Notice of a Meeting of the
REDCAR & CLEVELAND BOROUGH COUNCIL
------
Minutes of the Proceedings of the Borough Council and reports of the Cabinet
------August 2020
Councillor B Wells J Sampson Mayor Managing Director (Head of Paid Service)
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REDCAR AND CLEVELAND BOROUGH COUNCIL
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN
That a meeting of the Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council will be held on Thursday 27 August 2020 at 2pm. Please note that this is a virtual meeting and will be live streamed here
ORDER OF BUSINESS
Elect a person to preside if the Mayor and Deputy Mayor are not present.
1. Apologies for absence.
2. To receive Declarations of Interest.
3. To confirm the accuracy of the Minutes of the meeting held on 9 July 2020.
4. To receive any Announcements from the Mayor, the Leader of the Council or Cabinet Members.
5. To receive any Announcements from the Managing Director (Head of Paid Service).
6. To consider Questions from the Public for which Notice has been given.
7. To consider and agree any Reports from the Cabinet and the Council’s Committees.
Date Committee Minute No Report Title
A) 04.08.20 Cabinet 66 Code of Conduct & Best Practice Recommendations
2 of 58 8. To receive Reports from Portfolio Holders.
A) Report of the Cabinet Member for Culture and Communications B) Report of the Cabinet Member for Adults
(HEREWITH)
(A period of 10 minutes, or such longer period at the discretion of the Mayor, will be set aside for questions which must be succinct and relate directly to matters within the report).
9. To consider Motions.
10. To appoint Members.
Where there are vacancies or changes in appointment:
• To appoint Members of Council Bodies and Representatives to serve on other bodies to which Members are appointed by the Council; and
• To approve any changes to Committee membership and to appoint Chairs and Vice Chairs where appropriate.
11. To reply to Questions from Members of the Council.
Questions to the Chair, Members of the Cabinet, Chairs of any Committee or Sub- Committee, Members of the Fire Authority, Police and Crime Panel or the Tees Valley Combined Authority Scrutiny Committee, for which notice has been given.
JOHN SAMPSON Managing Director (Head of Paid Service) Redcar and Cleveland House Kirkleatham Street Redcar Yorkshire TS10 1RT
18th August 2020
3 of 58 AGENDA ITEM 3 BOROUGH COUNCIL
9 July 2020
BOROUGH COUNCIL
A virtual meeting of the Borough Council was held on 9 July 2020.
PRESENT His Worshipful The Mayor (Councillor Wells), Councillors Ayre, Baldwin, Barnes, Berry, Brady, Brook, Brown, Cawley, R Clark, B Clarke, Cook, Craig, Cutler, Davies, Dowson, Foggo, Foley-McCormack, Gallacher, Gray, Griffiths, Hannaway, Head, Holyoake, Hunt, Dr C Jackson, G Jeffery, S Jeffrey, Jones, Kay, King, Lanigan, Lockwood, Massey, Moody, Morgan, G Nightingale, I Nightingale, Ovens, Pallister, C Quartermain, L Quartermain, Rees, Rider, Sandra Smith, Stuart Smith, Vince Smith, Teasdale, Thomson, Watts, Westbury, Williams and Wilson.
OFFICIALS K Boulton, D Boville, L Donaghue, S Newton, A Pearson, P Rice, J Sampson and C Styles.
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE were submitted on behalf of Councillors Fisher, Fletcher, C Holmes, L Holmes and Lax-Keeler.
MINUTES SILENCE AND TRIBUTES
The Mayor announced the sad deaths of Councillor Mrs Cooney and Warren Lowe. Members joined him in a minute’s silence as a mark of respect and then paid tributes to them.
45. SUSPENSION OF COUNCIL PROCEDURE RULES NO. 17.3 AND 21.1
The Mayor advised Members that there was usually a requirement to stand when speaking and voting was usually by a show of hands. However, in a virtual meeting setting these procedure rules should be suspended.
MOVED by Councillor Wells and duly Seconded by Councillor that council procedure rules 17.3 and 21.1 be suspended for the duration of the virtual meeting.
RESOLVED that procedure rules 17.3 and 21.1 be suspended for the duration of the virtual meeting.
46. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
No declarations of interest were received.
47. MINUTES
RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 27th February 2020
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be confirmed and signed by the Chair as a correct record.
48. ANNOUNCEMENTS
48.1 Mayor’s Announcements
48.1.1 Thanks
The Mayor thanked all staff for their hard work during the cyber-attack and Covid-19.
