em poli y rief€¦ · 15 september 2017 housing updates modern slavery and human trafficking...
TRANSCRIPT
EMC POLICY BRIEF A weekly round up of local government news in the East Midlands brought to you by East Midlands Councils
15 SEPTEMBER 2017
Housing Updates Modern Slavery and
Human Trafficking
Leadership Development
Support
EMC Events for Councillors
and Officers
Top items this week
Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking
Nationally and regionally, modern slavery and human trafficking has been the subject of a number of news stories this week. The East Midlands Anti-Human Trafficking Partnership met on Tuesday 12 October. The partnership comprises representatives from local government, police, health, government departments, business community, higher education and voluntary and community sector. The meeting discussed the work plan for the partnership which will include awareness raising and the development of an East Midlands pledge for agencies to commit to in the eradication of modern slavery, development of information sharing protocols, collating existing best practice and joint development of training. This year the Modern Slavery Awareness day falls on 18 October. There will be activities across the region and further details will be circulated nearer the time. For further details on the work of the partnership contact Brein Fisher [email protected] or Sarah Short [email protected]
EMC News
Homelessness Reduction Act Event - On 27 September EMC will hold the first Housing CPD event on the Homelessness Reduction Act, for more information visit here.
The event will include presentations on;
Preparing for the new Assessment Duty, Personal Housing Plans and the other 10 essential actions local authorities need to take between now and next April 2018 to be ready, by Andy Gale
Homelessness Reduction Action 2017: What will it mean for your local authority? By Faye Greaves, Chartered Institute of Housing.
EMC Boards Activity Executive Board Meeting - The next EMC Executive Board meeting will take place on Friday 29 September 2017. The agenda for this meeting will update on Midlands Mainline Electrification, Infrastructure and Growth, Asylum and Refugee Resettlement in the East Midlands and Employment Issues for Local Government, including an update on local government national pay negotiations. The papers will be available here in coming days.
EMC Support Activity East Midlands HS2 Growth Strategy - In the past few weeks EMC working with colleagues from across the region has been developing the East Midlands HS2 Growth Strategy. The Strategy will be formally launched on 25 September and details will be shared in the Policy Brief on 29 September. Leadership Development - This autumn EMC will be delivering a range of management development sessions for local authorities in the East Midlands. The sessions will include focused sessions on Resilience, Communication and Team Culture. For more information on the leadership development support that EMC can provide contact [email protected]
EMC Councillor Events
Public Speaking for Elected Members, 05 Oct 2017 - EMC is offering its member authorities the opportunity to participate in a half day seminar on Public Speaking. This seminar of interactive skills development will cover: Key principles for public speaking, Pitching the content and approach, Practical techniques for public speaking, Exercises to apply the learning. For more information visit here.
Local Government Finance, 12 Dec 2017 - The seminar will cover the emerging impact of major changes to local government finance: including the journey towards the 100% localisation of Business Rates, the end of Revenue Support Grant (RSG) and the expectation of councils generating local economic growth to help fund services. This seminar comes after the Autumn Budget that will take place on 22 November. For more information visit here.
Housing
New planning approach to speed up delivering homes - An innovative approach to planning new homes will ensure they’re built where most needed, save councils millions of pounds every year and help deliver more affordable homes, the Communities Secretary Sajid Javid announced on 14 September 2017. The new approach, first mooted in the government’s housing white paper, will help give a realistic picture of how many homes each local area needs now and in future years. For
more information visit here.
Housing and Planning Minister Alok Sharma's speech at the RESI Conference 2017 on fixing the broken housing market - available here.
Planning for the right homes in the right places: consultation proposals - This consultation sets out a number of proposals to reform the planning system to increase the supply of new homes and increase local authority capacity to manage growth. For more information visit here.
Housing Infrastructure Fund - Information about the Housing Infrastructure Fund and how to apply for funding. The £2.3 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund offers funding to local authorities on a competitive basis, for infrastructure to support up to 100,000 new homes. The fund is divided in 2 parts:
a Marginal Viability Fund to provide the final or missing piece of infrastructure funding to get additional sites allocated or existing sites unblocked quickly
a Forward Fund for a small number of strategic and high-impact infrastructure projects
For more information visit the DCLG website here.
Housing Budget needs review, says Chartered Institute of Housing - 2017 UK Housing Review briefing report available here.
LGA Publication, Housing our ageing population - Learning from councils meeting the housing need for our ageing population. This report sets out in detail what is required to meet the housing needs of our ageing population and how councils around the country are innovating to support older people to live in their homes for longer and promote positive ageing. To access the report visit here.
National Audit Office Report: Homelessness - Homelessness has increased across all measures since 2010, with many local authorities now seeing it as a risk to their financial sustainability.
“Homelessness in all its forms has significantly increased in recent years, driven by several factors. Despite this, government has not evaluated the impact of its reforms on this issue, and there remain gaps in its approach. It is difficult to understand why the Department persisted with its light touch approach in the face of such a visibly growing problem. Its recent performance in reducing homelessness therefore cannot be considered value for money”. According to Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, 13 September 2017. To read the report visit here.
