BOROUGH OF POOLE

CABINET DECISION BY PORTFOLIO HOLDER

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM GRANTS PANEL -

29 SEPTEMBER 2008

The Portfolio Holder is asked to consider the following recommendations from the Grants Panel (Minutes attached): -

GRANTS FOR 2008-2009:

  • A grant of £201,500 plus VAT, for a three Year Funding Agreement, be made to Poole Council for Voluntary Service as follows:

Year One 2008/09- £65, 841 plus VAT

Year Two 2009/2010 - £67,158 plus VAT

Year Three 2010/2011 - £68,501 plus VAT

  • A grant of £2,000 be made to Poole Shopmobility.

The Portfolio Holder for Resources, Councillor Sorton, be asked to consider the above recommendations on Wednesday 29October 2008.

Tim Martin, LLB Solicitor

Head of Legal and Democratic Services

Civic Centre, Poole

21 October 2008

Contact Officer:

Kate Gibbings, Democratic Support Officer

Tel: 01202 633022

Email:

BOROUGH OF POOLE

GRANTS PANEL

29 SEPTEMBER 2008

The Meeting commenced at 2.00pm and concluded at 3.55pm

Members Present:

Vice- Chairman Mrs Walton as Chair

Councillors Adams, Brown and Mrs Haines

GP13.08APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Mrs Deas, with Councillor Mrs Haines as substitute and Councillor Sorton, with Councillor Adams as substitute.

GP14.08DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Councillor Adams declared a prejudicial interest in Agenda Item GP19.08 Shopmobility, as a Board Member.

Councillor Brown declared a personal interest in Agenda Item GP18.08

Poole Council for Voluntary Services (CVS), as Secretary of Bearwood Community Centre he had a close working relationship with Poole CVS.

Councillor Mrs Haines declared a prejudicial interest in Agenda Item GP16.8 (a) Dorset Bengali Women’s Association, as a Trustee of Dorset Bengali Women’s Association.

Councillor Mrs Walton declared a prejudicial interest in Agenda Item GP18.08 Poole Council for Voluntary Services (CVS), as a Board Member.

GP15.08MINUTES

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Meeting held on 17 June 2008, having been previously circulated, be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

GP16.08PRESENTATIONS BY VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS

(a)Dorset Bengali Women’s Association

The Secretary of Dorset Bengali Women’s Association presented the Panel with a power-point presentation outlining the Association’s achievements since the Association originated in 2007.

The key points highlighted were:

Education

  • Language Classes
  • Computer Classes
  • Bengali Language School for Children

Health and Recreation

  • Exercise Classes
  • Trips and Excursions

Events

  • International Women’s Day (IWD) -The event was themed ‘Women through the Ages’ and focused on sharing observations, perspectives and voices of women in the community. Workshops included food tasting, dancing, yoga classes, story telling, badge making, arts and crafts and beauty classes. Women were given the opportunity to build upon and learn new life skills.
  • International Mother Language Day- The event was aimed at promoting linguistic diversity and multilingual education. After 1952, the people of Bangladesh have been observing every year the 21st day of February as their Language Martyrs Day.

Future

  • To set up a school for Bengali children within the Parkstone area of Poole.
  • Bengali Language Classes within Poole.
  • Leisure facilities for women.
  • Swimming lessons.
  • Eid Party, to mark the end of Ramadan.
  • More celebrations of Bengali Traditions and Culture

The Panel was advised that the Association’s events had been hugely successful with over 100 people in attendance. Those that had attended classes were more confident and felt better intergraded within the community. The main barriers the Association faced were finding suitable venues, for events and classes suitable swimming facilities.

The Panel thanked The Secretary of the Dorset Bengali Women’s Association for the very interesting Presentation and asked for clarification as to the requirements it needed within Poole.

The Secretary of Dorset Bengali Women’s Association advised the Panel that they had used Winton Primary School after its School hours to teach the Bengali Language. The Language Classes were 2-hour sessions, which taught the Alphabet and songs to around 15 members. It had been difficult for some of the members to get to Winton.

The Association had over 150 members within Parkstone, Merely, Winton and Charminster. They wanted to have facilities within Parkstone to enable member’s access to the all classes and events offered by the Association.

A lot of venues had not been big enough to cater for the members to attend celebration events. The difficulties they had faced in providing swimming lessons for women were finding facilities that could provide a swimming pool that was off-limits to men, with an exclusively female staff, and obscured windows.

Councillors Adams and Brown had both agreed to help the Association find suitable venues and facilities within Poole.

AGREED that, Dorset Bengali Women’s Association be thanked for its Presentation and that, Councillors Adams and Brown help the Association find suitable venues and facilities within Poole.

