Agenda and draft minutes

          Apologies for absence were received from Councillor English, Councillor Pendleton and Councillor Wiltshire.

Members and Officers are invited to make any declaration of pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests that they may have in relation to items on this agenda, and are reminded that they should re-declare their interest before consideration of the items or as soon as the interest becomes apparent.

Members and Officers should make their declaration by stating:

a)             the item they have the interest in

b)             whether it is a pecuniary/personal interest and/or prejudicial interest

c)             the nature of the interest

          There were no declarations of interest.

The Committee will be asked to approve as a correct record the minutes of the Housing and Wellbeing Committee held on 4 February 2025.

          The minutes of the Housing and Wellbeing Committee held on 4 February 2025 were approved and signed by the Chair.

          There were no urgent items.

To receive questions from the public (for a period of up to 15 minutes).

          There were no public questions.

The council’s corporate vision prioritises ‘Improving the Wellbeing of Arun’ as one of four key themes. As part of this commitment, the council has developed a Wellbeing Strategy 2025-2028 to guide the planning and delivery of services, resources, and activities that support community wellbeing.

          The Chair invited the Communities and Wellbeing Manager to present the report.  The Council’s Corporate Vision prioritised Improving the Wellbeing of Arun as one of its four key themes.  This theme set out the Council’s ambition to work in partnership with key stakeholders to tackle health inequalities, with a focus on the District’s most deprived areas, alongside championing leisure, sport, culture and the arts.  The Arun Wellbeing Strategy provided a framework  to achieve its goals  as an enabler, facilitator and an advocate for wellbeing across Arun.  It was noted that whilst the Council was not responsible for providing services that directly delivered on health provision, it was responsible for the delivery of services that had a direct impact on health provision that had a direct impact on the wider determinants of health.  The provision of high-quality public services resulted in improved wellbeing for residents and it was known there was a direct causal link between the wider determinants and an individual’s physical and mental health.  The Strategy had been supported by the partnership network who were committed to working with the Council to improve the wellbeing of residents.  The Strategy also aligned with the West Sussex County Council’s Wellbeing Strategy due to be launched this year.   

Whilst there was a relatively low response rate to the consultation, they all gave broad support to the ambitions of the Strategy.   The Strategy would be supported by an action plan that would set key actions and performance measures with a report on progress reported to this Committee.

          The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Yeates and seconded by Councillor Cooper.

The Chair invited members to make comment or ask any questions. 

A comment was made that the inclusion of the action plan with the KPI figures at this stage would have been helpful so that members could see the proposed measures of success and the direction of travel.  The Communities and Wellbeing Manager advised that officers had wanted to adopt the Strategy before starting work on what will be an ambitious action plan.  The next Arun Local Community Network (ALCN) would focus on producing the action plan and KPIs, and either emailed to the Committee in a briefing note or a report would be brought to the Committee for consideration. 

It was asked when the Action Plan would be updated, especially in light of local government devolution and recent changes in the NHS.  It was asked that reference to retired residents should also be included in future consultations and links with primary care.  The Communities and Wellbeing Manager advised that other Borough and District councils had also raised the issue that the ageing population was missing from the West Sussex Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy.  Details were provided of the work being undertaken by West Sussex County Council, such as the Integrated Community Teams (ICT), where stakeholders were looking at the biggest health inequalities within Arun.  It was confirmed that following Local Government Re-Organisation the ICT boundary would not change.   The Strategy end  ...  view the full minutes text for item 639.

To seek approval to set up a hardship fund to assist those facing hardship after the implementation of new service charges in the 2025/26 financial year.

The Chair invited the Group Head of Housing, Wellbeing and Communities to present the report.  He referred to the approval of the Service Charges Policy and De-pooling of Charges approved by the Committee at its meeting held on 18 June 2024 to be introduced on 1 April 2025.  Officers were progressing the pooling project and had undertaken a range of analysis and implemented actions where appropriate to mitigate the impact.  This included capping the proposed charges at no more than £10 per week for those who have never been charged before.  This measure was in line with housing sector best practice and reduced the income receivable in the HRA by £69,000 during the first year of charging, which represented a significant amount of support investment that had taken place already.  A relatively small number of 419 households had been identified as being within the scope of charges but were not in receipt of housing related benefits.  It was intended to introduce a Tenant Support fund of initially £50,000 that equated to broadly 10% of increased income to be met through unallocated contingency.  It was noted that there was scope to increase the funding in-year should this be required. 

He referred to paragraph 4.6 of the report that suggested some of the broad principles that could be included in the scheme.  Referring to paragraph 4.7, officers had always had a concern for affordability as demonstrated by the imposition of a cap. The introduction of the support fund representan extension of this principle, specifically for those most impacted by the charges.

          The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Yeates and seconded by Councillor Batley.

          The Chair invited members to make comment or ask any questions.  Referring to paragraph 4.3, a question was asked that as the funding need would be met from unallocated contingency and could be increased if needed, why it could not be left in the unallocated contingency fund and accessed as and when it was required.  The Group Head of Housing, Wellbeing and Communities confirmed that the money would not be just given away.  As regards to the whether the allocations were made from a specifically allocated fund or directly from the unallocated contingency, the scheme could have been developed either way.  He confirmed that a scheme would be developed and affordability checks would be carried out.  In his professional judgement based on the calculations carried out when setting the support fund, £50,000 would be more than enough to support those in need who were within the scope of the support fund.  However, if it was found that the fund had been spent before the end of the year, there was a possibility that additional funding would need to be put into the support fund from the unallocated contingency bult into the 2025-26 budget for the first time in a number of years.  A further member comment was made in relation to a recent Full Council meeting where members had wanted to increase other contingency funds for other services  ...  view the full minutes text for item 640.

