Public Document Pack

Cabinet Date: Tuesday, 18 May 2021 Time: 10.00 am Venue: MS Teams Live Event (With agreement of the Leader of the Council, Cabinet is continuing to meet virtually. Decisions will made by the appropriate Portfolio Holder(s) in the light of the views expressed by the wider Cabinet membership at the meeting).

Membership: (Quorum 3) Spencer Flower (Chairman), Peter Wharf (Vice-Chairman), Graham Carr-Jones, Ray Bryan, Tony Ferrari, Laura Miller, Andrew Parry, Gary Suttle, Jill Haynes and David Walsh Cabinet Lead Members (6) (are not members of the Cabinet but are appointed to work along side Portfolio Holders) Cherry Brooks, Piers Brown, Simon Gibson, Nocturin Lacey-Clarke, Byron Quayle and Jane Somper

Chief Executive: Matt Prosser, South Walks House, South Walks Road, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1UZ (Sat Nav DT1 1EE) For easy access to the Council agendas and minutes download the free public app Mod.gov for use on your iPad, Android and Windows tablet. Once downloaded select Dorset Council. For more information about this agenda please contact Kate Critchel 01305 252234 - [email protected]

For easy access to the Council agendas and minutes download the free public app Mod.gov for use on your iPad, Android and Windows tablet. Once downloaded select Dorset Council.

Due to the current coronavirus pandemic the Council has reviewed its approach to holding committee meetings. Members of the public are welcome to attend this meeting and listen to the debate either online by using the following link: Link to observe the cabinet meeting of 18 May 2021 Members of the public wishing to view the meeting from an iphone, ipad or android phone will need to download the free Microsoft Team App to sign in as a Guest, it is advised to do this at least 30 minutes prior to the start of the meeting.” Please note that public speaking has been suspended. However Public Participation will continue by written submission only. Please see detail set out below. Dorset Council is committed to being open and transparent in the way it carries out its business whenever possible. A recording of the meeting will be available on the councils website after the event. A G E N D A

Page No.

1 APOLOGIES

To receive any apologies for absence.

2 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

To disclose any pecuniary, other registerable or personal interest as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct. In making their disclosure councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration.

If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

3 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

To receive questions or statements on the business of the committee from town and parish councils and members of the public. Public speaking has been suspended for virtual committee meetings during the Covid-19 crisis and public participation will be dealt with through written submissions only.

Members of the public who live, work or represent an organisation within the Dorset Council area, may submit up to two questions or a statement of up to a maximum of 450 words. All submissions must be sent electronically to [email protected] by the deadline set out below. When submitting a question please indicate who the question is for and include your name, address and contact details. Questions and statements received in line with the council’s rules for public participation will be published as a supplement to the agenda.

Questions will be read out by an officer of the council and a response given by the appropriate Portfolio Holder or officer at the meeting. All questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting.

The deadline for submission of the full text of a question or statement is 8.30am on 13 May 2021. 4 QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS

To receive questions submitted by councillors. The deadline for receipt of questions is 8.30am on 13 May 2021.

5 FORWARD PLAN 5 - 14

To consider the Cabinet Forward Plan.

6 ANNUAL CHILDREN'S SERVICES SELF-EVALUATION 15 - 96 FRAMEWORK

To receive a report of the Portfolio Holder for Children, Education, Skills and Early Help.

7 YOUTH JUSTICE PLAN 97 - 134

To consider a report of the Portfolio Holder for Children, Education, Skills and Early Help.

8 PROTOCOL FOR PLANNING OBLIGATIONS FUNDING 135 - 146 ALLOCATION COMMUNITY SCHEMES

To consider a report of the Portfolio Holder for Planning.

9 RECOMMENDATIONS FROM COMMITTEES

To consider the following recommendations from committees:

10 DORSET COUNCIL CLIMATE AND ECOLOGICAL EMERGENCY 147 - 312 STRATEGY

The Portfolio Holder for Highways, Travel and Environment to report.

11 DORSET CULTURAL STRATEGY 2021 - 2026 313 - 368

The Portfolio Holder for Customer and Community Services to report.

12 CABINET MEMBER UPDATE ON POLICY DEVELOPMENT MATTER REFERRED TO AN OVERVIEW COMMITTEE(S) FOR CONSIDERATION

Cabinet Portfolio Holders to report. PANELS AND GROUPS To receive any minutes, recommendations or verbal updates from panels, groups and boards: 13 CLIMATE & ECOLOGICAL EMERGENCY EXECUTIVE ADVISORY PANEL UPDATE

To receive an update from the Portfolio Holder for Highways, Travel and Environment.

14 URGENT ITEMS

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b) of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for the urgency shall be recorded in the minutes.

15 EXEMPT BUSINESS

To move the exclusion of the press and the public for the following item(s) in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph 3 of schedule 12 A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

The public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered.

16 FORWARD FUNDING OF THE EASTERN LINK ROAD, WEST 369 - 396 PARLEY

To consider a report of the Portfolio Holder for Highways, Travel and Environment.

17 LEISURE SERVICES REVIEW 397 - 402

To consider a report of the Portfolio Holder for Customer and Community Services. The Cabinet Forward Plan - (Publication date 24 May 2021) For the period 1 JUNE 2021 to 30 SEPTEMBER 2021

Explanatory Note: This Forward Plan contains future items to be considered by the Cabinet and Council. It is published 28 days before the next meeting of the Committee. The plan includes items for the meeting including key decisions. Each item shows if it is ‘open’ to the public or to be considered in a private part of the meeting.

Definition of Key Decisions Page 5 Page Key decisions are defined in Dorset Council's Constitution as decisions of the Cabinet which are likely to - (a) to result in the relevant local authority incurring expenditure which is, or the making of savings which are, significant having regard to the relevant local authority’s budget for the service or function to which the decision relates (Thresholds - £500k); or (b) to be significant in terms of its effects on communities living or working in an area comprising two or more wards or electoral divisions in the area of the relevant local authority.” In determining the meaning of “significant” for these purposes the Council will have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 9Q of the Local Government Act 2000 Act. Officers will consult with lead members to determine significance and sensitivity.

Cabinet Portfolio Holders 2020/21 Agenda Item 5 Spencer Flower Leader / Governance, Performance and Communications Peter Wharf Deputy Leader / Corporate Development and Change Gary Suttle Finance, Commercial and Capital Strategy Ray Bryan Highways, Travel and Environment Tony Ferrari Economic Growth, Assets & Property David Walsh Planning Jill Haynes Customer and Community Services Andrew Parry Children, Education, Skills and Early Help Laura Miller Adult Social Care and Health Graham Carr-Jones Housing and Community Safety Subject / Decision Decision Maker Date the Other Committee(s) Portfolio Holder Officer Contact Decision is consulted and Due Date of meeting(s) June

Dorset Council Budget Quarterly Decision Maker Decision Date Audit and Governance Portfolio Holder for Jim McManus, Corporate Performance Report - Q4 Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Committee Finance, Commercial Director - Finance and 19 Apr 2021 and Capital Strategy Commercial Key Decision - No [email protected]. Public Access - Open uk Executive Director, Corporate Development - Section 151 Officer (Aidan Dunn)

Page 6 Page Dorset Council Plan Quarterly Decision Maker Decision Date Deputy Leader - Rebecca Forrester, Performance Report - Q4 Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Corporate Business Intelligence & Development and Performance Key Decision - No Change rebecca.forrester@dorsetco Public Access - Open uncil.gov.uk, Elizabeth Crocker To consider performance against the Elizabeth.Crocker1@dorset council plan January to March 2021. cc.gov.uk Chief Executive (Matt Prosser) Update on Dorset Council's Decision Maker Decision Date Leader of the Council Rebecca Forrester, response to Covid-19 Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Business Intelligence & Performance Key Decision - No rebecca.forrester@dorsetco Public Access - Open uncil.gov.uk, Nina Coakley, Programme Manager To update Cabinet on Dorset [email protected] Council’s Covid-19 response. Chief Executive (Matt Prosser) Subject / Decision Decision Maker Date the Other Committee(s) Portfolio Holder Officer Contact Decision is consulted and Due Date of meeting(s) Redlands Community Sports Hub Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Paul Rutter, Service Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Customer and Manager for Leisure Key Decision - Yes Community Services Services Public Access - Fully exempt [email protected] ov.uk To consider a report on Redland Executive Director, Place Community Sports Hub. (John Sellgren) Weymouth Harbour and Esplanade Decision Maker Decision Date Place and Resources Portfolio Holder for Sarah Cairns, Assistant Flood and Coastal Risk Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Overview Committee Highways, Travel and Head of Assets and Management Strategic Outline 1 Jun 2021 Environment Infrastructure Case sarah.cairns@dorsetcouncil .gov.uk Key Decision - Yes Executive Director, Place

Page 7 Page Public Access - Open (John Sellgren) This project will utilise the adopted 2020 strategy to produce a Strategic Outline Case (SOC) that gains approval from the Environment Agency’s Large Project Review Group. It will provide companion document to the adopted 2020 strategy, containing additional technical detail in line with the Environment Agency’s guidance for producing SOC’s Street Naming and Numbering Decision Maker Decision Date People and Health Deputy Leader - Emma Webb, Business Policy Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Overview Committee Corporate Solutions Analyst emma. 1 Jun 2021 Development and [email protected] Key Decision - No Change Executive Director, Public Access - Open Corporate Development - The Street Naming and Numbering Section 151 Officer (Aidan policy provides a framework for Dunn) Dorset Council to operate the service effectively and efficiently for the benefit of Dorset Council residents, businesses and visitors. Subject / Decision Decision Maker Date the Other Committee(s) Portfolio Holder Officer Contact Decision is consulted and Due Date of meeting(s) Asset Transfer Policy Decision Maker Decision Date Place and Resources Portfolio Holder for Dave Thompson, Corporate Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Overview Committee Economic Growth, Director for Property & Key Decision - Yes 1 Jun 2021 Assets and Property Assets Public Access - Open dave.thompson@dorsetcou ncil.gov.uk To review the policy for the transfer of Executive Director, Place assets to towns, parish and (John Sellgren) community groups. Dorset Care Framework Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Jeanette Young, Interim Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Adult Social Care and Head of Commissioning & Key Decision - Yes Health Improvement Public Access - Open jeanette.young@dorsetcoun cil.gov.uk

Page 8 Page To review and approve the new Vivienne Broadhurst framework for Adult Social Care Encompass Contract Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Jeanette Young, Interim Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Adult Social Care and Head of Commissioning & Key Decision - Yes Health Improvement Public Access - Fully exempt jeanette.young@dorsetcoun To consider a review of encompass cil.gov.uk contract Vivienne Broadhurst Tricuro Options Paper Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Jeanette Young, Interim Key Decision - Yes Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Adult Social Care and Head of Commissioning & Public Access - Fully exempt Health Improvement jeanette.young@dorsetcoun cil.gov.uk Vivienne Broadhurst Arne Parish Neighbourhood Plan Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Ed Gerry, Prinicpal 2018 - 2034 Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Planning Planning Policy Team Key Decision - Yes Leader Public Access - Open [email protected] The item relates to the making (adoption) .uk of the neighbourhood plan following on Executive Director, Place from an independent examination and (John Sellgren) referendum. Subject / Decision Decision Maker Date the Other Committee(s) Portfolio Holder Officer Contact Decision is consulted and Due Date of meeting(s) Blandford + Neighbourhood Plan Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Ed Gerry, Prinicpal 2011 - 2033 Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Planning Planning Policy Team Leader Key Decision - Yes [email protected] Public Access - Open .uk Executive Director, Place (John Sellgren) Chickerell Town Neighbourhood Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Philip Reese, Senior Plan 2019 - 2036 Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Planning Planning Policy Officer philip.reese@dorsetcouncil. Key Decision - Yes gov.uk Public Access - Open Executive Director, Place (John Sellgren)

Page 9 Page The item relates to the making (adoption) of the neighbourhood plan following on from an independent examination and referendum. Milton Abbas Neighbourhood Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Ed Gerry, Prinicpal Development Plan 2019 - 2031 Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Planning Planning Policy Team Leader Key Decision - Yes [email protected] Public Access - Open .uk Executive Director, Place The item relates to the making (John Sellgren) (adoption) of the neighbourhood plan following on from an independent examination and referendum. Portland Neighbourhood Plan 2017 Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Joanne Langrish-Merritt, - 2031 Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Planning Senior Planning Policy Key Decision - Yes Officer joanne.langrish- Public Access - Open [email protected] The item relates to the making k (adoption) of the neighbourhood plan Executive Director, Place following on from an independent (John Sellgren) examination and referendum. Subject / Decision Decision Maker Date the Other Committee(s) Portfolio Holder Officer Contact Decision is consulted and Due Date of meeting(s) Puddletown Neighbourhood Plan Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Joanne Langrish-Merritt, 2019 - 2031 Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Planning Senior Planning Policy Officer joanne.langrish- Key Decision - Yes [email protected] Public Access - Open k Executive Director, Place The item relates to the making (John Sellgren) (adoption) of the neighbourhood plan following on from an independent examination and referendum. Shaftesbury Neighbourhood Plan Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Philip Reese, Senior 2019 - 2031 Cabinet 22 Jun 2021 Planning Planning Policy Officer

Page 10 Page philip.reese@dorsetcouncil. Key Decision - Yes gov.uk Public Access - Open Executive Director, Place The item relates to the making (John Sellgren) (adoption) of the neighbourhood plan following on from an independent examination and referendum. July

Dorset Council Homelessness & Decision Maker Decision Date People and Health Portfolio Holder for Sharon Attwater, Service Rough Sleeper Strategy Cabinet 27 Jul 2021 Overview Committee Housing and Manager for Housing 6 Jul 2021 Community Safety Strategy and Performance Key Decision - Yes sharon.attwater@dorsetcou Public Access - Open ncil.gov.uk A Homelessness & Rough Sleeper Executive Director, People - Strategy for Dorset Council replacing Adults (Mathew Kendall) previous district and borough strategies. To determine, prioritise and explain the Council's strategy and action plan to meet our objectives to reduce homelessness and rough sleeping and improve services available to those households. Subject / Decision Decision Maker Date the Other Committee(s) Portfolio Holder Officer Contact Decision is consulted and Due Date of meeting(s) Dorset Council Budget Quarterly Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Jim McManus, Corporate Performance Report - Q1 Cabinet 27 Jul 2021 Finance, Commercial Director - Finance and and Capital Strategy Commercial Key Decision - No [email protected]. Public Access - Open uk Executive Director, To consider the Budget Performance Corporate Development - report for Quarter 1. Section 151 Officer (Aidan Dunn) Wimborne St Giles Neighbourhood Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Nick Cardnell, Senior Plan Area Designation Cabinet 27 Jul 2021 Planning Planning Officer Nick.cardnell@dorsetcounci Key Decision - Yes l.gov.uk

Page 11 Page Public Access - Open Executive Director, Place (John Sellgren) A final determination as to whether to designate a Wimborne St Giles Neighbourhood plans area. September

Annual Safeguarding Board Report Decision Maker Decision Date Portfolio Holder for Cabinet 7 Sep 2021 Children, Education, Executive Director, People - Key Decision - Yes Skills and Early Help Children (Theresa Leavy) Public Access - Open

To receive the Annual Safeguarding Board Report from Anthony Douglas Independent Chair and Scrutineer of the Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Partnership October Subject / Decision Decision Maker Date the Other Committee(s) Portfolio Holder Officer Contact Decision is consulted and Due Date of meeting(s)

November

Communities Strategy Decision Maker Decision Date People and Health Portfolio Holder for Laura Cornette, Corporate Cabinet 7 Dec 2021 Overview Committee Customer and Policy & Performance Key Decision - No 9 Nov 2021 Community Services Officer Public Access - Open Laura.cornette@dorsetcoun cil.gov.uk The Communities Strategy will shape Chief Executive (Matt how Dorset Council engages and Prosser)

Page 12 Page enables of communities. Private/Exempt Items for Decision Each item in the plan above marked as ‘private’ will refer to one of the following paragraphs.

1. Information relating to any individual. 2. Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual. 3. Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information). 4. Information relating to any consultations or negotiations, or contemplated consultations or negotiations, in connection with any labour relations matter arising between the authority or a Minister of the Crown and employees of, or office holders under, the authority. 5. Information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings. 6. Information which reveals that the shadow council proposes:- (a) to give under any enactment a notice under or by virtue of which requirements are imposed on a person; or (b) to make an order or direction under any enactment. 7. Information relating to any action taken or to be taken in connection with the prevention, investigation or prosecution of crime. Page 13 Page

9 This page is intentionally left blank Agenda Item 6

Cabinet 18 May 2021 Self-Evaluation of Children’s Services February 2021

For Review and Consultation

Portfolio Holder: Cllr A Parry, Children, Education, Skills and Early Help

Local Councillor(s):

Executive Director: T Leavy, Executive Director of People - Children

Report Author: Claire Shiels Title: Corporate Director, Commissioning, Quality and Partnerships Tel: 01305 224682 Email: [email protected]

Report Status: Public

Recommendation: Cabinet are asked to consider and note the contents of the Annual Self- Evaluation of Children’s Services.

Reason for Recommendation: The requirement to produce an Annual Self Evaluation is part of the Ofsted Inspection Framework of Children’s Services. This report is intended to enable Cabinet to understand areas of strength and areas for development.

1. Executive Summary This report provides a summary of the comprehensive self-evaluation of children’s services to support preparation for the Ofsted inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers.

The report provides an overview of the areas of strength and areas for development of Children’s Services focusing on:  leadership and governance

Page 15  the quality and impact of social work practice  education and inclusion  our approach to performance management and quality assurance  our response to Covid-19  our future plans for continuing to strengthen services

2. Financial Implications There are no financial implications arising directly from this report.

3. Well-being and Health Implications Good quality children’s services lay the foundations for essential for health and wellbeing of children, young people and families.

4. Climate implications There are no climate implications arising from this report.

5. Other Implications N/A

6. Risk Assessment

Having considered the risks associated with this decision, the level of risk has been identified as: Current Risk: Low Residual Risk: Low

7. Equalities Impact Assessment N/A

8. Appendices Appendix 1: Self-Evaluation for Inspection for Children in Need of Help and Protection, Children Looked After and Care Leavers

9. Background Papers

Minutes of People and Health Scrutiny Committee - 20 April 20921

Page 16 10. Introduction and Background

10.1 Local authority children’s services are asked to produce an Annual Self- Evaluation for the inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers as part of the Ofsted framework for inspecting local authority children’s services (ILACS), first published in November 2017 and updated in March 2021.

10.2 Self-evaluation is a critical part of our quality assurance and enables leaders to identify areas of strength and areas of development. This document also provides the foundation for peer challenge, and Children’s Services participates in an annual south west region peer challenge programme which provides additional support and challenge. This peer challenge event takes place in December each year as part of the South West Regional annual programme of sector-led improvement, it also provides an opportunity to engage in peer challenge within the region; share good practice; and identify regional priorities and programmes of support for the coming year.

10.3 The Self-evaluation forms the basis of the Annual Engagement meeting with Ofsted that takes place as part of Ofsted’s framework for inspection of local authority children’s services.

10.4 This report provides an overview of headlines from the most recent Self- evaluation (February 2021) with the full self-evaluation attached as Appendix 1.

11. Key Strengths

11.1 During 2020/21 Children’s Services have been focusing on building solid foundations, developing, and implementing robust strategic and partnership plans alongside partners. The Strengthening Services Plan brings together the work of the partnership to improve and strengthen services for vulnerable children into one whole system plan that sits alongside the partnership’s Children, Young People and Families Plan 2020-23 which sets out how the partnership intends to improve long term outcomes for children and young people in Dorset. Together, the partnership is making substantial progress.

11.2 Integrated Front Door arrangements - During 2020/21 we have continued to build on the conversational model at the ‘front door ‘by adding an Early Help Hub into our integrated front door and through developing and implementing improved MASH (Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub) arrangements with our partners. New arrangements are already making an impact – since implementation contacts and

Page 17 referrals to children’s social care have been in line with statistical neighbours and weekly auditing with Police and health indicates most decisions are well informed with timely response. Our re-referral rate over the last six months has reduced in comparison to previous years.

11.3 Dorset Children Thrive model – We have successfully implemented our model for delivering Children’s Services in Dorset, which launched to schedule on the 1st September 2020. Our model has brought together Early Help, Children’s Social Care, Educational Psychology, SEND (Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities) and Inclusion services under the leadership of Heads of Locality and Strategy into six integrated locality teams across Dorset. The teams are supported by a central team of specialist services. We are already seeing an impact of our new model with the green shoots of this visible to CQC and Ofsted inspectors during the SEND visit in October 2020. Our managers and staff tell us that our locality Line of Sight meetings and working closely with colleagues from other disciplines is having a positive impact on their work with families and is making a difference.

11.4 Ambitious sufficiency programme for care places and SEND school places – As part of our Children in Care Sufficiency of Placements Strategy we have secured commitment and support to an ambitious transformation programme that will see a range of additional provision developed for our children and young people in Dorset. The transformation programme is well underway and progressing well with additional provision on target to come on-line throughout 2021. In December 2020, a bold and ambitious SEND Sufficiency Strategy to develop approximately 500 additional specialist provision places for children and young people with SEND was approved.

11.5 SEND Accelerated Progress Plan – Dorset Council and its Local Area partners have worked relentlessly to deliver the SEND Accelerated Progress Plan and the necessary improvements required to SEND services in Dorset. This progress was recognised at the SEND Progress Review meeting with the Department for Education and NHS England advisers, the Department of Education wrote to us to confirm that they “are reassured that the strength and commitment of current leaders within the LA and CCG will continue improvements across the SEND system throughout Dorset. Based on the evidence provided, the Department and NHS England have concluded that you have demonstrated clear and sustained progress. This means that Dorset no longer requires formal monitoring of its SEND system.” Dorset Council and partners are ambitious for our SEND children and young people and are continuing to build on the work we have done so far through our Children, Young People and Families Plan 2020-23.

Page 18 11.6 Improvement in planning for children entering care – We have established robust Pre-proceedings arrangements ensuring that we are planning for children who may enter care much more effectively. Leadership Oversight meetings are embedded across our localities providing support and challenge to practitioners.

11.7 Stability of staffing - We have made quick progress in stabilising our staffing during 2020 and in reducing our staff turnover rate. In February 2020 we had a turnover rate for children’s services of 15% in February 2021 our year-to-date turnover rolling rate is 7%. Achievements include: Permanent Senior Leadership Team in place; Increased front line capacity; All social work team and service manager posts are permanently recruited to; Our Recruitment and Retention Strategy promoting Dorset as the employer of choice for social workers including overseas recruitment has delivered significant impact; Increase in permanent social workers - 151 Social Workers including ten new experienced Social Workers from South Africa who joined the team in November 2020 and a further 10 social workers in the recruitment pipeline. Furthermore, we are focused on succession planning and ‘growing our own’ we have trainee social workers who will qualify in the next year and expect further newly qualified social workers to join us in their Assessed and Supported Year of Learning (ASYE) too.

11.8 Substantial decrease in caseloads - The implementation of our locality Dorset Children Thrive model has impacted significantly on average social work caseloads which were reported as ranging from 9-14 in January 2021 in comparison to the average caseloads in February 2020 (between 23-29 at that point).

12. Areas for development

12.1 Health of children in care – We know that the health outcomes for our children in care are not good enough and are relentless in driving progress in this area. We are continuing to work with our partners to improve timeliness of health assessments, to ensure our children in care have up to date dental checks and immunisations. We are working to improve the completion of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ), which is an important tool to help identify if children have emotional health and wellbeing needs, and urgent work is underway to ensure that all children who require an SDQ have one, and to implement our Policy and Practice Guidance and training for social workers, managers, foster carers, Virtual School staff, teachers, and health care professionals.

12.2 Improving the level and efficacy of foster care placements – We are determined to reduce the numbers of children in care that are placed out of Dorset and more than 20 miles away from home. As part of our

Page 19 Sufficiency of Placements Strategy we have embarked on a programme of work that will build on our existing fostering service. This includes strengthening our Foster Carer Recruitment strategy, recruitment, and support of Complex Foster Carers, who are aligned to our new model The Harbour (inspired by North Yorkshire’s No Wrong Door service) and optimising the capacity of current foster carers.

12.3 Diverting more children and young people from Child Protection Plans where appropriate – We have undertaken focused quality assurance work to review our child protection practice, we are working to embed relationship-based practice and that intervention with the family takes place at the lowest level of need. We are supporting front line managers in increased consistency of decision making, Team Managers now discuss the outcome of the Section 47 (child protection) enquiries with their Locality Quality Assurance and Reviewing Officers. Final sign off will now be with the Service Manager and where there remains a difference of opinion a reflective discussion will be had with the Quality Assurance Managers, who will also continue to regularly review practice in this area.

12.4 Improving inclusion across our schools – We have invested in building the capacity of our early intervention, inclusion, and outreach services to our schools. This has included deploying our specialist teachers, educational psychologists, and inclusion officers to support our schools in identifying needs and putting in place tools and strategies to support our mainstream settings. In addition, we work in partnership with our outstanding special schools to deploy their expertise into our mainstream settings through outreach. Through the deployment of our early identification and intervention strategies, we aim to reduce the likelihood that a child or young person will require specialist provision and improve outcomes through improved personalisation. This work will be monitored by our Best Education for All Steering Group which brings together Local Area partners and our Parent Carer Council to oversee our work to make sure that our schools and educational settings are supported to deliver the best education possible and that our children achieve their full potential.

13. Progress

13.1 Timeliness of Initial Child Protection Conferences (ICPCs) - At our 2020 Annual Conversation with Ofsted we reported that timeliness of our Initial Child Protection Conferences was an area of concern for us with only 61% held on time (cumulative over 6 months). We undertook a review of process to understand the specific reasons for delay in ICPCs and as a result have implemented systems to monitor, track, chase and escalate performance. By May 2020 we were achieving 93% of Initial Child Protection Conferences within timescale. This performance has sustained

Page 20 over time and current performance is 96% outperforming national and good and outstanding comparator averages.

13.2 Permanence Plans for children in care – At our Annual Conversation in February 2020 we reported we were focused on improving permanence for our children. We have continued this focus and through our Dorset Children Thrive structure implemented a new post of Service Manager for Corporate Parenting and Permanence. The Service Manager has been relentless in driving permanence for children, permanence tracking and monitoring arrangements which have embedded and have been supported by improved reporting from our electronic care record. Our Service Manager produces a monthly Line of Sight report highlighting exceptions and works with our operational managers. We have strengthened the role of Quality Assurance and Reviewing Officers (QAROs) to ensure they have a robust line of sight and are driving plans for children, they are also now attending Permanence Panels. At February 2021 97.1% of our Children in Care for 4 months or more have a completed permanence plan.

13.3 Registration of Children’s Homes – This has been of critical importance to us, and we have worked hard, remaining in close contact with Ofsted to progress this. We have experienced issues with placing some of our children and young people who have the most complex needs, resulting in the use of a small number of unregistered provisions. Where this has been the case, there has been robust oversight of the placement, including enhanced visiting from social workers, Independent Reviewing Officers and Regulation 44 visits being undertaken (despite the absence of registration) and visits from our Executive Director. The outcomes described within these visits are reviewed by the Executive Director and Elected Member on a weekly basis, and a task and finish group is in place to ensure that we cease the use of any unregistered placements for children in care. We currently have no young people under 16 years of age in unregistered placements. We are moving at pace with our providers and politicians to address our sufficiency requirements.

14. Our response to Covid-19

14.1 During 2020 our partnership grew from strength to strength, coming together to support children and their families in our communities, the partnership mobilised, responded quickly, demonstrated agility and most importantly lived a one team, one Dorset, approach. During the Covid period there have been over 300 pieces of guidance and policy changes that have had an impact on children’s services and requiring a response.

14.2 During Covid-19, services have been given greater authority to share information to better identify and support families with needs resulting in

Page 21 new ways of working, increased agility in the workforce and more timely and co-ordinated interventions. We have sought, throughout this period to keep listening to the experiences of our children, young people and families through the creation of regular foster carer forums, young people forums, formal and informal view seeking. Practice observation has continued, and following a brief break, we recommenced our auditing process.

15. Next steps

Our plans for 2021/22 are to continue to focus on:  Improving the quality and availability of placements  Responding to the pandemic  Implementing our comprehensive multi-agency Strengthening Services Plan, and addressing our areas for development, alongside our Children, Young People and Families Plan.

16. Recommendation:

Cabinet are asked to consider and note the contents of the Annual Self- Evaluation of Children’s Services.

Footnote: Issues relating to financial, legal, environmental, economic and equalities implications have been considered and any information relevant to the decision is included within the report.

Page 22

SELF-EVALUATION FOR INSPECTION OF SERVICES FOR CHILDREN IN NEED OF HELP AND PROTECTION, CHILDREN LOOKED AFTER AND CARE LEAVERS

February 2021

Data taken from CHAT 31.01.2021 (not comparable with CIN census) unless specified

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1. Table of Contents 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 5 1.2 Key strengths ...... 6 1.3 Areas for development ...... 7 1.4 Progress ...... 8 a. Since our last Annual Conversation ...... 8 b. Focused Visit 2019 ...... 9 c. JTAI 2018 ...... 10 1.5 Learning from sector led improvement ...... 10 1.6 Sector led improvement/development work in the pipeline for 2021 ...... 11 1.7 Horizon Scanning ...... 12 2. INTRODUCTION ...... 13 2.1 Background and Context ...... 13 2.2 About Dorset ...... 14 2.3 Leadership and Governance ...... 15 a. Dorset Strategic Alliance for Children and Young People ...... 15 b. Our Children’s Services Strategic Partnership Governance ...... 16 c. Strengthening Services Programme ...... 16 d. Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership (PDSCP) ...... 18 2.4 Financial Position ...... 18 2.5 Council Leadership Team ...... 18 2.6 Children’s Services Leadership Team ...... 19 2.7 Matrix leadership ...... 19 2.8 Employee Engagement ...... 19 2.9 Dorset Children Thrive – Integrated working by design ...... 20 2.10 Our Workforce ...... 20 2.11 Workforce Development ...... 21 3. QUALITY AND IMPACT OF SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE IN DORSET ...... 22 3.1 The Integrated Front Door ...... 22 a. Children’s Advice and Duty Desk ...... 22 b. Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub ...... 22 c. Early Help Hub...... 22 d. Number of Contacts and Referrals ...... 23 e. Contacts and Referrals from the Police ...... 23 f. Contacts and referrals from schools ...... 24 g. Summary and next steps ...... 24 3.2 Early Help ...... 25 a. Our approach ...... 25 b. Dorset Council’s Early Help Offer...... 25 c. Direct work with Children and Families ...... 26 d. Group work ...... 27 e. Supporting partners to undertake Early Help ...... 28 f. Focus on Early Years ...... 29 g. Dorset Families Matter (Troubled Families) ...... 29 3.3 Children in Need ...... 30 3.4 Child Protection ...... 31 a. Section 47 ...... 31 b. Child Protection Conferences ...... 31 c. Child Protection Plans ...... 32 Page 24 2

d. Child Protection Visits ...... 33 e. Summary and next steps ...... 33 3.5 Children Who are Disabled ...... 33 a. Our approach ...... 33 b. Impact of Covid-19 ...... 34 c. Co-production ...... 34 d. Short Breaks ...... 34 3.6 Domestic Abuse ...... 35 a. Our approach ...... 35 b. High Risk Domestic Abuse Model (HRDA) ...... 35 c. Sexual Violence ...... 36 d. Parental Conflict ...... 36 e. Conclusion and next steps ...... 37 3.7 Pan Dorset Youth Offending Service ...... 37 a. Our approach ...... 37 b. First Time Entrants to the Youth Justice System ...... 37 c. Youth Justice Service practice developments ...... 38 d. Developing the workforce ...... 39 e. Conclusions and next steps ...... 39 3.8 Children in Care ...... 39 a. Our approach ...... 39 b. Our children in care ...... 39 c. Health Assessments ...... 41 d. Emotional Wellbeing and mental health ...... 42 e. Achieving Permanence ...... 43 f. Finding the right homes for our children ...... 43 g. Voice of our children in care ...... 44 h. Independent Visitors ...... 45 i. Quality Assurance and Reviewing Officers ...... 46 3.9 The Harbour ...... 46 3.10 Missing Children and Children at Risk of or Linked to Exploitation ...... 47 a. Missing children ...... 47 b. Return Home Interviews ...... 47 c. Children at Risk of or Linked to Exploitation ...... 48 3.11 Fostering Services ...... 48 3.12 Adoption Services ...... 49 3.13 Care Leavers ...... 50 a. Our Care Leavers ...... 50 b. Keeping in touch ...... 51 c. Finding the right place to live ...... 51 d. Employment, Education and Training ...... 52 e. Care Leaver Offer ...... 53 f. Summary and Next Steps ...... 53 3.14 Education and Inclusion ...... 54 a. School Performance ...... 54 b. Inclusion ...... 54 c. Children and young people with SEND ...... 55 d. The Virtual School ...... 56 e. Elective Home Education ...... 57 f. Early years provision and childcare ...... 57 3.15 Young People at Risk of Homelessness ...... 58 Page 25 3

3.16 Private Fostering ...... 58 3.17 Local Authority Designated Officer ...... 59 4. HOW DO WE KNOW ...... 60 4.1 Performance Management...... 60 4.2 Quality Assurance Framework ...... 61 4.3 Audit Outcomes ...... 61 4.4 Serious Case Reviews and Safeguarding Practice Reviews ...... 62 4.5 Complaints, Compliments and Comments ...... 62 4.6 Feedback from our children, young people, and families ...... 63 5. WHAT’S NEXT FOR DORSET…...... 65 6. RESPONSE TO COVID 19 ANNEX ...... 66 6.1 Introduction ...... 66 6.2 Leadership timeline of our response to Covid-19 ...... 66 6.3 Vulnerable children and young people tracker ...... 67 6.4 Education Psychology Covid-19 parent helpline ...... 69 6.5 Risk assessments ...... 69 6.6 Link workers ...... 70 6.7 Summer in Dorset ...... 70 6.8 Provision at the Dorset Outdoor Education Service outdoor centres ...... 71 6.9 The Cherries ...... 72

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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Foreword 2020 the year of the first global pandemic for a generation saw hugely challenging times for the entire world. For children Covid-19 appears to pose a lower risk of infection or serious illness, but its social toll could be devastating. The pandemic has intensified the challenges many children and young people face and there are widespread concerns about the poor outcomes for babies and the very youngest, lost learning, domestic abuse, poverty, and the impact of social distancing and lockdowns on mental health and wellbeing.

Children’s experiences of lockdown and the entire pandemic period will vary. In Dorset we know some will have found extra time with their family beneficial, or the ability to avoid the hurly burly of life a restorative experience but for others it will have been a scary, confusing, or even traumatic experience.

The result for too many is a further widening attainment gap and more families plunged into poverty. For many this will be exacerbated as families face job losses or uncertainty of income.

For children living in overcrowded housing or with poor access to technology and safe places to play outside it will have been harder still.

Into the coming year children must now be a priority in national recovery planning and this is a core priority for us in Dorset.

Continuing to deliver services in 2020 was a great challenge and one that our staff (I include all commissioned services, carers, and volunteers too) in Dorset Children’s services faced with compassion, hope, good humour, and a degree of bravery. Many, many staff have continued to offer face to face service provision to the most vulnerable in our society undertaking critical assessments, delivering care and support packages, supervising family time, providing transport, providing direct care and so much more. Where it was in family’s best interests, and to provide as much protection as possible to all involved, staff have also worked with agility, online and at distance, employing all manner of creative and innovative solutions to deliver the very best service in such challenging times. Operational staff have been elegantly supported by business, admission, and support teams both within Children’s services and beyond – staff across the council working intensively together to protect the most vulnerable in our society.

As lockdown eases, the Senior Leadership Team are focussed on delivering a safe Dorset Workplace in 2021 that delivers to our core question of How do we work to best meet our children’s and families’ needs? The way we can be sure of getting that right is by paying attention to the research and family feedback – much of what we achieve with families is heavily rooted in the quality of the personal relationships we build and by listening very carefully to the feedback families give us and acting to coproduce personalised responses wherever possible. In 2021 we will work ever closer with families ensuring our strengths based restorative approach supports children in their community to have the best lives possible and to thrive.

Theresa Leavy

Executive Director Children’s Services

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1.2 Key strengths During 2020/21 we have been focusing on building solid foundations, developing, and implementing robust strategic and partnership plans. Our Strengthening Services Plan brings together the work of the partnership to improve and strengthen services for vulnerable children into one whole system plan sitting alongside our partnership Children, Young People and Families Plan which sets out how we intend to improve long term outcomes for children and young people in Dorset. Together as a partnership we are making substantial progress. Key strengths include:

Our Integrated Front Door arrangements - During 2020/21 we have continued to build on the conversational model by adding an Early Help Hub into our integrated front door and through developing and implementing improved MASH arrangements with our partners. New arrangements are already making an impact – since implementation contacts and referrals have been in line with statistical neighbours, weekly auditing with Police and health indicates most decisions are well informed with timely response and our re-referral rate over the last six months has reduced in comparison to previous years.

Dorset Children Thrive model – We have successfully implemented our model for delivering Children’s Services in Dorset, which launched to schedule on the 1st September 2020. Our model has brought together Early Help, Children’s Social Care, Educational Psychology, SEND and Inclusion services under the leadership of Heads of Locality and Strategy into six integrated locality teams across Dorset. The teams are supported by a central team of specialist services. We are already seeing an impact of our new model with the green shoots of this visible to CQC and Ofsted inspectors during the SEND visit in October 2020. Our managers and staff tell us that our locality Line of Sight meetings and working closely with colleagues from other disciplines is having a positive impact on their work with families and is making a difference.

Ambitious sufficiency programme for care places and SEND school places – As part of our Children in Care Sufficiency of Placements Strategy we have secured commitment and support from Dorset Council to an ambitious transformation programme that will see a range of additional provision developed for our children and young people in Dorset. The transformation programme is well underway and progressing well with additional provision on target to come on-line throughout 2021. In December 2020, Cabinet signed off a bold and ambitious SEND Sufficiency Strategy to develop approximately 500 additional specialist provision places for children and young people with SEND.

SEND Accelerated Progress Plan – Dorset Council and its Local Area partners have worked relentlessly to deliver the SEND Accelerated Progress Plan and the necessary improvements required to SEND services in Dorset. This progress was recognised at the SEND Progress Review meeting with the Department for Education and NHS England advisers, the Department of Education wrote to us to confirm that they “are reassured that the strength and commitment of current leaders within the LA and CCG will continue improvements across the SEND system throughout Dorset. Based on the evidence provided, the Department and NHS England have concluded that you have demonstrated clear and sustained progress. This means that Dorset no longer requires formal monitoring of its SEND system.” Dorset Council and partners are ambitious for our SEND children and young people and are continuing to build on the work we have done so far through our Children, Young People and Families Plan 2020-23.

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Improvement in planning for children entering care – We have established robust Pre- proceedings arrangements ensuring that children are identified for PLO at the right time. Leadership Oversight meetings are embedded across our localities providing support and challenge.

Stability of staffing - We have made quick progress in stabilising our staffing during 2020 and in reducing our staff turnover rate. In February 2020 we reported we had a turnover rate for children’s services of 15% in February 2021 our year-to-date turnover rolling rate is 7%.

Achievements include:

• Permanent Senior Leadership Team in place • Increased front line capacity • All social work team and service manager posts are permanently recruited to • Our Recruitment and Retention Strategy promoting Dorset as the employer of choice for social workers including overseas recruitment has delivered significant impact. • Increase in permanent social workers 151 Social Workers including ten new experienced Social Workers from South Africa who joined the team in November 2020 and a further 10 social workers in the recruitment pipeline. • We have 7 trainees (BA Hons) who qualify in Summer 2021. A further 2 trainees (BA Hons) are expected to qualify in Summer 2022. We are holding a further 5 vacancies for ASYEs from local universities, leaving us with only 6 vacancies across the entire service. • We have 3 students who have been supported to undertake sponsored social work training (PGDip) and qualify in 2022. A further 2 students have been supported with their PGDip and are expected to qualify in 2023. • We have a further 6 apprentices, 1 who will qualify in 2022, 4 who will qualify in 2023 and 1 who will qualify in 2024. A recruitment session to identify future Apprentices is taking place on the 17 th March 2021. • We have a further 5 Step-up to Social Work opportunities that we will be promoting that should we be able to recruit will result in 5 additional social workers qualifying in 2022/23.

Substantial decrease in caseloads - The implementation of our locality Dorset Children Thrive model has impacted significantly on average social work caseloads which were reported as ranging from 9-14 in January 2021 in comparison to the average caseloads we reported back in February 2020 (between 23-29 at that point). 1.3 Areas for development Health of children in care – We know that the health outcomes for our children in care are not good enough and are relentless in driving progress in this area. We are continuing to work with our partners to improve timeliness of health assessments, to ensure our children in care have up to date dental checks and immunisations. We are working to improve the completion of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) and urgent work is underway to ensure that all children who require an SDQ have one, and to implementation our Policy and Practice Guidance and training for social workers, managers, foster carers, Virtual School staff, teachers, and health care professionals.

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Improving the level and efficacy of foster care placements – We are determined to reduce the numbers of children in care that are placed out of Dorset and more than 20 miles away from home. As part of our Sufficiency of Placements Strategy we have embarked on a programme of work that will build on our existing fostering service. This includes strengthening our Foster Carer Recruitment strategy, recruitment, and support of Complex Foster Carers, who are aligned to our new model The Harbour (inspired by North Yorkshire’s No Wrong Door service) and optimising the capacity of current foster carers.

Diverting more children and young people from Child Protection Plans where appropriate – We have undertaken focused quality assurance work to review our child protection practice, we are working to embed relationship-based practice and that intervention with the family takes place at the lowest level of need. We are supporting front line managers in increased consistency of decision making, Team Managers now discuss the outcome of the section 47 enquiries with their Locality QARO. Final sign off will now be with the Service Manager and where there remains a difference of opinion a reflective discussion will be had with the QA Managers, who will also continue to regularly review practice in this area.

Improving inclusion across our schools – We have invested in building the capacity of our early intervention, inclusion, and outreach services to our schools. This has included deploying our specialist teachers, educational psychologists, and inclusion officers to support our schools in identifying needs and putting in place tools and strategies to support our mainstream settings. In addition, we work in partnership with our outstanding special schools to deploy their expertise into our mainstream settings through outreach. Through the deployment of our early identification and intervention strategies, we aim to reduce the likelihood that a child or young person will require specialist provision and improve outcomes through improved personalisation. This work will be monitored by our Best Education for All Steering Group which brings together Local Area partners and our Parent Carer Council to oversee our work to make sure that our schools and educational settings are supported to deliver the best education possible and that our children achieve their full potential. 1.4 Progress a. Since our last Annual Conversation Timeliness of Initial Child Protection Conferences - At our last Annual Conversation we reported that timeliness of our Initial Child Protection Conferences was an area of concern for us with only 61% held on time (cumulative over 6 months). We undertook a review of process to understand the specific reasons for delay in ICPCs and as a result have implemented systems to monitor, track, chase and escalate performance. By May 2020 we were achieving 93% of Initial Child Protection Conferences within timescale. This performance has sustained over time and current performance is 96% outperforming national and good and outstanding comparator averages.

Permanence Plans – At our Annual Conversation in February 2020 we reported we were focused on improving permanence for our children. We have continued this focus and through our Dorset Children Thrive structure implemented a new post of Service Manager for Corporate Parenting and Permanence. The Service Manager has been relentless in driving permanence for children, permanence tracking and monitoring arrangements which have embedded and have been

Page 30 8 supported by improved reporting from our electronic care record, mosaic. Our Service Manager produces a monthly Line of Sight report highlighting exceptions and works with our operational managers. We have strengthened the role of Quality Assurance and Reviewing Officers (QAROs) to ensure they have a robust line of sight and are driving plans for children, they also now attending Permanence Panels. At February 2021 97.1% of our Children in Care for 4 months or more have a completed permanence plan.

Registration of Children’s Homes – This has been of critical importance to us, and we have worked hard, remaining in close contact with Ofsted to progress this. We have experienced issues with placing some of our children and young people who have the most complex needs, resulting in the use of a small number of unregistered provisions. Where this has been the case, there has been robust oversight of the placement, including enhanced visiting from social workers, Independent Reviewing Officers and Regulation 44 visits being undertaken (despite the absence of registration) and visits from our Executive Director. The outcomes described within these visits are reviewed by the Executive Director and Elected Member on a weekly basis, and a task and finish group is in place to ensure that we cease the use of any unregistered placements for children in care. We currently have no young people under 16 years of age in unregistered placements. We are moving at pace with our providers and politicians to address our sufficiency requirements. b. Focused Visit 2019 What needed to improve in this Progress at February 2021 area of social work practice? The quality of chronologies, so We have continued in our work to improve chronologies building that they help social workers to on the initial work undertaken reported at the Annual better understand the impact of Conversation in February 2020. Our Principal Social Worker children’s histories and what this has worked with Advanced Practitioners and staff to continue to means for their plans in the future. strengthen our practice regarding chronologies and our use of impact chronologies – what does this mean for the child. In January 2021 just under 70% of our children with a social worker had a chronology updated in the last 3 months.

The effectiveness of management We have undertaken significant work during 2020/21 to oversight, including by child strengthen management oversight across our services including: protection conference chairs, so • Refreshed our Scheme of Delegation in line with the that plans progress and improve implementation of our Dorset Children Thrive structure. children’s situations within a • Ensured our Teams have manageable caseloads. timescale that is right for them. • Implementation of locality Line of Sight Meetings and Leadership Oversight. • Rolled out Supervision Skills Training to ensure our managers have the skills to support social workers to reflect and drive forward plans. • Strengthened the role of our Quality Assurance and Reviewing Officers through a development programme to support them to develop into their roles.

Audits, so that greater focus is Since our last Annual Conversation, we have continued to given to the experience of embed our Quality Assurance Framework which ensures the children. child’s lived experience and the impact of our work in improving

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outcomes is known and understood. As part of our audit process child and family feedback is also sought. All learning is reported to our Quality Practice and Action Group. c. JTAI 2018 As a partnership we have continued to build on our work to strengthen contextual safeguarding throughout 2020/21 embedding our strategic and operational Child Exploitation arrangements. Progress includes:

• Published our Pan-Dorset Child Exploitation Strategy. • Launch of the Dorset Child Exploitation Strategic Group who have oversight of our arrangements and meet quarterly. • Embedding of the CAROLE Tactical Group to share intelligence and take joint action. • Established Child Exploitation Champions in our localities. • Implementation of Targeted Youth Workers in localities who are leading Young People at Risk Meetings in their respective locality as part of our contextual safeguarding approach. • Implementation of Children Exploitation and Missing Dashboard and Daily Missing Meetings to share intelligence. 1.5 Learning from sector led improvement We are a learning organisation and have continued to engage and seek the support of sector leaders throughout 2020/21: a. Professor Harry Ferguson – Reinvigorating Social Work evaluation (March 2020)

Our social workers told us that the way our service was structured made it more difficult to implement relationship-based practice as they felt remote from many of the communities in which our children and families live, the other professionals working in the localities and they spend too much time travelling to see families. This message was reinforced by an external evaluation by Professor Harry Ferguson (University of Birmingham) in the evaluation of our RSW programme.

This feedback influenced the development of our operating model ‘Dorset Children Thrive’ resulting in place based, multi-disciplinary teams that can build relationships with children and their families, and the professionals working with them in the communities they serve. b. Peer Review of MASH with North Tyneside (March 2020)

This review was undertaken virtually. Findings were helpful and contributed to informing our full review of MASH arrangements and subsequent implementation of an improved model, building on our existing Integrated Front Door arrangements in July 2020. c. Coram Voice – Your Life Beyond Care survey and self-assessment (April 2020)

We participated in the Coram Voice, New Belongings Survey –feedback is now influencing our development work and our Care Leaver offer. There was excellent feedback about our Leaving Care team which found that:

• Nearly everyone (96%) described knowing who their worker was. This rate was comparable to young people (93%) in other Local Authorities (LAs)

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• 88% of young people found it easy to get in touch with their leaving care worker all or most of the time compared to care leavers in other local authorities (71%). The difference is statistically significant and a Bright Spot of practice. • Most (72%) care leavers had had the same worker over the past year compared to care leavers (60%) in other LAs. The difference is statistically significant and a Bright Spot of practice. • 12% of care leavers had had 3 or more workers in a year. This rate was comparable to care leavers nationally. • 92% reported they trusted their worker ‘all or most of the time’. This is a higher proportion than care leavers (78%) in other local authorities. The difference is statistically significant and a Bright Spot of practice. d. Partners in Practice - North Yorkshire No Wrong Door (throughout 2020)

This support has been ongoing throughout 2020/21. We are taking the learning from North Yorkshire’s No Wrong Door Model to inspire the development of our new edge of care model, The Harbour. e. Experienced Interims

We have engaged experienced interims to bring critical friend challenge to audit programme and wider work. f. Care Leaver Covenant – Department of Education and Spectra

The Care Leaver Covenant are working alongside us to support and advise as we continuously build on our care leaver offer. g. Engagement with Mulberry Bush School

Advisers to Special School developments and Therapeutic care delivery. h. Dartington Social Research Unit and Collaborate

We have been working with Dartington Social Research Unit and Collaborate to ensure Safeguarding arrangements include the voice of our children and families through shadow-board arrangements or similar. i. Mockingbird Project

We have agreed to implement Mockingbird as part of our work to support and retain high quality foster carers for our children and as part of our overall plans to ensure sufficiency of local placements for our children in care. 1.6 Sector led improvement/development work in the pipeline for 2021 a. Somerset Peer Review – We are undertaking a Peer Challenge with Somerset Council regarding quality of Quality Assurance practice in improving outcomes for children and young people, to understand if the audit system is having an impact, how children and families are involved in QA and if the voice of the child is impacting on organisational learning. (May/June 2021)

Page 33 11 b. Private Law Pathfinder Pilot - Bournemouth has been identified as the Pathfinder to lead the pilot in England implementing the private law reform recommendations of the Private Law Working Group. We have been invited by His Honour Judge Martin Dancey to contribute, exploring how to integrate Private Law as part of a ‘whole system approach’ – bringing in and working with support services as needed. 1.7 Horizon Scanning Development of an Integrated Care System in Dorset is a system wide change for health and social care. The implications of this for the Dorset system are still being worked through and we are continuing to work closely with our partners as the system evolves, ensuring that the needs and impact on children, young people and their families is in clear focus.

We are mindful of the context of our neighbouring authority, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, the communities we serve and that we share several strategic partners and services. We continue to be committed to working in partnership at a Pan-Dorset level whilst ensuring we focus on the particular needs of Dorset Communities at a place-based level.

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2. INTRODUCTION

2.1 Background and Context Dorset Council is a unitary authority, vested on 1st April 2019, following Local Government Reorganisation which saw the Christchurch area of Dorset moving to the new Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole (BCP) Council.

Dorset Council, along with its partners, is ambitious for all residents, particularly for children and young people, and is actively seeking ways of making the most of the opportunities of being a unitary authority. There is a strong One Team support for children’s services, with the Chief Executive, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services (Lead Member for Children’s Services) and supporting Lead Members creating a culture where the needs of children and families are prioritised. The council senior Executive Leadership team are active contributors in strategic partnerships and planning for children, young people, and their families. The Deputy Leader of the Council is the Chair of the Strategic Alliance Board (also attended by the Portfolio Holder and supporting Lead Members) the Chief Executive is the Co-Chair of the Strengthening Services Board which is also attended by the Portfolio Holders for both Children’s and Adults’ Services.

This powerful sense of corporate responsibility for vulnerable children has already resulted in substantial investment into children’s services, along with a commitment to a range of other developments for our Care Leavers including apprenticeships and council tax exemption.

Our Executive Director for Children has been in post since January 2020, initially on an interim basis and on a permanent basis since November 2020. The Executive Director for Children, along with the senior leadership team for children’s services and our partners, is driving forward the transformation and improvements required to strengthen the quality of the services we deliver and to improve longer term outcomes for all our children and families.

Earlier in 2020 we reviewed our Strategic Alliance for Children and Young People and through the reviewed Strategic Alliance Board developed a 3-year Children, Young People and Families Plan. Alongside this we had agreed to develop a whole system improvement programme to strengthen our services for vulnerable children and their families.

Our plans to transform our model of children’s services delivery progressed at pace and our ‘Dorset Children Thrive’ model launched, on time, on the 1 st September 2020 bringing together as many of our services as possible into six integrated locality teams across Dorset, supported by a central team of specialist services.

Such was the commitment and drive by the partnership we remained on track with this work throughout the Covid-19 crisis. Our Children, Young People and Families Plan 2020-23 was approved by the Strategic Alliance Board on the 15 th September 2020, and our Strengthening Services Plan and Programme is well underway with all 31 Projects progressing, the final version of our Strengthening Services Plan was approved by our Strengthening Services Board on the 10 th September 2020.

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2.2 About Dorset Dorset is a beautiful coastal county situated in the South West region of England. Over half of Dorset is covered by the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty designation and 7% of Dorset is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The Dorset rural idyll can conceal hidden deprivation, with significant pockets found mostly in urban coastal areas. But there is also some rural deprivation due to isolation and difficulty accessing housing, transport, and essential services. The Children’s Society estimates that 23% of Dorset Children are living in poverty.

There are ten areas (out of a total of 219) in Dorset within the top 20% most deprived nationally for multiple deprivation, down from 12 in 2010 1. Nine of these are within Weymouth and Portland and one is in the West Dorset District area. 20 of Dorset's neighbourhoods are in the 20% most deprived nationally in relation to education 1.

46% of Dorset's population live in rural areas 3. Barriers to housing and essential services are significant in Dorset reflecting rurality and distance from services. 66 Dorset neighbourhoods fall in the 20% most deprived nationally for this measure: in the former council areas, 21 are in West Dorset and 20 in North Dorset.

Crime is low in Dorset, with domestic abuse, criminal exploitation, and rural crime identified as priorities for partners.

Earnings are below average and house prices are high with affordability issues for many young people and keyworkers. Dorset has relatively low birth rates and younger people often move away from the area.

The total population of Dorset is 378,508 (2019 mid-year estimate), this includes 74,765 children and young people aged 0-19 representing 20% of the total population (89,573 aged 0-24 years).

We have 160 schools in Dorset - 1 All through School, 36 First Schools, 2 Infant Schools, 2 Junior Schools, 81 Primary Schools,10 Middle Schools, 15 Secondary Schools, 3 Upper Schools, 4 Pupil Referral Units and 6 Special Schools.

There are 33 different languages spoken in Dorset schools. 9% of school age children are from black and minority ethnic communities compared to 34.6% nationally.

We have approximately 3,000 children with Special Educational Needs supported through an Educational, Health and Care Plan and 6,700 children and young people identified with SEN Support needs.

At the end of January 2021 (CHAT) there were:

• 963 children and young people being supported through early help • 1,000 Children in Need (excluding Children in Care and children with a Child Protection Plan) • 345 Children with a Child Protection Plan • 458 Children in Care • 254 Care Leavers.

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2.3 Leadership and Governance a. Dorset Strategic Alliance for Children and Young People We have established clear relationship and governance arrangements to support our partnership working and ensure that our partnership plans progress with rigour and pace. The diagram below sets out the role and relationships of our strategic partnership working.

Our partnership vision is for ‘Dorset to be the best place to be a child; where communities thrive, and families are supported to be the best they can be’.

The Children, Young People and Families Plan is led by the Board of the Dorset Strategic Alliance for Children and Young People which brings together colleagues from Dorset Council, Public Health Dorset, Dorset 0-19 Voluntary and Community Sector Forum, Dorset Youth Offending Services, Dorset CCG, Dorset Healthcare, Dorset Parent Carer Council, Schools’ representatives and Early Years representatives; among other agencies to deliver on our ambitions for our children. The Board is chaired by the Deputy Leader of the Council.

We are doing this through Delivering our Services Locally and by sharing the same partnership values and principles of:

• Always putting children and families at the heart of everything we do • No child or family left behind – we will strive for equity of outcomes for our children, young people, and their families • Focussing on early intervention and prevention aiming to help early in the life of a problem and provide a graduated response to need – the right help, in the right place at the right time • Working restoratively, doing things with families instead of to them, for them or doing nothing • Thinking Family and working together so that children and families receive a joined-up response and good transitions • Focussing on strengths within families and communities, understanding the lived experience of children • Staying with families until outcomes are delivered, embedded and change is sustained • Being inclusive – we want our children and young people to be able to get the help they need in the county that is their home • Empowering young people and families to use the information we give them to make decisions for themselves • Delivering best value for money - spending the Dorset £ in Dorset on the things that get the best outcomes for children and families. Our six priorities are:

1. Best Start in Life

2. Young and Thriving

3. Good Care Provision

4. Best Education for All

5. Best Place to Live

6. Delivering Locally

Page 37 15 b. Our Children’s Services Strategic Partnership Governance We have established clear relationship and governance arrangements to support our partnership working and ensure that our partnership plans progress with rigour and pace. The diagram below sets out the role and relationships of our strategic partnership working.

Figure 1: Our Partnership Governance Arrangements c. Strengthening Services Programme As a partnership we are dedicated to continuous improvement and we deliver this through our Strengthening Services Programme, it is the delivery arm for both Dorset Council Children’s Services and the Dorset Council element of the Pan Dorset Safeguarding Board. We have developed an extensive and comprehensive plan that brings together short and medium-term actions into one plan. Robust governance arrangements ensure close monitoring of sustained and embedded progress in performance.

The plan is presented in three sections following the continuum of need from early help, to services to protect vulnerable children, services for children in care and care leavers, underpinned by robust leadership, management, and governance.

Strategic accountability of the programme is through our multi-agency executive level Strengthening Services Board (including Elected Members) who meet six-weekly to monitor progress, provide support and challenge and ensure that improvements are made at pace. Work is well underway, and progress is being made on all projects. The work programme for the Board ensures that complex partnership projects receive a ‘Deep Dive’ enabling Board Members to have a detailed solution focused discussion regarding different topics. As at February 2021 we are making good progress with 58% of actions complete and embedding. The table below sets out the progress of the Projects within our plan. Page 38 16

Complete Embedding • Assure that robust arrangements are in place for • Ensure there is a consistent understanding of children who are disabled social work services the Continuum of Need so that children • Ensure robust arrangements are in place for receive the right support from the right service children and young people who are Electively at the right time Home Educated • Ensure a robust approach and response to • Undertake a review of panels to ensure children managing allegations of abuse, mistreatment, and young people are receiving access to the and poor practice by professionals right service as quickly as possible • Strengthen prevention and support to • Strengthen Integrated Front Door and MASH vulnerable young people and their families arrangements to ensure a robust and timely • Strengthen Private Fostering arrangements partnership and Safeguarding response to need • Ensure robust joint arrangements are in place • Recruit and retain high quality practitioners between children’s services, housing, and making Dorset Council the employer of choice for wider partners to support vulnerable young Social Workers people and families at risk of homelessness • Strengthen performance management • Ensure robust management oversight is in arrangements to ensure that operational, senior place to the quality and practice across managers and Elected Members have a firm grip services on performance • Strengthen the Corporate Parenting offer in • Develop a learning culture across Children’s Dorset Services and the partnership so that learning • Establish robust operating and governance systematically informs practice and service arrangements that enable senior leaders to development maintain a line of sight to services • Ensure there is effective professional development that is accessible to the children’s workforce Making good progress Paying close attention to • • Strengthen the identification of risk through Ensure robust arrangements are in place so universal services and our collective Early Help that all children in care and care leavers are offer so that all children and families benefit from receiving health services that are improving support that makes sustainable change and their health outcomes prevents problems from escalating in the future • Ensure children in care and care leavers with • Improve the recognition of risk and harm to emotional health and wellbeing needs get the children right help and support at the right time • • Deliver a collaborative response to improve the Strengthen fostering arrangements in Dorset lives of children and young people who are at so that more children and young people are risk of or experiencing exploitation cared for close to their communities, friends, • Strengthen the quality and impact of social work and networks • practice with children in need, children at risk of Strengthen contact/Family time arrangements significant harm and children in care so that children in care are supported to have • Work with the Community Safety Partnership to meaningful contact with family members • strengthen and support interventions regarding Deliver outstanding SEND services for our Domestic Abuse children and young people and define a clear • Improve the quality and timeliness of care and pathway for preparation for adulthood • permanence planning so that children live in their Ensure a robust partnership approach to forever home as soon as possible children and young people with • Strengthen arrangements to improve education, neurodevelopmental and complex emotional employment, and training outcomes for children health and wellbeing needs in care and care leavers • Ensure sufficiency and quality of local residential placements for children in care and suitable accommodation for care leavers • Ensure that the voice of children, young people, parents, and carers’ influences services and puts children and families at the heart of decision making Table 1: Progress on Strengthening Services Plan

Our work in this plan sits alongside our work to deliver our longer-term vision for children and young people in Dorset through our Children, Young People and Families Plan 2020-2023. Page 39 17 d. Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership (PDSCP) Our Safeguarding Partnership arrangements have operated on a Pan-Dorset footprint whilst ensuring that the specific needs and characteristics of the Dorset Council area kept in focus through our operational arrangements.

The operation of the PDSCP following the dispersion of what were three separate safeguarding boards has been effective. Following its first year in operation we have reviewed the arrangements with our partners to ensure robust operational Place-based working arrangements (separate for Dorset Council and BCP). These are well developed for Dorset Council with the Strengthening Services Board working effectively through the pandemic period and Dorset are sharing intelligence on this model with BCP. Going forward the PDSCP will continue to meet monthly and include biannual meetings with First Tier Leaders Pan Dorset level to ensure learning and strategic opportunities are shared and understood. We are redesigning our shared business unit to ensure it contains suitable capacity for both co-ordination and performance analysis, we will also refresh the Quality Assurance subgroup. We have been working with Dartington Social Research Unit and Collaborate to ensure the Safeguarding arrangements include the voice of our children and families through shadow-board arrangements or similar. We will continue with our external chair, a highly experienced scrutineer.

Our Safeguarding Partnership website can be accessed by following this link: Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership - Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership (pdscp.co.uk) .

The Annual Report for our Safeguarding Partnership can be accessed here: Annual Reports - Pan- Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership (pdscp.co.uk) . 2.4 Financial Position Dorset Council is committed to ensuring strong, stable, and sustainable services for Children and Young People and the directorate is actively pursuing efficiency and reorganisation benefits of £1.6m in this financial year without a reduction in our front-line services. Despite a much-needed injection of recurring investment of over £10M our children’s services budget remains under pressure. The cost and requirement of external placements, loss of income from traded services during the pandemic and a Corporate position of a significant funding gap expected next year because of Covid-19 bring together a concerning position. The Senior Leadership Team is leading a Transformation Programme to deliver a balanced budget in April 2021.

In 2021/22 Children’s Services will have a net increase in budget of £3.7m with a savings target is £4.9m. Our Transformation Programme will continue in 2021/22. 2.5 Council Leadership Team The Chief Executive, Senior Leadership Team and Elected Members play an active role in providing support and challenge to the service and partnership and have a strong line of sight to practice. Regular briefings take place, and both the Chief Executive and Portfolio Holder participate in regular case file audits and practice weeks. Vital signs (KPIs) for children’s services are included in the Council’s Senior Leadership Team performance dashboard. Through their roles in supporting our strategic partnerships and contributing to our Quality Assurance Framework, the Chief Executive, the Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder (alongside senior leaders

Page 40 18 from across the partnership) have a close line of sight to performance and impact made against our Strengthening Services Plan. 2.6 Children’s Services Leadership Team Our Executive Director of Children’s Services has been in post since January 2020 initially appointed on a 12-month fixed term basis, and since November 2020 on a permanent basis, providing stability needed in the Senior Leadership Team.

The permanent Corporate Director of Education commenced their role in September 2019, and the permanent Corporate Director for Commissioning, Quality and Partnerships took up their post in February 2020. The position of Corporate Director of Care and Protection became vacant in August 2020 and was immediately filled on an interim basis by an experienced former Assistant Director who had already been providing interim capacity in a Head of Service role, providing stability for our workforce. The postholder has, as of 23 rd February 2021, been appointed permanently to the post meaning the entire leadership team is now permanent.

Our extended senior leadership team includes our Heads of Service and portfolio lead Service Managers. Together they take responsibility for leading service improvement alongside the senior leadership team. We have created space for increased understanding of performance data and shared learning across the Directorate through our Governance and Meetings and Performance Management Frameworks. 2.7 Matrix leadership Through our new integrated structure, colleagues are working in multi-disciplinary integrated teams with a line manager for their locality. To ensure we have robust arrangements in place we have implemented matrix management arrangements (where staff report and consult with more than one person) ensuring staff have clear access to the specialist support they need. These arrangements are outlined in our Governance and Meetings Framework. Matrix management arrangements are embedding across the service and we monitor this closely through the Extended Children’s Services Leadership Team. 2.8 Employee Engagement Senior leadership engagement with front line staff has remained throughout the year, during lockdowns and Covid-19, and we have used creative approaches to remain in touch with the workforce. Our regular Diagonal Slice events (Employee Forum) and Staff Symposium events have continued to take place, listening to staff about what is important to them, providing feedback on their questions and updating on the latest news about progress and how they can help. Other examples include our weekly Staff Bulletins from the Director, Workforce Word out (Practice bulletin) and our ‘Thinking Thursday’ whole service learning and development sessions. Senior managers continue to drop into team meetings and visit teams and front-line services for children ensuring a line of sight to practice remains in place. To support the implementation of our delivery model, Dorset Children Thrive, we have introduced a Children’s Services online Hub, to ensure all staff and managers have access to information about the Directorate.