FOR: UNANIMOUS

(b)Branksome Chine Surf Lifesaving Club

The Panel was introduced to the following Branksome Chine Surf Lifesaving club representatives:

Hilary England - Child Protection

Ian Robinson – Chair

Ceri Lewis – Vice Chair

Chris Oliver – Vice Captain

The Panel was presented with a power-point presentation and video footage. The Branksome Chine Surf Lifesaving club was a registered charity, funded entirely by donations. Mrs Jan Shepherd (The Club’s Secretary) formed the club in 1990 with a grant from the Princes Trust and premises negotiated from Poole Borough Council. Some equipment was purchased, some borrow and within the first year the Club had 20 members patrolling the beach between the Bournemouth and Poole boundary and Flaghead Chine in Poole.

The Club was affiliated with International and National Organisations and was involved in both actively lifeguarding and promoting sea and surf safety in and around Bournemouth and Poole. Its motto was ‘Vigilance and Serve’.

The Club provided voluntary first aid and rescue cover, beach and water safety advice, reunited lost children and people with their families or groups and information for tourists. Not only had the Club patrolled the beach it promoted water sports and life skills within schools.

The Club was the only beach rescue service at Branksome Chine until 2000 when the Royal National Lifeboats Institution (RNLI) set up its Beach Rescue Service. Since 2000 the Club has worked as a backup service during weekends and bank holidays each summer during July and August in conjunction with the full-time RNLI beach lifeguards. There was a proposal to increase this to include June and September in the near future.

Patrols were performed on foot with qualified first aiders and lifeguards equipped with rescue cans (big red floats) walking the beach and promenade. On the water, they used specially designed crafts; Malibu boards, large surfboards designed to carry two people; and rescue skis, a cross between canoes and surfboards using kayak paddles.

The club competed regularly in local events such as the Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch Life Saving Association (PBCLSA) Twilight competitions and national events such as the National Inflatable Rescue Boat (IRB) championships. The Club held the Southern Region Trophy and The Peter Inglis Trophy for passing the most exams in one year.

Within the Club’s hut fun training in first aid and water safety skills for people aged 7 years upwards had been provided. The upstairs had recently been converted to provide dry training rooms. It was noted however that the Club still lacked changing rooms and toilet facilities.

Funds were needed to enable the Club to grow, towards costs of national championships, secure better facilities, update and maintain first aid kits, VHF marine band radio communication, rescue boards, resuscitation training mannequins and surf skis.

The Club had 10 committee members, 15 qualified active Beach Life Guards and a membership of 80 people, with 25 Nipper (children aged 8-12) on a waiting list.

In 2001 the club teamed up with the RNLI, in the Beach Rescue Project trial, which it was hoped to be repeated all over the country in the future, to form a national lifeguard service.

The Club offered:

  • active sporting and social community,
  • club culture; history and a sense of belonging.
  • Community role models,
  • public education and
  • an Accredited Qualification, which generated Beach Life Guards.

The Club’s Vision was to:

  • Build metaphorically,
  • have an enthusiastic team in place to drive the Club forward.
  • Become the biggest, most active and successful Surf Life Saving Club in the area.
  • Build physically and improve the facilities to attract more members.
  • Be a Social facility, and
  • affiliated sporting facility (swimming, kayaking, surfing and rowing).

The Club also wanted to expand its service by running a rescue boat alongside its other patrols. Sponsors for this project were required to raise the £5,000 needed for such a boat.

The Panel thanked Branksome Chine Surf representatives for its presentation. They had not realised that there were two beach rescue services in operation on Branksome Chine and enquired if the Club had carried out any promotional or recruitment work.

Ian Robinson advised the Panel that the Club had been unable to promote due to the limited space and facilities. Whilst there were a number of ‘Royal Life Saving’ clubs in Poole, it was the only ‘Surf Life Saving’ club within the area. All the Clubs funds had been used to update and improve equipment and training materials, and towards national championship sponsorship.

AGREED that, Branksome Chine Surf Lifesaving Club be thanked for its Presentation and continued work,lifeguarding and promoting sea and surf safety in and around Bournemouth and Poole.

