this edition includes… - threerivers.gov.uk

MEMBERS’ INFORMATION BULLETIN OCTOBER 2021

This edition includes…

Service restoration update

Annual report of Service Level Agreements 2020-21

Monthly investment analysis review – September 2021

Decision notice – Review of Premises Licence

Planning update relating to appeals received, determined,enforcement appeal received and decisions in ward areasfor the period 17 September to 21 October 2021

Summary of Planning Committee decisions – October 2021

Major applications update

Response to Council Motion from Minister for WelfareDelivery re Child Poverty

Leisure updates

Watersmeet update

Herts County Council school consultation

Three Rivers Press Releases

Pensioners’ Forum

Chilterns AONB Newsletter

Council meetings in November 2021

Chair’s engagements in October 2021

MEMBERS’ INFORMATION BULLETIN

October 2021

CONTENTS

Committee Items

POLICY AND RESOURCES

1. Service restoration update

2. Annual report of Service Level Agreements 2020-21

3. Monthly investment analysis review – September 2021

REGULATORY SERVICES

4. Decision notice – Review of Premises Licence

INFRASTRUCTURE, HOUSING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

5. Planning update relating to appeals received, determined, enforcement appealreceived and decisions in ward areas from 17 September to 21 October 2021

6. Summary of Planning Committee decisions – October 2021

7. Major Applications update

LEISURE, ENVIRONMENT AND COMMUNITY

8. Response to Council Motion from Minister for Welfare Delivery re Child Poverty

9. Leisure updates

10. Watersmeet update

MISCELLANEOUS

11. Herts County Council school consultation

12. Three Rivers Press Releases

13. Pensioners’ Forum

14. Chilterns AONB Newsletter

15. Council meetings in November 2021

16. Chair’s civic engagements in October 2021

Service Restoration Update

This update gives a summary of the performance of the Council’s customer facing services. Customers and residents have not been disadvantaged by the way services have been delivered over the past eighteen months with several services seeing an increase in service use and engagement. Overall residents’ and customers’ engagement across council’s services has remained consistently high.

The reopening of Three Rivers House to the public on 1st November remains under review in light of the recent increases in the Covid infection.

Service Delivery Update

Environmental Protection

• The service continues to operate business as usual with consistentlystrong performance.

• Despite the staffing challenges as a result of Covid the percentage of binscollected on the right day has remained high, for 2019/20 99.95%, for2020/21 99.90, and for Q1 of 2021/22 99.87%.

• The response to requests within 14 days for the Animal Control servicehas improved with 2019/20 95.5%, 2020/21 100, and for Q1 of 2021/22100%.

Community Partnerships

• Community Partnerships are currently operating a number of new servicesas a result of the pandemic including tackling vaccine inequality andincreasing uptake as well as increased support and projects with thevoluntary sector both for response and recovery.

• The service has also experienced increased anti-social behaviour casesas more services are now operational in the community, more is beingreported and increased strategic work and partnership projects are beingdeveloped to tackle serious violence and exploitation as we areexperiencing more incidences locally.

• Corporate support services, consultations and climate change servicescontinue to be fully operational virtually.

• Our Healthy hubs across Three Rivers are active and open in thecommunity, we also have a number of events happening in celebration ofCOP26 and Black History Month which are being accessed and attendedby local residents. The new Hillside Hub is also due to launch on 20th

October.

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• Our partnership meetings including the anti-social behaviour action groupremain virtual but continue to deliver our Community Strategy and supportthe recovery of our local community from the effects of Covid.

• Our Community Support Service and Domestic Abuse Caseworkerscontinue to meet clients in the community and staff have begun to work inthe office occasionally to enable easier access for them to meet clients inThree Rivers.

• Our Family Intervention Work continues as it has throughout the pandemicmeeting and supporting the most vulnerable families in the community andtheir homes.

Customer Services Centre

• The CSC is not currently providing face to face customer service at thecouncil offices but has continued to provide telephone services via thecouncil’s call centre and email services via the council’s enquiries emailaddress.

• Telephone and email service levels have remained high, with the CSCachieving a telephone answer rate of over 90% of calls being answeredand over 90% of email enquiries receiving initial responses within 48hours.

• The CSC team has received no complaints relating to the unavailability offace to face customer service at the council office.

Fraud

• The Fraud service continues to have two staff redeployed to Revenuesand Benefits to support the processing of Covid support grants. Face toface meetings will return once Three Rivers House reopens to the publicand any urgent face to face meetings (including Police and CriminalEvidence Act (PACE) interviews or ‘interviews under caution’) are beingcarried out where required.

Housing

• In 2019/20 the Housing team were able to prevent and relievehomelessness for 157 households. Despite the additional challengescreated from the pandemic this increased to 190 for 2020/21. Across Q1and Q2 of 2021/22 the team have managed to prevent and relieve 85households from homelessness.

Leisure Development & Landscapes

• Despite a number of Leisure activities cancelled due to Covid restrictionsover the past 18 months, engagement and participation in activities has

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remained consistently high with attendance at Playschemes remaining above 80% of capacity. Customer feedback continues to be very positive with comments such as ‘super fun’, ‘friendly, engaging staff’ and ‘overall a great experience’.

• Attendance at Arts on Prescription (delivered in person and virtually)increased during 2020/21 with 162 attendees. In 2019/20 129 there were129 attendees and for Q1 and 2 of 2021/22 53 there have been 53attendees.

• The number of Tree Protection Order (TPO) applications has increasedover the past few years with 584 in 2019/20, 666 in 2020/21 and 402 upuntil end of August 2021.

Leisure Management Contract (SLM)

• The leisure venues are operating business as usual with some Covidmeasures continuing to be in place including hand sanitiser and Perspexscreens. Attendance figures are increasing although remain below pre-Covid levels.

Regulatory Services

• The majority of the service is operating business as usual.

• The Duty Planner Service is operating virtually and working well.Hertsmere Borough Council are not running face to face parking surgeriescurrently but these were previously only by appointment and limited innumber. No complaints have been received regarding the absence of anyof Regulatory Services’ face to face services.

• A telephone Duty Planner Service is offered and those that require furtheradvice and advised to apply via the formal pre-application route which alsoallows the applicant to pay for a virtual meeting. The pre-applicationservice remains busy with 154 for 2019/20, 130 for 2020/21 and 85 thisyear up to the end of August.

• The number of planning applications also remains high and does not seemto have been adversely affected by an absence of any face to face contact.The number of applications has increased with 1,574 in 2019/20, 1,832 in2020/21 and 883 this year up until end of August.

Revenues & Benefits

• The service is operating business as usual, with continued additionalworkload from processing Covid support grants.

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Watersmeet

• Watersmeet is continuing to operate business as usual whilst encouragingcustomers to wear face coverings whilst moving around the building.Ticket sales are increasing although remain below pre-Covid levels. Thepantomime sales are currently 3% down compared to 2019 sales in thesecond week of October.

Corporate Services, Economic & Sustainable Development, Electoral Services, Finance, Human Resources, ICT, Legal & Democratic Services and Property Services

• All continue to operate business as usual.

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ANNUAL REPORT OF SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS – 2020/21

The document updates Members on the performance of projects funded by Three Rivers District Council through Service Level Agreements for the financial year 2020/21.

In addition, this report will cover the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and how each service responded to the additional challenges they faced as a result.

1. Funding Page 2

2. The Citizens Advice Service in Three Rivers Page 3

3. Watford and Three Rivers Trust

4. Active Watford and Three Rivers Page 9

5. Home-Start Watford, Three Rivers & Hertsmere Page 13

6. Roundabout Transport Page 19

7. Abbots Langley Youth Project Page 21

8. St Giles Trust SOS Project Page 23

9. Herts Mind Network Page 28 i. Community Support Service Page 29 ii. Domestic Abuse Caseworker Service Page 34 iii. Domestic Abuse Prevention Page 44

10. Better Choices Page 49

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Community Partnerships September 2021

1) Funding

Project Funding stream Grants contribution Citizens Advice Service TRDC Grants £257,420 Watford and Three Rivers Trust TRDC Grants £6,000 Active Watford and Three Rivers TRDC Grants £5,000 Home-Start TRDC Grants £4,800 Abbots Langley Youth Project TRDC Grants £2,000 St Giles SOS Partnership funding Herts Mind Network: Community Support Service

TRDC Grants & Partnership funding

£8,700

Herts Mind Network: Domestic Abuse Caseworker

TRDC Grants & Partnership funding

£5,000

Herts Mind Network: Domestic Abuse Perpetrator

Partnership funding

Better Choices Partnership funding

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2) The Citizens Advice Service in Three Rivers

Service Outline

Citizens Advice Service in Three Rivers CASTR) provides advice and representation to residents across almost all advice areas to include benefits, consumer, debt, education, employment, finance, health, housing, immigration, legal, relationships and family, travel and utilities.

In Three Rivers we manage 3 local offices in South Oxhey, Abbots Langley, and Rickmansworth. We offer an Outreach service in the community and currently provide a service at the South Oxhey Foodbank, Mill End Foodbank and the Emmanuel Church Foodbank.

CASTR also delivers specialist benefit advice to 1st Tier tribunal level, specialist debt advice and family law casework. We are still assisting clients with housing matters and helping to defend clients at possession and stay hearings but Watford County Court has not yet been able to facilitate our return to helping at the court desk on possession hearing days.

CASTR also provides information to, and works in partnership with, other organisations. We are active within the Three Rivers Partnership and work collaboratively with the 9 other local citizens advice offices in Hertfordshire, particularly when there is county funding available to work on projects for the benefit of all the residents of Hertfordshire.

As part of our twin aims (the first being to provide the advice people need for the problems they face) we are involved in Research and Campaign work so that we fulfil the second aim to try to improve the policies and practices that affect people’s lives. We do this by working with local MPs, the local authority, social housing providers, benefit agencies and any other body where we need to try to effect change.

COVID-19 Response

Our offices were closed to the public and most staff and volunteers from the last week of March 2020 to comply with government guidelines and regulation. However, we managed to maintain a skeleton staff at each of our three offices to facilitate communication between us and clients and this was especially important for those clients who rely on a postal or drop in service to not only drop in paperwork but make any contact at all.

At the beginning on the pandemic we swiftly moved our staff to remote working. As our staff count for less than 25% of our workforce this left us with large numbers of volunteers to try to supply home working equipment for. We had to rely on staff and volunteers using their own mobiles and landlines to answer the county Adviceline (through an existing telephone platform run by the national Citizens Advice Service) and make calls to client as we did not have any softphone facility at that time.

We sought funding from various sources to provide home working equipment for our volunteer force. We also modified some of our desk top machines for homeworking. This funding included £10,470 from Three Rivers District Council, £4,500 from the Watford and Three Rivers Trust, £1000 from the County Councillors Locality Budget Scheme and £5,000 from BEIS funding. We returned in larger numbers to our offices in June 2020, with strict observance of social distancing rules and other pandemic related guidance, but needed to retain a large and flexible remote work force.

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COVID-19 Response (continued)

We were able to return to some limited face to face service from October 2020 but this was ended by the new lockdown at the beginning of January 2021. We were able to keep some staff and volunteers in the office during this time and all staff returned once again at the beginning of May 2021. We have returned to drop in face to face service at three Outreaches in the community and plan to expand this provision as soon as we can.

We know that accessibility and digital exclusion have been large issues throughout the pandemic. We have seen that the numbers of clients with disabilities and long term health problems declined – from 44% at the end of 2019/20 to 29% at the end of 2020/21. We also saw more working age clients and less clients aged over 65.

Headline Figures (vs 2019/20 results)

Total number of advice issues - 13,189 (17,942 in 19/20 down 26.49%). We believe this decrease is due to the fact that clients did not attend for multiple issues, in particular debt and housing issues, at the beginning of the pandemic as evictions were suspended along with all bailiff action and lenders offered payment holidays. Our system does not count multiple client contacts with the same issue. There was also an element of under reporting of issue codes as we moved to homeworking and different and unexpected working conditions.

Total number of clients with a new enquiry- 6503 (7803 in 19/20, down by 16.6%) We found that more clients visited the national website for ‘self-help’ – these visits were up from circa 6,000,000 from 2019/20 – and the same clients contacted us multiple times. If clients came about the same issue (which many did as issues became complex due to the pandemic) then clients are not counted again unless they return in a new quarter.

Money gained for clients in the past year - £2,769,991 (1,194,305.00 in 19/20 – up 131.93%) Please note that this very large rise in actual recorded financial outcomes are a result of the huge numbers of clients that claimed Universal Credit for the first time due to the pandemic. We know that these figures also include more non-Three Rivers residents that in previous years due to the move to answering calls, email and webchat on the national services at the beginning of lockdown. The sudden sharp rise in demand for these services was fuelled by local offices being compelled to close their premises and not being equipped to answer local demand remotely. At CASTR we were conscious that our clients may not be able to use these national services and worked hard to improve our local telephony services, and other digital services, and facilitated local residents accessing our offices in person and moved back to face to face advice. The national services could also not meet the demand of all clients as there were too many clients trying to access services at the same time and via few channels than pre COVID.

Total hours donated by volunteers - 28,704 (32,032 in 19/20, down 10.4%) Equivalent contribution of volunteers, if paid: £487,968 (at £17.00 gross per hour) Total additional external Funding raised to run the Three Rivers CA service - £238,563, accounts not yet finalised (incorrectly reported as £271,749.00 in 19/20 as South Bucks funding included and other TRDC funding incorrectly included as accounts were not finalised, reported as £121,248 in 18/19, figure for 19/20 should be £190,982 from final accounts)

Number of volunteers supporting the work of the CASTR - 69 (77 in 19/20, down 10.4%) Total number of people attending financial awareness courses – these were suspended due to COVID. However we presented energy saving talks and scams awareness at Ascend and to the COVID groups formed by Watford and Three Rivers.

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Disability 29% of clients declared that they are disabled or have a long term health condition (44% from final annual report 2019/20)

Gender Of those clients that declared a gender 38% identified as male and 62% as female. This is a 4% difference from last year when the split was 42% male and 58% female.

Statistics

Performance Measure 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/2021 Total number of advice issues 16,205 17,349 18,183 19,251 17,385 13,189 Total number of new clients 7,141 7,321 7,685 7,701 7,803 6,503 For clients requiring brief intervention % 13 For clients requiring full intervention % 73 For clients requiring ongoing casework % 14

Opening hours / week across all 3 sites 77 77 76.5 77 77

N/A due to COVID,

telephone answer service

10-4, Mon–Fri

across all sites (90)

Opening hours / week paid for by TRDC SLA 67.5

Total nos. of formal complaints received 0 0 0 0

4 (3 not upheld, 1 upheld in part)

1 (not upheld)

Staffing / Volunteer related Total nos. of volunteers 98 86 81 77 77 69 Total hours donated by volunteers 36,192 32,500 31,200 32,000 32,000 28,704 Total equivalent costs of volunteers, £ 615,264 552,500 544,000 32,000 544,000 487,968

Total paid staff hours / week across all 3 sites 293 272 279 279 311 361.2 Total paid hours / week paid by TRDC SLA 249 249 249 249 249 210.5 Full time equivalent staff paid by TRDC SLA 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.7 6.7 5.7 Total paid hours / week paid by other funding 44 23 30 30 62 150.7

Nos. of training sessions undertaken by staff 9 Nos. of trainees who undertook basic training 8

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Age 2020/21 % 2019/20 % Under 16 0 0 15-19 0.53 0.73 20-24 5.47 4.49 25-29 9.84 7.42 30-34 11.44 8.69 35-39 10.55 10.09 40-44 10.82 9.62 45-49 10.85 9.92 50-54 10.8 10.85 55-59 10.58 9.9 60-64 8.54 9.06 65-69 4.46 6.44 70-74 2.84 4.83 75-79 1.68 3.54 80-84 0.89 2.06 85-89 0.53 1.58 90-94 0.21 0.6 95-99 0 0.11

Top 5 advice issues 2020/21 % 2019/20 % Benefits 40.21 38 Debt 10.71 15 Housing 10.55 10 Employment 9.8 8 Family & Relationships 5.7 8

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3) Watford and Three Rivers Trust

Service Outline

The Watford and Three Rivers Trust is an umbrella body that offers support, advice, information and training to the voluntary and community groups in Watford and Three Rivers. In addition the Trust provides information on volunteering opportunities and access to a timebank for volunteers and those needing help.

COVID-19 Response

Due to the impact of the pandemic, voluntary sector organisations have been unable to fundraise using traditional methods and the need for emergency Covid funding required funders to move away from funding non Covid projects. Therefore, it was no surprise that over 50% of respondents to W3RT’s survey in November 2020 stated that support with costs was the biggest issue for organisations. The impact of the pandemic has meant that there has been an increase in the demand for support from people for mental health concerns. This demand has meant that waiting times for services have increased where some organisations are receiving more referrals and enquires which is resulting in long waiting lists for services. The economic impact of the pandemic has meant that foodbanks and other services are seeing an increase demand for their services. For example, Rickmansworth foodbank noted that they had seen the number of people they support tripling when compared to 2019-2020.

October 2020 – March 2021

This report covers the period of October 2020 (when the SLA began) to March 2021 and related to the Service Legal Agreement for that period between Three Rivers District Council and Watford and Three Rivers Trust. This period has been dominated by the Covid19 pandemic with CVS’ focus being on supporting the voluntary sector through lockdowns and assisting them with reopening their services.

Alison May began this period as the CVS lead for Three Rivers before returning to the relaunched Neighbours Together project. Kari Poole was then appointed CVS Lead for Three Rivers alongside her role as Head of Communications. Since February 2021, Alex Murray has led the CVS service to the end of this period.