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2.9 Dorset Children Thrive – Integrated working by design Our social workers told us that the way our service was structured made it difficult to implement relationship-based practice as they felt remote from many of the communities in which our children and families live, the other professionals working in the localities and they spent too much time travelling to see families. This message was reinforced by an external evaluation by Professor Harry Ferguson (University of Birmingham) in the evaluation of our RSW programme. As a result, in 2019 we set about transforming our services through our Blueprint for Change programme. Our service model Dorset Children Thrive, was launched on 1 September 2020, and brings together services and support for children and families into six integrated locality teams across Dorset, supported by a central team of specialist services.

The locality teams are comprised of colleagues from across Early Help, Children’s Social Care, Educational Psychology, SEND and Inclusion services under the leadership of Heads of Locality and Strategy that link together with our CCG Primary Care Networks and public health nursing partners. The areas reflect our existing Family Partnership Zones. Through the integrated structure, colleagues work in multi- disciplinary integrated teams with a line manager for their locality. Matrix management arrangements (where staff report and consult with more than one person) are used so everyone in the team has access to the specialist support they need. Underpinning the model are our design principles that align to the partnership’s shared values and principles.

Figure 2: Dorset Children Thrive 2.10 Our Workforce As of 25 th February 2021, we have 151 permanent Social Workers (including Advanced Practitioners, Consultant Social Workers, Social Workers and CAMHS Social Workers) in Dorset. Recruiting permanent staff so that we have a stable workforce and more importantly children have stability in their social worker has been a priority for us. We have made significant progress including the implementation of our new structure and successful recruitment to social work posts. Through our overseas recruitment partnership, we have recruited 10 experienced social workers who joined us in November 2020 following an extensive induction and team development activity. We have 28 current Social Worker vacancies covered temporarily by agency Social Workers. We have recruited a further 10 Social Workers who will be joining over the next 3 months and we are holding a further 12 vacancies for Trainees/ Students who will qualify in July 2021 and will start their ASYE programme. This currently leaves 6 social work vacancies that we will continue to recruit to.

Based on a 12-month rolling period as at the 30 th November 2020 we are seeing a slight decrease overall in our sickness rates for the whole of children’s services workforce. Our long-term sickness rates in social care teams are currently higher than we would like them to be at 7.4 days lost/FTE, and we are seeing short term sickness rates improving to 3.64 days lost /FTE. Sickness data is Page 42 20 now routinely monitored through our monthly Performance Board and this alongside other HR and staffing data is now considered at our Workforce Development Steering Group.

We have worked with our Human Resources and Occupational Health providers to strengthen the support offered to our staff who are experiencing ill health. There is a strong corporate offer of wellbeing support and resources for all our employees, including access to evidence based talking therapies such as cognitive behaviour therapy, mindfulness, and counselling. We continue to promote this to our managers and our teams through regular communication.

The numbers of children being supported by a social worker have reduced in the last 6 months for all social workers. The average number of children being supported by a social worker is 14 in December 2020 having reduced from 18.8 in March 2020. Children stayed with their social workers as we transitioned into the new model as this was a core principle of the change and means that some children are not yet place based but will become so at a point of natural transfer. We are maintaining our focus to ensure that our staff have workloads that support them in developing and sustaining meaningful relationships with their children. 2.11 Workforce Development Our Workforce Development Steering Group gives oversight of our workforce sufficiency and development including oversight and implementation of our Recruitment and Retention Strategy, oversight of work to develop career pathways and support for our newly qualified social workers in their Assessed and Supported Year of Employment.

We are shaping our practice model to fully reflect Dorset Children Thrive and our shared values and principles as a partnership, and ensuring our managers and practitioners are supported to implement the model through the Learning Academy. Through our Workforce Development Team, and our Learning Academy, we are continuing to build on our support for our ASYEs. Our social workers have access to a broad workforce development programme, research tools such as Research in Practice and Community Care Inform. We promote access to learning and development offer through our Workforce Word out ebulletin to front line practitioners:

We have updated our supervision policy, shared good practice tools for supervision and have delivered supervision training to our front line and aspiring managers, mandatory for all social care managers.

We have undertaken a dip sample of personal supervision records and intend to repeat this in April 2021 to evidence impact of training and learning.

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3. QUALITY AND IMPACT OF SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE IN DORSET

3.1 The Integrated Front Door a. Children’s Advice and Duty Desk The Children’s Advice and Duty service (ChAD) was launched in October 2019 following audit findings that showed that poor written referrals were leading to too many assessments for children that led to no further action. Several strengths in this approach have been identified in the positive feedback received from partners which include being able to speak to a social worker to seek advice and receive support through coaching to hold risk appropriately.

Consultant Social Workers receive all professional contacts via a dedicated professional’s line and hold a coaching discussion with partners to really understand what the referrer is worried about and reach joint decisions with the contacting professional about what support is required and who is best placed to provide this.

We also have advisors who receive public line enquiries from members of the public including parents. Advisors also use a coaching conversations to understand the risks and strengths for a family. Any safeguarding concerns identified will be passed to a consultant social worker. Advice and guidance or Early Help support is provided through the advisor.

Following implementation of ChAD, we continued to receive a high number of police notifications that resulted in ‘No Further Action’. Given that police, health, education, and children’s services were not integrated, we were concerned that decisions were not always made with complete information, resulting in too many assessments being undertaken and leading to no further action. b. Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub Opportunities to strengthen the front door were identified following a review of the Pan Dorset MASH arrangements facilitated by North Tyneside in March 2020 and steps were taken to extend ChAD to include MASH (currently virtual due to Covid). We have engaged with a range of partners Police, Health, Education, Probation, Housing, YOS, Adult Services, Alcohol and Substance Misuse Services and agreed information sharing pathways to ensure that we are able to share information effectively to inform decision making. We are seeing a positive impact of these improved arrangements with contact and referrals being directed to the right services at the right time to ensure a proportionate response in a timely way. c. Early Help Hub In July 2020, the Early Help Hub (EHH) was also implemented as part of ChAD to provide one front door for all requests for Early Help Assessments alongside the front door for children’s social care. The EHH was initially managed and staffed on a rota basis by Team Managers and Family Workers from the 6 locality Early Help services. A Dedicated Team Manager has now been recruited for the EHH to provide consistency in decision making and act as a conduit between ChAD social care, locality teams and the EHH. A rota by Family Workers from localities to provide strong connections between the central Early Help Hub and locality-based community services and Dorset Council locality teams continues. We are exploring the potential to include requests for early help for children who have a disability and access to SEND services.

Page 44 22 d. Number of Contacts and Referrals The number of contacts and referrals to children’s social care since implementation of the integrated front door have been more in line with our Statistical neighbours with a rate of referrals per 10,000 over the past six months of 416, a reduction from 462 in 2019/20 and 611 in 2018/19. We have experienced peaks in contacts and referrals in October and December connected to National Lockdowns.

Figure 3: Numbers of contacts and referrals; Contacts by source

During January 2021 there were 614 contacts which led to 204 referrals. The outcome of MASH information sharing was that 132 children were offered a social care assessment, 35 children also had a strategy discussion, 11 children were offered Early Help and 9 children were offered information and advice. Since September we have undertaken weekly auditing with Police and Health colleagues which have indicated that most decisions are well informed with timely response from partner agencies. Our re-referral rate over the last 6 months has averaged at 20% which has been a reduction on previous years from 26%. e. Contacts and Referrals from the Police During April to June 2020, we identified a significant increase in contacts from the Police, increasing from an average of 223 per month (Oct 2019 to March 2020) to 395 per month (April to June 2020). Despite this increase in number of contacts, a similar number (73 and 76 respectively) resulted in a decision that a response for children’s social care was required.

To address this issue, Dorset Police from 1st July 2020, prioritises all PPNs based on level of risk identified for a child using a colour coded rating system (Blue, Red, Amber and Green). This has improved the quality of information sharing with children’s social care.

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Blue Not shared Single agency response

Immediate review by Consultant Social Worker through Red ChAD MASH x2 daily consultation Police, Early Help Hub Manager & Amber Early Help Hub Consultant SW

x2 daily consultation Police, Early Help Hub Manager Green Early Help Hub & Consultant SW

Figure 4: PPNs: Prioritisation and Response

Our PPN consultation meetings have resulted in the number of Police contacts to Children’s Social Care reducing from a peak of 409 in June 2020 to 157 in January2020, and the number of referrals remaining comparable to previous months at 62. This indicates that the right PPNs are still going into Children’s Social Care. Police, Early Help and Social Care have provided positive feedback around the benefit of the consultation model being used to discuss PPNs. We are continuing to monitor and review the impact on both the contact and referral rate and the re-referral rate to ensure we are making sure the right service is being provided at the right time. f. Contacts and referrals from schools The number of contacts and referrals from schools during the first national lockdown in March - June 2020 decreased. Our extensive programme of activities in Summer in Dorset and proactive conversations with school and education settings and multi-agency planning supported us in pre- empting the demand at the front door when schools returned fully in September 2020. The average contact rate for October 2019 – March 2020 was 136 per month and the average referral rate was 58 children per month. The average rate between September and December 2020 returned to a similar level of 136 contacts and 45 referrals, although we saw peaks in October and December prior to school holidays with schools having uncertainty around national lockdowns and whether children would return to school. g. Summary and next steps We are closely monitoring the impact of the front door, with weekly oversight reports to the senior leadership team and a real time dashboard to support strong management oversight. We also dip sample for Threshold Audit and undertake weekly audits with Police and Health as part of our themes meeting.

The aim of the changes made in the front door over the past year are to ensure that children are accessing the right support from the right service at the right time at the earliest opportunity. We are projecting a reduction in assessments that result in no further action, a reduction in strategy discussions that do not require section 47 (s.47) enquiries, a reduction in s.47 enquiries that do not result in a child protection conference. There should also be an increase in the number of Early Help assessments, and planned assessments, Team Around the Family approaches and intervention from partner agencies prior to escalation.

Whilst there has not been a sustained period of stability to enable comparable figures over the last 9 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic and periods of national lockdown, there is evidence that the changes made to date have had a positive impact on the decision making for children. There

Page 46 24 needs to be continued evaluation to ensure that we are sharing appropriate and proportionate information to safeguard children, that we are working with consent where appropriate and that we are using information shared to positively impact the outcomes for children and their families in Dorset. This will be achieved through individual case auditing and dip sampling, multi-agency auditing as part of weekly themes meetings and data sharing being fed back to both the Operational (Monthly) and Strategic (Monthly) groups for the Front Door. 3.2 Early Help a. Our approach Early Help is an intrinsic part of our model ‘Dorset Children Thrive’. We have built our locality teams on our six existing Family Partnerships Zones which is our partnership approach to Early Help. These Family Partnership Zones were established in September 2016 based on school ‘pyramids’ or ‘clusters’ inspired by the Harlem Children’s Zone, where different professionals came together to help and support children, young people, and their families. The geographical footprint; ethos of least disruptive intervention first; strong local partnership responses to local need and building on community assets to provide early help is the foundation of all the work we do. Based in local communities, the services and support vary depending on local priorities that are set by partners in the local governance group, the ‘Local Alliance’. Overall governance is through our Strategic Alliance for Children and Young People, where we are continuing to promote early help at the earliest opportunity in universal settings. Although all partners contribute to the early help model, Dorset Council employs a range of early help staff to facilitate partnership working and effective early help, through evidence-based interventions such as the suite of Incredible Years programmes.

Our model has increased the council’s capacity for early help My Mummy and Granny were feeling overwhelmed. My Mummy has health and SEN support by both increasing the number of frontline problems and learning difficulties but practitioners and delivering closer integration of these my Family Worker helped us to find a practitioners to ensure timely assessment and casework for school that meets my needs. I am happier and so is my Mum. children and their families. Furthermore, we are expanding our support to schools and settings through dedicated teams, providing contact points of expertise to our education colleagues. This enables us to build on our established model of proactive support for children, enabling us to wrap around the communities’ children are part of.

Our Early Help Strategy has been refreshed to reflect our operating model and in line with the priorities set out in the partnership’s 3-year Children, Young People and Families’ Plan. b. Dorset Council’s Early Help Offer The focus of the council’s early help offer is in four key areas of activity:

Delivery and co-facilitation Advice and support to of group interventions Direct work with children Advice on and signposting professionals to help them responding to locally and families (whole family to services on offer in meet their responsibilities identified need (evidence working) localities to provide early help based or bespoke)

Figure 5: Dorset Council Early Help Offer

Page 47 25 c. Direct work with Children and Families As of 31 st January 2021, there are 963 children and young people being supported through early help in our locality teams. We are embedding our Early Help Practice standards to guide our work as our audits identified that Early Help Assessments were not always completed as quickly as we would like and did not always lead to SMART Early Help / Team Around the Family Plans. We are improving management oversight through the development of management information reports that supports managers to be able to understand and track the timeliness of assessment activity.

We are ensuring there is consistent, robust management direction when requests for early help involvement are received and that assessment, planning and reviews are supported and progressed through reflective supervision. Our managers are supporting our early help workers and our partners to be professionally curious and continue to be tenacious when seeking to engage families and young people, particularly when support is first requested.

In our Practice Standards we have set out how we expect to work, including swifter assessment and planning to support families. We are working to improve the timeliness of our assessments through close management oversight and support for practitioners with themed learning events. We have also been focussing on reviewing cases that have been open for 12 months or more to ensure there is appropriate step down into community services and that families are getting the right support at the right time. This work has resulted in the appropriate closure and stepping down of families.

Our Early Help staff play a key role in working alongside families where children and young people no longer require a child in My family worker has worked with my family for some time now, we need or child protection plan but need ongoing support at an have had some major ups and early help level. We are working with our early help and social downs but he has stuck with us throughout and I now feel safer at care staff and managers to ensure that plans are consistently home and much more optimistic and effectively stepped ‘up’ or ‘down’, with clear practice about the future because of the guidance and procedures in place to add further to the locality support that has been provided model whereby social care and early help staff are part of one team.

As a learning organisation we are focused on quality of practice and undertake monthly audits to test our practice standards and family experiences. A summary of audit outcomes shows that we continue to embed best practice in line with our practice standards.

Early Help Audit Outcomes (%) 80 60 40 20 0 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20 Dec-20

Outstanding Good Requires Improvement Inadequate

Figure 6: Early Help Audit outcomes

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The themes arising from these since October 2020 are:

• Seeing children alone and capturing the voice of the very young child is not yet consistent. To address this we are working with our frontline managers to enhance the monitoring of this important activity, particularly prior to signing off an assessment and we are working with our family workers to help them understand the importance of this and how to do it well, through delivery of training from our senior family workers and creating videos to share best practice in capturing the voice of young children • Timeliness of completing and recording assessments requires improvement in some areas. To address this we have increased management oversight on the timeliness of assessment completion through fortnightly tracking reminders and are developing and early help management information dashboard to make tracking simpler for managers. • There is a strong theme of good engagement with families by our family workers • Family feedback, that we have made a difference, is overwhelmingly positive d. Group work Our core group work offer includes evidence-based parenting courses, including Incredible Years and Living with Teenagers; parenting support through our locally developed parenting skills and strategies groups, an under 1s group and group work focused on domestic abuse (Freedom and Pattern Changing). Group work is frequently co-delivered with partners and all facilitators of evidence-based parenting programmes attend group supervision provided by a UK Based mentor. This ensures fidelity to the programme and increases the likelihood of positive outcomes for attendees.

Group work is usually delivered face to face. However, in response to lockdowns, arrangements have been made to move most delivery online and where parents do not want to take up this offer, practitioners are working creatively to remain in close contact and offer support. This has sometimes included reducing the size of groups and/or the hiring of larger venues to facilitate group work more effectively.

The table below provides information on participation in group work between September 2020 and January 2021 and the figure shows an evaluation of impact of a co-delivered domestic abuse programme.

Type of group Number of attendees

Incredible Years 63

Under 1s 296

Parenting Skills and Strategies 116

Living with Teenagers 15

Domestic Abuse (pattern changing/freedom) 51

Table 2: Participation in group work activities

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Figure 7: Evaluation of Freedom Programme e. Supporting partners to undertake Early Help In addition to the delivery of direct work with our families, we have embedded designated Early Help Link Workers from within our locality teams who are aligned to the schools in their locality. The role of the Link Worker is to support schools and settings to take proactive action for their vulnerable children. Link work conversations with schools are taking place frequently. We continue to develop our approach as we embed consistency across Dorset. Our model has proven to be extremely helpful as we have worked with our schools throughout Covid to maintain our Vulnerable Children Tracker to ensure support to families has been provided at the earliest opportunity.

We provide support to our partners to be able to deliver their early help responsibilities, through the delivery of workforce development as well as advice and guidance. Our “Safeguarding through Early Help: Understanding Your Role” training is available to the whole children’s workforce and over 103 professionals have benefitted from this between 1st September 2019 and 27 th January 2021, reporting that it has made them more confident about convening Team Around the Family meetings. Our training offer has been offered virtually since April 2020. It is most often taken up by early years providers, but we are now seeing more practitioners from across the partnership. We note a correlation between take up and the confidence to initiate early help. We continuously evaluate feedback and adapt the training to meet the needs of practitioners and to track impact.

This has been evident in the steady increase over time in the numbers of Teams Around the Family convened by partners and associated increase in partner agencies undertaking a lead professional role, e.g. in schools, this has gone from 10 in 2016 to 163 as of January 2020, with some disruption since March 2020 due to lack of universal access to services during lockdown and reduced opportunities to identify need. However, despite the disruption for schools and the added pressures this has meant for school lead professionals in December 20 schools were still acting as lead professional for 82 families.

In addition to introducing monthly informal induction sessions for Localities’ teams, introducing colleagues to the whole family working resources available (and how to access these to maximise a whole family approach) we are planning a twilight session for external professionals in February.

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The timing has been arranged with school colleagues in mind and following feedback from School Lead professionals that this would be welcomed. Our employees continue attend Team Around the Family processes led by other professionals where this is appropriate.

Our revised e-form process to streamline and simplify making requests for whole family working resources has been welcomed and is used by internally and external partners equally to this end.

Through our Children, Young People and Families’ Plan our partnership has agreed to measure and identify the type of early help support provided by partners so that we can understand the combined impact of effort in our communities and continuously review and refine our offer to ensure great outcomes for our children. This work is being led by our Delivering Locally workstream. f. Focus on Early Years We prioritised children aged 0 – 5 years in our early help responses from January 2020 as we saw increases in younger children needing support through child protection and coming into our care. We have continued to prioritise this age group throughout the lockdowns and will continue to prioritise, recognising the potential impact of reduced visits to very young children; and potential for reduction in offers at early years settings as well as national trends regarding safe sleeping. We have done this through:

• County wide strategic partnership meetings and locality based operational meetings focusing on the 0 to 5s (initially weekly, now monthly) to identify and respond to emerging issues and families we were most worried about. • Routine, proactive conversations and information sharing with health colleagues and settings about children needing early help, in each locality. • Prioritisation of children aged 0 – 2 in allocation for direct work by family workers and response to contacts with The Early Help Hub. • Increasing support to early years settings who are initiating early help • Making our Children’s Centres available to maternity services to enable expectant mothers to meet their midwife in a non-clinical setting and to enable early identification of need There has been a steady increase in the numbers of children aged 0-4 support through Early Help since January 2020 to December 2021. g. Dorset Families Matter (Troubled Families) Dorset Families Matter provides intensive support for some of our most vulnerable families. Working with the whole family By working with my family worker, I feel across local services, with a focus on early help, the happier that my Dad can now afford the things I need like a new bed and programme has a proven track record of driving reforms across lunches that I like to eat, my family are public services. Our funding is used to tackle complex inter- working together more on the things connected problems including unemployment, poor school that need doing in the house and I can concentrate better on my school work attendance, mental health issues, anti-social behaviour, and now domestic abuse. By accessing early, practical coordinated support to transform lives for the better, the demand and dependency on costly reactive public services is reduced. Support is co-ordinated through a range of services to identify and address family issues as early as possible.

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In the current year (2020/21) we planned to attach a further 187 families to the programme and could make claims under the payment by results framework for successful outcomes with a further 314 families. In January 2021, we have successfully achieved Payment by Results Outcomes for all these families, assured through internal audit.

Figure 8: Troubled Families Payment by Results Claims

2020/21 has been an extended year for the programme and has of course been dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the periods of lockdown. However, the experience of the central support team in liaising with our VCS providers and assisting front line practitioners' access additional sources of support from these providers has proved to be an asset. This means that throughout the crisis our VCS services were supported and kept delivering services, so our families were able to continue receiving vital Covid safe interventions appropriate to their needs, which in turn extended the reach of our front-line practitioners during this exceedingly challenging time.

The relationship between Dorset Council and our VCS partners has, as a result, been significantly strengthened, our families have benefitted and been kept safe and our front-line practitioners within our social care, early help and school teams have all felt well supported.

Shortly before Christmas the government confirmed that the Troubled Families programme will be extended for a further additional year and so will now run until the end of March 2022. 3.3 Children in Need Our children in need and child protection social work is delivered by our six locality social work services as part of our Dorset Children Thrive model, enabling closer working with partners and minimising hand-offs between social workers by reducing transfer points. Significantly, it further develops our understanding of local need through improved relationship-based practice with our families and partners.

Figure 9: Number of children in need

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Our Children in Need (CIN) have decreased during 20/21 and data indicates we are now more in line with Good and Outstanding authorities. Work has taken place in the ChAD to embed the Early Help Hub and we have seen the number of referrals leading to social work assessments decrease with the rate of completed assessments per 10,000 in the last 6 months reducing from 502 in 19/20 to 421 in January 2021. There has been sustained improvement in My social worker helped timeliness of our social work assessments and our social workers direct my mum and dad look after me when they needed lots work and contact with children and families is a high priority for us with of support 87% of children being seen during assessment and 70% of children in need being seen within 6 weeks. We are focusing on ensuring that where appropriate there is a timely step-down to Early Help which ensures that we are working with the right children in the right part of the system. Focused data quality work is underway to ensure that our statistical returns accurately reflect the children we are actively working with.

Figure 10: Timeliness of assessments 3.4 Child Protection a. Section 47 Overall, we have maintained a steady state in the rate of s47 enquiries per 10,000 with 159 in July 2020 to 150 in January 2021. We saw a peak in October 2020 in connection with to National Lockdown. In January 2021 61% of the s47 investigations resulted in an Initial Child Protection Conference being convened. 88% of Initial Child Protection Conferences in the last 6 months resulted in a Child Protection Plan. b. Child Protection Conferences We have seen a significant improvement in the timeliness of our Initial Child Protection Conferences with over 96% being held on time for the last 6 months. Due to Covid19, conferences have been undertaken virtually; we are closely monitoring in terms of quoracy to support full contributions from partner agencies and ensure decisions are based on complete and up to date information.

A feedback survey was completed with parents during August 2020 which was very positive with:

• 88% reporting they had been given clear information • 88% felt able to talk to their worker • 79% felt listened to • 64% felt involved in the decisions • 58% said the conference had made a difference Page 53 31

We then undertook further feedback from 29 families in January 2021, more specifically about the virtual process. The feedback highlighted that although families felt the meeting was well chaired, overall, most expressed that they would prefer to be in the office and be able to see professionals. Despite a delay as a result of the 3 rd lockdown, we are actively working towards implementation of semi-virtual conferences.

In June 2020 we adopted a process of ‘Opt Out’ for children over the age of 8 years old being offered an advocate and we have seen very positive impact from this going from 30% being offered an advocate in May 2020 to over 70% in January 2021. c. Child Protection Plans The rate of children subject to a Child Protection Plan in Dorset is 51 per 10,000. The percentage of children who are made the subject of a Child Protection Plan for a second or subsequent time ever, in the last 6 months is 26%. A review of these children identified that the majority had recently returned after having had a previous plan more than 2 years ago and, the longest duration over 5 years. However, it was identified 30% of those children were escalated to child protection after a very short period of child in need intervention. It was established that those children could have been supported under child in need before requiring escalation. As a result, additional quality assurance has been put in place to support robust decision making. 65% re-opened under child protection due to previous overoptimism and where we should have intervened earlier. It is likely that due to increased oversight through line of sight we are now responding to risk more effectively and timely.

Our analysis shows that 31% of Child Protection Plans ended in less than 3 months which is higher than England and statistical neighbours. We have dip sampled those children newly becoming subject to a Child Protection Plan, those who have had a review Child Protection conference and those whose plan has ended to ensure we have a confident understanding of our practice in this area. As an outcome we are delivering training on ensuring that child in need planning is strengthened to deliver the right intervention to meet children’s needs with the lowest intervention.

Figure 11: Rate of Child Protection Plans

In response to the high number of children being supported through child protection plans our review included children that were subject to an initial child protection conference (ICPC) in November and December. This was to assure ourselves that we are making the right decisions about whether to put a child on a child protection plan.

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It was concluded that it is possible that strategy discussions and subsequent section 47 enquiries for many of the children are taking place too early as approximately 40% do not result in an ICPC. It was also considered that for 66% of children audited had only been open to the service for 2 months or less. This short time period does not really allow for relationship-based practice to become established and to ensure that support and intervention with the family takes place at the lowest level of need. Our new practice framework is restorative, strengths-based ensuring the importance of relationships and will support the workforce to enable high support and challenge.

To further support this we are developing multi-agency contextual safeguarding meetings / conferences which the QAROs (Quality Assurance Reviewing Officer) will chair. This will be for children where there are child protection concerns but that they are of a contextual nature and managing these children under a CP Plan is not the most appropriate way of supporting the family to safeguard. This will also support social workers and their managers in thinking differently about how risk can be managed. d. Child Protection Visits We give conspicuous care to timeliness of Child Protection visits. As of 22 February 2021, 99% children were contacted in the previous 4 weeks. While the frequency of contact with our children is strong, we are working to ensure that we are seeing children on their own wherever possible. Of the 50% children not seen alone at their last visit, 57% are aged under 4yrs. e. Summary and next steps We are continuing to focus on strengthening our approach to conferencing through the development of the Quality Assurance Reviewing Officer role and bringing Family Group Conferences to our families at the earliest opportunity. We are embedding our relationship-based restorative conferencing model to support improved Child Protection Planning and to ensure that the right children are on a Child Protection Plan for the right amount of time to achieve the best outcomes for them. 3.5 Children Who are Disabled a. Our approach We have a dedicated service for children who are disabled which is delivered by three social care teams, one Early Help team and an occupational therapist team. The Children who are Disabled Service (CWAD) are actively involved with 8% of the total Child in Need group, 3% of the total children subject to Child Protection planning and 10% of our total Children in Care population in Dorset.

At January 2021, 623 children were receiving a service from CWAD, 100 of whom are supported by more than one worker in the service i.e. a Social Worker and Occupational Therapist.

• 153 children are allocated to an Occupational Therapist • 266 children are allocated to a Family Worker • 204 children are supported by a Social Worker • 46 are children in care • 10 are supported by a child protection plan • 148 are supported by a child in need plan • 209 children are accessing direct payments.

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We also provide a residential home for children, the Cherries, which is currently judged as ‘Good’ by Ofsted.

During 2020 we have been working to strengthen our Children Who are Disabled services, we have undertaken a review and put in place actions as part of our Strengthening Services Plan. Arrangements have been built upon including weekly resource panel, step up and step down, and training for CWAD Team Managers and social workers regarding Child Protection Processes. We have implemented weekly Line of Sight meetings and Leadership Oversight meetings. The team works closely with Dorset Parent Carer Council. We are determined that our young people have a seamless transition to adulthood and so are embarking on the development of a birth to settled adulthood offer during 2021. This work is being progressed as part of our Children, Young People and Families Plan. b. Impact of Covid-19 Many of the children and their families that we work with found the Covid-19 restrictions and shielding requirements during the initial lockdown period particularly challenging. This was due to the change in routine and levels of the children’s comprehension of what was happening. In addition, many of the children were not able to access their usual educational settings so this placed additional pressure of their families and support networks. This was also impacted by the reduced availability of care workers able to enter homes to provide much needed care or respite for parents. For families who were shielding we signposted to appropriate resources to ensure they had access to shopping and medication.

We have worked closely with families and where needed, have taken steps to increase support levels to children and their families such as increasing direct payments and short break provision. The launch of Summer in Dorset also offered community-based activities to children and families we are working with.

Children with significant learning difficulties have found face to face visits where staff are wearing PPE or having to socially distance challenging. Children have also found the changes in routine unsettling primarily around the disruption in school attendance. c. Co-production CWAD worked closely with Dorset Parent Carer Council and multi-agency partners through weekly virtual meetings to inform updates being sent to families via our weekly co-produced newsletter. We have worked with multi agency professionals to ensure strong working relationships during the pandemic. This has involved virtual meetings and working groups such as fortnightly Special School liaison meetings and Short Breaks monitoring and development group the NHS Dorset Continuing Healthcare (Eligibility) Panel. d. Short Breaks The reduction in access to school provision led to additional pressures on families and an increased reliance on services such as direct payments and short break provision leading to challenges for service providers in prioritising places and working with a reduced workforce of care workers.

We have been working to develop a respite offer through co-production with the Dorset Parent Carer Council, exploring how best to develop our short breaks offer. Unfortunately, recent

Page 56 34 tendering activity was not successful in expanding our short break provision, so we are working on market development at pace and intend to re-open the Framework for tender early Summer. 3.6 Domestic Abuse a. Our approach Dorset Council commissions an integrated domestic abuse service, which is provided by You First. The service offer consists of outreach, accommodation-based support, helpline, and behaviour change workshops. During the first lock down due to Covid-19, You First opened 2 additional refuges, employed dedicated children’s workers, increased the capacity in the Domestic Abuse Single Point of Contact and recruited 12 additional counsellors. You First continue to adapt their services to the needs of our communities in conjunction with our commissioners and partners.

We have worked with partners and sourced funding from central government to implement the nationally accredited DRIVE perpetrator programme. Partners are currently working through implementation which will see the development of a perpetrator panel (which will link in with the HRDA (High Risk Domestic Abuse) model), one to one intervention where perpetrator consents and/or use of disruption techniques to reduce ongoing offending and risk.

We continue to work with partners to take a whole systems approach to how we design and commission services. Partners have initial commitments from Domestic Abuse commissioners to explore this work and are currently undertaking a needs assessment. b. High Risk Domestic Abuse Model (HRDA) In response to several Domestic Homicide Reviews the arrangements for High-Risk domestic abuse responses were reviewed in 2019/2020. The High-Risk Domestic Abuse (HRDA) model of daily meetings was piloted from February to April 2020. The core principles of the model of working with high-risk victims of domestic abuse are:

• Faster, coordinated, and collaborative response to the whole family affected by domestic abuse, including perpetrators and children • Support and interventions to manage risk are provided closer to the timing of the incident • Consistent threshold is applied to high-risk domestic abuse cases • Specialist domestic abuse worker ensures the voice of the person is represented at the planning stage.

The model has clear measurable outcomes which include:

• A simplified process that enables practitioners to respond to disclosures in timely way and supports defensible decision making • A model that is efficient, effective, takes advantage of digital solutions and based on evidence of best practice • Addresses the unique needs of all families with protected characteristics • Utilises existing resources to provide better outcomes

Between February and November 2020 there were 491 high risk cases discussed at HRDA, with 65% (318) involving children within the home. On average this is 2 – 3 cases discussed per day. The level of domestic abuse referrals has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic and this is reflected with a peak in referrals for HRDA in October 2020.

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HRDA meetings take place 4 days per week – Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. There is also a monthly High Risk Domestic Abuse Plus (HRDDAP) meeting where cases in which the risk has not reduced are reviewed. The pilot was reviewed in July 2020 and agreed by partner strategic leads as the preferred local multi-agency information sharing model for high-risk cases of domestic abuse. Partners continue to monitor the effectiveness of the model and the impact it has on families via the Quality Assurance and Strategy Group.

We are collaborating with our police and education colleagues to implement Operation Encompass with a phase 1 start date of 1 April 2021. This will see our children better supported within schools following an incident of domestic abuse.

The Domestic Abuse Bill is currently working its’ way through Parliament and is expected to come into force in April 2021. The Act will place new legal duties on the Council in relation to domestic abuse including leading work to produce a needs assessment and domestic abuse strategy. Central government has provided £50,000 to each upper tier local authority to help them prepare for the new requirements. Dorset Council will be given a further £650,000 ‘new burdens’ funding in 2021/22 to help meet its new duties. Children’s Services are working closely with Community Safety partners to ensure children and young people are kept in focus of this work. c. Sexual Violence STARS Dorset Sexual Trauma and Recovery Service is a pan-Dorset charity that offers one to one support, free of charge, for anyone of any age or gender, who lives works or studies in Dorset and has experienced any form of sexual violence at any time in their lives. The service provides several different types of support including an Independent Sexual Violence Advisor Service, Counselling, a Children and Young People's Service and a Support Line.

STARS have recently been awarded the contract, funded by the Office of the Police Crime Commissioner for Dorset and NHS England, to provide an Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA) service in the County. The contract begins in April 2021 and runs to 2028. This is a service that our practitioners utilise as part of their planning to support our families. d. Parental Conflict We recognise that children experiencing frequent, intense and poorly resolved conflict between parents or carers, whether in a relationship or separated are at risk of poor outcomes and research shows that other interventions to support families are likely to fail when conflict is unresolved. We know that there are areas in Dorset where family breakdown exceeds national averages, for example, in Weymouth and Portland and we have taken a leadership role with this issue, alongside the Department for Work and Pensions by overseeing the Happy Families, Happy Futures programme, across the south-west. A programme designed to improve communication and ease tension between parents or carers, supporting a happy environment for their children.

Through practitioner training we are seeing an increase in confidence across the children’s services workforce in developing a professional curiosity around the parental relationship. Referrals have been steadily increasing and during Covid-19 the delivery swiftly moved to virtual delivery, both on a 1:1 and group basis, which has facilitated greater take-up by fathers.

Dorset Council is working on a range of interconnected approaches to use the valuable understanding of early identification and appropriate levels of support to inform legacy planning.

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This includes further embedding of the agenda within Early Help and the development of a complete toolkit that captures the child’s and parents voice when assessing and supporting parental conflict.

As a member of the Pathfinder to pilot the implementation of the private law recommendations, we will have the opportunity to explore how our Early Help offers might be involved, particularly at the start but also during and at the end of cases as we triage the support needed to help parents resolve issues and ensure outcomes are sustainable and avoid unnecessary returns to court. We know that ongoing litigation tends to escalate/exacerbate/entrench parental conflict and want work with colleagues to adapt and resource our processes to avoid this harm whenever it is safe to do so. e. Conclusion and next steps We constantly strive to support our practitioners consistently identify domestic abuse and to build on the range of Domestic Abuse Support services available in our area so that our staff can respond effectively with the right support for children and families. Through our Strengthening Services Plan we are working closely with the Community Safety Partnership on a range of actions to strengthen our partnership approach including the implementation of a Domestic Abuse Toolkit in April/May 2021. 3.7 Pan Dorset Youth Offending Service a. Our approach The Youth Offending Service is a pan-Dorset partnership comprising Dorset Council, BCP Council, NHS Dorset CCG, Dorset Police, and the National Probation Service Dorset. The Youth Offending Service is a multi-disciplinary team which includes youth justice officers, police officers, probation officers, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service nurses, a speech and language therapist, a part-time psychologist, parenting workers and restorative justice practitioners. The Youth Offending Service has two office bases, one in each local authority. The Dorset team is based in Dorchester, co-located with some of Dorset’s specialist education services and on the same site as one of Dorset’s alternative education provisions.

Designated Youth Offending Service staff have access to the Dorset Council Mosaic system to support integrated working, assisted by strong working relationships with social care and early help colleagues at practitioner and manager levels in the localities. The service is engaged in the planning and development of ‘The Harbour’ (Adolescent Residential and Outreach Service) alongside North Yorkshire as Partners in Practice. b. First Time Entrants to the Youth Justice System The rate for first time entrants has reduced after an increase in the period April – March 2020. While it is positive to see the rate returning to previous level, we remain ambitious to reduce this even further.

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Figure 12: Dorset Combined YOS Local 1st Time Entrants Rate per 100,000 pop

The highest number of first-time entrants are:

• White British (90%), with 3% Black and 5% mixed race • Male (85%) • Aged over 17 years (29%)

Dorset continues to see low levels of custodial sentences. One Dorset child has been sentenced to custody in the last two years. No Dorset children have been remanded into custody in that time. c. Youth Justice Service practice developments The Youth Offending Service obtained NHS England funding for a Speech and Language Therapist and to support the introduction of trauma informed practice. The Speech and Language Therapist joined the team in March 2018 and has had a transformative impact in improving the team’s individualised responses to young people. Since then over 200 young people have been assessed by the Speech and Language Therapist, across the Dorset and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council areas.

Figure 13: Assessed level of Speech, Language and Communication Needs Page 60 38

About 80% of these assessments identified some level of speech, language or communication needs, with recommendations for the young person, for YOS workers, other professionals and for family members about how best to respond to the child’s needs. It is notable that 54% of the young people were at or below the 6 th percentile for language ability. All written materials have been adapted to make them more accessible and work has been undertaken with local police and court professionals to increase their understanding. d. Developing the workforce In February 2020 all YOS practitioners attended 3 days of training in the Trauma Recovery Model which is now being implemented in the YOS. The most complex young people are considered in multi-agency case formulation meetings led by the YOS Psychologist. This leads to coordinated case planning for all professionals that is responsive to the child’s developmental stage, with clinical supervision and case reviews built into the model. The YOS is also committed to applying the trauma ‘lens’ to all young people on its caseload, not just those who are considered in a case formulation meeting. e. Conclusions and next steps The current priorities for Dorset Combined Youth Offending Service are to reduce the number of first-time entrants into the youth justice system and to enhance the tailored individual response to those children that do enter the justice system. Dorset Combined Youth Offending Service and Dorset Police are working on additional options for informal responses to low level offending, such as Youth Restorative Disposals, so that young people are not criminalised unnecessarily. We continue to develop and strengthen our youth offending partnership, including collaboration with The Harbour. 3.8 Children in Care a. Our approach Children in care are supported by social workers across locality teams, and some are supported by the children who are disabled (CWAD) service. Within the Locality Teams we have created 3 locality-based permanence teams to support our children in care from 0-18 years of age. The creation of permanence teams embedded within our place-based structure seeks to ensure that our children in care have a managed transfer at the right time for them ensuring stability whilst maintaining a focus on their needs when permanence has been achieved.

Through embedding our Dorset Children Thrive model we have reduced the number of case transfer points and supporting consistency of worker. This supports us in maintaining a stronger relationship between social workers and their children who they support throughout their involvement with children’s social care services. b. Our children in care We have implemented weekly Locality Line of Sight meetings to ensure consistency and oversight of decision making across the service. We have seen a gradual reduction of children in our care during 2020/21 (459 – Jan 21); 67 per 10,000 in line with national comparator data.

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Figure 14: New Entrants to Care (2019 to 2020)

Figure 15: Duration of Care (months)

Historically, children who entered care remained in our care for longer. We have strengthened our permanence arrangements through Adoption My social worker arranged and Special Guardianships. Improved pathways for reunification and for me to see my Dad; we hadn’t seen each other for long-term fostering are being embedded through Permanence Training a long time (I am 13) that is being delivered to ensure that children remain in our care for only as long as is necessary.

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We have strengthened our approach and most children now enter care in a planned way. We have achieved this by improved Locality Line of Sight Meetings and analysis of crisis entry to care. We improved our pre-proceedings work and are seeing more children My social worker and others entering care through planned court intervention. The development of worked hard before I was born to enable me to be The Harbour Adolescent Service has commenced so that we can living with my forever family undertake intensive work for young people at the edge of care, edging (baby aged 6 weeks) towards care and supporting placement stability. We continue to embed care and permanence planning and track this through fortnightly permanence planning meetings to ensure that the best outcomes are secured for children and young people. In mid-Feb 2021 97.1% of our Children in Care for 4 months or more have a completed permanence plan.

Despite the challenges of the pandemic in maintaining face to face contact, we have been making sure that we continue, wherever possible to keep in touch with and visit our children in care. Our social workers are using technology to stay in touch, and we are working closely with foster carers and placement providers to safely visit in a Covid secure way and reducing unnecessary footfall where possible by coordinating visits by professionals. In December 2020, 76% of our children in care have been seen in the last six weeks and 22% in the last 6 to 12 weeks. Throughout Covid- 19 we have continued to track social work contact with children within 4 weeks and on 19 February 2021, 75% children had been contacted in the last 4 weeks. c. Health Assessments There are good working relationships between children’s social care managers, the Children in Care Health Service and Dorset CCG with all partners committed to improving health outcomes for children in care. Latest data available from Dorset CCG (reported in December 2020) shows that the % of Review Health Assessments completed within the month they were due for August 93.8%, September 85.7% and October 81.1%, with children’s social care data reporting in January 2021 that 78% of children in care have an up-to-date health assessment.

We have strengthened our performance relating to Initial Health Assessments for our children in care, by working hard with health commissioners and providers and as a result have seen significant improvement in timeliness, we had seen a significant drop in performance during the pandemic period, on 18 th February 2021 75% Initial Health assessments were completed within 20 working days. We have refined the process for child in care notification, undertaken training for social workers and foster carers and embedded an escalation process to ensure that the health needs of our children are understood and attended to at the earliest time. Senior Managers, our Strengthening Services Board and Corporate Parenting Board continue to give conspicuous care to this area of performance.

Performance regarding dental checks is below statistical neighbours and national performance. A Health Outcomes for Children in Care Steering Group is in place, attended by senior managers from children’s services, health commissioners and providers to ensure there is a strong focus on improving this position, the group is currently delivering a range of actions to improve performance, including writing to all Dental Practices to request that children in care are seen as a priority.

Page 63 41 d. Emotional Wellbeing and mental health We have a Child in Care Clinical Psychologist based in the council who works with our Children in Care aged 0-12 and their carers to ensure that we have a good understanding of the therapeutic needs of our children and that the placement can meet the identified needs. The CiC-CAMHS Psychology service provide a consultation service to our fostering teams and Aspire our Regional Adoption Agency. There has been a rise in the numbers of requests for support, advice, and guidance to foster carers from the Children in Care Psychologists which has had an impact on their offer. Systemic work such as family therapy for families where children may be on the edge of care has been restricted due to being limited by the virtual platforms. While this has continued to be offered virtually during Covid-19, the take up has been poor and impact is limited.

There are several pathways of support for our children in care. Core-CAMHS prioritises access for children in care, offering a 24-hour response for urgent referrals and an 8-week response for all other referrals. Digital platforms were developed quickly during the initial phases of the pandemic to support young people and the website was updated with signposting and podcasts. Of our children in care in February 2021:

• 111 were receiving services from Core-CAMHs (99 in Feb 2020) • 44 of these children were open to CAMHS social workers • 11 were supported by an Emotional Wellbeing Practitioner from our Children in Care Nursing Team (13 in Feb 2020). • 10 were receiving a service from ID-CAMHS (for children with learning disabilities and mental health difficulties)

Regular communication has taken place between CAMHS and Education Psychology throughout our response to Covid-19 to raise children and young people of concern and those who were deemed to be more vulnerable as not in school or requiring support to return to school. Education Psychologists followed up with the schools to support in reviewing risk assessments and providing support and guidance to the school and in some cases the family.

We are concerned that the completion of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires for children in care for at least 12 months (aged between 4 and 16) has declined and priority focused work is taking place to ensure that all children in care who require an SDQ have one in place by the beginning of March 2021.

Our focused attention on SDQs has given us an opportunity to review our processes and practices around this. We have identified an error in how our SDQs were scored previously. We have put this right and rescored all SDQs for the period 20/21. This indicates that the average SDQ score of our children in care during this period was 15.5, which is in line with the south west region. This is higher than statistical neighbours and national rates. We are giving this conspicuous care and attention through the implementation of Policy and Practice Guidance and training for social workers, managers, foster carers, Virtual School staff, teachers, and health care professionals. We are confident that we have the appropriate systems and processes in place now to better understand, record and respond to the emotional health needs of our children in care.

Page 64 42 e. Achieving Permanence We have undertaken focused work to improve permanence as part of our Strengthening Services Plan and have improved our performance to ensure all children in care have a Permanence Plan. The graph below shows recent performance across both areas.

Figure 16: Children in Care Permanence Plans

Our focus remains on the quality of care and permanence planning to ensure that planning for our children is current, clear and being progressed in a timely way with our QARO’s (Quality Assurance Reviewing Officers) driving forward plans for children. From a low baseline earlier in the year, as of 18 February 2021 97% of children now have a permanence plan and attention is being paid to strengthen quality and reduce the number of children where there is drift in achieving permanence. The Service Manager for Permanence and Corporate Parenting is leading on the delivery of workshops to all staff to strengthen practice and rigorous oversight is being delivered through the weekly Locality Line of Sight Meetings. f. Finding the right homes for our children Long term placement stability is an improving picture and is reported at 72% in January 2021 which puts us above statistical neighbours (19/20 66%) and national (19/20 68%). We are ambitious to do even more to enable our children to achieve permanence earlier and ensuring that stability is maintained.

We have increased the use of regional provider frameworks, resulting in improved quality and value from placements. While 70% of our children in care are living with foster carers, 47% in our own provision, we know that we have too many children who are placed away from their local area and are not yet settled in their permanent placements. 47% of children in our care are placed over 20 miles from their home address. We recognise that being placed away from local areas can mean a change in school, friendship groups and community relationships which can be disruptive and impactful on achieving positive outcomes and ability to build attachments. Recruiting local carers for local children is central to our Sufficiency Strategy.

We have experienced issues with placing some of our children and young people who have the most complex needs, resulting in the use of a small number of unregistered provisions. Where this has been the case, there has been robust oversight of the placement, including enhanced visiting from social workers, Independent Reviewing Officers and Regulation 44 visits being undertaken Page 65 43

(despite the absence of registration) and visits from our Executive Director. The outcomes described within these visits are reviewed by the Executive Director and Elected Member on a weekly basis, and a task and finish group is in place to ensure that we cease the use of any unregistered placements for looked after children. We currently have no young people under 16 years of age in unregistered placements.

We are presently seeking to register three premises with Ofsted where 16/17 years olds are living and receiving care through submission of registration to Ofsted of one premises and the establishment of a block contract with a local children’s home provider to register two others.

We are moving at pace in working with our providers and with our politicians to address our sufficiency gaps so that more of our children and young people can stay close to their homes and families. We are increasing placement stability through greater placement sufficiency, including expanding in-house residential provision, and implementation of a plan to increase our fostering provision and support to foster carers. This plan is focused on increasing the volume and skill-base of our in-house foster carers to provide greater sufficiency and stability. This includes strengthening our marketing and recruitment processes to improve commercial appeal and application experience. A focus on peer-support, meaningful engagement, accessible training and a defined model (e.g. Mockingbird) will support the retention and capacity building of our existing carers.

We will increase the availability of local residential care and children’s homes by:

• Building a new children’s home in Weymouth by September 2021 for up to 5 young people, who need medium term residential care. • Refurbishing existing Dorset Council property to provide a range of accommodation options. • Working with partner organisations to expand the range of residential care in Dorset. We will encourage existing partners to develop this provision and block contract the homes, having secured 5 additional children’s homes places so far. We will also tender to offer Dorset Council properties to be developed as new independent sector children’s homes for Dorset Council’s exclusive use under ‘block contracts’, along with a lot to enable new providers to contract with us. • Review our children’s home for children and young people who are disabled and look at how the service can be provided differently – exploring the potential to deliver the service in less institutional homes and linking the service with dedicated foster carers and short breaks providers to deliver a graduated response. g. Voice of our children in care We have an active Children in Care Council, currently supported by a commissioned service, Participation People, however when the contract with the current provider ends at the end of March 2021 the function will return to Children’s Services. The Children in Care Council are engaged with the Corporate Parenting Panel and there is good engagement of Senior Officers with the Children in Care Council. During Covid-19 we continued to meet fortnightly with a focus on keeping in virtual touch and maintaining support for members, playing games, and taking part in fun activities. The Children in Care Council is currently a small group of young people and a focus of the work this year will be to increase the representation and attendance at the group so there is a greater reach Page 66 44 to more children in care. Feedback has been received through the annual Children in Care Council and a learning event has taken place on 3 September to explore the feedback received and agree action to be taken. Our Annual Survey for Children in Care is underway, and outcomes will be reviewed at the Corporate Parenting Board in April 2021.

Our Corporate Parenting Strategy 2020-2023 has been co-produced with our Children in Care Council (CLiCC). Our children in care continue to hold the Corporate Parenting Board (CPB) to account through challenge cards which are tracked and CLiCC monitor the actions and re- challenge where necessary. Our Service Manager for Corporate Parenting is working closely with the CLiCC ensuring improved co-production.

We commission Advocacy and Independent Visitor services for our children in care (and advocacy for child protection) through Action for Children (AfC). During Covid-19 staff have operated at full capacity and met the growing demand for the service.

Use of Advocacy during 2020/21 (April 2020 to December 2020) 120

100

80

60

40

20

0 Q1 20/21 Q2 20/21 Q3 20/21

Children in Care Child Protection Children in Need SEND Other

Figure 17: Use of advocacy

Between April and December 2020 AfC delivered 535 episodes of advocacy support. Feedback remains positive about the service, in quarter 3, 88% rated the advocacy service as excellent with 94% would recommend the advocacy service to other people. h. Independent Visitors 28 young people (5 young people living out of county) were supported by having an Independent Visitor during the year 2019. During Covid-19 it was not possible to progress with matches in the usual way. Contact with young people who are waiting to be matched was mainly through phone calls although face -to-face meetings with young people were resumed once national restrictions were relaxed. In quarter 2 22 young people were matched and we saw an increase in face-to-face work. In quarter 3 24 young people were matched to an Independent Visitor and 100% were satisfied with their match. For October, most contact was face-to-face, however from lockdown in November virtual contact resumed. Many December visits were also virtual, although in a few cases volunteers and young people did meet face to face. We continue to promote the role of Independent Visitors and how to access the service through our Welcome to Care Pack and are adding to our Quality Assurance and Reviewing Officer Principles as a further prompt to promote Independent Visitors to young people that could benefit from having one. Page 67 45

The service is currently out for tender with the new contract planned to commence in August 2021. i. Quality Assurance and Reviewing Officers Our Quality Assurance and Reviewing Officers (IROs) provide quality assurance of our children’s care plans through a combination of data collection and auditing. The service IRO monitoring form is completed following every child in care review, enabling a range of factors to be reported and enabling the IRO to make a judgement on the quality of the plan. Timeliness of children in care reviews is good and participation of children in care is high. Our Quality Assurance Reviewing Officers have worked with our children in care council to develop a letter which is written to the child following the children in care review and feedback from children on this is very positive. Our children in care tell us that they value the relationship with their IRO.

We have seen an increase in escalations for children in care demonstrating that our Quality Assurance and Reviewing Officers are providing challenge and a critical eye to our children’s plans and outcomes so that any issues are addressed in a timely manner. Escalations are now focussing more on the quality of the care plan and impact on the child. 3.9 The Harbour The Harbour programme is based on the successful No Wrong Door model and replaces traditional young people's homes with hubs which combine residential care with fostering, outreach support, and supported lodgings. The hub based in Weymouth, will have an integrated multi- disciplinary team which will work with young people on the edge of care, edging towards care, supporting placement stability and reunification – working with families on a relationship based, restorative model in a shared approach with partner agencies. Every young person in The Harbour will be supported by a key worker from a team of trusted and skilled workers. These workers will stick with the young person through thick and thin to access the right services at the right time and in the right place to meet their needs.

We have secured capital investment to develop an existing council building in the centre of Weymouth and have successfully secured planning permission for both a 3 bedded Harbour Hub and support /assessment space and a separate 5 bedded residential home in the grounds. We are co-designing the accommodation and delivery model with young people Harbour Outreach who are also integral members of our interview panels. helped me to stay with my current Foster As part of our model, Dorset Children Thrive, and in anticipation of these Carer instead moving developments, we have created a team of family workers to begin to a placement outside working with young people and their families in a different way to of Dorset prevent care entry and support reunification. We have also created a complex placements team in our fostering service. Both these teams are helping create operational capacity to move to a new model of delivery by Winter 2021.

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3.10 Missing Children and Children at Risk of or Linked to Exploitation a. Missing children There has been a reduction in the numbers of our Children in Care having a missing episode in the last 12 months- 14% (previously 17% reported in Self-Assessment February 2020). We have a downward trend in the number of children with a missing incident each month and are continuing to strengthen our work with all children who are reported missing, through a daily Missing meeting convened with police and monthly Youth at Risk and CE Champions meetings in the localities.

Figure 18: Number of children with missing incidents b. Return Home Interviews We have seen the number of children reported missing decrease to 18 children in January 2021 from 34 children in July 2020. Similarly, the number of incidents has also decreased to 32 in January 2021 from 45 in July 2020. As of 23 rd February 2021, the % of incidences for which an RHI has been completed is 75%. Historically, the % of RHI for children missing from home completed within 72 hours has been too variable. In response we have developed Missing from Home and Care Practice Guidance and in January 2021 established a daily missing meeting with the police to identify those children who have gone missing in the last 24 hours, those who have returned and those children who are still missing. As of 23 rd February 2021, 83% were completed in 72 hours for our children missing from placement and 67% for children missing from home. Although at the time of writing this is in its infancy, we are confident that we will continue to see improved timeliness of RHI’s and the benefits of better information sharing about children who are going missing.

We have a Missing and CE dashboard to deliver management oversight and support our understanding of the contexts of our children who go missing. The Dashboard is also shared more widely with our CAROLE tactical group and with the CE Champions to support targeting of resources and strategic planning.

We are offering preventative work at the earliest opportunities to reduce the number of missing children and missing episodes. We are strengthening our systems and processes to ensure that the themes arising from return home interviews are captured and shared to consider how we prevent and protect missing children. Return Home Interviews for all children other than those who have an allocated social worker are being completed by the Targeted Youth Workers within their locality. This ensures that intervention is targeted and supports a contextual safeguarding approach.

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We are also working with Police colleagues to implement the Philomena Protocol for all missing children across Dorset and this will replace the current missing passport for children who are known to go missing. c. Children at Risk of or Linked to Exploitation Children and Young People who are at risk of exploitation continue to be a focus of our work since the JTAI (Joint Targeted Area Inspection) in May 2018. To strengthen our practice, we introduced the Children At Risk of or Linked to Exploitation (CAROLE) Model in April 2019. A 12-month fixed term Pan Dorset Child Exploitation Transformation Lead role was in post between October 2019 and August 2020 facilitating engagement across the partnership to develop and promote the child exploitation toolkit.

The Child Exploitation Action Plan implementation is managed by the CAROLE Tactical Group on a monthly basis and overseen by the Child Exploitation Strategic group which meets quarterly.

Multi agency mapping has been undertaken to identify the children and hotspot areas of concern for child exploitation taking into consideration: missing episodes, individual Child Exploitation risks assessments, children missing education, children who have experienced fixed term exclusions and health. We now have a live dashboard which maps where our children who are identified as at risk of exploitation are living which supports the identification of themes and hotspots. The dashboard is shared with partner agencies on a monthly basis at the CAROLE tactical group to explore themes and developing hotspots.

In January 2021 there were 75 children identified as at risk of or linked to exploitation across the county– 13 significant risk (down from 20 in August 2020), 53 moderate risk and 7 emerging risk. Multi-Agency Child Exploitation (MACE) meetings should take place every 6 weeks where significant risk is identified and every 12 weeks where moderate risk is identified. The CE and Missing dashboard enables Team Managers to monitor performance around child exploitation.

To further strengthen practice, we have developed the roles of Child Exploitation Champions within each locality area. The CE Champions meet monthly and drive the co-ordination of themes and intelligence sharing from an individual child level and locality level to ensure cross county awareness of concerns, share learning, good practice and promote consistency and feed into the partnership through the Impact meetings and CAROLE Tactical group.

Our Targeted Youth Workers in each locality team are taking the lead on contextual safeguarding. They facilitate Youth at Risk meetings in each locality involving Police, Health, Reach, Local Schools and Community groups to explore emerging concerns and identify early intervention responses to prevent risks around potential exploitation escalating. This can include supporting schools, Police Safer Schools team or outreach youth work targeting individuals, groups, or locations where concerns are developing.

We are currently developing our contextual safeguarding approach and a toolkit based on the Hackney/ University of Bedfordshire model of contextual safeguarding with a planned implementation date in April 2021. Training workshops will be delivered to staff across children’s services to embed this approach and the toolkit once it is launched. 3.11 Fostering Services

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The Dorset in-house fostering service consists of three teams: 1 Pre-Approval Team, 2 Post Approval Teams. The Pre-Approval Team undertakes the assessment of prospective foster carers both mainstream and Connected Persons.

The Recruitment and Marketing functions are currently outsourced to Whitehead Ross Education Consultancy (WREC). Their role is to undertake recruitment campaigns in liaison with the Fostering Service and Dorset Council's Communications Team, to respond promptly to enquiries from people interested in becoming foster carers and undertake initial assessment visits. In November 2020 two workers were seconded from the fostering service to WREC to undertake Mainstream Fostering assessments in addition to the assessment being undertaken by the Pre- Approval Team. However, the contract with WREC is due to expire on the 31st May 2021 and these functions will transfer to the Pre-Approval Team.

In terms of impact of our recent fostering recruitment campaigns: 43 enquiries were generated in December 2020 and January 2021 compared to 29 in the period last year; 15 prospective foster families are in the process of assessment and a further 9 prospective foster carers have taken application forms to apply. A campaign is to be launched in March targeted towards recruitment of foster carers for teenagers. We are currently enhancing our recruitment strategy for 2021/22 which we will be co-producing with our Foster carers.

The two Post-Approval teams provide Support, Supervision, review, and training to 204 fostering households. Of these, 149 are mainstream fostering households and 55 are connected persons. Whilst both teams provide these services one team is designated the Complex Needs Team. This is a work in progress as we look to recruit foster carers for teenagers and older children with more complex needs. This team will also provide the Supervision and Support to foster carers linked to the Harbour Project.

Currently the fostering service is providing foster placements to 216 children and young people in a variety of placement types including Short-term, Long-term, Respite, Short Breaks, Parent and Child, Harbour Specialist Foster Care, Emergency, Bridging, Early Permanence (Foster For Adoption) and Connected Persons. Foster carers are paid a fee dependent on skills and experience.

A service improvement plan is delivering:

• Strengthened Business Intelligence and Business Monitoring • Sufficiency of staffing to meet the needs of current and predicted service demand • Review of policies, practices and procedures • Practice standards • Strengthened fostering duty and placement matching processes • Strengthened Fostering Panel Arrangements • Improved support to Dorset Foster Carers • Improved Foster Carer recruitment to sufficiency demand • Implementation and support to the Fostering element of the Harbour Project • Introduction of the Mockingbird project

3.12 Adoption Services Page 71 49

Adoption Services are provided through the Regional Adoption Agency (Aspire), which serves the Dorset Council and BCP Council areas. Aspire has been in place since July 2017. Dorset Council retains the Agency Decision Maker responsibility.

From 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2020, 60 adoptive families were approved. The sufficiency target for the year was 50, based on placing 60 children a year for whom adoption is the plan.

39 prospective adopters have been approved since 1st April 2020, and at the time of writing, a further 34 prospective adopters are in assessment, with an additional 11 families taking a break between stages 1 and 2 of the assessment. It is expected that a further 9 families will be approved before the end of Q4 2020-21.

9 children who have ceased to be Looked after in the last six months My social worker and have been adopted. The average number of days for a child to move to my Foster Carer made their adoptive families from coming into care in the last 12 months was it happen so I could be 460. There are a further 18 children in care in an adoption placement adopted (I am 8) where an order is expected in the next few months.

Aspire will be working alongside Dorset in the Strengthening Services Plan to confirm reasons for changes in adoption plan and reasons for Special Guardianship breakdowns.

Early Permanence as the care plan for children has been a positive focus of joint training between Aspire and Dorset Council social workers leading to more consideration of this planning.

The increase in number of children where the child’s plan for adoption has been changed was considered and reported to the Aspire Strategic Partnership Board. It reflected work in Dorset to ensure that the children had the correct permanence plan where their needs had changed, or it was not possible to identify adopters. Aspire is working alongside Dorset in the Strengthening Services Plan to confirm reasons for changes in adoption plan and reasons for Special Guardianship breakdowns.

A review of Aspire has been completed to fully consider impact and outcomes for children. We are implementing the recommendations and expect refreshed arrangements to launch on the 1 st May 2021. 3.13 Care Leavers a. Our Care Leavers We currently have 254 young people receiving leaving care services (January 2021), and we know that this number will significantly increase by end of August 2021 with 118 of 16/17-year old already present in our resident care group.

In addition, we have 153, 21-25-year olds for whom we have a duty to keep in touch with annually and who can return to receive an active service should they need support. We therefore have a total of 525 eligible and former relevant care leavers for whom we offer a level of leaving care service

Most of our young people (99%) remained in care until their 18th birthday. While an improving picture, we know not as many of our young people are benefiting from Staying Put arrangements as we would like. We continue to look at how we are supporting foster carers to continue to provide a safe and stable home for our young people after they turn 18 and into adulthood. Page 72 50 b. Keeping in touch We are in touch with most of our care leavers between 19 and 21 years of age (96%) and our 17 and 18-year-old young people My PA is always there to help, been through so much last few (94%). During Covid-19 we were in touch with nearly all of months they have been there our care leavers weekly. Of the 255 relevant and former every step of the way. They always check up on me to make sure all is relevant, we were in contact with 250 (98%) during this okay cant thank them enough for period. Of the 5 young people we were not in contact with we everything they have done. understand their and respect their reasons for this.

c. Finding the right place to live Most of our care leavers are in suitable accommodation (95% of 19 to 21-year olds). We have plans in place to ensure that all our care leavers have safe and stable accommodation that meets their needs.

A report went to Cabinet in March 2020 recommending the creation of additional supported accommodation for care leavers. Dorset Council has now purchased accommodation to provide a range of affordable accommodation offers to meet the needs of our care leavers. My PA has helped me with a Work is also ongoing with Adult services to reconfigure the former lot of things like helping me young people’s supported accommodation contract. This is a former move and helping me when I Supporting People budget which could be combined with existing had nowhere to go and making sure I was always spend on care leaver accommodation to increase purchasing power. safe. They always help me There is now a sub-regional framework for supported when I need it and gives me accommodation for care leavers. the best advice.

To date we have no local authority housing allocation from our Dorset housing providers, and we need to drive this work forward to secure affordable long-term housing for care leavers.

10 of our care leavers are living in unsuitable accommodation which includes custody and emergency B&B accommodation.

When a care leaver who has been placed in B&B, under the Homelessness legislation. Their PA works closely with the Housing officer and the young person to help them move on as quickly as possible into secure affordable and suitable housing. We are also recruiting to a post in our care leaver team who will work across children’s adults and housing services to strengthen our care leaver offer.

One of the major challenges due to Covid-19 has been a delay for move on within both the private rented and home choice housing sectors. Limited private rented properties were advertised during this time and there were also Covid-19 restrictions in place which prevented moving. The home choice bidding system was closed temporarily due to Covid-19, preventing any bids on local housing association properties until this re-opened mid-July 2020. The impact of these delays and other emergency measures taken during Covid-19 includes a current processing time of up to 16 weeks for housing register applications meaning that new applicants are unable to access the home choice system until their applications are completed. Page 73 51

The impact of Covid-19 delay has begun to reduce as colleagues in our Housing Departments are able to catch up with volume of work and demands, and the private housing sector become more confident to advertise properties once again. d. Employment, Education and Training Despite being in touch with most care leavers, we are not supporting enough of our young people to be in education, employment or training, with 52% of 17/18-year olds and 49% of 19-21-year- olds accessing education, employment or training. This is an area we are strengthening practice and working with our partners to improve our offer for young people leaving our care. This reflects a diverse group of young people whose needs are complex due to several factors including disability, mental health, use of substances which disrupt opportunities in terms of education, employment or training and coming late into care due to family breakdown having already disengaged from formal education.

There are achievements to celebrate. We currently have 27 care leavers at University and 3 dedicated Personal Advisors (PAs) working with care leavers who are studying at University to ensure that our undergraduates maintain their places in their education settings. We have a further 6 care leavers who are determined to go to University in September 2021. We are delighted in the achievements of our 8 young people who graduated last year (2020) in the following: • My PA always goes above and beyond Forensic IT when it comes to university • Biomedical Science students. They are always there if we need help but also tries their best to • History make sure we are all settled into uni • Musical Theatre when they take us on our first year

• English (Quote from a Care Leaver) • Politics • Music Production • Photography

Three of these young people have been offered a place on a post graduate course - two have accepted.

We have recruited additional PA’s to the team to support care leavers at University, strengthen practice and improve our NEET offer to care leavers. To support this, we have recently agreed a protocol with two of our Job Centre Plus centres which will provide:

• Co-ordinated support to engage young people into Education, Employment, Apprenticeships, Voluntary Work or Training. • An early entry system and a smooth transition for those young people leaving care and needing to claim benefits. • Prompt and accurate payment of benefits where these are required. • Young people are empowered and enabled to gain sustainable paid employment through individual route ways.

