I do also want to thank the officers that support you, because we have officers that support us as elected members, so it's important for us to acknowledge that. I thought your presentation was wonderful again today. And I think the Leading Council, this is something that EFDC can be rightly proud of and has support across the Chamber, so well done on that. Two questions. One is a series and one is slightly flippant, but I'm sure other members will understand why I'm asking it. So the first one, and it's whoever wants to answer it, it's not really a question as a youth council, it's your feelings as individuals. If the Council could improve one aspect of life in epiprocess for young people, or seek to influence, because obviously we don't provide all services, what area of life would you think elected officials should be seeking to improve as the priority for young people? So I'm just really looking for perhaps four or five individuals to tell me what they see as the biggest issue, that's facing young people, that we might be able to have a direct or indirect influence on improving. So that's my first question, Chair. While all of us do appreciate the amounts of effort the District Council does to benefit young people, I think quite a few of us would agree that having a couple more spaces for younger people, where there isn't as much of a commitment to doing an activity, and more just a space for young people to hang out would be a massive benefit to our community, mainly to help limit antisocial behaviour that started to increase during COVID, these people finding it harder to make friends, but also because if people were going somewhere with the pressure on them to have to take part in an activity, then it could disincline them to want to go there in the future. And at the moment, things like local playgrounds and parks don't really appeal to age ranges between around 13 to 16 to 18-year-olds, so something like that, probably. Thank you. Sorry. Hi. I'm Kaz. I can definitely back up what Path said about that. As someone who lives in nine fields, we've recently had, we've had some new parks and stuff built, we'll have a van come to do activities for some of the younger kids, but I think especially for our sort of age range, there's nothing to really do, especially for young people who may not have the best space at home, their parents may not be very sort of respecting of them. It's nice for them to have obviously a place to go where they can feel safe, and that's not really something that's available to them. Living in Epping Forest, we don't have the most reliable transportation system. So if that could be something you have an influence on for Essex County Council, I would say make it more accessible for people that can't necessarily walk as far and don't have the accessibility to drive. If I could ask my second question, but just before I ask that, I did want to just make one other comment. These young people who've spoken to us tonight and other people here are probably slightly more articulate than a lot of young people. But I think they're typical of young people. We need to remember, and I'm really talking to the Councillors on this committee, that young people do get a bad press, and 95, perhaps even 98% of the youngsters in Epping Forest are like this, and we just need to sometimes remember that. So my second question, and I did say it was rather flippant, but I did pick up, because I listen very carefully to the presentation, that six members have been successfully re-elected. So I just wondered if they had any tips for us tonight, because we're either retiring or we're all up for re-election, so six of you were successfully re-elected. So any tips for us? They only have to answer if they want to. I think I could only pass on the advice I got from Dame Ellen Nalang when I asked her, which was find a group of people that trust you and make sure they get out and vote. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Councillor interjecting. Thank you, Chair. I think I will start by supporting what my colleague Councillor Moriress said, and that I was listening to the excellent presentation you just gave, and one thing I've got my attention is the in-depth training you said you received initial. I just want to find out, in initial training, because I know you said you'd be getting training throughout the year as you stay in office, the initial training you got, how long was it, a day training or the in-person training virtual, how long was the training? So it's usually sort of six months worth of hour-long training, so we'll have a session every fortnight or so, and there'll be six months worth of sessions just dedicated to the training before we begin the term proper. And then we can also have things like induction days, so we can have maybe team building days at Lambonne that could be for the whole day, or we've done BSL training in the past, which is also for the whole day. And then some meetings as well, we can do trainings which are virtual. It just depends on the kind of training, to be honest, that it can range from anything. Councillor Patell. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair. I've got a very long comment and then a short question, if I may. My very first project on the Council was reviewing the youth service provision of the Council, and myself under the chairmanship of Councillor Murray and Gaggam Mahindra, who's now an MP, looked at what the youth council were producing and how they could be best supported by the Council at that time. And I'd say that in my final meeting, I'd probably say that this is one of my top three achievements, fighting hard to ring fence the budget that was allocated to the youth council. I think over the years, I think Councillors like myself completely astounded at the quality of the work that you produce. I mean, Dye and Vanessa and her team go over and above to support the youth councillors in their development. I had a really good conversation with Dye when I was portfolio holder about how she takes the youth councillors on a journey. So when you come in and you're elected as youth councillors, she'll appraise each and every one of you, look at your strengths and your weaknesses and work on a plan to develop you over those two years, and she has had hundreds of success stories. And so being elected first as a youth councillor is an absolute privilege. And for us, it's a privilege that you're representing Epping Forest. So thank you. One of the other pieces, sorry, one of the other things I'd like to say as well is that as technology evolves, the presentation techniques that you use to showcase the projects that you're working on has evolved as well. And I think councillors have made comments actually that some of your presentations, you know, we as councillors, but officers can also learn from the way in which you've presented to a wide order audience is the different mediums that you've used, the different texts that you've used, different formats, et cetera, it's absolutely outstanding, some of the pieces of work that we've seen over the years. And, you know, receiving my sheriff award, sorry, my, the sheriff award for my life project and then the rerun of that during the COVID period, and I mean, must have forget how difficult the youth council, it was to continue providing the youth council during the COVID periods, but again, you spun it and used it to your advantage and came forward with, you know, a great project at that time. So to my question, every, every year or every couple of years when you come forward with the key project that you want to focus on, the officers don't influence what you pick. What you pick comes from yourselves. So why have you chosen to go for the, for the topic area that you've chosen this year, the alcohol, you know, the alcohol substance misuse topic? And what do you hope to see the key outcome from the work that you're going to do around this? So, thank you for the question, Councillor Patel, to answer your question, there's two parts to it. The first is that in our most recent youth conference, which happened towards the end of last year, we ran a have your safe survey where young people who were all invited here from a broad range of different schools could get almost like a cross-section of how young people felt, almost half of them voted that substance misuse and substance abuse was one of their key concerns, especially considering how easily nowadays it is to access things like vaping, even though it is legal, and how some of the advertising can be seen as predatory and openly targeted towards kids and most young people felt like there has to be something done about that. In addition, the Epping Forest Health and Wellbeing Strategy for 2022 to 2026 does detail trying to tackle things like substance misuse, but a lot of young people feel that that isn't massively prioritised at the moment, which is why we feel that coming forward into the new term, we want the Youth Council to have been focussing more on that, because, for instance, last time we had a project, it was the cost of living crisis because that was a major issue, and now we believe the newest major issue is substance misuse and abuse. Thank you very much. Councillor RICHARD BASSETT, thank you, Councillor, firstly, can I say well done to everyone? I've been a Councillor for 17 years, so I've seen you all develop over that period of time, and obviously some of the earlier, I shan't look over there, some of the earlier Youth Councillors are now portfolio holders here, and in fact the Vice Chairman up there used to be a Councillor, Youth Councillor as well, please, showing his age now. This is quite simple, really, obviously you're here to represent the youth of the district, and you're here as well to represent your schools in the fields that are coming through from them. Do you feel you are properly supported, or does the school listen when you go back and talk to them, or is there anything we can do to help you, shall we say, get your message back to the schools, might be a trick question, and we'll turn the video off at this point. I mean, obviously I can only speak from my school, but I do what I can to sort of communicate if I have an issue, and we're trying to get something out to the schools. I think a lot of people do experience real miscommunication, especially when we're in the re-election period in our schools, because schools tend to not be very respondent, it's very hard to sort of, if you want to get a survey out from the Youth Council to get the school to do it, or if the Youth Council having elections to get the school to organise it, and I'm not sure how you would sort of go about resolving that, but I think it very much is an issue, and I don't know if anyone else can speak for their school, but my school definitely don't communicate very well with the Youth Council, though we try our best. Have Councillor Bouldwin. Thank you, Chairman. Yes, I'm sorry. Sorry, I just wanted to give another example, so I attend Davenant Foundation School, and I think the way that our school handles it is pretty well, in that every person who applies to stand on the Youth Council automatically gets given a position on the school council, which means that any elective Youth Council has an opportunity to feed back to the school Youth Council at least once a term, and from their teacher who's in charge, Ms. Hulchinsen can then feed back to the other foreign tutors who, in case we have any issues, and then we can also arrange assemblies through her. Thank you. Okay, I think it's now your turn, Councillor Bouldwin. Yes, sir. Thank you, Chairman. To the Youth Council, I also enjoyed their presentation, I thought it was very professionally delivered. I just wanted to really endorse the hashtag, you know, have your say, proposals for what you should undertake in the coming year, that I do think that vaping has become a very kind of call and widespread and acceptable, trendy, all those kind of words, and I do know, I do have school-aged children myself, that vaping does go on in schools, obviously not overtly, but covertly, and I would like to see schools do a lot more to ensure that it doesn't happen on the premises. I don't absolutely know what power schools have, but something I think, which is very, very important, because the damage done to the lungs of very, very young people in their lungs or respiratory system is developing, I think, vaping is very, very dangerous indeed, similarly, obviously, the same argument would apply to nitrous oxide canisters, but I think that's to be a very, very worthwhile campaign, so I will certainly support you in your efforts to counteract substance abuse, that would be very, very good, okay, that's why I say.

Councillor MACKAY, for the member of the Youth Council, so you can't resist asking question. Chair, it's more of a, and I'm very sorry I missed the start of your presentation, but it's less of a question, just more of an enormous endorsement of everything that you're doing, and I think as generations of the Youth Council come and go, the quality of all of the learnings of things that didn't go well on previous projects get learned, and the execution just gets better and better and better and better, and I think all of us are just so proud of the work that you're doing, and I just feel genuinely very reassured that the Youth Council are taking on the big issue that so many people seem to not be able to tackle, and that is the idea of substance misuse, which we know isn't just a problem of young people, it's something across our society, and I feel really reassured in Epping Forest that we're going to have a really resilient project that you're going to deliver here, and I know that this issue might be slightly less of an issue for some of the young people that will come into contact with your work, because the proof is in the pudding, anything Youth Council turns its hand to, turns into success, so I just want to say a huge thank you for taking on that very difficult, there's plenty of easier projects you could have picked, but in true Youth Council style you've taken one of the most challenging, and I just have every confidence you'll make it a success, so thank you for everything you're all doing.

• Councilor Patel.