FOR: UNANIMOUS

(c)RELATE

The Manager of Relate Bournemouth and Poole, advised the Panel of the three projects it provided:

  • Poole Locality Project, when a child had raised a problem the child’s needs were identified and outcomes achieved through assessments, family counselling, relationship counselling, parenting intervention and1 on 1 work with the child. There was a capacity for 30 clients per annum.
  • Parenting Teenagers, increased and developed parenting skills to include dealing with teenagers. Offered parents support with this challenging task. It built on parents skills, allowed them to have issues expressed and released the ‘pressure cooker’ effect that they had felt. Telling children that one parent was leaving wasn't easy, but there were important messages and things that could be done to make it easier for the children. Any Poole resident was funded by the Borough of Poole to attend and some parents were on Court Orders to attend. The programme was open to those with a resident teenager, which included foster carer and other family carers who were ‘parenting’. The programme offered 6 weekly session with 6 programmes being offered per annum.
  • Relationship Counselling, multi risk assessments were carried out to identify what could be accomplished, and what would not be achieved. Relate was the Nation's largest organisation working with couples that had relationship problems. Of the 3,000 appointments 25% were for Poole residents.

Relate Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch employed 37 part time staff. Each staff member worked a maximum of 20 hours a week. The intensity of the work carried out it made if difficult for staff to work longer hours and each staff member received counselling sessions themselves to off load emotions.

Relate operated under a strict code of confidentiality, which was discussed with clients before they began counselling.Anyone who was distressed as a result of a relationship, whether current or past was counselled. They enabled individuals and partners understand their relationships and feelings, and empowered them to make the decisions that were right for them as a couple and or individual.Usually no one had to wait more than one week for an initial appointment. The waiting time for ongoing counselling depended on the client’s availability.

Counselling sessions were available by appointment, at various times throughout the day and on four evenings a week until 9.00 pm.

Relate did not work with couples and individuals where violence was a feature of the relationship unless they were confident that no one would be placed at risk. Domestic violence and abuse was not an anger management issue. Clients considered themselves out of control when being abusive or violent. They had been controlled and selective about the use of violence and abuse.

Initially one-hour sessions were provided with an experienced counsellor. Booking forms were completed for ongoing counselling giving details of the client’s availability.

From time to time courses were arranged for groups of people who would like to be able to re-build their lives outside of a relationship. They also offered other special interest courses such as Anger Management and Assertiveness courses.

It was noted that due to the credit crunch they had been busier than usual. Families and individuals had felt more stressed due to financial constraints, which had impacted on their relationships.

The Panel asked the following questions:

  • What level of training and qualifications staff needed to work for Relate?
  • What was the percentage of those who had experienced domestic violence?
  • What was the cost of each counselling session?

The Panel was advised the following:

  • Training – The entry qualification for staff was a Diploma in Counselling, which required 100 hours of work experience. Relate then provided further training and were only considered as fully trained one they had completed a further 450 hours of work experience on top of those needed for the Diploma in Counselling.

Once fully qualified staff were paid £12 per hour.

  • All those who had received services from Relate had completed exit questionnaires. Of those 85% had previously experience domestic violence.
  • The cost to those that required Relate Services was £36 for each session. The actual cost however for each session was £45.

The Panel thanked the Manager of Relate Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch for her presentation.

AGREED that, the representative from Relate Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch be thanked for the Presentation and its work within Poole.

FOR: UNANIMOUS

GP17.08EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC AND PRESS

RESOLVED that, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the Meeting for the business specified at Items GP10.08 and GP11.08 as it was likely that if members of the public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the said Act and the public interest in withholding the information outweighed the public interest in disclosing it.

Note:Councillor Mrs Walton left the Meeting having declared a prejudicial Interest.

Councillor Mrs Haines was elected to Chair for the following Agenda Item.

GP18.08POOLE COUNCIL FOR VOLUNTARY SERVICES (PCVS)

(Mrs Haines in Chair)

The Poole Council for Voluntary Service (PCVS) supported frontline voluntary sector organisations. It ran Poole’s Volunteer Centre, seeking out volunteers and volunteering opportunities to bring them together, and undertook the bookings for the Poole Community Transport Scheme. There were no other organisations like it in Poole, which made it a unique Service.

PCVS had five core functions;

  • Development,
  • Supporting Individual Organisations,
  • Representation,
  • Liaison and
  • Developing Strategic Partnerships.

These functions formed the bases of a series of contract negotiation meetings between the Council and PCVS. They would identify a set of indicators that could effectively measure PCVS’s work over the next three years.

The Panel were provided a breakdown of the key successes in 2007/2008.

The Panel were recommended to agree a Three Year Funding Agreement to Poole Council for Voluntary Service as follows:

Year One 2008/09- £65, 841 plus VAT

Year Two 2009/2010 - £67,158 plus VAT

Year Three 2010/2011 - £68,501 plus VAT

Total 3 Year Funding Agreement =£201,500 plus VAT.

It was noted the VAT amount over the 3-year period was £35,262.50, which was redeemable to the Council

RECOMMENDED that a grant of £201,500 plus VAT for a three Year Funding Agreement to Poole Council for Voluntary Service be made as follows: