Transcript

Good evening everybody. Welcome to overview and scrutiny for the 22nd of April. First of all, do we have any apologies for absence? Sorry, Councillor Ellis. Yes, a recent apology due to illness, Councillor Roxanne Ellis. I believe we also have other apologies. Yes, Chair, we've received apologies for absence from Councillors Martin Smith and Sam Smith. Okay, thank you. Next to approve the minutes of the meeting that was held on the 11th of March. Are there any matters of accuracy on those? Okay, so assume happy to approve. Hopefully, everybody also got the email with the answers to the questions that were submitted after the portfolio from Linda Piss and last time. So, if there's any further questions arising from that, then go back to Emma and she can pass them on. Thank you. Oh, do I? Okay, can I have someone to propose the minutes then? Thank you, Councillor Pope and a seconder. Thank you, Councillor Pope. And a vote. And a vote, please, if anyone will think I haven't done this before. Thank you very much, that's unanimous. Right, so any declarations of interest and just to remind you that if there are then to bring them up in the normal way, thank you. So, first item today is our regular scrutiny of portfolio holders and we have Councillor Wheeler today, who's just told me he's got 43 slides. So, if you start yawning, I'll tell him to stop. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Thank you for inviting me to the meeting. I'm going to go through, obviously a slideshow, but stop me at any point along the way if you need to and also feel free to ask me any questions that aren't going along. Okay, so I'm going to start. So, obviously my name is Councillor Henry Wheeler and I've got responsibility for Lifestyle's Health and Wellbeing and within that we've got the leisure centres, sports development and physical activity, arts culture and monitor fietta, cinema, health promotion development, social prescribing partnerships, loneliness and isolation, mental health including dementia support. So, what I want to do first is I want to take you through the leisure centre there and then I'll go through the other bits as the slides progress. Thank you. Okay, so, within the leisure centre we've got Arnold, Red Hill, Comme Form and Richard Howard and Calverturn. It's worth noting that Red Hill is a joint use site. Comme Form is a joint use site and as is Calverturn. But what I mean by joint use sites is they're used in agreement with the academy and Nottingham Street County Council on those sites and obviously with Arnold we've also got quite close liaison with the county around the libraries because that's a joint in that building and Arnold also has the fietta in it with the cinema in Bonnington. Okay, so, I'll just talk a little bit about leisure performance. So, tenants across the five leisure centres have grown steady over the last few years. Target 4, 2324 was quite impressive actually. It was surpassed by 93,000 annual attendances and now higher than the pre-COVID levels by 2,100 which is very good news. And obviously, I've got the attendances here so you can see through there I've obviously put the COVID years in there as well so I'll post COVID and where we are now today. Okay, within that we also have what you call DNA membership. We started with 4070 DNA members in April 23, which is the year on 4389 and that gain of 390 members. DNA membership is now surpassed the pre-COVID levels by over 200 people which is an increase of 5% which is another good new story. A little graph there just showing the different quarters of the years so going back to 2019 through the COVID years through to 2024 up to date now. So, court 4. Sorry. It's just a name for the leisure card. It's basically DNA is a card that allows you, it provides you know sort of access to lots of different health promotion schemes and things like that so you can get discounts and things like that. But it's basically a card the membership of it is growing. It's like a promotional tool that we use as well. I don't think Lance wants to say anything on that. Yeah, so you basically can access the health and fitness gym suite swimming and fitness classes with the cost of your monthly membership. So, the brand is DNA basically so it's a leisure centre membership in effect. So, it's just DNA has a different connotation in my world. So, obviously the membership's grown over the last 12 months and so that's basically illustrates the quality and service delivery choice available to customers across the leisure centres. Through the year the leisure department has implemented more custom functionalities such as online joining, reminders for class bookings and the ability to go onto a waiting list for classes also. Virtual classes which are available in the Paul Arnold, dry side-actives, red old cop form have given increased flexibility for customers to use the facilities when instructors aren't scheduled to do the sessions and also there's also focus on happiness, chemicals created through, exercise, dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphine, sorry, which is a leisure team of course getting through to customers at every opportunity is actually, I'll come to this later, we've actually just opened something with that in there called dose which relates to a new gym we've got at Compe Forum. Okay, so there's your membership and as you can see the target there, so we're over target by 72K. Got the different leisure centres there with the different annual targets actually and the differences between them. So we've got swim school as well, we went from 3,825 members in April 23 and finished the year on 4,000 and 70 which is a net gain of 245 members and swim school membership is now surpassed the pre-COVID levels over 1,001 people which is an increase of like 45%. Again you can see here the graph and clearly you can see on there obviously the COVID year marked out with plateaued down at the 500 mark, what were the two? I think there's only about quarter one, quarter two, 2020-21. So growth in swimming lessons, membership, so we've got the learner's swim scheme is going by 245 members of the last year which means more children from the borough will be safer in and around water. In 2022-23-4 and 75 children achieved their 25 metre swim badge and in 2023-24 this number had grown to 602. There were successful campaigns around driving prevention so we've done big campaigns around that, that's from once as well as the celebrations for the annual Christmas swim goal held at Arnold and Compe Forum leisure centres. Okay, so swimming lesson income, swimming lesson income includes both group lessons and private lessons, so two kids per session and you see swimming lesson income on here so currently there was 66K of a target. You can see the different leisure centres on those well in terms of their annual target and actual income and the difference. Okay we've also got Arnold forces' leisure car, that was established in 2021 and our home forces membership has now reached 477 and you can see the steady climb from when we first launched it to the current quarter, what for now, which basically gives them ex-service personnel access to our gyms at our leisure centres. So I'll just go for a few achievements, leisure achievements here. So we've introduced the net promoter score, it's an ongoing survey of all leisure centre customers which is an indicator of loyalty as well as a tour of gaining positive negative feedback, allowing the sites to focus efforts in years that matter most to customers. Upgraded the Royal Life Saving Society compliance across the sites which allows getting to continue to run RLSS courses to provide an opportunity for individuals to gain a qualification which enables them to operate as lifeguards at swim and pools. We've increased the functionality to get the leisure centre out, so it goes in leisure out which can now be useful referring new members and accessing discounts as well as setting up reminders for bookings made at sites. Completed swim England, pool schematics training which provides insights into maximising pool workspace, increasing teaching points and more efficiency when planning pool layout and following funding application from the leisure team the council successfully received 147, 525 from sport England swim and pool fundraising energy costs and some new pool cover and shower flow restricted comp form leisure centre. So it's a very successful bid that our leisure team put together. Again new equipment at Calvertine, so we've got new treadmills, a cover to leisure centre three new high tech pools treadmills installed in the fitness suite to replace the old ones which we were breaking down quite frequently and this has been met with quite a lot of interfeuses and from customers who are getting full use of the new equipment. We've received a lot of positive comments from customers and this new equipment can be cited as a contribution fact Calvertine leisure centre in an all time mind terms of DNA membership at that site. Portside audio upgrade as well at Calvertine, so we've had new surround side audio equipment being installed on the port side which alongside the mood lighting to create a sensory sort of experience which can be utilised across a range of different sessions it's attractive particularly for disability sessions and also makes a local industry leader in terms of the provision of sensory port space for disability groups to hire for use. This has been a major contributor factor in established partnership with the autism group spectrum whilst we've now regularly hired the pool. It's a very inclusive development there. Okay so some more leisure achievements here, we're at the Ampervent on the 27th of January going to the leisure's health hub team including representatives from leisure centres. The body tracks they'll engage with members of the community to help promote a healthy and active lifestyle. Members of the public took advantage of the body composition machine. Hundreds of free passes together in leisure centres engaged in conversation with trained health professionals. Body tracks are such a brilliant experience. I've been like a couple of times it shows you give you a readout of the art rate and everything. It also gives you advice on how you can improve your health and wellbeing. Health membership, conduction with active knots, so we've got the active for life, free month fitness membership originally funded by active partners trust and given to identify members of the community. Started quarter to quarter two, 2023 24 but now all kinds of complete free month scheme from a fantastic legacy with 24 per cent of people on this pathway now taking out their fitness membership and a regular customer's health in leisure centres. Obviously I mentioned the dose fitness studio earlier, so the dose stands for those different things I've talked about earlier. So we were pleased to announce open up a newly refurbished fitness studio that can't form a couple of weeks ago and it was opened by a three-time Olympian Andy Turner who was pictured on the picture at the beginning. The new studio was formerly a squash court so it was a squash court but it'd been used as an extra gym space for customers since 2020 due to the popularity of this. Additionally we decided to refurbish it and make it a purpose-built fitness studio. It's very very popular. The new fitness studio is located next to the remaining squash court and has been named the dose studio to represent, as I was saying earlier, dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins which are all feel good chemicals released in the brain etc. When exercising. These positive chemicals can help to reduce feelings of anxiety, improve mood, boost the body's immune system. One of the most significant additions that we've done as well recently in the studio that come from is we've introduced a myzone. Myzone is the form. It's a wearable fitness technology device that you can wear and you can link in and actually link in with other people that might have a myzone and find out how you know you have a bit competition between the staff as well actually because they've got these new watches that they use and customers can actually create great groups and things on there. It's very very popular. Challenge, it was basically challenges that you can participate and see the real-time fitness as a result on the TV screen in the studios at the myzone app. So the TV screen, you can just make it out there. It shows you how well you do in terms of your heart rate and etc. when you've got the device on. Don't say anything about that. But the new myzone app. No, I think Cancer really has explained it perfectly really. It's an opportunity to use a bit of technology and monitor your kind of body metrics and compare with others really and it is it as I say there's interactive technology on screens now at the new suite where you know while you're exercising you can kind of see you your metrics on the big screen as well. So it's an exciting development for us. Okay, so I'm going to go on to sport physical activity. Sorry. Yeah. Just before we move on from sort of membership and and how much our gyms are being used, do we do we keep data on how often a member will come to the gym on average? Because I know we keep data on the number of members obviously but as the members grow is the number of visits per member increasing, decreasing because health and fitness is health and well-being is very important to our council. Do we keep data on that? I think we do have some that I'm not sure what the data but we do have a performance of data that where we can see or see new members coming in, members dropping out etc. Have you got any information? Yeah, so we do have a range of data so we can look at that. I think one of the one of the other key elements and council readers just referred to is around retention rates so although we see an increase in membership you have people leave as well. So a key part of the service is trying to reduce or try and increase the retention rate to keep existing members. So which is quite key really in terms of I suppose a well-being measure but also it helps us in terms of the business side of things as well obviously. So I think that that's kind of the key indicator for us but we can drill down in terms of where people are coming from so we can look at people's addresses. We can also look at areas of the borough where we don't have members and try and do sort of our marketing target to increase some growth in those parts of the borough as well but yeah so to answer your question we can look at kind of numbers of attendances of individuals to support them. Councillor PAUM. Thank you. Just following on from Councillor ALLAN's question. With the folk who don't renew do we do any follow up with them as to why they haven't renewed? Are they doing something different or? Yeah, we do. We look, we often chase up to find out why because we do surveys, basic customer surveys to find out and the customer surveys help in terms of looking at how we can improve that service because maybe that somebody's left because of a change in the way you know it might be a change in the pricing or something like that. It's difficult sometimes to ask a