Item 3

North Somerset Partnership Board

2 December 2015

Priorities and Challenges

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1.Introduction

The Board agreed at the meeting held on 14 July 2015 to identify a set of shared partnership priorities and appropriate mechanisms for delivery to replace the Sustainable Community Strategy.

Since the last meeting each organisation represented on the board has been invited to share the following information:

  • medium term priorities (3-5 years)
  • partnership priorities or identified opportunities for partnership activity
  • key challenges

This briefing paper brings together this work as background information to inform NSP discussions.

2.Medium Term Priorities

North Somerset Enterprise Agency Ltd and North Somerset Enterprise Agency Property Services

  • Strengthening of 1-1 business advice for local businesses at both pre-start, trading and growth stage.
  • The development of a loan fund for North Somerset small businesses.
  • Construction of a new wing of The Hive, on existing site, to offer space for up to another 40 new companies.

Bristol Airport

  • Continue developing and enhancing facilities to support objective of building a world class regional airport in North Somerset.
  • Focus on providing great customer service with a relaxed and friendly style.
  • Consistent with our brand, “Amazing Journeys Start Here”.
  • Make Bristol Airport a great place to work with a strong team culture and engaged staff.
  • Continue to promote employment opportunities to local people.
  • Maintain our commitment to mitigating impacts on the local community and environment.
  • Work with local and national stakeholders to identify and progress surface access improvements.

Avon Fire and Rescue Service

  • Making the area safer by protecting, preventing and responding.
  • Becoming more efficient, effective and economical.
  • Continuing to ensure our staff are well supported and their health safety and welfare is a priority.

Avon and Somerset Police

Police and Crime Commissioner

The overall vision and priorities as set out in the Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Plan are as follows:

Overall vision

  • Better integrated and co-ordinated local services.
  • Ongoing modernisation and investment in new technology.
  • Continued exploration of new ways of working, particularly in tackling new and emerging threats.
  • Improvements to the way agencies work together to identify, safeguard and protect vulnerable people.
  • Greater collaboration within Avon and Somerset and with Wiltshire Police and other regional forces.

Priorities

  • Reducing the impact of anti-social behaviour.
  • Tackling domestic and sexual abuse.
  • Preventing and reducing burglary.
  • Improving road safety for all road users.
  • Putting victims first.

Avon and Somerset Police Force

  • New Police Crime Commissioner Elections May 2016, term until 2020.
  • Drive to improve productivity whilst reconfiguring services.

North Somerset CCG

The CCG’s vision is to ‘create the healthiest community together’. It aims to achieve this by:

  • Ensuring an integrated health and social care system for adults and children, driven by quality and innovation.
  • Providing the best possible health care for the patients of North Somerset, within the funding available.
  • Reducing health inequalities by working in partnership.
  • Improving patient care by ensuring there is easy access to shared, up-to-date and relevant information.
  • Creating an environment which motivates member practices to deliver safe care, a good patient experience and evidence based practice.
  • Being a successful and dynamic organisation, that provides a rewarding place to work.

Strategic priorities (taken from a presentation to the People and Communities Board Sept 2014) include:

  • A completely new approach to ensuring that citizens are fully included in all aspects of service design and change and that patients are fully empowered in their own care
  • Wider community and primary care, provided at scale
  • A modern model of integrated care
  • Access to the highest quality urgent and emergency care
  • A step-change in the productivity of elective care
  • Specialised services concentrated in centres of excellence

North Somerset Council

The draft vision for the area is ‘A great place to live where people, businesses and communities flourish.

The draft vision for the organisation is ‘Modern, efficient services and a strong voice for North Somerset.

The council has identified three key outcomes for our communities as follows:

Prosperity and Opportunity

  • Drive growth in the North Somerset economy and local jobs.
  • Ensure that all our Town Centres are thriving.
  • Enable young people to fulfil their potential.
  • Ensure that all our communities share in prosperity and employment growth.

Health and Wellbeing

  • Enable residents to make healthy choices and promote active lifestyles which reduce ill health and increase independence.
  • Support families to give their children the best start in life.
  • Commission or provide quality health and care services, which deliver dignity, safety and choice.

Quality Places

  • Enable sustainable housing growth which protects our natural and built environment and the special character of our villages.
  • Build and sustain great places to live and visit–vibrant, accessible, and safe.
  • Empower people to contribute to their community and communities to provide their own solutions.