All children in care and care leavers who apply for Dorset Council apprenticeships are guaranteed an interview, and the team have very recently collaborated with Dorset Council Highways and supported 3 care leavers to achieve an interview for a Highways apprenticeship. An apprenticeship Page 74 52 within the Care Leavers Team is being progressed as part of our supernumerary apprenticeship offer. e. Care Leaver Offer We are partners with Coram Voice, together with 7 other Local Authorities, to deliver the New Belongings programme. This has been developed from the successful Bright Spots programme and young people have now completed the “ Your Life Beyond Care” survey , which measures the subjective wellbeing of young care leavers. We have also undertaken a detailed self-assessment of our services with our partners as part of New Belongings to identify priorities for action. We have developed an action plan which will address the key areas for development identified from the self- assessment with oversight from our Corporate Parenting Board. Through New Belongings, we also have opportunities to come together with other Local Authorities to peer and practice learning.

Building on the work already undertaken in Dorset to support our Care Leavers including the development of apprenticeships and council tax exemption, our Care Leaver Offer is under further development. This includes enhancing our finance policy setting out the financial support available to Care Leavers as they leave care and beyond, as well as what other support might be available to them. This revised Finance Policy will be implemented from April 2021 for all new care leavers and retrospectively applied for all care leavers age 18-21 already supported by us.

In addition, Dorset Council, led by the Corporate Parenting Board, has joined the Care Leaver Covenant Trailblazer Network, we are currently taking this through our leadership meetings. We are working with the network to use best practice and as we continuously build on our care leaver offer across the Council and the partnership.

This work sets out a clear commitment to our Care Leavers framed around what they can expect from us as they become young adults. f. Summary and Next Steps We have completed a piece of work to extend our care leaving service to be a 16+team to engage our future Care Leavers with their Personal Advisors as soon as possible after their 16 th birthday, to provide a smooth transition from their social worker to the Care Leaver service. The Personal Advisor works alongside the young person’s social worker, building a relationship before they become Care Leavers and co-producing their Pathway Plan. This enables us to support young people with the skills they need as they move into adulthood, so they are more ready to leave care. We will continue our focus to ensure that all our young people have up to date Pathway Plans.

We are developing a Housing Protocol for Care Leavers and a strategy to improve our education, employment, and training rates for care leavers. The EET PA’s will be undertaking targeted short- term support to care leavers who are not in education, employment, or training to help them re- engage with a variety of education, employment, and training opportunities, which could include applying to college, creating CV’s and making job enquiries, engaging care leavers with readiness for work experiences.

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3.14 Education and Inclusion a. School Performance From inspection data prior to Covid-19 we know that 76% of Dorset schools are rated Good or Outstanding and 76% of our Children in Care attend schools that are rated Good or Outstanding. We know this is below the national figure. Test and examination data on attainment in schools shows that for children in Key Stage 2 attainment is low across reading, writing and mathematics, but particularly mathematics. This is a particular issue in Middle Schools, reflecting a national trend.

We are working in partnership with all Dorset schools in the essential task of strengthening schools, raising standards, and diminishing the difference in the achievement between distinct groups and individuals.

Our Strengthening Schools practice framework provides support and challenge to our schools on their improvement journeys. We are working in partnership with all schools to support our entire education ecosystem, to strengthen school to school collaboration and promote the sharing of best practice. This builds on the positive work of our schools through the pandemic and the improved communication and collaboration with the local authority.

Attainment and progress in all key stages needs to improve and school improvement strategies are being developed with our Head Teachers on a new model, utilising expertise in the whole sector to drive improvement. This is based on the model that we have developed in the Covid-19 period, where schoolwork took place in clusters to mutually support schools, with coordination from the council. We have reformatted our education support services and locality work to ensure that we have increased capacity to support schools. Our aim is to always identify best practice and ensure this is shared across the system. We want to enable our schools to do more for themselves and build their capacity and strength. b. Inclusion Fixed term and permanent exclusions increased over the last 3 years prior to the Covid-19 period. We know this impacts children’s ability to achieve their education potential, but also increases risk of harm and exploitation. Through our locality structures we are working closely with our schools to ensure our children are supported to remain in full-time education wherever possible. In our new locality model, we have inclusion leads who are working proactively with schools and young people, bringing staff and resource to seek to prevent exclusions through targeted work.

We have a Children Missing Out on Education and CME (CMOE) Action Group that assesses level of need for all The structure of my school day has Dorset young people missing out on education as notified by been altered to enable me to better engage, and I receive learning any Dorset schools and Alternative Provision (AP) settings. A points in the morning and reward CMOE Meeting takes place each month to ensure that there is afternoons. This has helped me to practical multi-agency action taking place to support young make sure that my behaviour does people. Young people are supported in placement in either not lead to any more exclusions schools, learning centres or alternative provision following permanent exclusion. The meeting is attended by senior officers who ensure that action is taking place at pace and, can direct education and social care support where this is not already in place for the young person or family. The action group meeting keeps an ongoing record of actions and Page 76 54 outcomes in relation to the Children Missing Out on Education and follow up work between meetings is by relevant staff in each locality. Although the numbers of young people permanently excluded has been increasing in both Dorset and nationally, the Children Missing Out on Education Action Group’s work has been central to leading to a decrease in the time that Dorset young are spending out of education. Since the CMOE Meeting was established in October 2020, the group has monitored 54 children who were either permanently excluded, repeat fixed term excluded, CME, or Electively Home Educated where there is a concern. As of February 2021, nine children have been RAG rated as Green and fully closed to the group following a successful return to education.

A review of inclusive practice and how we use Learning Centres is currently taking place to ensure Dorset’s aim to be a fully inclusive authority is realised. We are reviewing the education provision for every child who has any form of alternative provision to ensure that every child has a meaningful, well planned and effective curriculum experience. We are working closely with schools to ensure that we place children in the most effective settings where they will have a positive and developmental experience. We are pursuing our statutory duty to identify and disrupt any provision which is operating as an unregistered school. c. Children and young people with SEND We have approximately 2,900 children with Special Educational Needs supported through an Educational, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and 6,700 children and young people identified with SEN Support needs. We work with 36 children and young people who have a Child in Need Plan and 120 Children in Care and 26 Care Leavers that are also supported by an EHCP.

EHCPs in Dorset Council are increasingly produced within statutory timescales. Whilst Covid-19 impacted the performance of our service, the resilience and agility of the team and proactive culture has been a strength.

The SEND service has seen a consistent flow of Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment Requests (EHNCA’s) with 17% of all requests in the year to date being received from parents. Covid-19 has not resulted in a reduction in the number of requests for assessment and our team has worked hard to sustain performance despite the challenges

My SEN family worker helped my Mum we have faced. and Step-Dad to make me feel safer at home, by supporting them to make me a Dorset Council is experiencing significant pressure on the High special sensory room where I can go Needs Block funding to provide for the needs of children and when I need to feel calm instead of young people with SEND. Parents have told us that we have getting cross and breaking things real strength in our SEND services for our youngest children. They have praised our existing early help service links to schools in the localities and the Team Around the Family approach we take to working with families, schools, and early help.

Our improved EHCP forms, templates and review paperwork were developed in partnership with a wide range of parents, partners and settings, with information and training events for parents and stakeholders. We are committed to ensuring that SEND improvement work continues to be developed in partnership with families and young people and is communicated effectively. We have a clear focus on embedding robust quality assurance processes within our SEND statutory work and in conjunction with partner services and parents. Page 77 55

We are increasing local special school provision to address the needs of children with complex communication difficulties and working with health colleagues to support young people in managing mental health. We have a mental health in schools project running in two pilot areas and would hope to roll this out across the county. Parents and schools have asked for more Educational Psychology support and we have prioritised an increase to this provision in our staffing restructure.

The Dorset Parent Carer Council (DPCC) was formed in June 2009 and has over 700 members across Dorset. The membership is made up of parents and carers of children who have a variety of special needs from complex medical to challenging behaviour to learning or physical difficulties and more.

DPCC have a positive and active role in supporting the development of services that affect children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. They are represented on the Corporate Parenting Board, Best Education for All Board, Strengthening Services Board, and the Strategic Alliance Board. The DPCC take a professional and considered approach that strikes a good balance of challenge and support to the council and its plans.

Following the recent visit to review our Accelerated Progress Plan the DFE and CQC have determined that sufficient progress has been made and that formal monitoring and intervention should cease. d. The Virtual School Dorset Virtual School has 444 pupils, of whom 50.2% have SEND. Our Virtual School undertakes three Personal Education Plan (PEP) meetings a year for our children in care, one each term, in partnership with young people and their carers, social workers and the designated teachers in schools/settings. The PEP return rate for the Autumn term was 89%. The PEP process has been moved onto Welfare Call in January 2021, to enable a more efficient process with detailed monitoring functionality. The Virtual School has PEP criteria to quality assure PEPs and provide feedback via Welfare Call. The Virtual School Governing Body also has a Governor Champion for the quality of Personal Education Plans.

In November 2020 Welfare Call was introduced to monitor attendance daily, where previously only termly retrospective data was available via the PEP (if provided). Attendance for September to December 2020 was 93%, persistent absence was 14%, and 71% of the cohort had over 95% attendance. We are relentless in our focus on attendance ensuring that it is a key part of Pupil Progress Meetings and PEP discussions. Virtual school staff and locality teams are deployed to support children where concerns are identified. The work done with locality-based teams enables a wraparound response to issues rather than a single focus view.

Exclusions are now reported via Welfare Call to Virtual School staff when they happen. 18 children had exclusions between September and December 2020, representing 4% of the total cohort. Training has been provided to Virtual School staff on steps to take following an exclusion, to begin a process of reducing exclusions and in particular repeat exclusions.

Schools and education providers are supportive of strengthening our working towards greater early intervention to ensure that all children and young people are supported at the earliest opportunity. The move to locality services is enabling earlier identification of need, pooling the detailed

Page 78 56 knowledge of providers, education, early help, and social care services to promote greater inclusion in schools for all our children in Dorset. e. Elective Home Education The number of Elective Home Education (EHE) young people has increased in recent years. We saw a rise in registrations during Autumn 2020, however registrations have returned to pre-Autumn 2020 levels in January 2021. Within our locality working we are reshaping our processes with these families to ensure that children are receiving a meaningful education. A refresh of the Dorset Elective Home Education Policy has been completed in co-production with parents to ensure that we have greater engagement with parents who choose to home educate.

Supporting our families who choose to electively home educate, is a key focus as we strengthen the model for monitoring the quality of EHE.

The following actions are being taken to improve the support for children who are home educated:

• A co-production group of parents has been formed to support with communication models and understanding how to assess the ‘suitability’ of home education being provided. • Building on the work already undertaken with the co-production group, including the development of parental guidance information and we are developing clear processes for communicating with families about the education being provided. • Our Inclusion Leads in each locality are responsible for the monitoring the quality of EHE, liaison with social care and developing strong partnerships with our families to deliver better outcomes. • Person-centred approaches are used to ensure that the voice of the family and the child or young person are at the centre of the support. • Mediation training is being created for the Inclusion Leads by the Education Psychology Service and home educators to strengthen their ability to support constructive relationships between parents and schools and where there is conflict between parents in relation to their child’s education. f. Early years provision and childcare We have recently undertaken our Childcare Sufficiency Assessment 2020-21 with key successes noted as:

• 99% of early years provision in Dorset is judged ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’. Support for early years provision is targeted according to need through a risk assessment process. • Take up of 2-year-old funding is higher than average compared to statistical neighbours, the South West and nationally at 89% in March 2020. • Take up of 3-year-old funding is higher than or equal to statistical neighbours, the South West and nationally at 96% in March 2020. • 92% of early years providers offer the extended 30 hours early education funded entitlement.

Predictably, Covid-19 has impacted on our early years provision. Overall, the demand for early years provision continues to be lower due to parents’ working situations. Settings report children are not attending their early years or wraparound provision because the other children in the family are at home.

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We have continued to survey providers throughout the pandemic to ensure we understand the issues and challenges and are able to offer support. Survey response rates are at between 50- 60% of the provider base however, those who respond report being able to meet all requests from critical workers. Respondents state there are at least 800 early years children not currently accessing their childcare place.

Some settings have reduced operating hours and some childminders report furloughed parents are not sending their children and therefore they are now working limited hours with limited children and that this will affect sustainability.

Across the County Early Years Advisors report issues with some group providers who may not be able to re-open in September 2021, but other interested parties are stepping in with new provision proposals. Our business support offer is virtual with new webpages under constructions to support settings to evaluate their position. In the main, this is because private paid-for hours have reduced dramatically. We invite settings struggling to provide financial information to help us identify how they could be supported. There are a small number of settings raising concerns in East, Purbeck and North Dorset, and none in Chesil, Dorchester and West. 3.15 Young People at Risk of Homelessness Our protocol for young people at risk of homelessness has been reviewed jointly with colleagues in housing and legal services. Delayed by Covid-19, we are jointly delivering workshops throughout January and February 2021 to housing and children’s services practitioners to ensure that it is robustly embedded. In the meantime, we have established a robust information sharing pathway in MASH with housing colleagues and continue to optimise relationships as we embed strategic plans and services within localities. 3.16 Private Fostering Private Fostering Assessments are undertaken within the localities and we have a Private Fostering Champion social worker to ensure children who are privately fostered are identified, assessed, and receive social work support. Part of the Private Fostering Champion role is to develop an action plan to increase awareness and promote an understanding of private fostering across Dorset and we will closely monitor the impact of this through the locality Line of Sight Meetings. We are undertaking focused work to strengthen our Private Fostering practice and increase the numbers of children identified.

We have a contract with Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole (BCP) Council who identify, assess and support private fostering arrangements made through language schools in the Dorset area. The contract was established in November 2016 has been extended for one year to 2022. BCP remain proactive in publicising private fostering arrangements and undertaking appropriate checks and assessments.

Between the 1 April 2020 – 30 June 2020 there was no new work completed by the private fostering team in respect of language students for Dorset Council due to all the language schools closing as a result of Covid-19. There were three students who remained in their private fostering arrangements, which was primarily because they were not able to get flights home. The private fostering team supported them through this period, with increased contact to ensure that their needs were being adequately met. There were no concerns identified regarding the children’s

Page 80 58 needs. The carers involved worked hard to ensure that the students had a positive experience for their stay, despite the restrictions. All three students returned to their families. During 1 July 2020 – 1 September 2020 a small number of language students arrived for the new school term, although a reduced number compared to previous years. From the 1 st October 2020 language school students returned for the new school year. 3.17 Local Authority Designated Officer The Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) role sits within our Quality Assurance and Partnerships Service. During 2020 we have undertaken improvement activity as part of our Strengthening Services Plan following a review which identified areas for development as well as good practice. We have refreshed our policy which has included the development of practice standards to support improved practice and enhanced reporting. We have strengthened our communication with our partners to raise the profile of the LADO in Dorset and have developed a customer feedback system.

Since April 2020 there has been a significant increase in the volume of overall 'inquiries/contacts' (229 by the end of 2020). In terms of overall volume this is significantly higher than last year (137 by the equivalent point). There has been a slight decline overall in inquiries reaching the allegation threshold (128 by December 2019, 115 by December 2020).

Inquires and referrals 50

40

30

20

10

0 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20 Dec-20

Inquiries Referrals 2 per. Mov. Avg. (Inquiries) 2 per. Mov. Avg. (Referrals)

Figure 19: LADO Inquires and referrals

We have introduced a quarterly LADO Highlight Report setting out activity and learning which feeds into our Quality of Practice and Action Group. Learning from our December report includes:

• A plan for further ongoing training/awareness raising with other agencies as to the Managing Allegations process (April and June 2021). • Regular (quarterly) meetings held with Fostering to examine the current referral levels/outcomes and identify learning. In addition, work to strengthen ongoing reporting/monitoring mechanisms alongside with work to improve the timeliness of cases being referred to the fostering panel where necessary.

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4. HOW DO WE KNOW

4.1 Performance Management We have an excellent suite of performance data and dashboards available and accessible to managers and all staff through our intranet pages and through MOSAIC, our electronic social care record. Children’s Services Monthly Performance Report is published and shared with all managers to inform performance conversations.

We also publish a Corporate Parenting Dataset and the Performance and Impact Report to enable our Strengthening Services Board to monitor progress of our Strengthening Service Plan. Our Monthly Report is developing month on month as is our programme of developing thematic dashboards. This work is progressing well with dashboards already in place for MASH, SEND, the Virtual School and Missing and Child Exploitation.

We continuously improve and refine how we use our data and intelligence and through the Performance Management Framework (PMF) that sits alongside our Quality Assurance Framework managers systematically review performance of their respective services and provide exception reporting to the monthly Performance Board attended by the Extended Children’s Services Leadership Team and Business Partners and chaired by the Executive Director. The Performance Board focuses on three critical questions for all aspects of our performance:

• What’s going well? • What are we worried about? and importantly, • What are we doing about it?

The Board is restorative in approach – high support and high challenge, and solution focused. Managers across the service are feeding back the impact of the meetings in developing a deep and shared understanding of our performance and how it can be used to drive continuous improvement.

Key messages from our Performance Board, alongside a dashboard of key indicators are reported on a monthly basis to the Corporate Senior Leadership Team and the Elected Members Performance Board and scrutiny panel to ensure a strong line of sight to performance.

We have implemented a quarterly whole service Quality Assurance and Performance Management Conference providing the opportunity for all managers (Team Managers and above) to come together to triangulate the information from our quality assurance and performance monitoring activity, reflect on learning and to focus on our continuous improvement.

We have worked extensively to ensure we are able to support our vulnerable children throughout Covid-19 and bring together all our information as a partnership to enable us to do this effectively. Our Vulnerable Children Tracker has been fundamental to this and has enabled us to ensure that help and support is targeted quickly to our children and their families depending on risk levels.

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4.2 Quality Assurance Framework Our Framework was launched in October 2019 to incorporate a collaborative audit approach that is undertaken by the operational managers within the service alongside practitioners. A proportion of those audits are also moderated by the QA service and senior managers to assure ourselves that our managers are correctly identifying the quality of practice we support our auditors and moderators through training to ensure we have a consistent approach to what good looks like in audit.

To ensure we obtain an accurate representation of the quality of practice; audits are selected at random and thematic audit is scheduled as part of testing impact of improvements or where data and audit highlight the need for a detailed thematic review. The collaborative approach is now well embedded and enables a reflective conversation with the practitioner to support holding the child at the forefront of our practice and review what is working well or what we are concerned about. Feedback from children and families is part of our audit process and findings are collated and included in our learning from audit.

Audit learning reports are produced bi-monthly and shared at a Quality of Practice and Action Group with Service Managers, Heads of Locality and Corporate Directors who are all involved in agreeing either localised action plans or strategic practice improvements for the service. The headlines are then reported to the monthly performance board chaired by our Executive Director. An audit dashboard allows us to review findings and learning from audit and facilitates effective tracking and completion of all audit actions. We also re-audit any cases deemed inadequate to ensure the child’s circumstances have improved and actions were completed. These developments have been updated in our framework including a triple lock approach that also provides assurance that our moderation is effective, and we can be assured that the findings appropriately identify the quality of our practice.

QA is embedding as part of our everyday practice within the teams, our advanced practitioners (APs) work alongside our staff to support practice improvement through focused reflective discussions and thematic auditing. The Principal Social Worker is supporting the AP’s to work alongside staff to deliver focused improvements across a range of key areas such as impact chronologies. This is vital in ensuring we identify the right learning and the root cause of any practice challenges supported with a thematic and dip sample schedule aligned to our strengthening services plan.

Our Principal Social Worker has now been in post for 6 months and this is starting to drive quality of practice and keeping front line practice at the forefront of strategic improvements. One of the key areas of focus has been our restorative Dorset Children Thrive Practice Framework utilising strength-based approaches, this has been part of our next steps from our reinvigorating social practice. Following intensive training and coproduction we will launch the new practice framework in April 2021. 4.3 Audit Outcomes Although we had a short auditing break when Covid-19 first hit to allow all staff to focus on the completion of Covid risk assessments, our audit compliance overall in the last 12 months has been strong. Findings are identifying that our practice is increasingly Good and Outstanding with other work continuing to Require Improvement to be good. Page 83 61

Figure 20: Audit outcomes – rolling 3-month average

The principal areas identified to strengthen our practice in:

• Consistency in the quality of supervision and in ensuring our management oversight is driving forward our planning for children • Continuing to strengthen our use of chronologies and summaries • Ensuring that the child’s voice is always reflected in our recording and informing our planning

Where practice is positive, we have evidence of:

• Good partnership working and will continue to keep a focus on this to ensure that this is demonstrated across all our work. • Our staff knowing their children well and we are supporting them to ensure this is evidenced on the child’s file. • Feedback from our children and families in relation to Quality Assurance is positive and is used to inform service improvements. 4.4 Serious Case Reviews and Safeguarding Practice Reviews We have continued to ensure that we learn from Serious Case Reviews and Safeguarding Practice Reviews. In 2020/21 there was one child safeguarding practice review and two Rapid Reviews completed.

This section contains exempt information and is therefore withheld under paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 12a of the Local Government Act 1972

4.5 Complaints, Compliments and Comments Our Complaints Team ensure a consistent approach to complaints management and challenge Children’s Services for learnings and actions so the complaint has as much value as possible and organisational lessons can be learned.

We resolve most complaints informally. Dorset Council have found that this approach builds the best possible relationships between Dorset Council and families with concerns without obstructing statutory process.

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We have a low volume of complaints progress through statutory process and clear evidence that the Ombudsman is not unduly troubled by Social Care complaints, further indicating that Dorset Council’s proactive approach to outcomes-based resolutions to complaints is proving beneficial for families. It also demonstrates that we are genuinely listening rather than processing.

The Covid-19 emergency has had an impact on response timescales across the Directorates, both due to redeployed staff in the Complaints Team and challenges in the localities. That said the Complaints Team keep complainants informed of delays and provide robust explanations and extensions to ensure expectations are managed. Children’s Social Care complaints are being prioritised to ensure statutory timescales improve in an unprecedented operational period.

Covid-19 has also resulted in Dorset residents having more time to observe, reflect and voice concerns and Q2 showed an increase in complaints that was mirrored across the directorates. For perspective Place complaints increases 126% on Q1, and Adults by 56% in the same period. We anticipated the fall in Q3 and expect numbers to stabilize across the directorates

We are always eager to take the learning from complaints. The percentage of justified/part justified complaints and numbers of learnings are reassuringly proportionate. That said, we are also aware that there is learning to be had from complaints that are not upheld by the council and we are still encouraging a culture of learning from complaints as the year progresses. 4.6 Feedback from our children, young people, and families We have developed an approach to measuring ‘customer’ satisfaction across services. For services that have an end closure point (such as CiN social worker involvement or EHCP application) a SMS message is sent at point of case closure. For ongoing services (such as Care Leavers) a SMS is sent at a regular interval (i.e., every six months). We also use these domains for spot surveys and to construct phone interviews with families.

The data is collated, analysed, reported, and published on a quarterly basis, feeding into the Performance Board.

These all collect information across 5 domains:

• Do you feel able to talk? • Were you involved in decisions? • Was the amount of contact right? • Did we do what we said we would do? • What difference has the support/service made to you and your family?

We saw steady progress in feedback from our families through 2019/20 and into the first quarter of 20/21 and we have made significant improvement in getting the level of support to families right.

The table below provides an overview of responses. We can see that performance on a number of domains has reduced. We know that this is related to a number of different factors:

• Lower participation rates in Q2/Q3 with smaller numbers affecting the overall proportions • Fewer responses from families that were involved with early help • For some families, communication with their worker and building relationships has been more difficult as a result of Covid and we continue to respond to this feedback and find creative ways of meeting their needs. Page 85 63

19/20 20/21 (to date) Do you feel able to talk to your Yes 59% 52% worker? Sometimes 22% 13% No 15% 31% Did your worker involve you in Yes 49% 46% decisions? Sometimes 29% 15% No 15% 32% Tell us about how often you had About right 12% 58% contact with your worker. Was it? Too much 44% 3% Too little 44% 35% Did your worker do what they said Yes 55% 52% they would do? Sometimes 28% 19% No 16% 29% What difference has the support Got better/Good 31% 39% from your worker made to you and Stayed the same/As expected 26% 35% your family situation? / Experience Got worse/Poor 22% 26% of becoming a foster carer Table 3: summarised position of ‘customer’ satisfaction scores showing median scores during 19/20 and 20/21 (to-date)

In 2021 we are rolling out ‘customer’ satisfaction questionnaires to all parts of children’s services to ensure feedback is being reflected on at a service and locality level.

Additionally, the Children in Care Council conduct an annual survey of all children in care. This comprehensive survey gives insight across several areas including:

• Perceptions on social workers, IROs, advocates and other professionals • Perceptions on plans, including care, education and pathway • Perceptions on processes such as reviews and complaints • Feelings of wellbeing and support

The report is considered by CSLT, relevant service areas and explored through workshops across the workforce. A response with recommendations and action plan are presented to the Children in Care Council.

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5. WHAT’S NEXT FOR DORSET….

In 2020 we embarked on an ambitious programme of change:

• We implemented a multi-disciplinary place-based structure to deliver better outcomes for our children and families;

• We are implementing our Strengthening Services Plan – and making good progress on all projects resulting in significant improvements in our performance and we developed

• We launched our 3-year Children, Young People and Families Plan – supported by our Council’s Transformation programme.

But we are even more ambitious for children. More than ever our children need to us be bold, tenacious, and resolute in ensuring they have a bright future.

For the first time in a number of years we have a fully staffed permanent extended senior leadership team and our permanent staff team has grown with people passionate to deliver our vision for children. Their commitment and dedication to each other, their commitment to working with partners and most importantly with our communities has shone through during this challenging year. In the context of a global pandemic our team has worked exceptionally hard to build new services, make significant improvement, and begin to implement our transformation plans. We are excited to continue to build on these solid foundations during 2021 and to support our teams to deliver the Outstanding service they aspire to.

We fully intend to continue our pace of delivery, and are confident in our strong corporate, political and partnership support.

We are building something special that will last.

We are determined that in Dorset, all our Children Thrive.

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6. RESPONSE TO COVID 19 ANNEX

6.1 Introduction During 2020 our partnership grew from strength to strength, coming together to support children and their families in our communities, the partnership mobilised, responded quickly, demonstrated agility, and most importantly lived a one team, one Dorset, approach.

Through Covid-19, services have been given greater authority to Our social worker made it possible for us to stay with share information to better identify and support families with needs family instead of going into resulting in new ways of working, increased agility in the workforce care when our parents were and more timely and co-ordinated interventions. really unwell and in hospital with Covid We do not yet know the full extent of the impact of Covid-19 on our children, young people and families, but together as partnership we are making sure we are able to respond effectively and through the work in our Children, Young People and Families’ Plan, we will transform the way we work to improve long term outcomes for children and young people. 6.2 Leadership timeline of our response to Covid-19 The Children’s Services Leadership Team works closely with systems leaders in other parts of the council; Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group; Public Health Dorset; educational settings; NHS health providers; police, fire and rescue; town and parish councils as well as the community and voluntary sector to deliver our ongoing response to the pandemic.

The leadership task throughout this period is four-fold: providing organisational responses to government advice, guidance and new duties; coordinating and participating in partnership responses; to deliver business continuity responding to questions and concerns about how employees could undertake their work and most importantly providing information to and responding to feedback on the impact of the pandemic on children, young people and families.

A multi-agency Local Resilience Forum stood up at the end of February 2020, with 10 cells set up to support our response, led by senior officers, with military planners deployed to support planning. Multi-agency partners worked together to address emerging concern about the supply chain for food, medicine and PPE and planning to free up capacity in hospitals. When in March 2020, the 1st positive case was identified in Dorset, Dorset Council asked all staff to work from their homes where possible and there was a rapid deployment of IT equipment to enable this to happen. A battle rhythm was established with daily emergency planning and leadership team meetings, daily meetings with school leaders and daily communications to employees to respond to emerging concerns.

New duties to provide additional basic care and support for clinically vulnerable people were placed on councils and on 23 rd March 2020 a major incident was declared. We have worked together supporting providers to remain financially viable and to deliver services in diverse ways and worked with voluntary and community sector to develop new offers and approaches. We set up a 7 day a week Covid-19 helpline as well as proactively assessing the needs of in excess of 15,000 shielding residents and reached out to shielding children and families to offer additional support including craft packages and with a real focus on personalisation.

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During the Covid period there have been over 300 pieces of guidance and policy changes that have an impact on children’s services requiring a response, one of the most significant was the decision taken to close schools for most pupils on the 18 th March 2020.

To coordinate our responses, we set up a network of headteachers, representing geographical and phase cluster that met daily to plan together and address concerns. We focused on supporting the most vulnerable, who would not be able to be in school, setting up a local school voucher scheme on behalf of Dorset schools, prior to the national scheme, to address issues of supplier failure as well as meeting the needs of a rural county. Together we developed a vulnerable children’s tracker and focused on attendance, shared risk assessments, and worked with Public health to ensure our schools had the information they needed to respond. The vulnerable children tracker work was used as a model nationally to inform other LA’s work. We set up communications channels and redeployed council officers to work alongside schools to remain open over the Easter holidays and beyond. We collaborated on identifying those who would benefit IT equipment and support, sharing of resources for support and learning and the creation of advice and support lines.

Throughout the pandemic we have refined our partnership approach to working together to meet the needs of children and young people to understand the impact of the changing service landscape and guidance changes on individual services and work together to seek to minimise challenges that we faced. We instituted weekly partnership meetings to highlight and address risks and issues and following feedback from families on support for the youngest children local operational groups to prioritise and plan support for the most vulnerable. In August/September 2020 we worked as multi-agency partners to support the return to school through the provision of information, advice, and support to those that may have found it more challenging. We have continued to work closely with our early years’ settings and schools throughout the Autumn term and subsequent lockdowns and are working in partnership to ensure our children have a planned and seamless return to school. Schools report high levels of confidence in their readiness to return.

We have sought, throughout this period to keep listening to the experiences of our children, young people, and families through the creation of regular foster carer forums, young people forums, formal and informal view seeking. Practice observation has continued, and following a brief break, we recommenced our auditing process. Close working with our Dorset Parent Carer forum to both hear and respond together to the issues expressed by parents of children with SEND has grown and strengthened through this pandemic. Co-production is becoming more embedded and joint work on our communications is becoming ever more established. We fully recognise that this has been a time of great anxiety for children, young people and families and continue to work together to respond to priority issues and concerns in our continuing response to this pandemic.

As multi-agency leaders we continued to focus on our collective ambition for all our children, young people, and families to deliver our Children and Young People’s Plan and the implementation of our model of Children’s Services delivery - Dorset Children Thrive. 6.3 Vulnerable children and young people tracker In response to school closures, we created and implemented a system to track attendance and risk of ‘Vulnerable Children’. The list of children was brought together based on the DfE definition of vulnerable children, in addition as an authority we chose to monitor all children with a Dorset

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Education, Health and Care Plan and those with early help involvement where we deemed them to be at risk

This regular meeting of school cluster leads and link workers forum provided a key avenue for communicating with schools and helped to set up a successful monitoring process which included collecting attendance and risk judgement data from schools on a weekly basis to allow early intervention where issues were identified (such as low attendance of key cohorts).

Progress across the County was shared back with schools at periodic intervals via the Cluster Lead meetings and a live online portal. We also developed links with out of county schools and had internal Council departments link with different settings to collect weekly attendance and risk data.

Dorset were asked to be one of 3 Local Authorities to provide an update to the Troubled Families National Local Authority Webinar in April 2020 organised by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government in recognition of our efforts to encourage attendance of vulnerable children and young people back to school. Focus was around the collection and use of this attendance and risk data.

The Figure below shows an example of the live dashboard used to track the attendance of vulnerable children and young people.

Figure 21: Vulnerable Children Tracker

A system has been established to continue to collect weekly attendance and risk data from schools as it was recognised as a helpful mechanism to identify our most vulnerable children, as before, all children with a Dorset EHCP, children with a social worker and any children we are concerned about will be included in the tracker. Work is underway with IT suppliers to set up an automatic attendance feed from school’s management information systems to help reduce the administrative burden on schools. The attendance of children within the virtual school is monitored by Welfare Call. Children who are not attending regularly are followed up by their virtual school lead. Children whose attendance is a long-term concern are discussed by the CME group.

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6.4 Education Psychology Covid-19 parent helpline At the outset of Covid-19 parents and carers of children and young people with SEND had increased worries about education and routines. Working together with the Dorset Parent Carer Council (DPCC) the service set up a telephone helpline to respond to queries they were receiving from parents, offering telephone consultations with an education psychologist five days a week morning and afternoon. The helpline was clearly promoted both through DPCC and the Council’s communications, website, the SEND newsletter and via schools.

Parents and carers who would not typically have accessed support from an Education Psychologist were able to get support quickly and in a reassuring way from an education psychologist, in addition the service was able to email helpful resources to parents such as social stories, five-point scales to give parents and carers tools to support children.

Education psychologists were also able to follow up consultations with schools and other agencies where additional support was needed, creating a valuable front door to access services for our families.

Going forward the helpline will continue to operate and strengthen its links with other agencies to ensure it can offer access early to wider support. 6.5 Risk assessments From the outset of Covid-19 social workers and early help practitioners undertook a risk assessment of all the children we were supporting throughout the pandemic to understand the impact of Covid-19 on them and their families, particularly focusing on those who were not able to attend school, to help us understand and manage risk, prioritise our work and determine the most appropriate visiting type and pattern.

We also worked with schools to establish a shared system for them to share their evaluations about the vulnerabilities of children and young people within their settings. The responses were tracked with the weekly attendance returns from our education settings. Any judged to be at high risk were followed up by a link worker allocated to the school to identify ways the Council could support in mitigating risk.

Access to the limited ICT resources were prioritised for children and young people at risk of disengaging and schools were supported by link workers to increase the attendance of vulnerable children and young people.

As a result of the risk assessments children and young people were supported at home by specialist services providing resources for families to use and signposting to other services that they would not typically have received a service from.

In our desire to work at pace we reflected that there were some areas where we needed to tighten our approach and reframe particularly in the completion of risk assessments with our families. The risk assessment process will continue to be completed with our parents to ensure risk assessment reviews are person-centred.

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6.6 Link workers The Council set up a daily touch down with head teachers to coordinate communication and support to schools and families and to enable the Local Authority to track vulnerable children and young people to track their attendance; identify the level of risk and check with Local Authority officers and coordinate support needed.

As a result of feedback from schools about the number of different professionals contacting them about vulnerable children and young people, the Early Help and SEND officers collaborated with the schools to identify a link worker for each school to support them with risk assessments for all children and young people judged to be within the vulnerable categories. If the child or young person had an allocated social worker, the social worker remained the link for the family for continuity.

To be able to respond to the changing context and the evolving needs of our children, young people and families, we established a process for schools and families to be able to access specialist support without having to go through a referral process, instead discussing with their link worker.

Listening to the feedback of our schools and adapting our approach was key to ensure we were responding to the crisis in an agile and responsive way. Link workers continued to play a vital role as we entered the third lockdown (January 2021). We have agreed with our schools that the link worker arrangements will become a permanent way of working. 6.7 Summer in Dorset During Covid-19, we have been working closely with schools to support around 5,300 children and young people who we have been most concerned about because of their vulnerabilities. Over the summer holidays in 2020, with schools taking a break from providing regular contact, we wanted to make sure these children and young people could still access positive activities and support.

Our ambition was to ensure these children and young people experienced a summer of hope by:

• supporting the development of our most vulnerable children

• helping children and young people to socialise

• helping children and young people to make sense of the wider environment

A programme of activities was pulled together run by a mix of commissioned providers and Children’s Services locality teams. Summer in Dorset passes were issued to 5,300 children and young people to be exchanged an unlimited number of times at these activities and other existing activities that were accepting the passes.

Our desire to deliver Summer in Dorset was in part driven by the lack of activities scheduled for the summer, due to concerns about Covid-19. Working with support from Public Health Dorset and with the financial support of Dorset Council, providers were encouraged to deliver activities.

5,361 vulnerable children and young people were eligible for a Summer in Dorset pass. Their pass granted them free access to 142 activities happening during the month of August. The range of activities was wide and included Circus skills; Paddle boarding and canoeing; various indoor and

Page 92 70 outdoor sports; Theatre skills; Nature walks; Musical instrument group sessions; Outdoor Adventure.

From the survey of families that accessed activities, the activities have been rated at an average of 4.6 out of 5; 80% respondents said Summer in Dorset has really made a positive difference and 20% said it has made some difference.

Uncertainty on the impact of government guidelines on large gatherings and our providers lack of surety to put in place arrangements provided some key challenges. Whilst comprehensive, there were some areas not as well served as others. The passes and information to book arrived close to the start of August before all activities were listed. Some activities were booked up extremely fast, giving the impression that there were limited options.

Summer in Dorset had an incredibly positive impact for families in Dorset, however we have learnt through the process that with greater planning we can do more. Several families have asked that the initiative be repeated next summer (or even sooner). There are several areas that we wish to consider in the future to further support these children and young people. Our locality teams have demonstrated their ability to deliver brilliant activities tailored to the children and families in their area. This will be factored into our Delivering Locally priority within our Children, Young People and Families Plan as part of, and independently of any county- wide initiatives. We have worked with existing providers in a flexible way and commissioned new providers during this programme. The feedback has been incredibly positive about working in a coordinated and joined up way. Providers valued the additional support and assurances provided by the Council in an uncertain environment. There is an opportunity to develop these opportunities, build capacity, and see an increase in activities for vulnerable children throughout the year.

We are taking the learning from Summer in Dorset and applying this to the Holiday and Food Activities Programme, which is being implemented from Easter 2021, with a combination of online and face to face offers and a broader programme of activity for the Summer. 6.8 Provision at the Dorset Outdoor Education Service outdoor centres The reduction in visitor numbers at the Outdoor Centres as a result of Covid-19 lockdown provided an opportunity for teaching staff to be involved in delivering initially 1:1 and small group alternative provision sessions across all four of our centres. The service has provided a consistent approach to delivery ensuring that the same staff work with the same young people on each visit. This has allowed for the development of trust and effective longer-term planning.

The service has worked with providers to offer sessions that fit within the young person’s normal timetable and this has meant offering sessions on certain days to fit around reduced provision at school or adjusting the session duration to maintain a routine.

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The service has been truly ambitious in this area using information gained from regular contact with school, PHE, social workers and parents to provide valuable cultural capital. This has been evidenced by the onward success of many of the young people where they have now returned to school or other settings where this was not previously thought possible.

The service has been attentive to ensure that provision has been developmental. Young people have had the opportunity to attend sessions in small groups where this has been identified as an area that would benefit them. In the simplest terms this has been through communal lunch times with other staff at a centre or on occasion with other children. This has assisted in developing a range of activity specific and social skills which has clearly demonstrated improvements in communication, use of language and the progression of a polite and courteous culture. Young people have also displayed the ability to assess and manage risk to themselves and others. Further opportunities have come about from our Short Breaks programme where many of the children who attended on a 1:1 basis felt confident to then attend alongside other children.

Checking on learning and understanding has been demonstrated using a consistent approach, using a “base” activity such as shelter building. This has been used each session to create a safe “time and space” at the start of each session for reflection and to assess prior learning and understanding, this has also allowed time to agree on themes and ideas for future working. Children have also benefitted from the opportunity to use arts and crafts to produce resources which demonstrate their understanding. This has been through environmental art, model building, poster making and photography.

We are absolutely committed to continuing to offer this provision at all four outdoor centres throughout the year. Arrangements are being made to ensure that this is possible to the same ambitious standards even when other visitors return to these venues as Covid-19 restrictions are eased. 6.9 The Cherries The Cherries children’s home has 9 registered beds for children with complex learning disabilities aged 0-18 years. During the pandemic there have been five children living here. During the early days of the Spring 2020 lock-down it was difficult for the children and families when friends and family members were not able to visit. Virtual contact was offered, the success of this varied depending on the ability of the children to use the technology, however this was reassuring for family members as they were able to see their children. Responding swiftly to government guidance to reinstate established patterns of contact for the children however, the home was able to keep this disruption to a minimum. Feedback from the Regulation 44 Independent Visitor report identifies the following 1:

• Jack’s Dad reported that he was really grateful for the staff for ensuring that he could continue to see his son in safety. • Susan’s mother reported that the staff worked hard at the beginning of lockdown when she could not see her daughter to maintain contact. She reported that Susan can find it tricky to focus and does not concentrate very well – but staff worked hard to encourage virtual

1 Names have been changed Page 94 72

contact and to help Susan to engage with this and to have a conversation. She reports that she was incredibly grateful for how hard they tried with this as it meant a lot to her.

Children were unable to attend the regular clubs and activities they usually enjoyed and so the team worked creatively to ensure the young people continued to benefit from a wide range of activities and outings within the everchanging lockdown guidelines. In considering what activities to introduce to replace what was lost, keyworkers endeavoured to reflect upon the purpose of each activity, substituting the gym, for example, with an activity that also included physical activity. Ultimately, many activities were included just for fun, with the spacious gardens and premises of the home allowing for various on-site activities and fun filled themed days. Socially distanced trips to many of Dorset’s beauty spots were also a regular feature. Thankfully, and with little disruption, the children were able to continue to attend school, this being integral to their established routines and consequent well-being. Equally important was the fact that during the pandemic, staff absences within the home were minimal. This was coupled with a huge amount of willingness to ensure that all children continued to receive consistent and quality care from familiar adults who understood and knew all the children well.

To keep the home COVID-19 safe and secure, various measures have been introduced including COVID-19 risk assessments and contingency plans. All staff and visitors must have their temperature taken, use the hand gel provided, and leave their contact details to facilitate track-and- trace. Wherever possible facemasks are also worn although not if it is likely to cause distress to the children. Additional cleaning schedules have been introduced; staff are kept abreast of all new Government guidelines; and the home is registered on the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) Portal should extra equipment be required. The team are careful to ensure that the young people are shielded from any unnecessary stress and anxiety that many are feeling during the pandemic.

To date it is pleasing to note that the young people seem unconcerned as to what is happening around them and key workers continue to carefully with keyworkers carefully monitoring the children for any signs of distress and having available simple and adaptable Social Stories and easy to understand guides should the need arise.

Page 95 73

This page is intentionally left blank Agenda Item 7

Cabinet 18 May 2021 Youth Justice Plan

For Recommendation to Council

Portfolio Holder: Cllr A Parry, Children, Education, Skills and Early Help

Local Councillor(s): Cllr

Executive Director: T Leavy, Executive Director of People - Children

Report Author: David Webb Title: Manager, Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service Tel: 01202 794321 Email: [email protected]

Report Status: Public

Recommendation: For the Cabinet to recommend approval of the Youth Justice Plan to Full Council.

Reason for Recommendation: Local authorities are required to publish an annual Youth Justice Plan, setting out how the statutory requirements for a multi-agency youth offending team are fulfilled locally. Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service is a partnership between Dorset Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, along with Dorset Police, NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group and the National Probation Service Dorset. Approval for the Youth Justice Plan is also being sought from Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. The Youth Justice Plan needs to be approved by the full Council.

1. Executive Summary

Under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 there is a statutory requirement to publish an annual Youth Justice Plan which must provide specified information about the local provision of youth justice services. The Youth Justice Board provides guidance about what must be included in the plan and recommends a Page 97 structure for the plan. The draft Youth Justice Plan for the Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service is attached at Appendix One. A brief summary of the Youth Justice Plan is provided in this report.

2. Financial Implications

The Youth Justice Plan reports on the resourcing of the Youth Justice Service. Local authority and other partner budget contributions have remained static since 2014/15, apart from a one-off cost of living increase to local authority contributions in 2019/20, along with a redistribution of the funding proportions to reflect Local Government Reorganisation. The annual Youth Justice Grant has reduced from £790,000 in 2014/15 to £607,968 in 2020/21.

The creation of the pan-Dorset Youth Justice Service in 2015 increased the service’s resilience and ability to adapt to reduced funding and increased costs. The management of vacancies, and the deletion of some posts, has enabled a balanced budget to be achieved in the years to 2021.

3. Well-being and Health Implications

Young people in contact with youth justice services are known to be more likely than other young people to have unmet or unidentified health needs. The Youth Justice Service includes seconded health workers who work directly with young people and who facilitate their engagement with community health services.

4. Climate implications

No adverse environmental impact has been identified. The Youth Justice Plan notes that the Covid-19 restrictions have led to changes in the working arrangements of the Youth Justice Service. These changes include significant reductions in staff travel, both to and from work and to visit service users, with more activities being carried out remotely.

5. Other Implications

The Youth Justice Plan sets out the measures being taken to prevent and reduce offending and anti-social behaviour by young people. The Youth Justice Service contributes actively to the work of the Community Safety Partnership.

Children who are in contact with the Youth Justice Service often experience risks to their safety and well-being, including risks at home, risks in the community such as child exploitation and detriment to their education prospects. The Youth Justice Plan refers to the work of the Youth Justice Service to safeguard children, working in conjunction with other local services in the Dorset Council area. The Youth Justice Service is working closely with colleagues in other Dorset Page 98 Children’s Services, including the Harbour Project, in order to align with the new services and structures.

6. Risk Assessment

Having considered the risks associated with this decision, the level of risk has been identified as: Current Risk: Low Residual Risk: Low

7. Equalities Impact Assessment

The Youth Justice Plan does not relate to a new strategy, policy or function so an Equalities Impact Assessment has not been undertaken. Some information about equalities issues is included in the report. No adverse equalities impacts have been identified.

It is recognised nationally that young people from minority ethnic groups, and young people in the care of the local authority, are over-represented in the youth justice system and in the youth custodial population. It is also recognised that young people known to the YJS may experience learning difficulties or disabilities, including in respect of speech, language and communication needs. Information from Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service records, summarised in the Youth Justice Plan, shows that these issues of over-representation also apply in the pan-Dorset area. Actions have been identified in the Youth Justice Plan to address these issues.

8. Appendices

Appendix One: Youth Justice Plan 2021/22.

Background documents - Minutes of People and Health Scrutiny Committee - 20 April 2021

9. Background Papers

9.1 The Youth Justice Plan provides information on the resourcing, structure, governance, partnership arrangements and performance of the Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service. The Plan also describes the national and local youth justice context for 2021/22 and sets out our priorities for this year.

9.2 The Youth Justice Board continues to monitor three ‘key performance indicators’ for youth justice. The first indicator relates to the rate of young people entering the justice system for the first time. Local performance in this area had declined in the period 2016-2018 but has been improving Page 99 since then. The latest national data, relating to the 12 months to December 2019, shows a combined pan-Dorset rate of 251 per 100,000 10-17 year olds entering the justice system for the first time. This compares with a figure of 344 per 100,000 10-17 year olds in the year to December 2018. Local data for the year to December 2020 shows further reductions in the first-time entrants rate in the Dorset Council area.

9.3 The other two national indicators relate to reducing reoffending and minimising the use of custodial sentences. The reoffending rate fluctuates, partly because of the current counting rules for this measure. Our local reoffending rate has for the most part remained below the national rate. Local analysis shows that young people who are more likely to reoffend are also more likely to have more complex speech, language and communication needs and to find it hard to access education or training. The Youth Justice Plan sets out some of the actions that have been taken and future plans to address these issues.

9.4 Dorset Combined Youth Offending Service has low rates of custodial sentences, below the regional and national averages. This is particularly the case for young people from the Dorset Council area. No Dorset children were sentenced to custody in the year April 2020 to March 2021. Young people who are sentenced to custody have often experienced significant trauma in their earlier life, affecting their current behaviour. The Youth Offending Service implemented a plan in 2020 to become a trauma informed service, with further work to do on this in 2021/22.

Footnote: Issues relating to financial, legal, environmental, economic and equalities implications have been considered and any information relevant to the decision is included within the report.

Page 100 APPENDIX DORSET COMBINED YOUTH JUSTICE SERVICE

Youth Justice Plan 2021/22

Version Superseded Date Author Changes made Version(s) V0.2

V0.1 19.03.21 David Webb

Page 101 Contents

Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service Statement of Purpose...... 4 Who We Are and What We Do ...... 4 Introduction ...... 5 Service Targets ...... 5 Headline Strategic Priorities for 2020/21...... 5 Structure and Governance: The YJS Partnership Board ...... 6 Linking the Youth Justice System to other Plans and Structures...... 7 Partnership Arrangements ...... 8 Safeguarding and Public Protection ...... 8 Child Exploitation ...... 8 Reducing Re-Offending ...... 8 Risk Assessment Panels ...... 8 Harmful Sexual Behaviour ...... 8 Preventing Violent Extremism...... 9 Safe Schools and Communities Team...... 9 Restorative Justice and Support for Victims ...... 9 Reducing Youth Detentions in Police Custody ...... 9 Operational Links between YJS and Partner Agencies ...... 10 Resources and value for money ...... 11 Staffing information ...... 12 DCYJS Achievements and Performance During 2020/21...... 13 First Time Entrants into the Youth Justice System ...... 13 Reducing Re-Offending ...... 16 Custodial Sentences...... 20 Covid 19: Youth Justice Work During the Pandemic ...... 21 Learning Reviews...... 22 Service User Feedback…...... ……..…….22 Summary of local and national issues that inform our priorities for 2021/22...... 25 National Context ...... 25 Local Context...... 25 Strategic Priorities for 2021/22...... 26 System Improvement 26

Continue and develop work to preventg children entering the youth justice system ...... 26 Reduce the rate of Black and Mnority Children entering custody...... 26 Develop joint working with other local services for children to improve outcomes for children in the youth justice system...... 27 Practice Improvements 27

Page 102 Widen the application of trauma-informed practice to all children working with the Youth Justice Service 27 Strengthen the team's work to repair and restore relationships 28 Covid 19 28 Approval ...... 29 Appendix A – Glossary of Terms ...... 30 Appendix B - Level 2 TRM 31

Page | 3 Page 103 Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service Statement of Purpose

Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service works with children in the local youth justice system. Our purpose is to help those children to make positive changes, to keep them safe, to keep other people safe, and to repair the harm caused to victims. This means we can support the national Youth Justice Board Vision for a ‘child first’ youth justice system: A youth justice system that sees children as children, treats them fairly and helps them to build on their strengths so they can make a constructive contribution to society. This will prevent offending, and create safer communities with fewer victims.

Who We Are and What We Do

Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service (DCYJS) is a statutory partnership between Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, Dorset Council, Dorset Police, National Probation Service Dorset and NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group. We are a multi-disciplinary team which includes youth justice officers, restorative justice specialists, parenting workers, education and employment workers, police officers, a probation officer, nurses, speech and language therapists and a psychologist. More information about the Youth Justice Service (YJS) partnership and the members of the YJS team is provided later in this document. The team works directly with children who have committed criminal offences to help them make positive changes and to reduce the risks to them and to other people. We also work directly with parents and carers to help them support their children to make changes. We make contact with all victims of crimes committed by the children we work with. We offer those victims the chance to take part in restorative justice processes so we can help to repair the harm they have experienced. The organisations in the YJS partnership also work together to improve the quality of our local youth justice system, and to ensure that young people who work with the YJS can access the specialist support they need for their care, health and education. The combination of direct work with children, parents and victims and work to improve our local youth justice and children’s services systems enables us to meet our strategic objectives to:

 Reduce the number of children in the youth justice system  Reduce reoffending by children in the youth justice system  Improve the safety and well-being of children in the youth justice system  Reduce and repair the harm caused to victims and the community from child offences (I have added this one)  Improve outcomes for children in the youth justice system.

Page | 4 Page 104 Introduction

This document is the Youth Justice Strategic Plan for the Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service for 2021/22. It sets out the key priorities and targets for the service for the next 12 months as required by the Crime & Disorder Act 1998 and overseen by the Youth Justice Board. This Plan has been developed under the direction of the YJS Partnership Board after consultation with YJS staff and taking into account feedback from YJS service users. The Youth Justice Strategic Plan:

 summarises the YJS structure, governance and partnership arrangements  outlines the resources available to the YJS  reviews achievements and developments during 2020/21  identifies emerging issues and describes the partnership’s priorities  sets out our priorities and actions for improving youth justice outcomes this year.

This document sets out the YJS’s strategic plan. A delivery plan underpins this document.

Service Targets

The Dorset Combined YJS target for 2021/22 is to outperform regional and national averages for the three national performance indicators for youth offending which are:

 The number of young people entering the youth justice system for the first time (‘First Time Entrants’)  The rate of proven re-offending by young people in the youth justice system  The use of custodial sentences for young people.

Headline Strategic Priorities for 2021/22

 Continue and develop work to prevent children entering the justice system  Reduce the rate of Black and Minority Ethnic children entering custody  Develop joint work with other local services for children to improve outcomes for children in the justice system  Widen the application of trauma-informed practice to all children working with the Youth Justice Service  Strengthen the team’s work to repair harm and restore relationships

The reasons for identifying these priorities are explained later in this document and are summarised on pages 25-26, with actions to achieve these priorities outlined on pages 26- 28.

Page | 5 Page 105 Structure and Governance: The YJS Partnership Board

The work of the Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service is managed strategically by a Partnership Board. The Partnership Board consists of senior representatives of the statutory partner organisations, together with other relevant local partners.

Membership:

 Dorset Council (current chair)  Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (current vice-chair)  Dorset Police  Dorset Local Delivery Unit Cluster, National Probation Service  NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group  Public Health Dorset  Dorset Healthcare University Foundation Trust  Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunal service  Youth Justice Board for England and Wales  Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner  Ansbury Guidance

The Partnership Board oversees the development of the Youth Justice Plan, ensuring its links with other local plans.

The YJS Manager reports quarterly to the Partnership Board on progress against agreed performance targets, leading to clear plans for performance improvement. The Board also requests information in response to specific developments and agendas, and monitors the YJS’s compliance with data reporting requirements and grant conditions. Representation by senior leaders from the key partners enables the YJS Manager to resolve any difficulties in multi-agency working at a senior level, and supports effective links at managerial and operational levels. The YJS participates in local multi-agency agreements for information sharing, for safeguarding and for the escalation of concerns. The Partnership Board oversees activities by partner agencies which contribute to the key youth justice outcomes, particularly in respect of the prevention of offending. The YJS Partnership Board also provides oversight and governance for local multi-agency protocols in respect of the criminalisation of children in care and the detention of young people in police custody. The YJS Manager chairs multi-agency operational groups for each protocol and reports on progress to the YJS Partnership Board. The YJS is a statutory partnership working with children in the criminal justice system and the community safety arena. The map on the next page gives an overview of how the YJS fits with other strategic partnerships and plans.

Page | 6 Page 106 Linking the Youth Justice Service to other Plans and Structures Page 107 Page

The membership of the YJS Partnership Board enables the work of the Dorset Combined YJS to be integrated into strategic planning for Safeguarding, Public Protection, Criminal Justice, Community Safety and Health & Well-Being. The YJS Manager sits on the Dorset Criminal Justice Board, attends the two Community Safety Partnerships, the MAPPA Strategic Management Board and the Dorset Council Strategic Alliance for Children and Young People and represents youth offending teams on the ‘Wessex’ Criminal Justice Board Covid Recovery Group.

Page | 7 Partnership Arrangements

The previous section outlined the strategic links between the YJS and the other strategic groups and partnerships. Similar links exist at operational levels, enabling the YJS to integrate and coordinate its work with the work done by partners such as the two local children’s social care services, Special Educational Needs services, other criminal justice agencies, and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services across Dorset.

Safeguarding and Public Protection

As well as participating in Child Protection Conferences and Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) meetings in respect of specific individuals and families, YJS managers also attend MARAC meetings, local Community Safety Partnership operational meetings, local complex needs panel meetings and meetings in respect of early help activities in the two local authorities.

Child Exploitation

Children known to the YJS can also be harmed through child exploitation. YJS managers participate actively in the Child Exploitation Strategic and Tactical Groups for each local authority (in Dorset Council this is part of the Children At Risk Or Linked to Exploitation – ‘CAROLE’ - model). The YJS participates in local multi-agency information sharing arrangements and meetings to identify and protect children at risk of exploitation. A YJS Team Manager attends weekly meetings with the Police ‘Impact’ team to enable effective joint work for children at risk of exploitation. Reducing Re-Offending The YJS Manager chairs the pan-Dorset Reducing Reoffending Strategy Group, reporting to the Dorset Criminal Justice Board and the two Community Safety Partnerships. He also represents south-west youth offending teams on the South West Reducing Reoffending Partnership. Although the group’s main focus is on adult offenders, attention is also paid to the youth perspective, particularly for those young people about to transition to adult services, and for the children of adult offenders. Risk Assessment Panels

The YJS instigates a Risk Assessment Panel process for children under YJS supervision who have been identified as being at high risk of causing serious harm to others, or of experiencing significant harm themselves. These meetings are attended by workers and managers from the other agencies who are working with the child. The aim is to agree the risk assessment and devise, implement and review plans to reduce the risks posed by and to the child. Harmful Sexual Behaviour The YJS works with the two local authorities, the Police and health providers to agree the best way to respond to children who have committed harmful sexual behaviour. Some of these children are also known to the local authority social care service so it is important that we coordinate our work and, where possible, take a joint approach. The YJS and the local authorities use recognised assessment and intervention approaches for children who commit harmful sexual behaviour. Currently the YJS Manager is part of a multi-agency

Page | 8 Page 108 task and finish group, led by the CCG, to improve local provision for children who show harmful sexual behaviour.

Preventing Violent Extremism

All relevant YJS staff have received training in raising awareness of ‘Prevent’. A YJS Team Manager has lead responsibility for this area of work and attends the pan-Dorset Prevent Group to ensure that our work is aligned with local initiatives. The YJS has sight of the local assessment of extremism risks. The seconded YJS police officers act as a link to local police processes for sharing intelligence in respect of possible violent extremism. Young people convicted of extremism related offences will be managed robustly in line with the YJS Risk Policy, with appropriate referral to the local MAPPA process and clear risk management plans, including paired working arrangements and support from the seconded YJS police officers. Safe Schools and Communities Team

The Safe Schools and Communities Team (SSCT) is a partnership between Dorset Police, the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and Dorset Combined YJS. The SSCT plays an important role in preventing offending by young people across Dorset, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. The team provide education, awareness and advice to students, schools and parents. The work of the team is reported to the YJS Partnership Board as an important element of the YOS Partnership’s work to prevent youth offending. The SSCT’s School Incidents Policy is an important part of local work to reduce the number of children entering the justice system, helping schools to manage incidents without the need for a criminal outcome.

Restorative Justice and Support for Victims

The YJS Restorative Justice Practitioners provide Restorative Justice activities and support for victims of offences committed by young people. The YJS also links with other agencies through the Victims and Witnesses Sub-Group of the Dorset Criminal Justice Board. The YJS plays an important part in delivering the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Restorative Justice Strategy for Dorset, taking the lead on offences committed by young people and supporting the development of good practice with other Restorative Justice providers.

Reducing Youth Detentions in Police Custody

The YJS Manager chairs a multi-agency group, reporting to the YJS Partnership Board, which works to ensure that as few young people as possible are detained locally in police custody and to limit the duration of youth custody detentions.

In addition to the team’s involvement in these different partnership groups, there is ongoing daily interaction with other local services. These links are illustrated on the following page:

Page | 9 Page 109 Operational Links between YJS and Partner Agencies Page 110 Page

Page | 10 Resources and value for money

The funding contributions to the YJS partnership budget are listed below. Local authority staff are employed by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. Other staff are seconded from Dorset Police, the National Probation Service Dorset and Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust. Like all public services, the YJS operates in a context of reducing resources. Ensuring value for money and making best use of resources is a high priority for the service.

Movement 14/15 to 21/22 – 21/22 Revenue including disaggregation Partner Agency excluding Staff movements between DC recharges and BCP Councils Dorset Council £492,800 -£39,100 Bournemouth, Christchurch £577,700 £26,670 and Poole Council

Page 111 Page 2.0 Police Officers. Funding reduction from 14/15 to Police and Crime £75,301 -£78,149 15/16 reflects funding of SSCT directly by the OPCC Commissioner for Dorset to the Police, no longer via the YOS 1.0 Probation Officer (reduction from 2.6 to March National Probation Service £5,000 £1,826 2015, from 2.0 to March 2018 and from 1.5 to March Dorset 2020, with adjusted funding contribution, after national review) Dorset Clinical £22,487 £0 2.8 FTE Nurses, 0.8 Psychologist, 1.4 Speech and Commissioning Group Language Therapist Youth Justice Board Good £653,417 -£136,997 Practice Grant

Total £1,826,705 -£225,750

NHS England funding was secured in 2019/20 to support DCYJS becoming a ‘trauma-informed service’. Some of this funding has been carried over to support implementation of this model.

Page | 11 Staffing information

This chart shows the YJS structure in January 2021. DCYJS meets the minimum staffing requirements of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Page 112 Page

Page | 12 YOS Staff Male Female White British 12 40 White Irish 1 0 White Other 0 1 13 41

YOS Volunteers Male Female White British 7 13 White Other 0 1

7 14

DCYJS Achievements and Performance during 2020/21

As part of our commitment to a ‘child first’ ethos we changed our service’s name this year to Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service. This reflects our determination to see the young people we work with as children not offenders. Youth justice work continues to be judged against 3 key performance indicators:

 Reducing First Time Entrants into the Youth Justice System;  Reducing Re-Offending by young people in the Youth Justice System;  Appropriately Minimising the use of Custodial Sentences.

National performance data is published quarterly by the Youth Justice Board. There is a time lag on this data and it is not possible to verify the accurate allocation of children to local authority areas. During the pandemic there have been gaps in the national data reporting for first-time entrants and for reducing re-offending, due to capacity issues in the Ministry of Justice. The following sections therefore include local data as well as national data, along with commentary on the figures reported.

First Time Entrants into the Youth Justice System

The latest available national performance data shows the following performance for Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service, with the regional and national averages also shown:

Page | 13 Page 113 Rate of FTEs per 100,000 of the 10-17 Year Olds Population in the 12 months to December 500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

DCYJS SW Region National

The most recent data publication, in March 2021, did not include new figures for first-time entrants meaning that the national data is not as up to date as would be expected. Between late 2016 and late 2018 there was a steady increase in the rate of first time entrants to the youth justice system in Dorset. This coincided with a fall in the regional and national averages for this indicator, meaning that Dorset moved above those benchmark figures.

Information derived from our local case management system shows more recent performance data:

Page | 14 Page 114 Since late 2018 there has been a downward trend in the rate of first time entrants in Dorset. This trend has continued in the last year with the data derived from our case management system indicating that the rate of first-time entrants is now at its lowest since the merger of our youth offending teams in 2015. The following tables show the age, gender and ethnicity breakdown of our first-time entrants in the year January to December 2020:

These tables show that 82.8% of the first-time entrants were male, 17.8% were female. 51% of the first-time entrants were aged 16 or 17. In terms of ethnicity, 8.9% were from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic backgrounds. This is broadly consistent with the proportion of BAME young people in our local population, indicating that BAME children are not over- represented locally at the stage of children entering the justice system. The following points provide further context for our first-time entrants performance:

Page | 15 Page 115  The period from March 2020 was affected by the pandemic, making comparisons with previous years more difficult.  Arrest rates for children in our local authority areas fell during April 2020 but returned to a more consistent level from May 2020.  Arrests and ‘voluntary attendance’ interviews for children in 2020/21 were lower than the previous year.  In 2019 Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service and Dorset Police reviewed all ‘out of court disposal’ decisions taken in the year 2018/19 for children who had not previously entered the justice system and found that decisions were consistent and appropriate.  In May 2020 a new ‘Youth Diversion Disposal’ was introduced as an option for simple offences of possession of cannabis, providing an additional diversion option.  Plans for 2021/22 include adding local authority ‘Early Help’ managers into our weekly decision-making meetings for youth offences, considering wider application of the Youth Diversion Disposal and the appointment of a police officer to coordinate support for children diverted from the justice system.  Dorset Council’s strategic plans for children include a strong emphasis on prevention. Diverting children from the justice system is an important element of this work and DCYJS is working actively with partners in Dorset to increase diversion options and to reduce the criminalisation of children.

Reducing Re-Offending

The national re-offending figures relate to the further re-offending of groups of young people in the 12 months after they received a caution or court conviction. Each quarter a different group of young people is tracked; for example, the most recent data relates to those young people who received a justice outcome in the period January to December 2018.

% Young People Re-offending within 12 months Comparison of DCYJS with National and Regional

44.0%

42.0%

40.0%

38.0%

36.0%

34.0%

32.0%

30.0% Jan 14 - Dec 14 Jan 15 - Dec 15 Jan 16 - Dec 16 Jan 17 - Dec 17 Jan 18 - Dec 18 Dorset Combined YJS 40.0% 37.8% 33.6% 33.0% 37.4% South West 36.0% 35.9% 34.9% 34.0% 37.8% England & Wales 42.7% 42.5% 41.5% 38.6% 38.5%

Page | 16 Page 116 There is a time lag on the national data, to allow time for reoffending, conviction and police recording, which means that the most recent data relates to young people whose contact with the YJS occurred more than 2 years ago. Like other youth offending teams, DCYJS also analyses local reoffending data to give us more recent and more nuanced information. This data is reported to the YJS Partnership Board to help inform and shape the partnership’s strategic plans. Recent analysis of reoffending information drawn from our local data showed that: • Same reoffending rate for each gender • All the reoffenders were aged14-16 • Most reoffenders lived in Bournemouth or Poole • Current and previous children in care were more likely to reoffend than children never in care • Burglary and theft offences together had the highest reoffending rates • 11/17 reoffenders did so within 3 months

In recent years DCYJS has been developing good practice in responding to the individual needs of each child. Evidence shows that children in the justice system are likely to have speech, language and communication needs and they may well have experienced trauma in their earlier life which affects their current behaviour. Speech, Language and Communication The Youth Justice Service Speech and Language Therapist posts have become integral to our work. All young people who receive a court order or a second out of court disposal receive a specialist speech and language assessment.