certain why people leave because people leave for different reasons but we do have that data we can look at data and we can we do you know try and chase up where we can to find out reasons why people might have left because sometimes people leave but they come back quite quickly depending on the offer that's available because often we have various offers throughout the year particularly after the Christmas, after the Christmas period quite a big dive on DNA membership we look at promoting it because obviously for the new year a lot people like looking at new year, health, fitness etc etc after the excesses of Christmas for example. Do you want to say anything else? I think one of the things that Councillor Rhea mentioned in his slides was something called net promoter score so this is about ongoing engagement with customers so he's trying to identify what those issues are before they leave as well so we've introduced to be proactive obviously there are exit kind of surveys if you like what a member does leave. I think he's trying to understand where we are in terms of the market really so in terms of health and fitness and budget gyms you know people often leave because of price of membership but then obviously we have a wider offer don't we around swimming and and other such services as well so that's why I think as Councillor Rhea's referred to we often find a cycle of people returning and again a key thing as I said is how do we try and stick to that or increase those retention rates really to avoid that turnover because that will kind of take us to the next stage really in terms of our performance. Thank you Councillor Robinson-Pane. Thank you. I think some of my question was answered but just to comment really that I've seen the figures at the start of your presentation Councillor Wheeler in regards to growth in many areas of people accessing leisure and I think that's really good news and hopefully that means that residents in Geddling are feeling healthier and happier but just in terms of obviously not just for those people that are leaving but be good to know that how we actually get feedback from service users who are you know regularly renew or whether's all the time I noticed in your presentation that there was a bit about the Geddling leisure app and I was just wondering if I mean I haven't checked on there whether there's an opportunity for people to actually give feedback on there not just when they leave but at any time really. We provide opportunities throughout the year for people to make comments I mean by and large I mean we get a lot of positive comments a lot of positive feedback I think I'm absolutely right the app would be a good way of people being able to provide that feedback I'm not sure how that quite works at the moment on the app in terms of the comments that customers can leave on there I'm not sure whether you know any more about that because I've been on the app and I've not been able to find a specific where you can can leave a comment but I know we do do surveys through all the different bits of communication we do pull out and it's useful sometimes looking at that information we get back from customers by and large most of the feedback we do get is very positive but it would be an addition I think to you know it would be very good to have that on on the app as well people being able to leave comments on the app would be a good addition to that app and make it more more inclusive if you like I think so I think it would be a good thing to do whether we do that or not I'm not sure I've not seen it yet so I think that's something for us to look at so one of the things around a use of apps and the digital access really to the service so that's something we've developed over the last two years or so so we've had to introduce what we have procured a new ledger management system which effectively is a back office IT system for leisure so in terms of the implementation of that we've been gradually developing services such as the apps with the provider so that works going on going at the moment I suppose so although we've made some progress there's probably some more work to do to make that interface better for the customer so I think part of this conversation is how we engage with the customer to ensure we can do that right but also it's I suppose it's that kind of medium term plan to make sure that those apps and those sort of digital interactions can improve over time really so I think we're a certain stage of development but we it's not finished yet I suppose is the best answer for that so I think yeah certainly using the app to feedback comments would be very helpful for the customers so we can we can take that away can't we okay so I'm going to go on to sport and physical activity so I'm going to look at community force prevention so we've got a force prevention program delivered by a qualifying instructor across the community venues in Gedlin it was shortlisted in the prevention strategy of the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire integrated care system health and care awards 2023 program has now been running for over 12 months with participants noted improvements in the strength balance and social confidence so it helps with so forth so self-esteem and so forth walking the get going get going in Gedlin ramblers well being walked to deliver weekly at Gedlin country park and mappletop the weekly walks led by volunteer walk leaders have been delivered on a weekly basis for over 10 years the as uk led walk and talk sessions has been running once a week for 12 months at Arnadill park walks are designed for residents with limited mobility so use walking aids once more the walk is followed by a social session in civic centre where the walkers and leaders walk leaders are joined by guest speakers and provide advice on the range of topics such as scams fire safety and in house and safety in house should I say so they're very very useful as well in terms of helping people become well where the the more you know the scams that are ongoing and some of the issues around safeguarding as well to go in home thank you improve runners improve runners we've got the Gedlin brother council i've supported the Gedlin running community for over six years supporting them taxes the running track at cartley will lose academy joining summer months individuals have used the sessions to not only improve on their running techniques but have also reported a significant increase in their met that well-being and joined enjoyed the social interaction sessions bring we've got the playing pitch outdoor sport strategy was adopted by covenant in november 2023 this strategic document we used to support the moment with local football facility plan and will also be used to provide strategic evidence needed to support external funding applications finance facilities across the borough and then we've got the uk spf facilities form a flamour lane as part of the uk spf the following allocation we made to improving sports facilities across the borough so 100,000 have been allocated to lamour lane change room project which will see the installation of new changing facilities on lamour lane in 2024 spring 2024 through about now a further 100,000 has been allocated to improving wider facilities including mern road pavilion and development squash courts but additional fitness studio space can't form what i was talking about earlier the leisure center and the remaining project will be spent on projects within this 2024 25 financial year okay so her form of ocean and development uh we've got a bit gone um squash courts have come up a few times in your report i've i admit it i've played squash in the borough for 45 years um and when i started i think there were about 20 courts and now i think we're down to one is that right colton forum is that the only the only court that's available i think we're quite one of calveton's one i'm sure we still got one still and calveton i just i just wondered it sort of it's a self-fulfilling prophecy really that squash activity will fall if we haven't got the courts available and i noticed that you've the court was changed into a human fitness studio and there is another court still available at colton forum is the other court likely to get refurbished at colton forum it's a difficult question because the reason squash courts are slowly dwindled over the years is because people aren't using them i said that that's that's that's the issue people that people are not using and in terms of actual income um we're not making income from them so so we've got to look at all the ways of utilizing that space um which people are actually using and using uh using on a very very regular basis that you know and using more and more regularly um i i i did actually have a meeting with uh with somebody from the uk squash clubs about this and i did speak some because we're not the only authority that's seen a reduction in squash squash facilities that's been happening across the border cross north stream chain across all the districts as well um and the reason being is is squash is not as popular as it used to be and people are no longer playing squash it's it it tends to be quite an each mile kick now um and that's not been horrible that that that's the reality on the ground the reality on the ground is squash uh in terms of its usages as dwindled over the years and there's less and less people using those courts and we need to be able to use those that space more efficiently uh to raise income and and and use it in a way that people are going to you know people will utilize that and use that which is why we did um the the changes um called for them because it was it was successful and people wanted it changing into something more permanent i'm just worried that it's a little bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy if you if you go from 20 courts to two um then of course they you can't play as often because there isn't the opportunity can look at squash we can look at it um we can look at how we can promote that but we've tried that already we've tried promoting squash we've tried everything we can around getting those squash pork shoes but the reality on the ground is it's not happening it's it's you know it is a very niche market it's you know it's it's a difficult one to balance unfortunately um and and it's not just scheduling it's it's across the board you can go to any district where there's issues i mean some some of it's around demographics as well um to uh you have a particular demographic that might play squash but depending on on the demographics of the area that your leisure centre is all the area that you you know your your population are um you know it's i know it's an issue across the whole county with squash clubs it did this this is an issue with squash space because people aren't using them anymore unfortunately okay sorry okay so food clubs so food food clubs and pantries have been set all across the board to improve residents access to affordable nutritious food whilst reducing food waste individuals and families can become a member of their local food club for as little as one pound a year they can then purchase a bag of food on a weekly basis from 3.50 they're currently over 300 members across the food clubs and pantries in gettling food clubs and pantries are currently operating from the foreign sites so we've got one at Calveton core centre uh colton community hub new city village no the field food club sorry an Arnold Methodist church so can i can i ask a question then so does the council subsidise those because um i know that um food share the charity that provides the food of how to put their prices up because they're struggling to get volunteers and obviously their costs are also going up with the inflation like everyone else is around food i'm not i'm not aware of as subsidising the food clubs i do know that obviously we have community grants where we provide funds to various projects so they i think some of the food food hubs and foods clubs would have had or could access community grants from from council from the councilors and i know that um Arnold Methodist churches on that in the past i don't know if you got anything you'd like to see on that land yeah i think i think when there was a program originally established where county council fund them was available for food clubs which which came to end what what we tried to do in gettling was a more sustainable sort of community-based approach where the clubs um sort of developed about the need for that additional funding so obviously um you know what's on the slide now is uh our clubs that hopefully are more self-sustainable in their nature so as we know any community initiatives that you're able to identify additional fundings very helpful isn't it um it's council where this is you know support from local elected members and other pots is another community grant to help all for that but certainly our approach in terms of the gettlingborough council offers a support to kind of connect and um encourage that that sustainability around um the offer yes just my experience is that they run out of food so we got socially reconnected through the food fund so in 2022 gettlingborough council successfully awarded 25,000 from not such a county council community fund reconnected through food designed to use food as a mechanism of always sorry right so reconnected through food was designed to use in food so designed using food is mechanism to reduce loneliness and socialization social isolation to date over 36 grants have been awarded to the community social eating initiatives got sustainable food network in order to support food clubs food banks and the more the food agenda across the boring gettlingborough council have regular representation at the knots county council coordinate sustainable food network and a member of the sustainable food network strategy group and we also have a regular half a while being e-newsletter which goes out monthly to approximately 6,800 subscribers and covers public health campaigns information local support groups services um and got some examples around the winter vaccination not alone stop smoking services cholicic community living room age uk connect service and gettling leisure opportunities and promotion commission services so along with the news letter commissioned health and wellbeing services such as abl your health knots nutting and nutting machine talking therapies that promoted food the health development offices communication networks including the health and wellbeing co-production partnerships uh gettling health and wellbeing co-production partnership so we've got the gelling partnership which brings together partners from health care social care youth service the community sector to discuss a variety of themes in relation to residents health and wellbeing the partnership offers opportunities for partners to network across organizations share good practice and provides opportunities for collaboration oh we've got breastfeeding friendly gettling was actually one of the first councils in knotting should be to declare itself a best breastfeeding friendly authority um so we're working with knotting cancer nutting health care NHS foundation trust