Throughout this period, W3RT CVS has been supported by Bob Jones (W3RT CEO), Gill Crowson (Director of Income Generation), Huwaydah Malik (Training and DBS checking) and Sahira Manzoor (IT) as well as other members of W3RT staff.

Numbers of Volunteers As of the end of this period, 1,844 individuals have contacted W3RT to state an interest in volunteering. Out of that number, 423 are from Three Rivers.

Numbers of Volunteers matched with groups or individuals to provide support As of the end of this period, 65 volunteers from Three Rivers who are registered with W3RT have been referred to other organisations.

CVS works closely with voluntary sector organisations to help them recruit volunteers and advertises volunteering opportunities on social media, on W3RT’s website and through regular email communications.

Levels of phone support service for people that are isolated and issues arising

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In total, 239 people living in Three Rivers have received Keeping in Touch calls from W3RT with the number of calls made being 4,780. W3RT has also made 3,494 Wellbeing calls to 547 people in Three Rivers.

Numbers accessing home delivery service for people that are isolated and cannot get access to food, household supplies or medicines In total, 560 individuals from Three Rivers have been supported and this is broken down below.

Activity Number of Individuals Supported Prescription Collection 68 Personal Shopping 51 Emergency Food Delivered 47 Dog Walking 2 Other (e.g. Warm in Winter Bags) 168

Groups being supported directly and indirectly During the period of the agreement, W3RT CVS has provided 140 instances of support to organisation in Three Rivers. The most common type of support was service delivery with 50 instances of support being provided, followed by funding with 33 instances of support.

Type of Support Incidences of Support Funding 33 Service Delivery 50 Governance 6 Volunteering 18 Partnership/Public Profile 16 Business Planning 1 Accommodation 2 Digital Capacity 1 Skills/Training 7 Other 6

Three Rivers benefits from a well-connected voluntary sector where organisation with the sector work collaboratively to ensure that residents are supported. Examples include: The sharing of volunteer drivers to allow multiple organisations to benefit from a limited pool of available volunteers. Well established networks and forums to allow organisations to discuss with each other issues they see in the community and to allow them to share information with others. This enables organisations to signpost effectively so that residents can receive the required support.

Following the W3RT CVS survey in November 2020, W3RT engaged with new organisations that were unaware of the CVS service and what support is provided. As a result, these organisations, many of which rely on volunteers, are able to receive support for issues such as funding, training and volunteer recruitment.

Through Remo, CVS was able to host the annual W3RT Funding Fair. This event with five local funders enabled groups in Three Rivers to find out about funding opportunities available to them. This event was attended by around 25 organisations, many of which were active in Three Rivers.

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4) Active Watford and Three Rivers

Service Outline

Active Watford and Three Rivers is a programme which is aimed at working with inactive people in Watford and Three Rivers, who are at risk from cardiovascular disease and/or mild to moderate mental health issues, helping them become active. The programme does this by providing face to face consultations, delivered by the Health and Wellbeing Specialist lasting for up to a year. Individuals will look at why they would like to become active, what barriers they might face, establish their goals and confidence levels as well as creating action plans. As part of this process, a consultation will look at what activities or sports the client will enjoy so that they can be signposted on to local sports clubs, exercise classes, leisure centres, gyms or community exercise programmes based on their needs. Supported sessions led by the Health and Wellbeing Project Manager are also delivered. The Health and Wellbeing Project Manager for Active Watford and Three Rivers is based within local GP surgeries and Community Centres, as well as Vicarage Road Stadium, to ensure people most in need of this service can access it. These local organisations will make referrals to the service.

COVID-19 Response

March to July 2020 participants seen: 100

The COVID-19 pandemic immediately affected AW3R in the following ways: Stadium base shut down GP surgeries shut down – no consultations Increased workload of health care professionals – unable to refer in Community centres shut down – no exercise sessions

AW3R COVID-19 6 step response: 1. Working from home established2. New project contingency plan formed3. New referral pathway designed4. Existing participants supported5. Consultations delivered online and over the phone6. Exercise classes delivered

AW3R COVID-19 response in numbers: 3 exercise classes per week 7 consultations per week on average 10 support calls per day 20 enquiries into the service per week on average DAILY posts on social media with ideas on how to be active WEEKLY Facebook campaigns during lockdown

Working from home established

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We knew we had to continue the service when the pandemic hit as physical activity, especially during a time like this, is so important. We started by researching what activities were still running, then created a call schedule calling existing AW3R participants to check in on their wellbeing, find out if they were keeping active, and if they needed support. Next we thought about how we could reach more people as we knew health care professional workload was high, leading us to advertise on Facebook. Looking at the consultation process and how that could be delivered, we decided that Zoom would be the best platform to use.

New project contingency plan formed

Overview of contingency plan Send out messages prior to the government lockdown encouraging people to engage with the social media pages. Upload daily activities to give people ideas on how to be active at home. Create a plan to call 10 people a day to check wellbeing and if they are keeping active. Send out resources on what is currently on offer if requested. Set up a coffee morning where people can choose what support they currently need. Give participants the option to attend a weekly exercise class.

New referral pathway designed Ad placed on Facebook -> Emails sent to participants to gauge support needed -> Telephone call to book in Zoom call -> Zoom call Action Plan created

Using video consultations The participant being able to see the health and wellbeing specialist leads to better participant engagement. We work with the participant to access Zoom for the consultation, they can then choose to join the exercise session. We found higher engagement in the Zoom exercise sessions when we helped the participant set up Zoom at the consultation stage. Reinforcing the brand during Zoom calls leads to better brand recognition and engagement. With the option of screen share we are able to share the consultation booklet with the participant. We are able to share resources with the participant and work through them.

Existing participants supported Every AW3R participant has received a call during lockdown.

First Touchpoint: 320 calls made Second Touchpoint: 320 text messages sent 700+ contacts made, with further increase expected

Consultations delivered by phone and online As of August 2020:

7 consultations have been delivered on average per week 100 consultations have been delivered online with: 7 by phone and 93 on Zoom

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Case Study Age: 53 Surgery: Attenborough Surgery Referred by: Self-referral

“Since speaking with Alison 2 weeks ago I have been feeling a lot better than I was. When I decided to refer myself into the programme I was not very active. I had stopped my weekly swim, had not replaced it with anything else, and I found the weight starting to creep back on. After having the consultation and receiving the booklet, I had a read through and it made me feel motivated. Since our call I have been planning my work day so that I can get outside out for walks. I have also found that because I have been going on walks I have been eating better.”

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Exercise classes delivered

Participant feedback of weekly Zoom class

“Thank you for the workout it was just what I needed after being stuck on my laptop all week.”

“I really enjoyed last week’s zoom class.”

“Thank you for the exercise session today.”

“As you could see, I am out of shape but I will be doing more during the week. I’ve cooled down now and feel that I have achieved something.”

“My sister was joining in.”

“It was lovely meeting fellow exercisers too.”

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5) Home-Start Watford, Three Rivers & Hertsmere

Service Outline

Home-Start is an independent voluntary organisation that offers free support, friendship and practical help to families who have at least one child under the age of five years. Families are visited regularly in their own homes by volunteers who have all had experience of parenting and know how hard it can sometimes be.

COVID-19 Response

During the pandemic, Home-Start had to change the way we work, these are the achievements we are proud to be able to share with you for 2020/2021:

Throughout the pandemic, we kept in constant contact with our families to provide agile and flexible, support, we listened and created services to suit their needs at the time, including food deliveries, online groups, access to food bank vouchers and shopping vouchers. We provided our families with Christmas hampers and small gifts for the families most in need and we created a Welfare fund to help families recover from the effects of the pandemic. We continued to provide both staff based and volunteer based support, Providing remote and where possible practical support to 69 families (179 children) matched with volunteer & 27 families (81 children) supported by staff, continuing to adapt our services in line with restrictions, e.g. socially distanced walks and helping to signpost our families to other agencies to increase the support they received. We continued to support with online counselling sessions, 390 sessions offered overall, we employed another part-time counsellor which meant we were able to support more families throughout the pandemic as mental health and well-being really suffered. We recruited and trained a new staff team of 3, and 13 new volunteers remotely, with a focus on mandatory training and also well-being training in partnership with MIND. We attracted 4 new trustees, bringing new levels of specialism and diversity to our board. We grew our online presence and increased our engagement through online platforms such as Linked In, Facebook, and Instagram. We revitalised our family Facebook page and worked with a parent moderator, we posted messages including, play activities, home schooling tips and wellbeing. We created a new three-year strategy, a strategy which was pulled together in collaboration with our families, volunteers, staff and Trustees, who helped us to gain invaluable insight and understanding on how to respond to the changing needs of the families and children we support and this will help shape our activity over the next three years, alongside some of the lessons learnt throughout the pandemic. We migrated from our old data system and worked on enhancing our CRM for capturing our data more accurately and securely. We introduced the Outcome Star model, working collaboratively with families and using the same tools as our family centre colleagues across Hertfordshire.

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Referrals 2020/21 (1st April 2020— 31st March 2021) Total number of referrals received – 54

All Families Supported by our service 2020/21

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Families Supported by District (Home-Visiting)

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Families Supported by Ward (Three Rivers)

Diversity of families Supported (All Areas)

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Family Circumstances in Three Rivers (referred to Home-Start)

Progress Families Make with Home-Visiting Support (All areas) Below is a snapshot of the progress families make when being supported by a volunteer. Families self-score between 0-5 (0 being not coping at all, 5 coping very well) at assessment, review and ending. This data is collected from families whose support continued into 2021.

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Volunteers Here at Home-Start we recognise how vital our volunteers our to our organisation and its success, we pride ourselves on the service we provide to our volunteers and we recognised that this year they would be facing new challenges, supporting families who now would have more complex and different needs, as well as supporting their own families and navigating through a pandemic. Our volunteers enjoy working with their families practically and in the family home, interacting with the children and building a face to face relationship with our parents, however they have worked tirelessly in collaboration with us to find new and innovative ways of engaging with their families, reading stories on Zoom, playing games or having a virtual cup of tea with Mum and Dad and when they were able to organising socially distanced walks.

We understood that in a time of uncertainty our volunteers needed more support and clearer guidance, we focused on wellbeing training, more regular contact, focus groups around specific subjects like service provision and volunteer support groups, all of this activity meant that our volunteers had the resilience to keep supporting our families. We are very happy to say that we have retained most of our volunteers and are now receiving enquiries for new volunteers that want to join Home-Start, to help us make a difference.

We currently have 60 active volunteers. 19 are from Three Rivers.

5,580 volunteer hours supporting our families

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6) Roundabout Transport

Service Outline

Roundabout Transport is a registered charity that provides low-cost minibus hire service to community groups in the South West Herts Area (primarily) 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year from a few hours to week long excursions.

COVID-19 Response

Roundabout Transport usually do approx. 2500 passenger journeys each month, but when the pandemic hit the impact was palpable. Although we were happy to stay up and running and be here for our community, most of the activities that the members and group attended stopped. This then meant that transport was not needed. The decline happened over the first few months and then as you can see (from the attached figures) just stopped.

We stay here and started to offer journeys to care home staff who needed to get to work, but couldn’t use public transport. We also delivered things to people if needed and once vaccinations started the buses took care home residents to have their jabs. Since things have lifted and the world is re-emerging from this crisis we have seen an amazing uplift in usage.

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Statistics

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7) Abbots Langley Youth Project

Service Outline

The Abbots Langley Youth Project delivers a Youth Club on a Thursday night from the Community Centre in partnership with YC Hertfordshire.

COVID-19 Response

This year the project has taken place both online and face to face due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Engagement online was sporadic and young people struggled to adjust to meeting via an online platform but would engage with youth workers over the phone for regular wellbeing check-ins. Young people were extremely grateful to be able to return to face to face sessions during the first half of the autumn term and during the short time we were able to physically meet with them they engaged well in activities.

The focus of the project this year has been on young people’s emotional wellbeing and coping with the changes and uncertain circumstances, as well as healthy living; encouraging young people to continue to take part in physical activity as well as exploring techniques to manage their mental health.

Many young people from vulnerable groups attended the sessions (look after young people, previous CSE issues, low self-esteem, poor behaviour or engagement at school, young people at risk of exploitation etc.).

The group regularly engaged in the completion of My Stars Assessments, which is a personal development tool used to track changes and growth with regards to young people’s skills and attitude.

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Statistics

Quantitative Data Number of sessions - Online 17, face-to-face 7 Individual Participants - 47 Anonymous Attendees (refused to give contact/personal information) - 0 Average attendance over the year per session - Online 3, face-to-face 14 Total attendance over the year - 132

Postcode Number HP1 2AS 1 HP10 0LL 1

WD24 6QB 2 WD25 0BU 1 WD25 7BX 1 WD25 7EG 2 WD25 7NA 1 WD25 7SL 1 WD25 9AJ 2 WD4 8FN 1 WD4 8LG 1 WD4 8NB 1 WD4 8PH 1 WD4 8SG 2 WD5 0DQ 2 WD5 0DY 1 WD5 0DZ 3 WD5 0EE 1 WD5 0HF 2 WD5 0HN 1 WD5 0HQ 2 WD5 0JA 2 WD5 0JL 1 WD5 0JR 2 WD5 0LA 2 WD5 0LN 1 WD5 0LX 2 WD5 0QB 2 WD5 0QE 1 WD5 0QT 1 WD5 0RN 1 WD5 0XD 1 ZZ99 9ZZ 1

Total 47

Age Number 13 1 14 6 15 20 16 12 17 4 18 4

Total 47

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8) St Giles Trust SOS Project

Service Outline

SOS is a service which offers intensive support to vulnerable young people to help those involved in the criminal justice system and carry out preventative work with those at risk. It works with young people exposed to or at risk of violence, vulnerability and exploitation. The work encompasses gangs work and family support as well as child exploitation and human trafficking.

COVID-19 Response

One of the positives throughout COVID-19 has been the funding we managed to secure for clients which allowed caseworkers to applying for resources for clients and their families. These resources included laptops, phones, Wi-Fi, keep fit equipment, educational resources for both clients and their siblings, support for parents facing financial difficulties with utilities, food and other household support. Through these resources we have managed to keep clients engaged in sessions via video calling, accessing educational tools online, keeping up with school/college work, applying for jobs and apprenticeships, using online tools to support mental/physical health, emotional wellbeing and host of other support packages.

Found the use of video sessions extremely good as clients tend to be more able to maintain longer periods of engagement time as the sessions appear to be formalised rather than it appearing to be a quick call. Lockdown had raised some concerns with people’s mental health. There is a “Supporting You” course which works with young people who need mental health support that they could be referred to. There was fewer referrals referred into the service in the first quarter, yet a larger caseload as unable to close cases due to lockdown. There was a pattern within this quarter of offending increasing which was due to restrictions and frustrations on the rules and regulations of lockdown. This however has changed over the end of the quarter and all clients have engaged and continuing to improve and lower their risk level.

In the second quarter, as the government restrictions for COVID-19 have been lessened, we have been able to carry out more client face to face visits within the community which has had a positive impact on the client engagement and positive outcomes which have been highlighted around ETE and reduced offending behaviour. There was a rise in mental health support which under the current circumstances around COVID-19 this was inevitable.

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Statistics

Outputs and Activities

Activity / Output Total 2020/21

The number of new clients referred to the service (by area)

Three Rivers, Watford & Hertsmere

26

Dacorum & St Albans 7 Stevenage & North Herts 12 Welwyn Hatfield & East Herts

18

The number of clients engaged (includes carried from previous year)


39

Dacorum & St Albans 10 Stevenage & North Herts 24 Welwyn Hatfield & East Herts

29

The number of cases closed by:

• Non-engagement (NE)• Step up – would be

referral into children’sservices/YOT (SU)

• Step – down – thenumber of cases closedand passed down to alower level service (SD)

• Closed with no furtheractions (CNFA)

• Closed – not metthreshold (CNMT)


Total = 39 NE 19 SU 6 SD 1 CNFA 13 CNMT

Dacorum & St Albans

Total = 10 NE 1 SU SD 8 CNFA 1 CNMT

Stevenage & North Herts

Total = 24 NE 3 SU 1 SD 17 CNFA 2 CNMT 1

Welwyn Hatfield & East Herts

Total = 29 NE 1 SU 7 SD 6 CNFA 12 CNMT 3

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Interventions

Total 2020/21 Three Rivers, Watford & Hertsmere Phone contacts 2663 Personal visits 70 Education & training support 75 Emotional support 65 Housing support 7 Drug & alcohol support 24 Employment support 22 Mental Health Support 5 Financial support 0 Other 36 Dacorum & St Albans Phone contacts 1497 Personal visits 44 Education & training support 26 Emotional support 22 Housing support 10 Drug & alcohol support 14 Employment support 3 Mental Health Support 13 Financial support 13 Other 3 Stevenage & North Herts Phone contacts 1846 Personal visits 54 Education & training support 18 Emotional support 40 Housing support 11 Drug & alcohol support 9 Employment support 7 Mental Health Support 9 Financial support 29 Other 3 Welwyn Hatfield & East Herts Phone contacts 1811 Personal visits 48 Education & training support 24 Emotional support 16 Housing support 13 Drug & alcohol support 7 Employment support 13 Mental Health Support 9 Financial support 8 Other 4

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Outcomes Summary

Total 2020/21

Three Rivers, Watford & Hertsmere Improvement in education / training 27 Employment 2 Cessation in risk behaviour 25 Reduction in risk behaviour 18 Continued / increased offending 4 Increase in positive activities 3 Other Dacorum & St Albans Improvement in education / training 17 Employment 2 Cessation in risk behaviour 1 Reduction in risk behaviour 11 Continued / increased offending 7 Increase in positive activities 12 Other Stevenage & North Herts Improvement in education / training 11 Employment 5 Cessation in risk behaviour 11 Reduction in risk behaviour 9 Continued / increased offending 4 Increase in positive activities 8 Other Welwyn Hatfield & East Herts Improvement in education / training 18 Employment 8 Cessation in risk behaviour 19 Reduction in risk behaviour 13 Continued / increased offending 5 Increase in positive activities 17 Other 16

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Outcomes and Performance Indicators


Dacorum & St Albans

Stevenage & North Herts

Welwyn Hatfield & East Herts

Total Clients referrals 2020/21

26 7 12 18

% clients engaged with personalised action plan

100% 100% 100% 100%

Total cases completing an outcome star.