Page | 17 Page 117 The preceding chart demonstrates the speech and language needs of the 202 young people assessed over the last two years by the YJS Speech and Language Therapists: About 80% of children working with the YJS have some level of speech, language and communication needs. Over 50% of the children assessed have a moderate or severe language impairment which is likely to impact on their access to education and talking interventions. In many cases these needs have not been identified before the child enters the justice system. Helping to identify and respond to these needs at an earlier stage could help to reduce the numbers of children entering the justice system. Practitioners in the YJS use information from the child’s speech and language assessment to guide how they communicate with the child. Recommendations from the assessments are also shared with other services working with the child, including education providers, and with the child and their family or carers. Trauma-Informed Practice In February 2020 all YJS practitioners were trained in trauma-informed practice, leading to the implementation of the Trauma Recovery Model (TRM). The underlying principle is that children who have experienced trauma in their early lives are likely to experience delay in their emotional and cognitive development. This means that interventions with them should respond to their developmental stage rather than their chronological age. The TRM approach is summarised in the following schematic illustration: The trauma ‘lens’ is being applied to all the children we work with. Understanding the child’s developmental stage helps to make our work more effective. To support this work we have developed guides for how to work with children at different levels of the ‘triangle’. An example of one of these guides is appended to this report. For a small number of children with significant complexity and risk an ‘Enhanced Case Management’ formulation meeting is convened, chaired by a YJS Practice Manager, led by the YJS Psychologist and attended by practitioners from a range of services working with the child. This leads to a formulation (a working hypothesis, based on the child’s story thus far) written by the Psychologist to guide the work with the child. This formulation is shared with other services working alongside the YJS and taking on work at the end of the YJS intervention. In the first year of applying this model formulations, with review meetings, have been undertaken for five children.

Page | 18 Page 118 Restorative Justice The YJS Restorative Justice Practitioners contact all victims of offences by children and offer them a choice of restorative justice options, including face to face Restorative Justice Conferences, ‘shuttle’ restorative justice where the parties relay messages but do not meet, work by the child to repair the harm caused (‘reparation’) and letters of explanation. Some offences committed by children take place in the family home, with other family members being the victim of the offence. A recent initiative has been for the YJS parenting workers to complete the Restorative Justice Conference facilitation training. This helps us apply restorative approaches to our work with family conflict to help repair relationships. A significant proportion of offences by children feature emergency workers, such as police officers, as the victim. A snapshot of the caseload of our Restorative Justice Practitioners showed that about 25% of the victims they work with are emergency workers. It can be difficult to engage police officers and other emergency workers in restorative justice processes so the YJS is developing a ‘standardised approach’ to increase the restorative justice options for working with children who have committed these offences. There are a number of strands to this approach, including the seconded YJS Police Officers meeting with the child to explain the impact of these offences and the children raising money for a relevant charity, Blue Light Support. We will develop this area of work further in 2021/22.

Page | 19 Page 119 Custodial Sentences

Use Of Custody Comparison of DCYJS with National and Regional

0.45

0.40

0.35

0.30

0.25

0.20

0.15

0.10

0.05

0.00 Oct 16 - Jan 17 - Apr 17 - Jul 17 - Jun Oct 17 - Jan 18 - Apr 18 - Jul 18 - Jun Oct 18 - Jan 19 - Apr 19 - Jul 19 - Jun Oct 19 - Jan 20 - Sep 17 Dec 17 Mar 18 18 Sep 18 Dec 18 Mar 19 19 Sep 19 Dec 19 Mar 20 20 Sep 20 Dec 20 Dorset Combined YJS 0.10 0.08 0.08 0.10 0.08 0.06 0.06 0.05 0.05 0.08 0.08 0.06 0.03 0.00 South West 0.16 0.19 0.19 0.16 0.14 0.11 0.10 0.09 0.10 0.10 0.11 0.11 0.08 0.08 England & Wales 0.41 0.40 0.37 0.34 0.32 0.32 0.30 0.29 0.28 0.25 0.22 0.19 0.14 0.14

We continue to see very low rates of custodial sentences locally, with rates declining further in the year to March 2021. The achievement of low custodial sentence rates reflects work to intervene effectively at earlier stages of the justice system, responses to children that are individualised and integrated with partner agencies, and good work in court to build the confidence of magistrates in the community sentences supervised by DCYJS. Although numbers of children entering custody are low, there are recurring themes among this group which we are addressing. ‘Disproportionality’ Looking back over several years it is concerning that about 50% of local children receiving custodial sentences are Black or Minority Ethnicity (BME). Over the last year we have improved our data analysis which has indicated that BME children are not over- represented among first-time entrants but the proportions increase the further children go into our youth justice system. The Lammy Review (2017) found evidence that BME defendants are less likely to admit guilt for an offence, possibly indicating a lack of trust in the justice system, which means they become ineligible for Out of Court Disposals, entering the justice system at a later stage. Working with Dorset Police we monitor such issues and look for opportunities to divert cases from court. During the last year DCYJS have also joined a new Disproportionality sub-group of the Dorset Criminal Justice Board to contribute to a cross-system approach, working with partner agencies in Hampshire and Wiltshire. We have also initiated work with colleagues in BCP Council’s Children’s Services to investigate the representation of BME children in related areas like school exclusions, child exploitation and children in care. We will continue work in the coming year to understand the experience of BME children in our local justice system and to address issues that lead to over-representation.

Page | 20 Page 120 Child Exploitation Analysis of local children entering custody in recent years also shows that the majority have been identified as suffering harm from child exploitation. The YJS works closely with partner agencies, including children’s social care teams and Dorset Police, to avoid the inappropriate criminalisation of child exploitation victims and to provide the necessary holistic support. The YJS also works with other agencies under the ‘CAROLE’ model in Dorset Council and as part of the Community Safety Partnership child exploitation work in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, contributing to ‘contextual safeguarding’ activities to respond to risky locations and to networks of young people and adults as well as work with individual children. The shifting nature of child exploitation and the complexity of these issues, including judgements about a child’s culpability for criminal behaviour associated with their exploitation, means that this is an area of work that we continue to develop. One element of the response to exploited children in the justice system is the National Referral Mechanism, arising from section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The process is intended to establish if there are grounds to confirm that a child is the victim of exploitation, through an initial provisional decision and then a Conclusive Grounds decision taken by the ‘Single Competent Authority’ in the Home Office. Case law is still being developed to establish how these findings should influence decisions to continue with a prosecution and, if the prosecution does continue, to be taken into account in sentencing decisions. Currently there are significant delays in the NRM decision-making process which is delaying court cases for long periods, with adverse outcomes for the children affected and for the victims of their alleged offences. Our concerns have been shared with the Youth Justice Board. This issue continues to be a priority for 2021/22.

Covid 19: Youth Justice work during the pandemic

Like all services, our plans for 2020/21 were transformed by the pandemic and its impact on daily life.

All YJS staff members have been working from home since the lockdown of March 2020, with occasional, planned visits to our office bases. Attending to the wellbeing of our team members has been a high priority, recognising the impact of working alone, at home, in a time of collective stress and anxiety. Contact with children, victims and families has mostly been undertaken remotely, using video or telephone contact. Contacts have also been undertaken in person when necessary, with appropriate risk assessments and safety measures. The switch to remote work has led to some creative responses, including the following:

 YJS case managers using online resources with children they are supervising, providing support remotely  ‘virtual’ reparation sessions carried out, including work by children at home to make amends for their offence, such as gardening, cooking, making craft items for sale  ASDAN short courses and like skills challenge courses adapted and supported by YJS practitioners and completed by children at home Page | 21 Page 121  Speech and Language assessments completed by video calls  Health interventions by YJS nurses, including trauma treatment using Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, via video calls  3 Restorative Justice Conferences completed with the participants taking part virtually. In the period from May to late July 2020 our local youth courts were closed due to the pandemic, creating a backlog of cases to add to the previous delays in the system. During the autumn we worked with court service colleagues to clear the backlog of cases with youth court timescales improving in early 2021.

Learning Reviews

The YJS adheres to the learning review processes of the Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children’s Partnership and also applies its own learning review procedures. When a child under YJS supervision experiences significant harm, or causes significant harm to others, a learning review process is instigated. During 2020/21 the YJS has contributed to a Safeguarding Children’s Practice Review relating to the death of a Dorset child in care who was living in Somerset. This review is likely to be completed in mid-2021. DCYJS did not work directly with this child but did identify some learning about liaison with other youth offending teams and support for children in care who are placed out of area. Learning reviews were instigated within DCYJS or through the Safeguarding Children’s Partnership in respect of 5 children (3 females and 2 males) all of whom suffered harm while working with DCYJS. Good practice was identified in respect of work to engage with these children. Learning points included the need for a whole family view when different services are working with different family members; improving the effectiveness of multi- agency planning for the child’s safety and well-being; enabling the YJS to contribute to decision-making processes about residential placements for children with whom the YJS is working. The learning points arising from learning reviews are incorporated into the team’s ongoing action plan.

Service User Feedback

In the previous year we identified a need to improve our collection of ‘spontaneous’ feedback from service users and stakeholders. During 2020-21 we received a number of comments, with some themes emerging. Service users were grateful for help with specific issues, illustrated by these comments:

B has been meeting virtually with the YJS nurse to complete the health assessment and was really pleased that she was doing this and was finding it helpful. She wants to reduce her anxieties.

T’s mum was positive about the input from the YJS Education Officer and commented that it had been the most help she has received in terms of home schooling

Page | 22 Page 122 Thank you for your speech and language report for C, we received it today. I wanted to personally thank you for such an accurate, sympathetic and positive report. You have totally understood C's strengths and challenges more than any other therapeutic report we have had since her ADHD diagnosis. I wish that we could've had this years ago as I feel she would've got so much more value from school with such understanding. ... and you achieved it all via one video call! Some service users wanted to carry on working with their YJS worker:

D states that he would like his YJS worker to remain involved despite him having completed his YRO….D’s mum told me that she thinks his YJS worker has helped Charlie with confidence and to think about how his behaviour affects others.

E’s carer reported that if at appeal E’s conviction was overturned he hoped that his YJS worker would continue to work with him. He is very appreciative of the work she is covering with him and is learning from this hence wanting the work to continue.

There was also a theme of service users feeling listened to and understood:

F’s carer wanted us to know that it was important to her that the YJS parenting worker also understood her experiences and she had told the worker things about her experiences that she had never talked about before but it made her feel better.

“This has been an opportunity for him to gain access to education and support that he would not have had otherwise, his YJS worker has worked well with him" his parent continued to say…"I have regular contact with his worker and she has been very supportive, I know I can talk to her if I have concerns”. We also continue to use feedback surveys to gather service user views but recognise that the response rate is limited. Of those who have responded, the following information shows responses to questions about the quality and impact of the relationship with the YJS worker:

5. My worker thought I would make positive changes to my life:

Response Response

Percent Total

1 Very Dissatisfied 2.27% 1

2 Dissatisfied 2.27% 1

3 Neutral 13.64% 6

4 Satisfied 43.18% 19

5 Very Satisfied 38.64% 17

Statistics Minimum 1 Mean 4.14 Std. Deviation 0.89 Satisfaction Rate 78.41 answered 44

Maximum 5 Variance 0.8 Std. Error 0.13 skipped 2

Page | 23 Page 123 6. My worker listens to my ideas and helps me find my own answers:

Response Response

Percent Total

1 Very Dissatisfied 0.00% 0

2 Dissatisfied 4.44% 2

3 Neutral 8.89% 4

4 Satisfied 33.33% 15

5 Very Satisfied 53.33% 24

Statistics Minimum 2 Mean 4.36 Std. Deviation 0.82 Satisfaction Rate 83.89 answered 45

Maximum 5 Variance 0.67 Std. Error 0.12 skipped 1

7. Working with the YJS made things better for me:

Response Response

Percent Total

1 Very Dissatisfied 4.44% 2

2 Dissatisfied 4.44% 2

3 Neutral 13.33% 6

4 Satisfied 40.00% 18

5 Very Satisfied 37.78% 17

Statistics Minimum 1 Mean 4.02 Std. Deviation 1.04 Satisfaction Rate 75.56 answered 45 Maximum 5 Variance 1.09 Std. Error 0.16

In 2021/22 we plan to develop our approach to gathering service user feedback to gain views linked to specific areas of our work and to our service priorities.

Page | 24 Page 124 Summary of local and national issues that inform our priorities for 2021/22

National Context

The Youth Justice Board’s ‘guiding principle’ is for a ‘child first’ approach to underpin all its work. This will enable it to: “Prioritise the best interests of children, recognising their needs, capacities, rights and potential.

Build on children's individual strengths and capabilities as a means of developing a pro- social identity for sustainable desistance from crime. This leads to safer communities and fewer victims. All work is constructive and future-focused, built on supportive relationships that empower children to fulfil their potential and make positive contributions to society.

Encourage children's active participation, engagement and wider social inclusion. All work is a meaningful collaboration with children and their supporters.

Promote a childhood removed from the justice system, using prevention, diversion and minimal intervention. All work minimises criminogenic stigma from contact with the system.”

To support this work, and to respond to specific current issues, the Youth Justice Board has also appointed ‘strategic leads’ for  Over-represented children  Custody and Resettlement  Serious Youth Violence and Exploitation The ‘child first’ vision and the strategic priorities for over-represented children and reducing youth violence and exploitation have particular resonance for us locally.

Local Context

Both Dorset Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council have developed strategic plans to impove the effectiveness of their work with children. Although there are some issues which are specific to each local authority, there are common themes including:

 Child first approaches that promote the voice of the child  Joined up services responding to children and families  The right support at the right time  Working restoratively  Relationship and strengths-based practice  Improving day to day practice. Service developments in the two local authorities that relate closely to the work of DCYJS include the creation of the Complex Safeguarding Team in BCP Council (working with children suffering significant harm from exploitation). In Dorset Council the strong emphasis on prevention work links with the DCYJS priority to reduce first-time entrants Page | 25 Page 125 into the justice system, aligned with the work of the Harbour Project (providing multi- disciplinary support to adolescents at risk of entering care or requiring other specialist services). It is a priority in 2021/22 for DCYJS to further develop its joint work with these services. Other statutory partners also have strategic priorities that are relevant to the work of DCYJS, including:

 Reintegration of the National Probation Service and the Community Rehabilitation Company, to include effective transitions for youths entering the adult justice system  Dorset Police and DCYJS continuing work to reduce first-time entrants, including the addition of local authority Early Help managers into the weekly decision-making panel for children receiving Out of Court Disposals  Reducing the over-representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people in our local justice system  A system-wide partnership approach to meeting the mental health and wellbeing needs of children and young people in Dorset  Recovery from the court delays and difficulties caused or exacerbated by the Covid- 19 pandemic.

Strategic Priorities. for 2021-22

The strategic priorities for the Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service align with:

 our three main performance indicators

 the strategic priorities of the Youth Justice Board  the strategic priorities of the DCYJS partnership organisations

 areas identified for YJS improvement, based on outcomes of performance monitoring, learning reviews and feedback from YJS staff and service users.

The DCYJS strategic priorities can be grouped under the following headings:  System improvement  Practice improvement

System Improvement Continue and develop work to prevent children entering the justice system

 Add Early Help representatives to weekly Out of Court Disposal decision-making meetings to strengthen diversion options  Work with the new police officer role to support children and families after diversion from the justice system  Consolidate the use of the Youth Diversion Disposal and consider expanding its application to other offence types  Work with partners to enable the assessment of Speech, Language and Communication Needs for children at risk of school exclusion.

Page | 26 Page 126 Reduce the rate of Black and Minority Children entering custody

 Ensure all youth justice work is undertaken from an anti-racist perspective  Gather the views of BME children and their families on their experience of the justice system and take appropriate actions to build trust and improve confidence  Work with partner agencies to monitor outcomes for BME children across children’s services systems  Join with Local Criminal Justice Board partners across Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire to report on and compare outcomes for BME children and adults in the justice system  Apply the Lammy principle of ‘explain or reform’ in response to evidence of any disproportionately negative outcomes for BME children Develop joint work with other local services for children to improve outcomes for children in the justice system

 Strengthen links and multi-disciplinary collaboration with the Harbour project in Dorset for teenagers needing additional support to achieve the best outcomes  Strengthen links and joint working with the Complex Safeguarding Team in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and with other partners to safeguard children who are suffering harm from exploitation

 Join with agencies in community safety, criminal justice and children’s services to understand and develop effective responses to children carrying weapons

 Work with partners to establish a multi-agency strategic approach to the use of the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) for children suspected of criminal offences in the context of being exploited

 Work with local authority children’s social care colleagues to improve joint support for children in care placed out of area and receiving youth justice interventions

 Confirm joint working arrangements with the new SEND teams in each local authority to improve access to suitable education for children in the youth justice system

 Finish work with colleagues in health, education and social care services to develop a more integrated and comprehensive response to children who show harmful sexual behaviour.

Practice Improvement Widen the application of trauma-informed practice to all children working with the Youth Justice Service

 Develop a consistent approach to the use of trauma perspectives in YJS assessments and plans  Establish a standard framework for health team consultations with YJS case managers to summarise the impact of past trauma and to guide engagement with the child

Page | 27 Page 127  Complete and promote the ‘trauma guide’ documents for responses to children at different levels of the ‘trauma triangle’  Build practitioner confidence and knowledge about how to adapt interventions to meet the child’s emotional and cognitive development.

Strengthen the team’s work to repair harm and restore relationships

 Develop and embed the ‘standardised approach’ for restorative justice responses to offences against emergency workers  Develop a more robust Unpaid Work option for children on Youth Rehabilitation Orders  Extend links between reparation, Unpaid Work and positive activities that enhance children’s strengths and their education opportunities  Support other services to apply restorative approaches in their work

These headline priority areas will be supported by a more detailed team action plan, including more specific targets and measures, which will be implemented and developed during the year.

Covid-19

This plan has been written during the third covid-19 ‘lockdown’. Like all services, DCYJS has radically changed its working arrangements and working practices in response to the pandemic. As we move into the recovery and rebuilding phases, we will review the changes we have made so that we can identify the new ways of working that should be sustained in the longer term. Priority will be given to ensuring effective work with children, carers and victims while taking necessary health precautions and to supporting the well- being and safety of our workers and volunteers.

Page | 28 Page 128 Approval

Signatures of YJS Board Chair and YJS Manager

Theresa Leavy (YJS Board Chair) Executive Director People - Children Dorset Council

Signed: Date:

David Webb Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service Manager Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council

Signed: Date:

Page | 29 Page 129 Appendix A – Glossary of Terms

AssetPlus Nationally Accredited Assessment Tool BAME Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic CAMHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services CJS Criminal Justice System CSP Community Safety Partnership ETE Education Training and Employment FTE First Time Entrant into the Youth Justice System ISS Intensive Supervision and Surveillance IT Information Technology LSCB Local Safeguarding Children’s Board MAPPA Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements NEET Not in Education, Employment or Training OOCD Out Of Court Disposals PCC Police & Crime Commissioner RJ Restorative Justice SEND Special Educational Needs and Disabilities SSCT Safe Schools and Communities Team VLO Victim Liaison Officer YJ Youth Justice YJB Youth Justice Board YOS/YOT Youth Offending Service/Team YRD Youth Restorative Disposal YRO Youth Rehabilitation Order

Page | 30 Page 130 Appendix B – Example of the YJS ‘trauma level guides’ to help practitioners respond to the young person’s current functioning

Page | 31 Page 131 Page | 32 Page 132 Appendix B Level

Page | 33 Page 133 Appendix B

Page | 34 Page 134 Agenda Item 8

Cabinet 18 May 2021 Protocol for Planning Obligations Funding Allocations - Community Schemes

For Decision

Portfolio Holder: Cllr D Walsh, Planning

Local Councillor(s): All

Executive Director: J Sellgren, Executive Director of Place

Report Author: Michael Garrity Title: Head of Planning Tel: 01305 221826 Email: [email protected]

Report Status: Public

Recommendation:

That Cabinet: 1. Agrees the protocol for the award of planning obligations funding allocations to appropriate bodies (Appendix A of this report); 2. Confirms that the protocol will be used to consider eligibility of those bodies seeking to spend s106 planning obligations in accordance with the purposes for which the obligations were collected; and 3. Agrees the protocol will come into effect on 19 May 2021.

Reason for Recommendation:

To provide a framework for managing the allocation of s106 developer contributions to appropriate bodies which is clear, consistently applied, and which secures appropriate levels of accountability.

1. Executive Summary

Page 135 1.1 Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended) allows local planning authorities to secure financial contributions from development to make a development acceptable in planning terms where it would otherwise be unacceptable. This is normally achieved by using the contributions to fund mitigation measures or specific infrastructure that is needed as a result of the development. Developer contributions under s106 are separate and in addition to the Community Infrastructure Levy (but should not duplicate this).

1.2 Developer contributions that are not collected via CIL are the subject of a legal agreement which will usually specify to a greater or lesser extent the planning purposes for which the money can be spent. It is normally the case that funds have to be spent within 10 years of receipt and, if not, the funds may be returned.

1.3 Under the provisions of the General Power of Competence (GPC)1, local authorities have been given additional flexibilities to promote the economic, environmental and social well-being of their areas, as long as this is not prohibited by other legislation. It applies to all principal councils (district, county and unitary councils etc). It also applies to eligible2 parish and town councils. Under these provisions, it has been possible for eligible parish and town councils to take on the responsibility of managing developer contributions which have been collected for local community infrastructure. Where this applies, funds can be transferred by the Local Planning Authority to the relevant ‘competent’ body to deliver the infrastructure. This recognises the role of towns and parishes as the first tier of local government and ensures that the funds are managed at a suitably local level to deliver the infrastructure needed by the community.

1.4 There are occasions, however, when the town or parish council are not GPC- eligible but could still be best placed to deliver the infrastructure. Alternatively, they may elect not to take on management of developer contributions, for instance where they do not have the resources necessary to administer the funds or procure the projects to deliver the infrastructure. It is also feasible that the terms of the s106 obligation could require, or benefit from, involvement of a specific expert body to deliver a particular piece of infrastructure. In such situations there may be better-placed organisations with the necessary capabilities and accountability to manage the funds, or alternatively the role could reside with the Local Planning Authority.

1.5 Whilst in many cases the town or parish council will be well-placed to manage such funds, it is important that due diligence is followed regarding

1 Localism Act 2011 2 An eligible council is one which has resolved to adopt the GPC, with at least two thirds of its members being declared elected and the Clerk must hold an appropriate qualification

Page 136 the appropriateness of the relevant body to manage the funds before the money is handed over. This will also require the necessary assurances that the funds will be spent in accordance with the planning/legal requirements.

1.6 A protocol for planning obligations funding allocations has therefore been prepared in order to provide clear principles and a consistent approach, while also securing accountability for managing the obligations. This is set out in Appendix A.

2 Establishing a Protocol

2.1 When developer contributions are secured for local/community infrastructure it is often the case that the town or parish council will be best placed to oversee the implementation of these funds. This is something that was practiced by legacy authorities prior to April 2019 and to-date those practices have been subsumed within the new authority. However, Dorset Council currently has no formal protocol in place to guide decisions regarding the governance of community schemes funding. This raises potential risks:

 In the event that s106 funds are handed over to another body but are not spent in accordance with the purposes for which the money was collected, Dorset Council could face claims against it from the contributing developer to repay the funds;  Where a body other than a town or parish council is interested in managing the implementation of the monies, there is currently no established process for assessing the suitability of that body, or for deciding on whether or not they would be qualified or better-placed than the town or parish council;  It is important, even in the case of a town or parish council, to get suitable assurances that it complies with the general powers of competence and/or is otherwise ‘competent’ for the purposes of delivering the infrastructure.

2.2 It is therefore proposed that Dorset Council establishes a protocol for those situations where it is expecting to hand over developer contributions to local bodies. This does not have any bearing upon the purposes for which the money was collected in the first place as the subsequent spending is required to meet the terms of the legal agreement. However, it will provide the Council with a clear decision-making route for confirming the body that is best-placed to deliver the spending, and will establish the necessary safeguards to ensure appropriate accountability.

3 Summary of protocol

Page 137 3.1 The protocol emphasises that Dorset Council is the accountable body for the spending of developer contributions and, when entrusting another body to discharge this function, it must ensure that:

 the funding is spent on facilities that can be demonstrated to be required because of the new development taking place;  the projects supported are necessary, viable, will deliver the required social and community benefits, and will be well managed; and  the process for handing over contributions is transparent and fair to all.

3.2 The protocol recognises that:

a) town and parish councils that have the general power of competence will normally be well-placed to manage such funds due to their democratic accountability and ability to take a long-term interest in the delivery/ management of the project; b) there may be circumstances where such councils are not GPC-eligible bodies, or which decide not to take on the responsibility for managing the contributions (for example due to there being a better-placed organisation to implement the project); c) other ‘not for profit’ organisations may bid to manage the funds, subject to being able to demonstrate they have a general power of competence and are otherwise able to offer assurances about their suitability to the role; d) the recipient body will be required to enter into an agreement with the Dorset Council to confirm that the money will be spent in accordance with the purposes for which it was collected, and where unspent, liability for returning the funds will rest with the recipient body.

4 Financial Implications

3.1 Developer contributions are funds which are collected from developers via the planning system for specific mitigation and infrastructure purposes. The proposed protocol will provide the necessary assurances that, where community scheme allocations are made, this will be spent on the delivery of infrastructure for which it was collected, and will minimise the financial risk to Dorset Council of any claims by developers for the return of unspent funds.

4. Well-being and Health Implications

4.1 The protocol should streamline the process for allocating developer contributions to appropriate competent bodies in a way that is transparent and accountable. This in turn should assist in the effective delivery of social infrastructure which will benefit the health and well-being of local communities. 5. Climate implications

Page 138 5.1 The collection and spending of developer contributions takes place in accordance with the adopted development plan policies which, in combination, seek to promote sustainable development. This might include local infrastructure which can meet needs locally (thereby reducing the need to travel) and mitigation measures to offset the impacts of development, such as natural greenspace, habitat creation and climate adaptation measures. The protocol will positively assist in delivering the principles of sustainable development.

6. Other Implications

6.1 None to report.

7. Risk Assessment

7.1 Having considered the risks associated with this decision, the level of risk has been identified as:

Current Risk: Medium Residual Risk: Low

8. Equalities Impact Assessment

8.1 The protocol sets out a framework for managing developer contributions collected under the provisions of adopted statutory policies and does not affect the purposes for which these are earmarked. The statutory development plans have been the subject of Equalities Impact Assessment.

9. Appendices

A: Dorset Council Protocol for Section 106 Community Schemes Funding allocations

10. Background Papers

10.1 None

Footnote: Issues relating to financial, legal, environmental, economic and equalities implications have been considered and any information relevant to the decision is included within the report.

Page 139 This page is intentionally left blank Protocol for Planning Obligations Funding Allocations - Community Schemes

1. Introduction

1.1 Under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (the Act), as amended, contributions can be sought from developers towards the costs of providing community and social infrastructure where the need has arisen from the new development taking place. This funding is commonly known as a Section 106 contribution or planning obligation. This is separate and in addition to Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

1.2 The decision to require a developer to make a Section 106 contribution is made by a Planning Committee or by an officer with delegated powers before planning consent is granted. This protocol is not about how decisions are made to require a developer to enter into an agreement. Instead it concerns how Dorset Council may allocate funding collected under s106 to town and parish councils and to ‘not for profit’ organisations.

1.3 It is important to note that developer contributions may only be spent on infrastructure where the infrastructure is necessary1 as a consequence of the development. These are secured through a legal agreement under the provisions of section 106 of the Act. The s106 Agreement will specify the purposes for which the contribution can be used.

1.4 The Localism Act 2011 provided greater flexibility for local authorities to pass on responsibility to deliver infrastructure to appropriate bodies (see Section 2). Consequently, some community infrastructure is delivered by, and is the responsibility of, town and parish councils or community organisations.

2. Organisations’ Eligibility for Project Funding

2.1 The Localism Act 2011 gave eligible Councils in England ‘the power to do anything that individuals generally may do as long as they do not break any other laws’ – this is known as the General Power of Competence. This means that Councils, once adopting the power, no longer need to ask whether they have a specific power to act. It is a power of first resort.

2.2 An eligible town or parish council is one which has resolved to adopt the GPC2, with at least two thirds of its members being declared elected. The Clerk must hold an appropriate qualification3.

1 (Regulation 122 Community Infrastructure Regulations 2010, as amended) 2 (Parish Councils (General Power of Competence) (Prescribed Conditions) Order 2012 3 Certificate in Local Council Administration or an equivalent qualification.

1 Page 141 2.3 Dorset Council is able to allocate funding collected under s106 to town and parish councils. However, funding can also be allocated to ‘Not for Profit’ organisations, such as:

 Educational Establishments  Company Limited by Guarantee with Charitable Status  Registered Charitable Organisation  Unincorporated not for profit organisation.

2.4 Where infrastructure funding is to be allocated to external bodies, Dorset Council will require some assurances that they are suitably ‘competent’ for the purposes of delivering the funding. The following sections of this protocol set out the principles and criteria that will be used by Dorset Council when deciding on the allocation of planning obligations funding. It also sets out certain conditions that need to be met.

3. Principles and criteria for allocation of planning obligations to eligible bodies

Principles

3.1 Dorset Council is the Local Planning Authority and is the accountable body for the spending of S106 monies and therefore must ensure that:  The funding is spent on facilities that can be demonstrated to be required because of the new development taking place.  Projects supported are necessary, viable, will deliver the required social and community benefits, and will be well managed.  The process is transparent and fair to all.

3.2 Before any funding can be released by the Council for a given project, key criteria must be met to offer the Council a degree of security that monies will be spent appropriately and in the manner to which they were intended. Criteria for assessing the award of allocations 3.3 When assessing proposed projects or the eligibility for award of monies the following criteria will be used.

3.4 The organisation shall confirm to Dorset Council that it:  has a general power of competence or equivalent powers through its articles or similar; and/or  is an appropriately constituted body (or acting on such a body’s behalf) which has a bank account and is suitably placed to deliver and maintain the infrastructure.

3.5 Applicants shall provide the Local Planning Authority with evidence of the following: a) the need for the project (e.g. identified in a development plan, community consultation or identified in a s106 obligation):

2 Page 142 o For existing assets – provide the Local Planning Authority with sufficient assurances that an increase in usage of the asset will arise as a result of awarding the funding (i.e. a greater number of people will use the facility); o For existing or new assets - a broader usage of the asset as a result of awarding the funding (e.g. use by disabled people, older or younger people who may not have had access previously); b) value for money for any work proposed; c) that the recipient has tenure of the land identified to benefit from the funding or a lease for a suitable period i.e. proportional to the grant awarded, or written agreement of the landowner; d) support in writing from the local town or parish council (for recipients that are not town or parish councils) or reasons as to why this has not been provided; e) that planning permission has been granted for any works funded or is not required; f) that a complete funding package is in place with the offer of a s106 grant; g) That there is financial sustainability for delivering and maintaining the asset in perpetuity; h) confirmation that, where appropriate, the facilities provided will be open to the general public with no membership restrictions in relation to the Equality Act 2010, and will have wide public and community benefit; and i) a contract agreement signed prior to release of funding between the applicant and the Council detailing the terms under which the money is granted.

4. Conditions

4.1 Any organisation in receipt of a 106 award or transaction will be required to adhere to the following conditions (and enter into a deed or equivalent agreement):

Purpose and use of Funding

a) The Recipient shall use the Funding only for the delivery of the Project and in accordance with the agreed project description and any specific requirements of relevant development plan policies, planning permissions/conditions, and the terms of relevant s106 agreement(s) b) The Recipient shall not make any alteration or amendment to the Project without the prior written agreement of the Local Planning Authority. c) The Recipient agrees that it shall not apply for duplicate funding in respect of any part of the Project that the Council’s funding in full under this Agreement.

3 Page 143 Release of s106 Funding

4.2 The Local Planning Authority shall release the Funding to the Recipient at a mutually agreeable time. The trigger for any release shall normally be the point at which sufficient assurances can be provided by the recipient about the implementation of the project, such as evidence of an award of tender for construction with timeframes for commencement and completion.

4.3 The amount of the Funding shall not be increased in the event of any overspend by the Recipient in its delivery of the Project.

4.4 The Local Planning Authority reserves the right to consider each bid on its merits.

Repayment of Funding

4.5 Without prejudice to the other rights and remedies, the Local Planning Authority may withhold or suspend payment of the Funding (if applicable) and/or require repayment of all or part of the Funding / forfeiture of the asset if:

 the Funding is used for purposes other than for the delivery of the Project under the terms agreed with the LPA;  the delivery of the Project does not start within the timeframes agreed with the Local Planning Authority;  the delivery of the Project stalls and the Recipient is unable to provide the Local Planning Authority with any assurances that resumption and completion can be achieved in a satisfactory timescale to comply with relevant development plan policies, planning permissions/conditions or the terms of any relevant s106 agreement(s);  the Recipient is, in the reasonable opinion of the Local Planning Authority, delivering the Project in a negligent manner;  the Recipient obtains duplicate funding from a third party for the Project;  the Recipient provides the Council with any materially misleading or inaccurate information;  the Recipient commits or has committed a Prohibited Act;  any employee or volunteer of the Recipient has: o acted dishonestly or negligently at any time, whether directly or indirectly, to the detriment of the Project; or o taken any actions which, in the reasonable opinion of the Funder, bring, or are likely to bring, the Council’s name or reputation into disrepute.  Upon delivery/completion of the Project, the Recipient shall return to the Local Planning Authority any unspent s106 funds within 6 months of the project’s completion (unless agreed otherwise in writing with the LPA); Any unspent funds that are returned to the LPA shall be subject to interest on the unspent balance in accordance with the terms of the transfer of funds.

4 Page 144 5. Decision Making and Reporting Arrangements

5.1 Under Dorset Council’s scheme of delegation to officers the Council has delegated to the Executive Director of Place authority:

“To allocate and distribute funding (including authorising payment) secured in connection with any permission (including any related planning obligation or CIL payment) consent or other approval granted under Town and Country Planning Legislation subject to the decision being in accordance with any strategy and/or policy adopted by the Council.”

5.2 The Executive Director has nominated4 the Service Manager for Spatial Planning to make such allocation and distribution decisions on his behalf.

5.3 Officers will consult with the relevant Area or Strategic Planning Committee Chairman and the local ward members before making allocation and distribution decisions under this protocol. Decision notices will be published on the transparency pages on the Council’s website.

5.4 Where officers intend allocating or distributing Section 106 contributions in excess of £500,000 they must consult the Section 151 Officer and ensure due diligence checks are undertaken before any payment is made.

5.5 The allocation and distribution of Section 106 monies shall be reported annually to each of the Area and Strategic Planning Committees.

4 Any future changes to nominated officers will apply where relevant

5 Page 145 This page is intentionally left blank Agenda Item 10

The Recommendation to Cabinet from Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee of 12 May 2021 is to follow

Appendices (attached)

Report to Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee – 12 May 2021

Appendices within the Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee report:

1. Appendix A – Dorset Council Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy and action plan - Consultation Response Report 2. Appendix B – Summary of key consultation comments and recommendations for changes

Background Papers

Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee Papers of 12 May 2021

Page 147 This page is intentionally left blank Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee 12th May 2021 Climate & Ecological Emergency Strategy Consultation results and recommended changes to final draft

For Recommendation to Cabinet

Portfolio Holder: Cllr R Bryan, Highways, Travel and Environment

Local Councillor(s): County Wide

Executive Director: John Sellgren, Executive Director of Place

Report Author: Antony Littlechild Title: Sustainability Team Manager Tel: 01305 224802 Email: [email protected]

Report Status: Public

Recommendation:

Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee consider the outcomes of the consultation and amendments to the Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy and Action Plan and recommend its final approval to Cabinet & Full Council.

Reason for Recommendation:

1. Executive Summary

1.1 Dorset Council declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency in 2019 and established an Executive Advisory Panel to strategically guide the Councils response. A draft Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy and Action Plan was produced and approved for public consultation by Cabinet in October 2020.

Page 149 1.2 A public consultation exercise on the Strategy and Action plan started in October 2020 and closed on 20th January 2021. The analysis of the consultation results highlighted an overall high level of agreement for the Councils strategy and action plan. Further consideration of over 12,000 text responses highlighted a number of key issues for each area of the strategy.

1.3 The results of the consultation were discussed with the Executive Advisory Panel on 25th February 2021, together with suggested changes to the Strategy and Action plan.

1.4 This paper sets out the findings of the consultation exercise and proposed changes to the Dorset Council Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy and Action plan for approval by Cabinet.

1.5 The Climate and Ecological Strategy and Action Plan is a living document that reflects the scale of the challenge and complexity of the issue. It aims to set an initial road map and direction of travel but recognises at this stage there is still further work to do. Many of the actions are therefore aimed at more detailed investigation and the development of more detailed initiatives.

1.6 All the actions have target dates for completion and can therefore be monitored and evaluated against them. The monitoring and evaluation of the strategy should be on a six monthly basis and take the form of a report to the Policy and Overview Committee.

2. Financial Implications

2.1 A costed action plan was presented to Cabinet, 6th October 2020, detailing 187 actions to 2050 requiring an estimated budget in the region of £127 million. The plan highlighted many actions could be taken forward with existing budgets, but an additional revenue requirement, in the region of £2.6 Million for 2021/22, was required.

2.2 In January 2021 Dorset Council secured £19 million in grant funding from the governments Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme and the Low Carbon Skills Fund. This will allow several significant revenue and capital actions within the plan to be brought forward into financial year 2021/22 specifically those related to the decarbonisation of the Dorset Council estate. It is anticipated these actions alone will reduce Dorset Council Carbon footprint by at least 10%, by April 2022.

Page 150 2.3 The costed action plan identified eight capital projects principally related to Dorset Council moving towards a carbon neutral estate, shifting to electric vehicles and generating renewable energy.

2.4 Alongside this paper, Cabinet will also be considering the 2021/22 Capital Programme at the 6th April Cabinet meeting. A number of the capital projects in the climate and ecology action plan are included as capital bids in the proposed capital programme for 2021/22, and there is an indication of the additional capital investment required in 2022/23 and beyond. This proposed investment of the Councils capital resources would complement the decarbonisation grant funding recently allocated by Government.

2.5 The draft action plan detailed 187 actions. Approximately 100 of these action will be taken forward within existing budgets through teams across the Council leading on specific areas of the plan , such as transport and waste services. A further 87 actions were identified as requiring additional resources, and the most significant of these will be fully funded by the Decarbonisation Grant and allocations within the Dorset Council Capital bids referred to above. The Action Plan milestones will therefore be updated to account for not only the changes identified through the consultation but also to take account of the additional grant funding, decision on the capital programme and Dorset Councils final budget for 2021/22.

2.6 In future years it is anticipated that an ongoing revenue stream would be established to support the strategy to include recycling of any savings achieved from public sector decarbonisation programme and retro fit measures.

2.7 Going forward the plan also identifies the need for ongoing financial support from external funding sources and the Council will continue to bid for these funds as they arise. It is recognised that there is a direct relationship between resources applied to this activity and funds secured.

3. Climate implications

3.1 The specific purpose of this report and delivery of the strategy is to present Dorset Councils overall approach to the climate and ecological emergency. The overall principle behind the strategy is to set out key areas where Dorset Council will need to take action to directly reduce carbon emissions from its own operations to become a carbon neutral

Page 151 Council by 2040 and by working in partnership to help Dorset residents and organisations achieve a wider carbon neutral Dorset County by 2050.

4. Risk Assessment

4.1 Having considered the risks associated with this report, the level of risk has been identified as:

Current Risk: Medium

Residual Risk: Low

4.2 Due to the known high level of public interest in the Climate Change Agenda and the previous commitment to provide opportunity for the public to comment on the draft strategy to not include key findings from the public consultation in the final document presents a medium level of reputational risk.

5. Equalities Impact Assessment –

5.1 An EqIA is being developed for the Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy but requires input from the results of the public consultation and then screening against the final strategy document

6. Appendices

Appendix A – Dorset Council Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy & Action plan - Consultation Response Report

Appendix B – Summary of key consultation comments and recommendations for changes

7. Background Papers

Cabinet Papers 6th October 2021 – Draft Climate and Ecological Emergency strategy

8. Background

8.1 Dorset Council declared a climate and ecological emergency in May 2019 and established an Executive Advisory Panel to oversee the development of the Councils approach. A draft Climate and Ecological Emergency

Page 152 Strategy was approved by Cabinet on 28th July which set out 8 key areas for action to ensure that Dorset Council becomes Carbon Neutral by 2040 and supports the whole of Dorset Council Area becoming carbon neutral by 2050. Critically this also set a carbon budget detailing the necessary reductions in carbon emissions against key target dates to meet the 2040 target.

8.2 The areas for action were further researched and developed into a detailed costed plan which sets timescales for delivery of actions to meet the key carbon budget reduction targets. Both the draft strategy and action plan were agreed by Cabinet 6th October 2020 for public consultation.

8.3 The consultation took the form of an on-line survey consisting of qualitative questions to gauge opinion on how strongly the consultees agreed or disagreed with each element of the strategy and action plan. Sections covered - our approach, carbon targets, each of the eight areas for action and associated detailed action plan and the actions related to governance, finance, communications and monitoring / reporting. Additional open text boxes where available for each section to capture additional comments.

8.4 The consultation was supported by a comprehensive communications plan aimed at maximising the response. This utilised a range of methods including

 Residents Newsletter  Media coverage  E-bulletins  Social Media  Radio Advertising  Direct Emails  Webinars  Internal Comms

8.5 Key stakeholders such as, Parish and Town Councils, young people and key organisations where specifically targeted. Webinars where held for Dorset Council, Town and Parish Councils in November 2020.

8.6 In addition, a short-simplified survey was also launched for use on mobile phones. This survey aimed to engage a wide audience and encourage further uptake of the full survey. A revised version of the short survey is still running and to date we have received 1495 responses. Detailed

Page 153 analysis has not yet been undertaken as the survey is still live however initial indications are

 84% of respondents are over 21  Tackling Climate change is Vital or Important = 87.3%  Dorset Council to be Carbon Neutral by 2040 is a Great or Reasonable Idea (agree) = 92%  What proportion of Dorset’s Carbon Footprint are Dorset Council responsible for = 12% (correct answer is 1%)

8.7 Other than the inclusion of the above bullet points in this report the results of the Short Survey, which is currently still live have NOT been included in the analysis of the results of the full consultation which have been used to create appendix a and inform the recommended changes to the Strategy and Action Plan as per appendix B.

9. Consultation Results and Implications

9.1 The Consultation started on Thursday 29 October and closed on Wednesday 20 January 2021. The survey received 1,519 overall responses. In total over 12,000 text comments were received, many of which were substantial. A detailed report on the consultation and results is attached as Appendix A. Full results will also be published on the Councils Website, www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

9.2 The answers to the quantitative questions where analysed to calculate the level of Net Agreement for each question. Net agreement adds together all agrees and then subtracts all disagrees. A positive outcome indicates overall agreement and vice versa.

9.3 Overall, the results indicated a very high level of positive Net Agreement with most sections of the strategy.

Page 154 9.4 In most cases positive net agreement was very high with an average of 58.5% positive Net Agreement. The two areas where this was lower were the Dorset Council target for carbon neutral Council by 2040 and Dorset County Carbon Neutral target by 2050, which had positive Net Agreement scores of 17.1% and 6.1% respectively.

9.5 The 12,000 qualitative text comments were very wide in detail, depth and issue, many supporting, restating or further clarifying actions already set out in the strategy and action plan. There was overall strong support for the strategy and action plan, further supporting the quantitative results. There were a number of very similar responses suggesting a shared approach from organisations. The most common critical comments where highlighting the need for the strategy to have a stronger tone and language, be more ambitious, assertive and to have more urgency. Many seeking the Council to put in place and enforce policies to support a rapid shift to a zero carbon Dorset, such as zero carbon standards for new housing. Particular attention was drawn to the need for the carbon neutral targets to be sooner than 2040 and 2050. There was a trend of approx. 10% of respondents disagreeing with the strategy, action plan and targets from a Climate Change denial point of view.

9.6 For each open text question, the comments have been studied and “coded” depending on what issues were raised. The coded comments

Page 155 were tabulated based on the amount of times those individual issues have been raised. This is a standard method for identifying the most commonly occurring issues, for each section of the strategy & action plan.

9.7 A tolerance of 5% or above of comments received for that question was used to identify and select topics that should be considered for further analysis. These topics were then considered against what is already covered in the Strategy and Action Plan and what merits inclusion in the final document.

9.8 A number of relevant partner organisations provided detailed topic specific responses which has been particularly helpful, the salient points from these responses have been included where possible and included in the overall qualitative response coding.

9.9 Throughout the qualitive response’s there was a number of key reoccurring themes that crossed through several of the topic areas and as a result have been considered separately – the results of which are below.

9.10 Targets – The lowest level of positive net agreement was around the target dates of 2040 and 2050 although when the results from the short survey are included the level of support dramatically increases. Some respondents questioned the urgency of the targets and suggested that the dates should be moved forward.

9.11 The targets of 2040 and 2050 were felt by Dorset Council to be realistic within available resources and existing technology. When considering the target dates, it is important to note:

 There is a clear intention to achieve these targets earlier if at all possible.  The strategy sets a number of interim targets for 2025, 2030 and 2035 as a carbon budget and the intention is to achieve an 80-90% reduction in emissions 10 years before these dates, reflecting the difficultly and expense of tackling the last 20%.

9.12 The target dates will remain as 2040 Dorset Council itself and 2050 for the wider Dorset Area (in line with Government targets)

9.13 Overall Language – There was a number of reoccurring comments suggesting that the language used in the Strategy and Action Plan should be made more bullish.

9.14 This point was made by the EAP prior to the draft Strategy and Action Plan being published for consultation and as a result the overall tone and

Page 156 language of the strategy was reviewed prior to the consultation and where possible further clarification was included.

9.15 It is important to note that this is the start of the process and the strategy sets out the areas for action to begin to move in the right direction and as a result are less well defined. The action plan aims to identify more specific actions, with targets and time scales, but initially many of these are smaller exploratory actions. At this stage it is therefore difficult to be definitive about several of the actions to be taken until further work has been undertaken. Many of the proposed actions will be interdependent with advances in technology, the influences and actions of central government and other agencies and need to be considered alongside other Council priorities. The action plans will be living documents, regularly monitored and updated as things progress.

9.16 Monitoring and reporting – Progress against the strategy will be closely monitored and reported. Overall respondents told us they wanted to receive full updates every 6 months and be kept up to date with developments as they occur through a range of media.

9.17 It is intended that the Action plan is subject to central monitoring similar to the key objectives and performance indicators delivered by individual services to provide a robust and transparent method of monitoring and reporting progress and to reflect that the Action Plan will change and evolve over time as opportunities arise and further progress is made.

Appendix A, shows the analysis of both the qualitative and quantitative results.

Appendix B shows the consideration given to topics mentioned by more than 5% of individual respondents and the analysis of it, if it is included already or if it is suggested it should be (excel spreadsheet).

10. Strategy and Action Plan Update

10.1 The results of the consultation were presented and discussed at the Climate and Ecological Emergency Executive Advisory Panel on 25th February 2021.

10.2 The very high level of Positive Net Agreement indicates that significant changes are not required to the strategy and action plan. However, from the analysis of the 12,000 text box responses several opportunities have been identified to further improve the strategy and action plan (Appendix B).

Page 157 11. Conclusion

11.1 A robust draft Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy and Action plan was developed by Dorset Council in 2020 and presented to the public for consultation. A successful consultation exercise has been undertaken, supported by a strong communications strategy delivered by the Councils Communications Team. The consultation received an excellent response from the public, community groups and organisations.

11.2 Overall, the consultation highlighted an overwhelming net positive response to the draft strategy and action plan as well as highlighting some areas for improvement. The Strategy and Action plan has been updated to take account of these views as well as additional funding recently secured by Dorset Council. The strategy and action plan will be a living document which will evolve over time as actions progress, technology advances and government support strengthens. Progress will be regularly monitored and reported, and action plans updated as progress is made.

Page 158

Dorset Council Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy and Action Plan Consultation Response Report

Produced by Mark Simons and Laura Gardner for Dorset Council

March 2021

1 Page 159

Contents

Page Executive Summary 5 The Consultation 10 Doing your Bit 22 Our Approach 27 Carbon Targets 30

Topics Renewables 35 Buildings 45 Food and Drink 55 Economy 65 Waste 74 Water 84 Natural Assets 94 Transport 104

Making it Happen Leadership and Governance 114 Funding the response 118 Engagement and Communications 123 Monitoring and Progress Reporting 128

2 Page 160

Dorset Council Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy

Consultation Response Report

What was the There is clear scientific evidence to show that climate change is consultation about? happening and is due to human activity. Whilst this is a huge global challenge, many solutions are local.

Dorset has a role to play in helping tackle this growing danger while we still have time to make a difference.

In response to this threat, at the very first Full Council meeting back in May, Dorset Council took the bold step to declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency.

In July 2020, a draft Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy was produced. This presents eight key areas for action to ensure that the Council changes the way it delivers services. Dorset Council want to ensure as an organisation they are carbon- neutral by 2040. They want to support the wider county to be carbon neutral by 2050.

Dorset Council have also produced an action plan showing how it intends to deliver what it proposes in the plan.

Dorset Council was consulting on the plan and action plan content. What did we need to The plan was built from substantial evidence accumulation by find out the council. There are technical reports and this work was all informed by a call for evidence in 2019/2020. This consultation was to find out if residents agreed with what the council felt it could realistically tackle in the plan and in what timescales. Had they missed anything important?

The consultation also needed to find out if residents agreed with the council’s action plan. Over what period did The consultation about the proposed new Dorset Council the consultation run? Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy and Action Plan started on Thursday 29 October and closed on Wednesday 20 January 2021 at midnight. What consultation The consultation involved an online and paper consultation methods were used? survey. This included:

3 Page 161

 Online survey. This included many free text sections for people to add any other comments.  Paper surveys.  We also received some unformatted submissions

How many responses 1,519 overall responses were received. 89.5% of responses were received overall? were from members of the public and 3.5% from organisations and 1.1% from business. Parish Councils made up a further 2.6%, elected members 1.9% and other 1.4%.

In total the text comments (some of which were substantial) ran to over 12,000 comments.

How representative is The response size is fair for a council consultation of this type. the response to the As this was an open survey it is not possible to define a wider population? statistically valid sample size. The response from residents was reasonably representative of the Dorset population. Responses came from a wide range of ages but 45.8% came from respondents aged over 65. This compares to only 29% of the population being in this age band in the wider Dorset population. With 88% of the respondents saying their ethnic group was White British this is fairly typical of the wider population. Responses from disabled people were about average at 5.9% of responses, compared to a Dorset figure of 5% based on those claiming either Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payments or Attendance Allowance. Where will the results Results will be published on the council's website be published? www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk How will the results be Councillors will make the final decision on the Climate Change used? Strategy and Action Plan in Dorset having regard to the feedback received during this consultation. Who has produced this Mark Simons and Laura Gardner, Consultation Officers, Dorset report? Council March 2021

4 Page 162

Executive Summary

Overall, there is very significant net agreement with what was proposed in both the Climate Change Strategy and the Climate Change Action Plan. Any figure above zero suggests more people supporting the proposal than opposing it. Hence, in all areas below there is support for the proposed plan and action plan.

The graph above shows net agreement* for all questions in each topic area combined. The net agreement ranges from a very high plus 78.4 for the Water topic all the way down to plus 6.1 for the topic area of 2050 target for Dorset as a whole. So, the main area for consideration should be areas around the two target areas and possibly funding the response.

Despite the overall strong agreement in many areas this does not mean in individual topic areas there are not suggestions that can be incorporated into the Strategy and Action Plan.

The key issues and suggestions that respondents have made are included in each section.

Note: The summary above is based on combining the questions within each topic area. E.g. All the 4 questions asked in “water” section are combined into one for this summary. The full net agreement for every individual question is investigated throughout the report.

*What is net agreement? Net agreement is a method of looking at creating a numeric for overall agreement. One adds together (Likert) values of those who agree and strongly agree and subtract those who disagree and strongly disagree. This takes out middle values and the don't knows. If equal amounts of people support something as oppose it, you get a net agreement of zero. More in favour than against you get a positive value. More against than in favour you get a negative value.

5 Page 163

Renewable Energy – summary agreement to all questions (combined)

Taking all the renewables questions together these two graphs sum up the agreement to the proposals. The first graph shows combined agreement with 74% agreeing or strongly agreeing to the proposals.

Overall net agreement compares those agree/strongly agree against those who disagree/strongly disagree. For all renewables questions there was a very high 61.2 net agreement

Buildings– summary agreement to all questions (combined)

Taking all the buildings questions together these two graphs sum up the agreement to the proposals. The first graph shows combined agreement with 73% agreeing or strongly agreeing to the proposals.

Overall net agreement compares those agree/strongly agree against those who disagree/strongly disagree. For all buildings questions there was a very high 64.1 net agreement.

6 Page 164

Food and Drink– summary agreement to all questions (combined) Taking all the buildings questions together these two graphs sum up the agreement to the proposals. The first graph shows combined agreement with 78% agreeing or strongly agreeing to the proposals.

Overall net agreement compares those agree/strongly agree against those who disagree/strongly disagree. For all food and drink questions there was a very high 67.5 net agreement.

The Economy– summary agreement to all questions (combined)

Taking all the buildings questions together these two graphs sum up the agreement to the proposals. The first graph shows combined agreement with 75% agreeing or strongly agreeing to the proposals.

Overall net agreement compares those Economy overall ‐ net agreement agree/strongly agree against those who disagree/strongly disagree. For all economy Overall net agreement 66.5 questions there was a very high 66.5 net agreement.

minus ‐8.9

plus 75.4

‐90 ‐40 10 60 7 Page 165

Waste – summary agreement to all questions (combined)

Taking all the buildings questions together these two graphs sum up the agreement to the proposals. The first graph shows combined agreement with 83% agreeing or strongly agreeing to the proposals.

Overall net agreement compares those agree/strongly agree against those who disagree/strongly disagree. For all waste questions there was a very high 77.1 net agreement.

Water – summary agreement to all questions (combined) Taking all the buildings questions together these two graphs sum up the agreement to the proposals. The first graph shows combined agreement with 84% agreeing or strongly agreeing to the proposals.

Overall net agreement compares those agree/strongly agree against those who disagree/strongly disagree. For all water questions there was a very high 78.4 net agreement.

8 Page 166

Natural Assets – summary agreement to all questions (combined) These two graphs sum up the agreement to the proposals. The first graph shows combined agreement with 83% agreeing or strongly agreeing to the proposals.

Overall net agreement compares those agree/strongly agree against those who disagree/strongly disagree. For all natural assets questions there was a very high 76 net agreement.

Transport – summary agreement to all questions (combined)

Taking all the buildings questions together these two graphs sum up the agreement to the proposals. The first graph shows combined agreement with 78% agreeing or strongly agreeing to the proposals.

Overall net agreement compares those agree/strongly agree against those who disagree/strongly disagree. For all Transport questions there was a high 70 net agreement.

9 Page 167

The Consultation

The consultation period ran from Thursday 29 October 2020 until Wednesday 20 January 2021 at midnight.

Very few questions were compulsory. A copy of the survey is available in the appendix.

Analysis Method: Questions were considered on an individual basis. Overall responses were examined and specific responses of respondents who said they had a disability. Responses were also studied based on residents and visitors’ views. The official organisational responses were looked at separately. The main method of analysis was looking at the percentage of respondents who expressed a view on each question often using Net agreement. What is net agreement? Net agreement is a method of looking at creating a numeric for overall agreement. One adds together (Likert) values of those who agree and strongly agree and subtract those who disagree and strongly disagree. This takes out middle values and the don't knows. If equal amounts of people support something as oppose it, you get a net agreement of zero. More in favour than against you get a positive value. More against than in favour you get a negative value.

For each open question the text comments have been studied and “coded” depending on what issues were raised. The coded comments are then reported on based on the amount of times those individual issues have been raised. Total redacted comments are provided in an appendix.

Note: some figures may not sum due to rounding.

10 Page 168

About respondents

1,519 overall responses were received. Q. Are you responding as:

Respondents:

% of all Number respondents

Member of the public 89.5% 1359

On behalf of an organisation 3.5% 53

Business 1.1% 16

Parish Council 2.6% 40

Elected Member 1.9% 29

MP 0.0% 0

Other 1.4% 22

89.5% of respondents were responding as individuals. Other responses came on behalf of organisations (3.5%), businesses (1.1%), Parish Councils (2.6%), Elected Members (1.9%) and other (1.4%). No Members of Parliament responded. “Other” responses came from 22 people. Other (please explain) 11 Page 169

80 members of the public who attended the Climate People's Assemblies A member of South Dorset Liberal Democrats A member of South Dorset Liberal Democrats A rural small business owner and neighbour to a number of others having the same concerns. A teacher, on behalf of our Eco Club Architect Chairman of Kimmeridge Parish Meeting, but answering in a private capacity Council employee Dorset Council Employee Dorset council employee Dorset resident Former Elected Member (Burton Grange Division) 2009‐2019: now Christchurch Town Cllr Grange Ward. I a m a member of South Dorset Liberal Democrats I am a retired businessman, now an award‐winning author. I have lived in Dorset for 14 years I identify as an Apache Attack helicopter Parish Councillor The facilitator of Change.org petition created on behalf of Dorset CAN, supported by Planet Purbeck Volunteer from community group Why the distinction?

There were also responses from a few people and organisations who chose to respond outside the consultation format. These will be considered separately. There were also 97 official responses from businesses and organisations. These will be considered under individual questions.

Q. Please select your general age band (individual responses)

Individual Responses % of all Number respondents

Under 18 0.6% 8

18-34 4.7% 64

35-44 3.0% 95

45-64 37.1% 503

65+ 46.3% 628

Prefer not to say 4.3% 58

12 Page 170

As the above table and chart shows the consultation results are dominated by older age groups.

Q. Are you completing your response as a family group?

Individual Responses % of all Number respondents

Yes 26.7% 372

No 72.4% 975

Over a quarter of all individual responses were done on behalf of a family group.

Q. Dorset Council provides a huge variety of services supporting residents in their daily lives. Which of the following areas of the council’s work matter most to you and your family? Please select up to five

Climate Change Survey % number Protecting Dorset’s natural environment 74 1067 Tackling climate change 66 954 Collecting household waste (bins), recycling and cleaning streets 49 709 Providing an effective planning process to manage development 37 532 Supporting schools so children have a good education 36 520 Keeping vulnerable children and adults safe from harm 30 433 Making sure roads and highways are in a good condition 30 426 Providing rural buses and transport 26 381 Increasing the availability of affordable housing 24 349 Supporting economic growth and good quality jobs 23 332 Providing libraries, museums, arts and culture 22 318 Helping people have healthy lifestyles 20 292 Supporting people to live fulfilling and independent lives 15 221 13 Page 171

Working closely with communities and the voluntary sector. 15 216 Improving digital connectivity (such as access to fast broadband) 13 183

This question was a repetition of a question used at the same time in the Dorset Residents Survey. The question was identical and in the residents survey was asked to a stratified sample of Dorset population based on their demographic and geographic data. It was not a fully random sample due to Covid19 restrictions. The Climate Change survey shows protecting Dorset’s natural environment (74%) was peoples first choice followed by tackling climate change (66%). In third place came collecting household waste, recycling and cleaning streets (49%)

Residents Survey % Collecting household waste (bins), recycling and cleaning streets 61 Protecting Dorset’s natural environment 58 Supporting schools so children have a good education 52 Making sure roads and highways are in a good condition 52 Keeping vulnerable children and adults safe from harm 49 Providing rural buses and transport 31 Increasing the availability of affordable housing 26 Supporting economic growth and good quality jobs 26 Tackling climate change 22 Providing an effective planning process to manage development 19 Providing libraries, museums, arts and culture 17 Helping people have healthy lifestyles 16 Supporting people to live fulfilling and independent lives 16 Improving digital connectivity (such as access to fast broadband) 16 Working closely with communities and the voluntary sector. 12

14 Page 172

In the residents survey they chose collecting household waste, recycling and cleaning streets as the most important service (61%) followed by Protecting Dorset’s natural environment (58%) with making sure roads and highways are in a good condition/ supports schools so children have a good education in equal third place (52%). Tackling climate change came 9th out of the 15 services listed, with22%.

15 Page 173

Map of responses to the consultation Postcodes were supplied by 1,427 respondents with the majority of those living in the Dorset Council area. The map shows the distribution of overall responses to the consultation demonstrating a good spread across the geographical area. Promotion of the consultation appears to have been successful across all areas.

The above map shows the postcodes of the respondents who replied to the survey.

16 Page 174

Parish/Town Councils

40 responses came back saying they were responding on behalf of a parish/town councils. These were from:

Council name Affpuddle and Turnerspuddle Parish council Bothenhampton & Walditch PC Bridport Town Council Broadmayne Parish Council Char Valley Parish Council Chesil Bank Parish Council Chideock Parish Council Corscombe & Halstock parish council Dorchester Town Council Dorchester Town Council East Stoke Fontmell Magna Parish Council Gillingham Town Council Langton Matravers Parish Council Leigh Parish Council Litton Cheney Parish Council Loders Parish Council Lyme Regis Town Council Maiden Newton Parish Council Sherborne Town Council Sherborne Town Council Sherborne Town Council Stinsford Parish Council Stinsford Parish Council Stour Provost Parish Stour Provost Parish Council Sturminster Newton Town Council Symondsbury Parish Council Verwood Town Council West Lulworth Parish Council West Parley Parish Council Worth Matravers Parish Council

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Councillors Councillor name Alex Brenton Barry Goringe Beryl Ezzard Brian Heatley Brian Heatley Cllr Bill Trite Cllr Pete Barrow Cllr Ryan Holloway Cllr Ryan Holloway David Bolwell David Crothers Debby Monkhouse Jane Somper Jim Basker John Lewer John Stayt Julian Jones Bridport Town Councillor, Maria Roe Nicolas Ireland Nocturin Lacey‐Clarke Richard Biggs Rose Allwork Sir Philip Colfox Sue Biles

29 councillors responded on their own behalf to the consultation. A further 5 responded anonymously. Some are Dorset councillors and some town/parish councillors.

Organisational Responses 51 organisations provided a response from their organisation. These came from:

Organisation (Alliance for Local Living) ALL for Dorset 360 Skills For Life CIC A36/A350 Corridor Alliance (ACA) Advearse Arne Parish Council Beaminster Area ECO group Blandford Historic Buildings Trust Bridport Local Area Partnership ‐ Management Team Bridport Local Area Partnership ‐ Management Team Cheselbourne Parish Council Combat Climate Chaos Damers First School 18 Page 176

Dorchester Churches Ecology Group Dorset Area of the Ramblers (the Ramblers Association) Dorset Catchment Partnerships Dorset Catchment Partnerships Dorset Climate Action Network Dorset CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) Dorset Cyclists Network Dorset Local Nature Partnership Dorset National Park Team Dorset, Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Joint Local Access Forum Dorset Wildlife Trust East Dorset Friends of the Earth Extinction Rebellion Wimborne Fontmell Magna Parish Council Forestry Commission Hilfield Friary, Society of st Francis Jurassic Coast Trust Leeson House Lower Winterborne Parish Council Ministry of Justice MK Soil Science Ltd National Farmers Union ‐ Dorset Planet Purbeck Plastic Free Bridport Powerfuel Development & Finance Limited (including Powerfuel Portland) Purbeck Community Rail Partnership Purbeck Energy Group St Mary's Church, Beaminster ECO Group Stop Portland Waste Incinerator Sustainable Dorset Swanage & Purbeck Rotary Club Swanage Railway Trust The Friends of Rodwell Trail and Sandsfoot Castle Triarchy Press Limited TURN LYME GREEN with PLASTIC FREE LYME REGIS Wareham Town Trust WATAG (Western Area Transport Action Group) Wessex Water West Dorset Friends of the Earth West Dorset Friends of the Earth Women's Action Network Dorset

Business Responses

Business Airdata Limited Bare Necessities Dorset Ltd By the Ford Produce 19 Page 177

Eastney GA Farmer Palmers Farm Park Ltd Footprint Zero Ltd Holme Estate Holme Estate Huff and Puff Construction Limited JHR Hosford MK Soil Science Ltd (a microbusiness providing consulting on soil resources) Nantes Solicitors LImited smartcommunityprojects cic Swanage Boat Charters Ltd.

14 responses came from the above named businesses. Business/Organisational responses are considered in each individual question.

Responses outside the consultation format A number of responses were received separate to the consultation. These have been considered by the team. Some extracts have been included throughout this report but the overall content will need consideration against the detail of the plan. Examples of these would be the responses by the Dorset Wildlife Trust and the Dorset Local Nature Partnership.