breastfeeding friendly accreditation ensures spaces provide a welcoming environment for parents that staff are positive that's a positive and supportive and often accepted sand of cleanliness and facilities all occurred to the places to play a window sticker on the front of their premises to inform customers these other 30 venues currently signed up to the breastfeeding friendly scheme and gettling tobacco control in in order to support the tobacco and smoke and reduction of gender across the borough gilbert cast of regularly presented have regular representation at knotting city knocks county can't score net tobacco control and arts meetings and task and finish groups i was one of the first councillors to actually on the well-being board to raise concerns and call for tough action regulations to prevent sale of disposable vapes to protect children young people because i've seen massive explosion the amount of children young people vaping to the point where they don't even know that they've been vaping a lot of the time they just pick it up they're leading them doing it it's okay um can i first apologize for being late for the start of your presentation every there's a crash on westdale lane which is creating chaos um just on the vapes um our local town centre in netherfield has got a lot of vape shops and there's one just opened which is basically a sweet shop and when you go in the sweet shop it's actually a vape shop so the front is all sweets and then once you're in you're on vape did it say anything the council can can do from from within our powers about licensing or i don't know i don't know whether it's within our remit yeah i mean it's i mean obviously i think i think it's a difficult one because um obviously law and legislation's only just been passed at the parliamentary level um i mean i should hope as time moves on that um obviously the uh as in a fight that deals with licensing we might be able to do something about that in terms of you know how those shop fronts display the information and and and crack down on that but at the moment it's a difficult one it's difficult call because it's said that the legislation is in its early stages it might be something that we look at regulated similarly along the lines of um alcohol if you like um but as i say that's something that we may have to look at in the future as and when that regulation comes out thank you so i have family hubs uh family i was currently being developed by an Oxford County council there were actual course not centers at one point um some years ago uh to offer support from pregnancy through the child's early years later child running into young adult up to the age of 19 or to 25 million people with special education needs and disabilities I was currently being explored in Netherfield and the Kalisuk areas which are areas with like very high social deprivation high high needs particularly around family children and young people's health needs as i say that it's not a new invention it's something that uh used to be known as sure start some years ago social prescribing ships um so we've got green social prescribing so in order to support the green social prescribing agenda across the borough getting borough council have regular representation at the South Knox Green social prescribing network green social prescribed opportunities are embedded into the piece's team wider work program including place-based working initiatives and the events program um pop up green social prescribing activities have been trialled in the Colton and Kalisuk areas which include an intergenerational workshop to make flat pack bird boxes a big green book with green social prescribing activities across the borough is also currently being explored with health partners we have social prescribing link workers so the community's team the health promotion development office ensure that social prescribing link workers are connected into the relevant place-based work programs and that they receive the regular updated version of the getting community groups database to support the referrals into the community we have community connectors and engagement network a new network has been created to bring together community connector engagement roles across scheduling this group is facilitated by the health development officer and brings together roles such as social prescribing link workers local grade area coordinate is community development workers working within the the gallery area okay so i've questioned from councilor councillor pain so in what specific ways is getting broadcast currently engaged in social prescribing initiatives and what non-clinical services accounts provide or support that are accessible through these schemes so so the answer to this is quite a long answer sorry this is largely for the work of communities in leisure service area there are a range of physical activity options both within the leisure centers and within the community that offer non-clinical support for people with mental people with health conditions and patients leisure centers work with a range of health professionals to raise awareness of activities to switch patients can be signposted to these have included our specialist cardiac rehabilitation program heartbeats DNA health are now active for life three month three month three memberships funded by active knots the community facilitates and support activities from falls prevention classes green social scrum which i touched on earlier to walk groups across the borough to which vulnerable people access and are sign posted to key to this work is the support offered to local community run hubs and join services they offer are sustainable and that residents and partners are aware of their offer the getting guidance tool that supports this and through the current strength and communities program funded by uk through the ship or scrotive fund development of self serve digital platforms for the voluntary section the borough will further enhance this um sorry further question sorry um can you can you update me on the heartbeat scheme because i heard about six months ago it wasn't being delivered because there wasn't anybody available to deliver it is it actually being delivered now yeah so we have got a vacancy now um so what what's required is we need a qualified instructor to deliver that program so we're we're looking to propose us to recruit to that um to that post so we can uh commence that program again um but in doing so we also look at how we can support sort of wider physical activity programs as well which are tailored for health conditions so we have had a gap in that service and one of the challenges is um the availability in the market of qualified instructors uh so um particularly those that are self employed because obviously it is a cost to get qualified at quite a high level qualification deal and people with specific health conditions um and actually one of those sessions yourself paying for community venues is actually quite an expense so it's almost not a full-time job in itself um so that's something we're currently engaging with health partners on because it is almost a workforce development issue there um so which we don't see as our kind of issue is a leisure center issue so it's how we work with NHS partners to is there any funding we can free up to think about how do we almost grow the workforce out there so we can run these programs because as you said there's been a bit of a gap there and didn't challenge to to fill that just just following on them for that lunch um what what is the qualification that's required for that did you know off the top of your head no you're testing me now aren't you so well the reason I ask is whether whether you'd had any thought to linking with local universities that provide you know pre-registration health courses and and maybe looking at using student sand or their expertise now yeah that that's that's a that's a great idea actually so that's something that we can pick up and have a look at I think that that's helpful I think when it comes to workforce issues I think the links for the universities are a good opportunity because it's about looking at different different ways of trying to fill fill that gap so that's one one thing we pick up and have a look at thank you okay so I've got further questions from Councillor Robinson Payne so how does getting brought cats collaborate with the NHS and the volunteer sector to ensure joint ownership and involvement in social prescribing programs and could Claire Councillor Wheeler elaborate on the strategies getting brought a council employees to ensure that the volunteer sector is adequately prepared to handle anticipated increasing referrals resulting from social prescribing initiatives so so NHS social prescribing is commissioned by the local primary care networks in form part of the integrated care system or ICS strategic oversight of these activities scenarios and to think about the self-industrial place-based partnership or PBB P sorry um Councillors play the key strategic role within the PPP over the last four years regarding the development of the volunteer sector support and in particular community development and support for social prescribing the head of communities land and leisure sits on the PPP board and was appointed by the board as executive lead of community development in 2020 community development being one for the four strategic priorities of partnership the head of communities leisure is working alongside the chief executive of Bruce Cliff CVS who is the PPP PPS board for the appointed implementation lead for community development to develop engagement support capacity-building initiatives for the Von Dusecta and its engagement commission health services. As part of this approach the Councillors apply in the community development program supporting NHS social prescribing across the south knots in 2019 UBC was funded to offer community development to local NHS social prescribers and it was recognised there was a need for additional capacity to support the Von Dusecta giving the growth and referrals to the sector from the new social prescribing service. UBC appointed and hosted community development worker that supported the grass root sector across south knots to receive referrals from social describing link workers and established a grant fund for groups to access small amounts of cash as part of a development. A considerable database of volunteer sector groups was developed and activity and engagement monitored by the worker as part of the Council's ongoing evaluation and assessment of the scheme further funds were secured to enable the second community development worker to be recruited but to be hosted by Bruce Cliff CVS by 2024. The sustainability of the scheme was proven to be a great success jumping by the ICS integrated yeah the ICS. Additional funding has been allocated by both the ICS through its health inequalities and innovation fund and by public health for its place-based partnerships funds to support the community development programme in addition to the public health commissioned health and well-being service health knots has committed funding to support wider community development working out here at La Cleria. GBC has led the way of working alongside health partners in neighboring districts and volunteer sector to devote what is now an enhanced programme. The additional funding secured as seen the programme growth from one community's network hosted by GBC in 2020 to five community development workers in 2024 working across the South not so quite locality or now I'll buy out volunteer sector partners Rushley CVS Newark and Shearwood CVS and Ashford Voluntary Action. I'm going to move on swiftly to NHS public health place-based initiatives. Can I just check did that answer your questions? Yeah just just a brief comment it did answer many of the questions thank you it's very thorough Councillor Wheeler. I recently met with the arrow PCN social prescribers who were based at Daybrook Medical Centre and they are doing some really really good work and they were telling me about you know there's potential for the future for more people to be working in social prescribing and you know I just picked up on a few things that sometimes it can be just simple things like meeting space or rooms being available for them to be able to do what they want to do to be able to meet with clients meet with people that need to access the service so it's all it's great to see all the good things that are going on but you know something sometimes going back to basics and looking at the simple things like meeting space is so important the team in our area now a sortie which is good and that's been through joint working through myself Councillor Sandra Barnes and through the through Gatlinborough Council and but I think just keeping eye on it really because it's obviously growing and it's been taken a lot more seriously by health services across the country thank you. Can I just ask something so I just wondered if you collect data on how many people who come through the social prescribing route for example with the three month subscription how many of them carry on afterwards and whether whether they have a different need than that which is generally offered so without wishing to sort of I suppose characterize people I think some of you know some of the things you were explaining that would appeal to your very keen athletes and Jim Goers might be really off-putting to people who've just gone in as a first step to try and get more healthy. That's yeah so I think we've been to the active for life life three month. Yeah so I think just a bit of clarity around that so that it's basically it's a three month free membership that's offered and that's funded by active knots who are the active partnership for the area, for the non-country area so that's an agreement they've got or have done to do that and basically what we offer is they are sort of vulnerable people who wouldn't normally access leisure centers so in doing that three month period we offer additional support one-to-one coaching with those individuals so our fitness promotion officer who works when the leisure centers will meet with them before they access the leisure centers start to build confidence before they actually go into the centers and then they'll be given dedicated fitness advisors to work with them during that three-month period so the aim of that process is to get them to be a regular gym user so I think Councillor Rila mentioned that I think our success rate has been about 24% in terms of them signing up for a regular gym membership so it's that kind of induction, a specialized induction process but we do recognize and what we've learned from it is actually those individuals need specialist one-to-one support because they're not just going to go into a gym space which is a certain kind of environment really so it's about building confidence so although that environment can change so much it's around how that individual is able to adapt to it so that's what that's what the program has been so we've had a degree of success with that obviously that's not for everyone in the long term so it's been very much a pilot piece of work that we're hoping we