Loading
There is no summary of this meeting yet. Summaries are written once the council publishes the minutes, which are its official record of what a meeting decided. They usually appear a few weeks after the meeting.
1.1 The Chair welcomed Members and Officers to the meeting. Apologies were received from Councillors Liam Cowles, Giles Davies, Steven Evans, Norma Parrish, Caroline Price, Nicholas Simons, Alan Slade, David Williams, Lucy Williams and Nathan Yeowell.
2.1 Councillor Elizabeth Haynes declared a prejudicial interest as a private landlord during the Objective 2 discussions and therefore left the meeting. She re-joined the meeting after. 2.2 No other interests were declared.
3.1 The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and following, the EM introduced the report and scrutiny activity. The PO then gave a brief overview of the report and welcomed any questions, comments or recommendations from Members. 3.2 Officers responded to Members’ questions and comments in relation to each section as follows:- 3.3 Objective 1 • PO – The training provided by Red Shiny Apple would be rolled out soon to Members. There was a slight delay due to Member training and development following the election. • HoSHR – Any future training sent to Members would be made clear as to whether it was mandatory or optional. • HoSHR – The gender pay gap from something the local authority (LA) was looking at broadly and had been highlighted as a priority for the forthcoming year. • HoSHR – Figures around how many members of staff had undergone equality training weren’t to hand but could be reported to Members. No staff complaints in relation to equalities had been received, but could be dealt with through set procedures. GM – No complaints had been received from the public either, but three had been received in relation to the Welsh language, as detailed in the report. • HoSHR – There were prominent issues being raised around mental health which came out of the pandemic, with staff working from home and being isolated, and particularly being away from their colleagues. They had done a lot of work to try to make sure everyone was aware of the opportunities the Council had to offer in terms staff being able to manage their wellbeing. There was a regular bulletin sent out which contained information and training opportunities. They also offered a counselling service and occupation health were available. They would continue to make sure it had prominence. 3.4 Objective 2 • COSC – When they worked with individuals they provided them with an assessment and would set them goals, which were reviewed frequently. This could inform service planning going forward and change service direction if there were any clear gaps. • DCOE – The new curriculum had started its rollout, so there was a lot of alignment going on at schools. It would be a long process to complete which would take many years. Religious and Sex Education had been in the media quite a lot over the last few months but schools had been advised on what they had to do and to share it with parents, children and young people. The judicial review was still out and planned for November so they would have to wait for its outcome, but schools were carrying on delivering what they were legally obliged to. It had to be made clear that the stories in the media were not always accurate or complete; schools had quite a job to do over the year to make sure accurate information was being provided. Schools were being supported in making the relevant information available but it was not expected that it would all be available at the same time and in the same place, it would be developed over the years. Schools were all at different stages and would be for months, but eventually they would all arrive at the same place in the future and would of course be subject to legally required inspections going forward. • RCCC – The local authority was collaborating with a number of partners in relation to the resettlement scheme, all of which were referred to in the report. It was a voluntary programme and those who had joined were welcomed and were put in appropriate accommodation. The Homes for Ukraine scheme varied from other schemes as initially they were accommodated in host homes, which was a temporary arrangement. There were some concerns regarding the future; medium to long term. This didn’t just affect Torfaen, other LAs were in the same situation but they were supporting those families in exploring longer term options. They had the full cooperation of registered social landlords (RSLs) who they had strong links with. • RCCC – The LA was still receiving people from Ukraine, which had seen an increase in activity more recently. They were seeing this more on a national level. There were two routes to Wales; through the individual route where people can host families and sponsor visas, or through the Welsh Government who had a super sponsor scheme; where they were the sponsor on the visa. However, this had closed recently due to the increase in activity in Ukraine. The individual sponsor route had no closing date, so while the LA had seen a slight drop-off, a flow might continue for some time. It was difficult to say whether the demand could be met, which was part of the medium to long term issues. Hosting took place