24 12 20 21

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9) Herts Mind Network

Service Outline

We deliver essential mental health support in Hertfordshire, providing a diverse range of services from our seven Wellbeing Centres and other venues across all ten districts of the county. Funded locally, our services are available to all residents in Hertfordshire over the age of 18 and we offer dedicated services for 10-18 year olds.

We create opportunities for individuals experiencing mental ill health to make choices, find their solutions, build resilience and manage their whole life and wellbeing. Our services are based on the principle of self-help with a strong emphasis on prevention, personal development, self-management and improving health and wellbeing.

We provide opportunities for individuals to access support to enable them to recover from or live with mental ill health.

COVID-19 Response

In March 2020 when the country went into lockdown Herts Mind Network immediately moved all support to virtual support. This was done via the phone, Zoom and Microsoft Teams. We provided a full service virtually for the first three months.

The Community Support Service received additional funding from Three Rivers District Council to allow the recruitment of a full time caseworker to be able to support an addition 25 clients at any given time.

In June 2020 we began to provide face to face support again, first outdoors only and then back in people’s homes. We continued to provide face to face support throughout the subsequent lockdowns. We continued to receive a steady stream of referrals and we had feedback from our clients such as ‘You were the only service to operate face to face when no one else would. This was vital for my wellbeing’

We continue to operate a full service with all our wellbeing centres open and providing vital mental health services for the public.

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i) Community Support Service

Service Outline

Our Community Support Service is here to provide advice, information and holistic outreach support to people who are experiencing mental ill-health or need help with their mental wellbeing.

We work alongside individuals to develop an individually tailored package of support that meets their needs, working with them to find the solutions that are right for them.

Our high quality service is flexible and helps to resolve real-life difficulties and to improve people’s own independence, quality of life and wellbeing.

Statistics

Client Demographics

Age Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Under 18 0 0 0 0 18-20 0 0 0 0 21-29 13 20 10 7 30-39 20 22 18 14 40-49 9 12 12 11 50-59 11 17 10 9 60-69 4 5 3 0 70-79 0 0 0 0 80+ 0 0 0 0 Not known 6 7 5 4 Rather not say 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 63 83 58 45

Gender Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Male 18 27 15 8 Female 29 39 31 26 Transgender 1 0 0 0 Questioning 0 0 0 1 Not known 15 17 12 10 Rather not say 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 63 83 58 45

Religion / belief Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Christian 14 25 16 13 Hindu 0 0 0 0 Buddhist 0 0 0 0 Sikh 0 0 0 0 Atheist 1 1 0 0 Other 2 3 1 2 Humanism 0 0 0 0 Islam 0 0 1 1 Judaism 0 0 0 0 Agnosticism 1 1 1 2 No religion or belief 30 31 23 15 Not known 13 19 16 12 Rather not say 2 3 0 0 TOTAL 63 83 58 45

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Sexual Orientation Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Heterosexual 45 62 44 31 Homosexual 0 0 0 0 Gay Man 0 0 0 0 Lesbian/Gay Woman 2 1 0 0 Bisexual 1 2 1 1 Not Known 13 15 12 10 Rather Not Say 2 2 1 2 Other 0 1 0 1 TOTAL 63 83 58 45

Ethnic Group Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Asian or Asian British - Indian 1 1 0 1 Asian or Asian British - Any Other 1 1 1 0 Black or Black British - African 0 1 0 0 Black or Black British - Caribbean 2 1 0 0 Black or Black British - Any Other 0 0 0 0 Blank 13 16 14 12 Mixed - White and Asian 1 1 0 0 Mixed - White and Black Caribbean 0 1 1 1 Mixed - White and Any Other 0 1 0 0 Other Ethnic Group - Any Other Ethnic Group 0 0 1 0 White - Any Other White Background 1 1 1 0 White - Polish 0 0 1 0 White - White British 43 58 37 29 White - White Irish 1 1 2 2 TOTAL 63 83 58 45

Parent/Guardian of Child(ren) Under 18 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Yes 22 32 29 23 No 25 30 14 10 Blank 16 21 15 12 TOTAL 63 83 58 45

Employment Status Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Employed 9 11 6 6 Unemployed 29 39 29 21 In Education 1 1 0 0 Retired 1 1 0 0 Sick Leave 5 4 2 1 Volunteering 0 0 0 0 Other 0 1 2 2 Not Known 17 22 15 13 Rather Not Say 1 4 4 2 TOTAL 63 83 58 45

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Have you experienced hate crime? (asked during IA/Reported Annually) 2020-21

Yes 19 No 51 Did Not Say/Unknown 135 TOTAL 205

Referrals Received Summary

Referral received from Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Adult Care Services 1 1 0 0 Ascend 1 0 0 0 BBO 1 0 0 0 CMHT 0 1 0 0 Community Navigator 2 0 0 0 CSS Hertsmere 0 1 0 0 DAS 4 4 3 1 Foodbank 0 1 0 0 HMN 4 5 1 2 IFS 0 4 4 4 Northwick Day Centre 0 1 0 0 Police 6 7 7 5 Refuge 1 0 0 0 Children's Services 0 0 1 1 School 3 0 1 0 Self-Referral 2 6 0 2 Families First Coordinator 0 0 1 1 Three Rivers Council 8 4 2 2 Three Rivers Housing Department 3 2 10 17 Home Group 0 0 0 1 Thrive 1 2 3 2 Watford & Three Rivers Trust 1 0 0 0 Westfield Family Centre 0 1 2 1 WCH 1 6 13 6

TOTAL 39 46 45 45

Number of services users who have a disability Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Mental Health 34 46 27 17 Physical Impairment 9 16 13 12 Sensory Impairment 3 4 3 2 Learning Disability 7 12 8 5 Other Health Condition 13 16 9 6 None 14 29 25 12 Rather Not Say 1 2 2 1 TOTAL 81 125 87 55

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Interventions Summary

Number & Types of Interventions Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Administrative Support 1 3 7 9 Advocacy 2 1 3 5 Emotional Support 5 7 16 20 Family Support 2 3 5 3 Housing Support 2 1 8 6 Practical Support 3 4 13 17 Total 15 19 52 60

Signposting Summary

Signposted to Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

CAB 1 2 2 0

BBO 0 0 0 1

Ascend 0 0 1 1

DAS 0 4 4 1

Foodbank 0 2 3 1

Age UK 0 0 1 1

Herts Help 0 0 1 0

GP 1 0 0 1

Housing Team 0 1 1 1

AA/NA/CGL 0 0 2 2

HMN 4 2 7 3

Social/Recreational Activity 1 1 2 4

Total 6 12 24 16

Referrals to Statutory Services

Referred To Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Wellbeing Team 0 2 3 1 Mental Health Team 1 0 3 1 Adult Care Services 0 1 0 0 Children's Services 0 0 1 0 Total 1 3 7 2

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Outcomes Report

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Accessed community groups 3 1 6 8 Averted statutory intervention (Police) 0 1 3 1 Decreased social isolation 2 3 7 11 Increased resilience and coping mechanisms 5 5 13 22 Reduced access to crisis services 1 1 9 12 Reduced suicidal ideation 3 1 8 4 Sustained tenancy 1 2 1 2 Supported to resolve financial difficulties 1 4 1 8

Case Study Involved drug misuse as teenager, had child at young age, broken relationship. Issues included feeling low, anger issues, worries around being a single parent

Worked on self-esteem and anger. Helped with finance issues - put budgeting spreadsheet together and signposted to money advice unit.

Client needed to explore why she was so angry and felt so bad about herself. I worked through self-esteem and anger worksheets with her and discussed how the points raised would relate to her situation, both past and present. Client was very on board with the process and engaged well in the sessions. She was very honest and open about how she felt about herself and towards others and found that being able to talk through her feelings with me was useful. We discussed triggers that could amount to her feelings of anger and frustration, such as the judgements she held about herself surrounding her past and discussed ways she could make changes both practically and to her mindset to help her overcome the feelings she was experiencing. Client ended our time together feeling less angry and more empowered. She had managed to get some employment and was feeling better about herself, the decisions she made around her ex-partner and also her ability as a parent.

Feedback from clients

“Without the support from CSS I can say I don't think my recovery would have been as easy. Having someone who fully understood my anxiety and suffering was priceless”

“Been waiting 20 years for a support like CSS!”

“I have been extremely happy with my relationship with my CSS worker, she has been extremely welcoming and is a very warm person to and from the first meeting she made me feel very comfortable, we had a very open relationship whereby I felt very comfortable discussing all my issues and felt the complete emotional support due to her sense of humour and professionalism and her understanding and knowing of the way that I live with my disability, habitual substance abuse and drinking and mental health. I will miss her and I know it was a professional relationship but it feels more like I am losing a friend. – I would recommend her every time.”

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ii) Domestic Abuse Caseworker Service

Service Outline

For individuals 18 years or over, male or female, living in the Three Rivers area and experiencing domestic abuse, there is support available from people who understand what they’re going through and won’t judge or blame them. They can speak to us in confidence and we will listen, offer advice, information and practical help to empower them and enhance their safety and wellbeing. Our Domestic Abuse Caseworker offers them an easy-to-access, high quality service, providing a range of support, based on their needs and wishes. We listen without judgement and help to explore their options and make their own choices, taking actions at a pace that is right for them. We can also help to access alternative accommodation, safety planning and access to health care if needed. We can provide one-to-one support at a safe place of their choosing within the local community. This could be at their home, a local community venue or other place that is agreed with them. They are able to access a trained and experienced worker as soon as they make contact with us.

Statistics

Client Demographics

Age Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Under 18 0 0 0 0 18-20 0 0 0 0 21-29 7 10 6 7 30-39 15 12 10 15 40-49 18 14 14 14 50-59 4 4 3 8 60-69 1 1 3 2 70-79 0 1 1 2 80+ 1 2 1 0 Not known 3 3 4 3 Rather not say 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 49 47 42 51


38


Ethnic Group Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Asian/Indian 1 2 1 2 Asian/Pakistani 0 1 0 1 Asian/Other 1 1 1 1 Black/Caribbean 0 0 0 0 Black/African 0 1 1 2 Black/Other 0 1 1 1 Mixed/White-Asian 0 0 0 0 Mixed/White-Black/African 0 0 0 0 Mixed/White-Black/Caribbean 0 0 0 1 Any other Ethnic Group 1 0 0 0 White/Other 1 2 3 1 White/Polish 0 0 0 0 White/British 28 26 28 32 White/Irish 1 1 1 1 Not known 15 11 6 9 Rather Not Say 1 1 0 0 TOTAL 49 47 42 51

Religion / belief Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Christian 10 14 13 15 Hindu 0 0 0 2 Buddhist 0 1 1 0 Sikh 0 0 0 0 Atheist 0 0 0 0 Other 2 2 1 2 Humanism 0 0 0 0 Islam 0 1 0 0 Judaism 2 1 0 0 Agnosticism 0 0 0 0 No religion or belief 13 12 12 16 Not known 20 14 11 13 Rather not say 2 2 4 3 TOTAL 49 47 42 51

39


Sexual Orientation Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Heterosexual 36 38 37 41 Homosexual 0 0 0 0 Gay Man 0 0 0 0 Lesbian/Gay Woman 0 0 0 0 Bisexual 0 0 0 1 Not Known 13 9 5 9 Rather Not Say 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 49 47 42 51

Employment Status Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Employed 15 16 20 22 In education 0 0 0 0 Other 2 3 2 3 Rather not say 0 0 0 0 Retired 1 3 3 3 Sick Leave 2 0 0 0 Unemployed 12 13 10 15 Not known 16 12 7 8 Volunteering 1 0 0 0 TOTAL 49 47 42 51

Parent/Guardian of Child(ren) Under 18 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Yes 25 25 23 26 No 11 12 13 16 Rather Not Say 0 0 0 0 Not Known 13 10 6 9 TOTAL 49 47 42 51

Number of services users who have a disability Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Mental Health 9 6 5 4 Physical Health 4 3 3 6 Learning 2 1 1 0 Sensory 0 1 0 0 Other Condition 0 1 2 2 None 14 37 33 30 Not Disclosed 20 1 2 1 TOTAL 49 50 46 43

40


Referrals Received Summary

Referral received from Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Three Rivers Council 3 4 1 1

CSS 1 0 1 0

DAP 3 1 0 0

HMN 0 1 0 0

IFS 1 0 0 1

Police 56 83 68 40

Self-Referral 3 10 2 4

Three Rivers ASB Officer 1 0 0 0

Three Rivers Housing 1 1 0 1

Thrive Homes 1 1 0 0

School 0 0 1 0

Women' Centre 0 0 0 1

Children's Services 0 0 2 1

Step Up 0 0 1 0

Watford Community Housing 0 1 0 0

TOTAL 70 102 76 51

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Levels of Engagement & DASH Score Summary

Level of Engagement Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Level 1 17 13 15 2 Level 2 1 4 2 3 Level 3 5 17 3 8 Did Not Engage 40 98 47 37 Total 63 132 67 50

DASH Score on allocation Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 0 to 4 1 1 2 1 5 to 8 4 5 4 7 9 to 12 8 10 2 3 13-16 3 3 1 0 16+ 0 0 1 0 Refused DASH 0 1 0 7 Not Recorded 0 63 57 21

*This data is not inclusive of referral data

Closed Cases Summary

DISCHARGES Q1 24 Q2 33 Q3 8 Q4 50

REASONS FOR DISCHARGE Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Goals Met 10 11 3 7 No Longer Required Service 0 9 3 3 Disengaged <2 Sessions 0 8 0 2 Disengaged >2 Sessions 0 5 2 1

REFERRALS NOT ALLOCATED

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 No Contact 12 3 13 8 Out of Area 1 2 1 2 Referred onto CSS 2 1 3 1 Referred to IDVA 6 3 4 4 Referred to Safer Places 2 2 1 2 Refused Service 28 35 36 18 Unsuitable/Inappropriate 7 5 1 2

Total 58 51 59 37

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Number & Types of Interventions Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Housing Support 2 7 0 5

Emotional Support 15 18 5 9

Legal Measures (Civil Justice) 3 2 2 2

Legal Measures (Court Cases) 0 0 0 0

Child Protection Support 0 1 0 1

Mental Health Support 2 3 0 0

Wellbeing Support 5 17 4 7

Safety Planning 0 2 1 5

Signposting Summary

Signposted to Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 HMN 1 7 1 1

CSS 1 0 4 1

Herts Home Security Services 2 1 0 1

NCDV 1 1 0 0

Refuge 0 2 0 0

Shelter 0 0 0 1

CGL 0 0 1 0

Solicitor 0 0 0 1

CAB 0 0 0 2

Watford Women's Centre 0 1 1 0

Rights For Women 0 1 1 3

Total 5 13 8 10

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Referred To Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 IDVA 4 1 2 1 MARAC 0 1 2 0 HHSS 1 1 2 1 NCDV 0 0 0 1 DA Hub 1 0 0 0

SARC 0 0 0 0 Black Minority Ethnic Case worker 0 0 0 0 Community Mental Health Team 0 0 0 0 HPFT 1 0 0 0

CSS 4 4 0 0

JKC 0 1 0 0

Morgan & Wiseman (DV Alliance) 0 1 0 0

Safer Places 1 1 1 0

Total 12 10 7 3

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Achievements & Outcomes Summary

Clients were asked about their experience of domestic abuse whilst engaging with the service. Specifically they were asked whether there had been 'No Change', 'a reduction', or 'total cessation'. Clients were also informed that they did not have to answer if they did not wish to do so.

Clients may achieve more than one outcome throughout support and may apply to same client

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cessation of abuse 4 14 7 12 Reduction of abuse 7 18 2 5 No change of abuse 1 1 2 0 Increase insight into abuse 14 24 9 16 Not reported 16 33 41 34 Client wellbeing improved 6 8 5 5 Client felt empowered 0 11 3 7

Practical Outcomes Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Successful Civil Injunction 1 0 0 0 Client moved out of area 2 5 1 3 Successful police intervention 1 1 0 0 Successful criminal conviction 0 1 0 0 Client completed police statement 0 4 0 0 Child stepped down from Child Protection 0 1 0 0 Successful Civil Interventions 1 0 0 0

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Case Study AV (F) Separated from her husband three years ago after 19 years of marriage. She lives in the mortgaged property she previously shared with her ex-husband. There are 3 children from the marriage to her ex-husband aged 9yrs (f), 11yrs (m), and 13yrs (m). AV had been previously supported by HMN DAC team commencing April 2018 and was discharged later that year when contact arrangements order was completed. AV was referred back into DAC by police in October 2020 due to reported harassment by her ex-husband.