• Thank you, Chairman. Just one really quick point, I'm not going to repeat everything at all the Councillors have said, I am really, really proud of the team, the outgoing team, as well as the incoming team, I'm sure you'll be having some exciting projects that you'll be presenting to us, and I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you to those whose term is the last term this year, and we'll be going on to do bigger and amazing things, and we hope that one day you'll still come back and let our previous Councillors will still, Youth Councillors, that will still see you back again in the chambers, and good luck with everything you do, thank you.
• All right, I think Councillor Chris Whitbrook has come to question.
• Thank you, Chairman, and thank you to all of the Youth Councillors for coming along this evening and giving us what was a brilliant presentation. I still think the presentation you gave to us as County Councillors was superb. It was the most thought-provoking presentation I've ever received from a group of people, and the maturity goes way beyond your years and how you dealt with us that evening. It's still something that resonates very clearly with me, and I'm sure if you're off the locality funding in the year ahead and you come up with a presentation like that, it will be open to listen to you again. It was just superb and miring at the same time. It was good to have a week to come and see the Youth Council and its first set of meetings on your induction week. We really enjoyed that, and it's always great because you seem to just progress every new South of the Youth Councillors takes the next steps forward. I could think 16 years ago when we first started, it was different then, and of course, I think Councillor Bassett picked up on technology and presentation. What I'd be interested to know from you this evening is where do you think the Council should go to with the use of new technology, AI, how would you see things evolving and changing in the future? I think as someone who's seen, especially as a GCSE student, I see everyone cramming through the exams, and they use AITAs and things like that, and I think it's very important to preserve the humanity of things when making presentations and stuff, making speeches, to have something just AI generated, it's very soulless. I think these tools are something that can be used, and they can be useful to take away the mundane aspects of certain things that you might do, but the really important things like the speeches, the presentations, anything creative, I don't think AI should take away from that. Thank you, Chairman, and not so much a question but a comment, and I'm sorry, I was late to the meeting this evening. I just really wanted to say a thank you to the Youth Council over many years, and welcome to this new Council as well. Councillor, the other Councillor Whitbread spoke about the presentation you gave to the Councillors, and I have to agree with his words. I think I've gone to so many meetings since that presentation and told people about the work the Youth Council did, and that really hard-hitting message, and it has been referred to tonight. I was on the first Youth Council 16 years ago, which is a long, long time ago now, but as a relatively young person still, I had no idea about the scale of these issues within schools and for young people, so I really wanted to thank you for bringing issues to our awareness as a Council, which I think most of us, even those of us still in our 20s, would really have no idea of the full scale of, so thank you very much for that, and I really do think long way the Youth Council continue, and that understanding, it gives you of local democracy and how politics works on a local level, how you can get things done and how you can influence things through this Chamber, but also by building a relationship with Councillors and officers is really vital, and actually one of the things that made me want to get involved and have an impact on my community where I've grown up, so good luck and thank you, and I'm sorry, Mr. Presentation. All right, I don't know if there are any more questions, if not, I'll just make a couple of comments actually. I'm very impressed because when I was your age, there was no such thing as Youth Council or even Councillors in schools, and that was a very long time ago, as soon as you had no doubt, I realised. I didn't hear that, my hearing was not as good as it was, but I don't think so. I was just on a point that Councillor Ollie Whitbury had made about 16 years ago, because that was 2008, that's when I first became a district Councillor, so at the moment I'm the same age as the Youth Council, but I think they're going to overtake me actually. A couple of things I was sort of impressed with, looking into the vaping issue, was particularly relevant tonight actually, because a lot of the members and people here won't realise, unless they were here about six o'clock this evening, a fire alarm went off, and I'm reliably informed. We all let a guy outside in the cold, which is a bit concerning, but I was reliably informed it was because somebody in the building was vaping, so that alarm must be working really well to pick that up, so maybe that was one good thing that came out of it. The other thing is use of nitrous oxide cylinders. I think long been an irritation to people, and it's good that you're looking into it, but I recall a few years ago the Youth Council then actually produced a booklet about the nitrous oxide, issue I don't have any of those survive, but they also use that, because it was something which concerned me quite a bit at the time, especially regarding the litter aspect of it. It's one thing to use them, but why they have to throw those canisters all over the street afterwards is completely beyond me. So it was an issue that I was concerned about, but the booklet that that Youth Council produced was sent to the three MPs in our area, represent our area, and I think that helped towards, it's been fairly recently, I think it's been some legislation passed in Parliament, so I think that Youth Council made a contribution towards that, and so I'm particularly grateful for that fact, and it's good that you're still pursuing that issue. The other thing which I was impressed with was all the grant funding that you obtained, I thought that was very good. So I think all I can say is that I'm grateful for all your efforts that you put into it, I'm sure it's not easy because you're studying and probably have homework to do as well, so it's probably conflicts of interest here, but I think it's fantastic that you're doing all this stuff, and it certainly wouldn't have been anybody's wildest dreams when I was your age, that how things have changed over the time, so I'd like to say thank you very much for coming this evening. I always say this, you're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting, but I don't know if you've got to get back to do some homework or work on these projects, but thank you very much, and I'd like to thank also the officers that put all this hard work into running the Youth Council, so I think that mustn't be overlooked either, so thank you very much for coming. [Applause] [Applause] I probably should formally ask a number of Councillors who have unavoidably turned on up late, but I'd probably need to ask if you've got any declarations of interest, I'm sure you haven't, but I ought to do that, if you have, speak up now or forever. Okay, so we move on to item 10 of the agenda now, which is the quarter three budget monitoring poll, which actually we should have received at the previous meeting, so it's been held over, so I'm assuming that some of it is perhaps a bit, been overtaken by Vince now, but I'm going to ask Andrew to talk us through that. Thank you, Chair. Yes, to some extent it is academic now, having been overtaken by, well, the budget report actually brought to the last overview and scrutiny committee and agreed by Council back in February, and of course it would have escaped your notice, we've also passed the year-end as well, so now we're waiting the out-term position for quarter four, but just to elaborate the report, the report is for noting, I think the key message was that in quarter one and quarter two we were forecasting significant overspends on the general fund across the course of the year due to pressures around cost, but also around income being lower than forecast. Of course it all changed at the end of December with the partial sale of Northfield airfield to Google, and the capital receipt from that generates generating significant amounts of interest for the Council, and that helped us forecast at the quarter three that we would no longer have an overspend during the course of the year, but in fact turned a small surplus, 584,000 pounds, I think it is, yes. So that's a real positive swing, there are still some pressures that the Council's dealing with at that point in time, and probably I expect we'll still have to have dealt with by the year-end. Notably, planning application income is significantly down, partly because we forecast at the start of last year when we did budget planning that we would see a swing-in planning applications because of the approval of the local plan, but of course there's been a depression in the housing market substance since then really, so we just not only have we not seen an upswing in applications as a result of approval of the local plan, but also we haven't seen the usual level of applications coming forward. So planning income is forecast to be down by nearly a million pounds across the course of 23, 24. That's probably the main points, there's a small forecast they were spent on the HRA, again largely due to the same issues that we've seen in the general fund around cost pressures, but the general fund's level of working balance is significantly above its minimum target level, so can be accommodated within that. All of the issues I've just discussed, of course, were picked up and built into the budget, 24/25, so we shouldn't see a recurrence of these overruns under spends or additional income against, measures against that budget. Capital programs also saw this stage in the year large forecast under spends, both in the housing revenue account and on the general fund. Reasons are laid out within the report, that's probably all I wanted to say, thank you. I'll see. Councillor Janet Whitehouse, you have a question. Thank you, Chairman. I'd just like to ask more information on an item on page 15 and page 17. Page 15 talks about the increasing cost of major void repairs, just like to know really why we're having this increasing cost and what these major repairs are. I thought the tenants were supposed to return their property in reasonable repair, but maybe that's wrong. And then page 17 talks about the overspends on how to benefit and such like. Just like here a bit more about that, there's been a lot of the radio recently about the distress caused when people on very limited incomes are being asked to repay, because the fault has been in overpayment by whatever authority has done it. And I mean, maybe some of this is fraud. I know we have really good fraud investigations, but I'd just like to hear a bit more about that. And, you know, are there very great amounts and how people help to repay it if they have to? Thank you, Chair. So on major repairs, we've got, I see it's come on screen, might want to talk about the increased costs around housing repairs, perhaps I can hand over to Serge at first of all, we can talk about that. Can you come in, Serge? Thank you, Chair. Yes, in fact, I have a question. So in terms of major repairs, I think there's two parts to that raise. As we are looking at some of our longest-standing properties, as they become empty, we are picking up kitchen and bathroom programs as well. So we might have some larger costs that we will pick up on those repair and on those food properties, should I say, which are more costly than they have been before. So we are taking those opportunities to do that. In addition to that, we have had just the cost of materials that has been incrementally, so the increasing of the years. So on average, our avoid costs have increased. So that is one of the primary drivers around the cost of major repairs. Thank you. Are you trying? Thank you. Thank you. So I will come back on the housing benefit question, really. As the report says, there's an increase in the detection of housing benefit over payments. During a period of economic, I suppose, downturn, I guess one way or another, or general hardship, as we've seen in the last couple of years, as a result of higher inflation and higher living costs, there isn't an increase generally in housing benefit payments, claimants. I don't think necessarily that in itself results in overpayment, but as the report says, DWP has put a greater focus on detecting housing benefit overpayment. And when that is determined or detected, then we have a duty to retry and recover that from the claimants, really. The housing benefit system allows for local authorities to be rewarded for actually recovering that housing benefit overpayment. But as we know, really, the people who claim housing benefits are generally in more difficult circumstances, and so when a housing benefit overpayment is detected, recovering that from them tends to be a difficult endeavour, really. And when we do have to set up our recovery payment awards, sorry, recovery arrangements with those claimants that then, generally, they're paying small amounts over very long periods of time to recover those overpayments. And that invariably means that one, our debt increases and two, at some point, we probably end up having to write some of that recovery off, really. I mean, it's a subject that probably warrants looking at through governance and audit at some point in the future in terms of housing benefit overpayment and debt of recovery, generally. But that's, you know, I'm all happy to talk to the Councillor in more detail, if you'd like a greater explanation of it. Thank you. All right, Councillor Murray. Thank you, Chairman. There's quite a few aspects of this report that I could ask questions on and focus on, but I accept that it's probably been superseded, as was