for six months and largely the cohort of hosts wanted to continue the arrangement, but accommodation was in high demand and short supply which is a concern, right throughout the UK. HoPSSU – With the national scheme, each LA had a single point of contact to make things easier. They were expecting a rise in applications. They were looking at mitigations for the longer term by working with the private sector and various programmes that were being provided grant funding for from the UK and Welsh governments. • HoPSSU – Colleagues in Housing were working within a competing market in terms of availability, suitability of housing and its affordability, so they considering what options there were in order to access more of that market, which they were possibly losing through other demands on housing. They would continue to work with partners and RSLs to look at the options. • PP – The Gypsy and Traveller Assessment had taken place and they were currently working through the actions. Their latest study assured them an increase in units. This would feature in the Local Development Plan also. 3.5 Objective 3 • DCOE – Schools should be made disability compliant for the children who needed to attend. If there was a situation where a child needed to go to school and required something additional, then the work would be carried out. It was difficult to cover all eventualities, but schools had to meet legislative requirements by making alterations as required. • PO – They were working with the Executive Member and the Torfaen Access Forum to look at issues around accessibility around the borough. It was great to see officers being very reacting to issues. There was a budget available for works and Members were welcome to contact him should they have any particular concerns. A detailed map of dropped kerbs was available. 3.6 Objective 4 • P&CM – A lot of activity was planned around engaging with young people, some of which related to the Post Inspection Action Plan. They were linking in and setting up meetings at every tier; for executive leads of portfolios for young people with decision maker meetings, which also included representatives from the Welsh Youth Parliament and British Youth Council, Youth Forum etc. They were set up for officers and organisation leads to discuss what the priorities were. In relation to the feedback from the latest surveys, the first stage would be taking place in November, then further activity in March and June. The programme set out by the Youth Alliance would be around how engagement would take place with schools and the LA going forward. The Youth Alliance invited representatives from the Gypsy and Traveller Community, Young Carers, the LGBTQ community, etc. to be involved. These other individual groups were able to run their own forums but were able to bring their voice to the table. They were working on how to involve the voice of all children and young people, including those who didn’t speak up. • P&CM – Young people with disabilities were also included and were able to access the various forums and plans to engage more were in the Youth Alliance’s plan. They would continue to make it as inclusive as possible but if there were any gaps, they were happy for Members to make the connection with any groups they were aware of as the membership was forever growing. 3.7 Objective 5 • COCCS&D – There was a lot being looked at across the board in procurement by the Social Value Working Group. Work was still ongoing. 3.8 The EM wanted to put on record his thanks to Sarah Tipping, Policy, Partnerships and Equalities Manager for the work that she put into the report. He stated that he believed the Council did an excellent job in pushing the Strategic Equality Plan forward and thanked Officers for the work they had done. The Officers and EM then left the meeting. 3.9 The Committee were satisfied with the extent to which the Council had delivered on the Strategic Equality Plan 2021-22, in a year where Covid had still caused issues or delays in delivering some actions. As such no formal recommendations were made with regards to the plan, however Members put forward the following comments: • The Committee commended officers for a very detailed Strategic Equality Plan, that covered a significant amount of information on the work undertaken to meet the Councils’ statutory responsibilities under the Equality Act. • Committee expressed their thanks to Sarah Tippings, Policy, Partnerships and Equalities Manager, who was not present at the meeting but who had lead on pulling the Plan together. • Whilst members were satisfied with progress on the Strategic Equality Plan objectives 2021-22, in what had been a very difficult year due to Covid, they expected to see greater levels of progress in next year’s plan.
4.1 The date of the next meeting was confirmed to take place on Tuesday, 8 November 2022. 4.2 The meeting ended at 3.30pm.
Councillors must say when they have a personal link to something being discussed, such as a job, a property or a family member. A prejudicial interest is one strong enough that the councillor usually leaves the room and takes no part.
Declarations are read from the minutes once they are published.
Lists the council's current councillors only. Co-opted members, officers and former councillors aren't shown.