"AV expressed fear and anxiety about the security of her home for herself and her children. AV stated her anxiety was due to harassment and indirect threats and intimidation by her ex-husband. AV also complained of financial difficulties since the divorce. During completion of the DASH risk assessment, AV stated that her ex-husband been emotionally abusive towards the children. AV stated that due to a disclosure by her eldest son, the school counsellor had advised against the children having further contact with their father, and that Children's Services were made aware of this via school counsellors. My work with this client happened during COVID-19 lockdown, therefore I had no direct observation or contact with the children. I had telephone contact with AV herself. At the time of referral AV stated she had seen her ex-husband sitting on the wall outside her house. She also suspected that her ex-husband may have gained entry to the house, but she did not have evidence for this. Following referral and whilst I was working with her, AV reported that her car tyres had been slashed whilst parked on her drive. AV said she suspected her ex-husband was involved. Financial insecurity - household debts - AV worked part-time and she stated that she struggled to make ends meet. During our work, AV told me that her car was repossessed, she expressed fears about her financial position and her ability to provide a home for her children in the future. AV had a good support network and was able to seek help from her father who gave her the money to buy another car.”

Safety: A DASH risk assessment was carried out - client scored 10 ticks (medium risk). Herts Home Safety Service referral was made to check the property was secure and could be properly locked. The HHSS visit was undertaken and AV stated she was very reassured, and felt safer in her home. Safety Planning - A large part of the work was to address the client's fears around her safety. I provided support to help AV complete a formal safety plan that addressed safety issues both inside and outside the home. We worked collaboratively to identify risks and mitigating measures that could be taken in the event of an incident. The safety plan provided a framework in which we could safely explore various scenarios and her feelings around them. As part of this work, contingencies were planned and put place, and work was done to rebuild AV's emotional resilience. The safety plan included relevant contact numbers and support agency details so that these would be at hand if needed. The planning process provided a safe environment in which to explore AV's fears about what might happen in the worst case scenario, and to ackowledge these feelings and examine the likliehood of deep fears ever being realised. Emotional Support: AV reported multiple sources of anxiety. She suspected that her ex-husband had caused damage to her car and her property. Police were involved to review CCTV footage relating to this. She was also very concerned about a disclosure of emotional harm made by one of her children against her ex husband to the school counsellor. In addition, AV expressed anxiety regarding financial settlement hearing following her divorce. We were able to talk through each of the issues in turn and acknowledge the support that she already had in place for each of them, and explore where further support might be helpful. For example checking the benefits she was receiving and sign posting to Citizens Advice regarding debts and financial worries. AV had confidence in the advice provided by her solicitors. She felt reassured that her ex-husband would have to apply to court for any further contact with the children.

Police investigated damage to property. There were no further charges brought against AV's ex-husband relating to damage to property. The court decision regarding the financial settlement was that AV could remain in the house for the next 10 years with the mortgage to be paid by her ex-husband. AV stated she felt it unfair that her ex-husband had not been required to make any direct financial contribution toward the children, but could acknowledge this had the positive benefit of reducing the need for contact between herself and her ex-husband.

AV repored feelings of safety and empowerment. Recognition of strengths, opportunities and the support nework AV had around her. AV stated that her confidence had increased, and she now felt positive about the future for herself and her children. AV stated that she felt her children were well supported by counselling services at the school, and that she was able to offer them support at home when needed. She stated she felt she was financially in a better position as the mortgage would no longer be her responsibility. Signposting: CAB - Financial concerns/ debts. Rights of Women : A free resource for information and guidance on legal issues and processes. I confirmed that we remained available to AV for advice and support in the future should she ever need it.

46



”I have found the service and my domestic abuse case worker extremely helpful. I have found since I have been speaking to my DAC very useful and supportive. I find the service has helped reduce my anxieties previous and current. I find the support very useful and I feel at comfort that I have support and information available when needed”

“The DAC has been so kind and helpful. I have really appreciated her checking in on me, listening and understanding. She has supported me and researched things on my behalf to assist, which has taken the stress off me. I have often felt alone and as if I have been having to explain myself and the actions of my ex to the police, social services etc. which has often felt unfair and been exhausting! Just having someone listen and believe me outside my immediate circle who have witnessed matters first hand, has given me confidence and given me a sense of calm. Thank you”

“This is a really valuable service that helped me when I felt overwhelmed as despite separating from my ex-husband and getting a divorce, the abuse continued post-divorce with my ex using the children as weapons against me. Jane has been an excellent support worker and has kept me grounded and sane during some very intense stressful times. I’m aware there is a huge need in the community for more domestic abuse services. I liked the fact that I wasn’t told it was just “6 sessions and that’s it” but that the support has been there when I’ve needed it. Sometimes our sessions were weekly and other times every 3 weeks.”

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iii) Domestic Abuse Prevention

Service Outline

For individuals aged 18 years or over, male or female, living in the Three Rivers area and are concerned about their behaviour towards a partner, ex-partner or family member, there is support available. This support comes from people who understand the dynamics of abuse and who support those who want to make a positive change in their behaviour. Our service will provide a non-judgemental, open and empathetic support service.

They can speak to us in confidence and we will listen, offer advice, information and practical help to support them to make a positive change in their behaviour.

Our domestic abuse prevention caseworker offers an easy-to-access, high quality service providing a range of support based on their needs and wishes.

We will listen without judgement and explore options available to them, helping them to make positive changes at a pace that is right for them. Our support worker will work through practical issues they may be experiencing as well as working through the damaging behaviour that is present in order to promote a positive change.

We help them to liaise with other professionals and services that may be involved, offering signposting and onward referrals to appropriate services.

We can provide one-to-one support in the community or at one of our centres within the local community that is agreed with them.

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Statistics

Client Demographics

Ethnic Group Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 White British 10 3 3 2 White Irish 0 0 0 0 White Polish 0 0 0 0 White Italian 0 0 0 0 Any other White 0 0 0 0 Bangladeshi 0 0 0 0 Indian 0 0 0 1 Pakistani 0 0 0 0 Asian British 0 0 0 0 Asian 0 0 0 0 Any other Asian 0 0 0 0 Arab 0 0 0 0 Black British 0 0 0 0 Black African 0 0 0 0 Black Caribbean 0 0 0 0 Any other Black 0 0 0 0 White and Asian 0 0 0 0 White and Black African 0 0 0 0 White and Black Caribbean 0 0 0 0 White and Indian 0 0 0 0 White European 1 0 0 0 Any other Mixed 1 0 0 0 Chinese 0 0 0 0 Traveller/Gypsy 0 0 0 0 Any other ethnic group(s): 0 0 0 0 Other 0 0 0 0 Not known 0 0 0 0 Rather Not Say 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 12 3 3 3

Age Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Under 18 0 0 0 0 18-24 1 0 0 0 25-34 2 1 1 2 35-44 5 0 0 1 45-54 1 0 0 0 55-64 1 1 1 0 65-74 1 1 1 0 75-84 0 0 0 0 85-89 0 0 0 0 90+ 0 0 0 0 Not known 1 0 0 0 Rather not say 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 12 3 3 3


49


Sexual Orientation Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Heterosexual 12 3 3 3 Homosexual 0 0 0 0 Gay Man 0 0 0 0 Lesbian/Gay Woman 0 0 0 0 Bisexual 0 0 0 0 Not Known 0 0 0 0 Rather Not Say 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 12 3 3 3

Employment Status Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Employed 6 1 1 2 In education 0 0 0 0 Other 0 0 0 0 Rather not say 0 0 0 0 Retired 0 1 1 0 Sick Leave 1 0 1 0 Unemployed 5 1 0 1 Not known 0 0 0 0 Volunteering 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 12 3 3 3

Number of service users who are carers Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Yes 0 0 0 0 No 12 3 3 3 Rather Not Say 0 0 0 0 Not Known 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 12 3 3 3

Number of services users who have a disability Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Mental Health 12 3 3 0 Physical Health 3 1 1 0 Learning 0 0 0 0 None 0 0 0 3 Not Disclosed 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 15 4 4 3

Relationship to Victim Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Partner 6 2 2 2 Married 0 0 0 1 Sibling 0 0 0 0 Child (0-16yrs) 0 0 0 0 Child (17+yrs) 0 0 0 0 Other Relative 0 1 1 0 Ex-Partner/Ex-Husband 3 0 0 0 Unknown 3 0 0 0 TOTAL 12 3 3 3

*Equal Opps data relates to those who have had an IA and/or engaged with service

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Referrals Received Summary Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Community Navigator 0 0 0 0 Self-Referral 0 0 0 0 IFS 1 0 0 2 Police 1 1 1 3 CSS (diverted to DAP) 8 3 3 0 DAC 0 0 0 1 Social Services 0 0 2 0

Total 10 4 6 6


Types of Interventions Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Child Protection Support 0 0 0 0 Emotional Support 1 1 2 1 Mental Health Support 1 1 0 0 Wellbeing Support 1 1 1 1 Healthy Relationships 0 0 0 0 Parental Conflict Resolution 0 0 0 0 Understanding Anger 0 0 0 0 Power & Control 0 0 0 0 Total 3 3 3 2

*Types of Intervention per case

Signposting Summary

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 HMN 1 1 0 0 NightLight 0 0 1 1 Samaritans 0 0 0 0 GP 0 0 1 0

CGL 0 0 1 0

CAB 0 0 0 1

Solicitor 0 0 1 0

Ascend 0 0 0 0

Total 1 1 4 2

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Achievements & Outcomes Summary Clients were asked about their experience of domestic abuse whilst engaging with the service. Specifically they were asked whether there had been 'No Change', 'a reduction', or 'total cessation'. Clients were also informed that they did not have to answer if they did not wish to do so.

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Cessation of abusive behaviour (if active abuse present when started with DAP) 0 0 0 0

Reduction of abusive behaviour (if active abuse present when started with DAP) 2 1 2 1

No change of abusive behaviour (if active abuse present when started with DAP) 0 0 0 0

Increase insight into abusive behaviour 2 1 3 1 Reduction of police involvement 0 0 0 0 Step down from Child Protection (s.47) 0 0 0 0 Step down from Children In Need (s. 17) 0 1 0 0 Discharge from Children's Services 0 0 1 0

Clients may achieve more than one outcome throughout support and may apply to same client

Case Study An ongoing case that was a self-referral. The presenting issue is anger and aggression towards wife. This case was a self-referral, client is a young man in his thirties, who is suffering from anger and behaviour issues directed at his wife. Client has said that he needs support in being able to communicate effectively with his wife without getting angry at her. I have had roughly three sessions with this client, client has been very open in his frustrations which have started since the first lockdown and having to work from home. Client's job is quite demanding and requires him to be focused as his salary is based on commission. Client is currently working from home with his wife who has currently been furloughed and his 15 month old daughter who is not in nursery. Client has discussed that his wife is extremely demanding in wanting his attention and he is finding this physically impossible to juggle his home life and his work life. Therefore this has resulted in him becoming angry and abusive towards his wife. We have discussed that he feels that he is spinning a number of different plates in the air and what he can do to start setting realistic goals that are not only achievable but will also help him in reducing his anger towards his wife, client is very open to accepting techniques and strategies I am giving him. I also set the client a task which was to organise the utility room, client was pleased he had done this and was happy to let me know that he had done this. Client was happy that he was able to drop one of these spinning plates. We will continue working of effective communication and how to address issues with his wife that do not result in an altercation.


”Thank you for all your help and support you always deliver a wonderful amount of care and compassion you really and truly are asset”

“Thank you so much for everything, you really are a precious diamond. I am meeting my parents in April and now on the housing list. I own everything to you, I will always be grateful for everything you done for me and making me stronger person”

“Amazing meeting, my DAP worker has really helped. There should be more services like it.”

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10) Better Choices

Service Outline

This report provides a final summary of the impact of the Better Choices Programme, a Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) prevention project launched in April 2018 for a three-year period. The project was set up to address the rise of CSE in the community and to provide advice, support and direction to young people displaying early signs of risk-taking behaviour. It was funded from the PCC’s Community Safety Grant fund along with match funding from Services for Young People (SfYP) who delivered the project. The successful funding application was made by the Three Rivers Community Safety partnership. The impact of the project has been measured qualitatively and quantitatively through assessment of the targeted young people who were already showing early or low-level signs of risk-taking with the aim of preventing this level of risk growing to significant levels. The Better Choices programme also offered support to young people already engaging in more high-risk behaviour, with the intention of minimising this behaviour and helping them to effect change. The funding was awarded for a three-year period from April 2018 – March 2021 for the provision of 150 hours of direct support to young people per year. It was recognised that the form of support would differ dependent upon the need of the individual and the flexibility of the programme allows for differentiated packages of intervention. Clearly the Coronavirus pandemic impacted the style of delivery in year 3. Acceptance on to the programme was simply dependent upon the willingness of a young person to engage in the process; their age; their residence or education to be within Three Rivers and the evidence of some risk factors in their behaviour or circumstances. Referrals were made to Services for Young People by a number of agencies, with SfYP professionals making the decision on whether the young person met the criteria and was eligible to join the programme.

COVID-19 Response

This has clearly been an exceptional year and the Better Choices programme along with every other aspect of life has been affected by Covid-19. The first few weeks into lockdown was largely focused on how to adapt to a new way of working as face-to-face work had to stop; schools and other services dedicated to young people were closed and communication shifted online. Consequently, referrals were stopped completely by schools at the start of the pandemic coming through later than usual but numbers since then have been consistent with the previous years of the programme. Between April 2020 and the end of the March 2021 there were 231 one to one interventions with 40 different young people. 150 hours of time was allocated to this work. Because of the restrictions during the year far fewer of these have been face to face with the majority taking place via phone.

Face to face Phone Video chat Other e.g., email 42 162 20 7

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Final assessment of overall effectiveness of the Better Choices programme Better Choices has clearly had a very positive impact on the young people who have accessed the service. 133 referrals were made and work completed with 84 young people. 49 were either not eligible or chose not to engage or failed to complete the programme. More than 470 hours were dedicated to the work with most of this being 1-2-1 with a number of group projects delivered in the first year. 76 of the young people involved had at least 3 hours of intervention.

Referrals were received from a range of agencies most notably schools and colleges.

Case Study The My Star self-evaluation completed by the young people demonstrates the success of the interventions. Over the three years, analysis of the second My Star readings show a total positive increase in Feelings and Behaviours of more than 500%. This is a notable success and indicates strongly that the Better Choices programme has been a definite success for a considerable number of those young people considered at risk. For the final report it seems worthwhile to focus on one particular young person who was referred to the Better Choices programme earlier this year – as a typical example of the impact the programme has had: The young person (known as E) was referred for low self-esteem and history of making poor choices. She exhibited challenging behaviour at home and school, challenged boundaries and was argumentative and defiant. The aims of the intervention were to help her understand risk and the impact of her choices. It was also intended to raise her self-esteem and confidence and to raise her aspirations. E completed 15 one-to-one Better Choices sessions focusing on friendships, family relationships, self-esteem and confidence, her future and aspirations, decision making, emotional wellbeing and understanding risk.

By the end of the sessions E was much more focused and well behaved at school and at home. E said her relationship with her dad and family has improved because she is making better choices, she is getting on well and is happier at home. The head of year informed the case worker that he has seen a big change in E, along with other senior members of staff who have said she is more focused. E’s self-esteem has improved, she is now more confident in her looks and no longer feels the need to get into trouble to impress others. E is no longer in her old friendship group and is now a lot more reflective where it concerns decision making. E said that “these sessions have helped me a lot” and that she feels a lot more confident. Dad has noticed a difference too and E is getting on well with the family. Before the intervention E wouldn’t be bothered with family only being concerned with friends but that has changed.

Agencies making referrals Carer/parent Children’s Services (Other) DSPL External Provider Families First Integration panel Joint Protection Investigation Team 0-25 Together TeamPolice School/College Self Sexual Assault referral centre Social Workers Specialist Adolescent Support Team Three Rivers District Council Triage Services for Young People

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E’s teachers have also noticed a difference: Mrs W (Welfare and Attendance Officer) reported, “This has been the most significant change we’ve seen in a student” Head of Year and Other Members of Staff also fed back, “We have definitely seen a change in E, she is thinking and she is more focused.”

Going Forward Better Choices has had a very positive impact. Its success has been recognised across Services for Young People and there has been an impetus for the programme to become countrywide. This success of the programme owes a lot to the courage and foresight of Three Rivers District Council to invest in it and by so doing to contribute to changing the lives of many vulnerable young people. Better Choices could not have succeeded without the dedication and hard work of the team at Services for Young People who have given unstintingly of their energy and expertise.

