This meeting was about the Council's responsibilities towards its diverse community, and how it plans to meet them in the future. The meeting included the presentation of a draft plan to transition the management of community assets to organisations in the Voluntary and Community Sector, a report on the Council's performance against its current Single Equality Framework, and discussion of the draft Single Equality Framework for 2024-2028.

Community Assets Policy

The most significant item on the agenda was the presentation of a draft Community Asset Policy, which was provided to attendees for discussion. The policy proposed the transition of the management of community assets, including community centres, office spaces, playing fields, artists’ studios and community gardens, away from the Council and towards organisations in the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS).

The policy was intended to support the commitments made in the ‘Open Lewisham’ section of the Council’s Corporate Strategy, which included the pledge “We will maintain and strengthen the Lewisham Way of working in collaboration with our voluntary and community sectors and seek new areas where we can partner together.”

The report stated that the Council currently directly manages four community centres, whilst 10 are on Premises Management Agreements (PMAs) and the remainder on a mixture of tenancies, with a small number on full repairing and insuring leases. The report argued that VCS organisations are better placed than the Council to manage community assets because:

The Council considers the VCS as best placed to fully optimise use of its community assets. Regularising and strengthening tenancies would strengthen their status as the custodians of these assets and enable organisations to utilise buildings more effectively.

The report stated that, under the new policy, organisations would be assessed for suitability based on criteria that include:

• Proportion of services/activities that align with the Council’s corporate priorities
• The organisation’s status
• The organisation’s accounts/business plans
• The ability of the organisation to raise sufficient funds to address sustainability and building maintenance

The report stated that once the assessment had taken place, VCS organisations would be offered a lease with the Council. These leases would be offered at one of four rent levels, either:

• Peppercorn rent
• Stepped rent
• Community rent
• Commercial rent

It was stated that the Council would retain freehold of all assets, but may consider granting concessions on rent if:

• The premises accommodate other Council run services (i.e. Adult Social Services)
• Where a VCS organisation occupies premises in need of significant repairs
• The Council wishes to retain an empty building for meanwhile use but is unable to attract an occupant who can pay full rent

The report stated that the transition to the new policy was expected to bring a number of benefits to the Council, including:

The Community Asset Policy (and the accompanying review of community assets) is expected to result in well utilised, effectively managed and efficient use of assets by the VCS whilst demonstrating the value provided by the Council in enabling the use of this portfolio for their proposed purpose.

The meeting also included the presentation of a report on the Council's progress in delivering its current Single Equality Framework.

Single Equalities Framework Review (2023/24)

This report provided a review of the performance of the Council against the five equality objectives set out in the Single Equality Framework that was adopted by Mayor and Cabinet in March 2020, for the period September 2023 to August 2024. The report argued that the Council had made good progress against its objectives, despite the challenges posed by the economic situation.

The five equality objectives included in the 2020-2024 Single Equality Framework were:

• To ensure equal opportunities for marginalised and seldom heard communities.
• To reduce the number of vulnerable people in the borough by tackling socio-economic inequality.
• To improve the quality of life of residents by tackling preventable illnesses and diseases.
• To ensure that services are designed and delivered to meet the needs of Lewisham’s diverse population.
• To increase the number of people we support to become active citizens.

The report stated that the Council's response to each objective over the last year included:

To ensure equal opportunities for marginalised and seldom heard communities

• “Working with our local community and internal stakeholders to review our civic events programme to make it more inclusive and representative of our borough, adding new events and building the profile of the programme.”
• “Establishing a system of wrap-around support for people seeking asylum, with the aim for this community to be welcomed in Lewisham and supported to rebuild their lives. The system includes enhanced GP support, complex case work support, community building activities such as trips and events, therapeutic services for adults and young people, laptops for secondary-aged young people in asylum contingency accommodation and free access to the leisure centre.”

To reduce the number of vulnerable people in the borough by tackling socio-economic inequality.

• “We’ve invested over £4.8m over the lifetime of the Household Support Fund to expand Free School Meals (FSM) into the school holidays, supporting over 10,000 children.”
• “We’ve used over £3m of Household Support Fund to support over 17,000 children from low-income families where they don’t meet the threshold for FSM.”
• “We’ve distributed £1.3m of the Household Support Fund to schools, who have allocated the money quickly and effectively through breakfasts, snacks, packed-lunch top-ups, food parcels and feeding children not eligible for FSM. We’ve shared information from Child Poverty Action Group on how to better support children from low-income families and reduce stigma around accessing support.”

