Grenville, New County Hall

Minutes

Meeting Title:

/ Community Covenant Partnership Board

Date:

/

23rd Sept 2016

Time:

/

11:00-13:00

Location:

/

Grenville, New County Hall

Chaired by:

/

Councillor Andrew Wallis

Membership:

Apologies: / Mark Read MR (CC), Sarah Thorneycroft ST (CC), Carol Kimberley CK (CC), Sue Waring SW (CC), Anthony Ball AB (Public Health), Commander Ian Fitter IF (RNAS Culdrose), Commander Sean Brady SB (HMS Raleigh), Wing Commander Alexandra Mason AM (RAF St Mawgan), Jo Howard JH (RAF St Mawgan), Steve Lewis SL (RBL), Susanne Archard SA (RBL), Rear Admiral Alastair Ross AR (SSAFA), Peter Hawley PH (NFF), Flight Commander Justin Churchill JC (RAF St Mawgan)
Commander Ian Fitter, Rear Admiral Alastair Ross, Peter Hawley, Jo Howard, Commander Sean Brady

Minutes

/

Officer

1

/ Welcome/Introductions
AW welcomed all to the inaugural meeting and introductions made.
Apologies noted. SL advised that there is a new Commander at HMS Raleigh ACTION JM to contact and update membership. / JM

2

/ Terms of Reference
Circulated to all for approval.
Outlines that the primary purpose of the Board will be progressing the agreed action plan and continuing to make improvements with regard to implementing the Covenant.
MR advised have incorporated all feedback received on draft ToR.
SA suggested Help for Heroes (HfH) should be included in membership of the Board. AW advised already discussed HfH membership, however felt this would open up membership to too many other organisations, whereas SSAFA and RBL are nationally recognised. HfH will be involved as required for specific pieces of work or consultation. SA advised that HfH do sit on other Covenant Boards across the South West. AB stated could use same argument for Active Plus to be members who whilst are not a national organisation are very active in South West. JC recognised difficulties in limiting membership once charities are invited. AW suggested will distribute minutes to organisations so able to comment, feedback on Covenant work. SA advised that RBL and SSAFA members on the Board will represent voluntary organisations and distribute through their networks.
AW stated also considered NHS membership, however no one single organisation that could represent whole NHS viewpoint, hence would need multiple members.
AB suggested DWP may need to be represented via Job Centre plus, SA advised however further organisations such as Career Transition Partnership would then also need to be involved.
JC advised that housing forms the biggest percentage of issues and advice sought from personnel at RAF St Mawgan. AW advised housing involved via CT.
CK suggested could also include a feedback area on the webpage for organisations or individuals to comment/feedback/make suggestions. ACTION MR to task PC to add this to website.
The Board formally endorsed the ToR. ACTION JM to change membership for HMS Raleigh. / MR
JM