can continue and it does kind of help us identify the type again we talk about workforce issues there's a different there's a kind of number of sets of skills that people need maybe even to work in our leisure centers is how you offer that kind of coaching support as well and understands people's our particular needs and confidence building and all those kind of issues really so yeah so that's what the scheme's about okay so i'm going to move on to NHS public health place based work in initiatives so we've got quite a comprehensive for skimming because i'm losing my voice again in uh sorry in 2022 kyllis it was selected there's one of four areas of course not even not sure to deliver an NHS side NHS England pilot project to promote health in happy communities in the more to five areas as the iCS footprint i identified purposeful sustained approaches to tackle out from the qualities through co-production with these communities community engagement was carried out using a collaborative approach to in part which was an interest in the kyllisic area um this engagement led to co-produced interventions based on what the community had asked for these included a breakfast club during the school holidays which has been very successful a friendship group to reduce loneliness and social isolation and after school club all of which are now sustained by the local community engagement was supported by several community events that were organized by local partners and were received by the local community of kyllisic so the various events we had a Christmas event we had a kyllisic fun day type event we've had a health fair all sorts of different things that happened in the local community and as we said those projects are not just a kyllis they are across the county as well they've been running other areas uh Carlton sorry Arnold Arnold is one of four neighbors across south not usually identified for target working for the NHS health inequalities for them to a launch event with partners in Arnold took place in December considered local health inequalities data community assets and the opportunity to lead the strategic agendas of health and wellbeing regeneration and planning over 30 partners attended from various organizations including health local foreign charities the event was designed to invite partners to be part of new way of working to live about health and wellbeing outcomes for the local Arnold community uh Carlton Montstep at the time Carlton was selected as a location based on the public health insight project in 2019 had high levels of physical inactivity and was significantly higher in the over 65 age group engaged engaged with the otter with local stakeholders and after the covid restrictions ease engagement and gamma residents too there was a desire for residents reconnect in the community after the pandemic but didn't know where or how to access information the need was identified to bring in some extra costs to help connect the communities together you know Carlton Community Connectors a two-year role one day a week working with partners and residents in the Carlton areas to help connect more residents into the local community so it's December 2022 Community Connect has supported the launch of the age-friendly Carlton campaign supported the Friends of King George V Park and the Friends of Valley Road set up a new beginners running group created to getting out an about the Carlton bench mapping Carlton bench is basically it's a mapping exercise it shows you where all the different benches are in across the the Carlton area. Support the launch of the Carlton Community Hub support the creation of Carlton Voices film and delivered weekly chair based exercises and classes there is actually a very interesting film which has been created which we can actually can send that out and we can actually if people want to see that okay loneliness and isolation so we've got the Gedding guide it's an updated version the Gedding guide contains the useful information for residents to get local support and topics such as mental health finances as well as social activities which is now in a year-round format to help people at any time of the year not just during the winter months. Guys have been distributed to Christmas but community events as well as been circulated for the local community hubs and partners. All new welcome spaces we've got the warm spaces initiatives now I've been reviewing this has been extended to become welcome and warm spaces this promotes the idea that the spaces are not just for keeping warm but offer some work for people to go and socialize others all year round they are currently around 30 venues listed on the welcome warm spaces which can be found on the Gedding World Council website and they're also listed within the Gedding guide. Okay mental health including dementia so we have in order for mental health within across the Bora, Gedding, Gedding World Council of regular representation on the Nottingham North and East mental health network this network provides opportunities to make links between commission services and community-based support support mental health locality. To make sure actually and not to go and not to make sure communities to represent Gedding World Council at the dementia action Nottingham and Nottingham meetings these provide opportunities to network support services providers along with information raising awareness of dementia locality. We've also done dementia friends training so it's April 2023 two separate one virtual one face to face dementia friends training sessions have taken place for Gedding World Councilors as well so one or two people did come here to for the for the training which was delivered in Council chamber. To make sure friends training has also been delivered to Gedding World Councilors all training has been delivered by the Alzheimer's Society not suicide prevention network so it's for mental health agenda across the Bora, Gedding World Council have some regular representation on the suicide prevention network more specifically districts PPP and pH suicide prevention and mental health it's real time saver it's a shift for this network if and when there are any suspected local suicide clusters and we've also done mental health awareness training for had the housing needs staff that's been implemented recently um sort of fits in with the wider safeguard in the agenda that they will be for more you with and dealing with on a regular and daily basis with some very complicated housing needs casework. Heart School Church, Clint Bolett of Fieta cinema so we've got Bolett of Fieta cinema here tents is the bollocks of Walexie the target set for 2023 24 47 500 tendencies compared to 40 200 and 20 22 23 so we continue to see tenants' rise post-COVID which has been a particularly challenging period for the arts culture and cinema industry generally speaking so there's the attendance figures from 2019 to the present day as you can see on there obviously we've got the COVID years in there as well where we did have some attendances but obviously they were very limited due to the the space that we had to use at that time because it was obviously we had a lot of social distance and things like that point. So we have 47,436 at the moment. UKSPF, Events Culture and Heritage Project aims to reinviderate the Council's programme of heritage work which was paused due to the pandemic. One of the strands of this work is the creation again in Heritage Way, change to connect the Bora's physical and intangible heritage and encourage officers to walk, cycle around the Bora. The programme of events and cultural activities at the Council are able to deliver directly as a result of this funding and those at the degree that are able to provide through the availability of additional funding and resources, enable connection, cohesion and enhance community, health and well-being. So I'm interested in walks in that actually, so I'm interested in walks where you can sort of link in with the country part, the dumbballs, the hub books and quite a few other areas down in the Collett Valley area as well. The Council's events programme provides officers for local to improve their physical and mental health by promoting in-house leisure provision and by engaging local health partners to move up their services, events are programmed around the Bora to enable as many people to attend as possible and they provide a chance post-pandemic for community connection, contributed to an option in social isolation, the events programme aims to engage as a residence as possible but due to capacity where the Council are unable to deliver events and appreciate or around smaller community hubs, advice and guidance and resources provided to support the local events and organisers. The Council provides support to a vital cultural organisation with high creative projects across a number of arts forms that support the health and well-being of local residents. These have included city arts who do quite a lot actually with our young people locally, long-standing delivery of expressions to health and well-being sessions, young people age 13 plus, reminiscent from theatre workshops with how made theatre first related to older people in the Bora. Drama and film workshops from flying high at the wanted theatre which also provide opportunities for social heating. Public art in Council parks are commissioned in public art in the Council's parks and open spaces and answers to the wider local area that allows for the celebration of the history and heritage of the Bora. Public art projects promote greater connection with our green spaces and expand the ways that residents can engage with the natural environment. So you're pleased to know that I sent in my presentation and thank you for listening, thank you very much. If there's anything else you want me to come back on, please please just ask that question and pop it to come back. Well thank you, that was very comprehensive. So I don't know if there's any other questions from anyone else, if not I have a question yet. That's a good question. It is a quick one and I'm asking you to go back to the question really about social describing and about the use of the legislature centres. I've not played pickleball but I know it's one of the biggest growing sports, sort of in the country and it's I know other areas that it's been used to like social prescribing because it's basically a low impact version of tennis basically and it's just is it something that we've looked at being able to support in our legislature centres or linking in with, I know there's a local Nottinghamshire organiser, is it something we've looked at linking in with yet? Is it other any plans? Does anyone know how to play it? I wanted to give it a go. I think we need to have a conversation because I don't think we've got any plans at the moment unless the team are secretly amongst their various plans I have looking to do some but I have to do any ideas you've got about that to particularly if you're playing yourself and tips because it's a yeah I think this council wheeler says with the legislature centres at the moment it's about how we can best utilise the space isn't it? Because what we have at the moment we've got I think in some of the presentation highlights we've got a balance around the challenges of subsidy and and how we might use the space to increase income whilst also delivering those social value projects around whether it's social prescribing type programs etc really so and again some of our space can have its limitations because obviously we've got quite old buildings at the moment and that configuration isn't it but certainly yeah if you wanted to send me an email have a conversation and we can we can have a look at that really and see what our options are for now into the future maybe. Yeah brilliant thank you. Councillor BIDDING. On the Councilor Brocklebank's team of low impact sports or low intensity sports darts is a sport that is very good for bringing people together and there was a fantastic piece recently about a darts club in Beeston that brings together local veterans and they're able to kind of talk about mental health issues and so on. Do we have any darts boards spaces within our leisure centres or are other and if we don't would we be open to creating some? I think there's this potential to put with partners around looking at that into even if it's not the leisure centres there's potential partners out there that might be able to do that. So some of the partners that use some really centres or even actually some of the local pubs possibly. Yeah we could look at that and again in terms of coming back to the question from Councillor Oya and around Squash I'm not the first to looking at Squash and looking at how we you know maybe able to promote that and make it more of an offer locally but as I say it calls back to the assets we've got how we manage that and the reality on the ground at the moment unfortunately is that we've tried to market Squash but people aren't using it it's really difficult but I'm happy to look at that and look at how we might be able to come to some kind of you know I don't know it's a difficult one difficult call that one but we could look at it I don't know if you want to say something. Just on the darts thing I mentioned we have got dart boards at Richard Herod Centre which are available for public use. The thing the darts and it's kind of I suppose accreditation is a sport it's a view about whether it is or not so but it's a kind of real opportunities isn't it because we know even in the last few months it's suddenly the profile of darts is raised because different young people being involved in YVU so I think you know so we're even at Richard Herod there is an opportunity for us to think about how we market that opportunity for people to come on site because actually in effect that's a free activity isn't it because people can come into the bar area and utilize that and again how do we use that to balance around maybe some income for us as well in different ways and yeah. I like your description of it as low impact as unless you're on the right end of the dart I think. I wasn't aware that there's a board of Richard Herod but I understand is that where the armed forces breakfast happen as well as our Richard Herod so maybe there might be a tie in there that could happen I mean sometimes it's just about signposting people isn't it to where these things are thank you absolutely. So I just wanted to ask you a question so this at this committee it regularly comes up about the lack of access to dentists in the borough and we are hoping to try and get somebody from the ICS to come and talk to us about that but I wondered if there was any way you could influence that or if you had any information I mean certainly in terms of the health and wellbeing board there is a priority around oral health so for example there's a you know a program around brushing teeth which is being implemented in a lot of schools a lot of education around that but also I think I don't know if people know that the water is also the looking at fluoridation of water as well obviously that's not an answer to the issue around accessing the dentist but I think the only way you