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September 2021

Three Rivers District Council

Monthly Investment Analysis Review

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Monthly Economic SummaryThree Rivers District Council

General EconomyThe Flash (i.e. provisional) UK Manufacturing PMI dropped to 56.3 in September from 60.3 in August, somewhat lower than marketforecasts of 59.0. Although it signalled the weakest pace of expansion in the sector since February, due to supply chain delays, slowernew order growth and rising material and labour shortages, the survey remained at levels historically consistent with robust economicgrowth. Similarly, the Flash Services PMI eased to 54.6 in September from 55.0 in August, also pointing to the slowest growth in theservices sector in seven months. Notably, respondents reported that input price inflation accelerated amid reports of higher wage costs,product shortages and increased transportation costs - and that companies raised their own charges at the fastest pace since the seriesbegan in 1996. As a result of the falls in both indices, the Flash Composite PMI (which incorporates both sectors), eased to 54.1 inSeptember, from 54.8 in August. Mirroring these developments, the Construction PMI (which is released one month behind), also fell to55.2 in August from 58.7 in July and below market expectations of 56.9 as a restricted supply of materials, labour and transport began toweigh on overall activity. Input cost inflation, meanwhile, accelerated to the second-fastest rate in the 24-year history of the survey.The combination of supply chain delays, slower order growth and rising material and labour shortages noted in the PMI surveys may alsohave weighed on GDP, which expanded by just 0.1% m/m in July compared to forecasts of a 0.7% rise. However, upward revisions toprevious releases meant that the economic output was now forecast to be around 1% less than prior to the pandemic compared to 2%previously. Product and labour shortages may also have contributed to the 0.1% m/m decline in exports in July, which caused the UKtrade deficit to widen to £3.1 billion compared to £2.5 billion in June.Unemployment data, meanwhile, also confirmed the tightening of the labour market reported in the PMI surveys. Employment rose by183,000 in the three months to July, which was the largest rise since January 2020 – and occurred despite firms having to start paying10% of the wages of their furloughed workers. A fall of 86,000 in unemployed workers, meanwhile, allowed the unemployment rate toease to 4.6% in July from 4.7% in June. More timely data revealed that PAYE employment increased by a further 241,000 during August,suggesting that labour market strength may continue – although the end of the furlough scheme in September represents a future sourceof uncertainty. The rise in vacancies to a record 1,034,000, 249,000 above their pre-pandemic level, suggests that labour shortagesintensified during August. Against this backdrop, average earnings growth (excluding bonuses) eased to 6.8% y/y in the three months toJuly compared to 7.3% y/y in the three months to June as compositional and base effects began to fade. However, the Monetary PolicyCommittee (MPC) noted this month private sector regular pay growth had been around 4%, after accounting for these factors.UK inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, increased to 3.2% y/y in August from 2% in July and above market forecasts of2.9%. However, base effects – including last year’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme (which artificially depressed prices) - accounted for themajority of the rise. That said, the MPC noted at this month’s policy meeting that the scheduled rise in utility prices and further base effectswill likely contribute to inflation rising to slightly above 4% later in the year. Against this backdrop, the Committee judged that its existingmonetary policy remained appropriate. However, the MPC also noted that some developments since the August Monetary Policy Reportappeared to have strengthened the case for a modest tightening of monetary policy. As a result, Gilt yields rose as month-endapproached and investors increased the probability attached to Bank Rate being raised in 2022.

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Judging by the 0.9% m/m fall in August retail sales, the stalling of the UK’s economic recovery in July highlighted by the GDP data haslikely continued. However, some of the fall may also be explained by households changing their spending patterns following the expirationof lockdown. As a result, retail sales are now unchanged compared to a year ago. The prospect of looming energy price rises, food costsand tax rises, meanwhile, saw the GfK Consumer Confidence index decline to -13 in September from -8 in August.The UK’s public sector net borrowing (excluding public sector banks) was estimated to have been £20.5 billion in August - the second-highest August borrowing since monthly records began in 1993 - but £5.5 billion less than in August 2020. Although public sector netborrowing was estimated to have been £93.8 billion in the financial year-to-August 2021, this is £88.9 billion less than in the same periodlast year and £31.9 billion below that forecast by the OBR.In the US, non-farm payrolls rose 235,000 in August, the lowest in 7 months and well below forecasts of 750,000 as a surge in COVID-19infections may have discouraged companies from hiring and workers from actively looking for a job. Nevertheless, the gain saw theunemployment rate fall to 5.2% from 5.4% in July. The US economy, meanwhile, was confirmed to have grown at a 6.7% annualised ratein Q2 compared to the first estimate of 6.3%. Against this backdrop, the Federal Reserve forecast at its September policy meeting thatcore inflation would remain above 2% until 2023. As a result, the central bank judged that “a moderation in the pace of asset purchasesmay soon be warranted” and increased their median interest rate projections to 0.3% in 2022 (from 0.1% previously) and 1% in 2023(from 0.6%).As in the US, Q2 growth in the Eurozone was also revised higher during the month, to 2.2% q/q from 2% previously. Inflation, meanwhile,was confirmed at 3% y/y in August compared to 2.2% in July and its highest since November 2011. However, the ECB judged at its policymeeting that most of this year’s increase in inflation will prove temporary. As expected, the central bank left rates unchanged and, in lightof the bloc’s recovery, elected to plan PEPP purchases at a “moderately lower pace…than in the previous two quarters.”

HousingNationwide reported that house price growth eased to 10% y/y this month compared to 11% y/y in August. On the month, prices rose0.1%. The Halifax survey, meanwhile, confirmed that prices rose 7.1% y/y and 0.7% m/m in August. According to the Nationwide, houseprices are now around 13% higher than when the pandemic began.

CurrencyThe prospect of above target inflation and anaemic economic growth saw Sterling fallagainst both the US Dollar and the Euro this month.

ForecastIn light of the hawkish nature of the minutes from September’s MPC meeting, Link Group has revised its forecast for Bank Rate to bringforward its first rate rise to June 2022.

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Current Investment List Current Investment List

Borrower Principal (£) Interest Rate Start Date Maturity Date Lowest LT /Fund Rating

HistoricRisk ofDefault

1 Lloyds Bank Plc (RFB) 7,788,938 0.01% Call A+ 0.000%1 DMO 6,000,000 0.01% 15/09/2021 01/10/2021 AA- 0.000%0 Borrower - Funds Principal (£) Interest Rate Start Date Maturity Date1 Thrive Homes 8,000,000 4.90% 10/10/2018 11/10/20211 Total Investments £21,788,938 1.81%0 Total Investments - excluding Funds £13,788,938 0.01% 0.000%0 Total Investments - Funds Only £8,000,000 4.90%

Note: An historic risk of default is only provided if a counterparty has a counterparty credit rating and is not provided for an MMF or USDBF, for which the rating agenciesprovide a fund rating. The portfolio’s historic risk of default therefore measures the historic risk of default attached only to those investments for which a counterparty has acounterparty credit rating and also does not include investments which are not rated.

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Portfolio Composition by Link Group's Suggested Lending Criteria

Portfolios weighted average risk number = 3.26

WARoR = Weighted Average Rate of ReturnWAM = Weighted Average Time to Maturity

% of Colour Amount of % of Call Excluding Calls/MMFs/USDBFs% of Portfolio Amount in Calls Colour in Calls in Portfolio WARoR WAM WAM at Execution WAM WAM at Execution

Yellow 43.51% £6,000,000 0.00% £0 0.00% 0.01% 1 16 1 16Pink1 0.00% £0 0.00% £0 0.00% 0.00% 0 0 0 0Pink2 0.00% £0 0.00% £0 0.00% 0.00% 0 0 0 0

Purple 0.00% £0 0.00% £0 0.00% 0.00% 0 0 0 0Blue 0.00% £0 0.00% £0 0.00% 0.00% 0 0 0 0

Orange 0.00% £0 0.00% £0 0.00% 0.00% 0 0 0 0Red 56.49% £7,788,938 100.00% £7,788,938 56.49% 0.01% 0 0 0 0

Green 0.00% £0 0.00% £0 0.00% 0.00% 0 0 0 0No Colour 0.00% £0 0.00% £0 0.00% 0.00% 0 0 0 0

100.00% £13,788,938 56.49% £7,788,938 56.49% 0.01% 0 7 1 16

Yellow Yellow Calls Pink1 Pink1 Calls Pink2 Pink2 CallsPurple Purple Calls Blue Blue Calls Orange Orange CallsRed Red Calls Green Green Calls No Colour NC Calls

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

Under 1 Month 1-3 Months 3-6 Months 6-9 Months 9-12 Months 12 Months +

Link Group Three Rivers District Council

Y Pi1 Pi2 P B O R G N/C

1 1.25 1.5 2 3 4 5 6 7Up to 5yrs Up to 5yrs Up to 5yrs Up to 2yrs Up to 1yr Up to 1yr Up to 6mths Up to 100days No Colour

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Three Rivers District CouncilInvestment Risk and Rating Exposure

Rating/Years <1 year 1 to 2 yrs 2 to 3 yrs 3 to 4 yrs 4 to 5 yrsAA 0.02% 0.04% 0.09% 0.16% 0.23%A 0.05% 0.14% 0.26% 0.38% 0.54%

BBB 0.14% 0.38% 0.66% 1.01% 1.36%Council 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%

0.000% 0.000% 0.000% 0.000% 0.000%

Historic Risk of Default

-0.20%

0.30%

0.80%

1.30%

1.80%

2.30%

<1 year 1 to 2 yrs 2 to 3 yrs 3 to 4 yrs 4 to 5 yrs

Investment Risk Vs. Rating Categories

AA A BBB Council

A+£7,788,938

56%

AA-£6,000,000

44%

Rating Exposure

Historic Risk of DefaultThis is a proxy for the average % risk for each investment based onover 30 years of data provided by Fitch, Moody's and S&P. It simplyprovides a calculation of the possibility of average default against thehistorical default rates, adjusted for the time period within each yearaccording to the maturity of the investment.Chart Relative RiskThis is the authority's risk weightings compared to the average % risk ofdefault for “AA”, “A” and “BBB” rated investments.Rating ExposuresThis pie chart provides a clear view of your investment exposures toparticular ratings.

Note: An historic risk of default is only provided if a counterparty has a counterparty credit rating and is not provided for an MMF or USDBF, for which the rating agencies provide afund rating. The portfolio’s historic risk of default therefore measures the historic risk of default attached only to those investments for which a counterparty has a counterparty creditrating and also does not include investments which are not rated.

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Date UpdateNumber Institution Country Rating Action

24/09/2021 1844 Deutsche Bank AG Germany The Long Term Rating was upgraded to 'BBB+' from 'BBB'. At the same time, the ViabiiityRating was upgraded to 'bbb+' from 'bbb'

24/09/2021 1845 BNP Paribas France The Outlook on the Long Term Rating was changed to Stable from Negative.

24/09/2021 1846 Belgium Sovereign Rating Belgium The Outlook on the Sovereign Rating was changed to Stable from Negative.

Monthly Credit Rating ChangesFITCH


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There were no rating changes to report.

Monthly Credit Rating ChangesMOODY'S


63


There were no rating changes to report.

Monthly Credit Rating ChangesS&P


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Whilst Link Group makes every effort to ensure that all the information it provides is accurate and complete, it does not guarantee the correctnessor the due receipt of such information and will not be held responsible for any errors therein or omissions arising there from. All informationsupplied by Link Group should only be used as a factor to assist in the making of a business decision and should not be used as a sole basis forany decision. The Client should not regard the advice or information as a substitute for the exercise by the Client of its own judgement.

Link Group is a trading name of Link Treasury Services Limited (registered in England and Wales No. 2652033). Link Treasury Services Limitedis authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority only for conducting advisory and arranging activities in the UK as part of itsTreasury Management Service, FCA register number 150403. Registered office: 6th Floor, 65 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7NQ.

65

LOCAL LICENSING AUTHORITY

DECISION NOTICE

Application for: Review of Premises Licence – Section 51 Licensing Act 2003

Applicant: Hertfordshire Constabulary as Responsible Authority

The Premises: Riverside Mansions, Old Mill Road, Hunton Bridge, KingsLangley, Herts WD4 8QT

Determined: 30 September 2021 (adjourned from 21 September 2021)

Before: Councillors Trevett (Chair), Cox & Coltman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The hearing was attended by:

Licensing Officer Alexandra Reynolds Three Rivers DC

Legal Officer – PrincipalSolicitor

Jessima Sweeney Three Rivers DC

Clerk/CommitteesManager

Sarah Haythorpe Three Rivers DC

On behalf of the Applicant– Herts Constabulary

Sgt Luke Mitchell

Hayley Freeman (PoliceLicensing Officer)

Herts Constabulary

Environmental Health Dawn Chester Three Rivers DC

On behalf of the Premises David Dadds

Victoria Gutsul

Mr V Gutsul

Dadds Solicitors

DPS

Other Persons Clive Dodman

Jaqueline Gough

Vyvian Weltiner

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The Sub-Committee was reconvened following the adjournment requested andgranted to the Premises at the request of Mr Dadds due to the DPS having Covidsymptoms on 21 September 2021. The DPS subsequently tested negative for COVIDand was in attendance.

The Sub-Committee was satisfied that Notice of the hearing was served on all relevantparties, and that all those entitled to speak at the hearing had a fair and equalopportunity to do so.

It was noted that the Sub-Committee was being recorded and Mr Dadds asked for acopy of the recording be provided.

The Licensing Sub-committee ("the Sub-Committee") considered the applicationagainst the 4 licensing objectives:

The prevention of crime and disorder; Public safety; The prevention of public nuisance; and The protection of children from harm.

The Sub-Committee considered and had due regard to the Licensing Act 2003, theSecretary of State’s Guidance issued under Section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 and the Three Rivers Statement of Licensing Policy.

The Sub-Committee also took account of and had due regard to the following: the written application and supporting evidence (Appendix 1 and 1A) as

submitted by Sgt Luke Mitchell on behalf of the Hertfordshire Constabulary(Responsible Authority). Hertfordshire Constabulary being represented by SgtLuke Mitchell with Hayley Freeman, Police Licensing Officer.

the written representation (at Appendix 5) as submitted by Gregory Pilley onbehalf of Environmental Health (Responsible Authority). Environmental Healthbeing represented by Dawn Chester, Environmental Health Officer.

The emails and letters of complaint received by the Licensing Authority fromlocal residents before the review was called and exhibited at Appendix 1A asforming part of Police’s supporting evidence.

The written Comment made by the Planning Authority (at Appendix 5) The 37 written representations received from local residents resident in roads

surrounding the Premises (at Appendix 5 and 5A).AND

The oral testimony of Sgt Luke Mitchell of the Police given at the hearing. The oral testimony of Dawn Chester representing Environmental Health (as a

Responsible Authority) (with remote assistance of Mr Greg Pilley). The oral testimony of Mr Clive Dodman speaking to his representation and to

the representations of the following who have appointed him to speak on theirbehalf:

Tracey KnightsJoseph FernandesSheila BrownDonovan DaileyEve DodmanDavid EaglesJeffrey Broom

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Daniel TruscottBridget MullinsHambes ZandesHelen MacDougallTim CarrollAlison StokesAdrian StokesDuncan Bain

(Mr Dadds queried whether Mr Dodman has such authority despite Regulation 15of the Hearing Regulations 2005. The Legal Advise provided a Note with thenumber of the above representations and proof of being asked to berepresented.)

The oral testimony of Ms Jaqueline Gough speaking to her representation. The oral testimony of Mrs Vyvian Weltiner speaking to her representation. The submissions and answers provided by the Premises/DPS Victoria Gutsul

represented by Mr David Dadds of Dadds, Solicitors

Mr Dadds discussed possible Conditions to be attached to the Premises licence withthe Police just before the hearing began. Copies of these proposed Conditions wereallowed by Mr Dadds to be circulated to all parties to the hearing before the hearingbegan.

The Sub-Committee also noted the information provided by the Licensing Officer,Alexandra Reynolds, who summarised the Licensing Officer Report by way ofguidance and clarification.

Mr Dadds objected to the summary of the Report by the Licensing Officer. The LegalAdviser stated that the Licensing Officer was confirming the facts as set out in theReport and as such disagreed with Mr Dadd’s opinion and assessment. The criticismwas therefore rejected. The Chair also noted that it is for the Premises to set out itscase in response to the contents of the Report in due course and the Sub-Committeeis unbiased.

The Sub-Committee's powers in determining the application for Review wereconfirmed so as to promote the Licensing Objectives, pursuant to Section 52 of theLicensing Act 2003 as follows:

1. To modify the conditions of the existing licence;2. To exclude a licensable activity;3. To remove the Designated Premises Supervisor;4. To suspend the licence for period not exceeding three months;5. To revoke the licence;6. To take no action at all.

Decision

Having considered the above and taking into account: the type of premises; the Licensing Act 2003 and associated legislation; the Home Office Guidance; and Three Rivers District Council’s Licensing Policy in relation to the type of

premises,

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and considering what it deemed appropriate and proportionate under the Review, theSub-Committee decided to:

1. Remove the DPS Victoria Gutsul.

2. Set the following amended Conditions to Annex 2 – Conditionsconsistent with Operating Schedule:

ADD at end of Condition 2:“CCTV footage shall be made available to be viewed at the premises atthe time of any request to view the CCTV footage made at the request ofthe Licensing Officer and copy provided within 48 hours of any requestto do so.”

ADD at end of Condition 7:“Evidence of the installation of marine safety equipment and training inrespect thereof will be provided to the Licensing Officer if requested, anda copy of the evidence provided within 48 hours of any request to doso.”

MODIFY Condition 13 substituting as follows:

“Undertake routine checks to ensure that music and other noisedisturbances will not be audible above background level at the nearestnoise sensitive locations and ensure the a noise limiter is setaccordingly.

No licensable events to be held at the Premises until a full acousticassessment report is submitted and approved in writing by theResidential Services Manager Environmental Health Three Rivers DistrictCouncil (for the Responsible Authority ), and the agreed works and/orrecommendations carried out to the Responsible Authority’ssatisfaction. To include a calibrated noise limiter to be installed, set andagreed with the Environmental Health Officer prior to the continuation ofany licensable activities.”

AMEND Condition 14 to read as follows:

“Guests and Patrons coming to and from the Premises shall betransported in shuttle buses. Each shuttle bus shall have a maximumseating to a maximum of 25 people. The shuttle bus shall depart from setlocations where guests and patrons will be required to park in order toattend the Premises. Shuttle buses are required to arrive and leave thevenue at staggered times to ensure they are not blocking the roadoutside the Premises. Patrons will be reminded when embarking anddisembarking from the shuttle buses to have respect for neighbours bymaintaining quietness.

There shall be no more than five vehicles parked or stationed on thepremises at any one time.