The ambitions for the organisation are as follows:

  • A transformed Council: modern, innovative and accessible
  • Skilled and motivated staff, passionate about making North Somerset even better
  • Excellence in resource management
  • Strong, outcomes focussed partnerships

Weston College

  • To advance the regeneration of North Somerset through continued partnership between NSC, LEP and the College. In particular to:
  • Gain University Centre status
  • Create a High Technology Centre
  • Build upon our Public Service apprenticeship model including the Apprenticeship Training Agency
  • Advance the Law and Professional Services Academy
  • Create a Sporting Academy with appropriate resources to support the development of a Centre of Excellence in Sport and Leisure which in turn will add to the ‘University Centre’ potential
  • To remain sufficiently robust to deliver a wide range of teaching and learning support across all age ranges using Weston College, Inspirational Futures Trust, Forward Futures, Offender Learning Services and our Business Development Unit for the West of England.
  • To establish bespoke faculties for Autism and related areas across the West of England (including boarding facilities for students) centred in North Somerset.
  • To continue to diversify our approaches so that the College continues to contribute and make inroads to key development areas.
  • To ensure through devolution that the College meets the needs of:
  • Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
  • Local Authorities (predominantly North Somerset)
  • Niche provision (including LDD)

Alliance Homes (AHG) Future Plans

AHG has experienced an £84 million reduction in its investment plans as a consequence of changes introduced by the government’s 2015 budget. The Group has revised its plans in light of the adverse impacts on its own income and that of its primary customer base. The Group has been able to demonstrate ongoing financial viability to its regulator, but this has significantly reduced capacity to engage and invest in the North Somerset community.

The Group’s purpose is not changing from a community based social enterprise and it still plans to engage in delivering housing solutions, care and support.

A summary of priorities is to:

  • Continue to offer homes at sub-market rents to tenants who have the capacity to pay these rents. It should be noted that reduced benefit levels make some homes at “affordable rent” unaffordable to some households in North Somerset. Alliance Homes will exercise greater selectivity over whom it will house.
  • Maintain a housing development programme that meets local needs. The majority of new homes constructed are likely to be at market rents, subsidising a smaller programme of homes at sub-market rents. Market conditions are such that new development is expected to extend beyond North Somerset into the wider West of England area.
  • Engage in active asset management to ensure value locked up in properties is being used to greatest effect.
  • To maintain a focus on reducing household costs, including energy efficiency initiatives.
  • Extend contract based care and support services that promote independent living. Reduced capacity to subsidise these services means that viability of contract prices will be fundamental. Contracts will be sought beyond North Somerset boundaries in order to establish economies of scale.
  • Engagement in community investment and employment generation initiatives will be significantly curtailed. However, continued engagement with Team North Somerset is planned, together with entry to employment initiatives such as the recent Care Academy programme.

Voluntary Action North Somerset (VANS)

VANS Mission is to represent, develop and empower the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector in North Somerset to be at the forefront of positive social change and development.

There are three key aspirations that underscore the services we want to deliver in North Somerset. These are:

For the sector

  • A vibrant and bespoke volunteer centre offer.
  • A holistic person centred approach to health and wellbeing.

For the organisation

  • The infrastructure body for the voluntary, community, social enterprise sector (VCSE)

Medium term priorities are:

Vibrant and bespoke volunteer centre service

  • Provide a local, searchable, web-based database of volunteering opportunities.
  • Offer support to VCSE sector organisations to help them to recruit volunteers.
  • Offer advice and support to people looking for volunteeringopportunities.
  • Develop a service to support young people to gain volunteering experience.
  • Support VCSE organisations and public sector bodies to deliver high-quality, meaningful volunteering.
  • Deliver volunteering programmes.
  • Work with public and private sector to develop the three days a year volunteering initiative.

The infrastructure body for the VCSE sector

  • Broker and advocate for the VCSE sector to maximise social value dividend opportunities.
  • Broker and advocate for the VCSE sector to maximise community capacity opportunities as part of development contracts.
  • Broker and advocate for VCSE sector to maximise partnership development and co-production opportunities.
  • Provide opportunities for the sector to work together and share best practise.

Holistic person centred approach to Health and Wellbeing

  • Ensure that we are at the forefront of engaging commissioners with the opportunities for joined up work with the VCSE sector.
  • Support people to contribute to their community and communities to provide their own solutions.
  • Develop volunteer pathway contracts to support people who are most excluded to thrive.
  • Develop volunteer buddy contracts to enhance the services offered by health partners.
  • Realise potential for additional investment for community cohesion work through maximising community capacity, social value and corporate social responsibility dividends.

3.Partnership Priorities

North Somerset Enterprise Agency Ltd and North Somerset Enterprise Agency Property Services

Local partnership activities included:

  • The development and promotion of apprenticeships and tackling barriers to employment with Weston College.
  • Supporting the development of a creative enterprise hub in Weston town centre in conjunction with the Council, College and other partner.
  • Supporting the development of the Food technology centre in conjunction with the council and others
  • Supporting social enterprise creation and development in conjunction with VANS, Alliance Homes, Knightstone Housing, West of England LEPand Social Enterprise Works through the latest ERDf call and other potential funding streams.