49.2 Leader’s Announcements
49.2.1 Cyber-attack and Covid-19
The Leader of the Council thanked all the council staff who had gone the extra mile for residents of the borough during the cyber-attack and Covid- 19. She highlighted the work of volunteers in the Community Hub and the IT team who had recovered systems quickly.
49.2.2 STDC Site
The Leader of the Council provided an update of the work on the STDC industrial site.
49.2.3 Masterplan
The Leader of the Council advised that a Masterplan had been produced for the redevelopment of Loftus and that work was underway to bid for a multi-million-pound deal for Redcar.
50.1 Deputy Leader’s Announcements
50.1.1 Covid-19
The Deputy Leader of the Council offered condolences to all those residents in the borough that had faced impacts of Covid-19. She thanked the volunteer and community groups who had worked tirelessly to provide support and assistance to those who required it. She requested that everyone remained vigilant to mitigate the impact of the virus.
50.1.2 South Tees Health Protection Board
The Deputy Leader of the Council provided an update of the work of the South Tees Health Protection Board and the recently established Strategic Command Group and Local Outbreak Control Group.
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51.1 Cabinet Member’s Announcements
51.1.1 Adult Care Services
The Cabinet Member for Adults thanked staff, volunteers and external partners for the work that had been carried out in Adults Services.
51..1.2 Growth, Enterprise and Environment Staffing Changes
The Cabinet Member for Economic Growth thanked the former Director for Growth, Enterprise and Environment for her work within the directorate and wished her every success for the future. He also welcomed the new Assistant Directors in the directorate.
52. CHILDREN IN OUR CARE AND CHILD EXPLOITATION
The Council received and considered a report presented by Councillor Barnes, the Cabinet Member for Children, which gave an update on the functions of the Children in Care Team and Child Sexual Exploitation.
RESOLVED that on the successful motion of Councillor Barnes and duly seconded by Councillor Lanigan that the Looked After Children Unit and Child Sexual Exploitation report be approved and noted.
53. REPORT OF THE CABINET MEMBER FOR RESOURCES
Councillor G Nightingale presented a report which gave an update on his portfolio and answered Members’ questions in relation to it: - NOTED.
54. DECISIONS TAKEN UNDER URGENCY PROVISIONS
The Council received and considered a report presented by Councillor Lanigan, Leader of the Council, which gave an update on the decisions that had been made under urgency provisions.
RESOLVED that on the successful motion of Councillor Lanigan and duly seconded by Councillor G Nightingale that report be approved and noted.
55. TO CONSIDER MOTIONS
MOVED by Councillor C Quartermain and duly seconded by Councillor Brook that:
“That this council gives thanks and praise to all council employees, social care workers, front line staff in the NHS and key workers from retail, logistics and all other sectors who worked throughout this historic and unprecedented time of pandemic and that it is recognised that these workers risked their lives every day, just by going to work to ensure the safety and health of the public and to keep vital services moving during
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the current Covid-19 outbreak.”
55.1 AMENDMENT MOVED by Councillor Davies and duly seconded by Councillor Lanigan that:
“That this council gives thanks and praise to all council employees, social care workers, front line staff in the NHS and key workers from retail, logistics and all other sectors, including our army of volunteer groups, organisations and individuals who worked throughout this historic and unprecedented time of pandemic and that it is recognised that these workers risked their lives every day, just by going to work to ensure the safety and health of the public and to keep vital services moving during the current Covid-19 outbreak.”
The amendment was accepted by Councillor Quartermain, with the consent of the meeting.
55.2 AMENDMENT MOVED by Councillor B Clarke and duly seconded by Councillor Gallacher that:
“That this council gives thanks and praise to all council employees, social care workers, front line staff in the NHS and key workers from retail, logistics and all other sectors, including our HM armed forces, army of volunteer groups, organisations and individuals who worked throughout this historic and unprecedented time of pandemic and that it is recognised that these workers risked their lives every day, just by going to work to ensure the safety and health of the public and to keep vital services moving during the current Covid-19 outbreak.”
The amendment was accepted by Councillor Quartermain, with the consent of the meeting, whereupon it was:
55.3 RESOLVED that on the successful motion by Councillor C Quartermain and duly seconded by Councillor Brook that:
“That this council gives thanks and praise to all council employees, social care workers, front line staff in the NHS and key workers from retail, logistics and all other sectors, including our HM armed forces, army of volunteer groups, organisations and individuals who worked throughout this historic and unprecedented time of pandemic and that it is recognised that these workers risked their lives every day, just by going to work to ensure the safety and health of the public and to keep vital services moving during the current Covid-19 outbreak.”