Homelessness in England Visualisation - The National Audit Office interactive visualisations describes changes in homelessness in England since 2009-10. To access the tool visit here.
Welfare Reform Universal Credit experimental statistics: future developments - DWP are seeking views on plans to expand the range of our Universal Credit statistics. They would like to hear from you what additional Universal Credit statistics you would like DWP to develop in the future and what you would use this additional information for. For more visit here.
Scrutiny and Accountability Accountability and Scrutiny: The issues for local government in a changing political environment - New research complied by CfPS for APSE exploring the effectiveness of scrutiny. Good governance is critical to public trust in decision-making. To read the report visit here.
East Midlands Scrutiny Network meeting - The next network meeting will take place on 29 September at Erewash Borough Council (Long Eaton Town Hall). The agenda will include a presentation on NHS England’s Proposals for Congenital Heart Disease Services – Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland’s Scrutiny Committees approach by Leicester City Council. For more information contact [email protected]
Employers’ Information
Employer Standards for Public Health Team Consultation - Employer Standards for Public Health Team Consultation Event – 12.10.2017, London. In 2015/6 Public Health England carried out a review of public health workforce needs over the next 5 years and published Fit for the Future - Public Health People. One of the recommendations of the review was the creation of Employer Standards for Public Health teams. These are intended as a guide to good practice for all organisations that employ Public Health
professionals but will be of interest to local authorities as a major employer of the PH workforce. They are intended to be applicable to staff working in PH at all levels and set out responsibilities around supporting employees, ensuring their capacity and the capacity and capability of the PH workforce, by supporting professional training. To register for this event please contact [email protected]
East Midlands Councils
First Floor Offices, South Annexe Pera Business Park Nottingham Road Melton Mowbray Leicestershire LE13 0PB
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EMC Leadership
Chair: Cllr Martin Hill OBE Vice Chair: Cllr Jon Collins Vice Chair: Cllr Chris Millar Conservative Group: Cllr Roger Blaney Labour Group: Cllr Anne Western . Lib Dem Group: Cllr David Bill MBE Independent Group: Mayor Kate Allsop
Executive Director: Stuart Young
Local Government News and wider
Education Secretary Justine Greening sets out measures to replace 'outdated' school funding system - For more information visit here.
Announcing the winners of the APSE Service Awards 2017 - These awards, designed to recognise excellence in local government frontline services across the UK, are open to all local authorities
and their public sector partners. The full results are available here, from the East Midlands;
Best Collaborative Working Initiative (with other public sector or third sector) - Winner: Blaby District Council
Best Service Team of the Year: Cemetery and Crematorium Service - Winner: Kettering Borough Council
Sheffield City Region Combined Authority Further discussions on devolution to take place at Mayoral Combined Authority on Monday 18 September -(Sheffield City Region Combined Authority website). At a meeting of the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority this week it was noted that a final decision on whether to go ahead and consult on powers to be devolved to an elected Mayor and local Council Leaders would be taken at an extraordinary meeting of the Combined Authority next Monday. Details available here.
LGA Publication, Understanding the views of residents: An introduction to surveys and consultation - Do you know what your residents think about your council? Are they happy with the way you run things and how you keep them informed? Find out how you can run more effective resident satisfaction surveys and consultations with your communities with this new resource. To access the publication visit here.
LGA Polling on resident satisfaction with councils: August 2017 - This report outlines the 17th set of results in a series of regular LGA public polls on resident satisfaction with local councils. To access this report visit here.
Health & Social Care
PHE launches Rise Above for Schools programme - New schools programme to equip young people with coping strategies for modern life. PHE has developed a series of new resources for secondary school teachers to use in their lesson plans as part of the Rise Above for Schools programme. The resources will help teachers to engage pupils with coping strategies about ‘traditional’ health issues, like smoking and alcohol, while also addressing some of the most
challenging pressures young people face today in an ‘always on’ social media generation. For more visit here.
Public Health England Chief Executive Duncan Selbie's Friday message - 8 September 2017, available here.
EMC Events
East Midlands PA Conference, 29 Nov 2017 - East Midlands Councils hosting a one day conference designed to support Office Managers, Secretaries, PAs, Team Administrators – in fact anyone who organises others to achieve their goals. It’s a development and networking day, based on the theme of personal and organisational change. It’s for everyone working in the public and voluntary sectors whose role is to support and organise the work of others—from a single
person to a whole team. For more information and to view the programme visit here.
Mediation & Conflict Resolution Skills, starting on 31 Oct 2017 - EMC together with experienced practitioners from South East Employers are providing an opportunity to undertake a 3 day ILM endorsed programme in Mediation and Conflict Resolution which will give you the skills and confidence to undertake mediation from initial meeting with the parties to closure, following a mediation model. For more information on the programme visit here.