Bristol Airport

  • Continue supporting local projects through the Local Community Fund, contributing £100,000 per annum increasing in line with passenger numbers.
  • Work with local stakeholders and other transport providers to support an integrated approach to surface access through the Airport Transport Forum.
  • Continue working with local schools to offer work experience opportunities to young people.
  • Continue working with voluntary organisations to ensure all customers are catered for (e.g. passengers with reduced mobility, dementia etc.).
  • Build on existing tourism marketing activity, in partnership with local destination management organisations, to increase inbound visitor numbers.
  • Support economic development and inward investment by developing and promoting a comprehensive route network with a strong business focus.

Avon Fire and Rescue Service

The services main priority for partnership working currently is focused on improved collaboration across the blue light services. This is in line with the current governments drive on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the emergency services. We are also working with all of our other cat 1 partners within the LRF to ensure improved ways of preparing for events across the Avon boundary.

As well as this we have a dedicated partnership manager who liaises with various organisations and partners to ensure we are working as closely as possible to achieve the greatest benefit to our communities from not only a fire safety perspective but also from a quality of life.

Avon and Somerset Police

Police and Crime Commissioner Police & Crime Plan

  • Connecting the police with local people so that you can see how the service is working for you on your priorities and in your community.
  • Ensuring greater transparency in policing so that you can see how we are performing, how your money is being spent and what is being delivered as a result.
  • Providing local leadership in bringing agencies together to tackle the issues that are of greatest concern to your community.

Avon and Somerset Police Force

  • A concentration on high vulnerability individuals/communities to effectively problem solve on a multiagency basis to improve wellbeing whilst reducing repeat demand allowing for wider service delivery across all individuals/communities. This will require collaborative working and co-location of staff.

North Somerset CCG

The CCG aims to be a ‘good partner to work with to improve the health of the population.

Its strategic priorities for (2014 -2016)for partnership working are as follows:

  • Improving health outcomes and reducing inequalities including prevention
  • Make the most effective use of limited resources – integrated working

North Somerset Council

Many of the council’s ambitions to enable our businesses and communities to flourish will not be achieved by the Council alone. The council is committed to collaboration with partners to achieve positive outcomes for our communities. Key ambitions include:

  • Driving growth in North Somerset economy and local jobs - maximising the opportunities for housing and business growth to help deliver generating income to provide public services
  • Ensuring our Town Centres thrive including Weston-super-Mare Town Centre regeneration plans and the development the University Campus
  • Potential devolution and ensuring that we get the best deal for the people of North Somerset in any new arrangements for the West of England
  • Working towards a shared platform for public services
  • Maximising the potential of the growth agenda for regional economy including Hinkley and the Great Western Electrification
  • Enable residents to make healthy choices and promote active lifestyles
  • Health and Social Care integration
  • Empowering people to contribute to their community and communities to provide their own solutions

Weston College

  • University Centre (with NSC)
  • High Technologies (NSC, LEP, Hinkley Point)
  • Sport (NSC, LEP)
  • Unemployed agenda (NSC, LEP)
  • Apprenticeships (NSC, LEP)

Alliance Homes (AHG

Alliance Homes Group has contractual partnerships in place with twelve organisations working within North Somerset. Some of these partners are co-locating with us at our Weston office base.

The Group is open to engaging in shared facilities and /or services where there are clear benefits that arise. Discussions are taking place with the police currently about use of space at our main office in Portishead.

AHG has previously considered establishing Cost Sharing Groups that have taxation benefits to organisations of a similar type liable to pay VAT. There is renewed interest in this model in the face of wider financial challenges currently.

Voluntary Action North Somerset

We aim to support and work with North Somerset Council to deliver its ambitions contained within the draft Corporate Plan in particular:

Ambition: Enable young people to fulfil their potential.

Ambition: Empower people to contribute to their community and communities to provide their own solutions.

Social value and procurement

There exists a major opportunity for both public and private sector to develop imaginative and powerful social value dividends through procurement. We aspire to ensure that the social value elements of contracts are used to maximise engagement with local communities and to maximise volunteering within local communities.

Community Capacity- and opportunities for local engagement

As North Somerset embarks upon major housing and business developments we aim to work with North Somerset Council to ensure that every opportunity for community capacity funding is maximised.

Health and Wellbeing Agenda

We aim to:

  • Develop our partnership with North Somerset Community Partnership (NSCP) to expand the volunteer offer across four localities,
  • Develop co-production through joint bid writing with NSCP to increase funding into North Somerset to develop projects that enhance health services.
  • Work with the Clinical Commissioning Group to ensure that opportunities for co-production are maximised
  • Work with Public Health to support the mental wellbeing of residents in North Somerset by engaging them insupported volunteering through our Volunteer Pathway programme.

Private sector partnerships

Increasingly the private sector is engaging with workforce volunteering, through their corporate social responsibility strategies and through the social value agenda. VANS are keen to explore opportunities to offer a service to the private sector that audits current levels of volunteering within their work force and develops a volunteer training and brokerage offer that links workforce volunteers to volunteering opportunities in the community.