want to get that answer is if you actually get the integrated care board here to the Scooter Committee and I somehow put them on the spot about how they're looking at dentistry more widely but yeah I mean I can talk certainly talk to them about it and ask questions but whether they're going to give me the right answer is another another matter thank you thank you I think they're am ascending the request to them thank you okay so and that took longer than perhaps we thought it would but thank you very much for for very comprehensive presentation and you are free to stay or leave okay thank you so next item on our agenda is a progress report on the carbon management strategy I'm personally very pleased this is here because I undertook the the carbon training and as my pledge I said that in my role as chair scrutiny I'd make sure that he wants to do us so I can get myself a big tick now thank you thank you chair I'm Melvin Cryer the head of environment and in charge of carbon management and also the be friendly policy and the quiet fireworks policy so I'll be delivering the three reports this particular report the carbon management one is an update to the committee on the progress of the carbon management strategy and action plan in March 2022 cabinet approved a carbon management strategy and action plan which details a program of works to ensure the council and community achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030 there are many actions set out in the action plan in appendix two on page 43 of your packs that we are currently delivering to and we're making good progress in many some of the actions delivered are shown illustrated by photographs in appendix three on page 71 in your packs as part of our bid to address our carbon emissions the council commissioned apse the association of public service excellence to refresh and calculate our carbon footprint as they did in 2019-20 using data from July 22 to July 23 this data is provided in appendix one on page 25 of your packs the table on page 18 of the report innocent summarizes this and shows the comparison of emissions between 1920 and 22-23 as can be seen it shows overall our carbon emissions have reduced by 22 percent which indicates a significant move in the right direction with more to come the main driver of this has been the change in fleet fuel use in April 23 onwards from hydro carbon diesel to hydrogenated vegetable oil hveo fuel this has seen a 90 percent reduction per vehicle in our seer two emissions across our fleet this advanced renewable fuel works in the diesel engines without need for further capital expenditure or charges sorry changes to our fleet infrastructure and those slightly more expensive at 17p a litre more it produces an effective solution on our journey towards decarbonisation for the next generation during the past year our climate change officer has also worked with local schools in collaboration with the neighbourhood wardens to promote the car idling campaign to encourage vehicle users when dropping off their children at school to switch off their engines whilst wasting outside the gates this initiative received good national and local media attention has served to drive down unnecessary vehicle emissions in such areas the green rewards scheme launched at the end of October 21 has been extended for a further year green rewards is an online platform designed to incentivise and encourage residents to undertake positive environmental behaviour change a shared partnership project between the Nottinghamshire boroughs and districts and Nottingham City Council today six hundred and thirteen get in more residents have registered as members and this number is growing during 2023 get in borough council will announce as national winners at the apsey annual service awards and in September that we won in the best category working initiative the entry for this group included some metropolitan and city council so a significant win which once again shows getting borough council and its partner authorities leading the way additionally in 2023 Nottinghamshire County Council received five point five million for local electric vehicle infrastructure termed Levi across the whole of the Nottinghamshire area and gettling have been partnering and consulting on this by putting forward suggestions where these charging points can be installed locally this collaborative of work is currently still ongoing equally a collaborative bid led by Nottingham City Council has successfully secured 287 000 of government funding from the net zero living through the fast followers competition this bid was submitted in partnership with gettling borough council Nottinghamshire County Council Darbyshire City Council and Darbyshire County Council and Brock Stowe and Rushcliffe borough councils funded by the Department of Energy Security in net zero and innovate UK it aims to accelerate progress towards local climate goals achieving net zero in the region requires partners to work together and the fast followers funding will build on the positive collaborations between Nottinghamshire and Darbyshire moving forwards it commenced in July 23 in the project runs until autumn 25 during the year our climate office has successfully submitted a bid and received funding from cycling UK for the big bike workplace revival and as a result three events were organised and delivered by them in spring 23 this allows staff to access servicing for their bikes and associated repairs which were undertaken free of charge the climate change officer delivered the first climate change assembly to over 315 children and all staff at Arnold Hillview primary school to celebrate earth day in spring 2023 and they also attended a youth council meeting in autumn 23 to discuss how the youth council can get more involved the meeting generated various actions that the council agreed to follow up on gettling borough council has also introduced an innovative recycling scheme which has been available at the Arnold Calvin and Compton forum leisure centre the leisure loop recycling scheme it makes it easier for swimmers to recycle many common items at their local centre such as goggles swim caps and floats and by January 24 we'd recycled over 350 kilograms of swimming work pool waste this received good media coverage including an appearance on BBC East Midlands today when the scheme was first launched the climate change officer made a compelling presentation on gettling's journey to net zero to the parish councils at the parish council conference in November 23 and we also presented what support could be offered to residents on the impacts of flooding caused by climate change and to celebrate and promote national recycling week in October the climate change officer organised and delivered workshops this included an interactive presentation on the importance of recycling paper and saving trees and how this directly links to climate change with a project to make new paper from the school's waste paper to illustrate this gettling borough council has also been recognised for its actions to tackle the climate emergency all councils across the country were graded on the delivery of their climate actions in October 23 by the organisation climate emergency UK who assessed all councils across seven different sections councils are then given a percentage on how well they were delivering on their climate actions to achieve net zero and gettling was graded graded the highest of the seven boroughs and districts in Nottinghamshire at 31 percent our climate change officer has been regularly communicating throughout the year with various groups in particular supporting and providing updates for two of our local climate groups gettling climate group and burn choice climate action group as part of this partnership support approach burn choice climate group held a warm homes tour for residents in October 23 additionally the first nature and climate convention took place in November 23 the first in the borough and Nottinghamshire with over 90 people attending the progress made to date in this report because many of the recommendations mentioned in the climate and nature convention report that is appendix 43 on page 47 in your packs the climate change officer will continue to support gettling climate change group to deliver further on these action areas where practice will impossible this is as well as working collaboratively collaboratively at events such as on at Hill Park in June and gettling country part in August where they promoted the green reward scheme and engaged on sustainability and climate change messages with our residents in November the first climate change debate took place in the council chamber with 60 children taking part it was chaired by the mayor of gettling and climate change officer taking on board a question and answer session the climate change officer has delivered two government literacy training sessions it was already mentioned to the senior leadership team heads of service and elected members they've also put together a dedicated section on climate change on the gettling borough council website so that local residents can be informed and educated about the impact of their footprint on the borough especially the need to reuse carbon emissions as well as providing information for staff on sustainability and climate change on the internal internet in terms of planning and new house developments the developer keep mode is delivering on the first development of new homes in the borough that would produce up to 80% less carbon emissions than standard homes the homes at gettling green a development comprising of 33 new homes at the site of the former colliery will see properties that feature air source heat pumps solar panels increase levels of insulation and EV charging points to achieve and deliver to new future homes regulations and in terms of decarbonisation of our property portfolio an independent technical adviser has been appointed to assist on the submission of the public sector decarbonisation scheme phase buoy which is the sales application the council awaits a response but it is understood that the anticipated council contribution would be in excess of 900 000 for a 2.1 million civic centre project so not an easy result on how some pertinent road projects have been deferred and will be delivered at a later date the council's home upgrade grant phase one and the local authority delivery grant phase three schemes both concluded in 2023 as a result of both schemes a total of 69 energy efficiency measures were installed in 68 low energy performance homes for the residents likely to be in fuel poverty at those properties the schemes funded by government grants were delivered in partnership with eon energy and notting a energy partnership and a total spend of 775 000 was used utilized to install the energy efficiency measures in the edge eligible homes over the course of the two schemes the project completed installations of external wall in salations at 25 properties solar panels at 35 properties loft insulation three properties and smarter heating controls in six others and currently we have the hug two and devolution retrofit schemes running as successor schemes focusing on this same fuel property area the years also seen the installation of a new fitness studio with state-of-the-art accessive equipment at Carlton Forum leisure center or the new equipment not only meets the need of disabled and other users but also is self-charging and doesn't require plugging into the power supply as well with LED lighting being installed in the exercise studio red hill leisure center have also installed six secure cycle lockers to encourage sustainable travel to and from the leisure center and in 2324 over 3000 trees were planted throughout the borough as the council continues to move to mitigate against the effects of climate change these were funded by the urban tree challenge fund and trees for climate grant funding the financial legal qualities and carbon reduction and environmental sustainability implications are all noted in the report so in summing up committee members are asked to note the summary of actions and activities already undertaken by the council to date in this area thank you thank you very much are there any questions on that report I've got Councillor Pope and then Councillor Robinson paint thank you very much for that report really informative can I can I just start by commending the council on the move to using HVO fuels and driving down our common emissions despite calls from other parties to move back to diesel at the agenda setting council but the question I have is really related to to taxes and whether there's more that we can be doing as a council to reduce carbon levels from taxi use so I note in the report it's an ongoing piece of work I wonder if you could talk a bit more about what you're actually doing and if we could be doing more I think at the moment we aren't doing anything in that area but we could certainly do so bearing in mind that obviously we're running a taxi to persons livelihood and then there are the requirements to increase the cost of fuel etc that we'd be asking of them but certainly we can make recommendations along those lines and again in terms of electrification I think that's a move to come but we need to see more electric charging infrastructure within the borough than we have currently to enable the taxis to keep their vehicles topped up all the times they're going about and delivering their customers to wherever they need dropping off but yeah certainly I'll bring that up with Kevin Neil on our taxi licensing office so we can discuss that. Councillor Robinson Payne. Thank you the report was brilliant the council's doing such amazing job on this front I think when you compare to others and actually to hear that we're actually achieving awards that perhaps city councils or metropolitan borough councils as you said in your report that we are achieving those awards that is great news and good to hear just a question really on the car idling campaign I know that you said in your report that we've been working with teams of staff going out there and sort of promoting that campaign and trying to get parents and guardians and whoever are dropping children off to change their habits has that has that been successful has it has it stuck with people or do we need to be constantly reminding people about about idling because I know it's been brought up with me in the past actually quite recently by residents that people don't tend sometimes turn off a car so just about sort of are we continually reminding people are we keeping up with that campaign? The initiative was launched with success but you're quite right to say over a period of time that then declines again because people get into old habits so yeah there is certainly a need to work with cons and get that message out there on a periodic basis to refresh it and I'll make sure that we're looking to do it in the future. Councillor Hiting. Thanks. Yeah thanks for the report now and can we put on record our thanks to the climate change officer Simma's work thanks she does fantastic work just picking up on what Councillor Robinson Payne was just saying about car idling we've got hot