INFORMATIVE: These may be service vehicles (e.g. catering) or vehiclesof guests or the shuttle bus.”

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3. Set the following Additional Conditions:

1) “Restrict/reduce all licensable activities to 23:00hrs.

2) Premises to remain open to the public until 00:00hrs.

3) The Premises is to maintain and implement a dispersal policy. Thedispersal policy is to be kept under review and regularly updated. A copyof the dispersal policy is to be provided to the Licensing Authority andthe Police; the Premises is to take into account any suggestions andrecommendations made to them by the Responsible Authorities.

4) There shall not be any external promoted events by any third party (e.g.organisation or promoter) whether ticketed or otherwise.

5) There shall not be any screening of any televised sporting events.

6) Capacity shall be limited (such number to include staff/resident familymembers present) as follows:

(a) Weddings and Civilpartnerships

Capacity no more than 100

(b) Christenings and otherchildhood naming ceremonies.


(c) Birthdays Capacity no more than 50

(d) Corporate Events Capacity no more than 100

(e) Funerals and memorialservices


(f) Private Events (Other) Capacity no more than 50

7) All events are to be pre-booked and made in writing. The hirer shall beclearly and prominently notified that there is no on-site and/or streetparking. Hirer will agree as part of the terms of hire that access can onlybe via pre-booked shuttle bus (seating max of 25). Copy of the terms ofhire and contract with shuttle bus provider & hotel pick up area to beprovided to the Licensing Authority before each event. A copy of thebookings log to be made available on request by the Licensing Officerand copies provided within 48 hours of such a request.

8) The Premises will provide the name of the DPS and a contact mobiletelephone number for residents to contact the Premises. This dedicatedresidents’ DPS contact mobile number is to be sent to local residents byposting flyers to all households on surrounding roads and listed on thePremises’ website. The Premises will also ensure that a sign with theDPS’s name and mobile contact number is prominently displayed at theentrance of the premises.

9) Fireworks are restricted to New Year’s Eve, Bonfire Night, Diwalicelebrations and in any event on no more than 6 events each calendaryear. The Premises is to maintain a log of each event which must be

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available for inspection on demand by the Police or an authorised officer of the Licensing Authority.”

Reasons for the Decision

The Sub-Committee took into account and made the decision on the following basis:

1. The Licensing Report set out a comprehensive summary of the position at thedate of the Report; the summary of the Report by the Licensing Officer wasfactual and did not raise any matter that was not already before the Sub-Committee or to which the Premises was unaware. Mr Dadds objected to thesummary as being biased. The Legal Adviser noted his opinion but gave advicethat the summary was setting out the facts in the Report.

2. The Sub-Committee therefore accepted the Legal Adviser’s advice andconsidered the Premises’ solicitor’s objection to be unwarranted.

3. The Sub-Committee subsequently noted that at no point during the course ofthe proceedings did the Premises or its solicitor Mr Dadds specifically challengethe contents of the Report itself.

4. The Sub-Committee considered the powers available to it under s 52 LicensingAct 2003.

5. The Sub-Committee considered the evidence of the Police and noted thesignificant concerns expressed as to the competence of Ms Victoria Gutsul asthe DPS. The Police evidence and testimony indicated that the DPS had nottaken the issues seriously in July 2021.Only on the application of the Reviewand having been advised as to the seriousness of matters by her solicitor doesshe appear to have grasped the importance of compliance with the terms of herlicence as well as the importance of promoting the licensing objectives.

6. The Sub-Committee noted as highlighted by Mr Dadds that the Police’sevidence did not contain evidence of significant crime and disorder, as therewere no arrests or charges brought over the course of the 3 events detailed andas such it needed to consider in view of that whether revocation would beappropriate and proportionate in the circumstances. However, the Sub-Committee also noted that the circumstances set out by the Police arecircumstances that are likely to contribute to crime and disorder. The absenceof arrests and charges is not probative. The safe and effective dispersal ofpeople from the area is perhaps more important than making arrests andseeking convictions.

7. The Sub-Committee noted that revocation could however be justified on thebasis of the failure to promote the licensing objectives of public safety and publicnuisance if deemed appropriate and proportionate.

8. The Police referred to the application and evidence as set out at Appendix 1Awhich evidences the level of complaints and issues that occurred on a numberof days in July 2021. On 3 July 2021, some 250 people attended the Premiseswith very loud music, considerable crime and disorder with intoxicated peopleleaving the premises where no safe exit on the road and parking issues causingsignificant distress to residents surrounding the Premises. Further events tookplace on 11 July and 18 July (after a multi-agency visit seeking to address theissues with the DPS) which resulted in further disruption and distress toresidents. The Police alleged that there was a clear lack of management andunderstanding of the licensing objectives resulting in breaches of conditions.

9. The Police indicated that the level of public disorder, concern for public safetyand public nuisance that took place in July 2021 as a result of the poor

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management of the Premises was such that the Police was forced to apply fora Closure Notice and, having not progressed the to a full Closure Order as thePremises did not hold further events as had been planned, considered that thelikely level of ongoing public nuisance, public disorder and threat to public safetywarranted the application for a Review.

10. The Sub-Committee noted from the Report and Appendices that the Police arethe Applicant to this Review but the Licensing department had also receivednotification from both a member of the public and Environmental Health of theintention to call a Review but the Police application was made first and thusvalidated. In other words, others would have called a Review and this is notsolely a Police instigated matter.

11. The Police noted that the venue and original application for the Premises licencehad presented the venue as being for small weddings but the events in Julywere more akin to a nightclub in Ibiza. Sgt Mitchell advised that he had lengthyexperience and 4 years in licensing including in Watford, which has a busy night-time economy and he had not experienced such disorder at nightclubs inWatford as he did with the Premises in July. Mr Dadds responded that thePremises was nothing like a nightclub and challenged this description.

12. The Police advised that they did not consider that the DPS was an appropriateperson to continue as DPS as she had not shown any level of control or thelevel of management that the Police expect of a DPS. The Police consideredthat the DPS had been blasé and dismissive of the authorities. The multi-agency visit on 15 July 2021 with Licensing, Police, Environmental Health &Planning was not taken seriously and requests made at the time were ignoredand not acted upon.

13. The Police confirmed on questioning that there were 48 logged calls ofcomplaint over the 3 events in July which was exceptionally high for anyPremises, even a nightclub.

14. The Police confirmed that whilst they had considered the Conditions that hadbeen offered by the Premises and whilst not opposed to these further “good”conditions being implemented, the fact is that the Premises has not compliedwith Conditions that they set themselves when the licence was granted so thereis considerable concern as to likelihood of compliance in future.

15. The Police’s concern is to protect the safety of the public – both residents andthose attending the Premises, especially when leaving the premises and toprevent significant issues being repeated thereby causing a burden on Policeresources. The Police accepted that it was for the Sub-Committee to determinethe steps to be taken e.g. to allow conditions or other action but the Police wouldsupport revocation accordingly.

16. The Police responded to the Premises’ solicitor Mr Dadds’ questioning asfollows: No arrests have been made in or outside the premises; no action planhas been implemented by the Police; no PACE interview by the Police hasoccurred with regard the breaches of the licence; no other matters raised byPolice since July 2021; no injuries recorded on the road outside the Premises;one criminal damage report was closed as NFA.

17. Mr Dadds had noted that the issues related to parking and noise as there wasno reported crime and disorder. This was noted by the Sub-Committee whoaccepted that the actual reports of criminal activity were suggested in theevidence but no actual arrests had occurred.

18. Dawn Chester of Environmental Health confirmed that the department receiveda large number of noise app recordings from 9 separate complainants duringevents held at the Premises. Officers considered the level of amplified music

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noise during the events had a significant and unreasonable impact on thesurrounding area.

19. Environmental Health advised that the installation of a noise limiter is aprerequisite on the Premises’ licence, and non-compliance of that requirementmeant their management could not control excessive amplified noise nuisance.

20. Environmental Health attended the multi-agency meeting with the DPS on 15July 2021 and offered advice on managing loud amplified noise. The officer,Thomas Acquah sent an email on 16 July 2021, offering to set the noise limiterlevels, but had no response from the Premises. Further complaints concerningloud amplified music were received on/after 18 July 2021.

21. The Sub-Committee noted that there were further noise nuisance recordingsmade in September 2021. Environmental Health confirmed its support for thePolice’s application for revocation or appropriate conditions.

22. The Sub-Committee noted that Dawn Chester responded to the Premises’solicitor Mr Dadds’ questioning as follows: no abatement notice has beenissued, Officers did not personally visit the site to witness noise nuisance.Evidence was received by Noise recordings submitted through the official RHEGlobal, Noise App. The submitted recordings cannot be edited and have beenused as evidence in Court. Noise app recordings have to be to EnvironmentalHealth’s satisfaction and can be accepted as evidence in Court although maybe challenged.

23. The Sub-committee noted that noise was recorded at the furthest point at UpperHighway. It also noted from the evidence submitted that the only evidence ofnoise provided by the DPS was mobile phone footage emailed on 17 July 2021.Not CCTV evidence.

24. The Sub-Committee noted that that no action was taken by the Premises tocontact Environmental Health after the multi-agency meeting.

25. This was challenged by Mr Dadds for the Premises which stated that the DPSemailed Mr Acquah on 21 July 2021 which was forwarded to Mr Acquah on 7September 2021. The email is noted to not have been forwarded but appearsto have been pasted into the email as it does not contain the address details toconfirm it was sent to Mr Acquah’s correct email address details, and is signedoff 3 times. Environmental Health and Licensing who were also addressed inemail dated 21 July 2021 did not receive this email of 21 July 2021.

26. The Sub-Committee consider that the DPS knowing the need to comply with herlicence should have contacted the Council before 7 September to chase up areply to this email she claims was sent on 21 July 2021. Indeed, the Reportnotes that the Licensing Officer wrote to the DPS on 17 August 2021 (copy atAppendix 11) in response to the Warning letter dated 16 July 2021 which wasemailed on 21 July 2021 to the DPS listing various breaches of condition andasking for provision of documents. The email of 17 August 2021 again lists thematters not yet addressed by the DPS in the letter dated 16 July 2021, includingno contact with Environmental Health, no logs provided, no CCTV footageprovided as requested, no booking records provided past and future, no signageas to CCTV etc.

27. The Sub-Committee considers that any DPS with full understanding of therequirements of the licensing regime and the Conditions attached to their licenseshould comply with the requests of the Licensing Officer not only after a meetingat the Premises but also after a warning letter and a further email on 17 August2021, but the DPS clearly failed to do this. An email was sent to ThomasAcquah of Environmental Health on 7 September – but that is itself 3 weeksafter the email from Lorna Fryer of 17 August 2021 at Appendix 11.

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28. The Sub-Committee considers that this is not evidence of a DPS in control ofher Premises or being aware of the seriousness of complying with the terms ofher licence.

29. Whilst the Premises accepts that there is a condition relating to Noise limiters,the Premises argues that Environmental Health failed to act. The Sub-Committee does not accept that to be the case and actually considers that theDPS has failed to take action not only from date of the licence being grantedand before the first event confirmed by the DPS as on 5 June 2021, as well asbetween the multi-agency meeting on 15 July 2021 and the email of 7September 2021 from the DPS. The Sub-Committee notes that a responsibleoperator of a premises must seek to promote the licensing objectives in theirgeneral operation. A responsible operator should not wait to be chased andmonitored by the Responsible Authorities.

30. The Premises solicitor referred to the email of 16 September 2021 from ThomasAcquah stating that he would not comment further on noise in view of the Reviewhearing. Mr Dadds alleged that he spoke with a legal officer on 21 September2021 (this would have been Jayne La Grua) who he alleged told him that EHwill be awaiting the decision of the review hearing before they set the noiselimiter level. Mrs La Grua was not present to respond to this allegation –however the Sub-Committee noted the contents of the email of 16 September2021 appears to wrongly suggest that a noise limiter visit would not take placeuntil after the hearing. The Sub-Committee considered this to be an error asthe condition in relation to noise limiters should have been resolved after theissue of the licence in November 2020 or after 15 July and now, as the Premiseslicence remains in place until such time as revoked or an appeal is concluded.However, the Sub-Committee considers responsibility to comply with theCondition belongs to the DPS and she was clearly asked to contact EH by 16July 2021 letter and again the Licensing Officer’s email of 17 August but did notdo so until 7 September 2021 - a date after the date of the Review hearing wasset.

31. Mr Dadds suggested that he would seek a FOI request re the email of 21 July2021.

32. The Sub-Committee noted the testimony of Mr Dodman (also speaking forothers making representations listed above), Ms Gough and Mrs Weltiner all ofwhom clearly evidenced the impact on the residents of the noise and parkingissues, as well public safety and crime and disorder resulting from the parkingissues and problems with access to/from the premises.

33. The Sub-Committee noted Mr Dadds’ query as to a licensee (Mr Dodman is apersonal licence holder himself) should have included a reference to drinkdriving as he alleged in his oral representation to have seen personally. Thiswas noted. The Legal Adviser noted that Mr Mullins and Mr Truscott had raiseddrink driving in their representations for whom Mr Dodman spoke and MrDodman had had to leave early (as agreed by Mr Dadds) so he could notrespond. The residents had expressed concern as to the management of thepremises and the way the DPS had acted towards the residents when eventsoccurred.

34. The Sub-Committee noted the fact that 37 residents had made representationsand many had also made complaints at the time of the events in July 2021. Thenumber of representations spoke for themselves.

35. The Sub-Committee rejected Mr Dadds’ suggestion that the fact that only 3 livewitnesses have attended should be given such weight by the Sub-Committee.The Sub-Committee noted that Tracey Knights and Tim Carroll had intended toappear as they had been present at the first hearing but due to the Premises’

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request for an adjournment, they could not attend the hearing today. It is alsonoted that Covid has deterred the public attending meetings and petrol issuesat present hence Mr Dodman was attending to speak for 15 other residents.

36. The Sub-Committee took due note of the alleged “sensitivity” of residents,alleged by Mr Dadds for the Premises. The Sub-Committee appreciated thatthis can occur and took appropriate note on behalf of the Premises.

37. However, the testimony of those residents in attendance clearly showed agenuine concern and distress as a result of the operation of the Premisescertainly in July 2021 when the events that led to the calling of this Review tookplace

38. The Sub-Committee noted the submissions of Mr Dadds as to the Premises nothaving breached its conditions but considered that no evidence had beenprovided by Mr Dadds or the DPS to that effect. Mr Dadds offered a denial thatany breaches of the Premises Licence had occurred but the evidence beforethe Sub-Committee in the form of the witness statements of Police, LicensingOfficer and correspondence indicates that Conditions had, and it appears havestill not been complied with.

39. Mr Dadds on behalf of the Premises had indicated that the Police andEnvironmental Health had failed to produce Action plans. The Sub-Committeenoted this and took this into account. The Sub-Committee also noted that actioncan be taken by a responsible operator acting on its own behalf.

40. Further Mr Dadds also noted that the Premises have taken note of the problemsand addressing the real issues of noise nuisance and parking and offeredconditions accordingly. He noted the requirement under the Guidance for astepped approach required by the responsible authorities. Mr Dadds argued thatMs Gough had blocked the road with her car and this was denied by Ms Gough.He queried her evidence but Sub-Committee notes that she was 1 of 37representations as to the events at the Premises. Mr Dadds categoricallydenied that the premises is a nightclub of any sort and noted that the eventcomplained about on 18 September was in fact the wedding of the DPS’s sisterand a private event with a few firecrackers at a family wedding.

41. Mr Dadds also noted that no immediate neighbour had complained. The Sub-Committee noted this but that housing and complaints are very close and thenoise reports are from around the surrounding area.

42. Mr Dadds averred that Ms Victoria Gutsul was an acceptable DPS with apersonal licence who does not want to cause problems for her neighbours andby removing any large scale events noise and disruption will be limited.

43. Mr Dadds’ response to being asked how the Premises licence can be policedwhen unclear if private party or an event under the Premises licence was thatthe Licensing officer can attend to assess and event and private/statutorynuisance can be pursued whether a private party or under Premises licence –this did not assist. He did confirm that capacity will usually be under 50 in reality

44. He reiterated argument of bias by the licensing officer which again isconsidered without foundation.

45. The Sub-Committee noted following a multi-agency visit, the formal WarningLetter dated 16 July 2021 (Appendix 1A) from the Licensing Officer following upfrom the multi-agency meeting which included the Police and the EnvironmentalHealth had been served. Again this letter was not complied with in full, and afurther email confirming that to be the case dated 16 August 2021 (Appendix11) had also been ignored

46. Mr Dadds argued that the issues are around parking and noise and as suchthere are no other matters of crime as no arrests or charges brought relating tothe Premises in or outside, and no ambulance calls.

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47. Mr Dadds argued that a noise limiter will deal with all issue of public nuisanceby the setting of a noise limiter. The Sub-Committee accepts that an effectivelyset noise limiter would go some way to dealing with the noise issue, andprovided that this, and an appropriate assessment of the noise, is undertakeneffectively before any further events take place at the Premises and withoutfurther delay then this should address the noise issue. This should however bechecked and the Sub-Committee suggests a further amendment to Conditionsaccordingly.

48. However there are also the other issues of public safety and disorder to beaddressed and Mr Dadds said these could be addressed by the additionalconditions offered to reduce hours and activities etc. The capacity limits wassupported as a beneficial and helpful addition also.

49. The Sub-Committee was presented with proposed Additional Conditions fromthe Premises which were considered in detail and the Legal Adviser soughtclarification in respect thereof. It was noted that the Police had confirmed itcould consider a dispersal policy and Mr Dadds suggested that the condition onCCTV could be tightened, as well as adding ticketed events at suggestedadditional clause 4.