There were also further submissions from organisations in addition to comments submitted in the online format. The online comments have been studied and coded into the tables in each section. All the submitted information will help shape further development of the Climate Strategy.

Dorset CAN responded in a comprehensive way to the Climate Change Consultation. Their response was written by Michael Dower and Belinda Bawden with inputs from the network. This along with other contributions will help shape the work going forward.

The response is supported by the following organisations. Beaminster Area ECO Group – 130 members in 15 parishes Beaminster Church ECO Group – 10 members Bournemouth University University and College Union – c.400 members Char Valley Lifelines Project Dorchester Area Churches Together Ecology Group Dorset Climate Action Network – 400 members Dorset Community Energy – 250 members Extinction Rebellion Dorset – 800 members Friends of Rodwell Trail and Sandsfoot Castle Gardens, Weymouth Friends of the Earth East Dorset – 154 members Langton Parish Action, Langton Matravers Lyme Regis One Planet Working Group Planet Purbeck – 300 members & supporters Planet Shaftesbury – 300 subscribers to Newsletter Plant Wimborne – 13 members Seeding our Future The Benefice of St Aldhelm – 150 members The South West Dorset Multicultural Network 20 Page 178

Transition Town Bridport – 73 members Transition Town Dorchester -12 members of core group plus member organisations Turn Lyme Green/Plastic Free Lyme Regis – 28 members, 432 supporters Wareham’s Church of England Family – 270 members West Dorset Western Area Transport Action Group (WATAG) – 189 supporters West Lulworth Parish Council WeymouthTogether Community Network (umbrella group of 43 local community groups, charities, social enterprises, businesses and local authorities in the Weymouth area). Zero Carbon Dorset - 300+ followers & supporting organisations

Various Peoples Assemblies were also held and responses submitted on their behalf.

Dorset Council Carbon Neutral by 2030 Petition

This petition was created by Dorset CAN, supported by Planet Purbeck, to engage as many people as possible to both support Dorset Council in their Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy and Action Plans, and to challenge the council to change their carbon zero target from 2040 to 2030. 1,410 people had signed the petition,and had submitted an online response to the Dorset Council Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy and Action Plans Consultation on behalf of all of the signatories.

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Doing your Bit

What are you already doing to reduce your carbon emissions? (Select all that apply)

Overall responses number % Reducing your waste and recycling more 1,274 91.8 Reducing the energy you use at home 1,073 77.3 Making changes to your diet, buy more local food or growing your own 1,025 73.8 food Making your garden wildlife friendly 1,004 72.3 Traveling less, walking or cycling more or buying an electric car 945 68.1 Using less water 778 56.1 Buying from companies with green credentials 723 52.1 Using or generating more renewable energy 622 44.8

Q Do you think you can do more to reduce your carbon emissions in the future?

Overall Number % responses

Yes 847 60.0%%

Possibly 466 33.0%

No 99 7.0%

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If yes, what do you think you could do over the next 5 years? (Select all that apply)

Overall responses Number % Travel less, walk or cycle more or buy an electric car 666 55.5 Reduce the energy you use at home 647 53.9 Use or generate more renewable energy 622 51.8 Buy from companies with green credentials 559 46.6 Make changes to your diet or buy more local food or growing your own food 526 43.8 Reduce your waste & recycle more 514 42.8 Use less water 483 40.3 Make your garden wildlife friendly 382 31.8 Other (please explain) 165 13.8

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Q. Please explain (other) – 165 responses proposing things not on the existing list above.

Comment Mentions Travel: buy an electric/hybrid vehicle (18) use more public transport if available, car share, alternative holiday/travel options, sustainable rail. 39 Buying habits: buy/consume less, less plastic, local foods/produce, reduce meat, grow own food. 31 Changes to energy/power sources and storage 29 Promote, educate and encourage others to act, raise awareness, promote development opportunities 26 Campaigning/Lobbying, working with Govt/Council, voting green or for green policies 24 Improve house insulation (windows, doors, loft) and efficiency 18 Adopting other general eco‐friendly behaviours 13 Recycling: recycle more, upcycle/mend, buy secondhand, not single use 11 Business: look for sustainable/green opportunities and partnerships, start sustainable business/project 7 Companies: change bank/pension provider/boycott 6 Environmental: plant trees/flowers, wildlife restoration 6 More of the same, keep doing what I can 6 Other comment 6 Water: recycle, harvest 5 Join a community/environmental group 5 Work from home/locally 4 Too expensive to make certain changes (car, heating) 3 Sign up to carbon off‐set or similar schemes 2

When asked what personal changes they could make in the next 5 years, the most popular responses were related to adopting new travelling and consumer habits. Respondents also reported that they would engage in more widely influential behaviours, such as promoting awareness of climate change, encouraging others to act and to campaign and lobby the Government.

Q. Is anything stopping you from taking action to reduce your carbon footprint?

Overall responses number % Cost 673 55.9 Facilities not available 409 33.9 Other 254 21.1 Not sure what to do 248 20.6 Regulations (e.g. Listed building) 184 15.3

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Please explain (other) – 254 responses

Q Please give more details about what is stopping you taking action to reduce your carbon footprint 879 responses

Comments Mentions Issues with adopting a greener vehicle (e.g. Electric Cars): cost (108), lack of infrastructure/charge points (104), range they can travel (13), other (8) 233

Regulations/restrictions: Listed/older property (81), planning regulations and associated problems (38) or practical issues (e.g. space, direction of house, lack of allotment (40), rent home (31)), other (4) 194 Cost of adopting/changing energy supplier, esp solar (56) 150 Lack of suitable/available/affordable public transport 127 Require more/clearer information, education, advice or support to make change 88 Should be National/Local Govt‐led: policy/action or incentives/schemes/grants/funding 85 Personal factors: Age, mobility, disability or medical reasons (25), Time ‐ to do, research, lifestyle (24), motivation, willpower, lifestyle 74 General cost of being 'green'/initial investment/other cost concerns 70 Issues with recycling: not broad enough options/facilities, confusing labelling, opportunities to repair/reuse 64 Lack of safe/suitable cycle (54) and walking (6) routes 60

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Nothing I can do/as individual/bigger players/no emergency or climate problem/not convinced measures will help 53 Packaging makes it difficult: often plastic/not recyclable/excess 43 Lack of alternative/sustainable suitable green option/does not suit need 42 Limit: doing all I can/can afford 35 Local Produce: costs too much/nowhere local or do not know where 32 Green tech companies are expensive/hard to find/lack credibility 17 Comment on intention to do something, no barrier mentioned 16 Waiting until end of car/contract/better technology 14 COVID‐19 12 Other comment 11 Consumer culture/society 9 Role for businesses/communities 9 Need to facilitate working from home (5) does use energy, but reduce travel 7 Not applicable (group response) 6 Aesthetics of green options e.g. solar panels 6 UK Electricity‐grid problems 6 Other issues/priorities 4 Nothing stopping me 3 Comment relating to survey 2

Many respondents stressed that they were trying to do something, however the most common reason for not making changes related to issues with greener travel options such as the cost and infrastructure for electric cars and a lack of suitable public transport. A second key barrier was that of regulations and restrictions both formal (listed buildings and planning regulations or renting their home) and informal (living in generally older properties and practical issues such as a lack of space). Costs relating to changing to a greener energy source and a desire for more information, advice and direction were also frequently mentioned. It was strongly felt that there should be a drive at a national and local government level for policy and action on climate change, but also for more incentives, grants and funding schemes to be made available.

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Dorset Council’s Role Our approach

Q Our approach is about understanding what actions Dorset Council can directly influence, indirectly influence [such as through our services or use of our assets] and what we can only influence as part of a wider partnership. Do you agree with our approach? Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 329 678 213 85 55

% of all who 24.2% 49.9% 15.7% 6.3% 4.0% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with the proposal on our approach. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 74% agree and 10% disagree.

Net agreement – Overall Net Agreement = 74.1% minus 10.3% = plus 63.8

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Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 92.6 Parish/Town Councils 87.6 Organisations 66.7 Overall 63.8 Under 65’s 62.9 Disabled 54.2 Businesses 46.2

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on Our Approach. This ranged from a very high 92.6 for elected members and 87.6 for town/Parish Councils down to 46.2 for businesses. Organisations and under 65’s were close to the overall figure of 63.8.

Q Please explain why you think this? 683 responses

These responses were studied based on whether they agreed or disagreed with our method. We looked in most detail at those strongly disagreeing with our method. The overall response to the numeric question was fairly strong support for our method with net agreement at only plus 63.8%. (see preceding pie chart).

Strongly dis agree to method ( comments) The earth evolves... can't affect how our climate changes More mentions Shouldn’t get involved and should focus on services Other Need actions not discussions This approach reduces urgency Don't believe in climate change Political/socialist agenda

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Need to think about the impact of carbon reduction on our economy and less well‐off people Should be national, not local approach Should be under Dorset's control not under the government Climate is not taken seriously by government/local government Not worth doing due to too little impact Needs to be a more ambitious approach Approach ought to be more based around land use planning and transportation planning Support equality protected groups Should only focus on Dorset Council and not Dorset More leadership from Dorset Council Need multiple stakeholders to progress arrangement Less mentions

As the table above shows the concerns about our method were varied. The table focuses on responses from people who strongly disagreed. Quite a few of these opposed our method due to their belief that climate change was a natural phenomenon that we could impact significantly. Others felt the council should focus on delivering services and not get involved in climate change issues. Further responses questioned about a national or local approach and whether the climate change issue was politically motivated and driven.

Others felt our approach should be more ambitious and suggest more urgency.

Organisational responses (selected)

Dorset Local Nature Partnership responded in detail including “Far greater reference is made to the ecological emergency within the introduction sections. • Each of the themes is looked at through the lens of the ecological emergency as well as the climate emergency – in terms of the areas for action within the strategy, the action plans and evidence report. Some examples are given in the main consultation response.”

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Targets

Carbon Targets

The strategy sets two targets: a more ambitious target of 2040 for Dorset Council itself and 2050 for the wider Dorset area (in-line with the government's national target).

(1) Dorset Council ITSELF to become carbon neutral by 2040, ten years earlier than the national target.

Q. Do you agree with the target set for Dorset Council ITSELF as an organisation of 2040?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 315 399 167 292 188

% of all who 23.1% 29.3% 12.3% 21.5% 13.8% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with the proposal on the 2040 Carbon target. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 52% agree and 35% disagree.

The chart below shows Net Agreement = 52.4 - 35.3 = plus 17.1

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Net Response Group Agreement Parish/Town Councils 25.8 Disabled 25.4 Overall 17.1 Under 65's 13.1 Elected Members 7.4 Businesses ‐7.7 Organisations ‐25.9

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on the DC 2040 target. This ranged from a low 25.8 for Parish/Town Councils and 25.4 for disabled down to minus 7.7 for businesses and a minus 25.9 for organisations. Clearly organisations and businesses did not agree with the 2040 target for Dorset Council.

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(2) The whole Dorset Council AREA to become carbon neutral by 2050, which will require support of central government and everyone in Dorset taking action

Q. Do you agree with the target set for the Dorset Council AREA of 2050?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 252 364 200 321 213

% of all who 18.7% 27.0% 14.8% 23.8% 15.8% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with the proposal on the 2050 Carbon target. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 52% agree and 35% disagree.

Overall Net Agreement = 45.7 - 39.6 = plus 6.1

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Net Response Group Agreement Disabled 22.4 Parish/Town Councils 12.5 Overall 6.1 Under 65's 2.6 Elected Members ‐7.4 Businesses ‐25.0 Organisations ‐33.4

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on Dorset Target 2050. This ranged from a low, but positive 22.4 from disabled and 12.5 for Town/Parish Councils down to minus 33.4 from organisations and minus 25 from businesses. Overall was 6.1. Organisations and businesses did not agree with the 2050 target.

Q. Please explain your answers - 921 responses. These responses were studied based on whether they agreed or disagreed with the targets. We looked in most detail at those strongly agreeing and strongly disagreeing with the targets. The overall response to the numeric question was fairly even between those supporting and opposing the targets with net agreement at only plus 6.1 for the DC area and 17.1 of Dorset Council itself. (see preceding pie charts)

Strongly agree to targets ( comments) Earlier if possible More mentions Be committed and ambitious Appears sensible, realistic, and achievable Bring 2050 target to 2040 Be flexible Need everyone onboard to achieve targets Lead by example Need to do this for our children/grandchildren Need for interim targets Relies on government money and leadership Difficult/easier in rural area Two targets need to be the same Excellent start Need to deliver Need budgets as well as targets Raise council tax This is all vital Start quickly We have the technology DC have catching up to do Less mentions

What becomes clear from the comments is that despite strongly agreeing with the targets there is a whole undercurrent that the targets are ok but we need to be pushing to achieve it earlier or bring targets forward. There are also comments about being committed and ambitious and also 33 Page 191

being flexible. There are comments about the targets being sensible, realistic, and achievable and recognition that everyone needs to be onboard to achieve the targets. The table above also highlights some of the other main things raised.

Looking at those who strongly disagreed with the targets showed stronger feeling about the urgent need for action in an emergency.

Strongly dis agree to targets ( comments) Needs to be done faster More mentions It’s an emergency and should be treated as such Targets don’t match scientific evidence IPC ‐ listen to experts Should have one target (either 2030 or 2040) Potentially catastrophic Lacks interim targets and milestones Already too little too late It’s so serious a threat that we need to be more ambitious Cutting emissions not as costly as previously thought Need more quantifiable targets Needs funding. Dorset can’t afford it without government money Population growth issue Can’t stop climate change so don't bother At tipping point No clear pathway Can’t even achieve these targets ‐ out of control Be a leading council – more ambitious Genuine cut ... Not trading in CO2 Other councils can do earlier targets Sea level rise is urgent ‐ act sooner Less mentions

The above table shows the main reasons people didn’t agree with the proposed targets set by Dorset Council of 2040 for the Council itself and 2050 for the Dorset area. Those who disagreed with the target generally just felt it was too far away, lacked any serious urgency when it is meant to be an emergency. There was also strong feeling that the targets set didn’t really match what the scientific evidence was telling us and experts were being ignored.

Some felt having two targets was less clear and having one ambitious target of say 2030 (or 2040) was a better approach. There were also comments about the lack of funding and how our targets lack interim targets and milestones. Frontloading the work was also mentioned.

There were a small number of people who disagreed with the targets as they felt climate change could not be changed so we shouldn’t bother trying to influence it.

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Topic Area - Renewable Energy Areas for Action...

The survey said “To achieve a carbon neutral county by 2050, all energy currently provided by fossil fuels for heating, transport and electricity in Dorset will need to come from a low-carbon source. This will require an enormous increase in renewable electricity generation in the County. Dorset Council cannot itself do this and does not have control of national planning policy or the money to put into renewable energy sources on its own. But there are many things the council can do to.”

DIRECT  Maximise renewable energy opportunities of all DC buildings; convert all off-grid buildings to heat pumps or biomass, convert heating of all on-grid buildings to hydrogen-ready hybrid heat pumps, install max capacity solar arrays on every building  Construct large renewable energy installation (around 60 MW of solar PV or 30 MW of wind turbines) on Council owned land to meet Council’s demand  Commission study to identify opportunities for renewable energy in County Farms and Council carparks  Work with renewable energy developers in Dorset to secure new renewable energy generation to meet (and exceed) needs of the Council

INDIRECT (through services)  As Local Planning Authority – actively encourage renewable energy deployment  Undertake detailed resource mapping to confirm Dorset has the technical resources to be self-sufficient. Potential sites can then be identified in the Local Plan  Establish a positive planning policy framework and toolkit for maximising the use of renewable energy within new developments

INFLUENCE & PARTNERSHIP  Lobby central government over the major hurdles to renewable energy deployment, the Navitus Bay decision, investment needed on grid infrastructure, and future of heat  Work in partnership with BCP to plan a zero-carbon energy system for Dorset  Dedicated resources to promote renewable heat in cases where it is financially viable  Extend Low Carbon Dorset programme  Dedicated resources to assisting with the expansion and awareness building of the Energy Local project in Dorset  A review of whether Council run fuel-poverty schemes could install low-carbon heating systems over gas boilers”

Renewable Energy - The above is taken from the strategy and identifies the areas for action where we see Dorset Council can either directly impact, indirectly impact or only influence outcomes. Do you agree with what we have proposed?

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Q What we can directly impact?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 419 546 129 70 70 8

% of all who 33.7% 44.0% 10.4% 5.6% 5.6% 0.6% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with we suggest we can directly impact on renewable energy The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 78% agree and 11% disagree.

Overall Directly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 77.7 minus 11.2 = plus 66.5

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Net Response Group Agreement Parish/Town Councils 85.7 Elected Members 83.3 Organisations 77.2 Businesses 69.3 Overall 66.5 Under 65's 64.8 Disabled 50.1

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on Direct influence – renewable energy. This ranged from a high 85.7 for Town/Parish Councils down to a still high 50.1 for disabled respondents. The overall figure was 66.5.

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Q. What we can indirectly impact

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 346 569 153 79 69 9

% of all who 28.2% 46.4% 12.5% 6.4% 5.6% 0.7% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with we propose we can indirectly impact on renewable energy. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 74% agree and 12% disagree.

Overall Indirectly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 74.6 minus 12.0 = plus 62.6

Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 79.1 Organisations 77.2 Parish/Town Councils 75.0 Businesses 69.3

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Overall 62.6 Under 65's 59.9 Disabled 48.2

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on Indirect influence – renewable energy. This ranged from a high 79.1 for Elected members down to a still high 48.2 for disabled respondents. The overall figure was 62.6.

Q. What we can influence and partnership

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 341 536 164 84 87 13

% of all who 27.8% 43.8% 13.4% 6.9% 7.1% 1.1% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with we suggest we can influence and partnership on renewable energy. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 72% agree and 14% disagree.

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Influence and partnership ~ Net Agreement = 71.6 minus 14.0 = plus 57.6

Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 87.5 Organisations 74.3 Parish/Town Councils 72.5 Under 65's 57.8 Overall 57.6 Businesses 45.8 Disabled 44.7

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on Influence and partnership – renewable energy. This ranged from a high 87.5 for Elected members down to 44.7 for disabled respondents. The overall figure was 57.6.

Renewable Energy Action Plan - The action plan identifies where we see Dorset Council can take action.

Q Do you agree with what we have proposed?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 287 556 227 90 74

% of all who 23.3% 45.1% 18.4% 7.3% 6.0% responded

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The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with we suggest we can influence and partnership on renewable energy action plan. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 68% agree and 13% disagree.

Action Plan ~ Net Agreement = 68.4 minus 13. 3 = plus 55.1

Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 78.3 Parish/Town Councils 62.1 Organisations 58.3 Under 65's 55.5 Overall 55.1 Disabled 36.8 Businesses 36.4

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table above were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on

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Action Plan– renewable energy. This ranged from a high 78.3 for Elected members down to 36.4 from business respondents. The overall figure was 55.1.

Q. Please explain why you think this and if there is anything fundamental that you feel we have missed in our "renewable energy" area for action -759 responses

Q. Please explain why you think this? 520 responses

The table below combines the two questions on renewables. The analysis of the 1,279 comments have focused on the number of times the issue has been raised. The table below show the top issues raised with multiple support. A further 25 issues were also identified and analysed. The key concerns have risen to the top of the list below and these include very strong support for lobbying the government, supporting offshore wind generation, making new development zero carbon, taking urgent action and including renewables in new builds.

RENEWABLE ENERY ‐ issues mentions Planning ‐ all new developments should be zero carbon 207 In favour of wind ‐ major offshore development 171 Urgency over taking action 80 Planning ‐ enforce inclusion of renewable energy 77 Lobby government to revise planning legislation and building regulations 73 Planning needs to oppose fossil fuel extraction 73 Investigate resources in tidal, wave, hydro, geothermal etc 70 Dorset Council property estate should incorporate renewable energy 66 Against Navitus Bay windfarm proposals 64 Renewable Energy is the key to success 60 The Council should divest its pension funds from fossil fuel investments 57 In favour of hydrogen 49 Against Biomass 48 In favour of solar pv ‐ on roofs / car parks/brownfield 44 Should seek funding for district heat networks 42 Renewables can use land needed for uses 42 District heat networks ‐ develop NFP builds 41 In favour of wind turbines 41 Use County farms for renewables 38 Promote information about renewables 38 District heat networks ‐ partner with commercial house builders 37 Lobby government to relax planning for onshore renewables 36 Lobby government to re‐introduce FIT subsidies 36 In favour of Navitus Bay 36 Dorset Council to take a leading role & deliver local area energy plans to decarbonise 35 using a systems approach Small scale domestic & community‐led renewables schemes should be encouraged 34 Lobby government for a "Strategy for Heat" 33 Energy Efficiency including retro fit need to be given more priority 32 Positive planning approach 32

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Against Incineration ‐ 27 Create renewable energy from brownfield sites 25 Encourage nuclear power 24 Cost ‐ concerns over renewables options 23 Against wind turbine proposals 22 Environmental impact of renewables 21 In favour of tidal power 20 Need better energy storage 17 Action Plan ‐ not ambitious enough 16 District heat networks ‐ use of CIL 15 Keep food production over renewable energy proposals 15 Strategy on what actually is low carbon 15 Lobby government for incentives to fit renewable energy 14 Against self‐sufficiency in renewable energy 14 In favour of solar pv 14 DC Energy supply should be 100% renewable 13 Improve planning on listed/conservation to aid energy improvements 13 Need large scale ‐renewable energy schemes 13 Actions ‐ Not SMART 12 Reduce influence of NIMBYs 12 In favour of using hydro energy 10 Against using hydrogen 10 Against off‐shore wind generation 10 In favour of solar farms 10 In favour of the strategy 10 In favour of incineration 9 Renewable energy installations can impact on the landscape 9 Action Plan ‐ good 8 Against using county farms to create renewable energy 8 Fuel poverty issues 8 Lobby government for more funding 8 Lobby government to reverse Navitus Bay decision 8 Strategy needs to be embedded in the Local Plan 8 Dorset should be self‐sufficient in renewable energy 8 Biomass ‐ must be sustainable 7 Importance of community schemes 7 Cost ‐ too vague 7 Incineration ‐ Portland ‐ against 7 Extend Low Carbon Dorset scheme 7 Lobby government for net zero strategy 7 Concerns over large scale renewable energy installations 7 Wave power is important 7 Against solar farms 7 Support local Energy projects 6

Organisational Responses

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The Ministry of Justice said “As the second-largest central Government estate, the MOJ is very clear on the important role it must play in meeting central governments net-zero target”

The Forestry Commission support the proposals and said ”It is positive to see the ambition to incorporate biomass into the solution in the 'Direct' section above. This must be supported by a focus on the supply chain of biomass and not importing from outside the County or region. A robust sustainable woodland culture needs to flourish in the county with a forest network that supplies multiple Natural Capital benefits such as recreation” Further comments needs separate consideration.

Dorset Wildlife Trust said ”As we saw through the original solar power proposal at Rampisham Down, sometimes the right type of development can be proposed in completely the wrong place and therefore present a potential net loss for the environment. It is crucial that the two crises are addressed together and not played off against each other”

Dorset Local Nature Partnership said” Consideration to be given on how renewables can impact on biodiversity. For example: • Consideration of use on existing roof space on sites of low biodiversity value accompanied by enhancement for nature. • Unintended consequences for nature from biomass energy such as important grassland sites being lost to maize to feed bio- digestors). • Nature conservation risks and opportunities within the marine environment. • We would welcome reference to the LNP’s role in the Low Carbon Dorset Programme (all four LCD case studies used in the strategy were projects approved by the LNP panel).

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Topic Area - Buildings

The survey said ”In order to create a carbon neutral Dorset, all carbon emissions from Dorset buildings will need to stop. All energy used for power will need to come from renewable sources. Dorset Council has limited powers to achieve this. It will require everyone to take action in their homes and businesses. However, we do have control of our own current buildings and any future buildings that are constructed on our land. We are also able to work with partners.

DIRECT  Lead by example by ensuring Dorset Council’s estate becomes zero carbon by 2040  Ensure climate change is a central consideration throughout the asset review, and in the development of Dorset Council’s Asset Management plan  Develop and promote case studies and examples of best practice on our own estate to encourage replication by others  Establish policies to ensure that any of the Council’s new build projects are designed to be zero carbon from the outset  Continue upgrade off all Dorset streetlights to LEDs

INDIRECT (through services)  Encourage designs and layouts which lend themselves to low-carbon energy solutions, and provide guidance and advice for developers to achieve zero carbon standards  Ensure the Dorset Housing Strategy incorporates the reduction of carbon emissions and increased risk to climate impacts  Develop local plan policies to ensure climate risks are identified and avoided in new developments, such as flood risks and overheating  Secure funding to expand and extend the Low Carbon Dorset Programme. If this is successful, seek funding to extend it further, both in time and scope

INFLUENCE & PARTNERSHIP  Lobby government for clarity on national strategy for heat and national policy framework  Work in partnership to deliver programmes to improve energy efficiency of housing stock (e.g further expand Healthy Homes Scheme)  Decarbonise heating by investigating largescale installation of low carbon heating and undertaking heat mapping to identify opportunities  Educate residential and non-residential sectors on low carbon technologies, energy efficiency, and sources of funding to encourage behaviour change & greater uptake of low- carbon technology  Work with partners to increase climate change resilience of communities & buildings by understanding the future climate risks within Dorset”

Buildings - The above is taken from the strategy and identifies the areas for action where we see Dorset Council can either directly impact, indirectly impact or only influence outcomes. 45 Page 203

Do you agree with what we have proposed?

Q. What we can directly impact?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 383 521 116 75 51 6

% of all who 33.2% 45.2% 10.1% 6.5% 4.4% 0.5% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with we suggest we can directly influence on buildings. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 78% agree and 11% disagree.

Buildings Directly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 78.7 minus 10.9 = plus 67.8

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Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 91.0 Businesses 81.1 Organisations 78.7 Parish/Town Councils 69.3 Overall 67.8 Under 65's 65.9 Disabled 64.9

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on Indirect influence – buildings. This ranged from a very high 91.0 for Elected members down to a still high 64.9 for disabled respondents. The overall figure was 67.8

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Q. What we can indirectly impact

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 323 531 137 89 45 7

% of all who 28.5% 46.9% 12.1% 7.9% 4.0% 0.6% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with we suggest we can indirectly influence on buildings. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 75% agree and 12% disagree.

Buildings - Indirectly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 75.4 minus 11.9 = plus 63.5

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Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 78.2 Businesses 49.9 Organisations 80.9 Parish/Town Councils 73.2 Overall 63.5 Under 65's 59.4 Disabled 47.4

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on Indirect influence – buildings. This ranged from a high 78.2 for Elected members down to a still high 47.4 for disabled respondents. The overall figure was 63.5.

Q. What we can influence and partnership

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 327 520 146 79 50 7

% of all who 29.0% 46.1% 12.9% 7.0% 4.4% 0.6% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with we suggest we can influence and partnership on buildings. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 75% agree and 11% disagree.

Buildings - Influence and partnership ~ Net Agreement = 75.1 minus 11.4 = plus 63.7

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Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 91.0 Parish/Town Councils 77.8 Organisations 75.8 Businesses 66.7 Overall 63.7 Under 65's 62.3 Disabled 46.3

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on influence and partnership – buildings. This ranged from a very high 91.0 for Elected members down to a still high 46.3 for disabled respondents. The overall figure was 63.7.

Buildings Action Plan - The action plan identifies where we see Dorset Council can take action.

Q Do you agree with what we have proposed?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 280 542 219 71 47

% of all who 24.2% 46.8% 18.9% 6.1% 4.1% responded

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The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with we suggest we can on our Buildings Action Plan. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 68% agree and 11% disagree.

Buildings Action Plan ~ Net Agreement = 68.4 minus 11.2 = plus 55.1

Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 86.4 Parish/Town Councils 80.8 Organisations 65.7 Under 65's 58.7 Businesses 55.5 Overall 55.1 Disabled 49.1

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on Buildings – Action Plan. This ranged from a very high 86.4 for Elected members down to a still high 49.1 for disabled respondents. The overall figure was 55.1.

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Q Please explain why you think this and if there is anything fundamental that you feel we have missed in "buildings" area for action? 583 responses Q Please explain why you think this. 340 responses

The table below combines the two questions on buildings. The analysis of the 923 comments have focused on the number of times the issue has been raised. The table below show the top 69 issues raised with multiple support. A further 32 issues were also analysed. The key concerns have risen to the top of the list below and these include very strong support for developers building homes to zero carbon standard, faster action and the importance of retrofit. Other supported stronger actions, lobbying government and leading by example on its own estate.

BUILDINGS ‐ issues Mentions Developers should be required to make all new homes zero carbon / sustainable. 262 2040 target not tough enough. Action is needed faster. 186 Emphasis needs to be on existing retro fit as will have biggest benefit. 120 Actions too vague / not stretching far enough. 73 Central Government must be lobbied to develop strategies for heat and low carbon housing policies. 70 DC estate good place to start / lead by example. 63 New developments need to be better planned / enforced to ensure higher energy and ecological standards and reduced transport impacts and flood risk. 53 Consider materials used in construction of new buildings. 39 Maintain working from home to reduce carbon footprint and reduce DC building stock. 38 More needs to be done to allow / guide historic / listed buildings to improve energy standards e.g. insulation, better windows, solar panels, etc. 35 Consider the designation of Dorset towns as “Garden Towns." 32 Work with stakeholders to develop a holistic systems‐based approach. 31 Require the accurate performance testing and reporting of new buildings. 25 Concern over heating systems within properties (e.g. heat pumps, nuclear power). 21 Land which is sensitive (e.g. AONB) should be protected and residents listened to with regard to wildlife, flooding, access etc. 19 More education needed for general public. 15 LED lighting needs to be designed to limit light pollution and protect dark skys and biodiversity in Dorset. 13 Create buildings that allow people to live within a mile or so of their jobs/schools, which is the only real way to drive down transport emissions. 13 Grants, funding (eg low council tax) / support needed to encourage households to change heating systems – ensure poorer families not disadvantaged. 12 Dorset Council should work with schools and FE colleges, employers, town and parish councils to develop training and apprenticeship opportunities for 'green jobs' in the retrofit sector. 12 Transport implications of development often not effectively considered. 12 Concern over use of money / resources from Council. 10 LED streetlights not effective ‐ no more. 10 No new buildings when existing ones can be repurposed. 10 Businesses need guidance/support/incentives to become a greener business. 10

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Better building design / layout ‐ especially need to be more flexible and move away from traditional designs/aesthetics. 9 Work with government to ensure higher standards remain affordable. 8 Some form of financial incentive would be useful (eg. tax breaks, funding), especially with low income households and small local businesses in regards to improving their buildings carbon emissions. 8 More LED streetlights needed. 7 Insist new housing developments include good quality social housing with low heating requirements and Electric Vehicle charging points. 7 Consideration of car charging ports on new builds. 7 Regulate builders and tradesmen. 6 DC have limited powers – stick to things you can do. 5 Rented properties should have an energy certificate and the rent set lower, by a rent tribunal, if the landlord does not make improvements within a time limit set. 5 A need for all new properties to have some form of garden to allow residents to grow their own produce. 5 Mandate more tree planting. 5 Energy wasted by using lighting overnight when not needed. 4 Landlords to be incentivised to improve the existing housing stock for rented properties. 4 Green passports for buildings. These could set a clear plan for existing buildings and be transferable between building owners. 4 Churches have more community buildings than any other voluntary sector (including village halls), so it would be good to explore energy use/efficiency/insulation solutions with them. 4 Consider tidal power. 4 Concern over funding for the proposal. 3 Turn off street lights after midnight / timed lighting. 3 Lighting in Dorset Council buildings. 3 Work with buildings regulations inspector to change the minimum insulation requirements in building of all new planning. 3 Provision for more affordable housing is of far greater importance than the use of green energy. 3 Consider the visual aspect of designs and not just the energy aspects so this approach does not counter other aspects of the strategy related to wellbeing and natural assets. 3 Concern over cavity wall insulation. 3 Implications of population growth in Dorset needs to be acknowledged, understood and managed. 3 Concern over danger of using hydrogen as heat source. 3 Issues using survey. 2 Concern over use of 'Flicker‐Free' LED lights. 2 Actively avoid extensive building on greenfield areas. 2 Planning permissions for larger sites, supermarkets, car parks etc could be dependent on the provision of solar in these locations to start to move away from the use of green field sites. 2 Consideration for social justice when developing new builds. 2 Create initiatives to inspire other residents to lead by eco‐friendly / energy saving lifestyle. 2

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Add biodiversity considerations here. e.g. swift boxes where appropriate, hedgehog highways, siting of buildings. 2 Activities which destroy or damage environmentally beneficial areas should be prevented‐ unless there is a corresponding contribution to create better such areas as well. 2 Strategy does not acknowledge coastal change. 2 Need to further consider impacts of development / human activity of food plains and seek legislation changes to reduce flood risk. 2 Ensure recycling of grey water (rain water) in new builds. 2 Concerns over impact on Dorset's coastline. 2 Ensure safe walking and cycling routes are included in community development (to shops, health, recreational and leisure facilities). 2 Concern over air pollution caused by transportation. 2 Concerns over tourism ‐ implications that heavy traffic will bring. 2 Do more to address impacts of industrial agriculture. 2 Concerns over boilers as an alternative green source. 2 Many residents in villages rely on oil fired central heating. What can be done to raise 2 awareness of the need to change to low carbon heating options? Domestic woodburning stoves should only be permitted for buildings that are off grid. 2

Organisational responses

The Forestry Commission said “The plan only seems to focus on energy production and usage of development. It refers to the whole-life costs of carbon in the remainder of the building materials as 'tests'. There is no point in creating homes that use zero carbon if the choice of building process itself generates large volumes of unnecessary carbon. An action must be inserted to ensure low carbon building materials and techniques. For example, this will involve substituting concrete and steel for timber framed houses. This is a tried and tested method of producing good quality housing and no longer experimental. Using timber in this way locks up the carbon for generations and by harvesting timber allows the forests to grow at their quickest, locking up more carbon. Timber should be specified as sustainably grown in the UK to avoid import of timber and the 'exporting' of carbon An assessment of ecological impact of building methods and materials can be found in the BRE Green Guide.”

The Dorset Wildlife Trust said “Some species have adapted to make extensive use of the built environment. Requirements in planning for protection and enhancement of wildlife within buildings, and retro-fitting of council buildings with features for wildlife could have been actioned.”

Dorset Local Nature Partnership said “We support the energy efficiency areas for action and action plan in principle, which are in line with our climate change mitigation position paper. Consideration to be given on enhancements to building and assets to support nature for example: • Declining species, including bats (several of Dorset’s bat species are regularly found in buildings), swifts, swallows and barn owls, have adapted to make extensive use of the built environment. Requirements in planning for protection and enhancement of wildlife and retrofitting buildings with features such as bat tiles and swift nests can all be beneficial. • Enhancements to the immediate grounds around the built estate should be considered – small gardens or patches of ground offer opportunities for plants and features that benefit insects, birds and other wildlife. Such features also improve health and wellbeing through ensuring an attractive nature-rich living and working environment (also supporting the economic productivity of staff).

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Food and Drink Areas for Action...

The survey said “To reduce the environmental impacts of food production, but still meet the rising demands, more food will need to be produced using less land and emitting fewer greenhouse gases. This will mean farming practices within Dorset will need to change. There will also need to be a significant shift in the behaviour of consumers here in Dorset. Dorset Council must work towards reducing our carbon emissions, food poverty and the level of waste produced, all while meeting the increasing demand for food. To do so, we must help by establishing the following initiatives.

DIRECT  Work with Council tenants and concessions to reduce food waste and promote less packaging  Continued adoption of the Council’s single use plastic policy throughout its estate, operations, tenants and concessions  Increase range of edible fruits, flowers, and vegetables in Council owned parks, rooftops, and open spaces  Reduce use of fertilizers on Council land by increased use of locally produced compost

INDIRECT (through services)  Work to develop opportunities for enhancing Dorset’s ecological networks  Work with partners to reduce meat and increase plant-based meals in care homes and schools  Work with Council tenants and concessionaires to reduce the sale of products with high GHG emissions  Develop funding scheme to improve the efficiency of Council (Tricuro sites / other care homes) and schools’ catering equipment, and switch to electric sources to allow for carbon neutral catering  Work with County Farm tenants to encourage the adoption of more climate and wildlife friendly practices

INFLUENCE & PARTNERSHIP  Continue to work with producers and partners to promote 'local food' and reduce food miles  Promote home growing and allotments to Dorset residents  Explore the adoption of tools to help engage school staff (and potentially students) to create low-carbon meals, with consideration of ingredients, food miles, and cooking methods  Promote Green Kitchen Standard & Food for Life to Dorset businesses  Work with partners to promote low-carbon affordable food options to Dorset residents  Work with partners to help food and drink suppliers within Dorset to be resilient to climate change Food and drink”

Food and drink - The table is taken from the strategy and identifies the areas for action where we see Dorset Council can either directly impact, indirectly impact or only influence outcomes.

Do you agree with what we have proposed?

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Q Food and Drink - What we can directly impact?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 423 505 101 61 30 5

% of all who 37.6% 44.9% 9.0% 5.4% 2.7% 0.4% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest we can directly influence on food and drink. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 83% agree and 8% disagree.

Food and drink Directly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 82.5 minus 8.1 = plus 74.4

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Net Response Group Agreement Overall 74.4 Parish/Town Councils 74.0 Elected Members 72.8 Under 65's 72.3 Organisations 66.6 Disabled 60.0 Businesses 54.8

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on \food and drink – Direct influence. This ranged from a high 74.0 for Parish and Town Councils down to a still high 54.8 for Businesses. The overall figure was 74.4

Q Food and drink - What we can indirectly impact

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 347 483 140 80 52 5

% of all who 31.3% 43.6% 12.6% 7.2% 4.7% 0.5% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest we can indirectly influence on food and drink. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 75% agree and 12% disagree.

Food and drink - Indirectly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 74.9 minus 11.9 = plus 63.0

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Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 72.8 Businesses 63.7 Overall 63.0 Under 65's 61.0 Parish/Town Councils 60.0 Organisations 55.9 Disabled 37.0

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on food and drink – Indirect influence. This ranged from a high 72.8 for Elected Members down to 37.0 for disabled. The overall figure was 74.4

Q Food and drink - What we can influence and partnership

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 368 499 123 73 36 7

% of all who 33.3% 45.1% 11.1% 6.6% 3.3% 0.6% responded

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The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest we can influence and partnership on food and drink. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 78% agree and 10% disagree.

Food and Drink - Influence and partnership ~ Net Agreement = 78.4 minus 9.9 = plus 68.5

Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 77.3 Under 65's 66.1 Businesses 63.7 Organisations 56.3 Overall 55.1 Disabled 52.8 Parish/Town Councils 48.0

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on Food

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and drink – influence and partnership. This ranged from a high 77.3 for Elected Members down to 48.0 for Town and Parish Councils. The overall figure was 55.1

Food and Drink Action Plan

We have identified a number of initial targets and specific actions that Dorset Council can take to address the areas above. The action plan identifies where we see Dorset Council can take action. Q Do you agree with what we have proposed?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 318 499 190 74 38

% of all who 28.4% 44.6% 17.0% 6.6% 3.4% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest in our food and drink action plan. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 73% agree and 10% disagree.

Food and Drink - Action Plan ~ Net Agreement = 73.0 minus 10.0 = plus 63.0

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Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 86.4 Overall 63.0 Under 65's 61.7 Organisations 51.5 Businesses 50.0 Disabled 44.4 Parish/Town Councils 26.9

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table show net agreement to the question on Food and drink – Action Plan. This ranged from a high 86.4 for Elected Members down to 26.9 for Town and Parish Councils. The overall figure was 63.0

Q Please explain why you think this and if there is anything fundamental that you feel we have missed in "food and drink" area for action? 571 responses Q Please explain why you think this. 340 responses

The table below combines the two questions on food and drink. The analysis of the 881 comments have focused on the number of times the issue has been raised. The table below show the 75 top issues raised. A further 33 issues were analysed. The key concerns have risen to the top of the list below and these include support for farming practises, concern over protection of soil, need for organic farming, concerns over chemicals and pesticides and supermarket food.

FOOD AND DRINK Mentions Support / incentivise farmers to undergo sustainable farming practices. 120 Concern over protection of soil. 89 Implement organic farming. 71 Ban use of chemicals, fertilisers and pesticides in farming. 70 Encourage supermarkets / shops to sell more local, natural food produce. 70 Encourage vegan / vegetarian / plant based lifestyle. 65 61 Page 219

Actions don't go far enough / too vague / not strict enough. 53 Promote home growing and allotments. 53 Can't force lifestyle changes on people / don't enforce veganism. 46 Concern over livestock / GHG emissions. 45 Quicker action needed. 43 General education needed for both adults and children about food and drink production. 43 DC have ability to manage food and drink through procurement. 40 Need for sustainable aquaculture. 40 Concerns over carbon sequestration in farming practices. 38 Address issue of palm oil. 37 Concern over flood risk management. 30 Ensure maintenance of healthy food chains which support natural predators of food crop pests. 29 Educate on the benefits of eating less meat. 23 Need to address use of plastic packaging in supermarkets. 21 Encourage consumption of locally / better produced food / meat. 20 Concern / disagreement over proposals to stop care home residents eating meat. 18 Reinstate town markets to help farmers sell produce. 16 Create community orchards. 16 Introduce sustainable farming practices to produce meat. 14 Dorset Council to lead by example. 12 Concern over Council's ability to implement proposed ideas. 11 Enforce ban on single plastics in supermarkets. 11 Funding for businesses to opt for eco‐friendly packaging options. 11 Concern / disagreement over plans to not offer meat meals at schools. 11 Bring back home economics / cooking lessons in schools. 11 Fruit and veg to be available in shops during their natural season. 10 Farming produce in Dorset is too expensive. 8 Promote local shopping. 8 Work with CLA and NFU. 7 Minimising packaging should be an integral part of the Food and Drink strategy. 7 Need for animals to graze on land. 6 Move away from dairy farming. 6 Farmers know far more about agriculture than the Councils officers. 6 Recycling deposits in each countryside area. 5 Concern over residential food waste. 5 Focus on improving nutrition of residents. 5 All schools to produce their own food. 5 Promotion of meat free days in schools. 5 Work with schools to offer training and apprenticeships in sustainable food management. 5 Concern over carbon emissions and litter emitted from tourism. 5

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Work with AONB. 5 More needs to be done to educate staff about single use plastic. 4 Dorset Council land to be used for allotments. 4 Ensure farmers do not waste produce that is not cosmetically / conventionally attractive / normal. 4 Offer grants to help small shops to encourage organic food sales and supply. 4 Community growing initiatives. 4 Encourage residents to cook from scratch. 4 More locally and ethically produced food in schools. 4 River catchment management. 4 Plant more trees. 4 Dorset Council to ensure that all plastics can be recycled easily. 3 Collect compostable / biodegradable packaging from households. 3 Work with Local Nature Partnership. 3 Opportunities to work with town and parish councils. 3 More street and kerbside recycling needed. 3 Businesses to offer paid for paper bags instead of plastic. 3 Consider how plan will affect farmers individually. 3 Encourage no dig and no ploughing methods for food growers and producers. 3 Farm shops to clearly state the country of origin for their meat. 3 Look into ways to make use of spare space for growing food. 3 Create a "Dorset brand" of vegetables. 3 More ethically produced food in care homes. 3 More consideration to be given to how surplus and waste foods can be avoided while offering support to those in poverty. 3 Put more pressure on supermarkets to buy locally produced goods. 3 Install food waste reducing community fridges and milk refill stations. 3 Concern over quality of hospital food. 3 Better quality food for schools. 3 No new supermarket developments on edges of towns. 3 More roadside verges to be created for wildlife. 3

Organisational Comments (selected)

The NFU responded to this topic disagreeing or strongly disagreeing with indirect impacts, and influence and partnership. Strongly disagree with point 2: "work to reduce meat in schools and care-homes" They also raised concerns with the Action Plan. They said The NFU believes that the agricultural sector is very much part of the solution to decarbonising the UK economy and has committed to achieving Net Zero by 2040 which means as an industry there is leadership and support for developing net zero policies that support farmers and the delivery of wider environmental and social benefits. A food economy that supports farming businesses taking action to have a positive impact on the environment both at a climate level but also wide landscape, biodiversity and social level. Improve farm economics by accessing markets that pay a better return for agricultural products at a national and international scale.” 63 Page 221

Whilst supporting the strategy and actions the Forestry Commission said ” I would like to see an action under Partnerships to tackle the carbon and pollutants than come from agricultural land. Working with partners to develop schemes to see an uptake of techniques of Agroforestry on farms The County Farms could be used as trial sites to showcase the benefits this can bring to the agricultural landscape without farm reducing production” They also added “a missed opportunity is to support Agroforestry on farms” explaining their thinking.

The Dorset Wildlife Trust said “There is mention of the impact of pesticides on nature, however the focus is on direct effects (toxicity) only, whilst indirect effects are in some cases more significant. We appreciate that Dorset Council does not have direct control over land management other than its own land, however it can: o Encourage nature-beneficial land management through planning policy – for example continuing to support nitrogen and phosphate neutral development. o Support environmental land management advisory services such as those provided by DWT, Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group SW, and others. o Given that the report states “The Dorset County Farm Estate is currently focused on carbon intensive practices providing little ecological or carbon sequestration gain”, commit to providing tenants with incentives for better practice and reviewing and revising tenancies as they come up”

Dorset Local nature Partnership said “ We support the food and drink areas for action and action plan in principle. Consideration to be given on wider issues and opportunities for nature, of which some have a carbon reduction benefit as well. We suggest that the objective to “Increase local, low-carbon food production in Dorset” should read “Increase local, low-carbon, high nature food production in Dorset.” • Recognise the significant different in both climate change and ecological impacts between the most damaging food production methods and those which benefit the environment, such as low intensity, low input, high quality grass-fed outdoor reared livestock. • Emphasise meat of high quality and high environmental standards, whilst reducing the consumption of that produced using high carbon lower ecological benefit methods. • It is not necessarily true that “Land made available to increase biodiversity will reduce the amount of land available for food production”. It is true that change is needed and in some cases that is taking land out of intensive farming. However, it might still be available for food production, through using regenerative methods, creating new wildlife-rich grasslands which are grazed or establishing agro- forestry for example. • Opportunities should be sought to produce food in ways that enable nature to recover – a Nature Recovery Network should include areas where food is produced but where wildlife will also thrive. • The technical report mentions pesticides’ impacts on nature however it focusses on direct effects (toxicity) only, whilst indirect effects (eradication of beneficial species and breaking of food chains) are arguably more significant.

The need to reduce food waste is mentioned, and this is crucial; less waste effectively increases production without taking any more land. Reference to soils should be included. Loss and deterioration of soil is a major cause of carbon emissions, more carbon is stored in the soil than above ground. • Diffuse pollution from soil, nutrients, fertilisers and pesticides is affecting streams, rivers, harbours and ultimately the sea, causing their own contribution to the ecological crisis. Dealing with this can help address both crises. Encourage nature-beneficial land management through planning policy – for example continuing to support nitrogen and phosphate neutral development. Support land management advisory services such as those provided by DWT, Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group SW, and others. The report states “The Dorset County Farm Estate is currently focused on carbon intensive practices providing little ecological or carbon sequestration gain”. There is little action suggested in the current draft to address this challenge and opportunity. There is no mention of seafood and sustainable fishing in this section. “

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Topic Area – Economy

Areas for Action...

The survey said “We will need to create a zero-carbon economy here in Dorset. This means that emissions from the Dorset’s commercial and industrial sector will need to stop whilst making sure the county’s economy still thrives. Dorset Council cannot singlehandedly these kind of emissions. But it can work with partners, influence services and develop existing programmes to drive transition to a zero carbon economy in Dorset.

DIRECT  Ensure Dorset Council procurement supports sustainable development by prioritising social & environmental wellbeing as well as economic value  Build renewable energy infrastructure at Dorset Innovation Park

INDIRECT (through services)  Support the expansion of the Dorset Innovation Park to become a centre of excellence in clean growth  Support greater deployment and strengthen high-speed broadband and ICT infrastructure in the county through Dorset’s Broadband programme. And enable businesses to increase home working and reduce travel  Promote the low-carbon economy and encourage investment in green jobs and businesses in Dorset  Support businesses to become more energy and resource efficient and to install renewable energy by working with partners to expand Low Carbon Dorset programme

INFLUENCE & PARTNERSHIP  Maximise opportunities for clean growth in Dorset by working with businesses & partners to put clean growth at centre of local economic development plans  Support Dorset’s strong high-tech sector to diversify & take advantage of growth in low carbon sector  Work with partners to attract green sector businesses with highly skilled workforces to Dorset  Help businesses be more resilient to climate change through our planning & flood risk management functions  Work with the tourism sector to develop specific programmes of support for sustainable tourism & make Dorset a low-carbon tourism destination”

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Q Economy - What we can directly impact?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 327 515 144 48 37 8

% of all who 30.3% 47.7% 15.9% 4.3% 3.4% 0.7% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest we can directly influence on economy. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 78% agree and 8% disagree.

Economy - Directly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 78.0 minus 7.8 = plus 70.2

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Net Response Group Agreement Businesses 100.0 Elected Members 85.6 Organisations 74.1 Overall 70.2 Under 65's 68.4 Parish/Town Councils 66.7 Disabled 51.7

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Direct Influence - Economy. This ranged from a maximum 100.0 for Businesses down to 51.7 for Disabled. The overall figure was 70.2

Q Economy - What we can indirectly impact

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 301 498 168 46 37 8

% of all who 28.4% 47.1% 15.9% 4.3% 3.5% 0.8% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest we can indirectly influence on the economy. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 75% agree and 8% disagree.

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Economy -Indirectly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 75.5 minus 7.8 = plus 67.7

Net Response Group Agreement Businesses 100.0 Elected Members 76.2 Parish/Town Councils 74.0 Organisations 67.7 Overall 67.7 Under 65's 65.9 Disabled 44.6

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Indirectly impact - Economy. This ranged from a maximum 100.0 for Businesses down to 44.6 for Disabled. The overall figure was 67.7

Q Economy - What we can influence and partnership

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 311 496 151 52 41 8

% of all who 29.4% 46.8% 14.3% 4.9% 3.9% 0.8% responded

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The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest we can influence and partnership on the economy. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 76% agree and 9% disagree.

Economy - Influence and partnership ~ Net Agreement = 76.2 minus 8.8 = plus 67.4

Net Response Group Agreement Businesses 100.0 Elected Members 81.0 Parish/Town Councils 69.6 Organisations 68.8 Overall 67.4 Under 65's 64.7 Disabled 41.0

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on 69 Page 227

Influence and Partnership - Economy. This ranged from a maximum 100.0 for Businesses down to 41.0 for Disabled. The overall figure was 67.4

Economy Action Plan

We have identified a number of initial targets and specific actions that Dorset Council can take to address the areas. Our summary action plan for Economy is available.

Q Do you agree with what we have proposed?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 249 501 203 59 37

% of all who 23.7% 47.8% 19.4% 5.6% 3.5% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest in our economy Action Plan. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 72% agree and 9% disagree.

Economy - Action Plan ~ Net Agreement = 71.5 minus 9.1 = plus 62.4

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Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 65.0 Organisations 64.5 Parish/Town Councils 64.4 Overall 62.4 Under 65's 61.7 Businesses 57.5 Disabled 39.7

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Action Plan - Economy. This ranged from a high 65.0 for Elected members down to 39.7 for Disabled. The overall figure was 62.4

Q Please explain why you think this and if there is anything fundamental that you feel we have missed in "economy" area for action? - 448 responses Q. Please explain why you think this. 282 responses

The table below combines the two questions on the economy. The analysis of the 730 comments have focused on the number of times the issue has been raised. The table below show the top issues raised. A further 108 issues were identified and analysed. The key concerns have risen to the top of the list below and these include changing the way the pension fund is used, create a low carbon economy, procurement policy, ethical banking, lob creation and ethical banking.

Economy ‐ Key themes Mentions Divest pension funds of fossil fuel investments/no investment in fossil fuels 52 Encourage sustainable/low carbon/zero carbon tourism 49 Use procurement policy positively to help drive emission reductions and purchase Fairtrade, sustainable, locally produced goods and food, plus take into account social factors 46

Bank with an ethical company 28

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Develop a Dorset Climate Service to employ people in well‐paid, secure, skilled and unionised jobs, with those in carbon intensive jobs being retrained as part of the service 25

Better, faster, more reliable broadband 20 Reskilling and training programmes for retrofitting energy efficient measures/low carbon tech 18

Invest and create green jobs/low carbon renewable economy 17 Energy efficient workspaces close to rural communities, not just in town centres/urban areas will reduce the need to travel as much 15

Growth = an unsustainable economy 15 Grow a skilled workforce through joining schools/colleges/apprenticeships with green businesses 11 Support a circular economy 10 Use planning system to encourage the green economy 9 The term low carbon is not renewable and should be removed 8 Improve transport links and create travel hubs 8 Promote economy in line with UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals 8 Encourage renewable energy in businesses 7 Government policies and local plans place too much emphasis on house building. More balance is needed between housing, services and jobs 7 Dorset Innovation Park needs public transport connections 6 Consider climate, ecological and social justice in all decision making 5 Retain Low Carbon Dorset project and promote better 5 Provide incentives, grants and awards aimed at revenue savings benefits such as Litter Free Coast & Sea award 5 Covid recovery funds should only be used to support businesses and others affected by the pandemic 5 Covid recovery funds should be used to support green growth 5

The term 'growth' and the measuring of it needs to be redefined ‐ getting richer, bigger and consuming more does not mean that society will be 'wealthier' in terms of equality etc 5 Do not support tourism 4 Increased use of home utilities following more home working 4 Higher rates of tax for landlords/businesses that do not meet a minimum environmental standard. 4 Do not make Dorset Innovation Park the main focus ‐ include other areas 4 Encourage more home working, but balance health/wellbeing of workforce 4 Consider Business to Customer opportunities for local producers/businesses to connect with residents 4 Re‐skilling/training those who have been made redundant into new, green jobs 4 LEP funding needs to be spread across the county not just focussed in the east 4 Support renewable energy production at Dorset Innovation Park 3 Business rate reduction incentive 3 Encourage offshore renewable energy 3 Encourage businesses to think about solutions that involve renewables from seas and rivers 3

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More procurement from local businesses 3 Do not support waste incinerators 3 Stop oil and gas extraction at Wytch Farm and other sites 3 Development of EV charging points 3 Need more/support engineering jobs 3 Create a Dorset National Park to address the climate and ecological emergency for effectively 3 Protect greenspaces from development 3 Lobby Government to cut VAT/provide tax incentives on products and services which benefits carbon reduction 3 Nuclear power is needed 3

Organisational comments (selected)

The NFU said “The NFU believes that the agricultural sector is very much part of the solution to decarbonising the UK economy and has committed to achieving Net Zero by 2040”

The Dorset Wildlife Trust said “Most of the economic actions focus on low carbon and not on promoting the value of Dorset’s natural environment to its economy or the economic opportunities for developing nature-based solutions such as natural flood defence, carbon capture through habitat restoration, soil conservation to reduce both diffuse pollution and carbon emissions, creation of nature parks at scale, eco-tourism and green prescribing.

Recognising the losses to Dorset’s economy which would occur through not taking action and offsetting this against the costs of practical action now. For example the outcomes of increased flooding and drought, soil loss, poor air quality, point source pollution such as pharmaceuticals in waste water, diffuse pollution such as nitrate run-off from farmland, pollinator loss and poor health all have an economic cost that could be improved through targeted enhancements of natural systems and habitats.”

The Dorset Local Nature Partnership said “We support the economy areas for action and action plan in principle, in particular the recognition of prioritising ‘social and environmental wellbeing as well as economic value’ and investment in green jobs and green skills (noting that these are wider than just the low-carbon sector). Consideration to be given to the value of the natural environment to the economy and as a driver for economic growth. • Most of the actions focus on low carbon and not on promoting the value of Dorset’s natural environment to its economy. • The intention to “Promote the low-carbon economy and encourage investment in green jobs and businesses in Dorset” is welcome. However, it could be more specifically linked to solving the ecological emergency by revising this to state “Promote a low-carbon, high nature economy and encourage investment in green jobs and businesses in Dorset.” • Green finance is an increasing market which should be incorporated into the strategy.”

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Topic Area - Waste

Area for action...

The survey “To reduce the carbon impact from our waste activities, Dorset must work towards being more sustainable and efficient. This means reducing the amount of waste we produce by keeping resources in use for as long as possible and recovering and reusing products and materials wherever we can.

DIRECT

 Carry out internal waste audits across our operations & create waste reduction plan supported by targeted campaigns  Continue to work towards our commitment to become single-use plastic-free & eliminate the use of all single life products  Ensure waste is minimised through procurement e.g. DC suppliers to take back packaging or use reusable packaging systems  Develop business plan to tackle food waste within Council premises, with a particular focus on schools & adult services  Ensure sufficient contracts are in place to reuse, recycle & recover as much Council waste as possible  Work with Waste manager to reduce emissions from waste collection vehicles

INDIRECT (through services)

 Establish appropriate infrastructure to support circular economy as part of Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy for Dorset 2008 – 33  Develop targeted campaigns to reduce amount of waste produced and increase reuse & recycling  Trial a ‘not sure’ box and use results to inform residents what can or cannot be recycled  Trial provision of free/subsidised food-waste caddy liners in specific areas  Explore opportunity for increased commercial waste services  Develop a contract & infrastructure strategy to enable the most efficient and cost-effective solution for Dorset

INFLUENCE & PARTNERSHIP

 Respond to second round of consultations relating to the resources & waste strategy for England  Investigate how Dorset Waste Services can work with partners to facilitate reduction of commercial and industrial waste  Continue to engage with public, communities, schools & businesses to increase understanding of waste issues & best practices  Develop further campaigns to reduce the amount of waste generated & stimulate further reuse, recycling & composting  Introduce a pilot project in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy to reduce food waste ~ Continue to work with the Police, EA & community groups to reduce littering & fly tipping”

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Q Waste - What we can directly impact

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 400 521 91 34 17 7

% of all who 37.4% 48.7% 8.5% 3.2% 1.6% 0.7% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest we can directly influence on waste. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 86% agree and 85% disagree.

Waste - Directly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 86.1 minus 4.8 = plus 81.3

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Net Response Group Agreement Businesses 91.0 Elected Members 90.5 Parish/Town Councils 84.0 Overall 81.3 Under 65's 76.1 Disabled 75.4 Organisations 68.7

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Directly Influence - Waste This ranged from a very high 91.0 for Businesses down to 68.7 for Organisations. The overall figure was 81.3

Q Waste - What we can indirectly impact

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 337 537 109 46 19 6

% of all who 32.0% 50.9% 10.3% 4.4% 1.8% 0.6% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest we can indirectly influence on food and drink. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 83% agree and 6% disagree.

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Waste - Indirectly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 82.9 minus 6.2 = plus 76.7

Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 85.7 Overall 76.7 Under 65's 72.3 Businesses 70.0 Parish/Town Councils 68.0 Organisations 67.7 Disabled 65.7

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Indirectly Influence - Waste This ranged from a very high 85.7 for Elected members down to 65.7 for Disabled. The overall figure was 76.7

Q Waste - What we can influence and partnership

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 342 535 105 43 22 7

% of all who 32.4% 50.8% 10.0% 4.1% 2.1% 0.7% responded

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The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest we can influence and partnership om waste. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 83% agree and 6% disagree.

Waste - Influence and partnership ~ Net Agreement = 83.2 minus 6.2 = plus 77.0

Net Response Group Agreement Businesses 88.9 Overall 77.0 Elected Members 76.2 Parish/Town Councils 76.0 Under 65's 74.2 Organisations 64.5 Disabled 58.6

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Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Influence and partnership – Waste. This ranged from a very high 88.9 for businesses down to 58.6 for disabled. The overall figure was 77.0

Waste Action Plan

We have identified a number of initial targets and specific actions that Dorset Council can take to address the areas above.

Q Waste - The above action plan identifies where we see Dorset Council can take action. Do you agree with what we have proposed?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 297 533 163 44 20

% of all who 28.1% 50.4% 15.4% 4.2% 1.9% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest on the Waste Action plan. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 72% agree and 6% disagree.

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Waste Action Plan ~ Net Agreement = 78.5 minus 6.1 = plus 72.4

Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 81,0 Businesses 75.0 Parish/Town Councils 74.0 Overall 72.4 Under 65's 69.2 Disabled 63.6 Organisations 53.3

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Action Plan– Waste. This ranged from a very high 81.0 for elected members down to 53.3 for Organisations. The overall figure was 72.4

Q Please explain why you think this and if there is anything fundamental that you feel we have missed in "waste" area for action? 543 responses.

Q Please explain why you think this. 271 responses The table below combines the two questions on waste. The analysis of the 814 comments have focused on the number of times the issue has been raised. The table below show the top issues raised. A further 97 issues were identified and analysed. The key concerns have risen to the top of the list below and these include reducing plastic packaging, doing more about commercial/industrial waste, tackle fly tipping, education on waste management and advice on moving to a circular economy.

Waste issues Mentions Reduce plastic packaging in supermarkets. 74 Address / do more for commercial and industrial waste. 73 Tackle fly tipping. 68

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More education on sustainable waste management. 64 Advice on moving to a circular economy. 53 Quicker action needed. 51 Adapt council policies to include circular economy aspects and embed material re‐use and redeployment systems and tools, into procurement process by 2024, including businesses taking responsibility for the full costs of waste disposal including collection. 49 More recycling facilities. 47 Accept more types of recycling to avoid as much as possible going to landfill. 41 Grants for businesses for good practice. 38 Ban use of plastic packaging by 2022. 33 Concern over final destination of waste. 30 Pooling together of resources throughout community. 30 Dorset Council to lead by example. 28 Work with other stakeholders‐ resource efficiency clusters. 28 Facilitate a transparent and open discussion of waste policy to demonstrate to the public if any further incineration in Dorset would be a benefit and provide evidence of it being in line with Dorset Council's Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy. 27 Investigate the use of new technologies to process organic and plastic waste and convert it for reuse as energy, fertiliser, feedstock, etc. as appropriate. 27 Create materials datahub. 26 No to the Portland Waste Incinerator. 26 More talks within schools to educate about the impact of waste. 24 Incentive schemes for businesses that show good practice. 23 Dorset Council is in a strong position to adopt a single use plastic reduction plan across its operations with the target of becoming single use plastic free by the end of 2021. 22 The contracts to reuse, recycle and recover Dorset Council waste should include an enforceable contractual term that 75% of Dorset Council waste must be reused, recycled and recovered by 2025 and 100% of food waste to be recycled/composted and prepared for re‐use by 2025. 22 Initiate a Single Use Plastic reduction campaign across the County. Publicise and support this by introducing public water fountains in every town, setting up and encouraging Refill schemes, and committing continued funding to Litter Free Dorset, and local organisations to run 'Plastic Free' projects in the community. 22 Monitor areas for recycling rates and send postcards with feedback and encouraging messages to both successful and failing areas. 22 Create repair shops / cafes. 22 Actions too vague / don't stretch far enough / lack of ambition. 18 Make recycling options a lot clearer / what goes in which bin. 17 More mentioned on food waste. 15 Do not charge to recycle / use tips. 14 Creation / support of a "Not Sure" box. 14

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Waste Treatment Centres to be monitored to ensure waste from other areas outside of Dorset do not import waste. 13 Concern over costs. 12 Dorset Council should go further to ensure that the Proximity Principle prevails in practice. 12 Plastic packaging should be compostable. 12 Ensure all waste centres are located to reduce lorry travel as much as possible. 11 Lobby government. 10 Ensure our waste is not sent to other countries landfill. 9 Tighter focus on littering. 9 The Council should go further and demand control of the refuse derived fuel industries operating in Dorset so that no recycles of any kind are incorporated into the RDF trade within Dorset. 9 Free tipping at HRC will lead to less fly tipping. 8 Work with food producers / farmers to reduce waste. 8 Caddy liners just produce more waste. 7 Promote EFW as a technology or want reference to it in the strategy. 7 Establish a system / deposit where all packaging and waste is returned to the supplier. 6 Initiative for construction workers to offload / recycle materials to other workers who may use them. 6 Reducing emissions of waste fleet. 6 Concern over Council's ability and funding for the plans. 5 Work with other councils on recycling options. 5 Scope to create more partnerships. 5 Re‐use at HRCs. 5 Create more roadside signage / posters to discourage littering along roadsides. 5 More local WEEE collection facilities. 5 Deal with number of dog poo bags left in bridleways, footpaths and fields. 5 Address issue of plastic bottled water. 4 Repair "shops" at municipal tips. 4 Harsher fines / penalties for those caught littering. 4 Council waste vehicles need to be replaced by electric or hydrogen‐ powered vehicles. 4 Address issue of waste caused by tourism. 4 Work with shops / supermarkets to reduce food waste. 4 Needs link to co2. 3 Council can affect commercial market by procurement. 3 Needs enforcing and putting into practice by staff. 3 Stop door to door recycling and create large community recycling facilities instead. 3 Allow recycling of items brought in to waste centres. 3 Reduced business rates for low waste shops. 3 Create community food fridges. 3 Support community litter picks and beach cleans. 3

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Create more public bins. 3 Children to have organised school trips to recycling plants. 3 The wider issues in the County regarding hazardous waste, construction demolition etc, may need to be explained to the public. 3 More support for food banks. 3 All council staff to be trained and educated on sustainable waste management. 2 Council to create tax for all food in plastic packaging. Plastic tax. 2 Adopt a Clean Dorset programme. 2 Support War on Waste team. 2 Move away from black plastic. 2 Create free collection and recycle service for large house items. 2 Not all residents will be able to afford sustainable practices. 2 Eliminate the sale of BBQs in stores. 2 Increase the uptake of “wonky” veg. 2 Create / support make do and mend initiatives. 2 Encourage culture of minimalism. 2 Create community forum. 2 Make all schools "green" ‐ pupils to be involved in decision making and process. 2 Significant work needs to be done about cigarette littering. 2 Concern over litter caused by Covid. 2

Organisational comments

Dorset Local Nature Partnership said “We support the waste areas for action and action plan in principle, in particular the aims of a circular economy.”