spots in Collick and I'm sure we all have in our wards where it's not just outside schools so I'm thinking of roads where kids would be playing at a park and you know parents sit there and in summer they don't want to turn the car off because the air conditioning goes off and then in the winter it's the heating so I completely understand the need to kind of continually get these messages out but could we expand it beyond just at schools? The best thing that we've done in Collick about this is actually got the kids involved and then the kids tell the parents and I'm sure those of us who are parents or no children know that if your kids tell you something you're much more likely to take it on board than if you see it on a Council social media but could I just ask you a question also about tree planting the tree planting figures are really good and that's great how are we getting on with identifying larger areas of land perhaps that we might be able to plant more significant numbers of trees on for the future? So we're pointing at a college officer shortly their job will be to go across the borough and identify those areas where we can improve the biodiversity now some will be Council owned but some will be privately owned as well so they'll be working with private landowners in partnership to also make recommendations to them about how they might be would have increased their biodiversity of the areas that they own certainly set aside land areas to the end of farmers fields where you've got your headlands and things like that so yeah that will be taking place and that's part of the planning department who will be running with that. I'm just going to ask a question first. So I know at the moment it's challenging isn't it in terms of the short term cost of some of these initiative against the longer term goal of reaching net zero and I just wondered is that the biggest challenge that we face in getting to our target or are there other challenges? The two challenges I think we face at this moment in time are one decarbonizing our property portfolio we've got a lot of old buildings and we will have to look at our assets moving into the future as to what we want to do with them. This building for instance isn't the most energy efficient council chamber you can imagine with a lofty roof like this the Civic Center is a big sprawling building six boilers at the moment energy efficient as which as they can be gas boilers it would take over 20 heat source pumps and the cost for installing those heat source pumps currently is as I indicated quite high these are some of the realities we've got to wrestle with moving into the future and then the other big area that we've got to work in is with scope three which are those organizations immediately outside that we deal with so those organizations within the borough but also those companies we deal with outside the borough to make sure that their carbon credentials are all there and transparent for all to see rather than you know that they're sourcing timber from unstable sources and things like that that's another area where we struggle staffing wise resilience wise with to deliver to but it is something we'll be looking to improve upon as we move forward. Councillor POOP schools that idling of engines is an issue but does does the council work with school PTAs and other groups associated with schools to raise awareness of idling. I think we can to be fair to county council that we're on the education department and then you've got the academies which are separate now and are hived off from the county council even so we can certainly influence and partner work with them and through our climate change officer we have got that access into schools because they love coming in delivering carbon agendas in the lessons and things like that so I think that's the toe holding that we've got that we can work towards delivering to that agenda moving forward. Thank you and just as an example of heat pumps I believe NUH Nottingham University Hospital is currently trying to transition and they're having to dig 660 to 70 boreholes to provide enough heat transfers and if you're looking for green spaces to plant trees can I put a bid in for planesway huge green area right in the middle of the borough and now we don't seem to be likely to have a road to build down it it would make an ideal green lung for the borough. Thank you. I don't think there's any more questions but I think the committee would appreciate if you'd perhaps come annually to update us on progress. Lots and lots. Okay so bees next. Of the application of the Council's bee friendly pollinator policy seen in appendix 1 on page 99 of your packs it summarizes the actions being taken to stop the decline of bee and pollinating insect populations by the creation of biodiverse pollination habitats and the banning of the use of harmful herbicides and pesticides on council owned land. The report follows a council motion on the 27th of January 21 regarding the adverse effects of the use of herbicides and pesticides on land in the UK that is impacting on bee and other pollinating species leading to their decline. In summer 21 Gellinborough Council Parks and Streetcare Service started to introduce changes to its parks and green spaces maintenance regime. It carried out in order to its open spaces and identified unused areas within its parks and green spaces that could be set aside as open grassland wildflower habitats and areas for tree planting to provide much needed habitat for pollinators. These include Gellin Country Park, Arnott Hill Park, Burton Road Jubilee Park, Digby Park, the Hobbes, Brett Hill Park, Lambley Lane, Willa Park and Arnott Vale Park. This has continued since such that the total area now set aside for wildlife meadows is 5.5 hectares sorry acres and is growing each year. The full list of sites can be seen in appendix 2 on page 96 of your banks. Each year running April to May and September to October other areas also remain free of cutting to allow pollinators to forage during optimum flowering and feeding periods. Over time this approach is creating an extensive network of habitat mosaics which are managed to optimise the range of habitats provided for pollinators across our open space network. Further planting of both trees and wildflower meadow habitat has been undertaken at our country parks, green flag parks and recreation grounds and species rich grassland and trees for the benefit of pollinators have also been included in landscaping schemes at the country park, Digby Park, Arnott Vale and Thackeray's recreation grounds. Tree planting which includes sheltering and overwintering habitat and increasing the number of flowering pollen rich species including blossom producing spring flowering trees such as apple, cherry hawthorn, blackthorn and sallow have all been planted over the last five years we've planted over 9,499 native tree species. Our council's country parks are managed for the benefit of biodiversity and pollinators are an integral part of this activity with open grassland areas managed to maintain flowering plants and grasses. The aim being to create greater diversity and optimum soil conditions. A gathering control are the habitat is specifically managed for the benefit of red list species the dingy skipper butterflies providing foraging and nesting opportunities for them. In January 21 the council stopped the use of neonicotinoids and glyphosate across all public access land that it manages in a proactive effort to reverse the destruction of the bees and pollinators habitats and protect human health. The arising action plan is shrine this resolve and confirmed no use of the damage in neonicotinoids or glyphosate weed killers. At the time members wrote to the environment secretary and gallium boroughs local members of parliament condemning the UK's government recent authorization in England of the use of the pesticide contained in the neonicotinoid thiaminoxam. In England sorry despite the EU wide ban on its outdoor use an explicit government place to keep the restrictions. They called on the UK government to fund the proper research into the hazards of glyphosate on human and nature's health. Unfortunately the government have still continued to allow that herbicide sorry pesticide to be used. The council's past service department has also been trying alternatives to herbicide use however no viable effective affordable and environmentally friendly alternatives have yet been found but work continues in this area. Working with local schools and community groups be friendly opportunities have been developed focusing on the range of actions that could be taken at the local level by such groups and signage such as that shown in appendix three, page 98 in the pack show how we promote information used to support the initiative to help raise awareness and mobilize local community groups who has helped through whose help we've planted 4,000 plus trees since 2021 including community orchids in our country parks and school grounds. Our partner highways authority has also introduced a no-mo may approach in 2023 and delays its end of season cuts to maintain flowering plants and grasses for a longest practical reason practically reasonable on our verges. Our part that sorry many of Gelliburo's richest wildflower grasslands have been identified of sites of local importance for nature and biodiversity. These sites are protected through the policies in the council's local development plan. The local development plan also contains policies to protect areas rich in biodiversity within the wind or couldn't reside from inappropriate development and identifies green networks within major settlements. Continuing biodiverse habitat surveying which I've alluded to earlier will assist with both the identification of an improvement of areas of existing species rich wildflower grassland under recent biodiversity net gain and offsetting planning policy changes. Such ecological surveys will help in the protection enhancement creation and mapping of these beneficial habitats to ensure that they thrive and grow equally all new developments in the future will additionally have to evidence biodiversity net gain which is a way of creating and improving natural habitats. Biodiversity net gain makes sure a new development has a measurably positive impact on biodiversity compared to what was there before development. This is now mandatory from February 24 and part of Gelliburo Council's planning policy. The financial legal qualities and carbon reduction in environmental sustainability implications are all noted in the report so in summing up committee members are asked to note the policy and summary of actions and activities already undertaken by the council today. Thank you. Thank you and before I take questions does anyone who is a councillor in 2021 know if we had a people had a reply to the letters to the members of parliament about insecticides. I have copies of the letters but I never saw the reply. Thank you. So I've got questions from councillor Ellis and councillor Robertson Payne. Thank you and I'm sure we very much welcome all the initiatives that you and your team are taking with regard to promoting bee-friendly policies. I am looking at item 1.4 in your report and the establishing of wildflower meadows on unused parts and public green spaces. Could I encourage the borough to consider working with Nottingham City and in particular Nottingham City homes who own a number of small but significant green spaces particularly in the gardens area. It's the way that the development was established. A great many sort of plots of grass which are not used particularly by local residents and might very productively be used for meadow and flower plots. Thank you. Thank you Mel and just to say again just to echo what councillor Ellis has said it's really good to see what's actually happening to support pollinators in scheduling and considering that this some of this work come out of you know members bringing forward emotion it just shows what we can achieve together and actually despite the financial constraints the council finds itself under due to the government cutbacks. I just wanted to understand a little bit better how the policy is making an impact in a positive way obviously the things we can see but for me it would just be you know how can we look at sort of the decline of bee and pollinating insect populations how can we look at how that's changed if at all since the policies enactment and I just wanted to know if there is I saw in the I think it was one of the appendices that there was a brief reference in the policy documents about keeping up to date with scientific evidence on pollinator health but I'd just like to know a bit more about how we're monitoring measuring and are we working with organisations like Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and partners like that. Wildlife Trust and they do do insect monitoring in Geddling Country Park we've also had monitoring done at other sites as well but I'll be honest it's something we could improve on. One of the issues would always be we're controlling the land we own directly but we can only influence on other land areas so you know the farmers are still spraying their fields with glyphosate and things like that so the problem is with the insect population it shares that habit out with both the farmers fields and our own parks and open spaces so whether it would ever be categorically good data that proved an increase in pollinator species I'm not quite sure but certainly within our own parks we can do because we survey them on a regular basis so we should be able to show that data moving into the future. Thank you that's really helpful just a little bit more of a parochial question I suppose just in relation to some issues that were raised with me recently in my own ward in Daybrook. The county council contract holder for spraying of overgrowth at various locations in my ward recently. The council I believe Geddling were account size designated areas if the request from residents about not spraying certain parts or certain locations but unfortunately on an occasion this was missed I understand that the county council the contract holder for the spraying didn't pick up on the fact that Geddling had designated certain areas for not to be not to be sprayed so I think the contractor did blame communication between the councils but I just wanted to check that when contracts are signed for these these types of works are we making sure that enough information is being shared in terms of no spraying or designated zones just so that I know efforts have been made to protect the work of the council that we've talked about and so that residents also feel that they've sort of been listened to on the issue because there was quite a bit of upset recently in some parts of the ward which I think the contact of the council but I just wanted to put that out there that I think that communication is really important between the contract holders and the council. So where we're at with that is if I as the environmental head of service and one of my staff employee contractor we will ensure that they comply with our regulation so no good life say no pesticides. The issue with