50. Mr Dadds also clarified the issue of capacity proposed. In reviewing theconditions, the Sub-Committee has noted that the numbers do not include staffand family members’ resident so numbers should include those as the Premisesdid not provide for staff etc.

51. Mr Dadds confirmed that the Premises accepted that they would be happy toprovide copies of the proposed hirer agreement and agreement with shuttlebus/drop off area providers.

52. The Sub-Committee accepted that the Premises wish to resolve the issuesgoing forward and that the proposed conditions did go a long way towards this.

53. However the public safety issue with regard the buses dropping off andcollecting needed to be limited to smaller vehicles to prevent danger to the publicand residents and an amendment to the condition was therefore proposed.

54. Mr Dadds was asked about suggestion of flyers to provide a telephone numberof the DPS and who to complain to for the residents. He noted that Premisescould liaise with residents associations. Signage at entrance with contactnumber was also mooted but not acceptable to Mr Dadds. However, thePremises did offer to liaise with residents. The Sub-Committee considers thisis best done by sending details to all surrounding roads by flyer and having acontact number on the Premises’ website/at the gate of the Premises, so haveadded that as a Condition. This would easily allow the Premises to addressissues with local residents and avoid problems in future.

55. The Sub-Committee would make it clear that it takes exception to anysuggestion of bias by the Sub-Committee and the Chair made it clear from theoutset that the Sub-Committee would be assessing the matter fairly and givingall parties a fair hearing.

56. The effectiveness of dealing with the events in July is also relevant to the actualcompetency of the management and the DPS in holding a Premises Licence,as well as the appropriateness of the Premises continuing to do so.

57. The Sub-Committee attempted to seek to question the DPS as to hercompetency and understanding of the Premises licence. Mr Dadds largelyresponded on her behalf but she did offer an apology to the residents for thenuisance and did not want to upset her neighbours.

58. The Sub-Committee was very surprised that the DPS did not exhibit any realgrasp as to the terms of her licence nor the persons employed e.g. the name ofcompany proving life guards etc. The Sub-Committee noted that the DPS and

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Premises had not provided any documentary evidence in support of the goodand effective management of the Premises and therefore has drawn inferenceaccordingly.

59. Any effective DPS and well managed Premises would provide documentaryevidence to show the effective managements e.g. the CCTV evidence (notmobile footage), logs of staff training, details of past and future events as hadbeen requested, efficient and prompt contact with Licensing Officer andEnvironmental Health etc. In addition, the Sub-Committee considered that anywell run venue who knew how to effectively comply with its Licence would haveprovided such evidence well in advance in the form of contemporaneousrecords, further evidencing staff training checklists or guidance for staff (whetherinternal or external); SIA staff checks, risk assessments as to safety of Patronsetc. This has not been the case and the Sub-Committee therefore considersthat the DPS cannot be regarded as in effective control of the Premisesirrespective of her holding a personal licence.

60. The evidence before the Sub-Committee from the Premises and the responsesreceived from the DPS did not give the Sub-committee any confidence in theDPS to effectively manage the Premises going forward. The Premises/DPS andits staff are expected to be actively aware of the terms and conditions of thePremises Licence at all times. Despite the oral evidence and submissions byMr Dadds as to the management of the Premises, the Sub-Committee was notpersuaded that the DPS was or is in effective control. The evidence did not goto prove that the Licensing objectives were actually being met and in particularthat Licensing legislation and the requirements of the actual Premises Licencewere being adhered to. The Sub-Committee found that the DPS did not have aclear understanding of the Licensing Conditions and the implications ofcontinuous breaches of these. The breach of Licensing Conditions is a criminaloffence as it means that a licensable activity is taking place contrary to theConditions of a Licence. Such allegations having been made did not appear toprompt the Premises to take action or make any concerted effort to ensure thatthe Premises Licence was fully understood and complied with.

61. The Sub-Committee found that there was undisputable evidence of thecontinued flouting of Licensing Conditions and the legislation by the Premises,despite Mr Dadds evidence to state that this was not the case. The DPS did notspeak for herself to explain the position.

62. With regard the issue of public safety and access to and from the Premises, theSub-Committee has concerns as to the effective management under thePremises licence and had to consider what appropriate and proportionate actionthat it could take.

63. The Sub-Committee also noted the Guidance at 9.38 and 14.21-22 andspecifically had regard to the Guidance at 11.20

“11.20 In deciding which of these powers to invoke, it is expected that licensing authorities should so far as possible seek to establish the cause or causes of the concerns that the representations identify. The remedial action taken should generally be directed at these causes and should always be no more than an appropriate and proportionate response to address the causes of concern that instigated the review.

and considered the APPROPRIATE & PROPORTIONATE response to addressthe causes of concern that instigated these review.

64. It further relied of Guidance at 11.21-11.23

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“11.21 For example, licensing authorities should be alive to the possibility that the removal and replacement of the designated premises supervisor may be sufficient to remedy a problem where the cause of the identified problem directly relates to poor management decisions made by that individual.

11.22 Equally, it may emerge that poor management is a direct reflection of poor company practice or policy and the mere removal of the designated premises supervisor may be an inadequate response to the problems presented. Indeed, where subsequent review hearings are generated by representations, it should be rare merely to remove a succession of designated premises supervisors as this would be a clear indication of deeper problems that impact upon the licensing objectives.

11.23 Licensing authorities should also note that modifications of conditions and exclusions of licensable activities may be imposed either permanently or for a temporary period of up to three months. Temporary changes or suspension of the licence for up to three months could impact on the business holding the licence financially and would only be expected to be pursued as an appropriate means of promoting the licensing objectives or preventing illegal working. So, for instance, a licence could be suspended for a weekend as a means of deterring the holder from allowing the problems that gave rise to the review to happen again. However, it will always be important that any detrimental financial impact that may result from a licensing authority’s decision is appropriate and proportionate to the promotion of the licensing objectives and for the prevention of illegal working in licensed premises. But where premises are found to be trading irresponsibly, the licensing authority should not hesitate, where appropriate to do so, to take tough action to tackle the problems at the premises and, where other measures are deemed insufficient, to revoke the licence.”

65. The Sub-Committee also noted the Guidance at 11.24-11.28.66. Therefore the Sub-Committee takes the view that, whilst revocation is an option,

the appropriate and proportionate action is not to revoke but to remove the DPSwhere there is clear evidence of poor management and an apparent disregardor lack of understanding of the terms of the Premises licence and the promotionof the licensing Objectives.

67. Further the appropriate and proportionate action is to also to amend and modifythe Conditions as well as to accept in part the Conditions submitted by thePremises just before the hearing and to provide for further conditions to ensurethe promotion of the Licensing Objectives.

68. The Sub-Committee hopes that the Premises will address the issues andtherefore provide a replacement DPS to ensure the smooth running of theVenue going forward and thus avoid the issues in question.

69. It is agreed that the issue of noise should be addressed by the correct andappropriate use of a noise limiter but the condition is tightened so action takenbefore any further events to also protect the licensing objectives.

70. The Sub-Committee accepted the Premises reduced hours, restriction ofactivities and capacity requirements and consider these conditions as modifiedand the addition to or modification of the existing conditions should address allother issues once an effective DPS is appointed.

71. In particular, with regard the access to and from the Premises the Sub-Committee considered that stricter access via shuttle bus needed to beconditioned to deal with the dangers of public safety and problems with accessto the premises, which then also cause parking hazards in the vicinity.

72. The Sub-Committee made its decision having regard to the Statutory Guidanceand the local Licensing Policy. The Sub-Committee notes the Licensing Policyincluding but not limited to para 17; para 19.4, 19.5 and 19.6; para 20.1 to 20.5and 20.5 c) e) and f); para 21, 21.4 and 21.10 & 21.12; para 22; para 25;

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73. The Sub-Committee was mindful of the representations made by the objectorsand notes that a further review could be called if there are further issues. TheSub-Committee envisages that if the Premises does not significantly improve itsoperation then any interested party can call a further Review. Under para 17 ofthe Licensing Policy the Sub-Committee notes that a further review by the sameparty within 12 months would likely qualify as exceptional and compelling if therewere significant further problems at the venue which are not addressed promptlyby the new DPS.

74. As a result, a condition provides for the Premises to effectively addresscomplaints by neighbours and take appropriate steps when complaints arereceived.

In coming to this decision the Sub-Committee was aware of the need to uphold thefundamental licensing objectives of Public Safety, Prevention of Crime and Disorderand Prevention of Public Nuisance in accordance with the Secretary of State’s guidance issued under Section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 in making this decision.

Dated this 30 day of September 2021

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Planning update

17 September – 21 October 2021

The Planning reports for the above date range can be viewed here:

o Appeals receivedo Appeals determinedo Enforcement appeal receivedo Decisions in ward areas

There are no reports this month in relation to appeals withdrawn and pending, and enforcement appeals determined and pending.

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https://www.threerivers.gov.uk/egcl-page/planning-update-members-information-bulletin

October Planning Committee Decision SummaryReference Address Proposal Decision

20/2659/RSP Maple LodgeDenham WayMaple CrossRickmansworthHertfordshireWD3 9XD

Retrospective: Change of use foropen storage of builder's machinery,equipment and material

REFUSED as per Officerrecommendation


Retrospective: Change of use of thesite for vehicle hire along with theprocessing of construction wastematerials aggregates and soil



Retrospective: Change of use ofhanger for the maintenance andrepair of lorries


21/0573/FUL Development SiteMaple LodgeMaple Lodge CloseMaple CrossHertfordshire

Comprehensive redevelopment toprovide 2 no. warehouse ClassE(giii)/B2/B8 units comprising a totalof 16,115 sqm including 1,882 sqmancillary E(gi) office space, access,landscaping and associated works

DEFERRED for the Council toinstruct their own experthydrologist or similar (asnecessary) to review theapplication, in particular inrespect of the impacts of theproposal on ground water andthe adjacent Nature Reserve.

21/1081/FUL Dovetail Cottage21 Chestnut AvenueRickmansworthWD3 4HA

Construction of new entrance gatesand boundary wall to the front andfencing to the flank boundaries

APPROVED as per Officerrecommendation

21/1139/FUL The Mulberry Bush FarmDawes LaneSarrattWD3 6BQ

Removal of Condition 11 (AgriculturalOccupation) of planning permission17/2169/FUL

That Condition 11 NOT bevaried (overturn of the Officerrecommendation)

21/1271/OUT Former Little Furze JuniorMixed Infants SchoolGosforth LaneSouth OxheyWD19 7RD

Outline Application: Development ofup to 70 residential dwellings (UseClass C3) with new access fromGosforth Lane (appearance,landscaping, layout and scalereserved).

APPROVED as per Officerrecommendation (C3 and C19amended)

21/1542/FUL Wood View11 Greenbury CloseChorleywoodWD3 5QT

Single storey front infill extension,roof extension including hip to gablealterations, insertion of front dormerand rooflights, insertion of reardormer and insertion of first floor flankwindows

APPROVED as per Officerrecommendation

21/1618/FUL Land At Moor Park GolfCourseBatchworth HeathMoor ParkRickmansworth

Change of use from golf course landto residential gardens and erection ofopen metal fencing


81

21/1742/RSP 4 Odeon ParadeHigh StreetRickmansworthWD3 1EE

Retrospective: Installation of anexternal electric rollershutter

APPROVED (overturn of theOfficer recommendation)unconditionally.

21/1745/FUL GlenwoodChorleywood RoadRickmansworthWD3 4ER

Demolition of existing dwelling andconstruction of 4no. detached two-storey dwellings with roof andbasement level accommodation,detached garages, formation of newaccess drive, alterations to existingaccess, landscaping works and otherancillary works

Decision is delegated toDCES to grant planningpermission (as per Officerrecommendation) subject to thepreliminary bat roostassessment being consideredand found acceptable by HertsEcology and subject to theconditions set out in the reportand any other conditions asrequired by Herts Ecology.

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Updated 27 October 2021

Major Planning Applications Update – October 2021 CURRENT SCHEMES

Planning Applications – Pending

Application No. Site Development Expiry Date Case Officer

21/2018/OUT Knoll Oak Sandy Lane Northwood HA6 3EZ

Outline application: Demolition of existing buildings and redevelopment to provide a four storey building comprising of 29 residential units (Landscaping as a reserved matter).

27.12.2021 Matthew Roberts

21/1980/FUL Part Of Golf Course Grims Dyke Golf Club Oxhey Lane Carpenders Park Hertfordshire HA5 4AL

Redesign and reconstruction of Holes 14 and 15 by reversal of direction of play


21/1971/FUL Beesons Yard Bury Lane Rickmansworth Hertfordshire WD3 1DS

Demolition of existing buildings and structures and erection of a 48-unit Extra Care facility (Use Class C2) with car parking andassociated landscaping.


21/1680/OUT Scotsbridge House Scots Hill Croxley Green Hertfordshire WD3 3BB

Variation of Condition 3 (Plan Numbers) of outline planning permission 19/1684/OUT (Outline Application: Demolition of offices and erection of new development of 59 flats with underground parking (matters of appearance and landscaping reserved)). Amendment comprises modification to basement parking layout.

Agreed Extension 01.11.2021

Adam Ralton

21/0620/FUL Northcotts Long Elms Close Abbots Langley WD5 0PD

Redevelopment of site to including demolition of existing building and construction of three storey apartment block consisting of 18no. two-bedroom dwellings with balconies to front and rear and associated landscaping, parking and cycle store provision.

Agreed Extension Date TBC

Suzanne O’Brien

21/0573/FUL Development Site Maple Lodge Maple Lodge Close Maple Cross Hertfordshire

Comprehensive redevelopment to provide 2 no. warehouse Class E(giii)/B2/B8 units comprising a total of 16,115 sqm including 1,882 sqm ancillary E(gi) office space, access, landscaping and associated works


Claire Westwood

83

Updated 27 October 2021

20/0898/OUT Land East Of Green Street And North Of Orchard Drive Chorleywood Hertfordshire

Outline Application: Demolition of the existing farm building and comprehensive development of the site, delivering up to 300 no. residential dwellings (Use Class C3), associated access, and supporting amenity space, landscaping, green infrastructure and sustainable drainage systems (all matters reserved except for access).


Adam Ralton

20/0882/OUT Land East Of Green Street And North Of Orchard Drive Chorleywood Hertfordshire

Outline Application: Demolition of the existing farm building and comprehensive development of the site, delivering up to 800 no. residential dwellings (Use Class C3), associated access, and supporting amenity space, landscaping, green infrastructure and sustainable drainage systems (all matters reserved except for access).


Adam Ralton

84

0207 340 4000

www.gov.uk

Your ref:

Our ref:

21 July 2021

Ms Joanne Wagstaffe Chief Executive Three Rivers District Council [email protected]

Dear Ms Wagstaffe,

Thank you for your letter of 10 June to the Secretary of State about child poverty. I am replying as the Minister for Welfare Delivery and I apologise for the delay in doing so.

This Government is wholly committed to supporting people on lower incomes; we paid out more than £111 billion in welfare support for people of working age in 2020/21 and consistently supported the lowest-paid families including by increasing the living wage.

Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been to protect family incomes by spending £407 billion to protect jobs, keep businesses afloat and help families get by. For those most in need, we responded quickly with measures to strengthen the welfare safety net spending an additional £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures during 2020/21. This additional support included a temporary £20 increase in the Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit standard allowance for 2020/21 and nearly £1 billion to increase Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. The Universal Credit increase has now been extended for a further six months, to the end of September, with a one off payment of £500 for eligible Working Tax Credit claimants, and we are maintaining housing support at the same cash level this year.

For the most vulnerable, we have built on the extra support delivered during the early months of the pandemic through the introduction of our Covid Winter Grant Scheme, now the Covid Local Support Grant. Under this scheme, upper tier local authorities in England received £269 million of additional funding between 1 December 2020 and 20 June 2021 to keep vulnerable children warm and well-fed. We have now extended this scheme with an additional £160

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million in funding between 21 June and 30 September, taking total funding under the scheme to £429 million. This extension, beyond the planned end of restrictions, is intended to help families and individuals as the vaccine rollout continues, the economy recovers and we return to normality.

The funding remains ring-fenced, with at least 80 per cent targeted to assist with food and bills, and at least 80 per cent for families with children. Within these parameters, Local authorities have discretion to decide how to allocate funding in their areas, recognising that they are best placed to understand local needs. The funding has been allocated to local authorities based on population size, whilst also weighting for deprivation in the local area using the English Index of Multiple Deprivation.

As the economy recovers, our ambition is to help parents move into and progress in work as quickly as possible based on clear evidence around the importance of parental employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty.

Our multi-billion pound Plan for Jobs is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country and includes new schemes such as the £2 billion Kickstart Scheme, the £2.9 billion Restart Scheme and our Job Entry Targeted Support Scheme. We have also recruited 13,500 extra Work Coaches who through our Jobcentre network will provide people with the tailored support they need to move into work.

The following paragraphs were provided by the Department for Education.

We think it is important that free school meal (FSM) support is targeted at those that need it most, and FSM is an integral part of our provision for families on low incomes, and our wider actions to promote social mobility.

In 2018, the Government introduced new eligibility criteria for families on Universal Credit, following a consultation in 2017. It is estimated that this will be more generous in its reach by 2022, in comparison to the legacy benefit system.

Further to this, we included generous protections, which mean any family eligible for FSM transitioning to Universal Credit from a legacy benefit will continue to have access to a FSM even if they move above the earnings threshold.