This report sets out the performance of Housing Services at Quarter 3 for the period 1 October to 31 December 2024.

The Chair invited the Business improvement Manager to present the report that provided the housing service Quarter 3 performance on the agreed set of housing measures.  Compared to Quarter 2 eight areas had improved and eight areas had declined with two in decline remaining within target levels.  Individual comments against each measure were set out in appendix 1.  In particular repairs performance had declined for both emergency and non-emergency repairs, which was being addressed by the Repairs and Maintenance Manager to ensure accuracy and that processes were completed.  However, the repairs service had a 91% overall satisfaction rate with the in-house repairs team consistently rating highly. Relet times in terms of voids continued to improve and were at their lowest since quarter 2 during 2022-23.  Whilst arrears continued to improve they were still below expected levels of performance.  Further monitoring and staff training was taking place to improve this target.   Appendix 2 set out the work being done by the Fraud Investigation Officer.  Details were provided of the work being undertaken to reduce leasehold arrears.  

Following the discussion that had taken place at the previous meeting and the request made to receive details of housing staff sickness levels, the average number of days sickness for long term sickness was 11.78 days per person and 3.78 days per person for short term sickness.  This equated to 4.58% of working time lost overall or 1.46% in terms of short term sickness, which she would be happy to circulate.

The Chair invited members to make comment or ask any questions.  Concern was raised that the percentage of emergency repairs completed in time had decreased this quarter and it was asked if the issues were in respect of a particular contractor or if it was across the board.  There were issues with contractors having to wait for parts before they could complete a job and the importance of keeping residents up to date on progress was raised.  The Group Head of Housing, Wellbeing and Communities replied that this performance measure was in respect of the overall figure for all types of contractors and repairs.  Officers were managing contractors to reaffirm their timescales for completion.  The majority of the current performance was due to the administrative processes backlog and it was not believed that it was an accuratereflection of the actual performance.  Officers were working through the backlog of completions to obtain an accurate figure for quarter 4.  Responding to a question asking what the situation would be if there had not been a back log, he explained that accurate completion data would be known once the validation checks had taken place.  As to when the performance measures would be within quartile 1, the aim of the service was to deliver a decent service to residents to their satisfaction.  He referred to the scale of the task required to turn around the Housing service and the work carried out over the last twelve months to achieve this.  He acknowledged there was still work to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 641.

This report provides members with an overview of our complaint handling performance and determinations received in quarter 3 for the period 1 October 2024 to 31 December 2024.

The Chair invited the Business improvement Manager to present the report that provided an overview of Housing services complaints performance and Ombudsman Determinations for Quarter 3.  Five determinations had been received for Quarter 3 with the following outcomes: Five maladministration (three of which related to one complaint), five service failures and two no maladministration.  These related to complaints received during 2022-2024, of which some decisions remained historical.  The lessons learned and actions to be taken were set out in the report.  Performance had declined compared to Quarter 2 and the results placed Stage 1 complaints below the target level.  The decline was due to staff annual leave and other operational demands and advised that the issues were being addressed by the Group Head of Housing, Wellbeing and Communities.  The importance of meeting complaints deadlines was being emphasized to the whole of the housing service.  An update was provided on Quarter 4 performance, which was currently on an improved position.    

The Chair invited members to make comment or ask any questions.  the Chair referred to the importance of taking the learnings from the complaint outcomes to improve services.

The Committee noted the contents of the report and that all orders and recommendations have been compiled with.

Councillor Birch provided an update report on the Sussex Police and Crime Panel, which had been circulated to the Committee.

Councillor Long provided a verbal update on the West Sussex County Council Health and Adult Social Care Committee and undertook to circulate a written report.

          A number of queries were raised on the Outside Body appointments that were expected to be reported to this Committee and it was also asked when Sussex Police would be asked to attend a meeting in the future, and were responded to as follows:

-       Councillor Butcher – advised that he would provide an update on the Safer Arun Partnership at the next meeting. 

-       The Chair advised that an all-member briefing had taken place on 3 March 2025 on unauthorised gypsy and traveller encampments and Sussex Police had attended a meeting in the last year specifically because of the number of issues taking place in the community.  It may be that they would be asked to attend again to attend so that the Committee can scrutinise them, but there were no plans to do so currently.  A member referred to the surgeries members held with their residents and the policing matter issues raised.  The Chair asked the member to let her know of any particular areas of concern.  The Communities and Wellbeing Manager confirmed that scrutiny of the Safer Arun Partnership was the responsibility of this Committee and said she would look at the Work Programme to see if a report should be brought to the Committee more than once a year.  The Committee could if they wished to ask Sussex Police to attend as part of the Council’s scrutiny and through the Chair for the Police and Crime Partnership Panel. 

-       The Committee Manager informed the Committee that the Keystone Centre had advised during November 2024 that they no longer required an outside body representative.

The Committee is asked to note the Work Programme for 2024/2025.

          It was asked why a Sheltered Accommodation report was not included on the Work Programme.  The Group Head of Housing, Wellbeing and Communities advised that members would be invited to a briefing following the work carried out on the architect and technical study in terms of the proposed scheme, likely to take place in the next month to be led by the consultants. From there officers would look at the reports that need to be brought to the Committee. 

          A comment was made about the large number of reports listed for the June 2025 Committee.  It was asked if there were any other pending reports officers were aware of not listed on the Work Programme.  The Group Head of Housing, Wellbeing and Communities replied that the six compliance reports would be brought to the Committee under one report.  He was not aware of any other reports for listing on the Work Programme.

          A request was made for a report to be added to evaluate the repairs contract following the move to an in-house service.

The Committee noted the Work Programme.