the county council contract is we don't control it it is actually a county council contract we can influence it but they maintain all the verges and street trees within the borough. Geddlingborough council does not maintain those we maintain our parts and our spaces they currently still do use glyphosate they only use it once at the beginning of the year in spring and then they pretty much don't come back again though they will say they do a second application and they do in in in select areas so they are on hard paved areas that they don't spray it onto the grass verges but on hard paved areas they are still using glyphosate as far as I understand anyway. I can check that and I can make a representation to them that they ought to stop using glyphosate but we do need to be mindful of the fact that currently there aren't many other alternatives and I guess out of that conversation people would need to be educated on expecting more weeds across the borough because we wouldn't have the the means to control them that's something we need to be aware of. There are foam hot foam applications there are flame applications but obviously huge health and safety issues with those and the problem with the foam applications is you need a truck you need a generator you need a tank and then you've got large rubber hoses you've got to drag everywhere and you've got to be linked to the truck all the time to spray the hot foam so it's not very effective if you're going down long alleyways and things like that whereas the knapsack was always handier because you just pump handle and then spray it as you walk down so there are issues with that. I think industry will be working overnight on trying to resolve this problem at the moment because whatever company comes up with that magic chemical is going to be very rich. I've done the back of it because at the moment the the horticultural industry is struggling to find an alternative. There are tank mixes where you can put one chemical in with another but what they'll often do at the moment is just take the greenery away they still leave the roots in the ground and then within about four weeks the greenery is growing back up again if it's a perennial plant it will get rid of the annual plants but if it's a perennial they come back up again so there are issues around it but I know that the industry is actively looking into it at the moment and I can have that conversation with my counter-counsel recorders as recommended they perhaps consider non-use of life state in the future. Okay I'm conscious of the times I've got questions from Councillor Brown and Councillor Whiting. Thank you. Going back to the wildlife meadows sorry is this something you would be discussing with parish councils because we would be extremely interested in doing this and a few years ago we were talking about doing wildflowers on roundabouts for instance Thackeries was mentioned several times is that still in the mix thank you. Just in terms of the round abouts once again we don't control the round abouts Thackeries is a historic annual bedding anomaly in that traditionally we always decorated that and put the bedding on it so we we now put perennials on it and there's a display I think of yellow tulips on there at the moment for instance you've got a temper wildflower meadows with a resident's perception of what's going on because they they can start to perceive that the council suddenly stop maintaining everything and the grasses are just being left to grow you know out of control so to speak but certainly yes I would love to get with the parishes so so any parishes that want to approach me in terms of introducing wildflower meadows in their areas yeah let's make it happen I'd be fully on board with that um thanks chair a colic parish councilor doing a wildflower meadow in colic at the minutes I'm sure if any other parishes want to come and see what's been done but just on the letter that was sent was it 2021 um forgive me I'm not aware who sent it but if if possible perhaps we could encourage you ever sent it to write again because 2021 we've probably had about 10 different environment ministers since then um but the issue hasn't gone away and I think it's about time we had a you know basic uh decency says that we should have had a response within the past three years so perhaps I don't know if that's met or the chair couldn't ask whoever wrote those letters to write again please we can certainly go back and ask the portfolio holder they know okay so if there's no more questions then we want to quiet fireworks thank you chair so quiet fireworks this report is to update the committee on the progress of the quiet firework policy seen in appendix one on page 116 of your packs the resulting delivery action is in relation to firework displays held on council owned land the report follows on council motion on the 27th of january 21 regarding the adverse effects that loud noises from fireworks can have on the welfare of vulnerable people and animals the council resolved to launch a public campaign to raise awareness of these impacts in the borough to encourage adverse advertising sorry advanced advertising of plans firework events and promote alternative forms of activity such as quiet fireworks or other light displays it also resolved to look at how fireworks are used at council events with a view to move away from loud fireworks annoy annoys con sorry noise controls on firework displays policy was announced by geddling burra in january 21 and received positively by residents of the borough since its introduction local fireworks supplies are being encouraged to stop quiet a fireworks limited at the maximum noise level of 90 decibels for those sold to the public for private displays to help minimize the disruption of fireworks on animal welfare and vulnerable people also low reduce fire sorry low reduced noise fireworks are now commonly available on the uk domestic sales market with azda tesco morrisons aldie and others all stocking low noise varieties in 2019 sainsbridge took the decision to ban firework sales entirely most commercial display companies offer low reduced noise fireworks as a customizable option on professional displays there's no significant price premium for reduced noise options those noise fireworks i.e those under 90 decibels are not completely silent but are restricted to a comfortable prescribed level all public displays on council owned land are advertising advanced to actively promote public awareness about the impact of fireworks on vulnerable people and on animal welfare to allow residents to take precautions for them and the council will be actively promoting the rspca's public awareness campaign hashtag bang out of order to help raise awareness of the impact of fireworks on animals highlighting precautions that can be taken to mitigate risks at key times of the year such as bonfire night new year chinese new year in devali a list of the known fireworks events held in the boroughs attached to appendix two on page 118 in your pack and an example of a record of a decision to hold such an event is attached at appendix three on page 119 of your packs your attention is drawn to the paragraph point five the decision on the record which asks for evidence before granting permission of compliance with this policy the financial legal equality and carbon reduction in environmental sustainability implications are all noted in this report so in summing up committee members are asked to note the policy and a summary of actions and activities already undertaken by the council today thank you thank you i suppose similarly to the last report um it would be helpful for this committee to know if any of those letters get a reply um and the other point i just had was that i didn't see the um carton town football club fireworks on the list it's an ever changing scene there are new ones coming on all the time that that that's the uh i think stand here will wreck that's where the um they're held those are the one now on carton who as well carton town football club holder naniel fireworks on their ground i think it's one of the biggest in the borough now and counsellor whiting just ever so quickly chair um now do you talk do we talk to let neighboring local authorities about this because obviously a a 90 decibel firework in gedlingborough or 150 decibel that's just over the border with is you know so Nottingham city rushcliffe and broxtow are all running similar policies and i think ashfield are as well now so there are quite a few councils now starting to adopt this quite if i were policy any other questions no well thank you very much for your marathon report giving it was i mean i learned lots of things i didn't know so thank you so last but not least we've got our um quarter three risk scorecard to look at thank you thank you chair um good evening everyone um i'm tina adams the head of finance and ict and interim section 151 officer i'm here today to present the quarter three risk scorecard and talk about risk management so the current risk management strategy and framework was actually approved by um cabinet in october back in 2017 um it is due for renewal in 2024 and a new risk management framework has actually been designed um and has been now been approved and it's based on a much more detailed scorecard um and based on a best practice model as defined by our internal auditors bdo um so the current framework defines how risks are managed by the council and includes risk registers and scorecard um existing risks are identified in both operational and in corporate risk registers and are reviewed on a quarterly basis by senior management and on an ongoing basis by our internal auditors um because of that it means that some risks are set with initially quite a high risk score with the expectation that as mitigation measures and actions are undertaken through the course of the year the risks will reduce however not all risks will reduce um some will inherently remain high or as red or amber just due to their nature and i'm going to talk about one of those and when we get on to the on to the actual risks so the the um corporate risk register and the risk scorecard have 13 risks on there um these have been reviewed and updated for quarter three um i'll go through each one of them individually and give you the opportunity to ask questions on each one so the first one is a failure to prevent budget overheating and once it's been set now this one is basically all about our current annual budget um it's basically about how well we are managing our budget and how well we're operating services and within our set budget envelope so currently the risk on this one is green it's b2 so it's low likelihood um minor impact it has increased slightly from quarter two when it was green b1 um and that's because at quarter three budget monitoring and it was presented to council on the 31st of January it showed some significant overspends in some areas particularly around environmental services um however underspends in other areas um an additional investment income from our treasury management activities was able to offset those overspends so we are forecasting an overall balanced budget for 23 24 that's why it's still green um the out term so year end is currently being worked through so i can't give you an indication of that year end position yet because i don't have one um hopefully in the next few weeks i will um but we're hoping to report the out term at cabinet in may um so some of our planned works um in the year are around some zero based budgeting particularly around those service areas where we always seem to overspend so in environmental services and i'm going to talk to you about what something that meld um just spoke about to put it in context when we're talking about um kind of like spraying um and not using chemicals so for example um budgets were set um and are based on incremental budgeting so known changes year on year and so when we make changes to the way we deliver services so prime example with what meld just said was not spraying weeds at gettling country park particularly around the half paved areas where that paps used to take five ten minutes to actually go and pull all those weeds up probably takes two three hours and budgets aren't aligned to that at the moment so we need to do some zero based budgeting in those areas um to actually um bring the activity and the performance in line with the budgets and so we're planning to do some of that in the new year it's quite a chunky piece of work so we will pick some of those areas that are overspending um to sort of have a look at those um so has anybody got any questions on that one no okay so move on to number two then so failure to maintain final just an integrity so basically this one is not just about our current year's budget it's about our five year medium term budget um and our ability to main operations and service delivery over the next five years whilst remaining above our minimum general fund balancers so basically about having a five-year balanced budget so currently the risk is read um it's e4 um very high likelihood and major impact it has stayed the same um it hasn't um increased or decreased so the 20 for the reason it's it's read it's one of these ones that inherently always going to be read and always going to be high risk and the reasons for this is basically because of the um the the budget and the interdependence on a significant number of efficiencies um to to maintain a balanced budget and also the um the level of government funding and that we've seen over a number of years and the reductions in that government funding so the 24 25 budget was approved by full council in on the 6th of march um it is a balanced budget over the five years but as i said it does um rely on some um significant efficiencies that will be need to be delivered over the next five years um so we're looking at um 3.5 million pounds worth of efficiencies which need to be delivered by 2829 to maintain that balanced budget position out of that 1.3 0.3 million have already been identified um and are included in the medium term plan for delivery um 460 000 of those are in 24 25 um and another 500 000 which we expect to be delivered through the um digital data um and technology strategy um so the so the remainder of those efficiencies while some have been identified but not fully developed over the next few years they were developed into more firm um efficiency proposals which will be um proposed um and approved um by council in in in um future years um so it it is by its nature going to remain um a red risk and it's very unlikely um to drop below red um over over the the term of the five year plan um so some items store to deliver as part of this um so um we've got our procurement and contract strategy and that we're currently working up and we're waiting for details of the new procurement act which we're expected out um in sept towards September October um implementation of a charging strategy so looking at the way um that we um charge for our fees and um our services and fees and charges um we hope we do currently have a strategy it's in draft format it has been audited quite recently by our internal audit so we're currently in the process of looking