The Department for Education’s expanded Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, which provides healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children, will run this summer in every local authority in England. We have expanded this nationally with an investment of £220 million.

The HAF 2021 programme will make free places available to FSM children in their local authority for a minimum of four hours a day, four days a week, six

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weeks a year. This would cover four weeks in the summer, and a week’s worth of provision in each of the Easter and Christmas holidays.

It operated over Easter in every English local authority and will be available to children over the summer and Christmas holidays. This programme builds on delivery of the scheme since 2018 – including last summer’s programme, which supported around 50,000 children across 17 local authorities.

On 8 November 2020, the Government announced that the value of the Healthy Start voucher would rise from £3.10 to £4.25 per week from April 2021. This increase in the Healthy Start voucher value was implemented successfully in April and all Healthy Start beneficiaries are now receiving the higher value vouchers.

I hope you will find this reply helpful.

Kind regards,

Minister for Welfare Delivery

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Rickmansworth Golf Course

Information surrounding temporary closure of par 3 course at Rickmansworth Golf Course

In order to make some improvements to the condition of Rickmansworth Golf Course Par 3 course, Everyone Active will be temporarily closing the Par 3 course from 2 November 2021 – 1 March 2022. All other areas of the course will remain available.

The aims of the temporary closure are to undertake improvement works which will protect and aid grass growth and regeneration to improve the conditions of the course for the following seasons.

The improvement works will include but not be limited to, the below main areas:

• Covering and feeding the greens for the entire period• Tree works around the course – Pruning, trimming back, thinning• Bunker refills and infills• General mowing and fungal/fertiliser treatments

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Great recognition! A first for the Council! Three Rivers District Council are very proud to announce that Leavesden Country Park has gained its first Heritage Green Flag Site Accreditation– the first year and the first park in Three Rivers to do so.

Green Heritage Site Accreditation, supported by Historic England, is given in recognition of achieving the required standard in the management and interpretation of a site with local or national historic importance.

Leavesden Country Park also attained the maximum overall score for both the Green Flag and the Heritage Green Flag awards. The Park, which has recently undergone significant investment to improve the visitor experience, was commended for landscape maintenance, the joining up of old and new, heritage trails and the “remarkably creative” way the site re-creates heritage assets.

The judges particularly highlighted the amount of consultation and participation by local volunteers, ‘Friends of’, groups and schools and mentioned the Covid-19 stone snake created by local children and adopted by the Park to form a permanent feature.

Cllr Chris Lloyd, Lead Member for Leisure, said: ‘I would like to thank all the council staff and partners who have made achieving Heritage Green Flag status possible. This is a very special award and recognises how we have valued and respected the legacy around the Park. Our thanks also to the Leavesden Hospitals History Association for their important contribution in nurturing and keeping the Hospitals history alive’.

Leavesden Country Park join the Rickmansworth Aquadrome, Chorleywood House Estate, South Oxhey Playing Fields in gaining the Green Flag Award, the national benchmark for green spaces, which is judged by green space experts. They assess sites using eight criteria, including horticultural standards, cleanliness, environmental management and community involvement.

Chairman Keith Martin, volunteers and Council Officers with the Green Flag

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But that’s not all…………… Of great celebration, the partnership between Three Rivers District Council and the Leavesden Hospital History Association continues to develop and has brought incredible rewards and recognition.

The Leavesden Hospital History Association (LHHA) is very proud to announce that they were awarded two top prizes during the recent Community Archives and Heritage Group’s, “Community Archives and Heritage Awards” ceremony held on the 27 of October 2021. The LHHA won the ‘Gathering and Preserving Heritage’ category with top scores from all the judges who stated they were ‘very impressed’ with the work done by the LHHA and its members in gathering and preserving the history and heritage of the Leavesden Asylum/Hospital and especially the work involved in preserving the East Lane Cemetery and creating the “Register of Names”.

In addition, the Leavesden Hospital History Association received the highest scores across all 3 categories and was awarded the title of ‘Best Community Archives and Heritage Group, 2021’.

Martin T Brooks, Founder of the Leavesden Hospital History Association, acknowledged all the volunteers whose work resulted in these recognitions. ‘None of us got into this for the recognition, but for the shared interest we have in finding, studying, and preserving our local history and heritage. Without all the passionate volunteers we have, along with the support of Three Rivers District Council and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, none of this would have happened. So, all the recognition of these awards is shared with everyone involved’.

These four new awards join the Parks other outstanding awards including; ‘Small Visitor Attraction of the Year’ at the Hertfordshire Tourism Awards 2019 and the Herts Sports Partnership Award for ‘Professional Community Project of the Year 2019. In addition, the Council received the 2020 LGC runner up in ’Community Involvement’, this national award is the highest level of excellence in local government and celebrate the teams and individuals making the biggest difference to their communities.

At the time of print, we are waiting with excitement to learn if we have also been awarded ‘The DEFRA Award ‘Bees Needs 2021’ and a further Green Flag award for the ‘Most Improved Green Space’.

Martin Brooks, founder of the Leavesden Hospital History Association and his valued volunteers

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Pantomime at Watersmeet

This year’s production is Cinderella and will be running from 9 - 31 December. All Councillors wishing to see the performance on Friday 10 December at 6.30pm are invited, with their guests, to join the Watersmeet team at 5.30pm for pre-show drinks in the Colne Room.

Ticket prices for this performance are £20 per adult, £18 per child/concession and £72 for a family and can be purchased via the Box Office by calling 01923 711063.

The show will start at 6.30pm and light refreshments will be served in the Colne Room before the performance. Please advise the Box Office at the time of booking that you are a Councillor and how many of you will be attending the drinks reception.

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Breakspeare School consultation

Please see below a link to HCC’s consultation page on which views are sought in relation to proposals to relocate the Breakspeare School from its existing site in Abbots Langley (Gallows Hill Lane) to the former Durrants School playing field, Manor Green, Croxley Green, WD3 3LU by January 2024.

The closing date for comments is 22 November 2021 and an online response form has been provided on which comments and opinions can be left: www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/consultations

Claire May MSc MRTPI Head of Planning Policy & Projects Three Rivers District Council Three Rivers House, Northway, Rickmansworth, Herts, WD3 1RL 01923 776611 www.threerivers.gov.uk https://my.threerivers.gov.uk/

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http://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/consultations

http://www.threerivers.gov.uk/

https://my.threerivers.gov.uk/

Three Rivers District Council Press Releases

October 2021

Please click here to see the latest press releases to be published on the Council’s website.

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2 - 4.30pmWatersmeet, High Street, Rickmansworth, WD3 1EH

Pensioners’ ForumPensioners’ ForumWe are delighted to welcome you to the first ‘in-person’ forum for over 18 months.Residents can enjoy presentations by the Citizens’ Advice Service, a local and highly successful happiness charity as well as representatives of the local film industry and more!

There will also be live There will also be live music and comedy music and comedy

from Stig Spiggletonfrom Stig Spiggleton

Tuesday

November2021

2Citizens’ AdviceService Three RiversA presentation by Peta Mettam CEO

Watford and Three Rivers Trust

Alison May speaking about local activities

that may be of interest to our retired community

Local Historian Richard Westwood talks on the role played

by John Dickinson’s Mill during WWII

A Slice of Happiness -mental health charityCaroline Powell talks about supporting those

with wellbeing issues as a result of Covid-19

by providing a positive-thinking approach.

Warner Brothers Studio Leavesden

Emily Stillman and

Kim Piper-Bowles will be

providing an insight to the

film industry

SpeakersSpeakers

Please book you place by emailing [email protected]

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L a t e s t n e w s f r o m t h e C h i l t e r n sA O N B

Hello readers,

STOP PRESS: Today on Women's Hour, listen to our fantastic Board Member Dr Geeta Ludhra talking to Anita Rani about the amazing walking community that she's built through Dadima's CIC. Geeta champions health and wellbeing and diversity in the Chilterns. Today Friday 22nd October between 10 and 11am on BBC Radio 4 (listen again via the women's hour webpage if you miss it!).

Welcome to the October edition of the Chilterns AONB newsletter - and what a busy month it's been, with all the preparation for the Chilterns Walking Festival and our Autumn Festival of Chilterns Food & Drink. We hope you've managed to book onto a walk or two, or a foodie event!

This month's newsletter is full of chalk stream conservation news, including the launch of the exciting £3 million Smarter Water Catchment Project to protect the River Chess. The Ver Valley Society's volunteers

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also received a prestigious award, and you can hear from Professor Kate Heppell on her secondment to the Chilterns Chalk Streams Project. Also, we welcome two new recruits to the Chiltern Society who will help deliver our joint Chalk Streams and Wetland Meadows Project.

We're also pleased to announce our latest Book Competition winners and share details of a job opportunity with Pastures for Life CIC.

The beautiful header image depicts Hambleden Brook, taken by Allen Beechey, our Chalk Streams Project Officer.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Vicki Pearce Communications Officer

I N T H I S I S S U E

• £3 million SmarterWater CatchmentProject to protect theRiver Chess

• Defra visits theChilterns AONB

• Ver Valley Societyreceives QueensAward for VoluntaryService

• Professor KateHeppell's secondmentto the Chalk StreamsProject

• Chiltern Society gainstwo exciting new

G E T S O C I A L

F O L L O W on F A C E B O O K

F O L L O W on T W I T T E R

F O L L O W on I N S T A G R A M

V I S I T our W E B S I T E

E M A I L the T E A M

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mailto:[email protected]

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recruits for Chalk Streams

• Little Trees BookCompetition Winners

• HS2 Update• Job opportunity: PFLA

seeks a new regionalcoordinator

£ 3 m i l l i o n S m a r t e r W a t e rC a t c h m e n t P r o j e c t t o p r o t e c t t h eR i v e r C h e s s

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The Chilterns Conservation Board was delighted to join with Thames Water, the Chilterns Chalk Streams Project, the River Chess Association and other partners to launch a new £3 million project for protecting and enhancing the River Chess.

The project involves a 10-year commitment to improve biodiversity, water quality and community involvement. It will bring together organisations, community groups and residents from across the region to help secure a brighter future for the River Chess and other rivers in the area.

The project will also aim to improve local access to the river, create school programmes and provide new volunteering opportunities. Working with schools will provide pupils with a valuable insight into water-related issues and sustainability education, and will help ensure that the community can benefit from these special rivers.

Read more

D E F R A v i s i t s C h i l t e r n s A O N B

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DEFRA's Access and Engagement team came to the Chilterns AONB in September for their team away day. They received a warm welcome at the National Trust's Ashridge Estate.

It was great to discuss connecting people with nature and landscape over coffee, and to enjoy a walk led by Matt from the Ashridge Estate. Among the many topics discussed was a shared focus on improving inclusion and diversity in the countryside.

We were also pleased to welcome the DEFRA Future Landscapes Team to the Chilterns on 18th October. This time we met in our Mend The Gap project area. Mend The Gap aims to heal the scars to the landscape caused by the electrification of the Great Western Main Line near the Goring Gap. The day included a walk and visit to BBOWT's Hartslock Nature Reserve where we heard from Martyn Lane about how they care for this special area of chalk grassland.

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Q u e e n s A w a r d f o r V o l u n t a r y S e r v i c e f o r t h e V e r V a l l e y S o c i e t y

Huge congratulations to one of our key partners, The Ver Valley Society, for receiving the honour of a Queen's Award for Voluntary Service. The award was given in recognition for 45 years of volunteer efforts in caring and campaigning for the River Ver chalk stream.

The Society said on twitter: "We're as determined as ever to fight for more water & wildlife in our #chalkstream."

Protecting the Chilterns Chalk Streams just wouldn't be possible without the efforts of the many voluntary groups and organisations who work tirelessly to conserve our rare and previous Chilterns Chalk Streams habitats.

Find out more

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P r o f e s s o r K a t e H e p p e l l ' s s e c o n d m e n t t o t h e C h a l kS t r e a m s P r o j e c t

We're really pleased that Kate Heppell has been seconded to the Chilterns Chalk Streams Project (CCSP) from Queen Mary University of London for one year, in order to work on a number of initiatives.

Let's hear from Kate about the work she'll be doing this year.

"Much of my time will be focused on the Chess Smarter Water Catchments project which is being hosted by Chilterns Chalk Streams Project (CCSP). I’m making a baseline assessment of the health of the River Chess using datasets from the partner organisations and joining hydrological, chemical and ecological datasets to add value to data collected by the CCSP over the last ten years.

"I’ll also be creating and initiating a monitoring plan for the River Chess to help assess whether the different actions that comprise the Smarter Water Catchment strategy have led to a demonstrable improvement in river ecosystem health over the ten-year project.

"During my secondment I'll be helping to celebrate 25 years of the Chilterns Chalk Streams Project by developing a State of the Environment reporting methodology for the Chiltern Streams, and assessing the achievements made over the lifetime of the project. Whilst

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I’m working with the organisation I also hope to get some hands-on experience of river restoration projects around the Chilterns AONB."

Find out about the Chilterns Chalk Stream Project

T h e C h i l t e r n S o c i e t y g a i n s t w o n e wr e c r u i t s f o r t h e C h a l k S t r e a m s & W e t l a n d M e a d o w s P r o j e c t

The Chiltern Society is delighted to have recruited two new staff members to deliver the Chalk Streams and Wetland Meadows Project, a joint project with The Chilterns Conservation Board, funded by the government's Green Recovery Challenge Fund.

Laura Silverstone has taken up the post of Education and Engagement Officer, and Adrian Porter has taken up the post of Rivers Officer.

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Read more about Laura and Adrian's experience and interests, and more about the project.

Read more

L i t t l e T r e e s B o o k C o m p e t i t i o nW i n n e r s

The winners of the book giveaway in our June newsletter are:

• Sue Cooper from Ewelme has won The Little Tree Book.• Jan Atkinson from Amersham won Chiltern Trails and Tales.

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Your book copies have been posted out to you. Thank you to everyone who entered!

H S 2 U p d a t e

We continue to liaise with our partners in an effort to scrutinise HS2 Ltd's activities and hold them to account.

The next issue will feature an update, including our concerns over the latest design of the Amersham vent shaft, the trees at Leather Lane in Great Missenden and the impact of tunneling operations on the chalk aquifer.

J o b o p p o r t u n i t y : P a s t u r e - F e d L i v e s t o c k A s s o c i a t i o n i s l o o k i n g f o ra C h i l t e r n s F a c i l i t a t o r

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The PFLA is looking for a dynamic organiser to help them develop pasture-fed farming and supply chains in the Chilterns.

It's a one-day-a-week job to start, with the potential to increase that if local projects can be established. The position would suit someone with a job in the food, farming or conservation sectors looking for an additional role.

To find out more, please contact: [email protected]

PFLA website

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Calendar of Meetings November 2021

Policy and Resources Committee Monday 1

Extraordinary Council (Cancelled) Monday 1

Pensioners’ Forum (2pm) (Watersmeet) Tuesday 2

Environmental Forum (Virtual) Wednesday 3

Abbots Langley Local Area Forum (Virtual) Thursday 4

Watford Rural Local Area Forum (Virtual) Tuesday 9

Rickmansworth Local Area Forum (Virtual) Thursday 11

Infrastructure, Housing & Economic Development Committee Tuesday 16

Planning Committee Thursday 18

Croxley Green Local Area Forum (Virtual) Tuesday 23

Leisure, Environment and Community Committee Wednesday 24

Meetings start at 7.30pm and are held at Three Rivers House, Northway, Rickmansworth unless otherwise stated. If a meeting is to be held virtually, a link to join it will be posted on the relevant web page when the agenda is published.

The agendas for the meetings are available on the meetings page of the Council website five days prior to each meeting.

The Council welcomes contributions from Members of the public to its discussion on agenda items at Committee meetings. Contributions will be limited to one person speaking for and one against each item for not more than three minutes. Please note that in the event of registering your interest to speak on an agenda item but not taking up that right because the item is deferred, you will automatically be given the right to speak on that item at the next meeting of the Committee. For further details on registering to speak or observe, please see the agenda page of the relevant meeting. Alternatively, please email [email protected]

In accordance with The Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 any matters considered under Part 1 business only of the meeting may be filmed, recorded, photographed, broadcast or reported via social media by any person.

Recording and reporting the Council's meetings is subject to the law and it is the responsibility of those doing the recording and reporting to ensure compliance. This will include the Human Rights Act, the Data Protection Act and the laws of libel and defamation.

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CHAIR / VICE-CHAIR OF THE COUNCIL’S CIVIC ENGAGEMENTS FOR OCTOBER 2021

Saturday 2 October 10.30am Chair Cllr Keith Martin attended the Three Rivers Museum Photography Competition Prize Presentation event at Watersmeet in Rickmansworth.

Sunday 3 October 3.00pm Chair Cllr Keith Martin and his Consort Mrs Liz Martin attended the Mayor of Hertsmere’s Civic Service at St Peter’s Church in Bushey Heath.

Friday 8 October 11.30am Chair Cllr Keith Martin visited Rickmansworth School at Scots Hill, Rickmansworth.

Tuesday 12 October 1.30pm Chair Cllr Keith Martin attended the reopening of a playground at Maple Cross School

Wednesday 13 October 10am Chair Cllr Keith Martin attended the Green Flag Award and Green Heritage Site Award at Leavesden Country Park.

Saturday 16 October 4pm Chair Cllr Keith Martin and Mrs Liz Martin attended an Evensong Service of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims at St Albans Cathedral.

Wednesday 20 October 7.30pm Chair Cllr Keith Martin attended the Citizens’ Advice Service AGM at the Parish Council Hall in Oxhey Drive, South Oxhey.

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this edition includes… - threerivers.gov.uk

Documents