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Topic Area – Water

Areas for Action . The survey said ” By 2050, steps will need to be taken, led by the water industry, to significantly reduce demand for water, reduce wastage and manage water resources. It is critical that Dorset Council takes action through its own operations, services and influence to encourage a reduction in Dorset’s water demand and wastage, and the management of water resources.

DIRECT  Make Dorset Council buildings more water efficient, by installing technologies such as flow regulators, water efficient toilets and showerheads  Ensure procurement specification favours water efficient equipment  Reduce / replace demand on mains water within Dorset Council buildings by installing technologies such as rainwater harvesting and grey water systems  Carry out in-depth assessment of water leaks across Council’s estate  Carry out audit of all Council sites holding materials hazardous to water quality to ensure correct storage is in place & ensure pollution prevention equipment is properly maintained

INDIRECT through services)

 Ensure water use is minimised and reuse is optimised in new developments  Work with County Farms and Green Spaces to ensure land management practices protect water supplies  Ensure Dorset Council land management practices prevent water pollution  Identify areas at risk from local sources of flooding and ensure these are considered in the future  Maintenance of ordinary watercourses by riparian owners to help reduce the risk of flooding

INFLUENCE & PARTNERSHIP

 Liaise with water companies to ensure water leaks are identified and eliminated in Dorset  Work with Environment Agency to ensure all high risk industrial and farming areas in Dorset have been identified and appropriate pollution prevention measures are in place  Work with partners to promote land management practices that prevent polluting water courses and ensure good water management  Work with partners to ensure climate resilience is being addressed and sufficient supplies of good quality water will be available for Dorset residents”

Water - The table is taken from the strategy and identifies the areas for action where we see Dorset Council can either directly impact, indirectly impact or only influence outcomes. Do you agree with what we have proposed?

Q What we can directly impact

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Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 402 499 81 26 21 6

% of all who 38.8% 48.2% 7.8% 2.5% 2.0% 0.6% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest we can directly influence with water. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 87% agree and 11% disagree.

Water - Directly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 87.0 minus 11.2 = plus 82.5

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Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 90.0 Parish/Town Councils 88.0 Overall 82.5 Businesses 81.8 Under 65's 80.8 Disabled 78.9 Organisations 71.0

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Direct Influence - Water. This ranged from a very high 90.0 for elected members down to 71.0 for Organisations. The overall figure was 82.5.

Q Water - What we can indirectly impact

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 358 512 96 32 21 6

% of all who 35.7% 48.0% 9.4% 3.1% 2.0% 0.6% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest we can indirectly influence on food and drink. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 85% agree and 5% disagree.

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Water - Indirectly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 84.9 minus 5.1 = plus 79.8

Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 89.5 Parish/Town Councils 88.0 Overall 79.8 Under 65's 77.2 Organisations 74.2 Disabled 72.5 Businesses 54.6

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on indirectly Influence - Water. This ranged from a very high 89.5 for elected members down to 54.6 for Businesses. The overall figure was 79.8

Q Water - What we can influence and partnership

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 366 492 96 39 26 5

% of all who 35.7% 48.0% 9.4% 3.8% 2.5% 0.5% responded

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The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest we can directly influence and partnership The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 84% agree and 7% disagree.

Water - Influence and partnership ~ Net Agreement = 83.7 minus 6.3 = plus 77.4

Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 90.0 Businesses 81.8 Overall 77.4 Under 65's 76.5 Disabled 69.0 Parish/Town Councils 64.0 Organisations 61.9

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Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Influence and Partnership - Water. This ranged from a very high 90.0 for elected members down to 61.9 for Organisations. The overall figure was 77.4

Water Action Plan

We have identified a number of initial targets and specific actions that Dorset Council can take to address the areas above.

Q Water - The above action plan identifies where we see Dorset Council can take action. Do you agree with what we have proposed?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 283 488 176 30 21

% of all who 28.4% 48.9% 17.6% 3.0% 2.1% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest for the Water Action Plan. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 77% agree and 5% disagree.

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Water Action Plan ~ Net Agreement = 77.3 minus 5.1 = plus 72.2

Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 85.0 Overall 72.2 Under 65's 70.7 Organisations 68.8 Parish/Town Councils 67.9 Businesses 62.5 Disabled 61.6

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Action Plan - Water. This ranged from a very high 85.0 for elected members down to 61.6 for Disabled. The overall figure was 72.2

Q Please explain why you think this and if there is anything fundamental that you feel we have missed in "water" area for action? 432 responses. Q Please explain why you think this. 254 responses

The table below combines the two questions on water. The analysis of the 686 comments have focused on the number of times the issue has been raised. The table below show the top issues raised based on 3 mentions or more. A further 103 issues were identified and analysed. The key concerns have risen to the top of the list below and these include support the introduction of beaver colonies, protection for fertilizer runoff, flooding education, creation of natural systems and planting trees to prevent flood risk.

WATER ‐ issues Mentions Consideration given to the introduction of beaver colonies. Beaver populations are proven to facilitate flood prevention and to improve water quality and enhance biodiversity. 72 Work with farmers and landowners to protect waterways from fertiliser run off. 54

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Ensure community and school engagement to promote understanding of issues and individual, local action, and national action around water use, flood risks, sea level rises, flood risks and coastal erosion. 54 Protect and further create natural systems, e.g. wetlands and water meadows. 48 Broken link / Page not found for Water Action Plan. 43 Create tree planting programmes to prevent flood risks and water pollution. 43 New development, especially near rivers and wetlands, should include mandatory requirements for permeable surfaces and reed bed creation to manage run‐off and ameliorate risks from sewage contamination. 43 Need action sooner than 2050 / actions should already be in place. 41 Develop and deliver programme with Environment Agency and district councils to minimise flood risks and impacts. 40 Protect from non‐sustainable farming practices that can pollute drinking water supplies and are causing rising Nitrogen levels. 40 Encourage residents to save water by offering water butts at 'bulk buy' prices, which Dorset Council working with water companies to negotiate with a provider. 33 How will Dorset Council enable residents to save water? 31 Do not build on flood plains. 28 Poor water quality of rivers needs addressing. 27 Better use of rainwater harvesting and greywater usage is important. 27 Dorset Council to consider providing an exemplar system for wastewater usage on some of its buildings, which could be open to the public. 26 Concern regarding pollution from car fumes / brakes. 26 Assess impact of non‐native species on water environment and manage accordingly. 20 Fix leaky pipes to stop effluent overflow into rivers and sea. 15 Dorset Council should lobby Central Government to produce a revised National Planning Policy Framework for sustainable standards in water use and disposal, especially associated with new build developments. 15 Be more specific about targets for plans. 14 More proactive and radical solutions needed / Plan is not ambitious enough. 13 Reduce water waste in production of food. 11 Water meters on all houses would benefit everyone. 11 River catchment management to prevent flood risks. 10 Stop sewage spills/discharge occurring in our waters. 10 Hold water companies accountable for all sewage leaks into rivers and beaches. 10 Do not build on areas that are at risk from high levels of flooding. 10 Fines for water companies which do not tackle leakage and pollution are necessary. 10 Creation of more reservoirs. 9 Create more efficient and sustainable drainage systems. 9 Needs to be clearer about ceasing use of agricultural chemicals and fertilizers that pollute rivers and water courses. 9 Launch Swim Dorset campaign designed to make every river and stream in Dorset safe for children to play and swim, and the water at every beach safe for residents and tourists alike. 9 Response needed to address rising sea levels and greater coastal erosion. 8 Sea water quality needs to be of higher standard ‐ international or above. 8 Help for residential homes to encourage collection and use of rainwater. 8 Influence planners to provide water butts on all new builds. 8 Financial penalties to be enforced for individuals and organisations who pollute our water. 8 Need clearer objectives for flood risk prevention. 7

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Subsidise or provide free water butts for houses and business premises to harvest rainwater. 7 Work with Wessex Water and the Environment Agency to reach a target of reducing water use by Dorset residents by 75% by 2025. 7 Tree planting to replace marginal farmland to reduce agri‐chemical runoff, eutrophication and poor water quality, whilst simultaneously increasing natural carbon capture. 7 Creation of Dorset Wild Rivers / rewilding of rivers. 7 Promote and support community applications for all Dorset rivers to attain bathing water status. 7 All properties to have natural rainwater storage to be used for non‐portable uses. 7 More SUDS schemes needed in new developments to reduce run off, pollution and water 7 loss. Withhold Planning Permission on new buildings if rainwater harvesting is not included. 7 Reduce water run off from developments which pollutes rivers. 6 Consider to actively promote the use of rainwater by providing free or subsidised rainwater collection bins (and their installation). 6 Add green roofs to all new and existing buildings. 6 Promote and encourage the use of public water taps to reduce single use plastic bottles. 6 Dorset Council to lead by example by reducing its own water usage. 5 Note latest evidence on weakness of dual flush systems and the potential benefit of traditional flush toilets. 5 The introduction of public water butts. 5 Support Natural Flood Management initiatives. 4 Install toilets that use collected rainwater. 4 Discuss with water suppliers to create devices to make water usage more efficient. 4 Ensuring the water / pipe system can cope with increasing population numbers / Wessex Water usage. 4 All pollutants (private and public) should be investigated, not just agriculture. 4 Concern of high nitrate levels in local waters. 4 Stop building unnecessary homes to stop increase of water demand. 4 Where water courses or sea are polluted by companies or land owners this should be made public. If there are sewage alerts on our beach we get alerts through SAS. This is not made visible to the public. 4 Review the impact of caravans and temporary structures on water resources, waste and pollution. 4 Reconsider the taxing of water saving measures at 20%. 3 Commitment to eliminate harmful chemicals used under Council contracts e.g. pavement cleaning, verge management. 3 Procedures needed to slow flow of stream water during periods of heavy rainfall. 3 Lobby for sewage (Inland Water) Bill. 3 Insufficient attention is paid to sewage/ silage etc disposal. 3 Water companies need to increase storage to store more water during the winter. 3 Create desalination plants. 3 Make steps for water companies to be placed in public ownership. 3 More incentives (penalties) needed to ensure water companies find and deal with leaks. 3 Address issue of potential water shortage in future. 3 Create more ponds and lakes. 3 Create Dorset National Park, working with DC and communities. 3 Connecting the banning of chemical use on County farms and restoration of soil health to restoring water quality. 3 Address the need for more sustainable farming practices within food production. 3 92 Page 250

Maintenance of ordinary watercourses by riparian owners. 3 Regular dredging of rivers to help with flooding issues. 3 Riparian rights owners to take responsibility. 3 Clearing river beds of overgrown reeds are no longer carried out, meaning the rivers become more shallow and prone to flooding. 3 Reduce the abstraction from chalk aquifers which has an impact on chalk streams and rivers. 3 Main drains need to be unblocked when local residents request help; such overflowing 3 drains can be a hazard and danger to elderly people. Introduce lower and higher quality water options in homes to reduce waste of high quality water. 3 Ensure water efficiency is part of planning consent. 3 Stop concreting over large areas of green land. 3 Many of the large scale building developments planned in the DC area will have great impact on the loading of sewage systems and flood risk from runoff. In particular the large developments in Wool, Morton and Crossways threaten the water quality of the River Frome and that of Poole Harbour RAMSAR site. 3 Consider introducing tighter rules (and policing to ensure compliance) to reduce the loss of green (private) areas. 3 More refill stations for water. 3

Organisational Responses

Wessex Water responded on the Water topic supporting both the approach in the strategy and the action plan. They said “We therefore welcome the support in the strategy for steps to reduce demand for water, reduce waste and manage water resources in a more sustainable way within the Dorset Council area” Wessex Water go on to make various suggestions about details in the strategy. These comments will need to be considered separately.

The Forestry Commission said “Additional action needed to promote the message about the multiple benefits of woodland for water quality and flow. Abundant research now available and this is the cheapest most effective solution - a 'quick win' with side benefits of increasing biodiversity and improving landscape” amongst further suggestions.

The Dorset Local Nature Partnership said “We support the water areas for action and action plan in principle, including land management practices. More consideration to be given to the ecological emergency. The ‘scale of the challenge’ does not set out the situation as regarding the ecological emergency in the water environment, though under this topic there are some nature- specific issues listed. Actions cover only climate and water quality/quantity, not nature specifically. • The use of nature-based solutions to assist with flood management and enhance water quality, have been missed. The value of water environments to quality of life and opportunities to therefore enhance both nature and greenspace at the same time are not covered. Evidence report is out of date and incorrectly notes that the CaBA approach is not widely adopted in Dorset. All three main catchments in Dorset have an active Catchment Partnership, so reference to engaging with the Dorset Catchment Partnerships should be made and discussions with the Catchment Partnership in revising the strategy are encouraged. Reference to engaging with the water utility companies is encouraged.”

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Topic Area - Natural Assets

Area for Action ...

The survey said ”Natural Assets provide clean air, water, and healthy soils that are vital for the physical well-being of Dorset’s population. Critically, our declaration of an ecological emergency recognises the increasing pressure being placed on ecosystems and biodiversity and the need to work hard to maintain and improve Dorset’s natural assets. Dorset Council can take action on its own estate and continue to work closely with partners.

DIRECT  Identify opportunities to use Dorset Council land to increase resilience to climate change  Increase biodiversity on identified areas of Council land ~ Increase area of Council owned or managed land for ecological & carbon sequestration outcomes  Creation of wildlife friendly areas on council land (incl. bee-friendly zones)  Increase hedge & woodland planting through Dormouse District Licence project  Review all chemical use to ensure no harm to unintended species  Expand cut & collect verge management  Increase tree planting where suitable to avoid detrimental effects on other habitat types or landscape

INDIRECT (through services)

 Develop / adopt biodiversity, green & open spaces supplementary planning document to ensure a consistent approach for developers to take up protection & enhancement measures of key biodiverse areas  Use the financial contributions from development raised through Nitrates Supplementary Planning Document to buy land for rewilding / tree planting / creation of rough grassland and scrub  Ensure all decision making around use of natural assets is based upon ecological value ~ Manage heathlands SPD – SANGS in-house to provide additional areas for ecological & carbon sequestration purposes ~ Work with tenants of County Farms to promote and ensure best environmental practices are upheld

INFLUENCE & PARTNERSHIP  Communicate to residents, business, & landowners good practice  Develop guidance to ensure community tree planting initiatives are ecologically robust & sensitive to local landscape (‘right tree in the right place’)  Promote tree planting through partnership working & use of Council tree planting checklist  Promote the health & wellbeing benefits of publicly accessible high ecological value land  Work in partnership with Children’s & Adult Services to ensure natural environment is fully utilised in social care offer  Work with partners to connect fragmented habitats across county ~ Work with town & parish councils to promote best practice within their greenspace & communities.”

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Natural Assets - The table (above) is taken from the strategy and identifies the areas for action where we see Dorset Council can either directly impact, indirectly impact or only influence outcomes.

Do you agree with what we have proposed?

Q What we can directly impact

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 466 435 80 42 24 7

% of all who 44.2% 41.3% 7.6% 4.0% 2.3% 0.7% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest for natural assets – direct influence. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 85% agree and 6% disagree.

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Natural Assets - Directly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 85.5% minus 6.3%= plus 79.2

Net Response Group Agreement Overall 79.2 Businesses 77.7 Under 65's 77.1 Elected Members 75.0 Organisations 66.6 Disabled 61.1 Parish/Town Councils 58.3

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question The table shows net agreement to the question on Direct influence – Natural Assets This ranged from a very high 77.7 for Businesses down to 58.3 for Parish/Town Councils. The overall figure was 79.2

What we can indirectly impact

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 421 441 94 55 23 6

% of all who 40.5% 42.4% 9.0% 5.3% 2.2% 0.6% responded

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The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest for natural assets – indirect influence. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 82% agree and 7% disagree.

Natural Assets – Indirectly impact ~ Net Agreement = 82.0 minus 7.3% = plus 74.7

Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 75.0 Overall 74.7 Under 65's 72.5 Businesses 66.7 Organisations 65.7 Disabled 55.8 Parish/Town Councils 54.1

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Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question The table shows net agreement to the question on Indirect influence – Natural Assets. This ranged from a very high 75.0 for Elected members down to 54.1 for Parish/Town Councils. The overall figure was 74.7

Q What we can influence and partnership

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 421 432 105 53 23 6

% of all who 40.5% 41.5% 10.1% 5.1% 2.2% 0.6% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest for natural assets –influence and partnership. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 82% agree and 7% disagree.

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Natural Assets - Indirectly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 82.9% minus 7.5% = plus 75.4

Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 80.0 Businesses 77.7 Overall 75.4 Under 65's 71.8 Organisations 71.4 Parish/Town Councils 54.1 Disabled 51.9

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question The table shows net agreement to the question on Influence and Partnership – Natural Assets This ranged from a very high 80.0 for Elected members down to 51.9 for Disabled. The overall figure was 75.4

Please explain why you think this and if there is anything fundamental that you feel we have missed in "natural assets" area for action? 498 responses

Action Plan

We have identified a number of initial targets and specific actions that Dorset Council can take to address the areas above. Our summary action plan for Natural Assets can be found here Natural Assets - The above action plan identifies where we see Dorset Council can take action. Do you agree with what we have proposed?

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Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 357 480 136 52 18

% of all who 34.2% 46.0% 13.0% 5.0% 1.7% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest for natural assets – Action Plan. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 80% agree and 7% disagree.

Natural Assets Action Plan ~ Net Agreement = 80.2% minus 6.7 % = plus 73.5

Net Response Group Agreement Organisations 79.3 Overall 73.5 Under 65's 72.4 Elected Members 71.4 100 Page 258

Businesses 66.6 Parish/Town Councils 60.2 Disabled 48.1

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question The table shows net agreement to the question on Action plan – Natural Assets This ranged from a very high 79.3 for Organisations down to 48.1 for Disabled. The overall figure was 73.5

Q. Please explain why you think this and if there is anything fundamental that you feel we have missed in "natural assets" area for action? 498 responses Q. Please explain why you think this - 250 responses

The table below combines the two questions on natural assets. The analysis of the 748 comments have focused on the number of times the issue has been raised. The table below show the top issues raised. A further 56 issues were identified and analysed. The key concerns have risen to the top of the list below and these include support for working with farmers on improving ecological practises, increasing tree planting, large scale rewilding, ensuring tree planting is appropriate and support for a National Park.

NATURAL ASSETS ‐ issues Mentions Work with/support farmers to encourage best ecological practice. 81 More tree planting. 80 Large scale rewilding. 48 Trees need to be suitable species in suitable locations. 41 Support National Park. 41 Policy lacking ambition / too vague. 38 Quicker action needed. 32 Support value of natural asset as health and wellbeing resource. 32 More focus on soil sequestration / protection. 31 Planning Policy needs to include additional natural space. 30 Every planning decision needs to ensure that no biodiversity is lost. 25 Reduce verge cutting/increase cut and collect. 24 Create Dorset Pollinator Action Plan. 24 Stop using so many chemicals to manage land. 23 Improve scale of and maintenance of Rights of Way network. 22 Lobby Central Gov. 21 Creation of saltmarsh for carbon lockup. 18 More mention of marine habitat/incl. fishing industry and aquaculture. 18 Community education and engagement regarding value of natural assets. 17 Work in partnership with other agencies like Natural England, RSPB and DWT. 16 Collect litter before cutting grass. 15 Work with Town and Parish Councils to encourage and promote best environmental 15 practice. Concern over Council's ability to fulfil plans. 14 It’s not all about tree planting ‐ there are other and better ways to capture carbon 14

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Encourage Town Councils (TC) and Parish Councils (PC) to promote good ecological 14 practice within their own greenspaces and communities.

Manage tourist/recreational users better to prevent damage to Natural Environment. 13

Protect existing trees/hedges as well as plant new ones 12 Make County Farms exemplar of good environmental practice. 10 Need more mention of rivers. 10 Educate staff not to cut flowering plants at the wrong time. 10 Improve Bog Lane SANG. 10 Plant more hedgerows. 9 Further planting of wildflower verges. 7 Do not take County Farms/Farms out of production to allow rewilding. 7 Only allow development on brown field sites 6 6 Create wild spaces where wildlife is able to flourish naturally with no interference. Get schools involved. 6 Ban BBQs. 6 More mention of air quality. 6 5 More done to influence landowners to manage their land more in accordance with the demands of the climate and ecological emergency. Increase planting of seagrass. 5 Publish nature maps. 5 Encourage and promote wildlife friendly gardening. 5 Dorset Council to lead by example. 4 Plant community orchards. 4 Restoration and additional protection of water meadows. 4 Concern over residents tarmacking over lawns and removing trees. 4 Honour the Green Belt. 4 General public need more education about environmental concerns. 4 Make use of ELMS funding. 4 Survey not being user friendly. 3 3 Need for new houses to be sustainable but also financially sustainable. Do not allow ecological management to excuse lack of management of verges/ Council 3 land Educate on agricultural pollution. 3 Connect the banning of chemical use on County farms and work with landowners, 3 farmers and septic tank owners to protect waterways from fertiliser and slurry run‐off.

3 Ensure that there are a lot of wildlife corridors linking green spaces. Concern over new builds and developments. 3 Create community garden or green space that is sponsored by school or businesses. 3

No wind turbines. 3 Car parking concerns in natural spaces. 3

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Organisational Responses (selected elements)

The NFU responded” Map Dorset fragile and vulnerable soils. Map showing areas with greatest opportunities and issue with regard to soil carbon and compaction.”

The Forestry Commission said “My fundamental problem with this part of the strategy is that the actions fail to address the full range of Natural Capital. The title makes reference to clean air, water and healthy soils but then actions fail to take into account what measures will be most beneficial as a whole but focus on very narrow range of measures.” They go on to say “The opportunity to identify areas to enhance ecological value is positive. This action should be strengthened to also include delivery of the land management practice that scores most highly in the criteria listed.” Comments need further analysis.

Dorset Wildlife Trust said “Our main over-arching comment is that despite the title, the emphasis of the draft strategy is much more on the climate than the ecological emergency. This is possibly a result of the chapters and action plans being produced by relevant departments, without integrating across the topics, rather than anything more deliberate, we recognise that Dorset Council are taking the ecological emergency seriously. The result is though that the generally excellent ‘natural assets’ section is rather tacked on and there is a missed opportunity to fully integrate ecological/climate win-wins, and to embed nature-based solutions across the plan. “

What is missing on the Ecological Emergency? • There is no ecological equivalent to the section Action Against Climate Change which runs from p16-17 or Carbon Emissions and Achieving Net Zero p18-20 or Carbon Budgets – pathways and trajectories p21-22. It is disappointing not to see these sections laid out for addressing the ecological crisis. • Each of the themes needs running through the lens of the ecological emergency as well as the climate emergency. • The action plans have a column for CO2 saving, but nothing for ecological gain. • There is very little on the marine environment, including marine biodiversity, seafood, marine renewables and ‘blue carbon’ – ie natural ecosystems such as seagrass which capture carbon

The Dorset Local Nature Partnership said “.This section is welcomed, including the recognition of our natural assets underpinning our economy. However, nature should also be a cross cutting theme as highlighted. For example, Figure 2 in the Technical Appendix illustrates ecosystem services relevant to many other sections and the action plan includes rights of way which should be listed within transport. We welcome the inclusion of the Ecological Network Maps case study. We support the areas for action and action plan and are keen to work with the council in the delivery. We are working with partners to develop Health and Nature Dorset (HAND) – a collaboration to embed nature-based wellbeing into the health system and link with businesses, so recommend this is included and incorporate a few of the proposals within the ‘Influence and Partnership’ section and actions within the action plan. We support the action to “Work with partners to connect fragmented habitats across county” – emphasis should be made to the Nature Recovery Networks and the proposed Local Nature Recovery Strategies. The text explaining Figure 3 in the Technical Appendix alludes to the relationship between the area of habitat and its carbon stock, but it does explain the implications. Relatively uncommon habitats such as wetlands and semi-natural grassland hold vastly higher carbon stocks per hectare than intensive crops, and restoration of such habitats can play a significant role. We recommend DLNP is included in the list of partners in the action plan and our work included in the Technical Paper (for example, nature- based wellbeing, nature recovery, ecological network maps).

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Topic Area - Transport

Areas for Action...

The survey said “The transport sector is a major contributor to our carbon footprint. Decarbonising this sector will be a key challenge in moving towards a zero-carbon future. In rural areas like Dorset, car ownership is amongst the highest in the country. Dorset Council can encourage employees to travel less and can replace its vehicle fleet with Ultra low emission vehicles and work with partners to the provision of electric charging points and sustainable transport infrastructure.

DIRECT

 Maximise ultra-low-carbon vehicle replacement within Council fleet  Provide EV charging points & other ultra-low-emission fuel alternatives across the Council property estate  Reduce emissions from transport infrastructure construction and maintenance  Ensure access to sustainable transport is considered in planning applications  Encourage behavioural change in way staff travel to and for work  Reduce the need for staff to travel to and for work  Understand key risks and potential costs posed by climate change to transport & travel in Dorset  Mainstream climate resilience in future strategies and policies.

INDIRECT (through services)

 Improve low-carbon transport infrastructure by embedding it in the Local Plan and Transport Plan  Increase investment in walking, cycling & public transport infrastructure - secured through LTP, developer contributions, and other available funding streams  Encourage decarbonisation of road transport through development of EV charging network & promotion of low emissions transport vehicles  Improve quality & availability of public transport to make services more attractive to the travelling public  Encourage behaviour change through active & sustainable travel campaigns and initiatives.

INFLUENCE & PARTNERSHIP

 Lobby government - e.g. for Rail improvements  Respond to government calls and submit high quality grant applications  Redirect investment from strategic road schemes to low-carbon transport (Work with Subnational Transport Body and Local Enterprise Partnership)  Work with Dorset Business Travel Network & Digital Dorset to promote use of ICT to individuals and businesses to avoid travel & encourage working from home  Work with schools, parents and partners to reduce the carbon foot print of the daily school commute. “

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Transport - The table (above) is taken from the strategy and identifies the areas for action where we see Dorset Council can either directly impact, indirectly impact or only influence outcomes. Do you agree with what we have proposed?

Q What we can directly impact

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 382 455 112 56 35 3

% of all who 36.6% 43.6% 10.7% 5.4% 3.4% 0.3% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest for transport – direct influence. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 81% agree and 8% disagree.

Transport - Directly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 80.2% minus 8.8% = plus 71.4 105 Page 263

Net Response Group Agreement Businesses 87.5 Overall 71.4 Elected Members 70.0 Under 65's 69.4 Parish/Town Councils 64.0 Organisations 61.7 Disabled 49.1

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Direct Impact – Transport. This ranged from a very high 87.5 for Businesses down to 49.1 for Disabled. The overall figure was 71.4

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 346 462 112 54 35 4

% of all who 33.8% 45.1% 10.7% 5.3% 3.4% 0.4% responded

Q What we can indirectly impact

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest for transport – indirect influence. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 79% agree and 9% disagree.

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Transport - Indirectly Impact ~ Net Agreement = 78.9% minus 8.7% = plus 70.2

Net Response Group Agreement Businesses 87.5 Elected Members 73.7 Overall 70.2 Under 65's 68.4 Parish/Town Councils 64.0 Organisations 63.7 Disabled 40.4

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Indirectly Impact – Transport. This ranged from a very high 87.5 for Businesses down to 40.4 for Disabled. The overall figure was 70.2

Q What we can influence and partnership

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Don’t responses agree agree/disagree disagree know

Number 341 454 131 55 35 4

% of all who 33.4% 45.5% 12.8% 5.4% 3.4% 0.4% responded

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The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest for transport – influence and partnership. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 78% agree and 9% disagree.

Transport - Influence and partnership ~ Net Agreement = 77.9% minus 8.8% = plus 69.1

Net Response Group Agreement Businesses 87.5 Elected Members 83.3 Parish/Town Councils 72.0 Overall 69.1 Under 65's 67.9 Organisations 66.7 Disabled 42.2

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Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Influence and partnership – Transport. This ranged from a very high 87.5 for Businesses down to 42.2 for Disabled. The overall figure was 69.1

Action Plan

We have identified a number of initial targets and specific actions that Dorset Council can take to address the areas above. The action plan identifies where we see Dorset Council can take action. Do you agree with what we have proposed?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 279 475 185 62 35

% of all who 26.9% 45.8% 17.9% 6.0% 3.4% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest for transport – action plan. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 73% agree and 9% disagree.

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Transport - Action Plan ~ Net Agreement = 72.7% minus 9.4% = plus 63.3

Net Response Group Agreement Businesses 77.8 Elected Members 76.2 Organisations 66.7 Overall 63.3 Under 65's 60.8 Parish/Town Councils 53.6 Disabled 36.3

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Action Plan – Transport. This ranged from a high 77.8 for Businesses down to 36.3 for Disabled. The overall figure was 63.3

Q. Please explain why you think this and if there is anything fundamental that you feel we have missed in "transport" area for action - 549 responses Q. Please explain why you think this - 307 responses

The table below combines the two questions on transport. The analysis of the 856 comments have focused on the number of times the issue has been raised. The table below show the top issues raised. A further 162 issues were identified and analysed. The key concerns have risen to the top of the list below and these include more frequent and accessible public transport, more park and ride facilities, more cycle routes, increased EV/Hydrogen infrastructure and more electric charging points.

TRANSPORT ‐ issues Mentions Should be more accessible/frequent. 123 Establish more park and ride opportunities. 89 Make cycle routes safer and better developed. 84 Implement EV/hydrogen infrastructure everywhere possible (rural & urban) 68 110 Page 268

Create more electric charging points for ease of access. 62 Actions are too vague / not stretching enough / more action is needed. 58 Ensure that sustainable transport is integral to new land use. 53 Educate / fine drivers on not leaving their cars idle during busy traffic. 50 Villages to have own schools, shops, churches, food, and better transport links. 46 Create marketing campaigns to promote use of public transport. 44 Children to attend local schools to reduce travel. 44 Quicker action is needed. 42 Eliminate use of fossil fuels completely. 39 Use restrictive measures such as parking charges and prohibition. 36 Stop using car parks as general revenue. 35 Implement restrictive growth in major towns. 35 Push sustainable tourism. 33 Increase rural and seaside bus routes. 32 Increase working from home. 31 Lower the price of public transport to make it a more viable option for all. 28 Concern over electric vehicle use. 27 Public transport should use electric vehicles and be carbon neutral. 25 Ensure Dorset Council fleets / vehicles are fully electric. 15 Cut down all journeys / reduce need to travel. 15 A need to create a walking network suitable for all. 15 Viable links (E.g. Weymouth‐Bournemouth, links to London). 14 Do not encourage working from home. 14 Technology upgrades for those working from home. 13 EV still have ecological impacts (e.g. production, disposal, maintenance). 12 Rapidly improve train services for workers/commuters. 12 Create finance loans and initiatives for electric bikes. 12 All new housing developments accessible by public transport. 12 Air pollution is not mentioned. 11 Eliminate need for travel. 10 Encourage car sharing post‐covid. 10 Encourage active travel. 10 Created joined and accessible routes, with a contoured map. 10 Rapid charging points instead of fast/take too long to charge. 9 Create more cycling routes in key locations. 9 Concern over funding. 8 Replace large busses with minibuses with more stops in slow seasons. 8 Create traffic free streets in towns/slow traffic. 8 Coordinated services/links e.g. cycle routes to bus to trains. 7 Create lower speed limits for cars. 7 Subsidies/incentives for buying electric cars/at home charging 7 Create secure bike storage options for houses, bikes and workplaces. 7 Increase parking charges to invest in eco transport. 7 Lobby Government to improve public transport system. 6 Concern over increasing lack of demand for public transport. 6 Decarbonise public transport by 2025. 6 Concern over safety of certain roads. 6 Increase urban bus routes. 6 111 Page 269

Educate all road users about cyclists and routes. 6 Enforce planning conditions. 6 Creation of garden towns. 6 Document needs to address Dorset as a whole, not just the south west. 5 Dorset Council staff to work from home. 5 Dorset Council to lead by example. 5 Combine school and local transport. 5 Reduce air pollution 90% by 2025. 5 Do not build more roads. 5 Ban use of petrol and diesel. 5 Create car share initiatives for road users. 5 Improve bus to rail links. 5 Take control of bus services/currently poor (public ownership) 5 Encourage electric car sharing. 5 Offer rewards for cycling and walking. 5 Lack of footpaths in some rural places. 5 Traditional cars essential in rural locations. 5 Essential infrastructure with all new builds (shops/businesses) no need to drive. 5 Refuse plans for Wytch Farm. 5 Increase renewable energy resources. 5 Encourage and educate public about the use of electric vehicles. 4 Dorset too rural for EV's to work practically. 4 More affordable/worthwhile. 4 No cyclists on roads. 4 Highlight / promote public rights of way to eliminate need for car travel. 4 Plant more evergreens (no leaves) ‐ donate a tree gift scheme 4 Issues with overall plan. 3 Fly less. 3 Develop alternative forms of transport. 3 Subsidies for using public transport. 3 Concern over HGV. 3 Do not reduce expenditure on road network (point 3, partnership) 3 Convenient to travel in own car/unavoidable 3 Green Highways & Bridges 3 Old buses to be replaced with electric vehicles. 3 Charge points at petrol stations. 3 Lobby government on charging point plug sizes. 3 Create charge points at petrol stations. 3 Free parking for EV/cheaper than fossil fuels. 3 Lobby to nationalise rail industry. 3 Drop the speed limit for areas that have no cycle lanes. 3 Encourage lock up areas in shops for helmets and bikes. 3 Electric bike storage and infrastructure. 3 Routes away from roads. 3 Support for parishes. 3 Traffic calming incorporated to all new and existing developments. 3 All new homes to have EV charging points. 3 112 Page 270

Create electric vehicle hire scheme for tourists. 3 Work with schools to educate on need for sustainable transport. 3 Create more verges. 3 Concern over Portland EfW incinerator proposal. 3 Broadband services/fibre in rural locations 3

Organisational Comments (selected)

Dorset Wildlife Trust said “This plan should be an opportunity to move to a more climate and nature-friendly transport hierarchy – avoid travel (through technology), adapt (promote active travel and public transport), mitigate (ensure net gain for nature and carbon) and enhance through green infrastructure around active travel routes.”

Dorset local Nature partnership said “We support the transport areas for action and action plan in principle. Consideration to be given on nature-based solutions relating to transport. • An opportunity to feature ground-breaking schemes that ensure significant biodiversity enhancement as part of transport schemes is missed. For example, the Weymouth Relief Road and A338. • There is a tendency to promote road building and bypasses as a supposed solution to congestion. This plan should be an opportunity to move to a more climate and nature-friendly hierarchy – avoid travel (through technology), adapt (promote active travel and public transport), mitigate (ensure net gain for nature and carbon). • The action to “Redirect investment from strategic road schemes to low-carbon transport” is welcomed, however it is only listed under ‘influence’. A commitment in the action plan for Dorset Council to cease including in Local Plans, allocating public funding to, or lobbying for environmentally damaging new road building schemes would be very welcome. • Green infrastructure should be included within this section. “

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Making it Happen

Leadership and Governance

Taking action to address the Climate and Ecological Emergency will need a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on skills and resources from across Dorset Council and wider partners. It will need to be part of the way we do things and embedded in the way we deliver our services. To ensure the Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy is effectively delivered we have identified several key actions:

Leadership & Governance Actions  Lobby government for additional resources and a supportive policy framework  Actively input into national forums and consultations to encourage policy development in this area  Review our structures to ensure governance at the highest level to take forward action across the Council  Ensure enough human resource is in place to drive forward action  Develop tools to undertake robust impact and policy appraisals to ensure climate change is considered in all key corporate projects, programmes, strategies and plans  Ensure climate change is considered in all corporate projects

Q. Do you agree we have identified all the relevant leadership and governance actions? Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 278 474 226 80 42

% of all who 25.1% 43.2% 20.6% 7.3% 3.8% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest for leadership and governance. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 68% agree and 11% disagree. 114 Page 272

Leadership and Governance ~ Net Agreement = 68.3% minus 11.1% = plus 57.2

Net Response Group Agreement Parish/Town Councils 72.4 Elected Members 66.6 Businesses 62.5 Organisations 60.0 Overall 57.2 Under 65's 55.3 Disabled 44.8

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question The table shows net agreement to the question on Leadership and Governance. This ranged from a high 72.4 for Town and Parish councils down to 44.8 for Disabled. The overall figure was 57.2

Q. Please explain your answer - 433 responses

Strongly disagree/disagree with Leadership and Governance Action Plan Mentions Ensure strong partnership set‐up/over‐sight, collaboration and 'bottom‐up approach through community involvement (TPCs, young people, assemblies) 25 Council should lead by example/strong leadership/bring stakeholders along/positive procurement behaviours/educate own staff 19 Include biodiversity, wildlife, ecological, focus on environment/efficiency 17 Comments relating to cost and finances ‐ too costly/what if no govt funding/keep spend in proportion 14 Not necessary/do not accept climate change/wrong focus 14 Vague, non‐specific, just 'to consider', need targets 12 Other comment 11

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Council needs to just take action 9 Negative comment about governance/staff/decisions/consultation 8 Learn from/work with other councils/authorities 8 Structure that shares the benefits of climate change action with less well off 5 Ensure democratic accountability/audit 4 Education needed (locals, schools, MP) 4 National Park status will help fulfil objectives 2 Take climate into account, not finances 2

Strongly disagree/disagree Those who disagreed to some extent with the action plan for Leadership and Governance also reflected on the need for strong partnership set-ups, ensuring a more ‘bottom-up approach’ through community involvement and that the Council should be leading by example. Cost was a factor for some respondents, questioning expense and asking what if government funding was not available. Some felt that there was no climate change issue, the Council’s focus was wrong or the plan itself was too vague.

Neither agree/disagree (or blanks) with Leadership and Governance Action Plan Mentions Ensure strong partnership set‐up/over‐sight, collaboration and 'bottom‐up approach through community involvement (TPCs, young people, assemblies) 56 Council should lead by example/strong leadership/bring stakeholders along/positive procurement behaviours/educate own staff 48 Need for Council to act/pro‐active with clearer set targets/plan and suitable level of ambition that is properly audited/monitored and fed back 46 Include biodiversity, wildlife, ecological, focus on environment/efficiency 14 Comment relating to cost and resource implications 14 Learn from/work with other councils/authorities 13 Structure that shares the benefits of climate change action with less well off 12 Comments on general bureaucracy and governance 11 Other comment 10 Government: Lobby Government, link to National policy and get MP sign up 9 Cannot comment/would need or like more information 8 General positive comment about the action plan 8 Climate change must be at the forefront of decisions/projects 6 Education needed (locals, TPCs, councillors, MPs) 6 Wrong focus for Dorset Council 3 Consultation too long/going on at same time as Local Plan 2 Stay open to more ideas/actions 2

Neither agree or disagree/blanks Those who neither agree or disagreed with the action plan had three strongly similar priorities to those who agreed around ensure strong partnership set-ups and oversight, the Council leading by example and the need for action with appropriate monitoring, evaluation and feedback. They also commented on the need to include other related elements such as the ecological emergency and also implications around cost and resource. Learning from and working with other councils was also felt to be important.

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Strongly Agree/Agree with Leadership and Governance Plan Mentions

Need for Council to act/pro‐active with clearer set targets/plan and suitable level of ambition that is properly audited/monitored and impact fed back/transparency in info sharing/comms. 75 Ensure strong partnership set‐up/over‐sight, collaboration and 'bottom‐up approach through community involvement (TPCs, young people, assemblies) 73 Council should lead by example/strong leadership/bring stakeholders along/positive procurement behaviours/educate own staff 53 Positive comments around the action plan 28 Climate must be a priority in decision‐making/projects/policy 26 Government: Lobby Government, comments on working with Govt. 22 Include biodiversity, wildlife, ecological, focus on environment/efficiency 14 Comment relating to cost and resource implications 14 Other comment 13 Learn from/work with other councils/authorities 11 Education needed (esp. schools) 10 Structure that shares the benefits of climate change action with less well off 9 Comments on general bureaucracy and governance 8 Funding initiatives that bring in public co‐operation/explore funding options 7 National Park status will help fulfil objectives 4 Importance of evidence‐based decision‐making 3 Listen to all involved, not just pressure groups 2

Strongly agree/agree Those who strongly agreed or agreed to some extent with the action plan for Leadership and Governance commented on the importance of the Council taking action, ensuring clear targets, having proper audit monitoring in place and being transparent when feeding back on progress. A strong partnership set-up and a more ‘bottom-up approach’ through community involvement of a wide range of public organisations and stakeholders was also important along with the Council showing strong leadership, leading by example and ensuring that climate is a priority in decision- making, projects and policy.

Organisational Responses

The Dorset Local Nature Partnership said “We support the proposed role in leadership and governance but recommend that working in partnership is wider than ‘engagement with stakeholders.” We welcome coproduction and joint working. In some cases, the council will not be the appropriate lead for awareness raising, facilitating action and delivery. However, whatever is delivered, its needs to include the ecological emergency elements. 40. There may be a role for the council to ‘facilitate the development of a Dorset-wide partnership with other key public, private, and third sector partners in order to develop a partnership approach to driving forward some of the fundamental changes that will be required to deliver a carbon neutral county.’ In terms of the ecological emergency, the DLNP could take on this role – as is the case in other counties, such as Somerset.”

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Making it Happen

Funding the response

The survey said “Tackling the climate emergency will require significant investment at all levels of society. Dorset Council alone will need to invest many millions of pounds (over £100m) over the next 20- 30 years just to be-come a Carbon Neutral Council.

Funding the Response Actions  We will develop a finance strategy to enable us to deliver this climate emergency response by identifying and implementing ways for our finance department to actively support climate change action. This includes establishing invest-to-save schemes, such as our transformation fund, capital receipts through asset rationalisation, and building into our capital programme. We will also explore options to raise additional funds, such as through borrowing or council tax.  Wider action across the County is likely to require several billion pounds of investment from the government, organisations, and individuals. It is anticipated that further funding and incentives will be forthcoming from central government to support the shift to a low-carbon future.  We will work with partners and lobby government to seek additional support and external funding and to maximise opportunities for external funding from government and others, making sure Dorset gets its fair share. This is in addition to securing innovative financial arrangements for climate change projects and programmes and giving significant weight to climate change in the procurement process.”

Q. Do you agree with our approach to funding the actions required to implement the strategy i.e. invest-to-save schemes, capital receipts through asset rationalisation, and building into our capital programme as well as exploring options to raise additional funds through borrowing and council tax?

Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 236 464 230 88 72

% of all who 21.7% 42.6% 21.1% 8.1% 6.6% responded

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The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest for funding the response. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 64% agree and 15% disagree.

Funding the response ~ Net Agreement = 64.3% minus 14.7% = plus 49.6

Net Response Group Agreement Organisations 81.1 Elected Members 68.3 Parish/Town Councils 62.1 Businesses 50.0 Overall 49.6 Under 65's 46.0 Disabled 25.9

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Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question. The table shows net agreement to the question on Funding the Response. This ranged from a high 78.1 for Organisations down to 25.9 for Disabled. The overall figure was 49.6

Q. Please explain your answer - 437 responses

Strongly disagree/disagree with Funding Action plan Mentions Disagree with: council tax increases (37); borrowing & risks (5) 42 Waste of money ‐ no emergency/effect/too little gain/cancel idea 25 Reduce costs elsewhere/work within existing budget/resource/reserves 17 Need reliable estimate of cost/cost‐benefit analysis, too vague 14 Wrong focus ‐ money better spent elsewhere 11 Raise money (Taxes, rent, commercially, fines/non‐compliance) 10 Lobby the Government for money 7 Comment that there is no money to do the plan 6 Other comment 9 Financial strategy/budget should be integrated 4 Educate and support public to become energy efficient 3 Focus on achievable/basic environmental actions 4 Is also the responsibility of other countries 2 Should be a priority/act faster 3

Strongly disagree/disagree Those who disagreed to some extent with the action plan for Funding focused on the raising of council tax which they were strongly against. The second most popular mentions were those around it being a waste of money, there was either too little gain or impact to be made or no emergency in the first place. Respondents felt that the council should look to reduce costs elsewhere or work within their existing resources and also that there was not enough information around sources of funding or evidence of a cost-benefit analysis.

Neither agree/disagree (or blanks) with Funding Action plan Mentions Investigate other ethical/general/collaborative funding methods (community, private sector, businesses, government) and diversify. 34 Not enough information (e.g. funding source, cost‐benefit analysis, value, is £100m enough), no expertise, difficult to understand. 32 Disagree with: tax increases (11); asset rationalisation (esp. farms) ‐ urge caution (10); borrowing (2); bad investments (2) 25 Lobby the Government for investment/tax changes, other funding mechanisms 23

Make savings elsewhere, Council should use existing resource/integration, self‐sustaining 16

Challenges ‐ e.g. COVID impact, regional/national/global problem, visitors, expense 11 Other comment 10 Raise money through tax increases/adaptations/levies (e.g, council, 2nd homes, parking, climate) 8 Cost is not optional/shared responsibility/will save in the future 7

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National Park status would help achieve objectives 4 Look at low‐interest borrowing options or as last resort 4 Council ambition ‐ do not overreach, quick wins, better goal‐setting 4 Support green potential in businesses/households, consult. 3 Agree Council needs to show action/discussion 3 Ensure transparency in spending 2 Cannot consult at same time as Local Plan/Pandemic 2

Neither agree or disagree/blanks Those who neither agree or disagreed with the action plan also strongly felt that ethical and collaborative funding and resource approaches were important. However, they also commented that there was not enough information about the sources of funding, if any cost-benefit analysis or value calculations had been done or felt that the document was difficult to understand. They also disagreed or urged caution with some of the suggestions, especially tax increases and asset realisation. Lobbying the government was also seen as an option.

Strongly agree/agree with Funding Action plan Mentions Investigate/prioritise ethical/general/collaborative funding methods (community, private sector, businesses, government) and diversify. 39 Council Tax increase (also consider reassess for wealthy, ringfence money for climate and show people where money is being spent on climate/what matters/be upfront) 33 Lobby the Government for investment/tax changes, other funding mechanisms 26 No alternative/Act now, cost now for future savings 22 Introduce other taxes (climate/polluter, land, 2nd homes etc) 18 Disagree with: council tax increases (9); asset rationalisation (esp. farms) ‐ urge caution (4); borrowing (2); using money for management costs (1) 16 Positive comment about the action plan 14 Challenges ‐ e.g. COVID impact, if no govt suport, strings attached 11 Ensure investment/banking/pension practices are ethical 10 Council should lead/support/incentivise change ‐ streamline, quick wins/publicity and transparency in feedback 11 Public should contribute in some way 8 National Park status would help achieve objectives 6 Other comment 9 Investment opportunities: bonds, business, attract to Dorset, in staff. 5 Plan does not go far enough/target date too late/ensure cost info up to date 5 Requires cost‐benefit analysis 4 Ensure fair distribution of funds around the county 3 Invest in other areas (e.g. homes, social care) 2

Strongly agree/agree Those who strongly agreed or agreed to some extent with the action plan for Funding commented most frequently on utilising other funding sources, especially ethical fundraising, and doing so collaboratively across a range of sectors. There was a recognition of the need for a potential increase in council tax, but it was felt that this should not disadvantage those less well off, should be ringfenced for climate actions and that the council should be upfront and transparent about how the extra money is being spent. Lobbying the government for support was also frequently mentioned as was the importance of acting and spending now to make savings in the future.

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Q. Have we missed a way of raising money to pay for action? - 368 responses

Comment Mentions Tax increases: especially 2nd homes/holiday lets/visitors (32), council tax ‐ with voluntary/donation/ringfenced for climate (32),climate/green/polluter/land (personal and business, 26), other 95 Council should streamline/save/change practice: ethical banking practices (26) staff (26); assets ‐ sell, lease, re‐purpose (10); other 80 Collaborate on/investigate financing and funding opportunities (e.g. with private sector, businesses Govt/public sector, community investment, charities, grants, Green Finance Institute, funding mechanisms) 80 Lobby the government for tax increases (e.g wealth, land) and funding/support 79 Crowdfunding (esp local energy schemes) and other fundraising initiatives/donation schemes 49 Encourage/support/invest in community projects, groups and initiatives 37 Support/incentivise people to invest/make change (e.g. investment schemes, bonds or supporting green behaviours, tax reductions good comms, fair spread of funding) 34 Fines ‐ relating to environmental activities (personal/business/industry) and indirect (e.g. driving) and parking fees) 33 Support/incentivise/encourage business investment/green practice in Dorset (inc developer, new business) 24 Miscellaneous ways to raise money (e.g lotteries (8), advertising, charge mooring fees to cruise ships, for concreting front gardens) 19 No need/waste of money/if no govt funding do not do it/council decide 16 Other comments 15 Nothing to add 14 Cost‐benefit analysis, research and audit ‐ likely cost if do not take action 8 Do not do some of the suggested actions e.g. raise taxes, risky investments 6 National Park status will help secure objectives 5 Should not consult at same time as local plan/pandemic 2 Yes (but does not specify) 2

When asked if there were any funding opportunities that were missed, the most popular view was an increase in other types of taxation, related to either tourism (holiday lets, visitors, second homes) or climate/green taxation of individuals and businesses. There was also an appetite for an increase in council tax, but largely only if it was ringfenced for climate-related actions and did not disadvantage households that were less well off. It was also felt that the Council itself could streamline services to save money and to change practice, especially around staffing, assets and ethical banking and investments. There were a broad range of suggestions for investigating and collaborating in financing and funding opportunities and almost equally frequently mentioned was the need to lobby the government for tax increases and for extra funding and support.

Respondents also suggested a range of fundraising and donation initiatives and highlighted the benefits of working with community projects and groups. There was also an appetite for investing in and providing encouragement and support to both individuals and businesses to make change and to adopt more green behaviours.

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Making it Happen

Engagement & Communications

The survey said ”We all need to take action to address the climate emergency and support the transition to a low-carbon future. We need to put the climate at the forefront of our communications and encourage and support action by everyone in Dorset. We have identified several key actions Dorset Council can take to raise awareness of the issues, support action at a community level and engage with wider stakeholders to tackle some of the major challenges the Climate and Ecological Emergency raises.

RAISING AWARENESS

We will look to provide more accessible and digestible information on climate change and ecology and the actions we can all take through a range of channels. These will include upgrading our climate change website, developing an online information hub for sharing information, and best practice. This is as well as directing information to residents through Council literature and encouraging an open and ongoing dialogue between the Council and Dorset residents.

We will improve the awareness, engagement, and knowledge of our staff and service providers through staff awareness campaigns, with a focus on how employees can reduce their carbon emissions. This is in addition to increasing their climate resilience in the workplace and at home and integrating key climate change messages into induction programmes. Furthermore, we will organise targeted briefings and training sessions for officers, members, and decision makers on the benefits and opportunities of tackling climate change, highlighting this contribution to other Council priorities. We will also establish an internal climate change champions programme.

SUPPORTING COMMUNITY ACTION

We will support Town and Parish Councils to develop and implement their organisation and area wide climate action plans. This is as well as helping them engage with residents to encourage community action and drive change at a grassroots community level. We will help to facilitate and support new and existing community-led projects and community organisations active in this area. Furthermore, we will work with these groups to signpost and communicate shared messages.

ENGAGEMENT WITH KEY STAKEHOLDERS

We will consult with residents and organisations on this strategy and plans as they develop, using existing and new consultation processes. We will build support from stakeholders and the wider public by informing and educating on the benefits and opportunities of acting on climate change and creating, maintaining, and developing partnership working on all aspects of climate change action. We will seek to develop a Dorset Climate Emergency partnership group. We will facilitate the development of a Dorset-wide partnership with other key public, private, and third sector partners in order to develop a partnership approach to driving forward some of the fundamental changes that will be required to deliver a carbon neutral county.”

Q. Do you agree we what we are proposing for engagement and communications actions?

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Overall Strongly Agree Neither Disagree Strongly responses agree agree/disagree disagree

Number 300 520 177 44 44

% of all who 27.6% 47.9% 16.3% 4.1% 4.1% responded

The above table and graph above show the overall number and percentage agreeing or disagreeing with what we suggest for Engagement and Communications. The pie chart shows the dark green/green area supporting the proposal and the red/pink area opposing the proposal. Here, overall, 76% agree and 8% disagree.

Engagement and Communications ~ Net Agreement = 75.5% minus 8.2% = plus 67.3

Net Response Group Agreement Elected Members 76.2 Organisations 75.7 124 Page 282

Parish/Town Councils 73.3 Overall 67.3 Under 65's 65.9 Businesses 55.5 Disabled 45.6

Looking at a wide range of respondent groups the above six in the table were selected and considered specifically for every question The table shows net agreement to the question on Making it Happen – Communications and Engagement This ranged from a high 76.2 for Elected Members down to 45.6 for Disabled. The overall figure was 67.3

Q. Please explain your answer - 391 responses

Strongly Disagree or Disagree with the Engagement and Communications Actions Mentions No emergency/unnecessary or the wrong focus/time/ineffective 14 Comms, Consultation/Surveys are too long, biased, ineffective or won't be listened to 11 Waste of time, money, energy 7 Develop clear vision, strong and varied engagement strategy to publicise and support change, publicise immediate positive actions (use appropriate language and focus) 7 Partner and communicate better with other relevant organisations who have better community links/educate train all sectors and schools 6 Other comment 6 Insufficient detail/too vague to comment/needs revision first 5 Comms should go further to tell the 'truth'/facts or severity of the problem 5 Use national resources for comms/awareness ‐ Dorset should not duplicate 3 Keep it simple/concise/relevant 2 In right direction/get on with it 2 Other problems with comms (website, already aware 2

Strongly disagree/disagree Those who disagree or strongly disagreed with the plan commented that this was largely because they felt there was no emergency or that it was the wrong time, focus or approach and a waste of money. They also felt that the consultation process was ineffective and they would not be listened to. Some commented that the vision needed to be stronger with a more varied engagement strategy and there was need for more partnership and education work with organisations, for example, those with better links to the community.

Neither Agree/Disagree with the Engagement and Communications Actions (including blanks) Mentions Engagement and publicity strategy must be innovative/increase knowledge/incentivise/dialogue/motivate the public and support change across groups (esp. young people and schools (17)) 60 Comment about the consultation/survey ‐ too long/complex, poor advertising/timing, going 'through motions/tick box exercise' 33 125 Page 283

Education ‐ educate/train individuals, household level, businesses, schools (e.g. carbon literacy, through museums) 28 Council is influential organisation for change and should co‐ordinate and lead collaboration with community and organisations (esp with TPCs (6)) 18 Better engagement with community groups, assemblies and existing partnerships 17 Use positive language and focus (also passionate/public/trusted figures, 2) 15 Use social media 12 Council communications need to improve/transparency/reveal truth and be visible (not just website) and updates regular 11 Other comment 10 Nothing will change/no action/little action from council 6 Not qualified to comment/do not believe it in/false 5 Change is required at structural level ‐ (local/central) 2 Vague ‐ no action plan or targets 2 Town and Parish Councils may not have capacity/bureaucracy 2 Starting point/get on with it 2

Neither agree/disagree/blanks Those who neither agreed nor disagreed with the plan had similar views to those who agreed around developing an innovative and motivational approach, the importance of education, the influence of the council, engaging with community groups and partnerships and using positive language. However, the second most popular comment was about the consultation process itself. They also highlighted the need for Council communications to improve and be transparent and the need to provide regular updates.

Strongly Agree or Agree with the Engagement and Communications Actions Mentions Engagement and publicity strategy must be innovative/increase knowledge/incentivise/dialogue/motivate the public and support change across groups (e.g. share positive results, listening, empowering) 73 Better engagement with/must involve existing partnerships, networks, communities, councils, local group, enterprises, businesses, campaign groups, assemblies. 68 Education ‐ educate/train individuals, household level, businesses, schools (e.g. carbon literacy, through museums), staff and public engagement teams 54 Council is influential organisation for change and should co‐ordinate and lead collaboration with community and organisations (esp with TPCs) 48 Keep messaging and information simple (positive focus and language 19) 37 Must include/consider young people and schools 36 Use social media (20) or other effective media/method to engage/reach people in the widest possible way (14) 34 Agree ‐ but poor advertising of consultation/difficult to understand/too long/going through motions 28 General positive comment about the action plan 16 Increase urgency, ambition and be bold 11 Regular updates/progress and monitoring to keep people informed 11 Comments relating to resourcing, funding and supporting becoming eco‐friendly 8 Other comment 6 Importance of the prominence of the CEE on the website/centralised web page 6 Need to see meaningful action 5

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Do not omit the ecological emergency 5 National Park Status would help towards the objectives 4 Some scepticism about seriousness or how it will work 4 Positive comment about the survey 2

Strongly agree/agree Those that agree or strongly agreed with the plan commented that any engagement or communications should be innovative, increase knowledge, motivate the public and support them to make changes. This was followed up by an argument for better engagement with, and involvement of, existing partnerships, networks and groups to make action happen. Education and training at all levels was viewed as important and the council itself seen as able to influence and co-ordinate change and collaboration especially with town and parish councils. The importance of clear, simple and positive messaging was highlighted as was the targeting and involvement of young people and schools.

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Making it Happen

Monitoring & Progress Reporting

The survey said “To ensure we are on track to meet our targets and not exceed our carbon budgets, we need a robust baseline and regular progress monitoring and reporting of both carbon emissions and ecological indicators.  We will develop a robust baseline for Council and County carbon emissions and ecology, developing in-house data collection systems to draw data from all the former Councils now forming Dorset Council. This is as well as considering wider emissions from Council activities (Scope 3) such as procurement.  We will further explore the Dorset County footprint, beyond the data provided by Central Government, to provide a wider understanding of Dorset’s emissions e.g. agriculture.  We will monitor and report on actions and progress in achieving carbon reduction by producing an annual report of progress on climate change targets, budgets, and actions.”

Q. Would you be interested in seeing the progress reviews?

Overall Yes No responses

Number 943 149

% of all who 86.4% 13.6% responded

As the above table and graph so there is strong support (86%) for seeing a progress review. Only 13.6% said they were not interested in a review.

Q. How often do you want to be updated on progress?

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Overall Annually Every 6 Other (please responses months explain)

Number 338 588 130

% of all who 32.0% 55.7% 12.3% responded

Every six months was the preferred timing between updates on progress with nearly 56% selecting this option. 32% felt annual updating was most appropriate. 128 people explained what other timing they preferred and these are included below.

Other - 128 responses

Comment Mentions Every three months/quarterly 30 When there is an update/progress/review/action or decision to be made 25 Every month 22 As often as possible/regularly 12 No update required 11 Other ‐ ways to communicate progress (e.g. website/media; existing comms, live dashboard, paperless, partnerships, notifications) 9 Plan‐dependent ‐ flexible/regular, gradually less regular 6 Every six months 5 Other comment about the plan 5 After a council/cabinet meeting 4 Every two months 3 Annually 3 Other timescale 2 Do not progress 2 Self‐directed ‐ find out themselves/national press 2

Respondents, who did not support annual or six-monthly updates, would like to be kept updated relatively frequently on progress; the most popular set frequencies were quarterly or monthly. A significant proportion felt it was appropriate to be informed whenever there was an update of progress or a decision to be made. 129 Page 287

Q. How do you want to be updated on progress? (select all that apply)

Overall Annual Our E-newsletter Social Press Other responses report website Media releases

Number 310 477 764 221 277 74

% of all who 28.7% 44.1% 70.7% 20.4% 25.6% 6.8% responded

E newsletters were the most popular method of progress reporting, with 764 selecting this method. The use of the council’s website was the second most popular with 477 choosing this option. There was also support for annual report, press releases and social media. 74 people suggested other ways and these are reported below.

Q. Other ways of being updated on progress - 74 responses

Comment Mentions Public forum ‐ meetings, exhibitions, presentations, Q&As, Citizens Assemblies/Panels (4) 11 No update required 9 Via Email 9 Print media ‐ local newspapers, leaflets, posters 8 Engagement with Community groups, sharing info with/through partners 8 Online/electronic ‐ website, social media, webinars, broadcasts, video updates by stakeholders/councillor 7 Via Town and Parish Councils 6 Local radio, television 6 General ‐ Any method that is regular, keeps info flowing, notifies, widely published 6 Methods already suggested/selected 5 Other comment about the plan 5 Reports 3 Other method 2 Other comment about the survey 2

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There were fewer responses to this question as to how respondents would like to receive updates other than the suggested ways. Most popular were via a public forum or citizen’s assemblies, email, print media, engagement with community groups or through online and electronic methods. The second most common response however was to not receive an update.

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Any other comments – 574 responses

With text boxes on every question the “any other comments” was not intended as a place to feedback vital responses to specific areas in the strategy and action plan.

In total over 12,000 individual comments have been made during the consultation. Some short and others much more substantial.

A detailed analysis of these comments will not be provided here (but ALL the comments will be available in full in an appendix) and all comments have been shared with the project team.

Many comments within this section focused on :  how people felt progress was being made  appreciated the work done so far  didn’t like everything  but also felt now was the time for action.

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About you

(For individual rather than organisational responses) Note: all information provided will be held according to our data protection policy. We collect diversity information, not only to ensure any changes do not unfairly impact on specific sectors of the community, but also to try to make sure our consultation response comes from a representative sample of local residents. We would appreciate if you can complete the following details. These questions are optional.

The tables below show the profile of people taking part in the consultation.

Age

Which age group do you belong to?

The consultation is dominated by responses from those in the older age groups, with those aged 65+making up 46% of respondents compared to only being 29% of the Dorset population.

4.3% of respondents preferred not to disclose their age group.

(%) Under 18- 25- 35-44 45-54 55-64 65- Pref 18 24 34 and er over not to say Which age group 0.6 1.2 3.5 7.6% 11.4 25.5 45.8 4.3 do you belong % % % % % % % to?

Gender

Q. What best describes your gender?

The current profile of the residents of Dorset show 49.8% male and 51.1% female. As the table below shows the responses match the profile of the area reasonably well.

(%) Male Female I use another Prefer not to term say

What best 49.2% 45.5% 0.8% 4.5% describes your gender?

There was an uneven balance between males and females with 57% of responses from females and 37% from males.

Employment status 133 Page 291

Half of the responses came from people who were retired, and the second biggest group were employed/self-employed.

Q. What is your employment status?

(%) Number %

Student 16 1.5%

Employed/self employed 390 37.1%

Not employed and looking for work 10 1.0%

Not employed and not looking for 21 2.0% work

Apprenticeship scheme/training 1 0.1%

Retired 525 50%

Prefer not to say 59 5.6%

Other (please state below) 28 2.7%

Other – 28 people suggested a wide range of alternative employment status including furloughed, volunteer, housewife and carer.

Disability

Q. Do you consider yourself to be disabled as set out in the Equality Act, 2010?

5.9% of respondents considered they had a disability. This equates to 61 people. Responses from disabled people were above average at 5.9% of responses compared to a Dorset figure of 5% based on those claiming either Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payments or Attendance Allowance. The data has been used when analysing the responses to all the questions to see if people who have a disability had a different view to the majority on the key questions in the consultation.

134 Page 292 Yes No Prefer not to say

Do you consider 5.9% 88.8% 5.4% yourself to be disabled as set out in the Equality Act, 2010?

When looking at the specific disabilities of the 61 people responding 29 said they had a physical disability 29 had a longstanding illness, 14 had a mental health condition, and 13 a sensory impairment.

Ethnic Group

What is your ethnic group?

White British 87.7%

White Irish 0.7%

Gypsy/Irish traveller 0.1%

Any other white background 2.1%

Asian/ Asian British - Bangladeshi 0.0%

Asian/ Asian British - Chinese 0.0%

Asian/ Asian British - Indian 0.0%

Asian/ Asian British - Pakistani 0.1%

Any other Asian background 0.0%

Black/Black British - African 0.0%

Black/Black British - Caribbean 0.1%

Any other black background 0.0%

Mixed ethnic background – White and 0.1% Asian

Mixed ethnic background – White and 0.0% Black African

Mixed ethnic background – White and 0.0% Black Caribbean

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Any other mixed background 0.3%

Prefer not to say 7.5%

Any other ethnic group 1.3%

With 88% of the respondents saying their ethnic group was White British this is fairly typical of the wider Dorset population.

136 Page 294 Rank Subject Area Number % of Total Included in Strategy and/or Action Plan Wording Recommendation TARGETS - Dorset Council 921 (for both target questions) Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - 17.1% EAP Agreed no change to Target. Overall Net agreement. Overall net agreement for target , but DC ambition to achieve before 2040 if feasible and has set stretching Partly Strategy - Targets section (pg 22) some felt this should be earlier targets in startegy to achieve carbon reduction milestones for 2025, 2030 and 2035.