at those recommendations and putting those forward um so has anybody got any questions about that risk doing well here um so three so failure to protect staff including health and safety issues this is a number issue um see three significant likelihood and serious impact it hasn't moved from quarter three um it stayed the same um I think when mike was here last time he spoke about um how health and safety um uh continuing with their programs of inspections and risk assessments that's still the case um there is some actions that have not yet been delivered and some staff shortages in some of the service area means that actions are not yet completed um the rollout of the emergency um evacuation and revised scheme was implemented um and the health and safety audit was completed with an overall moderate assurance. Any questions? So for failure to recruit retrain staff and maintain internal capacity um this is amber um c3 again it has stayed the same as it was in quarter two um so um I think mike went through um last time a whole series of of things that we were doing to try and retain and um attract staff into the authority so I won't go through those again what I will say though is that um there's still a national shortage of skilled staff and general difficulty in recruiting however um although the labor market has remained tight by historical standards in october 23 there was a sharp fall in actual wage growth um which will reinforce the belief that the markets should return um to something that we would have expected previously um and I think um looking at some of our recent campaigns recruitment campaigns we've had a much higher level of people applying for jobs which is good news um so let's hope that that continues. Things to still are um to do um around this is um the review of the agile work in which is currently underway um and um we are um undertaking some investment in digital upskilling um as part of our digital data and technology strategy that was approved as part of the budget process. Has anybody got any questions on that one? Councilor Ennis. Yes thank you um I always approve of uh grow your own strategies um and I notice this is this is in this particular uh report uh could you just expand a little bit on on what teams are growing their own and and how they're going about it? So legal um services um they um have actually um got a couple of trainees in there now so they're looking to um train their solicitors up because there has been um a significant um shortage in the market and I think you tend to see it across all of those kind of like professional sectors um again in finance um we um we are looking at a restructuring finance and what we're looking to do is start to grow our own account and so we'll be introducing some trainee um accountancy schemes in there as well as part of that. Councillor lighting. Do we have any um data or insights into whether we get more applicants for roles that are hybrid based or remote based rather than those that need what need to be in the office full time and is that something that's being considered moving forward? So um it's something that we can ask um our HR colleagues they they may have some data um around that um obviously most office based positions are actually um hybrid and agile now if if people want to work in that way obviously um if somebody wants to come into the office five days a week then they can actually do that um what we have seen there is if you look at them other authorities um there is um that that definite general move towards the agile approach um and um the um we hours is actually I think it's at 60/40 so 40% of time in the office had two days out of five hours is actually quite high compared to a lot of other local authorities so what we don't know is actually um if that is a driver if people uh want to um apply for jobs where they can work agile more but it's something we can ask our HR colleagues and I'll do that and hopefully bring that back. We have got um a report on that coming to one of the upcoming committee meetings. Okay um so risk number five is failure to um properly utilize ICT um and react into technology changes and present preventing data loss um again um it's currently red um D3 which is high likelihood significant risk this has increased from quarter to again this is one of those risks it is inherently um red and high risk um just because of its nature um so I think what the um the reason this has increased is that um I spoke about the digital data and um technology strategy um that we've actually implemented or started to implement um that has actually um identified um some risks around ICT um so as part of the road map um so planned for delivery over the next 12 months we're going to be looking at those um and it's basically in a budget shortages um over the years have resorted in a lack of investment in technology um in staff and obviously in training um and really you know we've acknowledged that ICT is the backbone of an organization you know you can't move your arms and your legs without your backbone and that's the same for ICT and so we do need to invest in that digital um strategy and that digital technology um over the next few years um and it's all about improving that customer experience and creating efficiencies um the budget that was approved in um March um by full council did implode some significant investment in digital transformation as part of that digital data and technology strategy okay um so um risks it's six failure to protect and utilize physical um assets again this is red at C4 with significant likelihood this has stayed the same it hasn't moved um since quarter two the risk did increase in quarter one but it does remain amber and it's mainly due to some drainage issues we have at um one of our ledger centers um which we don't actually own so discussions with the county are being held about how to deal with those um also some surveys on some of our properties are being hindered by the lack of an asset management system um we have um numerous spreadsheets them that we're using for kind of like asset management um it's it might seem simple to just say you know go and buy an asset management term system but actually the digital data and technology strategy has identified that we have far too many systems ad hoc systems that don't actually talk to each other and communicate with each other and so whilst we will be looking at an asset management system we have to do it in the overall context of that digital and data technology strategy to make sure that any system that we do procure and use um can work in the way that we need it to work and works in harmony with our digital strategy any no can we pop um okay so risk seven is failure to react to legislation this is a red um red risk um at d3 with significant likelihood and serious impact it has stayed the same it hasn't moved since quarter two um it remains high as a significant changes in legislation that are coming into force which we don't have full details of yet and so we will need to be able to plan for these changes so for example and we all know about the new waste reforms around food waste and weekly collections and we now know that that food waste may affect trade waste collections and which is a paid for discretionary service so we need to understand the costs associated with that um and if the increases in fees and charges can actually cover that we've got a new procurement tax coming into force in october 24 so we need a new procurement strategy that kind of like reflects all the changes in in that new legislation and then also there's been new requirements um for qualification that needs to be undertaken for our building control officers and so they're all the reasons why that risk is remaining um quite high in as as a red risk um so risk number eight failure of contractors or partnership arrangements and contractual breaches um this risk is actually amber at c3 it stayed the same it hasn't moved since quarter two um in quarter three um we had a survey on procurement arrangements um from members of staff to inform future provision and um implementation of some of the internal audit recommendations um on contract management um we will continue to work on in our internal audit recommendations around contract management um still to do is to utilize the um the intent system that we purchase for contract register and management um and we need to review some indemnity insurances in the terms and conditions of contracts just to make sure that they do reflect the council's risk appetite and align with that with the work around the procurement strategy and the new act that I've just spoken about so moving on to risk nine the inability to defend one off challenges to a council decision or compensation trend emerges and so this is green um it's a green risk it's quite low a three so low likelihood um it stayed the same um as it was at quarter two um so as reported um previously to the environmental and licensing committee in january 23 um there was some issues around taxi license fees and which were overcharged a process of a process of refunds has been in place a place for quite a while now and we do have a new methodology for calculating fees um over a three-year period to show that we don't make a surplus this has been development um so that there's no occurrence of this going forward um the new fees and for the new financial year are actually I'm going to be presented at the environmental and licensing committee tomorrow um there's been no change in risk or no specific threats identified um and there is adequate and resource and legal services to support any potential challenges okay so um risk 10 failure to maintain service standards um customer satisfaction and/or meet customer expectations again this is a green risk so it's very low be one low likelihood negligible impact again it stayed the same as it was at quarter two um so we continue to monitor complaints um the new digital data and technology strategy um is all about focusing on that customer journey improving that customer experience um this will bring a host of improvements um to systems and processes um and um we've been talking about that quite a lot what we're expecting quite a lot from that strategy going forward and of course we will obviously need to keep our eyes on staffing levels in customer services and to make sure that we can implement that strategy and implement those changes okay um risk 11 and failure to present prevent damage to the council's reputation again this is a low risk it's green it's B2 with low likelihood and minor impact it stayed the same as at quarter two um the one on here which Mel has spoken a lot about today is carbon it's big on the agenda for reputation and so the carbon management action plan continues to be implemented as you've heard today with the carbon environmental group meeting regularly to monitor actions and update cabinet on those actions um the uh to still to do and the senior management staff restructure um is um currently underway and consultation period has recently ended so this is progressing um quite quickly now um so any questions so um risk number 12 the failure to react to an environmental incident or malicious act um this is an amber risk um c3 significant likelihood serious impact it has stayed the same it hasn't moved but again it's one of those inherent risks that will um usually stay quite high um climate change continues to be a challenge for us and with more flooding in the borough and grants have been awarded for storm babbat and hank um and we have business continuity plans which are largely completed and I believe that Rebecca came to speak to you about this at a previous meeting um and so they will be continuing um and last but not least um risk number 13 failure to react to socio economic trends again this is a very low risk it's green it's B2 um low likelihood but would have a minor impact and again it stayed the same as it was at quarter two and this is all about looking forward to the next 20 or 30 years so you know we have the we have the gettling planning place um we've completed service planning for 24 25 um and service priorities have been identified um and will be reportable over the next 12 months and of course we have the mayoral elections for the combined authority which will take place in just under two weeks now and so that's all the risk so um the only other thing that I just want to update you on is um any other high risk audit recommendations um so join quarter three um the internal audit on the main financial systems was undertaken and that highlighted some high risk recommendations due to the recent fraud that we've had at the council um and that they came out of this audit um so the findings of the audit and a discussion of remedial actions taken so far were actually discussed at the last audit committee um as part as an exempt part of that audit meeting and that was held in March um so the committee's just asked to note um the progress on on the actions and the risks thank you I just wanted to um ask about the um review of the risk management strategy framework so I just wanted to check with because we're lucky enough to have the chair of the audit committee here did is that something that that committee was involved in looking at or yeah thank you yes it was actually presented at the last audit committee meeting thank you just wanted to check there was a member involvement that was all thank you thank you very much there aren't other any other questions no or thank you for staying and thank you for a very comprehensive report okay so the only other item on the um agenda is the um our plan sorry I've got no pages open I can't remember the proper term there we are our work program there we go um a few items have just got moved around just in terms of um Emma um being on leave today and the availability of some people to come and give their reports is there anything anybody wants to ask to go on in light of today's meeting or anything else yeah canceling wrongs of pain thank you chair um I just wanted to raise the fact that as a member you know dealing with casework on a day-to-day basis I have actually received an alarming amount of issues in dealing with section 21 notices that have been issued in my ward and I think in other parts of the borough from what I've heard from some members and it just feels at the moment that these no fault evictions are rising and obviously with a housing crisis already affecting local communities I'd just like to ask whether the committee would consider some scrutiny work to look at this problem in Geddling and perhaps even ask our housing team um or even um the housing team manager here at Geddling Borough Council to come to this committee and give us a view about the situation and perhaps allow us some opportunity to ask questions about how the system is currently coping with this rise in evictions um so would you be happy with that as the first course of action to ask someone to come and give us a report and then see if there's any further scrutiny that arises out of that. Can we put that down? Thank you then. Okay anybody else? No then thank you all very much for attending and you may now go home. Thank you. Thank you. you [BLANK_AUDIO]