said in the introduction. So I will therefore just focus my detailed attention on two issues, and they're both from the House and revenue accounts and on focus in my attention on page 23. And I have to say that I had some concern when I read there was an underspend under supervision and management special, which is basically about estate improvements. And then I was concerned when we had an underspend under supervision and management general. And the reason I've got that concern is a general one, and then a particular one. I'm assuming the budgets, when they were set, were far from generous and were realistic budgets, some for there to be, you know, an underspending of half a million pounds across the two headings, I do find concerning. So there is a general question about whether we're managing our stock across the stock, as well as we might. I realise we've got our flagship and states to get a lot of attention and a lot of publicity, and I understand that. None of them in Loughton, I might add. And then on a more particular note, I've been spending a lot of time recently on the Uncle in a state chairman, and I'll be quite clear about it. It's because it's in my new world. But the point I can make is it used to be in the road in the world. So up to 2002, I knew it inside out. And yes, I'm not saying I've never been on it in 22 years, but it's not been in my world. So I haven't been on it as much. And quite frankly, the deterioration, I was surprised by how much the environment is deteriorated. It's a very closely defined housing estate, yes, with private ownership, but it's very closely defined. It's 550 properties, very clear boundaries. And there's some real quick wins that we could have in that area that some of this half a million pounds could be spent on. So there's a general concern chairman arising from these papers. You know, why are we got this underspend? And I know we've had a general explanation. And there's a Pacific one that I've identified an estate that I've known well for three years, but haven't represented since 2002. And I have to say that in some areas, I was genuinely shocked. But the good news is, I think there are some quick wins that that estate could have, and certainly along with others, if whatever happens or made a second happens, I will be closely involved in that. So those are my comments and questions, Chairman. Sir, can you deal with that question from Councillor MARRIE, please? Yes, certainly more than I have to do. So thank you, Councillor MARRIE, for that observation, comment and question that sort of rolled into one way. And I think it's a good question, it's a good challenge. So we have got a budget that we've outlined. These have been rolling over for a period of time. But I will certainly take back to the team is to look at what is our plan and what is our actual pipeline of work and what's the eligibility and in turn to how we assess and prioritise our work within sort of different estates and different areas of the district around this. So I more than have to take that away and then come back to you with regards to how that sort of firm, how that has been forecasted as an area of spend. If we have a volume which is unallocated, which I'm pretty confident in saying it probably is unallocated at this point. Again, looking at making sure that we've got a robust mechanism in place for reviewing our estates. So we already have a program of tenancy visits and estate inspections for the current financial year. And then that will feed into some of the work that we do, that will sort of leverage some of the funding that we've got here. So certainly what the planning and the forecasting looks like and happy to take that piece of work away and perhaps bring that back to scrutiny with a plan of action sort of moving forward. I can direct the full plan. It's more than have to take that away. Thank you, Chairman. That's a very useful website. So you're happy with that response, Councillor Murray? As happy as I'm ever going to be. No, seriously, I'm happy. I'm happy. Councillor Holyack. Thank you and thanks, Sergio, for that response. So I just wanted to slightly add to it, and I think Councillor Murray makes a good point. And actually, if there's money unallocated, we need to look at a program of works across the district. And actually, I've gone to Oakwood Hill Estate, not campaigning, but visiting the Community Centre a number of times recently. And I agree with you, there's a lot of tidying up and small jobs that could be done, which make a difference. And I think that goes for a lot of our Councilor States. I was really pleased to see when I was in Chapel Road one of our shelter schemes the other day that they'd done the bin store. So I think it's a mixture of making sure that, yes, we pay attention to those big, larger estates, but also some of our smaller schemes and projects as well. I think one of the other issues that needs addressing, and certainly something I've spoken to, to Jen about and Sergio on a number of occasions, is in relation to some of the park in the green spaces. I think we see a lot of our kind of grass verges on our Councilor States really tear up and not looking in a good condition. And I think that's potentially something we can also look at through this funding. I think of some of our rural estates in particular that need some attention. But I think certainly things like bin stores, bike stores, there's some small little improvements. And actually, some of that money might go a long way in making improvements across the district. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Roger Baldwin, you're next. Yes, thank you, Chairman, yeah. I was just going to ask a question about the contingency funds, whether, you know, these, it's been mentioned that they think the housing move in new accounts and the general fund have a contingencies. And I think it was mentioned 4 million. I'm not quite sure which one that applied to. But how does that work with the contingency? Do we, is it something that we dip into and then replenish later on? I mean, and obviously, the two main accounts do seem to have a contingency funds. I just wondered that that's my first question. And then a second question I'd like to ask, which is about the new homes bonus, which is something I didn't know about before. And I'm very pleased that we received that. I just wondered, do we also receive it for converting conversion like offices into flats and bringing houses out of, from void in, you know, renovating houses, bringing them out of void. I just wondered about the new homes bonus. It does seem to be a good social revenue for us. Yeah. So that's, yeah. Just those two points, folks, okay. Councillor bond with thank you for that. I think what you're talking about is the reserves. We've reserved level set in both the general fund and the HRA. That's the level below which we should not let our reserves go so that we have money to carry on operating. If, for example, we weren't able to collect council tax for three months. So it's to allow the council to continue operations if there's a problem with income, both in the case of the HRA and the general fund. So it's a level advised on the general fund by the section 151 officer below which we shouldn't, we should aim not to be. It doesn't mean we can't go. And you'll remember that as a result of some of the things that went on during COVID and thereafter, we actually did it below our 4 million level of reserves. But that's the right thing to do sometimes. Reserves are there to be used when you need them, but you need to then replenish those reserves to make sure that if you need to use them at some point in the future, that reserve will still be there for you to use. That's the same for both the general fund and the HRA. In terms of the new homes bonus, that's calculated more from the number of properties that we actually have in the district and the change in those compared to actually identifying that house has been built and therefore we claim a new homeless bonus for that. We've been getting new homes bonus now for a lot of years. I can't remember exactly how many, but certainly back to the early 2010s, the new homes bonus came in and that was part of that was to incent councils to help the production of homes within their boundaries. And that did include if you were converting a home, so you didn't have a flat before and it was converted into a flat. Yes, that would give you a raise in your numbers of your cancelled tax properties and that would wait to the new homes bonus. That new homes bonus has been reducing over the past years, but it's still there this year. Whether it will be there next year is probably a question that only somebody with the crystal ball will be able to answer. A question from Councilor Olga. Yes, thank you Chair. Page 30 local tax collection. My question is this, council tax collected 77% last year and 77% this year. Business rates collected 79% last year, 77% this year. As a layperson, that suggests to me that effectively nearly a quarter of the people are paying council tax. That's just how I'm reading it. I appreciate them might be coming in later. My question number one is, is 77% good or are we actually trying to aim for something higher? And second question is, how does that compare to other districts of a similar nature to ourselves? Andrew. Thank you Chair. It's important to stress that 77% as 31st of December, so out of the total year's debit and three quarter of the way through the year we collected 77%. So the final number is just shy, I think of 98% collection, which is much better. But still small percentage differences make a large amount of difference because we're not just collecting the council tax with the district council, we're collecting it with the county council and the police and crime commissioner as well. So the total total council tax debits in the order of 100 million pounds. So each percent makes an awful lot of difference in terms of overall cash collected. We do compare ourselves with other districts in Essex and nationally, there are leak tables out there if you'd like to see them. One of the things that we do is work with the county council to is, the county council and the center-visors are actually to collect, to develop initiatives, to collect the extra bits of council tax that we're not currently collecting through various debt recovery mechanisms. So we're constantly striving to try and increase our collection performance. One of the things we do notice is it dips again in the same way as housing benefit claims go up during periods of economic downturn, I suppose. Our council tax collection also goes down. We're also affected to an extent about our court time for council for summonses and so on. So if we can't get court time, then it's harder to collect some of those residual debts. So we're constantly striving to try and get court time to make sure we can issue reminders and summonses. We're not right. Just summonses when we need to. Sure. Thank you. All right. Councilor Bassett. Thank you, Chairman. You should declare I'm an XIT man. So I've looked at the bottom of page 26 at all the corporate services projects and I'm slightly dismayed as the replacement system for M3PP, the new finance system, cloud-based information work, wall comments, but they're all running later. And then I also see their further schemes, new book in CRM portal, customer portal improvement, ICT data services solution, workplace collaboration and virtual desktop infrastructure solution, have all been more or less delayed and reprofiled for next year. Why are there so many delays? Why do you sort it out? All these projects to be done, said to be done this year and then all of a sudden they're gone. All right. Well, I think Councillor FLIP might be able to answer that. I'm certainly a last person to ask any questions about IIT. As an existing IT person, Chairman, that rather a retired IT person, then maybe I can help to explain to Councillor Bassett. I think actually what you're seeing there is exactly what you're describing, which is looking at the IIT program and actually scheduling it correctly run, scheduling it over optimistically as perhaps had been the case with, let's say, getting salt in charge here. I meet with her on a regular basis to make sure that we're actually doing the right things at the right time. There are different priorities pushing what we do in terms of the IIT. The key part, I think, is to make sure that we spend the money at the right time and we do the right things in a way we're going to succeed rather than spending money just because we have it. That's something I've tried to encourage, not just in IIT, but across the Council, we spend it because we need to spend it. They are reviewing the IIT strategy that will be coming forward for comment in the future, but we are making sure that we do the things that we need to do and we do them first and then when we've done them, we will move on to the next ones. We're running, the IIT department had run for a while with perhaps in my view slightly too many consultants or temporary employees in place. We're at our permanent employee level that we're looking at and one of the savings is that the council bus that we'll remember and the budget was moving away from having too many of those consultants in there. That clearly can impact the schedule of things and that's something we're keeping under review to make sure that we do the things as quickly as we can where it saves money and prioritising the things that are most effective to meet the council a better place to work. Just to add to Councillor Phillips' comments there really. I think one of the things we have spent a particular amount of focus on or given a particular amount of focus last year was around project management generally. We've developed our project management team, we've developed our rigour around monitoring projects and project delivery as well. We have a regular monthly meeting now and all projects are considered on the table with the senior leadership team of the council to identify those projects we should fall in behind target and work out what remedy we need to implement to make sure they are delivered on time. So I think there has been a temptation on tendency perhaps in the past to be a bit