TARGETS - Dorset County 921 (for both target questions) Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - 6.1% EAP suggested no change to Target. Overall Net agreement. Overall net agreement for target , but DC ambition to achieve before 2040 if feasible and has set stretching Partly Strategy - Targets section (pg 21/22) some felt this should be earlier targets in startegy to achieve carbon reduction milestones for 2025, 2030 and 2035.

OUR Approach Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - 66.5% Page 295 Page

Renewable Energy 1279 Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - 61.2%

Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 2 - Lobby government for additional resources and the national policy framework to support climate & ecological action in Dorset

Buildings Action Plan - pg 7 - Develop a positive planning framework, in partnership with other agencies, for achieving true net zero carbon home standards in Dorset’

Partly Buildings Action Plan - pg 7 - Encourage designs and layouts which lend Explore options to strengthen wording with Planning - Planning to insist all new build and Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 2 themselves to low-carbon energy solutions, and provide guidance and advice for 1 207 16% extensions to be zero carbon/sustainable Buildings Action Plan - pg 7 developers to achieve zero carbon standards Work towards enforcing rather than encouraging zero carbon homes in Renewable Energy Action Plan -pg 3 partnership with other south west local authorities ?? Renewable Energy Action Plan - pg 3 - As Local Planning Authority actively encourage renewable energy deployment by: -Identifying potential deployment sites -Creating appropriate policy and guidance

Renewable Energy Action Plan - pg 3 - Establish a positive planning policy frame- work and toolkit for maximising the use of renewable energy within developments

pg 3 - Lobby central government over the major hurdles to renewable energy deployment, the Navitus Bay decision, investment needed on grid infrastructure, and Dorset Council MUST support offshore Yes future of heat No Further Action, but noted smaller number of respondents opposed 2 wind power, which will be essential to hit 171 13% Renewable Energy Action Plan - pg 3 & 4 (63) our carbon reduction targets pg 4 - Work with renewable energy developers in Dorset to secure new renewable energy generation to meet (and exceed) needs of Dorset Council General comment on overall language / urgency / target. Reflect on this 3 A greater sense of urgency needed 80 6% NO in general across actions. Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 2 - Lobby government for additional resources and the national policy framework to support climate & ecological action in Dorset

Buildings Action Plan - pg 7 - Develop a positive planning framework, in partnership with other agencies, for achieving true net zero carbon home standards in Dorset’ Partly Planning should enforce high energy Buildings Action Plan - pg 7 - Encourage designs and layouts which lend Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 2 Work towards enforcing rather than encouraging zero carbon homes in 4 efficiency & the inclusion of renewable 77 6% themselves to low-carbon energy solutions, and provide guidance and advice for Buildings Action Plan - pg 7 partnership with other south west local authorities ?? energy & water recycling into new builds developers to achieve zero carbon standards Renewable Energy Action Plan -pg 3 Renewable Energy Action Plan - pg 3 - As Local Planning Authority actively encourage renewable energy deployment by: -Identifying potential deployment sites -Creating appropriate policy and guidance

Renewable Energy Action Plan - pg 3 - Establish a positive planning policy frame- work and toolkit for maximising the use of renewable energy within developments

Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 2 - Lobby government for additional resources and the national policy framework to support climate & ecological action in Dorset Lobbying government for to revise YES Strategy - pg 7 - The Council has a key role in lobbying government for clear policy

Page 296 Page planning guidelines and building Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 2 Joint 5 73 6% and financial support required for the transition to a zero-carbon future and to No Further Action - part of lobby activiteis regulations to ensure all new building is Strategy - pg 7 actively participate in national forums and consultations on policy development. carbon neutral Lobby Paper - pg 4 Lobby Paper - pg 4 - a request for "A national standard for new buildings to achieve zero carbon performance and include unregulated and embodied emissions".

Formal policies should be adopted to Add Action to Making it Happen Action Plan Objective "Ensure Climate oppose new or expanded fossil fuel Making it Happen Action Plan Objective "Ensure Climate and ecological concerns are and ecological concerns are embedded at the heart of decision and plan Joint 5 73 6% NO extraction in the County, (mainly gas and embedded at the heart of decision and plan making:- making:- oil, including fracking). Investigate tidal, wave, hydro, marine YES pg 3 - Undertake detailed resource mapping to confirm Dorset has the technical 6 source heat pumps and geothermal 70 5.5% No Further action Renewable Energy Action Plan - pg 3 resources to be self-sufficient. Potential sites can then be identified in the Local Plan technologies in Dorset Support DC aspirations to be self YES pg 4 - Undertake detailed resource mapping to confirm Dorset has the technical 7 66 5.2% No Further action sufficient with renewable energy Renewable Energy Action Plan - pg 4 resources to be self-sufficient. Potential sites can then be identified in the Local Plan

Buildings & Assets 983 Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - 61.4% Building Action Plan - pg 7 - Develop a positive planning framework, in partnership Developers should be required to make Explore options to strengthen wording with Planning - with other agencies, for achieving true net zero carbon home standards in Dorset all new homes zero carbon / sustainable. Partly 1 262 27% Building Action Plan - pg 7 - Encourage designs and layouts which lend themselves (plus 207 from Renewable Energy Buildings Action Plan - pg7 Work towards enforcing rather than encouraging zero carbon homes in to low-carbon energy solutions, and provide guidance and advice for developers to Responses) partnership with other south west local authorities ?? achieve zero carbon standards

2040 target not tough enough. Action is needed faster. (PLUS 80 from 2 186 19% NO General comment related to Target. This is noted above. Renewable Energy + 38 from Waste + 41 from Water) Building Action Plan - pg 2 -Carry out audits to identify opportunities to retrofit energy efficiency, water efficiency, and renewable energy generation across the estate on completion of the Asset Review.

Building Action Plan - pg 2 - Increase capacity of Energy Team to develop and implement retrofit programme

Building Action Plan - pg 2 - Implement retro fit programme (to include LEDs, thermal upgrade, ambient cooling, conversions to low carbon energy sources) based on audits

Building Action Plan - pg 3 - Re-instate a school’s energy programme to support and work with schools to reduce energy and maximise use of renewable Emphasis needs to be on existing retro Review text in startegy to ensure emphasis & mention DC public Partly energy technologies 3 fit/recuing demand as will have biggest 120 12% decarbonisation grant. Buildings Action Plan - pg 2, 3 & 8 benefit. (PLUS 32 from RE) Update actions accordingly Building Action Plan - pg 3 - Expand centralised utility management service across Dorset Council to incorporate an oversight of energy use, monitor consumption and target energy reduction at site level.

Building Action Plan - pg 3 - Expand centralised energy management system

Building Action Plan - pg 3 - Review operational controls on energy using equipment across council estate to ensure optimum efficiency

Building Action Plan - pg 8 - Enforce minimum energy efficiency standards in the private rental sector (focus on EPC certificates E & F without exemptions)

Building Action Plan - pg 8 - Work in partnership (e.g. with Registered Social

Page 297 Page Actions too vague / not stretching far General comment on overall language / urgency / target. Reflect on this 4 73 7% NO Landlords (RSLs), other councils and partners) to deliver programmes to improve enough. (plus 29 from RE) energy efficiency of housing stock & hard to treat properties in general across actions. Central Government must be lobbied to develop strategies for heat and low YES Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 2 - Lobby government for additional resources 5 70 7% Building Action Plan - pg 8 - Promote innovative and sensitive energy No Further Action carbon housing policies. (plus 73 from Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 2 efficiency/renewableand the national policy energy framework measures to support in conservation climate & ecological areas and action on in listed Dorset RE) buildings which preserve and enhance such assets for the needs of existing and DC estate good place to start / lead by YES Buildings Action Plan - Objective: Ensure Council estate becomes zero-carbon by 6 63 6% future occupants No Further Action example. Buildings Action Plan - pg 2 2040 - plus 12 actions New developments need to be better BuildingsBuilding Action Action Plan Plan - -pg pg 8 7- - Educate Develop residential a positive andplanning non-residential framework, sectors in partnership on low- planned / enforced to ensure higher withcarbon other technologies, agencies, for energy achieving efficiency, true net and zero sources carbon home of funding standards to encourage in Dorset’ energy and ecological standards and YES behaviour change & greater up-take of low-carbon technology 7 53 5% No Further Action reduced transport impacts and flood risk. Buildings Action Plan - pg 7 Buildings Action Plan - pg 7- Encourage designs and layouts which lend themselvesBuilding Action to Planlow-carbon - pg 8 - Promoteenergy solutions, innovative and andprovide sensitive guidance energy and advice for developersefficiency/renewable to achieve zeroenergy carbon measures standards in conservation areas and on listed buildings which preserve and enhance such assets for the needs of existing and future occupants Food & Drink 911 Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - 67.5%

Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 - Reduce use of fertilizers on council land by increased use of locally produced compost Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 3 -"Work with tenants of County Farm’s Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 - Develop plan to transition County Farms to low to promote and ensure best environmental practices are upheld" ADD " carbon production -Work with County Farm tenants to encourage the adoption and share best practice with the wider farming community" Implement organic farming./ Ban use of Partly of more climate and ecological friendly practices 1 chemicals, fertilisers and pesticides in 141 15% Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 - "Develop plan to transition County farming. Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 3 -Work with tenants of County Farm’s to promote Farms to low carbon production -Work with County Farm tenants to and ensure best environmental practices are upheld encourage the adoption of more climate and ecological friendly practices" ADD "and share best practice with the wider farming Strategy - pg 49 - Dorset AONB team are currently looking at how future agricultural community" support from government can help deliver their ambitions Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 - Develop plan to transition County Farms to low Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 3 -"Work with tenants of County Farm’s carbon production -Work with County Farm tenants to encourage the adoption to promote and ensure best environmental practices are upheld" ADD of more climate and ecological friendly practices Partly "and share best practice with the wider farming community" Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 Support / incentivise farmers to undergo Water Action Plan - pg 5 - Work with Environment Agency to ensure all high risk 2 120 13% Water Action Plan - pg 5 Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 - "Develop plan to transition County sustainable farming practices. industrial and farming areas in Dorset have been identified and appropriate pollution Natural Assets Action plan - pg 2 Farms to low carbon production -Work with County Farm tenants to prevention measures are in place encourage the adoption of more climate and ecological friendly practices" ADD "and share best practice with the wider farming Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 2 - Work with tenants of County Farm’s to promote community" and ensure best environmental practices are upheld Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 - "Develop plan to transition County Farms to low carbon production -Work with County Farm tenants to Partly Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 - Develop plan to transition County Farms to low encourage the adoption of more climate and ecological friendly 3 Concern over protection of soil. 89 10% Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 carbon production -Work with County Farm tenants to encourage the adoption practices " ADD "and greater protection of soils and share best practice of more climate and ecological friendly practices with the wider farming community"

Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 -Work with producers, local business's (restaurants Encourage supermarkets / shops to sell Partly 4 70 8% and café's) and partners to promote 'local food' Green Kitchen Standard/ Food for ADD ' supermarkets' to the action more local, natural food produce. Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 Life and reduce food miles

Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 3 - Promote the principles and benefits of low carbon healthy cooking e.g. Green Kitchen Standard/ Food for Life and EATS to resi-dents of Dorset Page 298 Page Encourage vegan / vegetarian / plant YES 5 65 7% based lifestyle. Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 3 Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 3 - Explore carbon reduction opportunities in the procurement of catering services and contracts (when subject to renewal)

Actions don't go far enough / too vague / General comment on overall language / urgency / target. Reflect on this 6 53 6% NO not strict enough. in general across actions.

Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 - Increase range of eligible fruits on Council owned open spaces through development of community orchards scheme Partly Add Action? "Promote home growing to residents as part of wider 7 Promote home growing and allotments. 53 6% Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 - Ensure well provisioned new allotments are communication campaigns." provided wherever possible through the planning process and work with Towns and Parishes to enable community use

Can't force lifestyle changes on people / A general comment. Stratgey and action plan does not aim to enforce 8 46 5% NO don't enforce veganism. veganism.

Economy 730 Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - 66.5% Divest pension funds of fossil fuel investments/no investment in fossil fuels YES Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 3 - Investigate decarbonising Dorset Council 1 52 7% No further action (plus 57 from Renewable Energy Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 3 pension scheme. Responses)

Economy Action Plan - pg 5 -Work with the tourism sector to develop specific Encourage sustainable/low carbon/zero YES 2 49 7% programmes of support for sustainable tourism & make Dorset a low-carbon tourism No further action carbon tourism Economy Action Plan - pg 5 destination Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 5 -Ensure procurement processes and strategy embed climate and ecological concerns

Buildings Action Plan - pg 2 - Ensure procurement specification favours energy efficient equipment

Water Action Plan - pg 2 - Ensure procurement specification favours water efficient Use Dorset Council procurement policy YES equipment positively to help drive emission Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 5 3 reductions/purchase Fairtrade, 46 6% Buildings Action Plan - pg 2 Transport Action Plan - pg 9 - Review & amend procurement procedures to prioritise No further action sustainable, locally produced goods and Water Action Plan - pg 2 carbon reduction for Transport Purchases & Leasing food and take into account social factors Transport Action Plan - pg 9 & 10 Transport Action Plan - pg 9 - Maximise ultra low carbon vehicle replace-ment within the Dorset Council fleet -To replace all fleet cars and small vans with battery electric or best possible ULEV alter-native by 2025/26

Transport Action Plan - pg 10 - Maximise ultra low carbon vehicle replace-ment within the Dorset Council fleet -Staged replacement of all remaining classes of fleet vehicles other than cars or light vans with electric or best possible ULEV alternatives

Water 686 Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - 78.4% Water Action Plan - pg 5 - Carry out audit of all Dorset Council sites holding materials hazardous to water quality to ensure correct storage is in place & ensure Page 299 Page Work with farmers and landowners to pollution prevention equipment is properly maintained. protect waterways from fertiliser run off YES & protect from non-sustainable farming Water Action Plan - pg 5 Water Action Plan - pg 5 - Work with Environment Agency to ensure all high risk 1 94 14% No Further Action practices that can pollute drinking water Natural Assets Action plan - pg 2 industrial and farming areas in Dorset have been identified and appropriate pollution supplies and are causing rising Nitrogen prevention measures are in place levels. Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 2 - Work with tenants of County Farm’s to promote and ensure best environmental practices are upheld

Yes - Add action to Natural Assets Action Plan under Objective: "Protect Consideration given to the introduction and increase ecological value, carbon sequestration and climate of beaver colonies. Beaver populations resilience within Dorset":- 2 are proven to facilitate flood prevention 72 10% NO "Continue to support partners to investigate the opportunities to and to improve water quality and reintroduce beaver colonies to facilitate flood prevention and to enhance biodiversity. improve water quality and enhance biodiversity" to reflect current on- going work

Water Action & Plan - pg 2 - Provide information to residents and businesses on reducing water consumption, helping to improve understanding of the issues and Ensure community and school solutions to better water management, reducing bills and carbon emissions engagement to promote understanding YES 3 of issues and individual, local action, and 54 8% Water Action & Plan - pg 2 Strategy - pg 31- Work with partners to increase climate change resilience of No Further Action national action around water use, flood Strategy - pg 31 & pg 59 communities & buildings by understanding the future climate risks within Dorset risks, sea level rises and coastal erosion. Strategy pg 59 - Raising Awareness - We will look to provide more accessible and digestible information on climate change Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 2- Identify areas on Dorset Council land to enhance ecological value, carbon sequestration and climate resilience (surface water run off and natural flood management)

Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 3 - Creation of suitable high ecological value areas on council land (incl. bee-friendly, wild flower, hedge & woodland planting zones) & areas for carbon sequestration & climate resilience

Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 3- Work in partnership with Lead Flood Authority and EA to develop Sustainable Urban Drainage (SUD’s) Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) ensuring that drainage solutions are of high ecological value

Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 4 - Continue with and further develop partner-ship Protect and further create natural Partly working (e.g. Urban Heaths Partner-ship, Dorset Coast Forum) to maximise op- 4 systems, e.g. wetlands and water 48 7% Review wording to clarify Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 2, 3, 4 & 5 opportunities for joint working and external funding meadows. Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 4 - Work with town & parish councils to pro-mote best practice within their greenspace & communities

Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 4 - Develop strategic approach to draw together planning gains from various ecological mitigation schemes (e.g. Biodiversity, Nitrates and Heathland schemes) to maximise the ecological benefits to Dorset

Natural Assets Action Plan- pg 4 - Develop business case for large scale commercial carbon sequestration scheme within Dorset & implement scheme if feasible Page 300 Page Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 5 - Develop policy to ensure where ever possible additional land brought about by planning gain is managed in-house to benefit from economies of scale and to ensure ecological value and carbon sequestration Add Action to Water Action Plan, under Objective "Increase Resilience Create tree planting programmes to to Climate Change":- 6 43 6% NO potential is maximised prevent flood risks and water pollution. "Work with partners to create tree planting programmes to prevent flood risks and water pollution". New development, especially near rivers and wetlands, should include mandatory Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 2 - Work in partnership with Lead Flood Authority requirements for permeable surfaces YES 7 43 6% and EA to develop Sustainable Urban Drainage (SUD’s) Supplementary Planning and reed bed creation to manage run-off Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 2 Document (SPD) ensuring that drainage solutions are of high ecological value and ameliorate risks from sewage contamination. Need action sooner than 2050 / actions General comment on overall language / urgency / target. Reflect on this 8 41 6% NO should already be in place. in general across actions. Water Action Plan - pg 3 - Avoid developments in flood risk areas & areas subject to tidal surges and coastal erosion

Develop and deliver programme with Water Action Plan - pg 4 - Identify areas at risk from flooding & ensure adequate Partly Add "work with Environment" to Water Action Plan - pg 4 - Identify 9 Environment Agency and district councils 40 6% protection is in place Water Action Plan - pg 3 & 4 areas at risk from flooding & ensure adequate protection is in place to minimise flood risks and impacts. Water Action Plan - pg 4 - Raising awareness to Riparian owners to maintain water courses to prevent flooding

Natural Assets 748 Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - 76% Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 3 -Work with tenants of County Farm’s to promote and ensure best environmental practices are upheld Partly Food & Drink Action Plan - pg 2 - Develop plan to transition County Farms to low Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 3 -"Work with tenants of County Farm’s Work with/support farmers to encourage Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 3 1 81 11% carbon production -Work with County Farm tenants to encourage the adoption to promote and ensure best environmental practices are upheld" ADD best ecological practice. Food & drink Action Plan - pg 2 of more climate and ecological friendly practices "and share best practice with the wider farming community" Strategy pg 49 Strategy - pg 49 - Dorset AONB team are currently looking at how future agricultural support from government can help deliver their ambitions

Add action to Natural Assets Action Plan under Objective: "Protect and Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 2 - Develop and provide guidance to ensure increase ecological value, carbon sequestration and climate resilience community tree planting initiatives are eco-logically robust & sensitive to local land- Partly within Dorset" - "Increased tree planting where suitable to avoid scape (‘right tree in the right place’) e.g. Tree planting checklist 2 More tree planting. 80 11% Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 3 detrimental effects on other habitat types or landscape" Strategy pg 49 Strategy - pg 50 - Increased tree planting where suitable to avoid detrimental effects Council owned tree management policy to include replacing every felled on other habitat types or landscape tree with two new ones. Natural Assets Action Plan pg 2 - Identify areas on Dorset Council land to enhance ecological value, carbon sequestration and climate resilience (surface water run off and natural flood management)

pg 3 - Creation of suitable high ecological value areas on council land (incl. bee- friendly, wild flower, hedge & woodland planting zones) & areas for carbon sequestration & climate resilience

Page 301 Page pg 3 - Promotion of ecologically friendly gardens to residents

pg 4 - Continue with and further develop partner-ship working (e.g. Urban Heaths Partner-ship, Dorset Coast Forum) to maximise op-opportunities for joint working Partly and external funding Add Action which includes "Work with internal & external partners to 3 Large scale rewilding. 48 6% Natural Assets Action Plan - pg - 2,3,4 & 5 identify opportunities for Large Scale Rewilding" Strategy - pg - 49 & 50 pg 4 - Work with town & parish councils to pro-mote best practice within their greenspace & communities

pg 4 - Develop strategic approach to draw together planning gains from various ecological mitigation schemes (e.g. Biodiversity, Nitrates and Heathland schemes) to maximise the ecological benefits to Dorset

pg 4 - Develop business case for large scale commercial carbon sequestration scheme within Dorset & implement scheme if feasible

pg 5 - Work with development management team to ensure green infrastructure advice team is involved in all relevant planning applications to ensure ecological value and recreational opportunities are fully considered

pg 2 -Develop and provide guidance to ensure community tree planting initiatives are Trees need to be suitable species in YES Strategy 4 41 5% ecologically robust & sensitive to local land-scape (‘right tree in the right place’) e.g. No Action suitable locations. Natural Assets Action Plan - pg 2 pg 49 - AONB & Natural Environment teams within the Council are leading on a varietyTree planting of projects checklist to protect & enhance biodiversity pg 50 - Increase use of non-intervention management/rewilding techniques on Council land to improve connectivity of high ecological value areas Waste 814 Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - 77.1% Add Action to Waste Action Plan, under Objective "Support the Concerns about amount of plastic Waste Action Plan - pg 2 - Continue to work towards our commitment to become transition to a Circular Economy in Dorset":- 1 packaging and lack of action by retails 74 9% NO single-use plastic-free & eliminate the use of all single life products "Lobby Government over the amount of plastic packaging and lack of and supermarkets action by retails and supermarkets" Add Action to Waste Action Plan, under Objective "Reduce the amount Address / do more for commercial and Waste Action Plan - pg 5 - Develop targeted campaigns to reduce the amount of of waste produced in Dorset":- 2 73 9% NO industrial waste. waste produced in Dorset and increase recycling and reuse "Develop targeted campaign to reduce, reuse and recycle commercial and industrial waste " YES Waste Action Plan - pg 6 -Continue to work with the Police, Environ-ment Agency & 3 Tackle fly tipping. 68 8% No further action Waste Action Plan - pg 6 community groups to re-duce littering & fly tipping More education on sustainable waste YES Waste Action Plan - pg 5 - Develop targeted campaigns to reduce the amount of 4 64 8% No further action management. Waste Action Plan - pg 5 waste produced in Dorset and increase recycling and reuse Waste Action Plan - pg 4 - Carry out scenario modelling for waste collection and Add Action to Waste Action Plan, under Objective "Support the Provide practical advice on the adoption 5 53 7% NO treatment options in order to establish appropriate waste infrastructure to support transition to a Circular Economy in Dorset":- of a circular economy the circular economy "Provide practical advice on the adoption of a circular economy" General comment on overall language / urgency / target. Reflect on this 6 Quicker action needed. 51 6% NO in general across actions. Waste Action Plan - pg 2 - Continue to work towards our commitment to become single-use plastic-free & elimi-nate the use of all single life products Waste Action Plan - pg 2 - Carry out internal waste audits across our operations & create waste reduction plan supported by targeted campaigns10 x audits completed +Waste reduction Adapt council policies to include circular Waste Action Plan - pg 2 - Work with Council tenants and concessions to reduce economy aspects and embed material re- food waste and promote less packaging use and redeployment systems and tools, Waste Action Plan - pg 2 - Develop campaigns to minimise waste by Dorset YES 7 into procurement process by 2024, 49 6% Council staff e.g. Reuse incoming packaging to Dorset Council, such as boxes for Waste Action Plan - pg 2 & 3 including businesses taking responsibility outgoing orders and envelopes for sending internal mail, cancel subscriptions, for the full costs of waste disposal reduce printing etc Page 302 Page including collection. Waste Action Plan - pg 3 - Ensure Dorset Council waste is minimised through procurement Waste Action Plan - pg 3 - Ensure all reusable furniture is donated Waste Action Plan - pg 3 - Develop waste policy based on audit findings Waste Action Plan - pg 3 - Develop waste communications plan and provide containers for all DC staff & build-ings Waste Action Plan - pg 4 - Carry out scenario modelling for waste collection and treatment options in order to establish appropriate waste infrastructure to support Add Action to Waste Action Plan, under Objective "Reduce the amount the circular economy of waste produced in Dorset":- 8 More recycling and refill facilities 42 5% NO "Improve recycling facilities amd waste infrastructure in line with Waste Action Plan - pg 5 - Develop targeted campaigns to reduce the amount of outcomes of scenario modelling and reviewed waste policy" waste produced in Dorset and increase recycling and reuse Accept more types of recycling to avoid 9 41 5% NO as much as possible going to landfill.

Transport 856 Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - 69.9%

Transport Action Plan - pg 4 - Encourage decarbonisation of road transport through Implement EV/hydrogen infrastructure Partly 1 130 15% development of public EV charging network & promotion of ultra low emissions Update action to include 'Hydrogen when relevent' everywhere possible (rural & urban) Transport Action Plan - pg 4 vehicles, and including on-going management

Transport Action Plan - pg 5 - Improve the quality and availability of public transport Public trasnport should be more YES with a focus on maintaining the core network, better using S106 funds, and 2 123 14% No Further Action accessible/frequent. Transport Action Plan - pg 5 creating a new Enhanced Partnership scheme to make services more attractive to the travelling public. Transport Action Plan - pg 2 - Redirect investment from strategic road schemes to low carbon transport (Work with Subnational Transport Body (STB) and Lo-cal Enterprise Partnership (LEP))

Transport Action Plan - pg 3 - Through Local plan ensure (as far as possible) that More/better developed cycle YES developments provide high quality spaces, routes & facilities, or contribute to-wards 3 84 10% No Further Action lanes/routes/paths Transport Action Plan - pg 2,3 & 5 facilities for pedestrians, cycles and other car-free modes, EV charging and cycle parking

Transport Action Plan - pg 5 -Encourage and enable more walking and cycling through the production of local cy-cling and walking investment plans, related bids and initiating infrastructure delivery. Behaviour change through communications.

Establish more park and ride YES Transport Action Plan -pg 3 - Investigate potential for small scale park & ride hubs 4 89 10% No Further Action opportunities. Transport Action Plan - pg 3 with electric vehicle charging point availability

Actions are too vague / not stretching General comment on overall language / urgency. Reflect on this in 5 58 7% NO enough / more action is needed. general across actions.

Transport Action Plan - pg 3 - Reinforce low carbon transport policies through statutory planning documents in-cluding refreshed LTP and new Local Plan

Transport Action Plan - pg 3 - Ensure access to sustainable transport is considered in planning applications

Transport Action Plan - pg 3 - Through Local plan ensure (as far as possi-ble) that Ensure that sustainable transport is YES Page 303 Page 6 53 6% developments provide high quality spaces, routes & facilities, or contribute to-wards No Further Action integral to new land use. Transport Action Plan - pg 3 & 6 facilities for pedestrians, cycles and other car-free modes, EV charging and cy-cle parking

Transport Action Plan - pg 6 - Through the Local Plan ensure (as far as possible) developments are located in sustainable locations close to key services & the need to travel by car is reduced

Edit Transport Action Plan - pg 7 - Work with schools, parents and Educate / fine drivers on not leaving their partners to reduce the carbon foot print of the daily school commute ' 7 50 6% NO cars idle during busy traffic. add ' and to reduce polution from idling vehicles' - Inc as part of comms activities Villages to have own schools, shops, 8 churches, food, and better transport 46 5.4% NO Not feasible - No action links.

Create marketing campaigns to promote YES Transport Action Plan pg 6 -Encourage behaviour change through active & 9 44 5.1% No further Action use of public transport. Transport Action Plan - pg 6 sustainable travel campaigns and initiatives.

Children to attend local schools to YES Transport Action Plan - pg 7 - Work with schools, parents and partners to reduce the 10 44 5.1% No Further Action reduce travel. Transport Action Plan - pg 7 carbon foot print of the daily school commute

Leadership & Governance 433 Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy57.2% & action plan Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 3 -Ensure enough human resource is in place to drive forward action either through Council departments or involvement of wider partners Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 6 - Build support from stakeholders and the wider public and develop partnership work-ing on all aspects of climate change Young people ? No clear ref action Assemblies - EAP ruled out. Ensure strong partnership set-up/over- Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 6 - Develop a Dorset Climate Emergency sight, collaboration and 'bottom-up Partly partnership group with other key public, private, and third sector partners to deliver Edit Action - Making it Happen Action Plan, under objective 1 approach through community 154 36% Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 3, 6, 8, 9 a carbon neutral county "Engagement with Key Staeholders":- "Consult with residents and involvement (TPCs, young people, no clear ref to young people or assemblies Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 8 -Support Town and Parish Councils to develop organisations on the strategy & plans as they develop" assemblies) and implement their organisation and area wide climate action plans and proposed Edit:- " consult with residents, young people, Town & Parish engage with residents to encourage community ac-tion Councils and key organisations" Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 8 - Help to facilitate and support new and existing community-led projects and community organisations active in this area Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 - Work with partners to maximise opportunities for external funding from government and others, making sure Dorset gets its fair share

Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 1 - Milestones have been identified for each ac- tion. This plan shows the immediate targets we will need to achieve by 2023 to keep us on track. Need for Council to act/pro-active with Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 6 - Develop tools to undertake robust impact & clearer set targets/plan and suitable level policy appraisal to ensure climate change & ecological priorities and targets are of ambition that is properly Partly consid-ered in all key corporate projects, programmes and strategies Page 304 Page 2 120 28% Update annual reporting to fit the reporting question answer audited/monitored and impact fed Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 1, 6, & 7 Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 7 - Consider monitoring & reporting wider emis- back/transparency in info sions from Council activities (Scope 3) such as procurement sharing/comms. Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 7 - Monitor and report on actions and progress in achieving carbon reduction by producing an annual report of progress on climate change targets, budgets, and actions

Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 2 -OBJECTIVE:- Ensure leadership & governance are in place to facilitate delivery of Climate and Ecological Emergency strategy & 6 supporting actions:- 1. Actively input into national forums and con-sultations to encourage policy development to tackle climate & ecological emergency 2. Lobby government for additional resources and the national policy framework Council should lead by example/strong to sup-port climate & ecological action in Dorset leadership/bring stakeholders Partly 3 120 28% 3. Review governance structures to ensure successful delivery of the Climate Lead by example 'Direct approach' - implicit in this along/positive procurement Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 2 & 3 Strategy and ensure key decision-makers have a clear mandate for action behaviours/educate own staff 4. Ensure all staff are aware of their responsi-bilities in the delivery of actions, and that departments are linked at a strategic level (e.g. waste and planning). 5. Ensure enough human resource is in place to drive forward action either through Coun-cil departments or involvement of wider partners 6. Investigate decarbonising Dorset Council pension schemeInvestigations carried out and reported to EAP Natural Assets Action Plan - focus on biodiversity etc

Building Action Plan - pg 2 -Carry out audits to identify opportunities to retrofit energy efficiency, water efficiency, and renewable energy generation across the estate on completion of the Asset Review.

Building Action Plan - pg 2 - Increase capacity of Energy Team to develop and implement retrofit programme

Building Action Plan - pg 2 - Implement retro fit programme (to include LEDs, thermal upgrade, ambient cooling, conversions to low carbon energy sources) based on audits

Include biodiversity, wildlife, ecological, Yes Building Action Plan - pg 3 - Re-instate a school’s energy programme to support 4 45 10% No Action focus on environment/efficiency Natural Assets Action Plan & Buildings Action Plan and work with schools to reduce energy and maximise use of renewable energy technologies

Building Action Plan - pg 3 - Expand centralised utility management service across Dorset Council to incorporate an oversight of energy use, monitor consumption and target energy reduction at site level.

Building Action Plan - pg 3 - Expand centralised energy management system

Building Action Plan - pg 3 - Review operational controls on energy using equipment across council estate to ensure optimum efficiency

Building Action Plan - pg 8 - Enforce minimum energy efficiency standards in the private rental sector (focus on EPC certificates E & F without exemptions)

Page 305 Page Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 - Work with partners to maximise opportuni- Buildingties for external Action Planfunding - pg from 8 - Work government in partnership and others, (e.g. makingwith Registered sure Dorset Social gets its Comments relating to cost and finances - fair share Landlords (RSLs), other councils and partners) to deliver programmes to improve General comment - covered by lookiing at alternatives to Gov funds. 5 too costly/what if no govt funding/keep 42 10% YES Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 - Develop a finance strategy to enable us to energy efficiency of housing stock & hard to treat properties Strategy will consider this. spend in proportion deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to- Buildingsave schemes, Action asset Plan - rationalisation, pg 8 - Promote and innovative building andprojects sensitive into our energy capital efficiency/renewableprogramme. energy measures in conservation areas and on listed Positive comments around the action buildings which preserve and enhance such assets for the needs of existing and 6 36 8% N/A No Action plan future occupants

7 Other comment 34 8% N/A Building Action Plan - pg 8 - Educate residential and non-residential sectors on low- No Action Strategycarbon technologies,- pg 4 - Dorset energyCouncil efficiency, recognises andit has sources a key role of tofunding play in to facilitating encourage this changebehaviour but, change if we are & to greater make thisup-take a reality, of low-carbon organisations technology and individuals will all have to play their part and work together to collaborate, share best practice, and take decisiveBuilding action.Action Plan - pg 8 - Promote innovative and sensitive energy Strategyefficiency/renewable - pg 23 - Engage energy with partners, measures individual in conservation teams and areas the communityand on listed to Partly explorebuildings key which issues, preserve opportunities, and enhance identify such progress assets and for collate the needs examples of existing of national and New Action - Actively participate in inter authority climate emergency Learn from/work with other 8 32 7% Strategy - pgs 3, 23, 31, 43 & 46 bestfuture practice. occupants networks as wll as nation networks set up by LGA, ASPE etc. to share councils/authorities Strategy - pg 31- (Buildings Action Plan) - Develop and promote case studies and and build national best practice examples of best practice on our own estate to encourage repli-cation by others Strategy - pg 43 - (Waste Action Plan) - Continue to engage with public, com- munities, schools & businesses to increase understanding of waste issues & best practices Strategy - pg 46 - (key opportunities - water) - Reduce future surface water flood risk from future devel-opments through partnership working with developers, local planning authorities, highway authorities and water & sewage companies, by maximising uptake of Sustainable Urban Drain-age (SuDS) solutions Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 2 - Review governance structures to ensure successful delivery of the Climate Strategy and ensure key decision-makers have a clear mandate for action. Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Organise targeted briefings and training sessions for officers, members and decision makers on the benefits and opportunities of tackling climate change -highlighting this contribution to other Council priorities. Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 5 - OBJECTIVE: Ensure Climate and ecological concerns are embedded at the heart of decision and plan making & 4 actions:- Climate must be a priority in decision- 1. Ensure procurement processes and strate-gy embed climate and ecological 9 32 7% YES No futher action required making/projects/policy concerns 2. Ensure climate change, climate resilience and ecological enhancement are embedded in our key strategies and plans, such as the developing Dorset Local Plan and our asset management plans. 3. Ensure we fully understand the risks of cli-mate change on our business and that it is appropriately addressed within our risk man-agreement and business continuity pro-cesses. 4. Develop tools to undertake robust impact & policy appraisal to ensure climate change & ecological priorities and targets are consid-ered in all key corporate projects, pro-grammes and strategies

Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 2 -Lobby government for additional resources and the national policy framework to sup-port climate & ecological action in Dorset Strategy - pg 7 - The Council has a key role in lobbying government for clear policy

Page 306 Page and financial support required for the transi-tion to a zero-carbon future and to actively participate in national forums and consultations on policy develop-ment. Strategy - pg 27 - Lobby central government over the major hurdles to renewable energy deployment, the Navitus Bay deci-sion, investment needed on grid infra- structure, and future of heat Government: Lobby Government, Strategy - pg 31 - Lobby government for clarity on na-tional strategy for heat and 10 31 7% YES No futher action required comments on working with Govt. national policy framework Strategy - pg 55 - Lobby government - e.g. for Rail im-provements Strategy - pg 57 - We will lobby government for additional resources and the national policy framework to support climate action in Dorset. In addition, we will actively input into national forums and consultations to encourage policy development in this area. Strategy - pg 58 - We will work with partners and lobby government to seek additional support and external funding and to maximise opportunities for exter-nal funding from government and others, making sure Dorset gets its fair share.

Add actions to relevant action plans & MASTER costed action plan to Strategy - pg 7 - Many of the actions required to tackle carbon emissions will have cover these issues wider co-benefits, which will help to sup-port and strengthen Dorset’s local economy Buildings - Partly and address social is-sues, such as fuel poverty. Structure that shares the benefits of 1. Review fuel-poverty schemes as to installing low-carbon heating 11 26 6% Strategy - pgs 7 & 27 Strategy - pg 27 (Buildings Action Plan) - A review of whether Council run fuel- climate change action with less well off systems over gas boilers & improving inslation etc poverty schemes could install low-carbon heating systems over gas boilers (but 2. Ensure Dorset gets its it's fair share of government fuel poerty can't find related action in Buildings summary action plan OR the big funding. spreadsheet.....)

Engagement & Communications 391 Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - 67.3%

Strategy - pg 59 - Developing a comprehensive communications strategy for our ap- proach to the climate and ecological emergency. This strategy will draw upon a variety of media and approaches to deliver key messag-es on climate change issues and help drive change in Dorset, with a focus on raising awareness, supporting community action, and engag-ing stakeholders in the decision-making. Strategy - pg 59 - We will look to provide more ac-cessible and digestible information on climate change and ecology and the actions we can all take through a range of channels Engagement and publicity strategy must Strategy - pg 59 - We will sup-port Town and Parish Councils to develop and be innovative/increase implement their organi-sation and area wide climate action plans. This is as well as knowledge/incentivise/dialogue/motivat 1 133 34% YES helping them engage with residents to encourage community action and drive No futher action required e the public and support change across change at a grassroots community level. groups (e.g. share positive results, Strategy - pg 59 - We will help to facilitate and support new and existing community- listening, empowering) led projects and community organisations active in this area. Further-more, we will work with these groups to signpost and communicate shared messages Strategy - pg 59 - We will build support from stakeholders and the wider public by in- forming and educating on the benefits and opportunities of acting on climate change and creating, maintaining, and developing partnership working on all aspects of climate change action. Strategy - pg 59 - We will seek to develop a Dorset Climate Emergency partnership group.

Strategy - pg - 6 - Work in PARTNERSHIP with other or-ganisations and communities to drive change across the County and put in place larger programmes and projects to support fundamental change re-quired. partner Page 307 Page Strategy - pg - 23 - Engage with partners, individual teams and the community to explore key issues, opportunities, identify progress and collate examples of national best practice. Strategy - pg - 27 - Work in partnership with BCP to plan a zero-carbon energy system for Dorset Strategy - pg - 31 - Work in partnership to deliver pro-grammes to improve energy efficien-cy of housing stock (e.g further expand Healthy Homes Scheme) Strategy - pg - 31 - Work with partners to increase climate change resilience of Better engagement with/must involve communities & buildings by understanding the future climate risks within Dorset existing partnerships, networks, Strategy - pg - 35 - Work with partners to reduce meat and increase plant-based 2 communities, councils, local group, 85 22% YES No futher action required meals in care homes and schools enterprises, businesses, campaign Strategy - pg - 35 -Continue to work with producers and partners to promote 'local groups, assemblies. food' and reduce food miles Strategy - pg - 35 -Work with partners to promote low-carbon affordable food options to Dorset residents (dont think there is an accomanying action to this) Strategy - pg - 35 - Work with partners to help food and drink suppliers within Dorset to be resilient to climate change Strategy - pg - 39 - Maximise opportunities for clean growth in Dorset by working with businesses & partners to put at centre of local economic development plans Strategy - pg - 39 - Support businesses to become more energy and resource efficient and to install renewable energy by working with partners to expand Low Carbon Dorset programme Strategy - pg - 39 - Work with partners to attract green sector businesses with highly skilled workforces to Dorset Education - educate/train individuals, Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible YES Strategy - pg - 43 - Investigate how Dorset Waste Ser-vices can work with partners to 3 household level, businesses, schools (e.g. 82 21% information on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 facilitate reduction of commercial and industrial waste carbon literacy, through museums), staff range of channels Strategy - pg - 43 - Introduce a pilot project in partner-ship with Keep Britain Tidy to and public engagement teams Comment about the consultation/survey reduce food waste (dont think there is an accomanying action to this) - too long/complex, poor 4 72 18% related to consulation Strategy - pg - 46 -Partnership working with water companies and the Envi-ronment Noted. 1st stage of process. advertising/timing, going 'through Agency to encourage and support businesses to re-duce water use and wastage (No motions/tick box exercise' accomanying action to this) Council is influential organisation for StrategyMaking it - Happenpg - 46 - ActionReduce Plan future - pg surface 8 - Support water Town flood and risk Parish from future Councils devel-opments to devel-op YES 5 change and should co-ordinate and lead 66 17% throughand implement partnership their workingorganisation with anddevelopers, area wide local climate planning action authorities, plans and highway engage Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 8 collaboration with community and authoritieswith residents and to water encourage & sewage community companies, ac-tion by maximising uptake of Sustainable organisations (esp with TPCs) Urban Drain-age (SuDS) solutions Strategy - pg - 47 - Work with partners to promote land management practices that prevent polluting water courses and ensure good water management Strategy - pg - 47 - Work with partners to ensure climate resilience is being addressed and sufficient supplies of good quality water will be available for Dorset res-idents Strategy - pg 51 - Work in partnership with Children’s & Adult Services to ensure natural envi-ronment is fully utilised in social care offer Strategy - pg 51 - Work with partners to connect frag-mented habitats across county Strategy - pg 55 - Redirect investment from strategic road schemes to low-carbon transport (Work with Subnational Transport Body and Local Enterprise Partnership) Strategy - pg 58 - We will work with partners and lobby government to seek additional support and external funding and to maximise opportunities for exter-nal funding from government and others, making sure Dorset gets its fair share Strategy - pg 59 - We will seek to develop a Dorset Climate Emergency partnership group. Strategy - pg 59 - We will facilitate the development of a Dorset-wide partnership with other key public, private, and third sector partners in order to develop a partnership approach to driving forward some of the fundamental changes that will be required to deliver a carbon neutral county. Use social media (20) or other effective YES Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible 6 46 12% media/method to engage/reach people Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 information on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible Keepin the messaging widest possible and information way (14) simple YES range of channels 7 37 9% information on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a (positive focus and language 19) Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 range of channels Must include/consider young people and YES 8 36 9% As per action 1: Leadership & Governance schools Under Action 1 - Leadership & Governance (above)

Funding Q67-68 - Do you agree with our approach437 to funding Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 - Work with partners to maximise opportuni- ties for external funding from government and others, making sure Dorset gets its fair share Disagree with: council tax increases (37); Partly Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to No Edit suggested , but will be considered as part of funding strategy 1 83 19% borrowing & risks (5) Making it Happen - pg 9 deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save development schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme. Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 - Explore options to riase additonal funds through borrowing, council tax, developer contributions, and business rates

Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 - Work with partners to maximise opportuni- ties for external funding from government and others, making sure Dorset gets its Investigate other fair share ethical/general/collaborative funding Partly Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to 2 83 19% methods (community, private sector, Making it Happen - pg 9 deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save Page 308 Page businesses, government) and diversify. schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme. Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 - Explore options to riase additonal funds through borrowing, council tax, developer contributions, and business rates

Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 2 - Lobby government for additional resources 3 Lobby the Government for money 56 13% YES No Action - part finance strategy and the national policy framework to sup-port climate & ecological action in Dorset

Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to Reduce costs elsewhere/work within 4 33 8% YES deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save No Action - part finance strategy existing budget/resource/reserves schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme. Council Tax increase (also consider reassess for wealthy, ringfence money Partly Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 - Explore options to riase additonal funds No Edit suggested , but will be considered as part of funding strategy 5 for climate and show people where 33 8% Making it Happen - pg 9 through borrowing, council tax, developer contributions, and business rates development money is being spent on climate/what matters/be upfront) Not enough information (e.g. funding Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to source, cost-benefit analysis, value, is Partly More accurate information & cost benefits anaysis will become available 6 32 7% deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save £100m enough), no expertise, difficult to Making it Happen - pg 9 as the plan develops schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme. understand. Waste of money - no 7 emergency/effect/too little gain/cancel 25 6% NO No change. Balance view against overall strong Net agreement idea Challenges - e.g. COVID impact, Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to Partly 8 regional/national/global problem, 22 5% deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save Making it Happen - pg 9 visitors, expense schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme. Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to No alternative/Act now, cost now for Partly 9 22 5% deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save future savings Making it Happen - pg 9 schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme.

Funding Q69 - Are there any funding opportunities368 we have missed? Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - Tax increases: esp 2nd homes/holiday Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to lets/visitors (32), council tax - with Partly 1 95 26% deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save To be consdiered in development of finance strategy voluntary/donation/ringfenced for Making it Happen - pg 9 schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme. climate (32),climate/green/polluter/land Council should streamline/save/change (personal and business, 26), other Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to practice: ethical banking practices (26) Partly 2 80 22% deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save To be consdiered in development of finance strategy staff (26); assets - sell, lease, re-purpose Making it Happen - pg 9 schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme. (10); other Collaborate on/investigate financing and funding opportunities (e.g. with private Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to sector, businesses Govt/public sector, Partly 3 80 22% deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save To be consdiered in development of finance strategy community investment, charities, grants, Making it Happen - pg 9 schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme. Green Finance Institute, funding mechanisms) Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to Lobby the government for tax increases Partly 4 79 21% deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save To be consdiered in development of finance strategy (e.g wealth, land) and funding/support Making it Happen - pg 9 schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme. Crowdfunding (esp local energy schemes) Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to Partly 5 and other fundraising 49 13% deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save To be consdiered in development of finance strategy Making it Happen - pg 9 initiatives/donation schemes schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme.

Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to Encourage/support/invest in community Partly 6 37 10% deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save To be consdiered in development of finance strategy projects, groups and initiatives Making it Happen - pg 9 schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme.

Support/incentivise people to invest/make change (e.g. investment Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to Partly 7 schemes, bonds or supporting green 34 9% deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save To be consdiered in development of finance strategy Making it Happen - pg 9 behaviours, tax reductions good comms, schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme. Page 309 Page fair spread of funding) Fines - relating to environmental Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to Partly 8 activities (personal/business/industry) 33 9% deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save To be consdiered in development of finance strategy Making it Happen - pg 9 and indirect (e.g. driving) and parking schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme. Support/incentivise/encouragefees) business Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to Partly 9 investment/green practice in Dorset (inc 24 7% deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save To be consdiered in development of finance strategy Making it Happen - pg 9 developer, new business) schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme. Miscellaneous ways to raise money (e.g Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 9 -Develop a finance strategy to enable us to lotteries (8), advertising, charge mooring Partly 10 19 5.2% deliver this climate emergency response. This includes establishing invest-to-save To be consdiered in development of finance strategy fees to cruise ships, fines for concreting Making it Happen - pg 9 schemes, asset rationalisation, and building projects into our capital programme. front gardens)

Funding Q74 - How often do you want to be updated128 on progress? Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - Strategy - pg 60 - To ensure we are on track to meet our targets and not exceed our carbon budgets, we need a robust baseline and regular progress monitoring of both Partly Consultation noted Net agreement for a 6 monthly update. carbon emissions and ecological indicators. Our current baseline is currently 1 Every three months/quarterly 30 23% Strategy - pg 60 Update action to reflect 6 monthly reporting. incomplete. Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 7 Ongoing updates will be provide as part of communications plan. Making it Happen Action plan - pg 7 - Monitor and report on actions and progress in achieving carbon reduction by producing an annual report of progress on climate changeStrategy targets, - pg 60 budgets,- To ensure and we actions are on track to meet our targets and not exceed our carbon budgets, we need a robust baseline and regular progress monitoring of both When there is an Partly carbon emissions and ecological indicators. Our current baseline is currently Consultation noted Net agreement for a 6 monthly update. 2 update/progress/review/action or 25 20% Strategy - pg 60 incomplete. Update action to reflect 6 monthly reporting. decision to be made Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 7 Making it Happen Action plan - pg 7 - Monitor and report on actions and progress in Ongoing updates will be provide as part of communications plan. achieving carbon reduction by producing an annual report of progress on climate change targets, budgets, and actions Strategy - pg 60 - To ensure we are on track to meet our targets and not exceed our carbon budgets, we need a robust baseline and regular progress monitoring of both Partly carbon emissions and ecological indicators. Our current baseline is currently Consultation noted Net agreement for a 6 monthly update. 3 Every month 22 17% Strategy - pg 60 incomplete. Update action to reflect 6 monthly reporting. Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 7 Making it Happen Action plan - pg 7 - Monitor and report on actions and progress in Ongoing updates will be provide as part of communications plan. achieving carbon reduction by producing an annual report of progress on climate change targets, budgets, and actions Strategy - pg 60 - To ensure we are on track to meet our targets and not exceed our Partly carbon budgets, we need a robust baseline and regular progress monitoring of both Consultation noted Net agreement for a 6 monthly update. 4 As often as possible/regularly 12 9% Strategy - pg 60 carbon emissions and ecological indicators. Our current baseline is currently Update action to reflect 6 monthly reporting. Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 7 incomplete. Ongoing updates will be provide as part of communications plan. Making it Happen Action plan - pg 7 - Monitor and report on actions and progress in achievingStrategy - carbonpg 60 - reductionTo ensure bywe producing are on track an toannual meet report our targets of progress and not on exceed climate our changecarbon budgets,targets, budgets, we need and a robust actions baseline and regular progress monitoring of both Partly carbon emissions and ecological indicators. Our current baseline is currently Consultation noted Net agreement for a 6 monthly update. 5 No update required 11 9% Strategy - pg 60 incomplete. Update action to reflect 6 monthly reporting. Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 7 Making it Happen Action plan - pg 7 - Monitor and report on actions and progress in Ongoing updates will be provide as part of communications plan. achieving carbon reduction by producing an annual report of progress on climate change targets, budgets, and actions Strategy - pg 60 - To ensure we are on track to meet our targets and not exceed our carbon budgets, we need a robust baseline and regular progress monitoring of both Other - ways to communicate progress Partly carbon emissions and ecological indicators. Our current baseline is currently Consultation noted Net agreement for a 6 monthly update. (e.g. website/media; existing comms, live 6 9 7% Strategy - pg 60 incomplete. Update action to reflect 6 monthly reporting. dashboard, paperless, partnerships, Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 7 Making it Happen Action plan - pg 7 - Monitor and report on actions and progress in Ongoing updates will be provide as part of communications plan. notifications) achieving carbon reduction by producing an annual report of progress on climate

Page 310 Page change targets, budgets, and actions

Q76 How do you want to be updated on progress?74 Overall NET AGREEMENT draft strategy & action plan - Public forum - meetings, exhibitions, Making it happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible in- Consulation noted top three methods for communication - E- Partly presentations, Q&As, Citizens 11 15% formation on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a Newsletter, Our Website, Annual report. These and other methods will Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 Assemblies/Panels (4) range of channels all form part of overall communications & engagement stratgey

Making it happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible in- Consulation noted top three methods for communication - E- Partly No update required 9 12% formation on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a Newsletter, Our Website, Annual report. These and other methods will Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 range of channels all form part of overall communications & engagement stratgey

Making it happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible in- Consulation noted top three methods for communication - E- Partly Via Email 9 12% formation on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a Newsletter, Our Website, Annual report. These and other methods will Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 range of channels all form part of overall communications & engagement stratgey

Making it happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible in- Consulation noted top three methods for communication - E- Print media - local newspapers, leaflets, Partly 8 11% formation on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a Newsletter, Our Website, Annual report. These and other methods will posters Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 range of channels all form part of overall communications & engagement stratgey

Making it happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible in- Consulation noted top three methods for communication - E- Engagement with Community groups, Partly 8 11% formation on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a Newsletter, Our Website, Annual report. These and other methods will sharing info with/through partners Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 range of channels all form part of overall communications & engagement stratgey

Online/electronic - website, social media, Making it happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible in- Consulation noted top three methods for communication - E- Partly webinars, broadcasts, video updates by 7 9% formation on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a Newsletter, Our Website, Annual report. These and other methods will Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 stakeholders/councillor range of channels all form part of overall communications & engagement stratgey

Making it happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible in- Consulation noted top three methods for communication - E- Partly Via Town and Parish Councils 6 8% formation on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a Newsletter, Our Website, Annual report. These and other methods will Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 range of channels all form part of overall communications & engagement stratgey

Making it happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible in- Consulation noted top three methods for communication - E- Partly Local radio, television 6 8% formation on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a Newsletter, Our Website, Annual report. These and other methods will Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 range of channels all form part of overall communications & engagement stratgey General - Any method that is regular, Making it happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible in- Consulation noted top three methods for communication - E- Partly keeps info flowing, notifies, widely 6 8% formation on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a Newsletter, Our Website, Annual report. These and other methods will Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 published range of channels all form part of overall communications & engagement stratgey

Making it happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible in- Consulation noted top three methods for communication - E- Partly Methods already suggested/selected 5 7% formation on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a Newsletter, Our Website, Annual report. These and other methods will Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 range of channels all form part of overall communications & engagement stratgey

Making it happen Action Plan - pg 4 - Provide more accessible and digestible in- Consulation noted top three methods for communication - E- Partly Other comment about the plan 5 7% formation on climate change and ecology and the actions we can take through a Newsletter, Our Website, Annual report. These and other methods will Making it Happen Action Plan - pg 4 range of channels all form part of overall communications & engagement stratgey Page 311 Page This page is intentionally left blank Agenda Item 11

Recommendation to Cabinet People and Health Overview Committee – 4 May 2021 Cultural Strategy Decision

Portfolio Holder: Cllr J Haynes, Customer and Community Services

Local Councillor(s):

Executive Director: Executive Director for Place

Report Status: Public

Recommendation:

1. That the Cabinet be asked to adopt the Dorset’s Cultural Strategy 2021- 2026.

2. That officers work with Arts Council England, the Arts Development Company and key stakeholders to develop a Cultural Compact type framework that will enable the work of the strategy to be fulfilled and effectively managed, be approved. .

Reason for Recommendations:

A cultural strategy helps to increase the opportunities of securing new investment into Dorset and maximise the leverage value of the council’s own investment in arts, heritage and culture. This cultural strategy will be the foundation on which Dorset Council will set its own funding criteria, ensuring that all grant recipients are contributing to the priorities and ambitions of the plan.

The strategy will also play a key role in the recovery of the sector. It will not only inform how Dorset Council will support the sector in the future, but it will set out a united direction for culture in our county for other stakeholders, funders, cross sector partners, Parish and Town Councils, organisations and individuals. A collaborative approach to cultural provision will directly benefit our communities, visitors, and the local economy.

A framework, in the shape of a Cultural Compact will nurture a cross sector partnership designed to support the local cultural sector and enhance its

Page 313 contribution to the life of that place. Such a collaboration will facilitate co- ordinated action to support the delivery of the ambitions within the strategy; sustain our cultural infrastructure, drive lasting social and economic benefits and leverage new resources.

Appendices

Report to People and Health Overview Committee of 4 May 2021 including Appendices 1 – 5.

Note: Appendix 1 has been amended to include minor changes following the meeting of People & Health Overview Committee on 4 May 2021.

Appendix 1 Dorset’s Cultural Strategy 2021-2026 Appendix 2: List of consultees for the Cultural Strategy development Appendix 3: Desk research Appendix 4: Results of Young Peoples’ survey on culture 2021 Appendix 5 Equality Impact Assessment

Background Papers

People & Health Overview Committee - 4 May 2021

Appendix 3: Desk research

Page 314 People and Health Overview Committee 04 May 2021 Cultural Strategy For Recommendation to Cabinet

Portfolio Holder: Cllr J Haynes, Customer and Community Services

Local Councillor(s):

Executive Director: J Sellgren, Executive Director of Place

Report Author: Paul Rutter Title: Service Manager for Leisure Services Tel: 01202 795338 Email: [email protected]

Report Status: Public

Recommendation:

That the committee agrees:

1. To support Dorset’s Cultural Strategy 2021-2026 and recommend it to Cabinet for adoption.

2. That officers work with Arts Council England, the Arts Development Company and key stakeholders to develop a Cultural Compact type framework that will enable the work of the strategy to be fulfilled and effectively managed, and this is recommended to Cabinet for approval.

Reason for Recommendation:

A cultural strategy helps to increase the opportunities of securing new investment into Dorset and maximise the leverage value of the council’s own investment in arts, heritage and culture. This cultural strategy will be the foundation on which Dorset Council will set its own funding criteria, ensuring that all grant recipients are contributing to the priorities and ambitions of the plan.

The strategy will also play a key role in the recovery of the sector. It will not only inform how Dorset Council will support the sector in the future, but it will set out a united direction for culture in our county for other stakeholders, funders, cross

Page 315 sector partners, Parish and Town Councils, organisations and individuals. A collaborative approach to cultural provision will directly benefit our communities, visitors, and the local economy.

A framework, in the shape of a Cultural Compact will nurture a cross sector partnership designed to support the local cultural sector and enhance its contribution to the life of that place. Such a collaboration will facilitate co- ordinated action to support the delivery of the ambitions within the strategy; sustain our cultural infrastructure, drive lasting social and economic benefits and leverage new resources.

1. Executive Summary

The new cultural strategy is a key aspect of ‘making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit’, and will be closely aligned to the priorities and ambitions of the Dorset Council’s Plan. It will help to sustain our cultural infrastructure, drive lasting social and economic benefits and leverage internal and external funding. It will assist us to deliver on our own council priorities, enable communities to come together; breaking down social isolation and helping build happy, empowered, and connected communities.

This strategy is for the Dorset Council area and has been developed in a collaborative way; one that has given stakeholders the opportunity to influence its development and shape the ambitions and priorities.

Appendix 1 is the full strategy, and in terms of what external funding organisations expect, this level of detail is a basic requirement. It will provide the strategic context on which local cultural organisations can develop their own business plans and it will improve their chances of achieving successful funding bids.

Once the strategy has been adopted, a more eye catching mini brochure will be produced that summarises the priorities and ambitions of the strategy and sets out what will be done to leverage funding, evidence social and wellbeing improvements, increase the sense of pride by local people in arts and culture, and increase diversity of audiences.

The cultural strategy will sit within a new framework, one that will drive the vision and support the delivery. This will be based on the model for a Cultural Compact; a cross sector partnership designed to support the local cultural sector and enhance its contribution to the life of that place.

Although there is sound evidence of community engagement, further work will take place to target hard to reach communities. Similarly, the strategy

Page 316 will need to evolve and flex during its life cycle, especially in an uncertain economic and post Covid-19 climate.

2. Financial Implications

The Council currently provides £600,000 annual funding to a diverse range of arts, culture and heritage/museum organisations. This is a vital component in them leveraging external funding; helping to stimulating our local economy.

Between 2019 and 2021, nearly £7.5 million of revenue and strategic funding was invested by Arts Council South West. Similarly, in the last 5 years, over £87 million worth of capital and revenue funding has been externally invested into Dorset’s arts, heritage and culture sector

3. Well-being and Health Implications

Arts, heritage and culture, provide a vital role in improving health and wellbeing within our communities. It can bring communities together; breaking down social isolation and helping build happy, empowered, and connected communities.

The strategy will focus on those living with poor mental health, people aged 65 and over, young people and those living with dementia. It will promote the delivery of initiatives, events and programmes in areas of socio- economic disadvantage and aim to engage with those impacted by rural isolation. A Cultural Compact will help develop stronger relationships with a wide range of health and wellbeing partners such as those in “Our Dorset” – the integrated care system (NHS, CCG, Public Health Dorset) and Dorset Council directorates including parks and green spaces, adult social care, education and environment.

Dorset aims to be at the forefront when it comes to how arts, heritage and culture can deliver on social prescribing and early prevention initiatives. A significant proportion of Dorset Council revenue funded organisations (2021-2024) will be asked to measure their social impact through the HACT social value calculator which measures both social and wellbeing impacts and savings to the NHS.

4. Climate implications

The environment and the importance of the climate emergency is reflected within the strategy and one of its four priorities. The strategy aims to create a green future for our county; using arts, heritage and culture to celebrate the environment and inspire action to tackle the climate and ecological emergency.

Page 317 The cultural sector will set a target to reduce its carbon footprint in Dorset, help change public behaviour to reduce environmental impact and support communities to develop sustainable and regenerative responses to the climate and ecological emergency.

5. Other Implications

No other implications

6. Risk Assessment

Having considered the risks associated with this decision, the level of risk has been identified as: Current Risk: Medium Residual Risk: Medium

7. Equalities Impact Assessment

An Equality Impact Assessment (Appendix 5) has been carried out to inform the development of the strategy. Priority groups have been identified within the assessment and will form part of any developing action plans.

8. Appendices

Appendix 1 Dorset’s Cultural Strategy 2021-2026 Appendix 2: List of consultees for the Cultural Strategy development Appendix 3: Desk research Appendix 4: Results of Young Peoples’ survey on culture 2021 Appendix 5 Equality Impact Assessment

9. Background Papers

Appendix 3: Desk research

10. Background

10.1 In the summer of 2020, Dorset Council began the development of a new five-year cultural strategy for the Dorset Council area of Dorset set within the context of post COVID – 19. The current cultural strategy was due to end in the spring of 2021. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) will also have a new cultural strategy in place by the end of December 2021.

Page 318 10.2 The Council currently has a contract with the Arts Development Company to deliver an arts development service and given that they were responsible for developing the last strategy, they were again commissioned to work alongside council officers and sector stakeholders to develop the new one.

10.3 The scope of the project was to develop a new strategy that will not only inform how Dorset Council will support the sector in the future but also how organisations can work together to provide a more collaborative approach to cultural provision across the county. It is anticipated that the strategy will not only be adopted by the Council but that other cultural sector delivery organisations will align their business plans with the priorities of the new strategy in order to attract external investment and maximise partnership opportunities over the next 5 years and beyond. 11. A Collaborative Approach

11.1 Although Dorset Council commissions and funds a wide range of cultural organisations, and delivers culture through it’s archive, museums, libraries and music services, it was always keen to play an enabling role; and that real success will only be achieved where a collaborative approach involving a wide and diverse range of stakeholders was adopted.

11.2 An officer steering group was set up to support the Arts Development Company in developing the project plan, timelines and scope of the project. The steering group has met monthly throughout the process.

11.3 An advisory group was also set up to provide cross sector representation during the development period. The Advisory Group were able to contribute regular feedback throughout the process and provide supporting content relevant to their respective areas of expertise. A smaller working group was also formed to help shape/write the text of the draft cultural strategy, prior to consideration by the wider group. The breadth of sector representation and depth of engagement is detailed further in Appendix 2.

11.4 During the final Advisory Group meeting, there was a strong consensus that the draft strategy would provide the framework on which to align many of their own business plans. It is seen as a tool that would support their own organisational ambitions and enhance their bids for external funding.

11.5 It should also be recognised that the strategy has a 5-year life cycle and will evolve and flex over this period. It also highlights the need to develop baseline data and this will help inform future decision making.

Page 319 12. Strategy Versions

12.1 The cultural strategy is a full body of work, demonstrating the depth and breadth of culture across the Dorset Council area. It is recognised that funders will welcome this level of detail, much of which will align to their own strategies and ambitions. Similarly, the sector themselves will embrace a document that provides evidence of existing success stories and sets out a clear vision for culture within Dorset.

12.2 However for many within our communities, the full strategy will be too wordy, a little off putting, and likely to be left on the shelf to gather dust. For these people, our priorities, ambitions and actions are what will matter most, so it’s important that we are able to capture and encourage their interest.

12.3 Once the strategy has been adopted a ‘straight to the point’ and ‘eye catching’ mini brochure will be produced to highlight our priorities and focus on what the sector aims to achieve. We will also produce an ‘easy read version’ to ensure our message is communicated to all.

13. Cultural Compact

13.1 Having a cultural strategy is vital, but how will that transmit into creating real change and social value for our communities. Critically it comes down to how and what will be done, by who and where the accountability lies. Although Dorset Council has influence, it’s the cultural community that will deliver on many of these outcomes.

13.2 The plan is for the cultural strategy to sit within a new framework, one that will drive the vision and support the delivery. This will be based on the model for a Cultural Compact. In 2019 Arts Council England (ACE) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) supported the creation of 20 Cultural Compacts. These Compacts are cross sector partnerships designed to support the local cultural sector and enhance its contribution to the life of that place.

13.3 The new framework will consist of cross sector partners including representatives from the cultural sector, health, education, business, community and environment. This collaboration will ensure co-ordinated action to support the delivery of the ambitions within the strategy; sustain our cultural infrastructure, drive lasting social and economic benefits and leverage new resources.

13.4 It will commission and coordinate effective data capture, as a key to measuring success, will be having effective ways of both benchmarking where we are currently and capturing data to know we have made a difference. This will set the measurable indicators of success for the

Page 320 strategy, including leverage value, social impact measurements, increased sense of pride by local people in arts and culture, growth in sector employment opportunities and increased diversity of audiences.

13.5 It will monitor where we are delivering on the priorities and where the gaps are; ensuring the strategy remains a live and purposeful document which can ultimately flex and change to respond to place-based priorities.

13.6 Given the way the strategy was developed, it would appear natural to harness the great work of the Advisory Group, who demonstrated their value through expertise, knowledge, enthusiasm and commitment, and create a formalised body accountable for taking the strategy forward.

Footnote: Issues relating to financial, legal, environmental, economic and equalities implications have been considered and any information relevant to the decision is included within the report.

