Visitors and members of the public who are unfamiliar with the building and procedures are advised that:

(a)      The fire alarm is a continuous loud ringing. In the event that a fire drill is planned during the meeting, the Chair will advise of this.

(b)      Exit routes from the chamber are located on each side of the room, one directly to a fire escape, the other to the stairs opposite the lifts.

(c)      In the event of the alarm sounding, leave the building via the nearest safe exit and gather at the assembly point on the far side of the car park. Do not leave the assembly point or re-enter the building until advised to do so. Do not use the lifts.

(d)      Anyone unable to use the stairs should make themselves known during this agenda item.

The Chair outlined the emergency evacuation procedure.

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their families or friends.

The Chair will ask Members if they have any disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) or disclosable non-pecuniary interests (DNPIs) to declare in respect of items on the agenda. Members with a DPI in an item must leave the room for that item and may not participate in the debate or vote. 

Aside from disclosable interests, where a fair-minded and informed observer would think there was a real possibility that a Member might be biased or predetermined on an item, the Member should declare this and leave the room while that item is considered.

Members who are in any doubt about interests, bias or predetermination should contact the monitoring officer for advice prior to the meeting.

Councillor Ben J Martin declared a non-pecuniary interest as he was employed by a Housing Association.

During the meeting, Councillor Nundy declared an pecuniary interest in Item 8 Temporary Accommodation Update.  He left the room whilst the item was discussed and did not vote.

To approve the Minutes of the Meeting held on 12 September 2023 (Minute Nos. 275 - 280) as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 12 September 2023 (Minute nos. 275 – 280) were taken as read, approved as signed by the Chair as a correct record.

The Community and Partnerships Manager introduced the report explaining that the Health and Wellbeing Improvement Plan 2020 – 2023 had come to the end of its delivery period but as part of the emerging Corporate Plan, health would be holistically embedded across the work of the Council and there were a number of cross cutting key objectives which would contribute to tackling the wider determinant of health.  She said that a new Community Development Strategy was proposed and the team would continue to support the community and develop relationships with key partners in the health sector.

The Chair said that Members and officers had spent considerable time highlighting health issues for Swale residents.  She referred to the presentation given to the Housing and Health Committee in July 2023 by Nikki Teesdale of the Health and Care Partnership for Medway and Swale.  The Chair said that health and well-being was an important part of all service committees.

Members were invited to speak and made comments including:

·           Thanked and praised the team for the work carried out and support given to communities;

·           were attendance figures available for the One Swale Roadshow?;

·           raised concern that without a set of priorities in an accessible form, focus could be lost;

·           scrutiny of declining health and life expectancy in the borough was important and without a priority and framework to work towards, this could be lost;

·           considered it was important to have all the health priorities in one accessible place and expressed desire to keep the Health and Wellbeing Improvement plan;

·           raised the difference in support to Sittingbourne and Sheppey residents from Medway Swale Health and Care Partnership compared to the support given by East Kent Health and Care Partnership as health authority to Faversham residents;

·           cross-boundary issues were frequent;

·           many residents were unaware of the services provided;

·           health providers needed to work together to sort out issues;

·           the health service was divided and it was often about who held the contract;

·           could see the value in obesity clinics as was very difficult to undo once obese;

·           there was a risk that it was nobody’s business when it ought to be everybody’s business and suggested getting Local Plan Policy involved;

·           highlighted that in Workstream 2 – Supporting Healthy Lifestyles – family hubs should be added as many children’s centres were closing; and

·           needed to see the Community Plan before deciding whether to cease the Health and Wellbeing Plan.

The Community and Partnerships Manager said attendance figures were still being collated for the Roadshows, but would be circulated.

The Chair said a possible future Committee topic discussion was to invite Primary Care networks representatives to talk about other forms of direct support.  She added that an invitation could be extended to Nikki Teasdale to attend again to give an update on the work being carried out with community groups and the diagnostic services available that could lead to improved health outcomes.  The Chair suggested that KCC could also attend to give an update on Adult Social care.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 730.

The Safeguarding and Anti-Social Behaviour Team Leader introduced the report advising that the Safeguarding Policy was renewed annually.  She outlined the changes from the previous policy, some of which were as a result of the recent Kent and Medway Safeguarding Adults Board audit that had been carried out.

Members made comments including:

·         Welcomed the updates, particularly the inclusion of trauma informed care;

·         thanked and praised officers for their work;

·         why were elected Members not required to have a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check?;

·         confirmed there would be additional staff training on trauma informed practice;

·         suggested adding coercive control and stalking at 5.1.2 of the policy;

·         praised the guidance on who to contact for support in the policy;

·         queried whether, in the increase of residents with mental health issues using fatalistic language, all incidents should be reported;

·         suggested including unaccompanied refugees as a specific vulnerable group in the policy;

·         praised the excellent document and said the previous policy had been referenced by academics studying housing qualifications in local housing associations; and

·         suggested the sharing of or threat of sharing of intimate photographs be added to the policy.

The Head of Housing and Community advised that the issue of Members having a DBS check had been considered previously but legal advice was that this could not be enforced. She said that new requirements had been considered that required Members that sat on social care and education committees at County level to be DBS checked.  The Head of Housing and Community reminded Members that they could not stand in an election with certain criminal convictions.  In the debate that followed Members spoke of the complexity and different levels of checking and the legal requirements needed to carry out a check. The Head of Housing and Community agreed to look into this again.

The Safeguarding and Anti-social behaviour Team Leader reminded Members of the Adult Safeguarding training that would be taking place the following week which would cover suicide ideation and she advised Members how to report quickly and effectively to the safeguarding team. Referring to unaccompanied refugees, she said this group would still sit within the vulnerable children’s group but further thoughts on including them in a separate group could be considered if it did not add complications.