ambitious about some of our delivery targets so we're addressing that really through focus around project management. Are there any other questions? I've got a couple of questions actually. Again it's on page 26 and this is about the, well one of them my question is about the waste vehicle fleet management replacement and there was originally a budget of over £9 million. I think that was based on the fact that we were going to buy our own vehicles and then it's decided that not to do that is to have them on higher and therefore the budget is no longer required. It says but obviously there's going to be a charge for hiring the vehicles so that must show up somewhere. I just wondered what the difference between the original £9 million was and the hiring fleet. Is that so you can ask Andrew? Is it Michael Jones worried? It might be a team effort with James but I just see one of the things of course even though we were buying or planned to buy the vehicles originally from capital programme there are still tracks, capital repayment costs, interest costs and monetisation costs as well and they would have featured in the revenue budget so at least in cost and to an extent replace what would have been debt financing costs but I'll just let James or it come in in case he'd like to add anything to that. Yeah thank you Andrew. So the decision we've kind of communicated how we got to the decision go to contract hire for flexibility. One of the key reasons was that we didn't want to purchase outright diesel vehicles and then they generally have life span of eight years and then have difficulty of what we do with them at the end of eight years we know there will be service changes to how waste is delivered so we need that flexibility to switch and change vehicles draw over the next eight years so this option gives us that. We also require the vehicles to be maintained and the contract car offered us the most value for money option by having brand new vehicles but also a maintenance package. Also because we are going down the contract car room the first payment won't be until this financial year so our first payment is likely to be in October November. Thank you. Alright following on from that I've got another question and this is about the waste management depot which is going to be built at north wheel the fact that we're now hiring the vehicles does that mean that the waste management depot costs being reduced because I would imagine if we'd had our own vehicles and they would have to be serviced and maintained we would have perhaps needed a bigger depot is that the case or is is there no difference to the cost of the depot? We're currently still finalising value engineering to ensure that the council gets value for money for the for the depot and those costs will be determined shortly. In terms of the size it doesn't change the size of the depot we regardless of purchasing the vehicles or contract car in we need a certain amount of vehicles to carry out the waste services all those vehicles will be parked at the depot and through the contract higher maintenance arrangement they will be maintained at the depot so there are a lot of advantages that there will be less down time with the vehicles because they don't have to go off-site to be maintained there will be maintained on-site and there will always be kind of spare vehicles to substitute when the vehicle is being serviced or repaired but the size of the depot hasn't changed. Yeah I wasn't just thinking of the size I was thinking of the equipment that you need to have but by what you're saying is that it's just going to be the same because they're going to be maintained there and there are advantages to doing that. Yeah and the cost of the equipment is part of the negotiated contract we've got with SFS so SFS are supplying the vehicles and maintaining the vehicles but they will also be maintaining some of their own contract higher vehicles at the depot and they will be they are funding all and responsible for all the equipment so all of the equipment to maintain vehicles there's no cost to FDC and also we don't have to ensure them or pay any service or maintenance for those that's the responsibility of the contract car company. Right thank you. I always had a question about the Epping Leisure Centre the budget for that was just over 12 million pounds but the actual spending or forecast was 4.5 million so that is later an underspend of approximately 7.5 million pounds. Will that understand the underspendence going to be rolled over for a future year so that money the original amount of money was still be spent is that correct? Well I can take that one it just means that the timing on anticipated timing in the capital program was out really so most of the spend was actually going to occur in 24.25 rather than 23.24 as we had assumed I think when we put the capital program together for last year so all of the money that's not spent in 23.24 just gets rolled over into 24.25 and spent then instead. Okay thanks very much. I don't know if there are any further questions on this item if not I think we can I've got this right I think item 11 is the next item on the agenda oh just before we go on to that I take it that we can agree the recommendations for that report there are five of them and all listed on page 14 can I take that we all agree with those? Right thank you so if we now go on to item 11 and I think this is where we need to call in Charlotte and I just speak to it I'll just get a bit organised here. I think what we normally do Charlotte is we we go through the your report page by page and then I'd see if any questions need to be answered and you come back to if that's the case I'm happy to do that. Yes more than happy next year. So presenting the corporate performance report which relates back to updates and KPIs and targets and actuals for called for so you'll find this from page 30 betting. It starts on words which is the covering report and then from page 42 is when we start to go into the details so if I start from page 42 and ask if there's any questions relating to any of the updates contained within page 42. Right members so if we can start any questions on page 42. Right now if we go into page 43 yes Richard, Council Ambassador. So you're slightly confused because a lot of the things on the CPP 009 are all dated in the future we don't know what state they're at so why do we put them at Amber at this stage because Amber says we need work to get them through. We've got all the dates there so shouldn't we have a better cover than Amber if it's all in the future. Andrew's gone. In fact I'm not sure he wants to go first. I think Charlotte's got to tell us that that actually it's quarter two quarter three quarter four last year so as opposed to forward looking quarter two quarter three quarter four going. And actually that column specific here in the report is around milestones so that would outline expected activity that's coming up within the project and doesn't necessarily relate to the colour that you're seeing which is our rec status which reflects kind of overall progress to date at the moment regarding that particular well actually any of the projects listed within the report so that specific column is milestones and absolutely milestones are future planned dates of activity and so they will always be forward looking rather than looking looking back whereas the progress that you'll see in the previous column relates to progress up into a quarter four within that project. Can you say Council Ambassador is you happy with that answer? Yeah I hear what you're saying and I understand that but if we put dates on there when things are going to be delivered yet you're saying the project is reflection of where we're at I have what sort of trust that we put in the dates that they're going to be achieved if you're saying there's problems. If I could just if I could just clarify say I think I think you're probably right in that it's presented in a slightly confusing manner so the column is about the milestones so we're tracking against those dates but actually for the purposes of this report it might be useful for us to take future milestones out and just so that it's very clear that the rag rating only reflects the milestones for the dates that have actually passed so we'll have a look at them and that if next time I think that's probably fair comment. Yeah okay so if we can move on to page 44 Councillor Murray. Thank you Chairman. The item starts on 44 but the bit I want to reference is on 45 so it's the epic nature centre contract agreement and implementation and there was a phrase or a statement on page 45 was regards this which I wanted to know was still relevant it says it's about the one two three fourth one down challenges with quality phrase one works may impact project timelines so I wanted to know whether that was still relevant and in a very general sense what were those challenges but it says mitigation measures are in place and again in a very general sense what are those mitigation measures? Sure James do you want to respond respond to that. Yeah so the challenge is related to the highways work the highways work split into two phase phase one is quality responsibility relating to the monster car park and then there's a phase two which we would be doing at some point next year for the epic nature centre. The challenge has been with colleagues at Essex County Council in terms of releasing and granting a license for a section of those works but thankfully due to the leader Georgina and Jen's intervention with Council we reached a solution last Friday so what it did mean was we are in the planned program we were anticipating works to be completed sooner so the mitigation is for the epic nature centre the pelican have been able to put things in place to work around it which just means some of the work meant that it's meant they haven't been able to put their hoard in right on the pavement because if they put the hoard in on the pavement where the highways work is going to go they'd only have to remove it for the highways work and then put it placed but the work that they needed to do there we've managed to do through a different method so it hasn't it hasn't delayed the the leisure centre program and the we're expecting the section 50 piece of highway works to finally be engrossed by Essex County Council this Wednesday which means coalesce and their contractors will be able to complete their bit of highway works but yeah the mitigation was there if there was any further delay but it's all been resolved. Okay I'm pleased to hear that Chairman and obviously thanks to the lady for his nifty piece of footwear by the sound of it. All right if you had no further questions on ages 44 and 45 can we move on to page 46? Any questions on page 46? All right I've got any questions on that note? Okay I have got one question on 46 and you would expect me to ask you to ask this Chairman because I'm very keen on the choopy process. Have we now got all the information we need from Bifford for the choopy process to to be properly implemented? We we have got as much hot today information as we would expect at this period in time we won't get the full information till closer but we've got Angela McEwen from the people's team is leading on this on behalf of the new waste company and she's established a good work in relationship with Bifford's HR department so at the moment it's progressing as planned. Thank you for that and can I just ask one follow-up question and I'm sure you'll be indulgent on the last meeting of the year because it's not strictly relevant but it is very important and I know it's dear to your heart Chairman. This is going to be an arms lift company. Will it be up to EFDC or the arm lengths company whether we recognise trade unions in the world course? Well Jennifer you're going to answer that? Yeah we are still finalising the governance for Terra Verde services which will be is the name of the arms length company and as it is with QALIS it will be up to the company I suspect but that's yet to be decided. All right if we can move on to page 47. Shall I add any questions on page 47? There's a bit of any questions on that one so page 48. And a bit of any questions on that Charlotte so I've gone to 49. She moves us into the KPI section of the report. Councillor Whitehouse. Thank you Chairman. My question is about the customer satisfaction. The comments are all about the waste service causing the satisfaction but I wonder are any figures I see that you're going to know I know we're going to change what the KPIs are but are there any so any feedback on customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the amount of time it takes to get through on the phone? I mean the waste thing's been going on so long it can't be a sudden spike in the waste problems that cause the delay but I waited last week 10 minutes to be asked to be put through to an officer whose number I didn't have and I gave up after that time but you know if that's typical of residents phoning in it's not good and I just wonder what any figures on how long people have to wait. Yes in terms of the call wait times that is data that we are able to collect it's not specifically drawn out of this generic customer satisfaction KPI but actually moving forward we are going to be looking at that far more closely so there'll be a new suite of KPIs for the new fiscal year alongside all of the other service areas we've looked at what's going to be most helpful to understand so we're working on that at the moment actually so we'd be able to present a much clearer picture to members moving forward on that particular metric. I think I just might comment on that because I didn't need to phone the council this week and it wasn't the world's greatest experience I have to say I finished up getting cut off so you know I think there is room for improvement there you must know you're not standing in me well you know that's a possibility but I sort of enjoyed the music but I can't say it was that great yeah I think just going back to council or white house I think the question you raised started on page 49 and then it actually that was call to one and then if you look over to page on page 50 it appears to be some improvement there I think but I agree it's