56. TO APPOINT MEMBERS
RESOLVED that on the successful motion of Councillor Lanigan and duly seconded by Councillor King that the following changes to committee membership be agreed:
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1. Councillor Teasdale to fill the vacant seat on the Children and Families Scrutiny and Improvement Committee;
2. Councillor Rider to fill the vacant seat on the Tees Valley Joint Health Scrutiny Committee;
3. Councillor Foggo to fill the vacant seat on the Freedom of the Borough Advisory Panel;
4. Councillor Rider to replace Councillor Teasdale on the Governance Committee;
5. Councillor Foggo to replace Councillor Craig on the Growth; Enterprise and Environment Scrutiny and Improvement Committee; and,
6. Councillor Martin Fletcher to fill the vacant seat on the Cleveland Fire Authority
In line with normal convention, the Children and Families and the Growth, Enterprise and Environment Scrutiny and Improvement Committees will elect Vice Chairs at their next meeting.
57. TO REPLY TO QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL
57.1 Question 1: Question from Councillor Massey to Councillor Davies, Cabinet Member for Economic Growth:
“I was delighted to see that the Council’s regeneration strategy has managed to progress despite the extreme challenges of coronavirus. At the last Cabinet meeting £1million of Council Area Growth funding, alongside £2.7million of Tees Valley Indigenous Growth funding, was approved for the Loftus Future High Street Fund bid. This was welcome news.
As one of the three Councillors for Eston, I have attended numerous meetings over the years in an effort to regenerate my town, particularly the Precinct area. Yet, due to private ownership this has proved difficult. However, the 2015-19 Council did approve £1million for the regeneration of Eston and the former Cabinet Member for Economic Growth went to some lengths to engage with and meet the local community and local businesses on future plans.
As Council investment, will be vital in the months and years to come, what progress has been made with the Council’s other £1million pots for Area Growth funding outside Loftus, specifically in Eston, Redcar, Saltburn and Guisborough?”
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57.2 Councillor Davies replied as follows:
“Thank you for your question Councillor Massey. As he has mentioned on the other areas I am going to focus on the just the other areas in my response. Spend to date in the town centres £1million as allocated in the Area Growth Plans is as follows:
Loftus - £312,026 – this has in the main been spent on this has been spent on the High Street Support and Welcome To grant schemes and the purchase of the former Barclays Bank building.
Eston £225,651 to deliver the cenotaph project and High Street Support schemes to date.
Guisborough £100,250 this has been spent on the High Street Support and Welcome To grant schemes,
Saltburn £240,447 this has been spent on the High Street Support and Welcome To grant schemes, the pier lighting and Cat Nab toilets.
Redcar £260,817 – this has been spent on the High Street Support and Welcome To grant schemes although the figure for Redcar we feel is a lot higher as it is oversubscribed.”
57.3 Supplementary question from Councillor Massey:
“Thank you, Councillor Davies, for that positive response. I think both I, as a Member for Eston, but also the whole council, but certainly the people in those wards, would be interested in seeing a breakdown of what is being spent as exactly what you have just addressed there. My supplementary question isn’t a particularly difficult one, but it is that when chances allow for this to happen, would you come and visit Eston and discuss with the local Councillors and also the Teesville ward Councillors about future schemes that might take place with the remaining part of that £1million.”
57.4 Councillor Davies replied as follows:
“Absolutely Councillor Massey. I made this offer at the very beginning of the administration to go out and visit the wards and I did take up the that request from the Teesville Independents and visited part of that area in the summer. We are still working in the background and the team are still working on vast projects. Eston precinct is obviously a key one. We have said before that we want to equalise funding round the borough. Eston precinct is something we are keen on delivering before the administration finishes its term in 2023. When it comes to Eston precinct, this administration will get the job done.”
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57.5 Question 2: Question from Councillor Hannaway to Councillor Barnes, Cabinet Member for Children:
“Would you please inform the Council whether there are to be any changes in the operation of the South Tees Multi-Agency Children's Hub?”
57.6 Councillor Barnes replied as follows:
“Thank you for your question. I can inform Council that there are no changes to the way in which contacts and referrals that come into the Multi Agency Children’s Hub (MACH) for Redcar and Cleveland are managed. However, I can confirm that following the Ofsted inspection that judged Middlesbrough’s Children’s Services to be inadequate, Middlesbrough Council made the decision to manage their own contacts and referrals rather than have them managed jointly with our service.
