An item of Urgent Business may only be considered under this heading, where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency. Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Members' intention to raise a matter under this heading.
Minutes:
Congratulations were given to Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Director of Public Health, Lancashire County Council who had been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Lancaster University in recognition of the work he had done for the residents of Lancashire.
An item of urgent business had been received following the meeting of Lancashire County Council's Full Council on 14 July 2022 where it had been resolved that Lancashire County Council would:
a) Provide for members a list of opening times and locations of publicly accessible County Council buildings that are free of charge and offer a warm and welcome place where people can keep warm and comfortable this coming autumn and winter.
b) Ask District Councils to identify other locally based VCFSE (voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise) provision that offers similar support and for that list to be shared with members.
c) Ensure such 'warm and welcome' public spaces should offer additional support and advice services to support individuals and families to access other services to alleviate food and fuel poverty.
d) Place this resolution before the Lancashire Leaders and Health and Wellbeing Board meetings later this month, and work with districts to develop a deliverable plan as soon as possible and report on progress to September Cabinet with a view to reporting final arrangements to the October Cabinet with, where possible, all sources of funding for the scheme being identified at that meeting.
e) Ask the Scrutiny Management Board to form a cross-party task and finish group with immediate effect to identify and adopt best practice, and work in delivering warm hubs and welcoming space schemes and report the same to Cabinet.
As part of the resolution, the Health and Wellbeing Board was asked to consider what contribution it can make to the discussions moving forward. A Scrutiny Task Group is being formed and the notice of motion will be considered by many partners to make this work.
It was noted that there is a significant amount that the Board can do with regards to this and in working with partners moving forwards.
Discussion ensued, and it was felt that:
· That there needed to be comms engagement with the people of Lancashire.
· A need to offer debt advice and locations of food hubs.
· As throughout the COVID pandemic, continue to work with District Councils, VCFS and other organisations, including the NHS and to use the Community Hub model.
· A program is being developed and a further update on this will be presented at a future meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board.
· In terms of social isolation, look at the barriers in accessing what is being offered.
· It was felt that the majority of public buildings that are being offered are not welcoming ones, ie are very formal and have lots of security procedures to navigate before entering buildings such as County Hall and other Council buildings. Therefore, there is a challenge back to other organisations, particularly the Third Sector to see what they can offer.
· Libraries have a welcoming network of buildings.
· There needs to be a more systematic offer developed.
· It was felt that the districts have a big part to play as they know their community centres and smaller venues who would work with the councils.
· Also in terms of the colder weather and the lack of heating which would expose a lot of older properties, particularly in certain parts of Lancashire, where there are a lot of terraced housing which are difficult to heat and may be damp and therefore Districts should be looking at how they can get more government funding to start to refurbish these kinds of houses.
· People's ability to maintain a healthy environment for their own homes is also important in the long term.
· The medium term should be working on housing developments and also addressing climate change and sustainable energy.
Resolved: That the Board:
i) Receive an update on the program which is being developed at a future meeting of the Board.
ii) Agreed that the Chair/Lead Officer link in with the Scrutiny Task Group to speak to them in more detail on what the Health and Wellbeing Board can offer.