Agenda item

10:45

Contact Officer: Paul James, Head of Partnership Working, 01865 323959

“How can Oxfordshire County Council facilitate members of the community to act to benefit the wider community and what are the current barriers that prevent them from doing this?”

The Council wishes to develop a strategy and framework by September 2010 which promotes and encourages community pride and self-help. The aim is to significantly reduce barriers so that individuals and communities are more able to help themselves.

This Scrutiny Committee is invited to contribute to the development of the strategy/framework by examining some of the barriers that people may be experiencing which act as a disincentive and by proposing some areas for improvement.

In doing so it is important that Scrutiny identifies areas:

·        that we can do something about : for example: the bureaucracy around

checks on those working with young people may be a barrier to volunteering to run a local youth club but requires government legislation to change.

·        that are relevant to our services and statutory responsibilities: for example: Community Safety provide an “Are you prepared?” booklet to every household to help people in emergencies.

·        where we can add value and do things better for less: for example : improve access to useful information on our website.

The following documents are attached:

·        a briefing paper which sets out the scope for this session (SSC6(a));

·        a programme (SSC6(b));

·        a summary of assistance already available to individuals and communities (SSC6(c)).

The Committee is invited to question the panellists and to propose some areas for improvement.

13.55 – 14.25 Sandwich lunch

“How can Oxfordshire County Council facilitate members of the community to act to benefit the wider community and what are the current barriers that prevent them from doing this?”

The Council wishes to develop a strategy and framework by September 2010 which promotes and encourages community pride and self-help. The aim is to significantly reduce barriers so that individuals and communities are more able to help themselves.

This Scrutiny Committee was invited to contribute to the development of the strategy and framework by examining some of the barriers that people may be experiencing which act as a disincentive and by proposing some areas for improvement.

The Committee had before it:

·        a briefing paper which set out the scope for the session

·        a programme

·        a summary of assistance already available to individuals and communities.

The following panellists attended before the Committee:

·        Mr Alan Foulkes (Community Development Co-ordinator - Barton Community Centre) (Representative of a successful local Community Centre);

·        Ms Patricia Chirgwin (Manager of Volunteer Linkup – Volunteer Centre West Oxfordshire) (Representative of a successful local Good Neighbour Scheme);

·        Ms Jill Edge (Centre Manager - Sunshine Centre - Children’s Centre on the Brecht Hill Estate, Banbury) (Representative of a successful local Children’s Centre);

·        Ms Celia Collett MBE (Chair of Steering Committee of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Parish Plan and Trustee of Oxfordshire Rural Community Council) (Representative of a Parish that has a successful Parish Plan).

The Panellists were accompanied by Mr Paul James, Head of Partnership Working.

The following questions were put to each panellist in turn:

·        Give an example of successful delivery of community pride and the ingredients that led to it being a success.

·        In your view what are the top 3 barriers that prevent individuals getting involved to deliver community solutions to local problems?

·        What role would you like organisations such as the council to play? How should we be helping?

·        If you were responsible for delivering community pride across Oxfordshire, what would be the first thing you would do?

Followingits select committee investigation, the Committee thanked all panellists for attending, AGREED to forward its recommendations to the Head of Partnership Working and requested sight of the Council’s strategy and framework to promote and encourage community pride and self help (including the review of existing county council activity) once available.

Following this meeting, this Committee’s recommendations were included in the paper to the County Council Management Team (Self Help Communities), a copy of which would be appended to the agenda for this Committee’s September meeting.

These recommendations included a number of points made by Ms Lisa Fisher (participant on the V Talent Programme), which gave a young person’s response to the select committee questions.

Councillor Pressel requested a report for herself on how many Community Development Workers are currently employed by the County Council - both in Social & Community Services and other Directorates - their roles and their geographical locations, together with any available information on the [estimated] numbers of Community Development Workers  employed by other organisations how they are funded (eg by a Housing Association), and where they are located.