As of 1st July, Redcar and Cleveland MACH has operated separately to Middlesbrough MACH and it is still located in Daisy Lane.”
57.7 Supplementary question from Councillor Hannaway:
“The decisions taken by our front door are among the most serious decisions the authority ever takes. That’s the point we do everything we possibly can to prevent real harm to children. The decisions taken there are owned by all Redcar and Cleveland Borough Councillors as corporate parents. Surely then the council should have been informed of the decision to disband the current structure before letters were sent to other parties. Secondly the hub took a long time to set up and involved a great deal of work by council staff. The rationale for doing it was that it would improve decision making by having all the agencies in one place. Cleveland Police were particularly keen that we had a joint hub with Middlesbrough so that they did not have to spread out staff too thinly across the children’s strategy safeguarding meetings of two authorities. Can the Lead Member assure us that there will be no detrimental effects on the quality of decision making or the actions taken to keep children safe from significant harm or on our early help services, or on the LADO service which investigates allegations against professionals who work with children?”
57.8 Councillor Barnes replied as follows:
“It is important to note that Ofsted found the MACH had improved and was providing an improved accessible single point of contact, although the quality of decision making was not consistently affected. As you know, Ofsted were the organisation that did the inspection for Middlesbrough. Following the inspection, we commissioned an independent audit which provided assurance that decision making was safe and that no children were left unsafe. Middlesbrough were clear they
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are still supportive of partnership working and that the plan is to work towards a future collaboration that has a much strengthened and improved operating model. Our service continues to be delivered with health and police partners in the way that it was previously. There has been no change to operations for Redcar and Cleveland referrals. There is also a plan in place to ensure that we are addressing our improvement priorities so that the right children continue to get the right help at the right time. I would also add as we are continuing to work from daisy lane the police are actually in those premises with us. We really didn’t have any control over the fact that Middlesbrough decided that, following their Ofsted inspection that they wished to stop the joint match.”
57.9 SUSPENSION OF COUNCIL PROCEDURE RULE NO. 9
The Mayor reminded Members that as the meeting had lasted for nearly three hours, it was necessary to suspend Council Procedure Rule No. 9 to allow the meeting to continue.
MOVED by Councillor Wells and duly Seconded by Councillor Davies that the meeting continue until the end of the business.
RESOLVED that the meeting continue until the end of business.
57.10 Question 3: Question from Councillor S Jeffrey to Councillor Lanigan, Leader of the Council:
“The Lead Member for Corporate Resources tells us in his report that the Council has been ‘forced to work through the financial implication of the Cyber-attack’ but that the Cabinet will not be receiving a financial update on the implications until 4 August – that is nearly seven months since the attack happened.
Could the Leader tell this Council why, despite months of dialogue at Ministerial Level, with the council providing all the information asked for, we still do not know if Government will deliver the resources needed to cover the cost of the cyber-attack which could run into many millions of pounds and have a huge impact on the delivery of services to local people?”
57.11 Councillor Lanigan replied as follows:
“Thank you for your question. The cyber-attack occurred five months ago, on the 08 February 2020, quickly followed by the coronavirus pandemic.
This has meant the Government have been dealing with the Covid-19 crisis whilst dealing with the implications of the Cyber Attack.
We always said that the end of May 2020 would be a key milestone to take stock of how the recovery of our systems and data had progressed,
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and this would allow us to provide a more informed assessment of the position and the financial consequences of the cyber-attack.
In June, we provided this updated information to Government. They have needed time to review this, and consider it through their ‘Managing Public Money’ governance framework.
Whilst we understand the government’s need to carry out their due diligence, Council can rest assured that we are pushing for this to be concluded as soon as possible, to allow the authority to plan its finances with greater certainty.
In the best interests of the council, whilst these discussions continue with Ministers and MP’s we are treating them sensitively and confidentially.
As you know, the attack is still subject to a criminal investigation, which limits what can be said about the position. I am hopeful that we will get a response very shortly and I will bring that back to council. This is a confidential and sensitive issue and there is a criminal investigation underway at the moment.”