3

/ Covenant 2016/17 Action Plan update
MR talked through various actions and progress against these. Board invited for comment around progress and other areas that aren’t included and need to be in scope.
MR advised that whilst agenda is being progressed it is important to note that there is no specific budget allocated to the Covenant.
Accessibility and Information
MR advised the approach of internal communications is to get web pages up and running first and then publicise and deliver communications to staff and members.
CK stated have also built in references to Armed Forces in all strategies in Children, Young People and Families Directorate. CK attending the Council equalities action group in November to discuss the Covenant and policies/strategies related. AW stated that as part of the homeless strategy board – first question asked is ‘are you a veteran’, the Council is starting to think about Armed Forces personnel when delivering services. CK advised within the Family Information Service systems there is now a drop down box re forces membership/veteran and have been working on collating data around services children within Cornwall to ensure have correct information. JC advised currently around 40 families aligned to RAF St Mawgan. ACTION JM to contact Army rep to check for corresponding figures.
ST advised MR has been invited to Housing conference in November, suggested publicise Covenant at exhibition space.
MR advised Making Census Count proposal from RBL was taken to full Council and unanimously endorsed. SA stated government are reviewing inclusion as very small margin that was omitted from the census. AW believes RBL led campaign will be successful. ACTION SA to keep Board updated on progress re Census.
Education
CK updated that first meeting of group looking at schools and education has been set. Russell Collier – dedicated education officer is attending. CK advised of the general misunderstanding around the Covenant and that not proactively giving advantage, rather preventing disadvantage.
AW expanded on the rights to schools by armed forces personnel. One of the pressures this year, re some of the appeals cite serving member of the armed forces. CK data from all children school performance and no disadvantage in terms of outcomes for services children.Have carried out data mapping of numbers and location of children spread across the whole of Cornwall and have a wider coverage than first thought. ACTION CK to share this information with Board. SA advised that Military Kids Club picking up speed in Cornwall.
JC advised that a Senior lead from MoD is visiting Cornwall next week and could feed back any points that need raising from partners with regard to Housing etc. NFF families map – one of the highest concentration nationally for this group. Huge % of servingfamilies in Cornwall. AW also trying to approach DWP for Veterans information via pensions. SA stated however this doesn’t highlight those that didn’t serve long enough to receive pension.
JCraised issue that there are families from other stations residing in Cornwall. JC outlined 4th Oct deadline to complete survey re housing to remove SFA’s and replace with privately owned schemes to be implanted in 2020. AW questioned how this will work with 3 year postings.
JC looking to incorporate people who are not recognised for the future accommodation model i.e. unmarried couples/families.
SA stated there are lots of issues with this proposal i.e. some service personnel will have no existing credit rating.
AW suggested that this is discussed in more detail at a future board as clearly has implications on housing and local authority provision. ACTION JC to email covenant email re the proposal to change SFA(service family accommodation) and the implications on LGBT and non-married couples.
SA advised RBL sits on public policy panel and that MoD have been acknowledged for work around LGBT fair employment but possibly a gap here for non-married couples.
MR suggested Board may want to agree to focus on specific topics at a time. AW suggested first piece of work Housing. JC agreed as huge issue for RAF. ST agreed would be interesting to understand all the issues and how policies work in practice. SA stated two biggest areas of advice for RBL are housing and debt (generally within veteran population)
Board agreed that Housing should be first area of work to explore. ACTION MR/AW to consider how to take this forward.
SL suggested that will raise this issue through RBL national conference next year to bolster knowledge of disadvantages for non-married serving couples.
AB hospital safe discharge service for rough sleepers – have picked up data on veterans for this. CK asked if data is available by group for referrals – AB do have access to some info general trends however anonymised.
Health
Dentistry model – AB advised poor access in Cornwall. Reviewing Dorset model to see what has been done there. ACTION MR/PC Publicise Dental spaces on the website. / JM
SA
CK
JC
MR/AW
MR/PC

4

/ Our Community – Our Covenant report
LGA report on feedback following visit to assess Local Authority commitment to Community Covenants, identify best practice and implement shared learning.
MR talked to Executive summary and table of best practice – was noted that already delivering a number of these or have plans in place to implement. One recommendation not currently included is the production of an annual report – to be added to the action plan ACTION MR/JM
AW recognised that compared to other LA’s Cornwall is on the right trackwhich is pleasing in view of the large geographical nature and number of armed forces bases.
AW highlighted statement on p16-17 re the low % of understanding of the Covenant nationally.
ACTION ALL Board to share report with colleagues and contacts and will be added to web pages. ACTION MR/PC / MR/JM
ALL
MR/PC

