To note the further progress of the South & East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership since the last update on 12th October 2022.

A report was presented to provide an update on the performance of the South and East Lincolnshire Council’s Partnership. The report set out the further progress of the South & East Lincolnshire Council’s Partnership since the last update on 12th October 2022.

During his introduction of the report, the Leader of the Council passed his thanks to those who were involved with the joint scrutiny panel and made particular reference to the following:

·       With regards to the Growth and Prosperity Priority Partnership, the Growth Team continued to work with existing partners and had developed new relationships with strategic organisations to continue to raise the profile of the SELCP and create valuable connections between business, public sector and national organisations in respect of the Council’s energy projects and ambition.  The UK Shared Prosperity Fund’s prospectus had now gone live and the Council was receiving expressions of interest from a range of partners.

·       Confirmation had been received that the Council had been awarded £42.8m across the three sovereign council areas for their levelling up submissions.

·       Confirmation had been received from Arts Council England that the National Portfolio Organisation submission was successful and an award of £2m over a 3-year period had been made to the SELCP with East Lindsey being the accountable body.

·       The South and East Lincolnshire Healthy Living Board had been established and had provided a collaborative platform for key partners to discuss the District Council’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

·       Following the approval of the South and East Lincolnshire Community Safety Strategy, the sub region’s Community Safety Partnership had been working on a number of key community safety priorities including a focus on safer streets and night-time economy, hate crime, vulnerability and safeguarding, the safety of women and girls and the cross-cutting theme of anti-social behaviour.

·       Eight sub-groups of the South and East Lincolnshire Climate Action Network (SELCAN)/the Environment Priority Partnership had met on a number of occasions to work on their delivery plans with a view to presenting their priorities for the next 12 months.

The recommendations were duly proposed and seconded.

During discussion reference was made to the following:

·       Councillor Jackson referred to the Local Performance Measures (Programme Delivery Directorate - General Fund Assets), page 260 of the Agenda refers and stated that the Partnership worked well and joint scrutiny had provided positive benefits.  It was however, highlighted that it was clear that Invest East Lindsey (IEL) and Kingfisher Caravan Park were not meeting some of their targets and those entities required further scrutiny as they were both key to investment in the district.   In response, the Leader of the Council considered that IEL was a relatively new company in terms of performance but acknowledged there were challenging times ahead for businesses and welcomed scrutiny to address this.

·       Councillor Makinson-Sanders referred to the Healthy Lives Priority Partnership and access to health services, page 213 of the Agenda refers and referred in particular to health inequalities and demand on health services that was discovered during the caravan scrutiny.  It was further highlighted that access to health services was currently extremely poor.

·       Further to the growth and prosperity partnership detailed at Paragraph 5.2.2, page 213 of the Agenda refers, Councillor Makinson-Sanders noted that the Partnership was extending its connection to universities to include Peterborough and queried why Lincoln and Grimsby were not referred to.  In response, the Leader of the Council confirmed that there was involvement of local universities and the Council worked well with Lincoln and Nottingham, particularly with the Towns Fund ambitions for the Campus for Future Living.  With regards to Grimsby College, the Council was working with them in terms of the new Campus in Skegness and there was also a wide range of involvement and partnership working across the organisations. 

N.B.   At this point in the Meeting, Councillor Tony Howard asked it be noted that he worked for Grimsby College.

·       Councillor Makinson-Sanders referred to the corporate performance measures within the Communities Directorate (Wellbeing and Community Leadership, page 231 of the Agenda refers and stated that she was interested in the data for those people who terminated a call due to the length in time waiting to be connected.  In response, Councillor Marsh stated that he considered there was a wide range of data provided relating to performance, however was happy to speak with the Councillor after the meeting.  The Leader of the Council added that in terms of monitoring, the numbers of calls picked up through the customer contact centres were significant but the Council continued to do so whilst it dealt with a higher volume as a result of the cost of living challenge for help and advice.  It was recognised that there were issues with call numbers and the Council was doing its utmost with partners for this to be resolved as quickly as possible.

RESOLVED

1.   That the Annual Delivery Plan (ADP) 2022/23 update (section 2) be approved;

2.   That the Performance Framework 2023/24 (section 3; Appendix A) be approved;

3.   That the Peer Review Action Plan delivery progress (section 4) be noted;

4.   That the updates from the Priority Partnerships (section 5) be noted;

5.   That the Partnership Scrutiny Action Plan delivery progress (section 6) be noted.