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Ben J Martin and seconded by Councillor Hayden Brawn.

Resolved:

(1)  That the refreshed Safeguarding Policy for 2024 be agreed.

The Chair advised that the discussion on this item would form the response to the Government’s consultation.

The Head of Housing and Communities advised that a consultation of 40 questions was launched on the 30 January 2024 to consider amendments to the national criteria on housing allocations for social housing. She reminded Members that there were already national criteria, and the Housing and Health Committee could add local criteria and this formed the Council’s housing allocation policy.  The Head of Housing and Communities drew attention to the new proposals as set out in the report on pages 53 to 55.  She advised that since drafting the report, further work had been carried out by Housing Options Policy and Performance Officer on the impact of the proposed changes and she highlighted that one of the biggest proposed changes was around the local connection test which currently was a two year residency criteria for the applicant but under the proposed changes this would apply to family members and could increase the housing register by 30% 

The Head of Housing and Communities drew attention to the tables at pages 54 to 55 that set out the criteria within the policy that was currently covered.  She said the antisocial behaviour test and the terrorism test were not currently linked to the Council’s policy, but the receiving Housing Association might have their own policies in place to manage their stock appropriately.

The Head of Housing and Communication said that the main concern was that the current proposals did not align with homelessness legislation. A number of people currently on the register might be excluded because they did not meet the proposed criteria and she stressed importance of having an exit route for people from temporary accommodation. She said there was no clear guidance around some elements of the proposed changes and some aspects were better managed more effectively using other legislation.

Finally, the Head of Housing and Communities said that a response had been drafted based upon the analysis of the register and she welcomed the views of the Committee so that their views were appropriately reflected in the consultation.

Members were invited to make comments which included:

·         Figures and costs quoted should include the rates of inflation;

·         referred to the anti-social behaviour element of the proposed policy and asked if this applied to the household or just the tenant?:

·         referred to the proposal to demonstrate a connection to UK for ten years, pointing out that this was excessive as the test to benefit from Universal Credit was only three months;

·         in response to any exemptions to a ten year connection suggested that those who had served in the UK armed forces, such as Gurkhas should be exempt;

·         supported the two year family connection proposal as residents might move to areas of their support networks;

·         referred to the current six month rule in key worker employment roles and said a two year employment criteria might make it difficult to recruit if the ability to apply  ...  view the full minutes text for item 732.

The Head of Housing and Communities introduced the report which gave an update on the Temporary Accommodation budget situation in Swale, following on from the last update in September 2023. She said an overspend of approximately £160k was expected and recent weeks had been exceptionally busy so that figure could rise. 

The Head of Housing and Communities said work that had been carried out over the previous six months, around processing clients and helping them to move on as well as being firm around eligibility of criteria had stabilised the spend. She highlighted some key pieces of work that had progressed significantly over the past six months including subsidy lobbying.  The Head of Housing and Community said the Leader and other members had lobbied Government to increase the temporary accommodation funding currently still linked to 2011 LHA rates of which Council’s could only claim 90%, so far without success.

Drawing attention to paragraph 2.9 in the report which set out the gap in the costs of temporary accommodation and the subsidy received, the Head of Housing and Communities highlighted the significant increase in costs since 2018.  She referred to the data collection exercise carried out by the District Councils Network which included information that SBC temporary accommodation costs were one of the highest in the South east.  She said many Councils, including SBC, had been trying to raise the profile of temporary accommodation and there had been recent media enquiries

Referring to the Accommodation Strategy, the Head of Housing and Communities explained that currently much of the accommodation was provided through nightly let arrangements and purchase arrangements which were costly.  She said the programme to purchase accommodation had so far resulted in the completion of two properties which were now occupied, with another 25 properties under offer. The Head of Housing and Communities explained there were sometimes issues with one or two bedroom properties as they were often leasehold flats and the management companies sometimes did not allow their use as temporary accommodation.  She said decommissioned supported arrangement properties were currently being considered.

The Head of Housing and Communities said there had been improvements to their phone lines and a self-serve option on the website was being introduced.  She added that three additional staff had also been employed.

Finally, the Head of Housing and Communities said there were currently 311 families in temporary accommodation, down from the peak of 420.

The Chair praised staff for their excellent work and said it was a good report.

Members were invited to make comments, which included:

·         Funding cuts to Porchlight would have an impact;

·         suggested looking at properties in Leysdown for a quick and economic purchase;

·         highlighted the closure of Bridge House, Sheerness and Johnson House, Sittingbourne;

·         work carried out so far has been good, but SBC did not have the resource to achieve what was necessary;

·         made suggestions on how SBC encouraged Housing Associations to spend money in Swale;

·         could SBC purchase empty Housing Association properties and bring them up to date?;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 733.

The Chair went through the Forward Decisions Plan.

The Head of Housing and Communities suggested the Staying Put Task and Finish Working group could be set up once the outcome of the audit on the disabled facilities grant was known so that it could feed into the review.

There was a discussion around future topic areas, issues experienced and which external representations to invite to a future Housing and Health Committee. The Chair suggested that Nikki Teesdale from Medway and Swale Health Care Partnership and a representative from Adult Social Care could attend a future meeting, and there should be a briefing on the Primary Care Network.  A Member suggested a briefing on how family hubs worked and on Special Educational Needs and Disability provision.  The Head of Housing and Communities clarified which particular areas of service Committee Members had concerns in order that the relevant representative attended.

Resolved

(1)  That the Forward Decisions Plan be noted.