Issue - meetings

That the Committee review and feedback on the refreshed content of the themes for the Council Plan 2022-23 prior to sharing with Cabinet in June 2022.

The Chief Officer (Social Services) introduced the report and stated that the 2022/23 Draft Plan had been reviewed and refreshed for content following on from the response to the pandemic and the Recovery Strategy.  He said that the themes and priorities remained the same as 2021/22 but there were some developments with sub-priorities.

The Strategic Performance Advisor advised that the report had been agreed by Cabinet and following consultation by Committee today and Education Committee in February any changes to the report would then be made following feedback.  He then gave a more detailed account of the report.

Following concerns raised by Cllr Gladys Healey regarding empty homes and the impact of homelessness on the health and wellbeing of people, it was agreed that the Community Housing & Assets Overview & Scrutiny Facilitator would send an email to the relevant officers enquiring about what help is available to families before they are put into B&B establishments.  She added that if the report going to the Community Housing & Assets meeting in February didn’t address the issues raised, she would ask for a further response to be provided.

Councillor Ellis questioned as to why Mental Health Services were not in the plan following a number of requests she had had from residents about access to the Service.  The Chief Officer (Social Services) stated that the plan was ongoing for the year going forward and didn’t include services which were “business and usual” which Mental Health came under.  He advised that any comment about priorities around mental health and social care would need to be fed into the plan.  The Senior Manager – Integrated Services and Lead Adults added that one of the difficulties was that the Council was measured against its performance within the plan, but mental health was a joint service with health who they worked with as well as voluntary organisations of which a number of them they funded.  The Strategic Performance Advisor said that he would incorporate Mental Health Services into the plan recognising that it was a joint service delivered with health.

The recommendations in the report were moved by Councillor Dave Mackie and seconded by Councillor Paul Cunningham.               

RESOLVED:

That the Committee review and feedback on the refreshed content of the themes for the Council Plan 2022-23 prior to sharing with Cabinet in June 2022.