To improve the quality of life of residents by tackling preventable illnesses and diseases.

• “Improved performance in uptake of the NHS Health Check Programme in the second half of 2023/24, now performing well above the target of 40% of those invited attending their NHS Health Check.”
• “Strong performance from the Stop Smoking Service in Quarter 4 2023/24, where we saw almost 300 residents stop smoking, using the Stop Smoking Service.”
• “Bowel Cancer Screening Coverage has continued to improve and annual data for 2023 saw the Lewisham level to be above the national target of 60%.”

To ensure that services are designed and delivered to meet the needs of Lewisham’s diverse population.

• “A trauma-informed training module has been made accessible to the entire Council workforce, with the Senior Leadership Team specifically encouraged to complete the module. Take-up on this training will be monitored and reported on through the Chief Executive’s Equalities Action Plan to ensure its effectiveness.”
• “Between October 2023 and April 2024, the teams responsible for delivering Lewisham’s Levelling Up Funding within Lewisham the town centre worked with over 30 local advocacy groups and their users to help inform designs. A co-design process was used for the Hub to create feedback loops with the key stakeholder groups, allowing input into the design process throughout. Nearly 1500 people shared feedback, 990 people responded to the survey, 450 people shared feedback in person and there were over 8,500 visits to the website.”

To increase the number of people we support to become active citizens

• “Our Young Mayor programme sees a borough wide election where young people in schools cast their ballot to elect a Lewisham Young Mayor and Deputy Young Mayor each year. Now in its 20th year, the most recent turn out saw a total of 9,485 votes cast for 37 candidates - a turnout of 57.46%.”
• “Supported by the distribution of thousands of forms, letters and other methods of communication, during 2024, we added over 25,000 people to the electoral register in Lewisham.”

The report argued that these achievements show that:

Even though the Council is operating in an increasingly challenging environment, a substantial amount of work is undertaken across the entire organisation to work towards the collective equalities goals. Services within Lewisham Council consider the impact of decisions on groups that may be disproportionately effected, and provide substantial support to residents through innovative and effective initiatives.

Single Equalities Framework (2024-2028)

This report outlined the proposed Single Equality Framework for 2024-2028. This document is intended to replace the 2020-2024 framework, and included an extensive analysis of the demographic makeup of Lewisham borough, and the challenges this poses to the Council in meeting its legal duties under the Equality Act 2010.

The report highlighted the need to consider intersectionality in the Council’s decision making, and set out five key priority areas for the next four years, each with a specific objective against which progress can be monitored. The areas and objectives were:

Improving representation in our workforce

• “By 2028, we will employ a workforce which, on the basis of protected characteristics, is representative of our borough.”
• “By 2028, the top 5% of our earners will, on the basis of protected characteristics, be representative of our workforce.”

Making our borough more accessible

• “We will improve accessibility within our public realm, including in our streetscape and our buildings.”
• “We will deliver on the commitments in our response to the Disabled People’s Commission Report.”

Increasing the quality of life of residents by tackling preventable illnesses and diseases

• “Improving data collection by working in partnership with our local hospital trust. Breaking down information by specific ethnicity and considering the differences within ethnic backgrounds and nationality.”
• “Support improvements to comprehensive training with regards to the needs of LGBTQ+ residents for primary care (GPs, pharmacies, VCS groups delivering health activities), as well as acute trusts.”

Improving the way we consider the impact of intersectionality in our decision-making processes

• “100% of Council Key Decisions recognising inequality through the completion of either an Equalities Impact Screening, or Equalities Impact Assessment.”
• “All strategic decisions made by the Council will be accompanied by an Equalities Impact Assessment or Screening.”
• “The progress of each of the Council’s Directorate-level Equalities Action Plans.”

Improving how we engage and co-produce with our residents

• “The Council can evidence its progress against an ambition that consultations will be representative of those impacted by the work being consulted on.”
• “The Council can evidence increasing use of effective co-production models in policy development.”
• “That there is an increase in the proportion of residents who feel Lewisham Council seeks the views of residents before making decisions.”

The report argued that these areas and objectives had been chosen following extensive consultation and engagement, stating that:

As part of our obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty, the Council is required to publish and monitor at least one equality objective. Over the course of 2023, we conducted extensive work to ensure that the objectives we choose to include in this document reflected the views of our workforce, residents, partners and experts in EDI.

Select Committee work programme

A report on the Select Committee work programme for 2024-2025 was also presented to the Committee for discussion. This included proposed reviews of budget savings, the main grants programme, and the libraries review and strategy.