5

/ Covenant Web pages
MR talked through draft webpages for Community Covenant. ACTION JM to circulate link to the Board. ACTION ALL to review, share and feedback on what needs to be added. Will be reviewed. Responses back by as soon as possible with a target of 1st November go live. CK advised need to ensure connection to Family Information Service pages ACTION PC.
AW advised need to look at optimisation for Google to find the pages. ACTION PC to investigate this with web team.
SA highlighted launch date of 1st Nov will link with remembrance Poppy Appeal time.
MR stated web pages will be used for the public but also for our contact centre/face to face services within the Council.
AW suggested adding to the discount pages any service personnel/ veteran discounts by local businesses. ACTION JC to send through discounts that currently have in place for RAF St Mawgan personnel. JC stated that this could be a valuable single point of resource for serving personnel and veterans. And RAF St Mawgan and Culdrose linking together to establish local discount schemes. ACTION JC to talk to AM re speaking with SL to get this in place,
CK advised that the family information services web pages already link with FB pages etc.
SW suggested adding a jargon buster/glossary page to the site. ACTION MR/PC
JC stated could direct personnel to website pre-posting for all information related to moving to the area.
AW suggested adding logos including RBL, SSAFA, etc on web pages. ACTION MR/PC
JCsuggested employment linksto be added to the website pages for partners of serving personnel. AW needs to have conversation with DWP on this.
SL stated that discussed involvement of local business and corporate buy-in to get businesses on board when signed the Covenant back in March. MR advised that a Corporate Covenant is one of the sections of the action plan to progress.
Also talked about job protection for reservists and what can be done. CK asked if there are any current links with the Local Enterprise Partnership who may have connections or networks. ACTION AW to talk to Sandra Rothwell. / ALL
PC
PC
JC
JC
MR/PC
MR/PC
AW
Covenant Grant – Priority 3
Specific grant opportunity which is ring-fenced to LA’s to bid for funding. MR took conference call last week with other South West authorities.
£50-200k – two windows of bidding – grants process end October and another in Oct 2017.
Applications only open for LA’s, as part of a cluster of LA’s as a joint bid with one lead authority.
Can bid for establishing and sharing best practice, implementing activities (ie staff training), web development, embedding Covenant into mainstream services.
Meeting agreed to put together a joint bid for the following;
1- shared resource to help deliver and embed regional network of forces friendly champions
2 – develop training and awareness packages for frontline staff and partners
3 – creating south west web portal for the Covenant. Can access each of the Counties and areas – to drive consistency and standards. Also act as a challenge for Cornwall to offer.
Wiltshire will be lead authority to draft bid around 3 above themes. Will then share with each LA and LA’s share with partners for feedback.
MR asked for Board views/comments - AW suggested as South West is large geographical area better to have Devon and Cornwall element only?
Question was asked re other authorities that weren’t involved in the meeting - MR advised action was taken away to go back to SW authorities that weren’t involved to ask for support and not aware that they have aligned to another bid.
SA asked if there would be an issue with search optimisation if Cornwall’s Covenant web pages if part of a South West web portal.
AW stated that as around 15-16 LA’s in the SW happy to support a bid however want some specific funds for Devon and Cornwall as have large % service personnel, veterans etc in comparison to other areas. MR agreed would need to be clear in the bid how money will be used. Veteran data for Cornwall would be useful for this very purpose.
Board agreed happy with bid in principle and first draft from Wiltshire will be circulated to Board for comment when received. ACTION MR.
SW highlighted that there is potential to bid for over£200k however this is in exceptional circumstances.
AW stated that need to put the question to 3 base commanders re how many units are actually being supported in Cornwall. ACTION SA to provide caseload data and contact numbers.
ACTION MR/JM to contact 3 unit commanders to ask. Also have Children’s data for CK to approve (though historic) JCidentified that also to identify serving personnel families that are based here but work at a different base outside of Cornwall, as well as people on draft or training.
AB advised of a needs assessment for Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall of armed forces veterans personnel – ACTION AB to send to MR for distribution.
AB stated last LA to sign up to Covenant were Isles of Scilly and therefore may want to engage with them also. ACTION AW to follow up with IoS Council. / MR
SA
AB
AW
AOB/ Next meeting date
ACTION JM to do doodle poll for next Board meeting in Jan. Board agreed other work e.g. Housing working group can be progressed in the interim.
It was suggested that something around the housing conference? ST solutions for rough sleepers. AW suggested short presentation on Covenant. More around exhibition space – table at conference.
ACITON ST invite to Board, limited membership – MR, AB, AW – RBL to be invited and part of the Covenant table. ACTION ST to send invite through to SA. 16th November.
Board membership was also discussed if a standing member couldn’t attend then the preference for a deputy to attend was agreed. / JM
ST

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