something to be noted and looked into so now have we got enough bins now to go out because I know a lot of people have had problems with broken bins and lids missing and it says here there was problems with supply have we and obviously people get a bit upset but I had another resident say they phoned up and someone phoned and said it'll be delivered at three o'clock today and there it was wow so I'm hoping that problem has gone away I think James Warrick was going to answer that question for us yeah we we have got sufficient bins now in stock and what we are doing we are forward purchasing the so the bin ordering and the management of the stock of bins is currently Biffer's responsibility but ahead of the new waste company we've taken that off then so that we can manage the supply a lot better and a reason for there being issues with the supplier bins was simply better not ordering enough bins at the right time so we hope we have resolved that issue by it was set with EFDC's waste team and that so we can control it a lot better all right good okay if we can move on to page 51 have we got any questions on that no 52 page 52 we can't see any questions on that so I've gone to 53 if I can find it yeah any questions on page 53 yeah councilor McCain yes thank you chair so community health and well-being number of homeless approaches there are no KPIs associated with this so I'm just questioning why the data is depicted here in this way and so you're absolutely right it's not a target because we don't necessarily want to set targets on the numbers of people that will approach us the same list but it is it's been a long standing performance indicator or rather for information namely really that comes to this but it is something that we're reviewing at the moment in terms of what comes into a viewing scrutiny and what information is useful I think what many of the councillors have said to me is that it's useful to track the trend and see the numbers approaching over the course of time so but it might be that we need to present it in a slightly different way because this is about performance indicators and this is actually just for information thank you guys I just ask a follow-up on that chair so what does an approach consist of please so an approach is somebody applying to us as homeless so there are a number of tests of homelessness and we have an we operate a system here where you apply online and you have to get through a triage so they're all of the numbers of people that are approaching us saying that they are homeless and we're checking that they're eligible and have a local connection etc so they're the applications that we actually take sorry one more chair so these are these applications or are they people could a person apply more than once would that be with that show up in this data no these are so you can only make one application at a time so so these are individual people and you have to go through a process of getting a decision before you can make you can't make multiple applications at the same time all right so let's move on on page 54 are any questions yes Councillor MARRIE? Mine was on the same section as Councillor MACKAN called before 43% increase I think we all appreciate the general issues that it calls in any increase in the number of homeless approaches not necessarily acceptances but approaches but this so it's a particularly large increase on the same period of last year was there a particular trigger or set of circumstances that the cause this or is it just you know just one of those things that it was a large increase in that quarter? So I think so just got his hand up to come back might be able to give a bit more detail but we as you may know we did have a closure of one of the hotels in the district that was housing asylum seekers and a number of those would have had their asylum claims resolved which would have resulted in a number of applications but so you may want to give a bit more detail on that. Thanks Jane, yes we thought it was a similar thing for both of us to make I think it's just worth drawing out that the overall increase in the year is just over 16% so this is just comparison to quarter four of last year so I think it's partly down to the presentation but a 16.20% increase overall and the point that Jane made is a very good point in terms of cracking trends but city behind this data we do have some real qualitative data around the legislation that we have in terms of the timescales that we have to deal with cases in terms of prevention of our homelessness and also then if we do accept a QUT and how long sort of it takes us to deliver on that QUT as well so there's some targets that are sitting behind the data but the overall trend was just over 16% throughout the year of that hotel there wasn't anything in particular whether it is it is reflecting off a national trend that we've seen in terms of homelessness and the overall number of opportunities increasing across the country and certainly within the county that was extreme so adulthood with dissimilar in that space thank you. Thank you um so I've been moving on to page 55 for the only questions now. No, I'm just not prepared to be any page 56. Yeah um well I did make a comment at our pre meeting about an item on page 56 which refers to the decrease in I think memberships at Loughton and that was put down so a fitness centre being opened quite nearby. I think that seemed one of the shop units of which the council owned so I think it's just springs around about this issue if the council is getting the rent from that property the downside of it is that some of the memberships are using that gym. I don't know if James would like, I think that probably comes under James's area so I don't know if you'd like to comment on that. Yeah thank you Chair. We had the leisure management parts of board last night so we have now got marches figures so Loughton is about holding its home. It has increased in terms of gym memberships over January, February and March but that's kind of termed the golden quarter in terms of gym memberships so we would always expect to see an increase. What we haven't seen what we have seen Loughton is not a larger increase as we would expect and it's partly due to any time fitness opening but there are two other facilities close by that just give more options for people but also the current economic climate will have an impact as well but I'm pleased to say Loughton is still performing well. Thank you. Chairman just to help you with the two nearby that James is probably referring to the one near Depp and Sainsbury's and the new one that you've referred to any time fitness. I'm not advocating for them but one advantage that they don't have it appeals to people are they are 24 hours. Okay so if you move on to page 57 no questions on that Charlotte. On to page 58. Anything on 58 doesn't appear to be? Page 59. No I can't see any hands up. Okay and onto page 60. Yes Councillor Bassett it's got its hand up. Yeah do we have any further information on the Q4 contract waste for a household waste? Why the number has gone up and why is it now in the red? Is there any reason or is it just people are being lazy? I think looking at so overall tonnage presented for the last quarter for dry recycling and food and garden is less than we said but generally household waste tonnage remains fairly static compared to previous years. I think as I've said in the narrative there is work to do to look at it. I think it's an unrealistic target. I'm still trying to get my head around to find out where that target came from and who said it. So I think moving forward we need to do some more work but obviously one of the key aims of the waste team is to reduce waste health, produce the amount of waste produced in the first place and that so we will be doing some kind of active campaigns but also doing work to address it but at this point we just need to a little bit more understand and do some more work on that. Councillor Murray I think that's next. Two questions on the same issue can I just double check that I've understood what the officer has said. He's saying the figure in red recorded floor 0.385 K, G is actually not much different than what we've normally been getting so the situation hasn't deteriorated significantly or at all. It's not obviously on target but it's not deteriorating. I think that's what he said because I just couldn't have it confirmed that that's what he said and is the operating of the, is there any evidence that the operating of the tips either positively or negatively are impacting on the level of household waste we have to collect. Is there any evidence either way on that? You are right in what I was trying to say, maybe not very articulate but yet the figures that we're seeing for household waste are as expected and they're in line with previous years. In terms of the, so I think you're referring to the recycling centres now, household recycling centres now, since they've introduced booking systems, it is having an impact. We are seeing an increase in special collections, bulky collections, so larger items, sofas and chairs. There's a they've increased over, probably over the last, last year in that, which does correlate to introducing booking to the recycling centres as well. So, yeah, we're looking at how we can kind of address that as well. Thank you Chairman. There's some counts and borders next. Thank you Chairman. Just on a positive note, I just read today that many other councils are seeing an increase in rent areas and that is happening across many local authorities. But it seems that we're going against the trend and other local authorities have run up, as rent areas have accumulated in millions of pounds and sometimes they have to be written off. It doesn't say here any absolute figures about how much the rent areas have been in terms of actual, actual amount, just gives a percentage. But I just think that we'll just make a comment that I think we are doing very, very well compared with other local authorities. It seems. Thank you. Councillor Nawiki. Thank you, Chair. My question is to James, when you respond into the question, you mention the plan for engagement to help reduce the amount of waste produced from households. Just want to find out what form of engagement are you referring to? How would the engagement be organised and how will it be delivered? Through various, through social media, through the bin hangers, any, through news releases, the new vehicles will have panels on the side similar to what the current vehicles have. We have direct control over what goes on there, so we can put messages on there throughout the year, so we might target food and garden waste, so we can have those messages, recycling. We can have something around a collection of Christmas trees around Christmas and that, so we will use any tools possible in that. It's very early days and still work in progress. We are also working partnership with Love Ethics and utilise their campaigns and the publications and literature that they provide. I think it was Councillor Nawiki, did you? Your question? I was concentrating on something I was going to say, so my apologies. It is time for you to go, Tim. Isn't that long to go? Just be patient. I was a bit puzzled by this and this is why I wasn't entirely concentrating. It's the way this is written as regards to the reduction in household waste. On the left-hand corner it says reduction in household waste, and then if we read on the right-hand side it says work is under way to understand the reason for the increase in household waste. I just wondered if that could be a better written, so it's a bit confusing to me. If you've got any thoughts on that, James, or is that one Charlotte can do? Yeah. No, I can take that away and look at the word and for that. Sorry, I missed that. Councillor MARRIES, having a bit... I think what Tim's trying to see, Tim, and was that the key PI is guiding us to try and reduce household waste. In the fourth quarter, the stats say that we're not doing that in the way we are, so the work is underway now to understand why it's increased rather than reducing it, which is what we're trying to do, and he will find a way to meet that clearer next time. All right, thank you. All right, so if we move on to... Oh, Richard. This one is just something that just come to me that I noticed. Where do we record the flight tipping instance? Because I've noticed lately it's jumped tremendously around the district, and every time my turn round I see more dumped somewhere in the village, and I've chased you a few times recently for some even a van load. Yeah, yeah. I think, unfortunately, we are seeing an increase, and I think it's a pattern that is repeated across the country. I believe we do record the flight tipping stats, but I think Mandy, you're on the call. That kind of is probably recorded by the Environment Labour team. Is that right Mandy? Yeah, so we record all of the reported flight tipping incidents on our database. I can provide that information to you after the meeting, but we have generally seen an increase, as James has reported, on the number of flight tips across the district. I think off the top of my head I think there was about a 55 cent increase on the last quarter compared to last year, so the team were working really hard to try and combat it, but I can certainly provide those figures for you after the meeting. Yes, can I come back to you? Just to find out, you saw the record in the number of flight tip in the district. Just to find out, do you record how long it takes for a reported flight tip to be collected? I'm asking because, as I report, I made last week, and I was passing by the street and the flight tip in is still an assembly question. I would have to have a look at the individual case for you and come back to you, but generally what happens is the flight tip is reported. It will come through to the enforcement team who will investigate it and collect any evidence that's there, and then it will be passed to the waste team, like before, for collection depending on the type of waste and where it is and whether it's on private land or not, it will depend on how quickly it's picked up. Generally, James, what you say is they try and flight tips are generally trying to be picked