57.12 Supplementary question from Councillor S Jeffrey:
“I hear about the confidentiality and the sensitivity and the fact that there is a criminal investigation and I obviously understand that but I am concerned that sometimes government uses confidentiality and sensitivity as a mechanism to stop us talking publicly about what is a crucial issue for this council. I am also concerned that this council seems to be waiting for the government to take decisions on so many things. So its decisions about funding for covid, its decisions about funding for the cyber-attack, decisions about fair funding, about funding for Redcar. We seem to constantly be waiting for decisions. Does the government think that, or does the Leader think that she has to stay quiet so that some of these other things will be progressed? And if she doesn’t stay quiet Ministers would perhaps withdraw offers of funding or not proceed with offers of funding for projects like Loftus. Is she being kept quiet through that process?”
57.13 Councillor Lanigan replied as follows:
“I can assure you there has been very frank discussions with both the Minister and the MP’s regarding this issue. My concern is about Redcar and Cleveland and the financial costs that it took to do this. It is progressing well and I am hopeful. I will not keep quiet and no one has asked me to keep quiet and I am not prepared to do that. We are in a situation and hopefully we will know within the next week or so where we are with this. I can absolutely assure you that the information will be coming to full council. With the criminal investigation, ongoing at the moment I can’t say any more about this and I am sure that as the past
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Leader of this Council you are aware of that. We can’t go into any detail about what has happened, but as soon as I get the decision from central government you will hear about it.”
57.14 Question 4: Question from Councillor C Quartermain to Councillor Lanigan, Leader of the Council:
“On the 6th May, you co-signed a letter on behalf of Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, from all 12 councils in the North East and sent out by Cllr Simon Henig of Durham Council. Can you explain why such an important letter requesting additional funding, that you signed on behalf of the 59 councillors of this borough, was not shared with this council, who only learnt about the letter in the press?”
57.15 Councillor Lanigan replied as follows:
“Councillor Quartermain when I read this question, I was somewhat puzzled. I will tell you what happened about this and why, and how this occurred the way it did.
As you will appreciate, the Covid-19 crisis accelerated very quickly and, as the significant scale of financial implications for councils generally became more and more of an issue, I was asked, as Leader, acting on behalf of the Council, whether I would support a letter being sent to government, requesting additional funds.
As Leader, I am often contacted and asked to express a view on behalf of the administration or the council as a whole, and part of the Leader’s role is to act as the ambassador and the voice of the Council in its dealings with Central Government, other Local Authorities and their Associations. It is also part of the Leader’s role to work with the Managing Director to ensure the financial stability of the Council.
You will understand, Councillor Quartermain, that we were dealing with multiple issues at the height of the pandemic and the most important thing, in my mind, was to ensure that the letter was sent. The timescales for agreeing and sending the letter were short, and I was sure that making a request for additional funds from central government, in order to ensure the financial stability of the council, was essential. I have to tell you that at the time rumours were circulating that councils were being asked to fund covid 19 pressures via their reserves. The letter was sent at very short notice on the Friday. The result in what happened with that, the government looked at that letter that came in from the northern councils and additional government funding was then announced on the following Monday. We have and I have made great efforts to communicate with Members through daily bulletins every day during the lockdown period. I am sorry if you think that something was missed on this occasion, however I trust that all Members of the Council will feel that sending this letter was the right thing to do for this council and our
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residents. It was highlighting the difficulties that we face and asking central government as a region to provide sufficient funding to see us through this crisis. In my opinion that was the right thing that we did and it was all northern councils that did this and because what happened on the Friday afternoon that letter was critical to go out on the Friday evening telling people what we were doing and why we were doing it. Thank you Mr Mayor.”
57.16 Supplementary question from Councillor C Quartermain:
“Thank you Councillor Lanigan for your reply. To be clear I have no complaint with the letter being sent out. I fully accept that as the Leader of our Group and with short timescales sometimes you have to act very quickly and on behalf of this council without maybe addressing us beforehand, but that said this letter is signed on our behalf and we should have been fully informed. When I quizzed you about this on the 13th May you claimed that it did result in a second tranche of funding well it did not. That was national funding, the second tranche of funding was announced 18 days before the letter was sent out. Why would you make such an odd claim? You are claiming victories that are not yours or you aren’t clear what was going on. Subsequently I have learnt that near the end of June a second letter went out from this council’s behalf from Durham as a press release, and once again unannounced to this council. I have already complained before along with other Councillors but let us know what’s going on formally. Can all our Councillors receive copies of the two letters, can you ensure that any subsequent letters you sign in our names are sent out to all Councillors, and finally has the government actually responded to either letter, and if so can we receive copies of their reply as well?”
