Agenda and minutes

Apologies were submitted on behalf of Anne Freimanis, Tim Hutchings, John McDowall, Ian Richardson, Tracy White, Chris Wright and Martin Wigley.

It was AGREED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 27 June 2011 be confirmed as a correct record.

Andy Forbes welcomed everyone to Ware College and gave a presentation on the college.  He explained that the new building in which the meeting was being held had been built under the Building Schools Programme.  The Coalition Government had discontinued this and unfortunately the second building planned could not be built because of lack of funds.  This had left the college with a number of out of date buildings for some courses e.g. child care.  The college had plans to move some of these courses to its Broxbourne site which also had a new building.  It hoped to sell some land at the rear of the site in Ware near existing residential properties for housing to finance further development.

Andy gave details of student numbers and the wide range of vocational courses provided.  The emphasis was on producing employable young people and the college sought opportunities for work experience from a wide range of organisations.  There were plans to provide a Business Incubator unit on the site.

The college was a vital part of the local community and economy although sometimes there were issues with litter and parking.  Many students and staff were from East Herts.

Andy urged members to promote the use of students for work experience in their various organisations.

In response to a question, he explained that the college was unable to provide many courses for the elderly apart from basic skills because of lack of funding.  However, the U3A had been active in filling this gap.

The Chairman thanked Andy for his presentation.

Peter Wright gave a presentation on the Health Profile of East Herts.  In many cases East Herts residents enjoyed better health than the national or Hertfordshire average.  However, there were areas of concern and inequalities between more and less affluent areas in the District.  These could be focussed upon for improvement e.g. smoking, alcohol abuse and obesity.

Work on preventing and treating hip fractures in the over 65s was planned.  In addition, a cold winter was already predicted and work was needed by all agencies concerned to prevent illness and death amongst the elderly because of this.

In response to a comment on the high numbers of teenagers smoking, particularly girls from Andy Forbes, Peter agreed to send him contact details of a team who had recently finished work on a project on this in West Herts.

Sally Newton commented on the need to work on alcohol abuse.  She said there needed to be more “ signposting” at Accident and Emergency Departments e.g. elderly people with wrist fractures should be referred for calcium/vitamin supplements.

Murray Foster said potential problems could be identified by housing maintenance staff and Riversmead Housing Association was encouraging this.

Angela Alder said that information about preventing problems for the elderly in cold weather was given at Day Centres.

Andy Forbes thought health issues could be addressed for students through tutorials but information on the correct contacts was needed.

Peter agreed to make his presentation and relevant information available electronically.

The Chairman thanked him for his presentation.

Robert Locke gave a presentation on the work of Young Concern in East Herts.  Funding for the charity had been received from the PRG.  Although numbers were small, he felt a valuable counselling service had been provided for young people aged 13 to 19 years.  Relationships had been established with schools and the wider community.  He felt a good result for counselling was not only that young people felt better but that they were able to get on with their lives more effectively.  Monitoring of the work showed that this had been achieved.

He said that the work had been on budget and on target.  Schools, clients and parents had been highly appreciative.  Robert said that he would like to continue the work in the future.

In response to a question from Sally Newton, Robert said the charity did seek to work with agencies such as the Fire Service which provided anger management courses.

The Chairman thanked Robert for his presentation.

Chris Harrison gave a presentation on a project run by Next Steps which had been funded by the PRG.  She explained that Next Steps, which provided training for adults (mainly 30 to 50 years) had set up a Job Club with the funds.

The Job Club operated in Bishop’s Stortford on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons with about 14 members in each one hour session.  Training in computer skills was given and career support provided.  Members were shown how to use the internet to search for employment and how to apply for jobs on-line.  Help was given with  writing CVs and letters to potential employers.  E-mail accounts were set up and a jobs list provided.

There had been a wide variety of work found by members.  The people who were most successful had treated their job search like a job itself.  Chris said that it was very satisfying to see the growth in confidence of members and how they supported each other.

A local employer had attended the club and recruited for his store in Bishop’s Stortford.

In future, Job Clubs (now known as Work Clubs) would be held by the regional college at Waltham Cross and Ware.  Local Job Centres were referring the unemployed to them.

She gave examples of people who had found work through the Job Club.

The Chairman thanked her for her presentation.

Mekhola Ray gave an update on the Sustainable Communities Strategy Action Plan and the PRG.  She agreed to circulate a written report after the meeting.

She highlighted work on a car share scheme for Herts County Council and East Herts District;  the review of Community Safety in East Herts;  setting up of a Muslim women’s group; the Chairman’s work in schools explaining the work of East Herts Council and work on the East Herts Parking and Transport Strategy.

The PRG was helping to fund another year of work on health inequalities. Ware skate park, which had been part funded by the PRG, should be open by December.

Jon Speed commented on the valuable work undertaken on the Sele Farm Estate.

George Robertson circulated revised terms of reference for the LSP Board and Strategy Group.  More consideration was needed of how the LSP Forum would function.

He said that he would e-mail members for their organisations’ priorities.  These priorities and the terms of reference would be discussed at the LSP Away Day in November.

The following amendments were AGREED:

• Addition of East and North Herts Trust, Welwyn Garden and Lister – 28 November 2011 – Peter Wright
• Affordable Homes and Rents – 28 November 2011 – Tracy White

John McDowall and Steve Henning

The Chairman announced that John McDowall would be resigning from the Riversmead Housing Association Board and Steve Henning would be retiring.  He said they had both made an excellent contribution to the work of the Board and said he would like the Board’s thanks to them recorded in the minutes.  He would be writing to both of them to thank them for their help.

Venue

He also thanked Andy Forbes for providing the venue for the meeting.  He said this helped to emphasise the importance of all partners in the work of the Board.

28 November 2011

It was NOTED that the next meeting would be on 28 November 2011 in the Council Chamber, Wallfields.