Agenda and minutes

Items
No. Item

AP20/1

Election of Chairman

Minutes:

RESOLVED: Councillor Coleman was appointed as Chairman of the Anti-Poverty Task and Finish Group.

AP20/2

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors J. Barnes and Mrs M.L. Barnes.

AP20/3

Disclosures of Interest

To receive any disclosure by Members of personal and disclosable pecuniary interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the Member regards the personal interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct.  Members are reminded of the need to repeat their declaration immediately prior to the commencement of the item in question.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

AP20/4

Anti-Poverty Task and Finish Group: Next Steps pdf icon PDF 303 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Anti-Poverty Task and Finish Group (APT&FG) had been established and its Terms of Reference (ToR) agreed by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in November 2019.   As a result of the impact of COVID-19 the previously approved timetable for the APT&FG had not been followed and a revised timetable was included at Appendix A to the report for agreement.   

 

The Rother Alliance had developed a series of proposals for consideration by the APT&FG which were set out at Appendix B to the report.  The proposals had a two-phased approach; research and evidence gathering and strategy and action resulting from the research, which might be included in a final Anti-Poverty Strategy.

 

At this meeting, the APT&FG were asked to consider and agree the research and evidence gathering stage and the Chairman led Members through the proposed approach as outlined at Appendix B.  It was proposed that officers developed a series of evidence gathering sessions to be held virtually with relevant partner agencies and services to establish the impact of poverty on a range of key user groups.  Members would need to assess and understand the levels of poverty and deprivation within the key user groups identified.  It was agreed that the evidence gathering sessions would be held in private to enable full and frank discussion between Members and participants.  During the discussion, the following points were noted:

 

-           Members would need to be mindful of resources and time constraints and gather evidence from a focussed and relevant set of key partner agencies / services;

-           A number of methods could be used to gather evidence; email / questionnaire with only the key partner agencies / services invited to present evidence;

-           Christians Against Poverty be added to the list of partner agencies / services to be invited to give evidence;

-           the cost and access to reliable public transport had an impact on poverty;

-           there were a number of issues that impacted on poverty that were outside the direct control of RDC;

-           at the strategy and action stage Members would like to consider an holistic approach to helping those in poverty, whilst recognising constraints;

-           private sector rent levels were an issue in Rye and had a direct impact on poverty – the Council’s Homelessness and Housing Strategies may be updated as a result of this work; the Housing Cabinet Portfolio Holder was also aware and was actively looking at ways to tackle this issue;

-           the criteria for an award under the Council’s Hardship Fund was considered difficult to meet;

-           the regeneration agenda across the district to create more jobs and opportunities should have a positive impact on the poverty levels;

-           the information on the Council’s website could be improved in terms of signposting residents to appropriate agencies / support networks;

-           the CAB had seen an increase in support required for residents with Council Tax arrears;

-           Rough sleepers, victims of domestic abuse and violence and  ...  view the full minutes text for item AP20/4

AP20/5

Any Other Business

Minutes:

There were no any other business items.

AP20/6

Date of Next Meeting

Minutes:

It was agreed that the next formal meeting of the APT&FG was likely to be held in November 2020 and a date would be organised in due course, once the programme of evidence gathering sessions had been arranged.