57.17 Councillor Lanigan replied as follows:
“I am quite surprised Councillor Quartermain, not just by your question. You have got to understand that we were under great financial pressure here. There was no way having spoken to the other Leaders of the northern areas that Redcar and Cleveland were not going to add their name to central government making sure we had the extra money for Redcar and Cleveland. That was essential in order to do that. I have explained to you about the timeframe and I will make sure that you get a copy of the letters. You have to understand that on a Friday afternoon sometimes that isn’t possible in order to get this down to Westminster. We have got to make sure that this government is held to account over financing for the northern councils and that is exactly what we intend to do.”
The Mayor thanked Members for their attendance and declared the meeting closed.
14 of 58 AGENDA ITEM 7A
CORPORATE RESOURCES DEPARTMENT DEMOCRATIC SERVICES
Cabinet Minute Number :- 66
Report Title :- Code of Conduct & Best Practice Recommendations
The Council is asked to agree the following Cabinet recommendation in relation to the report that was considered by Cabinet on 4 August 2020
Minute Details: -
Members were advised that in January 2019, the Committee on Standards in Public Life published a report on ethical standards in Local Government. The report considered all aspects of the current regime relating to the conduct of Elected Members and set out 26 recommendations for change. As well as making these recommendations, the report also included a list of best practice, with regard to which the Committee said “…we expect that any local authority can and should implement them. We intend to review the implementation of our best practice in 2020”.
Although the recommendations were published in January 2019 the LGA had only recently produced a draft Code and started it’s consultation.
This report therefore sought Cabinet approval to interim amendments to the current Code of Conduct for Elected Members, pending adoption of a revised Code of Conduct at a later date, once a new Model member Code of Conduct had been produced by the Local Government Association.
Members were also advised that as the Code of Conduct was included within the Council’s Constitution, there was a requirement for any changes to be approved by the Borough Council, in consultation with the Governance Committee, Resources Scrutiny and Improvement Committee and Cabinet.
The report was also considered by the Governance Committee on 27 July 2020 (Minute attached as Appendix 1) and the Resources Scrutiny and Improvement Committee on 29 July 2020 (Minute attached as Appendix 2).
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RESOLVED that following consideration of a report to the Governance Committee, Cabinet recommends to the Borough Council that the proposed interim amendments to the Code of Conduct for Elected Members and associated documents be approved, pending adoption of a revised Code of Conduct at a later date.
16 of 58 APPENDIX 1
GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE
A special meeting of the Governance Committee was held on 27 July 2020 via Microsoft Teams.
PRESENT Councillor Morgan (Chair); Councillors R Clark, B Clarke, Foggo, Foley- McCormack, Massey, I Nightingale, C Quartermain (substituting for Councillor Holyoake), Rider and Wells (substituting for Councillor Sandra Smith).
OFFICIALS G Barker (Director – External Audit), D Boville (Democratic Services Assistant), J Bulman (Strategic IT Manager), R Davisworth (Chief Accountant), C Dearden (Manager - External Audit), S Newton (Assistant Director – Finance), A Pearson (Governance Manager), R Smith (Veritau), M Thomas (Chief Executive - Veritau), and P Winstanley (Assistant Director – Finance).
IN ATTENDANCE Councillor G Nightingale – Cabinet Member for Resources
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE were submitted on behalf of Councillors Berry, Holyoake and Sandra Smith, Parish Councillor Carrolle and Mr Johnson and Mr Monson (Independent Members).
8. LGA CODE OF CONDUCT CONSULTATION & BEST PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS
The Managing Director (Head of Paid Service) sought Members views on the Local Government Association’s (LGA) consultation on the Draft Model Member Code of Conduct and sought a recommendation to Borough Council that the interim amendments to the Council’s Code of Conduct for Elected Members be approved.
A debate took place on the issues contained in the report. Some of the matters raised and discussed included:
• The Code of Conduct needed to feature stronger language on issues such as racism. • The Code of Conduct needed to be a lot more robust and direct. • The Council needed more powers to be able to take direct action to address serious breaches of the Code of Conduct. • Stronger guidance needed to be issued on the use of social media.
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• There should be a presumption that Councillors were always acting as such unless explicitly stated otherwise.
RESOLVED that: 1. The Governance Committee recommend to Borough Council that the interim amendments to the Council’s Code of Conduct for Elected Members be approved. 2. The Monitoring Officer and the Chair of the Governance Committee respond to the LGA Consultation, taking into account any additional comments submitted by Members either through email or discussion at Cabinet and Resources Scrutiny & Improvement Committee.
