To consider for approval the use of Better Care / Disabled Facilities Grant funding received from Lincolnshire County Council to fund and host the Lincolnshire Good Homes Advice & Casework pilot.

The Portfolio Holder for Better Ageing and Communities presented a report that sought approval to accept funding received from Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) and approve delegations to fund and host the Lincolnshire Good Homes Advice and Casework pilot.

The background to the report was highlighted to Members, as set out at Section 1 of the report, pages 229 to 231 of the Agenda refer.

Members were requested to consider approving the recommendations to enable officers to progress the pilot scheme.  A Good Home Alliance advice and casework pilot would help the Council’s residents, especially owner-occupiers who were older and vulnerable, to maintain their homes.  This would benefit the community’s health and wellbeing and should lead to considerable cost saving to the public purse.  Additionally, the Centre for Ageing Better would continue to work with Lincolnshire Councils to fund an evaluation of the pilot.  This would provide invaluable information and evidence on the benefits of the service to residents, the savings to the public purse and other operational learning to support the service being permanently delivered.

LCC supported the use of this additional Better Care / Disabled Facilities Grant funding to support the Good Home Alliance advice and casework pilot as set out within Section 2 of this report, pages 231 to 235 of the Agenda refer.

Following which the recommendation was duly Proposed and Seconded.

Members were invited to put their comments and questions forward.

A Member considered this to be a very worthy scheme, however raised a concern that residents had to visit the web pages to access the information.  It was therefore, suggested that this pilot scheme be tagged to the Wellbeing Service.  In response, the Portfolio Holder for Better Ageing and Communities acknowledged that there were a lot of vulnerable residents and assured Members that there were dedicated members of staff in the Wellbeing Team to assist this group of people.

A Member echoed the comment raised, and provided an example where some ward surgeries were held in buildings that had no internet access.  It was further queried if and how the pilot fitted into the Heart Scheme.  In response, the Portfolio Holder for Better Ageing and Communities confirmed that the pilot scheme would work in conjunction with the Heart Team.  With regards to accessing the information, there would be a social media campaign and also information provided at community hubs.

A Member welcomed this scheme and commented that a lot of hard work had been invested in this.  It was queried whether a leaflet could be distributed with Council Tax bills to make residents aware of the service.  In response, the Portfolio Holder for Better Ageing and Communities regretted that there would be insufficient time for this to be included in the mailing of Council Tax bills, however reiterated that there would be a campaign to get the message out across the district.

A Member considered this was a very good scheme and recognised the collaborative work between the 3 councils and officers across the Partnership.

In conclusion, Members were advised that this was a 2-year pilot scheme and would be advertised regularly in the Members’ Point Brief.  It was requested that Members be asked to disseminate this information to their town and parish councils.

RESOLVED

1. That £340,965 funding from Lincolnshire County Council to fund the 2-year pilot service, inclusive of the £112,844 ELDC contribution be accepted; and

That subject to the receipt of additional external funding contributions,

2. Approval be delegated to the Section 151 Officer in consultation with the Assistant Director – Wellbeing and Community Leadership and Portfolio Holder for Communities and Better Ageing, to accept up to £145,035 in additional external funding contributions to support the delivery and expansion of the Advice and Casework pilot throughout 2024/25 - 2026/27.  Bringing the total available funding for the 2-year Advice and Casework pilot to £486,000 across 2024/25 – 2026/27.

N.B.  Councillor Wendy Bowkett re-joined the Meeting at 5.16pm.