The Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be considering a report pack that contains four substantive items scheduled for discussion. These relate to the Council's response to a Task and Finish Group's recommendations about Youth Provision in Lewisham, the appointment of new Councillors to two Select Committees, and Lewisham Council's approach to reducing poverty in the borough. Additionally, the report pack contains a briefing for the Committee on the cost of living crisis.

Lewisham Council's Poverty Reduction Approach

The Committee will be asked to note a report on Lewisham Council’s Poverty Reduction Approach. The report, which will be presented by Dr Catherine Mbema, Director of Public Health, is scheduled to focus on the Council’s work in response to the cost of living crisis and to consider what steps might be needed to reduce poverty in Lewisham in the longer term.
The report is expected to highlight statistics published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that suggest 32% of people in Lewisham were living in poverty in 2021/22.
The Committee will be provided with information about the poverty commission that was set up by the Council in 2016, which published its final report in 2017, and about the Lewisham Strategic Partnership. The report also summarises the Council’s Cost-of-Living Programme. It is scheduled to cover:

• Food poverty and hunger
• Energy advice and fuel poverty support
• Maximising incomes
• Support through hardship
• Warm Welcomes
• Information, advice and guidance

Response to the Final Report of the Youth Provision Task and Finish Group

Councillors will be provided with a report on the Council's response to the Youth Provision Task and Finish Group’s final report, which was published following a review of youth provision in Lewisham. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be asked to note the Council's response to each of the Task and Finish Group's recommendations. The report is also scheduled to summarise the Council's plans to develop a new strategic youth offer and a new youth strategy for Lewisham, in partnership with young people and voluntary sector organisations. The report identifies the Riverside Youth Club, which is due to reopen in Spring 2025 following a £1.2 million redevelopment. The report explains that the Council’s existing youth service, which was previously delivered by an external provider, is to be brought in-house in April 2025.

Once the youth service is insourced on 1 April 2025, the Council will redesign elements of the existing youth service offer to align with the framework for the Strategic Youth Offer by July 2025.

Appointments to the Housing and Healthier Communities Select Committees

The Committee has been asked to appoint Councillors to the Housing Select Committee and the Healthier Communities Select Committee to replace Councillor Ese Erheriene and Councillor Sakina Sheikh.

Cost of Living briefing

A briefing document has been circulated to the Committee that provides further information about the effect of the cost of living crisis on residents in Lewisham. It outlines six streams of work that the Council has been doing since late 2021. They are:

1. Food poverty and hunger
2. Energy advice and fuel poverty support
3. Maximising incomes
4. Support through hardship
5. Warm Welcomes
6. Information, advice and guidance

The briefing describes the effects of the cost of living crisis on Lewisham residents, and explains what work the Council has been doing in response. For example it says that:

In 2021/22, 32% of people in the borough lived in households with an income of less than 60% the UK average (median), after housing costs. This was worse than the average London borough (Trust for London, 2023).

It also provides details of some of the schemes that the council has in place to help residents. For example, the Warm Welcomes scheme:

In winter 2022-23, 25 Warm Welcomes spaces were funded and supported an estimated 18,000+ visitors. 84% of surveyed users found that the spaces helped them feel more connected and reduced social isolation, in addition to keeping them warm.

The briefing also mentions the Lewisham Foodbank.