18 of 58 APPENDIX 2
RESOURCES SCRUTINY AND IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE
A virtual meeting of the Resources Scrutiny and Improvement Committee was held on 29 July 2020 via Microsoft Teams.
PRESENT Councillor Massey (Chair), Councillors Baldwin, Cook, Craig, Gallacher, Gray, Head, S Jeffrey, I Nightingale, C Quartermain (substituting for Councillor Brown), Sandra Smith, Thomson and Watts.
OFFICIALS D Boville, D Calderwood, R Mitchell, S Newton, A Pearson, J Sampson and P Winstanley.
IN ATTENDANCE Councillors Lanigan and G Nightingale.
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillors Brown and Dowson.
5. CODE OF CONDUCT & BEST PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS
The Managing Director presented a report seeking to approve interim amendments to the Code of Conduct for Elected Members, pending adoption of a revised Code of Conduct at a later date. The report was due to be considered by Cabinet on 4 August 2020.
As part of the ensuing discussion, the following points were made:
• Changes made to the Code of Conduct would not be effective without appropriate powers to enforce them. • There needed to be stronger language on racism. • There needed to be stronger guidance for Members when using social media. • The definition of harassment contained within the Code of Conduct was very wide which could make it difficult for Members to determine how best to approach situations. • A move to a presumption that Councillors were acting in an official capacity could help close some of the gas in the current Code of Conduct:-NOTED
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AGENDA ITEM 8A Member Report Culture and Communications Public
To: Borough Council Date: 27 August 2020
From: Cabinet Member for Culture and Decision type: For Information Communications
1.0 Purpose
1.1 This report provides the Borough Council with an update on progress made in the delivery of Culture and Communications during the whole of 2019, into the first part of 2020 and addresses some of the work due to the impact of COVID 19 on services and the start of recovery. It also includes the latest visitor statistics available from 2018.
2.0 Background
2.1 The past year has seen Redcar & Cleveland make further progress in developing its cultural offer through creating award-winning exhibitions, delivering and supporting public events and a series of projects aimed at maintaining and improving both the strategic and physical visitor infrastructure across the borough.
2.2 Key strategic partnerships have been consolidated, with Tees Valley Combined Authority, Welcome To Yorkshire, Arts Council England, Teesside University and National Lottery Heritage Fund all making valuable contributions to support the borough in achieving its objectives.
2.3 The Council’s Marketing and Communications team has played a key role in both the Council’s recovery from February’s cyber-attack and the supportive role to the borough’s residents during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Progress continues to be made with increasing engagement with residents through digital communications, while maintaining and improving more traditional methods of communication.
3.0 Kirkleatham Museum
3.1 Kirkleatham Museum continues to be a popular attraction with local residents and beyond, attracting record numbers of visitors, developing a strong volunteer presence and providing a venue for community exhibitions and engagement. The exhibitions, marketing, events and renewed interest in the village have contributed to the high visitor numbers recorded at Kirkleatham at 94,446 for April 2019 – March 2020.
20 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) 3.2 The Museum continues to be a strong partner in the Tees Valley Museums Consortium. The consortium consists of the museum services of Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees, Darlington,
Hartlepool and Middlesbrough. It was formed in 2017 to develop collaborative working for the purpose of delivering better services to the public.
The consortium is now in year 3 of its Arts Council England, National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) funding agreement. Great progress has been made in 2019 delivering against the agreed objectives. Due to COVID 19 the consortium NPO will receive an extension of funding for an additional year. (Instead of 4 years it will run for 5 years without the need for an application)
3.3 Making a Mark (MaM) programme
In 2019, the museum continued to be the lead partner in the Tees Valley for the long- standing and highly successful Making a Mark programme, part of Arts Council England’s Museums and Schools Initiative. Museums and Schools is a national programme funded by the Department of Education (DfE) and managed by the Arts Council. It has been running since 2012. It provides £1.2m per year across 18 regional partnerships. Making a Mark (MaM) is one of the 10 original partnerships.
Making a Mark is an exciting programme in the Tees Valley that offers schools a new way to deliver cultural education across the curriculum. Making a Mark encourages students to understand more about, and feel proud of, their local heritage and identity, and in doing so raises their aspirations.
Our eighth year of Department for Education funding brought £78,600 into the Tees Valley, with overall funding of £1,082,000 over the life of the programme.
In 2019 we welcomed 8250 students from 177 schools to this programme across the partnership. Teachers, students and parents who’ve accompanied visits have given very positive feedback:
“Curriculum appropriate - staff are fantastic with the children and are knowledgeable with the subject.” Teacher
“That day out has really made me learn more and helped me with my work at school.” Student
In 2019, we established a pioneering pilot project on what makes effective cultural learning experiences for children in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) at seven museums and galleries across the Tees Valley.