up within 48 hours of a report providing once the office has been done and investigated the actual flight itself. That's depending on when the officer can get there to investigate it before it gets passed through to the waste team for the collection, but I'll contact you outside of the meeting, and then if you give me the details, I'll certainly have to look into the circumstances for you of that particular incident. Thank you. I think we're on to page 61 now, Charlotte. Okay, any questions on page 61? Councillor RICHARD BASSETT. Thank you. This is just an update, please, because on there and about determination, the ones that are in red, it actually said planning advisory service met with planning development management team and selecting members to revise on terms transforming the service and improve performance. Will we be seeing a copy of what they found and what remedial action they're planning on doing? I think Nigel's probably best to respond to this one. Is that a quick question for Nigel? Yeah, to hold your breath until cabinet meeting on the 28th of May, just drafting a report at the moment. We're just finalising what the planning advisory services sent to us. Actually, you will see before the 28th, won't you? Because it would be published. But yeah, next couple of weeks, you will see a report that will consider that. And they have suggested ways forward in which to improve performance and also to try and safeguard the gains from special measures which we could be threatened with in terms of quality of decision making on major planning applications. Right, thank you. This is just my bet. Right, so I'm going to move on to page 62. Any questions on 62? It doesn't seem to be any questions. No, nobody's got their hand up. So I've begun to page 63. Anything on page 63? No, it doesn't appear to be. Okay, I'll move on to page 64. No, thank you very much. I just want to find out in terms of the -- the black and minority ethnic groups in the council, we have here as 7.21%. Just how many responded to your questions, because I know last time I asked, I was informed that a lot of the staff don't respond to the question of ethnicity. Has that improved? I hand them to Paul and McInnes, I believe Paul is actually in the on-site. Paul L? Yeah, thank you, Charlotte. Thank you, Chairman. On the table on page 64 for quarter, for quarter 4, for the ethnicity figures, the not stated figure is slightly less than on quarter 3. So there is a very, very slight improvement in responses to that question on our HR system. Very slightly. Do you want to come back on it? Yes, sure. I just want to find out, do we know why the not stated figure is still a bit high, 16.35%. We regularly ask staff to update their own data on to our system, which is our trend that we use. We don't ask for reasons for not completing that information. We just try and encourage where we can for people to update that information on the system. Okay, now if we can move on, page 64 is just the other quarters for that same issue. Page 65, any questions there? This is page 66. That's Richard Bassett. Thank you. Staff turnover figures, I think it's a little bit misleading there because under the four quarters you've put turnover 11%, which is an annual one. Therefore, I would have thought the figures would have been say 3%, 3%, 3%, 2% in the quarter because on the green one you've got we had 8% turnover in Q1 or 8.51, then 3.672 points. So they're being presented as quarterly, yet the target is an annual target. So you'll always be below that target. Yep, thank you for the question. We have looked at this and understand that we've probably not got it quite right, that it's not an accumulative figure and we need to, and this will be in when we're looking at the overall KPI suite and we'll make sure that we get that correct. Thank you. In that case, if these are quarterly figures, that's 9,10,11,12,13. We're at about 17 to 18% turnover this year. Yeah, I think you can tell by the quarter one figures where we had a significant amount of change for the original budget process that we went through from last year, the last budget year into last year and the savings that we needed to make. So there are a number of redundancies that appear in those figures, which is not usual. No, no, no. Yeah. Are there any further questions on page 66? Yeah, Councillor Bassett, can you... Oh, sorry. Yeah, I think it's a final, or it's not quite a final, page 66, any questions on that? We've dealt with that, actually that was Richard's question. So page 67, Charlotte. There's any questions there, Richard again, just keeping this going. Sorry about this, I do read these quite a lot. Just on sickness absence, Q4 is 2.17, where the target is two days, so that wouldn't be green. Sorry, you bet. Yeah, I'm just going to say a tiny little thing, Q4, you've got 2.17 days, the target is two days, so it shouldn't be green. Yep. Okay, I think that concludes. Sorry. Sorry, I just wanted to add, because I know it's been referenced a couple of times during this section, so I have taken some notes down on some of the feedback that's been provided, and in terms of the ways some of the data and the updates are presented. And just to update, we are doing a considerable amount of work at the moment, which looks at both the KPI suite across the county, across the council, and the individual service areas, the KPI's in their true form, but also how we present helpful and useful information that doesn't necessarily have targets attached to those. So we are doing quite a bit of work to spit that out, provide greater level of detail, and also how we present that back into forums such as this, so that it's easier to digest, but also helps with the challenge and understanding of the information that's being provided. But in addition to that, also looking at how we present updates in terms of our projects, so again, I've made some notes on some of the feedback and that kind of aligns with some of the things in, and we hope that we will have a new format for this alongside the new municipal year, so that's something to expect from all of you as well. So yeah, that's coming, it's absolutely coming. We recognise that there's definitely some improvements that we can make, and we are actively working to do that. Thank you for that. My question comes from the car. Thank you, Charlotte, thank you, Paula. May I just ask, in light of some of these matters that have been raised this evening, do you think it'd be possible with the minutes just to circulate some of those corrections to the items, just so that there's complete clarity on that? I think just because I think the points raised have been very valid, thank you. You're happy with that, Charlotte, can we do that? Yes, I've made some notes, so I'll make sure that I feed those back so they go into the minutes. Thank you. Right, I think that concludes your report, Charlotte. Thank you. Thank you for all the work you've put in today and throughout the year. I don't know if you're going to stay for the rest of the meeting, but thank you for all you've done throughout the last year anyway. Thank you. Thank you. So if we now move on to agenda item 12, and I don't know if you're going to talk us through this, Paula, it's your report. Thank you, Chairman. The report in front of the committee this evening was requested by Cabinet to update members on progress against our people's strategy that was adopted or agreed back in May 2023 by Cabinet, and the people's strategy extends over the years 2023 to 2027. The strategy sets out three main pillars of work. The people team wanted to concentrate on during the lifetime of the people's strategy, and they're set out on underneath the context in the report. So maximising organisational capacity and capability, effective and inspirational leadership values and culture, enhancing employee experience and engagement. So under each of those head-ins, we set out the objectives, what we wanted to achieve, and that they're set out for three pillars within the report. And what we have done for to recognise progress on for year one is what we said that we were going to do, and that has been taken from our project list, and actually the progress that we've made against what we said that we were going to do under each of those pillars. So that's all set out in the report for members. I'm very happy to take questions on the report, but just wanted to highlight some of the items of work that we have done, and it probably relates a little bit back to the youth council that we heard from earlier this evening around our apprenticeship program. And we've been running apprenticeship programs for the last 10 years or so. We've had probably about 50 people on different cohorts coming through on our apprenticeship program. They've achieved nationally recognised qualifications. We have employed over 70 per cent of those apprentices, and we are aware that the other 30 per cent have gone on to further employment where we've not been able to take them on and employed them through the council. We also, we are continuing that theme, albeit in a slightly different format, that we have recognised areas where we find it quite difficult to recruit. So we have been taking on more specialist, higher level apprentices, and training them and set out here in stem services elections, health and safety, internal communications. We've taken on a paralegal that we would hope that we can succession plan. We've taken on, I can't remember what year it was, but it was a couple of years ago, we had four apprentices in housing, and they were specialists, did some specialist training and qualifications in housing. We are also going forward. We have taken on a completely new role that is very much in its infancy in terms of qualifications, and that's a public health officer within our communities team. So I understand that Fabrizio manages that appointment and that role is very excited to have them join. So we have been very, very successful in our apprenticeship. We pay 0.5 of our payroll bill that sits within an apprenticeship levy. So we use the apprenticeship levy to do a range of training. We've always done that. We always spend our apprenticeship money because we pay into that pot. We also apply for additional apprenticeship money that others don't use, and we can use some of that. So at the moment, we have staff going through IT development, we've got project management, we've got coaching, we've got people going through revenues training, we've got accountancy, which just goes to show the breadth of development and apprenticeship opportunities that we have at the organisation. We used to have to adhere to a quota of 2.8% of our headcount in apprentices. A couple of years ago, that was taken away and that's no longer a requirement, but we've continued the commitment to employ apprentices and use the apprenticeship levy to upskill our own staff as well. We have got one apprentice who has been nominated to go through to the LGA apprenticeship of the year 2024. I'm not allowed to know who it is because they're extremely shy at the moment, so that's good news. So again, there is that commitment and the support from the organisation to do that. So that was one of the items that I wanted to highlight, and as I said, the apprenticeship levy, we continue to use for our management development programmes as well. One of the other items that we are outstanding on is our well-being hub and our well-being resources for staff, and that was launched in December 2022, and that continues to be built upon. That's held on our internet that staff access, and there is a whole range of support for financial well-being, physical well-being, work-life, balance, family support, social well-being. There is a range of support there for staff to access. We also have as part of that an employee platform that offers discounts, but also support around well-being called part box, and that we do have a very high engagement level of staff who use that particular platform. So very happy to answer any questions, Chairman, and thank you. Thank you. We've got three members who are there. I want to ask questions at the moment, and the first one is Councillor Murray. Yes, I don't think it's a question, Chair. I mean, it's just a couple of comments. I think we all recognise that our staff are probably our most valuable and important asset as a council in terms of delivering for local people and delivering what we can set it to be our priorities, and it's good that we've got this level of investment in a festival development and well-being. So I was really pleased to be seeing that before. On Monday, and I wasn't able to attend some Councillors and quite a few officers I understand got together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of AFDC, and I think one of the things that we can be most proud of is our apprenticeship program, and again, that's been outlined comprehensively, and again, without mentioning names, because I think that's right. The officer didn't mention a name. I just want to acknowledge two things. In my role in supporting the sixth floor in one of our local schools, I approached the senior officer about the possibility of all week's work experience, and without hesitation, that was taken up. So I'm grateful for that, and I know that the young person who will be doing his or her work experience in the week of July will be very grateful with that, and that actually involves quality as well. It's a joint placement with the department in the AFDC, and the colleagues, so that's good. And the other comments I wanted to note, and I will be mentioning quite a few of us have had dealings with her in recent weeks, our new senior elections officer, who's had to have a very steep learning curve, and if relevant, if I'm here next year and we review the elections, I do want to say something about our previous electoral services officer Wendy McLeod, who, on her own accord, wanted to go very quietly, but had done a superb job for years. I think our new senior elections officer, who's had to step up and learn the job on an all-out election, is doing an amazing job. I've had to contact her a number of times, like I'm sure other members have, and she knows exactly what she's doing. She's developed her team, and I'm very, very impressed