Page 321 This page is intentionally left blank Appendix 1 Dorset’s Cultural Strategy 2021 to 2026

Welcome statement We want the Cultural Strategy to drive positive change at the individual, sector and county level and to make culture more inclusive, accessible and visible for everyone in Dorset. It is an ambitious document and we will only successfully deliver on the priorities in the strategy if we work in partnership to enable this to happen. As such the Cultural Strategy is not a standalone document but is designed to complement non-arts agendas and integrate with existing regional and council strategies to achieve our collective ambitions for Dorset. Ultimately, we want our communities to feel proud of Dorset’s arts, heritage and cultural offer and for it to be shaped by our communities and that culture becomes woven into everyday life as an entitlement and not a privilege.

Cllr Jill Haynes Portfolio Holder for Customer and Community Services Dorset Council

Introduction Cultural Strategies have been in place in Dorset since 2010. They have helped to increase the opportunities of securing new investment into Dorset and maximise the leverage value of the Council’s own investment in arts, heritage and culture. This Cultural Strategy was developed in the middle of the COVID pandemic which has severely affected the financial health of the culture sector across the UK. According to a report by UK Parliament: “The UK’s arts and entertainment sector has been one of the areas worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The decline in revenues and the number of workers furloughed over the past few months is second only to the accommodation and food sector… According to the Office for National Statistics, the arts and entertainment industry saw a 44.5% reduction in monthly gross domestic product (GDP) output (according to gross value added (GVA)) in the three months up to June 2020 compared with the three months earlier, making it one of the sectors worst hit by the pandemic”

Covid-19: Impact on the UK Cultural Sector – In Focus report for the UK Parliament, published 4 September 2020

This new strategy will play a key part in the recovery of our sector. It will not only inform how Dorset Council will support the sector in the future, but it will set out a united direction for culture in our county for other stakeholders, funders, cross sector partners, Parish and Town Councils, organisations and individuals. A collaborative approach to cultural provision will directly benefit our communities, visitors, and the local economy.

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This Cultural Strategy is for the Dorset Council area of Dorset. The other unitary authority in Dorset – Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) will also have a new Cultural Strategy in place by the end of December 2021. The two Cultural Strategies are different from each other and will deliver on place-based priorities shaped around a predominantly rural area contrasting with a large conurbation. There are however shared ambitions and priorities within the two Cultural Strategies for Dorset and for BCP around nurturing and retaining creative talent, promoting tourism through the breadth of the ‘Dorset destination’ and supporting a year round high quality and inclusive arts, heritage and cultural offer which celebrates local identities. Where we can add value and increase inward investment in meeting these shared priorities and sustaining the cultural offer for the benefit of all our communities; we will look to do so in partnership. Who is the strategy for?

 The cultural sector and cultural providers (including venues, museums, festivals, libraries, arts, heritage and cultural organisations, touring companies, freelance creatives, artists and producers.  For community and voluntary sector organisations and groups who need a strategic cultural framework to support their work.  For strategic bodies such as Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Local Authorities and strategic boards for example Our Dorset, Dorset’s integrated care system.  For national and local funding bodies (such as Arts Council England and National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England) seeking to verify or validate local need. What is Culture? Culture is shared, creative experiences where we express, learn and reflect on our history, place, social issues and personal lives. These experiences can improve wellbeing, strengthen communities and develop vital life skills for employment and a better quality of life. The culture sector encompasses organisations, freelancers, artists and creatives, public venues, institutions and activities. For the purpose of this strategy, this includes: • Performing arts including dance, music, comedy and theatre. • Visual arts, design, craft and makers. • Digital media and film. • Museums, collections and archives. • Libraries, literature, writing and publishing. • The natural, historic and built environment. • Cultural tourism, locally produced food and drink, outdoor festivals and attractions. • Amateur and voluntary run arts for example fetes, carnivals and knitting circles.

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The Current National Climate At the time of writing this Cultural Strategy, there are significant world and UK events which are directly affecting the sector, our communities, audiences and participants, partners and stakeholders:

 Covid-19 has exposed deep economic and health inequalities. Freelancers, emerging artists and disabled artists have suffered disproportionate financial hardship.

 Enforced closures and ongoing uncertainty about future funding and trading conditions have put our cultural venues at risk.

 The immediate shift to delivering digital programmes has highlighted some gaps in skills and resources. However, the culture sector embraced online delivery through live streaming events, producing creative and participatory digital content and using online platforms and social media as a creative tool to reach global audiences. This need/trend for creative, online experiences will continue after the pandemic. Young people represent an increasingly important cohort of consumers within the UK and as a fully ‘digitally immersed’ generation they are arguably more likely to expect novelty, choice and personalisation from cultural experiences.

 The UK government responded to calls for cultural sector-specific support with the provision of the Culture Recovery Fund - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

 There has been a clear call to our cultural sector to build back differently – to break down hierarchies between freelancers, artists, volunteers, venues and publicly funded organisations. All aspects of our cultural ecology to be equally valued, championed and respected.

 Potentially there will also be extensive, positive opportunities for cultural venues and organisations arising from the predicted growth of domestic tourism within the South West and UK.

 The UK is no longer part of the EU and it is still uncertain what this will ultimately mean for trade with Europe and the wider world economies, and the overall impact this could have on touring and the export of UK culture as well as bringing EU based companies, exhibitions and artists to Dorset.

 Black Lives Matter shone a global spotlight on systemic racism that still exists in the UK and abroad. The arts, heritage and culture sector will continue to respond, take action and change to work towards true equality within our sector.

 Humanity faces the combined catastrophes of climate change, a mass extinction of vital biodiversity and a degradation of ecosystems health. This is the Climate

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Emergency of which both Dorset Council and BCP Council have also declared. Degradation and loss of cultural fabric such as historic building and landscapes risks loss of local distinctiveness and sense of place. Culture can play an important role in taking necessary leadership in combating these affects and help change behaviour as well as create new stories and visions for our world.

An Overview of Dorset

Statistics taken from sources: Dorset Insights, Office for National Statistics, State of Dorset Reports 2020, Dorset Strategic Alliance – Children, Young People and Families plan 2020-2023, Visit Dorset Recovery Planning 2021 – Internal Summary. Valuing Dorset’s VCSE sector 2014 report.

Environment Dorset is a predominately rural area with the largest town being Weymouth with a population of over 58,000. Dorset is a popular tourist destination and over half of the county is covered by the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) designation and 7% of Dorset is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The Jurassic Coast is England’s only natural World Heritage Site and was inscribed by UNESCO in 2001 for the outstanding universal value of its rocks, fossils and landforms. Many of the key specimens from this remarkable 185 million years of history are held by the myriad of museums dotted across these 95 miles of coast which stretches from Exmouth to Old Harry Rocks near Swanage. In addition to this unique globally significant geological heritage, Dorset has a remarkably rich archaeological heritage encompassing Neolithic long barrows, Iron Age hill forts, Roman dwellings and Saxon settlements. Concentrations of prehistoric burial and ceremonial monuments in Cranborne Chase and Dorchester and the South Dorset Ridgeway are of international significance. There are 9,220 Listed Buildings, 984 Scheduled Monuments, 36 Registered Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest, and 179 Conservation Areas in the Dorset Council area. Dorset’s natural landscape has an ecological diversity and richness to it including coastal, chalkland, woodland and unique geology. Each environment supports unparalleled wildlife and rare breeds such as Portland Sheep as well as holding Dark Skies status and a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The landscapes also continue to support traditional craft and trade such as coppicing and quarrying for Portland stone.

Over the centuries, Dorset’s landscapes have inspired poets, authors, scientists and artists, many of whom have left a rich legacy of cultural associations. The best known of these is writer Thomas Hardy who was born and lived most of his life in the county. Many of the major themes in his work, the characters and the landscapes they inhabit, are drawn from the Dorset countryside. Other literary figures inspired by Dorset’s landscapes include William Barnes, John Cowper Powys, Jane Austen, Enid Blyton, John Fowles, Elizabeth

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Muntz, Sylvia Townsend Warner, John Meade Falkner and Kenneth Allsop. William Turner, John Constable and Paul Nash are just a few of the many artists associated with Dorset, while Gustav Holst captured the character of the Dorset heathlands in his work ‘Egdon Heath’. Renowned contemporary artists who have strong links to Dorset include musician and singer- songwriter PJ Harvey, painter Lucien Freud, sculptor and print maker Dame Elisabeth Frink, designer Reynolds Stone, Sculptor Mary Spencer Watson, conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner, sculptor Simon Gudgeon and award- winning designer and furniture maker, John Makepeace. Famous scientists include palaeontologist Mary Anning who in the 1800’s became known around the world for finds she made in fossil beds in the cliffs at Lyme Regis.

Dorset regularly provides locations for films, adverts and novel adaptations such as The Cobb at Lyme Regis ( for the film - the French Lieutenant’s Woman) , Dorchester (used for scenes for Thomas Hardy (films and books) and William Barnes) and Gold Hill, Shaftsbury (the location of the Hovis advert).

Over the last 20 years, arts, heritage and cultural organisations in Dorset have led the way nationally in supporting multi-disciplinary local authority teams (including AONB), to work collaboratively with creative practitioners on making our public spaces special. This is through ensuring improvements are bespoke and suit the unique environment they sit in, whether this is coast, countryside, urban or rural. These improved environments help both the wellbeing of residents and encourages tourism. The projects range from plaza’s, to wind shelters, beach promenades, replacement bridges, to walking routes, site specific installations, interpretation and sculpture trails. People Dorset has a population of 375,000 residents, of which 4.4% are black and minority ethnic. Approximately 75,000 people in Dorset experience some form of disability. Dorset has an above average aging population and the number of over 65s is growing by 2.2% per annum coupled with the number of 0-15-year olds expected to fall over the next 25 years. It is predicted that by 2025, there will be 10,100 more people living with dementia in Dorset with 3,000 additional carers needed to cope with the increase. 43% of our population live in rural areas. In 2019, Dorset became two Unitary Local Authority areas with the largest urban conurbation remaining in the new Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) local authority area. There is a perception that Dorset is a wealthy, affluent place but 11 areas of Dorset are some of the most deprived areas nationally in terms of indices of multiple deprivation. 6,800 children live in workless households and Weymouth and Portland have some of the poorest levels of social mobility in the UK. Across Dorset, earnings are below average and house prices are high. There are 212 schools and FE colleges in Dorset (including independent schools, special schools and learning centres) where 33 different languages are spoken. The numbers of young people in care has risen significantly over the last 10 years. Pupil achievement in

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Dorset is around the national average and there are increasing numbers of children electively home educated. In a survey undertaken by Dorset Council (July 2019), when asked what would make Dorset the best place to grow up in, young people answered:

 Making a difference and contributing to their local communities.  Looking after the environment and tackling climate change.  Learning skills for the future e.g. technology.  Easily finding out about what’s going on and ensuring there are places where everyone can get to.  Celebrating positive role models from Dorset. As part of the consultation process in shaping the new Cultural Strategy, the Arts Development Company carried out an online survey between February and March 2021; 384 young people from across Dorset aged between 0-25 responded about their experiences of the current arts, heritage and cultural offer in Dorset. The most popular and well attended cultural events included -Music, Theatre and visiting Libraries. Young people expressed a desire to see more of the following events across Dorset in the future: Festivals followed by Music and Theatre. The most significant barriers for young people in accessing cultural opportunities were not knowing what was available and the cost of ticket prices.

The DCMS Taking Part Survey: England (publishing.service.gov.uk) showed significantly lower levels of participation in culture, including heritage environments in deprived areas, and particularly urban areas, and lower engagement among ethnicities described as ‘Asian’ or ‘Black’.

Employment and volunteering

The main industries in Dorset are Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing, Agri-tech and Agriculture, Food and Drink, the Creative Industries and Financial Services. The Dorset Local Industrial Strategy identifies the creative and digital sectors as key agents of growth into the future as we seek to balance the challenges of an aging population with the need to create good jobs for the 21st Century and have the skills in place to deliver those jobs. Our local, independent businesses are often characterised as socially enterprising and community focused. Dorset is the UK’s second fastest growing area for business start- ups and 18% of rural Dorset’s workforce is self-employed.

Dorset has a very active and strong community and voluntary sector, particularly working in rurally isolated areas and providing key services for those communities such as social gatherings and clubs. 94,000 volunteers provide almost 7 million hours per year and this has a replacement value of about £93.5 million pounds per annum.

Many local cultural venues and events are run at parish and town level by volunteers and amateur groups. The Artsreach performance programme is managed by a small staff team

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at the Little Keep in Dorchester, working with a network of more than 300 volunteers to put on more than 150 professional events every year, mainly in village halls. A socio-economic impact study commissioned by Artsreach in 2019 estimated that the volunteer time to promote rural arts annually is 4,780 - the equivalent of an additional two and a half paid staff would be needed to deliver the programme without volunteer help.

In the Dorset museum sector, regular regional data gathering, highlights that on average over 1000 volunteers contribute over 100,000 hours annually, with many contributing specialist skills and professional advice and support.

Tourism

Tourism is a key driver for the Dorset economy valued at £1.8 bn, providing a GVA of £1.2bn and supporting over 43,000 jobs in the county. In 2019- 30 million visits were made to Dorset as either a day trip or overnight stay. The Jurassic coast attracts regular holiday makers to the area as well as other popular tourist sites including Maiden Castle, Maumbury Rings, Nothe Fort, Portland Bill, Durdle Door and Badbury Rings. Historic towns and villages including Lyme Regis, Wimborne Minster, Cerne Abbas, Sherborne and Shaftesbury are popular tourist sites.

Dorset is famous for its locally produced food and drink and this continues to be a big draw for tourists. Many esteemed chefs have taken up home in Dorset including the original River Cottage with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and the Oyster and Fish House restaurant in Lyme Regis run by chef Mark Hix. There are countless independent breweries in Dorset, numerous food festivals – one of the largest being Dorset’s seafood festival held in Weymouth and the locally produced cheese, Dorset Blue Vinney is one of our most famous food exports.

Cultural Tourism is a big driver for economic growth and the creation of year-round jobs in Dorset – it is also the reason that many tourists come back to Dorset year on year. An example of this is the 2019 Dorset Moon (a signature festival event presented in Bournemouth, Sherborne and Weymouth by a Dorset festival consortia of Inside Out, produced by Activate, Bournemouth Arts by the Sea and b-side ). A survey of Sherborne businesses evidenced that 60% said they were busier and profit had increased on the weekend of Dorset Moon compared to a normal July weekend and 100% of the businesses said arts festivals were vital for bringing in new visitors from outside of the county to a town. In 2021, the Dorset Festivals Consortium won Bronze at Dorset Tourism Awards for Tourism Event/Festival of the Year and they are committed to continue their collaboration to strengthen the festival offer in the county. Collectively, Dorset’s museums attract over 900,000 visits per year (including 170,000+ children) and deliver approximately 1200 events annually. High profile temporary exhibitions, such as the 2019 Turner in Bridport make a strong and distinctive contribution to the cultural tourism offer.

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Heritage Each village and town in Dorset have features of local distinctiveness which help shape local identity such as food and drink, heritage and the built environment and land/seascapes. Dorset has cultural traditions dating back hundreds of years. These to shape local identity and ensure our communities feel rooted to their local area. These cultural traditions include folk festivals, carnivals, village fetes such as the Filly Loo at Ashmore, Dorset Knob throwing, Sherborne’s Pack Monday Fair and Abbotsbury Garland Day. We continue to preserve old customs and traditions such as the Dorset Ooser, old dances, mummers plays and the many traditional tunes and songs which include the richness of our local dialect. The multifaceted social history of Dorset’s historic towns and their traditions are preserved and shared in a dynamic network of community museums from Swanage to Sturminster Newton.

The historic and built environment includes thatched cottages and Georgian market towns, hill forts, chalk figures carved onto the landscape and old trade routes criss-crossing the land such as old railway lines and ox drove tracks. The county has a history of migration from Lyme Regis and Weymouth to the New World.

Dorset has strong ties with the Navy and Army, which have been well established since 1702. Bovington, Hamworthy, Blandford and West Moors are still active army bases, and the Tank Museum in Bovington draws millions of tourists and online audiences each year. 120,000 Australians were stationed in Dorset during WWI and headquartered in Weymouth (Anzac Day is still commemorated every year in Weymouth). The WW1 poet Rupert Brooke trained at Blandford Camp and military strategist and archaeological scholar T.E. Lawrence; known as Lawrence of Arabia, was stationed at Bovington and buried at Moreton. The lasting legacy of Dorset’s military history is the number of defence industries and major employers still based in the region – for example at Bovington there is Babcocks and Qinetiq on Portland. The Keep Military Museum, Dorchester, Dorset documents the stories of Dorset regiments. Dorset has a great number of local town museums preserving local history and records of human activity going back thousands of years. These museums work collectively with the assistance of the South West Museum Development Programme and the Dorset Museums Association to mentor each other and improve their offer to the public. They work collaboratively with arts organisations to create space for both visual and performance art and link with local public bodies and charities to partner on meaningful community projects.

National heritage organisations, such as the National Trust, English Heritage and Historic England play an important role in conserving natural and built sites and work closely with the local authority’s Historic Environment team to ensure they are accessible for future generations. Dorset’s rich historic environment has inspired important archaeological work and provided a backdrop for centuries of agriculture, industry, creative activity, everyday life, and death. Dorset has many ‘flagship’ monuments and excavations, and a wealth of historic buildings and finds which continue to inspire high quality research, and enormous public interest and enthusiasm.

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There is a large public engagement with heritage. Archaeology and research into local history are popular recreational activities, engaged in by many locals and visitors. Dorset’s important archaeology attracts research by a wide range of students and senior academics.

Research by the Heritage Lottery Fund (New ideas need old buildings, Heritage Lottery Fund 2013) showed that businesses occupying listed buildings generate £13,000 extra Gross Value Added. Loss of distinctiveness reduces premium values of heritage. Heritage-led regeneration projects are more closely connected to place and people. Arts and Culture Dorset is known nationally and internationally for the quality of its outdoor work, range of festivals (from community, grassroots to internationally significant) and for our artists and cultural organisations that use our unique environment as stimulus for creative work and experiences. Activate Performing Arts have worked internationally for 14 years and from 2021 onwards they are expanding their successful European partnership - LAND (Land Stewards and Artists) https://www.landartists.eu/ with the original partners: Oerol (NL) and Le Citron Jaune (Fr) along with two new members: Bodo, Norway EU Capital of Culture 2024 and Zilinia in Slovakia bidding for EU Capital of Culture in 2026. They have secured Erasmus+ funding to work up land- based residencies and laboratories for Europe and Dorset-based artists and audiences with partner Dorset AONB.

Opera Circus, has been based in Bridport in West Dorset for over 20 years having come from London where they had developed a reputation for high quality award winning devised experimental work using opera and physical theatre, touring widely in the UK and globally. Opera Circus’s work with arts and young people, including arts exchanges with European partners, has brought over €600,000 into Dorset since 2012.

We hold internationally significant collections in Dorset, including the recently acquired Elisabeth Frink Collection of sculptures and prints hosted by Dorset County Museum and archives at the Dorset History Centre. Collections across Dorset have been designated as nationally significant by Arts Council England including The Tank Museum and the Etches Collection. Dorset also has outstanding geology collections that are exhibited in museums right across the coast.

Dorset has hosted UK tours including Dippy on Tour: A Natural History Adventure | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk) at Dorset County Museum, which generated a visitor spend of £2,253,406. Many of our Dorset-based producing companies tour internationally. Artistic Director of Gobbledegook Lorna Rees has toured internationally with Ear Trumpet, and Stuff and Nonsense, led by Artistic Director Niki McCretton, work with children, families, artists and theatres from across the globe. Our sector brings International artists to smaller, isolated communities providing valuable opportunities for Dorset through both putting Dorset on the map reputationally and bringing inspiration to artists and communities. Recent examples include hosting Michael

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Pinsky’s Pollution Pods at Portland and Brownsea Island. Artsreach, as part of the Rural Touring Dance Initiative, has toured exceptional dance companies which would not normally be seen in rural venues, such as village halls. Dorset has hosted Panta Rei from Norway, Tentacle Tribe from Canada and UK companies Protein Dance, Lost Dog Dance Company and Nikki and JD. Dorset Visual Arts was the first open studios in the UK and it symbolises the immense strength in collaboration for the benefit of artists, visitors and residents. Each Open Studios has an estimated economic impact of £2.1 million. Dorchester Arts has a specific commitment to developing and supporting local talent, through directly commissioning or producing work. Local writer Sue Wylie's play Kinetics was initially produced by Dorchester Arts as a touring stage play. With their support Sue established DT2 Productions and Kinetics was made into a 45-minute feature film shown by Parkinson's groups and medical institutions in the USA, Canada and Holland and was featured at the World Parkinson's Congress in Kyoto in 2019. Our cultural offer ranges from grassroots organisations delivering creative opportunities for local communities to large scale cultural events which attract great numbers of visitors and are of UK and international significance. What makes our cultural ecology so strong is we support, commission and produce work of varying scale. This includes mentoring and training to bringing large scale work to big audiences to national and international performers presenting touring work to rural communities in intimate venues such as village halls or to unexpected locations which often highlight or offer access to heritage sites or sites of environmental importance. We co-produce with communities and develop meaningful participatory projects which have a long- lasting legacy. All these ways of working contribute towards Dorset as a destination for visitors and for artists to live and create in. Artists help sell the “Dorset Lifestyle” story and celebrate the distinctness of Dorset and its heritage through our regular festivals, performances, arts and crafts attracting both visitors and locals alike. Our cultural offer is one of the main reasons tourists to Dorset come back every year – our year-round cultural offer coupled with our beautiful land and seascapes is an essential contributor to our local economy. We have a diverse mix of organisations of varying scale based in Dorset, those supported through Arts Council England’s national portfolio programme (including museums, arts centres and organisations, festivals and touring companies), local authority supported libraries, museums and archives, organisations and venues including (voluntary run) museums, arts centres, theatres and organisations specialising in participatory arts and creative learning. Many of our independent smaller companies produce and tour new work across the UK (including theatre, dance and outdoor arts). We have a wealth of freelancers, artists, curators, producers and technicians in Dorset who work independently as well as bring their expertise to many of the organisations and festivals above.

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Culture Statistics

Sources: Arts Council England, Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership. Over many years, Dorset has successfully attracted and sustained investment for our arts, heritage and culture sector. A strong position has been retained with a range of public and private funders who are confident in and recognise the quality of our cultural offer. Most recently (2020-2021), there has been the preservation of the Dorset Council arts and heritage budget, which in turn will help retain commitment from other key stakeholders to invest in the ambition and opportunities within this new Cultural Strategy:

 Between 2019 and 2021, nearly 7.5 million of revenue and strategic funding was invested into arts, heritage and cultural organisations by Arts Council South West.  In the last 5 years, over £87 million worth of capital and revenue funding has been externally invested into Dorset’s arts, heritage and culture sector.  In 2019, the Dorset LEP valued our creative industries at £425 million.  Dippy on Tour generated an estimated 1.1 million added value into the local economy and increased visitors to the Dorset County Museum by around 20 times.  50% of graduates working in the film, visual effects or video game industries in the UK come from Dorset.  Between 2010-2017, Dorset Creative Industries grew by 29% compared to an 9% growth by any other industry.

Cultural Strategy Vision Arts, heritage and culture is at the heart of Dorset’s Future By 2026 we want Dorset’s arts, heritage and culture to be a significant force for positive change. Dorset will have a full and diverse programme of meaningful cultural experiences all across our county that will improve wellbeing, reduce inequalities, build an environmentally conscious society and sustain a healthy economy.

There are 4 overarching priorities 1. Community: we want everyone in Dorset’s communities to have more opportunities to participate in and benefit from arts, heritage and culture 2. Cultural County: we will continue to build a strong, sustainable, and diverse cultural infrastructure 3. Environment: we envisage a green future for our county; using arts, heritage and culture to celebrate the environment and inspire action to tackle the climate and ecological emergency 4. Economy: we will position arts, heritage and culture as part of Dorset’s sustainable economic growth, ensuring all communities across Dorset benefit

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These are supported by the following 10 ambition statements Community

 Through arts, heritage and culture, we will improve health and wellbeing within our communities  Culture will bring communities together; breaking down social isolation and helping build happy, empowered, and connected communities (particularly targeting areas of rural isolation and older people)  We will encourage the nurturing and development of all creative talent in Dorset. In particular, we will identify better pathways for young people to get into creative industries and form new ways for young people to create and curate their own culture

Cultural County Continue to develop a high- quality arts, heritage and culture offer that can command regional, national, and international recognition. We will be known for our festivals, outstanding museum exhibitions and events, site specific and outdoor arts and our independent creatives and makers

 We will embed access, inclusivity, diversity, and equality at every level of the arts, heritage and culture sector  We want all artists, freelancers, volunteers and our creative workers to have the opportunities to thrive in Dorset at all stages of their life and career. Artists and freelancers are valued, championed, included in decision making and paid a fair rate of pay  We will engage with more communities and build cross sector connections through our developing expertise in using digital technology and a blend of live/digital cultural experiences

Environment

 The cultural sector will reduce its carbon footprint in Dorset, help change public behaviour to reduce environmental impact (both locally and globally) and support communities to develop sustainable and regenerative responses to the climate and ecological emergency. Working sustainably with what we have, to give new life to these important assets and learning from them are crucial to the future well-being of places and people.

 Our unique environment will inspire our cultural offer, creating memorable experiences which help enrich, interpret, and celebrate our coast, towns, and countryside

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Economy

 Positioning Dorset as a cultural destination, attracting visitors and new businesses to Dorset and increasing year-round employment for local people

Target Groups

The accompanying delivery plans to this strategy will particularly target these places and people:

 People aged 65 and over, and those living with dementia.  Young people aged 25 and under.  Emerging artists and creatives.  Disabled artists and creatives.  People of South, East and South East Asian heritage, African or Caribbean heritage and people who experience racism.  Those living with poor mental health.  The ‘culture cold spots’ in Dorset. These are geographical areas which historically have had less provision and the least amount of communities participating in culture. These include North and East Dorset and Purbeck.  Areas of socio- economic disadvantage- Weymouth and Portland. What will we achieve? The following outcomes will be achieved by working in collaboration with cross sector partners, artists and cultural organisations:

 Our arts, heritage and cultural offer is accessible and open to everyone; encouraging more people to regularly engage in arts, heritage and culture.  More young people entering our sector and working in Dorset.  Greater support for the future leaders, curators and producers of arts, heritage and culture.  Increased diversity of people participating in culture and those entering employment in our sector, including disabled people and people of South, East and South East Asian heritage, African or Caribbean heritage.  Co-producing and co-designing creative programmes with our communities; genuinely listening to different voices and valuing our communities’ innate creativity. Museums, heritage and cultural sites will inspire and host progressive, cross sector programming.  Our sector is more widely valued, and its impact evidenced and recognised by stakeholders.  Increased collaboration between freelancers and organisations to work together equally in sharing both power and decision making, demystifying the commissioning process and greater paid involvement on board level for freelancers.

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 We sustain and aim to grow levels of funding for the arts, heritage and culture sector.  Through cross sector partnerships, we secure non arts funding into the sector.  We continue to retain strong relationships with key funders and stakeholders such as Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England and the National Lottery Community Fund.  Stronger relationships with a wide range of cross sector partners in particular health and wellbeing partners such as those in “Our Dorset” – the integrated care system (NHS, CCG, Public Health Dorset) and Dorset Council directorates including parks and green spaces, adult social care, education and environment.  Dorset will be at the forefront when it comes to how arts, heritage and culture can deliver on social prescribing and early prevention initiatives.  An improvement in health and wellbeing and a decrease in social isolation in our communities, for example, less reliance on prescription drugs and antidepressants.  A reduction in the carbon and environmental impact of our sector and a change in public behaviour which helps protect and regenerate our environment.  An increase in Dorset’s national and international reputation. We will promote Dorset as a place where opportunity knocks for artists and creative industries, and heritage-based industries. We value our resident artists from all disciplines and welcome visiting artists from across the UK and beyond.  Arts, heritage and culture bringing communities together and with the predicted growth in housing needed in Dorset; how arts and culture can help integrate people moving into Dorset for work, create that sense of belonging and “feeling like a local”.  In a post pandemic world, maximising on the acceleration of our sector’s digital global reach and the wider promotion of Dorset this brings. Capitalising on the trend of populations moving out of big cities to rural areas and showcasing the quality cultural experiences that happen out of London which can also be exported. Making it happen

 In Dorset, a collective of arts organisations and museums are part of the Government initiative called Kickstart to increase job opportunities for 16-24-year olds on universal credit. In 2020/21, over 20 new jobs will be created for young people in the creative sector, who ultimately will be supported to gain further employment after their 6 months paid placement ends. The placement also includes skills development and training, mentoring and the opportunity to gain a national accreditation through Arts Award.

 Dorset’s Cultural Education Partnership (CEP). There is a strong commitment amongst the Dorset cultural sector about the value of our work in the lives of children and young people. ACE encourages Cultural Education Partnerships to bring together cross sector partners to share resources and bring about a more coherent and visible delivery of cultural education. The Arts Development Company and Dorset Music Hub will lead on this area of work, establishing a focussed network of cultural education stakeholders and learning from regional and national partners.

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The impact of the CEP will be to increase the visibility and accessibility of the arts, heritage and culture offer for children and young people across Dorset. We will deepen existing, and broker new links with the education sector across Dorset and identify and develop opportunities for the Dorset CEP to pursue new funding to improve the lives of Dorset’s young people.

 Continue to forge new links and beneficial partnerships with our higher and further education providers across the cultural sector. The Government’s latest Further Education white paper encourages greater links between education and industry and at Weymouth College, they have Bay Theatre that houses professional touring companies, community groups, corporate events, stage schools and student productions. Exploring partnerships and joint projects has worked well in the past to allow organisations to utilise the facility at greatly reduced cost in exchange for students gaining free access to arts experiences.

 The economic and social impact of the arts, heritage and cultural sector will be both evidenced and collated through Dorset Council. A significant proportion of revenue funded organisations (2021-2024) will be asked to measure their social impact through the HACT social value calculator which measures both social and wellbeing impacts and savings to the NHS. Museums will continue to utilise the highly regarded Association of Independent Museums Economic Impact Toolkit and participate in the longstanding South West Museum Development data collection framework, which annually demonstrates the impact and value of Dorset museums in relation to visitor reach, employment, volunteering, formal learning and events provision.

 Physical improvements to and an increase in spaces to both produce and present arts, heritage and cultural experiences in. This will be supported through the Local Enterprise Partnership Investment Prospectus (2021-2031) and within this the identified need for a high quality cultural, heritage and hospitality infrastructure across Dorset over the next 10 years. The impact of which will be for key venues and organisations across the county to “level up” their facilities, lower their carbon footprint and increase their capacity to host high quality cultural activities both for residents and visitors.

 Dorset Visual Arts has been invited by the Canon Foundation to be based at and manage an exciting visual arts programme at Sherborne House once the renovation and additions have been completed in 2023. The configuration includes a dedicated gallery space and accommodation for artists residencies as well as establishing a film/moving image programme. Plans for the high-quality exhibitions programme will include a strong cohort of Dorset based artists, invited national and international artists and a bursary or other studio-based opportunities - primarily for emergent graduate artists and designers.

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 The Parish boundary project that Dorset Coast Forum (DCF) collaborated with the Arts Development Company on, demonstrated how creative thinking can improve coastal walking routes for our visitors and residents. 10 artists were commissioned in stage 1. The brief requested that these sculptural installations creatively referenced the lesser known stories behind each of the 10 Parishes along the South West Coast path, thus walkers, could find their way and learn about the Parish they are walking through. This project has proved to be so successful, that DCF now want to extend the route from where we left off at Abbotsbury and continue it on to Weymouth.

 Through the What Next? Dorset chapter, artists, freelancers and cultural organisations can come together to share knowledge, skills and experiences and influence change at a local, regional and national level. What Next? Dorset has been active since late 2019 and through this chapter we will commit to finding better ways of working together and at the same time, showcase the strength of Dorset’s cultural sector at a national level.

 With thirty well established sites, Dorset museums will play a strong role in local placemaking, with capacity to provide a year-round, rich, multi-faceted and weather- proof offer. This will encompass a clear commitment to contemporary collecting and the preservation of intangible cultural heritage.

 Dorset arts, heritage and cultural organisations implementing the 5 Guiding Principles across Dorset which includes fair pay for freelancers.

 Through both the Dorset Museums Association and the Wessex Museums Partnership, skills and knowledge exchange is available for our Dorset museums and heritage organisations to help maximise their impact, foster partnership work and create space for arts and artists in their venues.

 Dorset has a strong track record in developing initiatives around diversifying leadership in the cultural sector. We want to ensure the continuation of this at board, management and practitioner levels. During 2021/2022 a consortium of South West organisations including four from Dorset are managing a leadership programme called The Women Leaders South West which will transform leadership in the arts and tackle the systemic inequalities around women leadership in our sector. The impact of this initiative will be to increase women leaders in Dorset at both senior leadership and at board level and remove the obstacles women face in becoming leaders in the arts.

 Diverse City who have strong roots in Dorset are working with seven communities across the UK in 2021 to 2023 including Poole, Plymouth, Rochdale, Brighton, Barnsley, Sunderland, and Brixton. Through Diverse City’s unexpected leaders

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programme in each of these seven communities, two new leaders from the community will be supported to design and deliver work in their own communities. This involves a de-centering of power and ultimately increases the sustainability of the creative work. Diverse City support the Dorset CEP and The Women Leaders South West programme.

 Arts, heritage, and culture will support placemaking in Dorset, growing confidence in Dorset for future investment, increasing productivity and year-round employment. A 2020 tourism study identified that a key priority for tourism in Dorset in the future needed to be improving productivity through sustainable growth, increasing off-peak business. Through arts and culture, we will reinforce the Dorset Lifestyle which makes Dorset a great place to live, work and visit and extend the tourism season and tourism day by increasing the number of high- quality indoor and evening activities. This in turn will increase year-round employment in Dorset and sustainably boost the local economy by encouraging tourism in the shoulder months and in the evenings without having to increase any infrastructure (e.g. roads).

 The production of high quality, innovative digital creative content which is monetised and supports creatives/cultural organisations to augment their live offer. This in part will be supported through partnership with Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) in growing the skills base and expertise of our creative and cultural sector through skills development classes and knowledge exchange with access to the latest technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, and advanced digital manufacturing resources. The impact of this will be wider and new audiences and training opportunities for the cultural organisations and new beneficial cross sector partnerships formed between researchers, programmers, creatives, digital and high- tech companies.

 The arts, heritage and culture sector will actively tackle the Climate and Ecological Emergency here in Dorset and inspire others to do the same. They will achieve this through mitigating and reducing the carbon and environmental impact of our sector and supporting the change in public behaviour needed within Dorset to reduce the impact on the environment and help protect, preserve and regenerate our natural environment. Through cultural interventions building communities that can feed themselves, clothe themselves, repair their tools and regenerate their landscapes and soil. An example of this approach is through Raise the Roof, a pilot programme based in West Dorset and Somerset which is developing a new model for social housing – building affordable houses utilising only local materials and skills based within the community.

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A number of arts and cultural organisations in the county have signed up to the Culture Declares Emergency movement about creating real change and raising awareness of our Climate and Ecological Emergency.

How will we measure impact?

How will we know if we are successfully delivering on the ambitions within this Cultural Strategy? How do we know if we are creating real change and social value for our communities through arts and culture and who will be holding us all to account?

The home of the Cultural Strategy will sit within a new framework – a new vehicle for driving the vision and supporting the delivery of the Cultural Strategy based on the model for a Cultural Compact. In 2019 Arts Council England (ACE) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) supported the creation of 20 Cultural Compacts. These Compacts are cross sector partnerships designed to support the local cultural sector and enhance its contribution to the life of that place. Our new framework will consist of cross sector partners including representatives from the cultural sector (including freelancers and creatives), health, education, business, community and environment. This collaboration will ensure co-ordinated action to support the delivery of the ambitions within the strategy; sustain our cultural infrastructure, drive lasting social and economic benefits and leverage new resources. Part of the role of this new framework is to commission and coordinate effective data capture and to share and promote the social and economic benefits that having the Cultural Strategy in place enables. Key to measuring success will be having effective ways of both benchmarking where we are currently and capturing data to know we have made a difference. It is proposed through this new framework, we will set the measurable indicators of success for the strategy (including leverage value, social impact measurements, increased sense of pride by local people in arts and culture, growth in sector employment opportunities and increased diversity of audiences, and have the bench mark data in place to evidence growth/change. This framework will be a central point for data sharing, to tell the story of our success and to be able to incorporate this data into strategic county wide decision making. The framework will also be monitoring where we are delivering on the priorities within the strategy and where the gaps are – keeping us all on track so the strategy remains a live and purposeful document which can ultimately flex and change to respond to place based priorities.

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Recommendations It is recommended the following actions and immediate next steps are taken in Year 1 to ensure the successful delivery of the Cultural Strategy:

 The need to consult further with communities in Dorset in particular young men under the age of 30, rurally isolated communities and people over the age of 60. This is to ensure all communities in Dorset benefit from having the Cultural Strategy in place and that we remain flexible and responsive to local need throughout the lifetime of the strategy.  Establish and put into place a framework inspired by the Cultural Compacts model to help deliver, monitor, and jointly resource the priorities and ambitions within the Cultural Strategy.  Ensure the Cultural Strategy is aligned with work across Dorset Council directorates, helps to influence future policy making and there is buy in to this strategy through strategic partnerships such as “Our Dorset”, Dorset’s integrated care system.  For the Cultural Strategy to be successful it also needs to be embedded across and have continued buy in from the cultural sector, cultural providers and cross sector partners.  Prioritise the collection of bench marking data and improve how we collect, share and translate data so that it tells a compelling story about the work and impact of the sector across Dorset.  Delivery plans for Years 1 and 2 will be drawn up by Dorset Council to help monitor the delivery and measure the impact of the Cultural Strategy. Within these plans, partners, resources, and key performance indicators will be identified.  Develop a joined-up county approach and an actionable plan to increase levels of training and development for disabled artists, freelancers and creatives in Dorset to thrive at all levels of their career.  Establish a county wide, Access Group. Led by disabled people from Dorset, the group would be a central point for paid for access advice to any cultural, arts or heritage organisation looking to improve their accessibility.  Address digital poverty as a barrier to accessing online culture including poor broadband in rural areas, a lack of digital access (equipment and data) in areas of socio -economic disadvantage and low confidence within some communities in how to assess and engage in the offer. Appendices – Appendix 2: List of consultees for the Cultural Strategy development Appendix 3: Desk research Appendix 4: Results of Young Peoples’ survey on culture 2021

19 Page 341 This page is intentionally left blank Appendix: 2 Between October 2020 and March 2021, a wide range of cross sector organisations, partners, Dorset communities and stakeholders were consulted on the development of the new Dorset Cultural Strategy (2021-2026). Consultation happened via various methods including digital surveys, facilitated workshops, interactive webinars and online meetings.

Consultees Advisory Group: Cross sector representation, met 3 times during the development period and a smaller working group was formed to help shape/write the text of the draft Cultural Strategy o Activate Performing Arts (Kate Wood) o Adult Social Services (Diana Balsom) o Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (Sue Dampney) o Arts University Bournemouth (Emma Hunt) o Arts Council England (Sam Rowlands) o Artsreach (Kerry Bartlett/Yvonne Gallimore) o Bridport Arts Centre (Mick Smith) o b-side Multimedia Arts (Rocca Holly-Nambi) o Children’s Services (Claire Shiels) o Councillor representation (Cllr Jill Haynes) o Digital media (Silicon South - Anthony Storey) o Diverse City (Claire Hodgson) o Dorset and Parish Town Councils representative (Neil Wedge) o Dorset Community Action (Alex Picot) o Dorset Youth Association (Dave Thompson) o Economic Development (David Walsh) o Environment (Ken Buchan) o Health and Wellbeing (Public Health Dorset - Paul Iggulden) o Leisure (Paul Rutter) Chair o Local Economic Partnership (Lorna Carver) o Museums and Heritage (Dorset Museum Association, Sylvia Hixson- Andrews) o Tourism (Dorset Tourism Association – Richard Smith) o Weymouth College (Seth Turner-Higgins)

Dorset Council Officer Group: This group convened monthly and acted as a sounding board for discussion, supporting the Arts Development Company in leading the development of the Cultural Strategy o Archives and Heritage (Service Manager - Sam Johnston) o Community and Recreation Officer (Tracy Cooper) o Cultural Development Officer (Jude Allen)

Page 343 o Leisure (Service Manager, Leisure Services, Environment and Wellbeing - Paul Rutter) Chair o Libraries (Senior Manager - Sharon Kirkpatrick) o Museums Advisor (Vicky Dewit) o Music Service (Strategic Lead - Clair McColl)

Other consultees and groups: Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole – Michael Spender (Museum and Arts Manager) and Andrea Francis (Cultural Development Manager) Dorset Association of Parish and Town Councils Young People’s survey (Jan to Feb 2021) – 364 responses received and sent via Arts University Bournemouth, Weymouth College, 0-25 Voluntary Community Sector Forum, Youth Clubs, B-Sharp, B-side, The Remix and Activate, Diverse City and Dorset Music Hub. Interviews through Diverse City with disabled artists Dorset Council - People and Health Overview Committee Dorset Museums Association What Next? Dorset – over 350 artists, freelancers, and arts/cultural organisations from across Dorset

Page 344 Appendix 3 Desk Research

The following sources of data, information, evidence and research was used to inform this strategy:

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management Plan 2019 to 2024 (Dorset) ART IN THE LANDSCAPE – 2020 - A strategy commissioned by Landscapes for Life: The National Association for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) - for the National Association and its Members.

Arts Council England, Let’s Create 2020 to 2030 Covid-19: Impact on the UK Cultural Sector – In Focus report for the UK Parliament, published 4 September 2020 Cultural Compacts DCMS – Valuing Culture and Heritage Capital: A framework towards decision making Dorset Insight Dorset Council Plan 2020 to 2024 Dorset Music Hub – Inclusion strategic goals 2021 to 2024 Dorset Council – Community and Voluntary sector Review 2020 Dorset Council Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy 2020 Dorset Strategic Alliance for Children and Young People - Children Young People and Families Plan 2020-23 Dorset Council Economic Growth Strategy 2020-2030 Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership – Local Industrial Strategy (LIS) Dorset Jurassic Coast Partnership Plan 2020 to 2025 Jurassic Coast Story book National Heritage Fund Strategic Funding Framework 2019 to 2024 Our Dorset Sustainability and Transformation Plan State of Dorset reports 2020 Visit Dorset Recovery Planning 2021 – Internal Summary

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The Future of Dorset’s Arts and Culture: A survey for Young People aged 9-25 Responses collected between 1st February and 2nd March, 2021

Total responses: 384

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The Future of Dorset’s Arts and Culture: A survey for Young People aged 9-25

Music: 61.1% Theatre: 52.2% Libraries: 47.3% Media (TV, film, audio): 45.4% Museums and other historical sites: 41.4% Festivals: 38.4% Dance: 37.6% Literature: 33.2% Visual arts: 29.5% Classes and workshops: 28.4%

Fashion shows: 2.4%

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The Future of Dorset’s Arts and Culture: A survey for Young People aged 9-25

Festivals: 57.2%

Music: 56.4%

Theatre: 44.1%

Media (film, tv, audio): 39%

Classes and workshops: 31.6%

Dance: 31.3%

Visual Arts: 31.3%

Fashion shows: 27.5%

Museums and other historical sites: 27%

Libraries: 19%

Literature: 17.9%

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The Future of Dorset’s Arts and Culture: A survey for Young People aged 9-25

I don’t know what’s available: 49.4%

Too expensive: 43.6%

Not enough choice: 39.8%

No transportation: 18.5%

Not interested in arts and culture: 12.2%

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The Future of Dorset’s Arts and Culture: A survey for Young People aged 9-25

Not being able to go to school: 79.3%

My mental health has been affected: 51.4%

Not enough time to exercise and be active: 31.8%

Not enough online learning resources for arts and culture: 17.3%

Not enough access to the internet and technology: 5%

I haven’t been affected: 13.9%

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The Future of Dorset’s Arts and Culture: A survey for Young People aged 9-25

Music: 77.4%

Festivals: 63.9%

Theatre: 57.5%

Media (film, tv, audio): 49.9%

Dance: 41.3%

Visual arts: 33.7%

Classes and workshops: 33.4%

Museums and other historical sites: 30.8%

Libraries: 25.8%

Literature: 21.7%

Fashion shows: 21.1%

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The Future of Dorset’s Arts and Culture: A survey for Young People aged 9-25

Not sure what careers there are: 49.7%

I don’t know how to find out about arts jobs in Dorset: 39.9%

I’d like more workshops to learn skills: 35.6%

Not enough opportunities to present my work: 31.3%

Unable to get work experience: 28.2%

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The Future of Dorset’s Arts and Culture: A survey for Young People aged 9-25 8. Please add any other comments you have here. This could include your favourite art and culture experiences, the challenges you face trying to access arts and culture, or anything else you want to see in Dorset that's connected to arts and culture.

72 responses

I loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee festivals and now COVID-19 is here I haven’t been able to go to any.    Festivals The theatre I really like acting and performing but there is not many drama clubs and classes available in dorset More music and dance. I like ebya at Diverse City I enjoy writing poetry but I've found that there are a limited number of events available for showcasing them so I think an improvement could be more opportunities available for the written arts to showcase themselves. rugby is my favourite sports. Fashion Please give me more ninformation because I dont know I like to colour in pictures Unfortunately you can only attend Remix until you 19 and it seems like there isn't anything similar in the area to meet familiar people I would definitely like to see more libraries. nuthihg Defiantly more workshops and media. Thank you what acting jobs are there in Dorset???????????? more festivals people painting animals and buildings there aren't very many community festivals and events i love acting Inside out Dorset - was not well advertised within schools etc.. but these events should be celebrated and encouraged. There aren't many famous song artists from Dorset, because there are not enough places to learn these skills. Also, there are few festivals and events other than Glastonbury in Dorset. i think that there should be alot more music compitisans and festivals I think we should have a con in a decent sized area. A lot of people love anime and manga and have to travel miles for a comic con and anime con. rugby is the sport for me and my friends so i would like more of that i liked the purbeck valley folk festival and i'd like other festivals not just about music; maybe a performance festival? I would love to see more public creative spaces. Places where various classes are held and there's a hub of activity. The Alembic in Bridport sort of had this as a plan but I don't know how successful it was, particularly due to covid. I'd especially love there to be more of a range of physical workshops and classes, involving movement and various forms of dance in order to create a safe space where people can express themselves freely

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The Future of Dorset’s Arts and Culture: A survey for Young People aged 9-25 I'm really the museums are shut, I love going to them. I'm looking forward to going to shows of all sorts again. my favorite is watching films on tv and playing roblox with my friends and brother I want concerts to happen after lockdown and swimming pooles I enjoy animation a lot and want to be an animator I'm not personally overly interested in arts and culture but I can appreciate it when I see something that is personal to me. My favourite art is painting. I will love to see carnivals and festivals. I love theatre and performing but there are not enough affordable classes and not enough auditions I like drawing ? I personally love just being creative, painting, drawing and sketching I like drawing self portraits and I LOVE all arts ￿✨ I love art ￿ because we can just express our feelings, opinions, ideas and everything!  nothing more pictures put up in shops, more music festivals that children can go to. dance, festivals, drama and music. Free live music events. bestival Nothing. just chances for people to get involved, and really show who they are through art and culture! some gigs for small bands, concerts, and museums could be nice Nothing I think there needs to be more community spaces where young people can work and come together creatively without having to pay. I think there also needs to be more information around financial literacy and business support, for young creatives specifically, as this is huge pitfall in early careers. Better theatre facilities to perform in as the facilities in Swanage are restricting, especially when dancing I would like to have ALOT of things like LEESON HOUSE and the ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY CENTRES, the youth club thingie. I adore concerts and festivals, but access to, especially concerts, as limited in Dorset, as not many of the artists I like play here, so I have to travel elsewhere to see them, which I can’t always do due to transportation issues. So more concerts by bigger names would be great if possible :) Music not really sure to do more music Please give us more information. Please make more BIG classes and workshops to use around Dorset When I do art at school I can’t think of anything Give schools better funding

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The Future of Dorset’s Arts and Culture: A survey for Young People aged 9-25 I love music, movies and reading books. Something about the storytelling in those three just makes me happy. more museums sports As a competent jazz piano player, I find very hard to find other young musicians to play with at a similar level. I would love to take part in projects more geared up for experienced musicians but as young as me 13yo. There’s not much available in Dorset. Pleased with what I do Most schools are more worried about our academic subjects, they even add all this writing and essays for art subjects. For someone who struggles academically this is a big challenge. I would love more theatre experiences because I am a very active person and I love to watch theatre performances. I would like to have more literature festivals in Dorset which showcase my favourite authors such as Agatha Christie as well as a greater selection of theatrical performances like musicals at theatres. I love theatre and music and would love more! I'm a west end super fan! I have enjoyed Pop Club and DYJO as well as DASP Jazz Band all of which have done some online activities but it's not the same as live music. More support of young people to play at live venues would be great. nothing

Page 356 Appendix 5 Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) Before completing this EqIA please ensure you have read the guidance on the intranet.

Initial Information Name: Jude Allen Job Title: Cultural Development Officer Email address: [email protected] Sharon Kirkpatrick, Sarah James, Susan Members of the assessment team: Ward Rice, Jude Allen Date assessment started: 21.01.21 Date of completion: 15/04/2021 Version Number: 5

Part 1: Background Information Is this (please tick or expand the box to explain) Existing Changing, updating or revision Y New or proposed Other

Is this (please tick or expand the box to explain) Internal (employees only) External (residents, communities, partners) Both of the above Y

What is the name of your policy, strategy, project or service being assessed? Dorset’s Cultural Strategy

What is the policy, strategy, project or service designed to do? (include the aims, purpose and intended outcomes of the policy) Dorset Council commissioned the Arts Development Company to develop a Cultural Strategy for the Dorset Council area. The new strategy will not only inform how the Council will support the sector in the future but also how organisations can work together to provide a joined-up approach to cultural provision across the county. It is anticipated that the strategy will not only be adopted by the Council but that other cultural sector delivery organisations will align their business plans with the priorities of the new strategy in order to attract external investment and maximise partnership opportunities over the next 5 years and beyond. It is envisaged that the key benefits from developing a new Cultural Strategy will be:

o Building stronger Relationships: The timing of the development of a new strategy, post covid-19 will be advantageous for the sector, it will give time to reflect and to review the position of culture in Dorset, and to

1 Page 357 reset its shared priorities by building on the existing strong active network of cultural organisations and creative practitioners. o Ensuring strategic spending and investment for culture and to align the Dorset Council’s priorities to that of external funding bodies such as the National Lottery and others. To make the best use of our existing investment in Dorset’s cultural organisations and to lever in further inward investment. This will require collaboration and a continued clear strategic approach to match funding in Dorset. o Providing a strategic framework: this will demonstrate how arts and heritage delivers on the Councils and cultural providers strategic priorities. It will express the sectors priorities as to what can realistically be delivered and to create an environment for the sector to continue to ‘think big’, finding innovative ways to make the creative ambitions of the sector a reality. o Supporting Dorset’s Cultural Economy and to recognise its value. The Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP)Transforming Dorset “Economic Plan” highlights the necessity to develop cultural tourism particularly with a view to lengthening the tourism season, and to draw visitors to all parts of Dorset. o Improving Health and Wellbeing through cultural activity will be a high priority in the health and wellbeing of our communities post pandemic; alignment with the new joint health and wellbeing strategy will be important to build stronger relationships in this sector. o Addressing diversity and inclusivity through cultural initiatives. Opportunity exists to improve inclusivity in our cultural offer in Dorset, this needs to be explored further and existing delivery partners connected in order to support and nurture diversity and inclusive practice.

What is the background or context to the proposal? The current Dorset Cultural Strategy, written by Dorset County Council, expires in March 2021 and a new more up to date version is required to guide the sector over the next five years. Previous sovereign councils had written other cultural related plans and policies and the new strategy will give the opportunity to bring all of these historic plans together into a revitalised strategy for the Dorset Council area. Cultural activity and programming is well placed in influencing society’s perceptions, raising awareness and promoting understanding about different protected characteristic groups. Dorset Council’s role within the delivery of cultural provision is that of enabler. The Council works closely with the voluntary and community sector, providing funding and support to organisations to deliver a high- quality service rather than directly operating theatres or galleries. It can influence how culture is delivered through funding, both revenue and one-off project grants, to ensure that providers deliver an inclusive and accessible service, prioritising communities with low engagement.

2 Page 358 Part 2: Gathering information What sources of data, information, evidence and research was used to inform you about the people your proposal will have an impact on? In 2020, Dorset Council undertook an extensive review of its support to the voluntary sector, including culture. This review was subject to public consultation and received a high number of responses from local communities. The information received through this process has informed the development of the Cultural Strategy and how Dorset residents would like the Council to support cultural activity in the future.

The following sources of data, information, evidence and research was also used to inform this strategy:

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management Plan 2019 to 2024 (Dorset) Arts Council England, Let’s Create 2020 to 2030 DCMS – Valuing Culture and Heritage Capital: A framework towards decision making Dorset Insight Dorset Council Plan 2020 to 2024 Dorset Music Hub – Inclusion strategic goals 2021 to 2024 Dorset Council – Community and Voluntary sector Review 2020 Dorset Council Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy 2020 Dorset Strategic Alliance for Children and Young People - Children Young People and Families Plan 2020-23 Dorset Council Economic Growth Strategy 2020-2030 Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership – Local Industrial Strategy (LIS) Dorset Jurassic Coast Partnership Plan 2020 to 2025 Jurassic Coast Story book National Heritage Fund Strategic Funding Framework 2019 to 2024 Our Dorset Sustainability and Transformation Plan

What did this data, information, evidence and research tell you? Dorset is a predominately rural area, over half of which is covered by the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) designation and 7% of Dorset is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site and stretches from Exmouth to Dorset across 96 miles and spanning 185 million years of history. Dorset is characterised by its historic market towns, beautiful beaches, iron age hill forts and picturesque villages. Tourism is an important part of the local economy valued at some £1.8bn and supporting over 43,000 jobs in the county.

Dorset has a population of 375,000 residents, of which 4.4% are black and minority ethnic. Dorset has an above average aging population and the number of over 65’s is growing by 2.2% per annum coupled with the number of 0-15-year olds expected to fall over the next 25 years. It is predicted that by 2025, there will be 10,100 more people living with dementia in Dorset with 3,000 additional carers needed to cope with the increase.

There is a perception that Dorset is a wealthy, affluent place but 11 areas of

3 Page 359 Dorset are in the most deprived areas nationally in terms of multiple deprivation. 6,800 children live in workless households and Weymouth and Portland have one of the poorest levels of social mobility in the UK. Across Dorset earnings are below average and house prices are high.

There are 212 schools and FE colleges in Dorset (including independent schools, special schools and learning centres) where 33 different languages are spoken. The numbers of young people in care has risen significantly over the last 10 years. Pupil achievement in Dorset is around the national average and there are increasing numbers of children electively home educated.

In a recent survey undertaken by Dorset Council (July 2019), when asked what would make Dorset the best place to grow up in, young people answered:  Making a difference and contributing to their local communities  Looking after the environment and tackling climate change  Learning skills for the future e.g. technology  Places where everyone can get to and finding out about everything going on  Celebrating positive role models from Dorset

In terms of who will benefit from our cultural offer in Dorset – the answer is every community and because of the overall demographic of Dorset there will be a targeted approach of engaging and working with older people to help break down social isolation and increase wellbeing; and young people in Dorset who in particular are our future arts leaders, directors, producers and artists.

Is further information needed to help inform this proposal? As part of the process we will be specifically engaging and consulting with young people and diverse communities to seek views around issues such as accessibility and barriers that stop people from accessing the current cultural offer. The findings will help shape and inform the new Cultural Strategy

Part 3: Engagement and Consultation What engagement or consultation has taken place as part of this proposal? Collaboration and partnership with the cultural sector will be a high priority for both the development and delivery of the Cultural Strategy. To ensure all cultural sectors within Dorset have representation in the process and take ownership of the final strategy, a new ‘Cultural Strategy Advisory Group’ was established. representatives from the following sectors were invited to join the group:

o Leisure (Paul Rutter) Chair o Local Enterprise Partnership (Lorna Carver) o Economic Development (David Walsh) o Health and Wellbeing (Public Health Dorset - Paul Iggleden) o Arts Council England (Sam Rowlands) o Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (Sue Dampney) o Tourism (Dorset Tourism Association – Richard Smith)

4 Page 360 o Further Education/Universities (Weymouth College) (Arts University Bournemouth o Dorset Community Action (Alex Picot) o Museums and Heritage (Dorset Museum Association) o Environment (Ken Buchan) o Activate Performing Arts (Kate Wood) o Artsreach (Kerry Bartlett/Yvonne Gallimore) o Bridport Arts Centre (Mick Smith) o b-side Multimedia Arts (Rocca Holly-Nambi) o Youth (DYA - Dave Thompson) o Councillor representation (Cllr Jill Haynes) o Digital media (Silicon South - Anthony Storey) o Diverse City (Claire Hodgson) o Children’s Services (Claire Shiels) o Dorset Association of Parish and Town Councils representative (Neil Wedge) o Library Service (Sharon Kirkpatrick)

Consultation meetings with the following groups were also carried out:

o Town and Parish Councils o Working Group – subset from Advisory Group o What Next Dorset – representing 300 arts orgs and freelancers

A specific tailored survey was also sent out by Dorset Music Hub, b-Side, Activate, Youth Services and Dorset Youth Association. This survey was asking specific questions about how certain sectors of the community engage with culture:

- How do you consume culture at the minute? - How do you find out about culture? - Where are the gaps? - Creative careers – the barriers to accessing creative work placements etc

Diverse City will also be consulting with women and disabled creatives to produce short filmed interviews looking at barriers from a participant’s perspective and gaps in provision.

A cross party Councillor steering group provided strategic input into the development of this work, and were particularly interested in how underrepresented groups were able to feed into the consultation

It should be noted that arts organisations are also representing their diverse communities/audiences and consult with them on an ongoing basis. This includes working on specific initiatives to encourage protected groups to engage with culture and explore the barriers that prevent them from doing so.

5 Page 361 How will the outcome of consultation be fed back to those who you consulted with? All consultation groups will be asked to feedback on the first draft of the Policy. The final version will be available on the Dorset Council website

Please refer to the Equality Impact Assessment Guidance before completing this section. Not every proposal will require an EqIA. If you decide that your proposal does not require an EqIA, it is important to show that you have given this adequate consideration. The data and research that you have used to inform you about the people who will be affected by the policy should enable you to make this decision and whether you need to continue with the EqIA.

Please tick the appropriate option: An EqIA is required Yes (please continue to Part 4 of this document) An EqIA is not required (please complete the box below)

This policy, strategy, project or service does not require an EqIA because:

Name: Job Title: Date:

Part 4: Analysing the impact Who does the service, strategy, policy, project or change impact? - If your strategy, policy, project or service contains options you may wish to consider providing an assessment for each option. Please cut and paste the template accordingly. For each protected characteristic please choose from the following options: - Please note in some cases more than one impact may apply – in this case please state all relevant options and explain in the ‘Please provide details’ box.

 the proposal eliminates discrimination, advances equality of Positive Impact opportunity and/or fosters good relations with protected groups. Negative Impact  Protected characteristic group(s) could be disadvantaged or discriminated against Neutral Impact  No change/ no assessed significant impact of protected characteristic groups Unclear  Not enough data/evidence has been collected to make an informed decision.

Age: Positive Impact What age bracket does All ages with a focus on

6 Page 362 this affect? - Children and Young people - Older People By consulting specifically with the above age groups, we hope to break down the barriers, raise aspirations and explore career opportunities for artists of all ages. The development of the Cultural Strategy and its’ action plan will initiate projects that : - Enable people to talk about how they engage with culture. Increase the core arts audiences as well as Please provide details: - engage new audiences. - Facilitate co-production and co-delivery with our communities. - Allow the sector to use their creativity to adapt/change and better meet needs of audience/participants moving forward - Encourage organisations to involve young people both in the planning of provision and governance

Disability: Positive Impact (including physical, mental, sensory and progressive conditions)

Does this affect a All disabilities specific disability group? Please provide details: The delivery of the Strategy will explore issues of accessibility, inclusion and representation of people who are disabled both as engagers and leaders in the cultural sector. It will encourage providers to positively address barriers that prevent people who are disabled accessing culture. It will also ensure that cultural providers consider initiatives to improve access to carers eg free ticket schemes when accompanying a person who is disabled. The development of live streaming and online content will increase accessibility and access to culture. Venue based providers will also be encouraged to promote relaxed performances where possible.

Gender Reassignment Positive/ Neutral Impact & Gender Identity: The Cultural Strategy will promote and encourage work that is inclusive and challenges perceptions. It will support Please provide details: inclusivity in programming and encourage organisations to diversify their work force and governance by sharing good practice.

Pregnancy and Positive/ Neutral Impact maternity:

7 Page 363 The Cultural Strategy will encourage programming for eclectic family activities and early years provision, promoting projects such as Babigloo creative activities for Please provide details: mothers and babies and Rhyme Time at libraries. Providers will be encouraged to deliver in areas of low engagement.

Race and Ethnicity: Positive Impact The Cultural Strategy will encourage programming that is diverse, engaging different communities and working in partnership. It will encourage the sector to increase Please provide details: visibility of minority groups and reveal hidden histories including Gypsy and Traveller work and Black History month initiatives

Religion or belief: Unclear The sector recognises that there is little or no current cultural delivery work going on at the moment with religious or belief groups although many places of worship are used as venues for cultural performances Please provide details: particularly music. Further research regarding religion or belief groups and their link with culture will form part of the ongoing research and consultation programme over the length of the strategy.

Sexual orientation: Positive/ Neutral Impact The Cultural Strategy will promote and encourage work that is inclusive and challenges perceptions. It will support inclusivity in programming and encourage Please provide details: organisations to diversifying their work force and governance.

Sex (consider both men Positive Impact and women): Where there is inequality in participation and representation the Cultural Strategy will address this by encouraging the Cultural Sector to take action. For example - There is low representation of women leaders in the sector so cultural partnerships have been set Please provide details: up to champion women leaders in the Cultural Sector and deliver the South West Women Leaders Programme. This will continue to be supported throughout the life of the strategy. - There is low representation of boys participating in dance. The Cultural Strategy will support organisations to improve the balance of this by

8 Page 364 working with local dance providers to raise the profile of dance within the youth sector.

Marriage or civil Neutral Impact partnership: We don’t anticipate the Cultural Strategy will have an Please provide details: impact on this protected characteristic

Carers: Positive Impact The Cultural Strategy will encourage and support organisations to deliver projects and initiatives that will support carers, for example projects such as: - Stepping into Nature Free tickets for carers at cultural venues Please provide details: - - Parkinson’s Dance - Relaxed Performances - Short breaks for families with a child who is disabled

Rural isolation: Positive Impact The Cultural Strategy will encourage and support organisations to deliver projects and initiatives that will address rural isolation, for example: - Artsreach’s programme using village halls and community venues as performance venues Please provide details: - Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s tea dances The Strategy will also encourage providers to take a hybrid approach to cultural provision, promoting both online and live performances where possible.

Single parent families: Positive Impact The Cultural Strategy will encourage and support organisations to deliver projects and initiatives that will support single parent families to have access to culture, Please provide details: for example: - through cheaper tickets - providing free activities for families

Social & economic Positive Impact deprivation: The Cultural Strategy will outline how the sector will target Please provide details: work in areas of social deprivation and focus on work where there is limited cultural engagement, removing

9 Page 365 barriers, raising aspirations and creating opportunities. It will encourage providers to deliver in areas of low engagement providing low cost or free activities where required and using accessible marketing language to encourage all sectors of the community.

Armed Forces Positive Impact communities The Cultural Strategy will encourage and support organisations to deliver projects and initiatives that will support Armed Forces communities to have access to Please provide details: culture, for example: - targeted work delivered by the Tank Museum and The Keep Military Museum to support veterans.

10 Page 366 Part 5: Action Plan Provide actions for positive, negative and unclear impacts. If you have identified any negative or unclear impacts, describe what adjustments will be made to remove or reduce the impacts, or if this is not possible provide justification for continuing with the proposal. Date to be Issue Action to be taken Person(s) responsible completed by The impact of Further research to be carried out to explore how religious Dorset Council/ Arts December 2021 the strategy on and belief groups engage with culture Development Company/ The groups cultural sector associated with religion or belief

Page 367 Page Ensure that the Establish and put into place a framework inspired by the Collaboration of cross- sector March 2022 strategy Cultural Compacts model to help deliver, monitor, and jointly partners led by Dorset remains live and resource the priorities and ambitions within the cultural Council (Leisure that actions are Strategy Services)/External Arts focused to Development Service address inequality in Ensure that the Cultural Strategy feeds into the Dorset Council (Leisure October 2021 accessing commissioning process of the new external Arts Development Services)/ culture Service.

Review the EqIA after any significant changes or annually Dorset Council(Leisure April 2022 Services)/ External Arts Development Service

11 EqIA Sign Off Officer completing this EqIA: Jude Allen Date: 15/04/21 Equality Lead: Susan Ward-Rice Date: 21/04/21 Equality & Diversity Action Group Chair: Pete Bartlett Date: 21/04/21

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