in how she's doing, which must be logistically an extraordinarily difficult job this year. Thank you. Council on the week, here's your next question. Thank you, Chair. I have three questions. Should I ask all one-in-one girl in Bates? Okay. Page 721, where it's enhancing employee experience and engagement, further down the paragraph, he says, Our local authority will establish diversity and inclusion initiatives to promote awareness, understanding, and acceptance of diverse cultures. I'll stop there. So, I just want to find out what tangible work I've done in this area, because I've looked around the report. I've seen something about we have been awarded Disability Confidence Studies Level 2, and been assessed for Level 3. So, I just want to find out what tangible work I've written in this area, and what achievement have we had. We have set up an employee forum, or supported, because that request actually came from staff, which is, I think, a very positive move that people felt comfortable, our employees felt comfortable, and confident to set up this forum themselves. We've done a number of training sessions. We've actually started to form a network of EDI specialists working with Braintree and Colchester Councils as well to share experience. We have started to re-establish our responsibilities or developing our responsibilities for our public sector duty, not just around employment. So, we do understand that we've still got some way to go, but we are establishing and we are working towards a number of initiatives. Second question is, I'll be honest, when I read this, I had a bit of issue when you say the phrase used here about accepting diverse cultures. Just want to find out what does that mean accepting diverse cultures and initiatives to promote awareness. Are we saying that we've not accepted diverse cultures? What does that mean? No, I wouldn't have said it's not that we haven't accepted, we've always accepted, and I think it's just acknowledging that we have got some work to do, and we hope that staff, our employees, are very comfortable. We've worked in at Epping Forest District Council and the support that we offer. My last question would be glad to know. It's to do with the disability confidence studies level two and being assessed for level three. What does that mean? Is that mean that we have support for colleagues, staff that have disability within our workforce? And what does that mean? What support do we have to support those staff? So it's a range of measures that we're assessed against, and it is around banking reasonable adjustments. It's about offering support to staff, it's about training, it's about equality of access for our employees that have disabilities, it's about opening opportunities, it's making sure that our recruitment material and there are no barriers to recruitment for prospective candidates to join Epping Forest. Thank you. My question was also on the disability confidence status. I hadn't realised it was focused just on employees. I was interested in what it required, as far as focusing on our residents. I mean, we heard from the youth council, they've all learnt British Sign Language, you know, if someone was totally deaf, could anybody here communicate with them? And you know, what are we doing about people who have visual problems? There's so many accessibility issues, and you know, presumably this particular status is only for employees, it's not looking outward, but it's some other time I'd like to know more about what we do about making things more accessible for residents. Thank you, Councillor. This is contained within our people's strategy, so it is all around employees. I think I said that one of the items that we're taking forward is to reinvigorate what we're doing around our public sector duty in terms of equalities and diversity, and so that picks up your point. So we have just started that work. Okay, there's no more questions, I think, Councillor interjecting. Oh, sorry, the rise is from that, because that's obviously a major piece of work we've just started, and it could have quite significant financial costs, I would imagine, if we're having to provide things in brale, for example, or whatever. So has that work, or got a budget attached to it, or is it just a piece of work, and then we have a look at the cost of implementing it, but I would have thought a really thorough, equal opportunities engagement with the public in terms of accessing our documents and so on could have, and other things could have quite large financial implications. Yep, that's a valid comment, and we're not that far down the process yet, but certainly I would be expecting technology to help with that, that we've already got in place that we can use and develop. Thank you. Thank you. It's just to say, of course, we're doing a qualitative impact assessment for each major initiative or policy adjustment, and that comes forward as part of the report to excruciatingly and should be included within any costs associated with the delivery of any adjustment for that. Okay, thank you very much. No further questions. I'd just like to say thank you for all of your report, and I was particularly interested in the apprenticeship issues. Thank you very much for that. If we can now move on to item 13, which is Chairman to give a report on their committees, and the first one is the Community Scrutiny Committee, and let's Councillor Aniket Patel. Do you want to update us on that? Thank you, Chairman. There have been two meetings of the communities Scrutiny Committee since my previous update. These were held on the 5th and 19th of March. As can be seen from the work program, the first of these meetings had a full agenda. The Committee endorsed the Housing Management Strategy Update for approval by Cabinet, and agreed the amended customer service KPIs. We also received an update from partners and officers on the Health and Wellbeing Strategy. This included the priorities, details of a range of projects, the benefits to our communities, and plans for the future. The meeting on the 19th of March was dedicated to community safety. We received the annual update from the Acting Chief Inspector Jonathan Maine. This provided an opportunity for members of the Committee to raise a range of issues. Jim Pearson provided insight into violence and vulnerability unit, and Caroline Wiggins presented the annual report, an overview of all of the positive work that has been carried out across the community safety partnership. This has been a successful year. Many key policies have been reviewed by the Committee, and we have welcomed presentations from community champions, partners, and the police that showed a depth and breadth of work that supports communities across the district. I will say that the work program has been very housing focused, and I appreciate that there was a need for this due to the number of policies coming forward or being reviewed. However, moving forward, I ask this Committee to consider having more of a balance to the Committee's Select Committee's work program over all of the service areas within its remit in the new civic year. I would like to thank my Vice Chairman, Councillor Jody Lucas, members of the Committee, our independent co-opted member, Wind Marshal, officers that presented reports, and Laura Cuman, my Democratic Services Officer, for their support in enabling a successful year for the community's scrutiny committee. It has been a pleasure for me to have worked with a number of officers covering many services, service areas across the Council over my time here, and I don't wish to embarrass anyone, but I would like to single out two officers in particular who I've worked with closely over the years. Cure Wallace and Caroline Wiggins are two of our longer-standing officers and have covered very important customer-facing service areas in that time, in the time that I've known them. They have always gone over and above to represent the Council to the best of their abilities, and demonstrated that being an officer of the Council is not just a job for them, but an opportunity to give back to the community they care passionately about. As many of you know, this is my last Council meeting, and so it will be the last time I speak in the Council Chamber. It has been an honour and a privilege to represent the residents of my ward of Buckard Steel West over the last 12 years. I may not always have been able to achieve the outcomes that they desired, but I have always tried to represent them to the best of my ability. I will miss the role incredibly. Anika, I think there's something particular that you wanted. You've got some suggestions for items to be considered by the next community committee, but in particular, I know you've emphasized, you've done it before, that you feel that the responsibilities of the committee ought to be revised. You felt too much to do on the committee, so I want to be sure that gets across site can be looked at and reviewed. Chairman, just the point of consideration that the work programme have an equal balance across the service areas that are covered within its remit. As I stated, I felt that the work programme was very housing-focused and there was a need for that, but there is other areas that need additional scrutiny, and so when the new committee is formed in the new civic year, I'd like that to be considered. I just wanted to be sure that you've got that point across, so it can be noted down in minutes and looked at in future. Councillor Murray, have you had your hand up? I had more to say at the select committee, and I'd say there will be an opportunity at the first meeting of the new Council. I might not be there to say it, but I will just briefly say that I welcomed away the Council of the Towers taken on this role this year. I think I've said before I had my doubts only because he was a portfolio holder before, and I didn't think he should slip from a portfolio holder to the Chair of the Select Panel, but he's done a really good job, Chairman, and I just wanted to acknowledge that again. Okay, thank you. There's no questions to that we can move on, and I think Helen, Councillor Helen Kane, is going to join us for a report on a place scrutiny committee. I hope you're recovering him. Unfortunately, you can't be here tonight, but I understand. Thank you. Many apologies for not being there in really being just remotely. Just to update you, there was a meeting of place scrutiny on the 27th of February 2024. At the meeting, we were updated on the waste program on which would ensure its constitutional transition to the new waste company wholly owned by the Council when the contract would be filed in Burma. We received it also for the good progress made of the development of the new leisure centre in Eppin. The updated tree policy gave clear responsibility, some expectations for trees across the district, and this was commanded to copy it for approval with a strategic design code for latin priori. I'm really excited. I would like to thank my Vice President, all members of the committee, the cabinet members who attended and offices for their contributions to the interesting work program for the place scrutiny committee in my last year as a district Councillor, thank you very much. All right, thank you, Helen. I think there is a question from Councillor Murray for you. There are a few other questions you can, Chairman. It's just another brief word of thanks. As soon as it had sunken, that Councillor KAIN and, in fact, Councillor SANDKAY weren't standing again. I had to look at the nomination papers a few times before it had sunken, but as soon as it sunken, I did, in fact, email Sam and Helen and shared a number of, well, they're not private, but I'm not going to read out the email. Quite a long email about how I valued their input and their approach to matters. So I just wanted to say tonight, publicly that I think Helen has done a wonderful job in this role and, of course, in the role that you now have. And again, I'm sure we will have an opportunity, maybe, to develop comments wide, but thank you for all your input and support, Councillor KAIN. And as I say, it's not just the jobs that you've done, but it's the manner in which you've done them as really stood out. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you for that. I think we can probably all share in the comments that you've made about the Chairman's of the respective committees, Councillor only Patil and Councillor Helen KAIN. So I appreciate all the work they've found. So thank you. From move on, it's the opening of the scrutiny committee report. Just really say that I found it an interesting year. I don't know if there are any questions to answer about that, but I noticed the other committees have put forward items for consideration for their committees next year. And likewise, I'd like to do the same for the overview and scrutiny committee, and I hope the members of the committee will support my suggestions. And that's all I are, there are suggestions. The first of my sort of suggestions, in some respects, it's a combination of my own thoughts, but also I've actually listened to comments made that had a recent cabinet meeting and a full council meeting. And I've been spent many years on the overview and scrutiny committee. I've had two sessions where I've been a vice-chairman. I think when you're a chairman, it sort of focuses your mind a little bit more. And I sort of feel that it's perhaps time to have a look at the way over the security committee works. I think it's purely a scope for improvement, and perhaps the focus on things perhaps a bit differently. And I was quite interested at the last cabinet meeting, because council of Philip seemed to have some ideas on perhaps our overview and scrutiny committee should function. I would love to have actually heard what his ideas were, but it wasn't possible to do that in confines of the cabinet meeting. So, obviously, it shouldn't just be council of Philip's ideas. It should include all of our councilists, but I mentioned this at the pre meeting, but I had yesterday afternoon. And that's the nice price. The officers themselves said this was being looked at. Well, I think it's fine that officers are looking at it, but it needs to be, I think, council is very much involved. So, that's one of my suggestions that the new overview of the security committee should look at. And another thing, which I picked up at the last four council meeting, this is about the scrutiny of outside bodies. And I know that council, the lead, the council of Chris Whitbread mentioned perhaps the scrutiny of transport for London. I think that's a good suggestion, one I would support. And Councillor Murray, you mentioned concern about pollution and river roading. I think, in that respect, you mentioned Thameswater. I'm not sure, given the length of the river roading, if Thameswater would be entirely responsible for all discharges, because the source of river roading is at Mulhill Green. And there are two Mulhill greens in Essex, but this is the one the source of the river roading is near, Stancy Dapple, almost at the end or the start of a runway. I've actually been there and seen it. So, it may take another water authorities, but nevertheless, I think they could consider a scrutiny of Thameswater. They don't supply water to all the residents in the district, but I think the other issue is that they're in serious financial position as well. So, that's my suggestion now. Previous, Councillor Helen McCain suggested all member briefings for these scrutiny of outside bodies. I think I'm supported for that, but I feel that they perhaps need to be broadcast live, because they'll be particularly interested to residents. We did have one all member briefing, which was a request by Councillor only Kate Patel regarding which cross hospital, but that was done via our teams or Zoom meeting, and I wasn't very well attended by Councillors. I think probably about half a dozen there. So, my thoughts are for the transport for London and Thameswater perhaps to be approached regarding an all member briefing. I think the last time they had transport for London, actually, under scrutiny, they couldn't answer all the questions at the meeting, and despite a number of attempts by officers that they failed to live up to their promise to respond to those questions. So, I think there is an issue around outside scrutiny, because we can't compel these authorities to always answer questions, but nevertheless, it's worth looking into. The another thing which I thought might be useful is to have scrutiny involved in the budget negotiations, as we did, or consultation, as we did with the cabinet. At the meeting on the 12th of December, it may be worthwhile doing that again in the coming year, perhaps in future years. I would hope that would get the support from the cabinet that Councillor Chris Whitberg might want to comment on that. One thing which didn't happen this year is that the committee didn't have any training screw to me. Councillor Belkin's particularly keen on training in screwing matters, so that may be another thing to look at as well. I can remember quite a long time ago when I was vice chairman and the Councillor BASSIC was chairman of—overview and screw-shocking that we had a training session then, which was combined with Harlow. Councillor, so one week, Harlow Councillors came to Epping and I think the following week, we went to it. So, that's another idea, perhaps, to have training, which has got a bit of a different element to it. So, there are my suggestions, perhaps, that I'd hope to be considered for next year, but that's absolutely the committee that is formed then. So, I don't know if you want to comment on the budget major that we had, Chris. Yeah, thank you, Chairman. I thought the budget worked really well this year, in particular. I think the additional scrutiny is the right thing to do. In fact, it's almost going back to the future almost, because that's what we used to do when we had three scrutiny committees from day one, which Councillor Murray will remember. And I think scrutiny of the Council's finances is just one of the most important things we have to do. And when you look at some of the Council's currently falling into section one, one, fours, it's really important that you've done proper budgets scrutiny and you take actions from it. I think this year was a really good example of that scrutiny helping us to form a good budget, which got unanimous support across the Chamber. Thank you very much, Councillor Murray. The leader is kind of echoed what my thoughts were as well. It's very important that we engage actively with the budget because it's probably the most important thing we do. The way that it was done this year enabled, I think, a budget that all groups could support. And I take Councillor Phillips' point that he often makes listening to people doesn't always mean that you do what they want. And I do understand that because I come across that all the time in my professional role. But I do actually think that the budget changed partly in significant ways, partly because of the level of scrutiny. If I can just finally say, Chair, and thank you for your hearing of this. I've made my comments at the full Council meeting, didn't I? And I'm certainly not going to reference elderly ladies again. Thank you. I'm quite finished anyway. I think one thing I should mention is that normally at this meeting, the committee gets the opportunity to scrutinise the draft annual revolt on the ONS committee and what they've done throughout the Council year. You haven't got that item on the agenda this time. I'm going to ask Laura to she's explained to me why that hasn't been done. But it's better if Laura puts it in her own words, I think, so if you can just explain that, Laura. The annual report, apart from the forward, is based basically in amalgam of all the minutes and the work programs. If they're all of the Councils and sorry, all of this committee and the subcommittees approve the minutes of those meetings and the work programs are adjusted. And therefore, to bring it all together as a draft format for you to re-approve is a duplication of work. The annual programme will be brought together from what has been agreed. There will be a forward sound off by the Chairman, one of his last duties as Chairman of this committee. And it just serves committee time, because I think last time it came to the committee three or four times before it had to go to the new committee in the final year, in the next municipal year, to be signed off. So it's to save committee time and duplication. It's a committee happy with that. I'm conscious of the way that we've had to start things now. I might be speaking out of term, but I wouldn't be opposed to a much more slim down annual report, but either people might have very different views, but I wouldn't be jumping up and down if we had a much more slim down annual report. Neither would I. OK, well, look forward to this slim down report, I think. I think I've covered items 13 and 14 by now. So we're actually on to the gender item 15, which is cabinet business and the forward plan, which is on pages 83 to 89. And I don't know if there's need to go through this page by page, and it has to cover all the portfolios, and we haven't got all the portfolio holders here. So I'm just going to ask if anybody has got any questions about it, Councillor Murray. I do have a couple of questions on 84. I am aware of the lateness of the hour, but they are important. The executive brief is until the 13th of May, so obviously it will come sometime after that, but is the leader able to give us any heads up on the fit for the future report? I mean, what kind of areas is it looking at? Or is it a whole of a part of the report that's going to be looking at all aspects of the Council and how it delivers services? Is he prepared to give us a three-sentence kind of headline? Thank you, Chairman. Councillor Murray, yes, I agree with you. The executive briefing isn't until the 13th of May. The first cabinet meeting will be on the 28th of May. Who knows, like yourself, whether I will be here after the 2nd of May, so very hard to actually update on what will be in that particular agenda at the time. The transformation piece of work was set out in the previous cabinet reports and highlights, some of the areas that we'll be looking at. Of course, it will be whole Council transformation in the longer run, but obviously there are areas of focus for now, and that will set out in the fit for future paper that came forward to the last cabinet. Primarily, obviously, we have to look at what technology can do for us in the future, the way that the Council works in partnership with other authorities and other partners across the board. So it's a wide range in transformation program, but it will be set out clearly in that report. It's difficult just to do it in two or three lines, and of course, if there is a different administration after May 2nd, then they may have their own views on these things. What I can tell you is the cabinet meeting for the 28th of May will be long. I would suggest to bring sandwiches, a sleeping bag and lots of coffee. That was the answer I was expecting. I think that's going to be a very interesting report. I did have one other thing on that item. I wanted to check that my understanding was correct. We've got interim polling districts for Thursday weeks' election, and I completely understand why we made a decision not to change the polling districts, because changing the walls has been complicated enough to explain to people and people identifying with them. But I think it's become clear obviously that the polling districts don't really work and match up with the new walls. So is the plan to get polling districts in new polling districts in place and change if they require? They don't need to be changed in all parts of the area. I'm sure. Is the plan to get that in place for next year's county council elections or is it in two years' time for the next set of district elections? Because I certainly wouldn't like to think in 26 the district elections will be forged on the same polling districts without a review having taken place. Thank you, Chairman. I believe that review will be done by January. Obviously, we have the county council's own boundary reviewing process at the moment, which I believe we will have more knowledge of by the 4th of June or around that sort of date. But of course, what I would do again is underlie what you said earlier, Councillor Murray, the hard work and endeavour that's gone in through the elections office this year, particularly bearing in mind the all-out elections. But obviously, the review will be after May 2. In addition, there will be full public consultation on that paper, which obviously will include yourselves in that consultation. We plan to bring a report forward for December at the latest. Okay, if there's no further questions on that. I don't think we have to exclude the press and the public, as far as I'm aware. And that sort of concludes the meeting, but just before that happens, I've got some remarks I'd like to invite. But before I do that, my Vice Chairman wishes to say a few words. Thank you, everybody. I'm very aware of the time, but I did just think it would be appropriate, Mr Chairman, just to note that as this is your last meeting, just to really take this opportunity to recognise your service to this council, your service to this committee, especially under new constitutional working that there has been, and indeed to scrutiny of this council for many, many years, your dedication to your residents, to the point where I think I first learnt the importance of grammar when I sat as a youth councillor, and everybody had lots of things to say, but your query was that there was a common missing, and that's the sort of level of scrutiny and time that you have put to your role is an example to us all, and I know you are a late-enorient fan. I'm very sorry to hear that. I did want to get your scarf, but there are no antique shops in Ongar, unfortunately, so as it is St George's Day, and indeed the England flag is the same colour of your football team, I'd like to present you as a flag, which you can use as a scarf in your many, many evenings that you will now have to yourself. Thank you for your service, and happy St George's Day, Mr Chairman. I have to say this is a really big surprise, and I wasn't expecting this at all, and I'm sort of almost lost for words, especially with a reference to the column, which I'd long forgotten about, but my concluding remarks are going to be fairly short, because I did say a few words at the last full Council meeting, but I think first of all, I'd like to thank all the officers that have helped. I realised when I look at some of these agendas, when I had the pre-meeting yesterday, it dawned on me yet again the vast amount of work that goes into producing these agendas in the minutes, and all the dedication that is involved in that, so I'm believable really, and I can certainly excuse any missing comments, I can tell you that. So, my thanks to officers. I'd like to thank the members of the I've been a scroting committee, and indeed cabinet members who have taken part in these meetings. I really appreciate whatever he's done, and of course, I must thank Jamie, he's been a wonderful vice-chair, and he's very diligently writes down the names of people who want to speak, and I spend the next five minutes trying to read his handwriting. As I said at the full Council, he's got great sense of humour, and I was actually a more serious point. I can't remember which meeting it was, but you did speak at length on a subject I knew virtually nothing about, and you had very detailed knowledge of it, and I thought, Rightly, this guy knows what he's talking about. So, I was very impressed by that, and I should treasure this, and always remember it. I think the best thing I can do really, we've got elections coming up very shortly. Some people are standing again, some may be successful, some not, and some will be standing down, but what I'd like to do is not just, I wish, not just councilors, but officers as well, is to wish everybody a good health and happiness. I think that's the best I can do, and I sincerely mean it, and I hope that we will be seeing you around and about in the District, and it's not case, and we never seeing you again. So, I really appreciate working with you, and thank you very much. Thank you, Jan. And I'm going to close the meeting now. [Applause] [BLANK_AUDIO]