The 2019 OFSTED framework puts a responsibility on schools to develop children’s cultural capital. This is a new concept, particularly for those teaching in the Early Years. Kirkleatham has built a strong relationship with Redcar and Cleveland’s Advisory Teacher and EYFS network. In September 2019, we began an innovative project with over 70 EYFS practitioners from the network to define what cultural capital means for under 5’s in the Tees Valley and the role museums could play in developing it. When completed in 2020, we will share the findings nationally.
21 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) It has been confirmed that the project will have another year of funding for 2020 to 2021 for this project, at the same level of funding of previous years.
3.4 Supporting primary school curriculum development across the Tees Valley
In 2019 OFSTED highlighted a national issue with curriculum design, particularly in primary schools. Our Museum in your Classroom (MiyC) approach, supported by online materials, is brilliantly positioned to slot into planning for a broad and balanced curriculum. In June and October 2019 we ran two professional development events focused on how to build local history into a creative curriculum, through MiyC.
To date, we have almost 40 primary schools across authorities who have either already held an exhibition, are planning to, or have expressed an intention to. For the last two years we have collaborated with another DfE funded programme - ‘Heritage Schools’ - on this. Last year we began discussions around MiyC with two national museums - The National Portrait Gallery and the British Museum.
In 2019, the Museum was awarded the Sandford Award for high quality museum education. The award of this independent ‘kite mark’ reflects the evaluation responses we get from teachers about the high quality of our provision.
3.5 Award winning Exhibitions - Steel Stories
Steel Stories is the culmination of approximately 3-4 years worth of research, planning and bid writing alongside our partners at Teesside University. The success of the initial bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund, enabled an exhibition to be created primarily due to the social need for an important component of the community to be fully acknowledged and curated, especially after SSI UK’s closure in 2015.
Steel Stories opened on 5th April 2019 and has been a huge success. The exhibition is a powerful celebration of our region’s iron, steel and industrial heritage. The interactive exhibition is the culmination of 12 months of community engagement and historic research, and showcases stories, artefacts, videos and images from real people who have lived and breathed in industry for generations. The installation of the exhibition rejuvenated a large part of the museum. Offering visitors, a modern and professionally-designed installation across 5 gallery spaces.
Engagement with local heritage groups, academics and steel-based businesses has been vital to Steel Stories in terms of providing an authentic, engaging and community-led exhibition. Regular steering group meetings were held leading up to the launch of Steel Stories, again ensuring that community engagement was front and centre of all of the design and development. Meanwhile, a plethora of local volunteers and trainees have had an opportunity to research, develop, deliver and maintain a national exhibition, developing skills that otherwise would be difficult to come by.
In 2019, Kirkleatham Museum won Best Small Museum, for Steel Stories at the Museum Associations - Museums Change Lives Awards. We were recognised for our innovative methods we used to reach out to our communities.
Visitor numbers were around the 50,000 mark following the April 2019 launch, which is a large spike compared to the same period in 2018. Social media and news coverage has been extensive with TV, radio, social media and print coverage achieved. Furthermore,
22 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) Steel Stories consistently enjoys healthy numbers of visitors, especially from former steelworkers and their families.
Steel Stories is now an integral part of Kirkleatham’s collection. The Museum team are continuing the partnership with Teesside University and will continue to develop and augment the exhibition.
The development of the exhibition presented the opportunity to collect and curate priceless iron and steel artefacts. The majority of these were gathered through community roadshow events, whereby current and former steelworkers, and their families, loaned and donated objects to be displayed in Steel Stories, as well as to be archived and cared for by trained museum professionals. Each artefact is now either on public display or has been accessioned and properly stored for conservation in collections.
Kirkleatham Museum now serves as a hub and archive for Bolckow and Vaughan, Dorman Long, British Steel, Corus, TATA Steel, and SSI UK documents, photographs, memorabilia, video footage, artefacts and more. This collection and the potential growth of the collections around our industrial heritage is being looked at with partners and within Kirkleatham Museums vision and collections policy.
3.6 Becoming more inclusive and accessible
Work has been undertaken over the last year to make the Museum more accessible.
This past year has seen the introduction of a ‘quiet’ hour during the popular craft sessions held during the school holidays, enabling families with children/adults with disabilities to attend such events if they wish. Staff have received training from Daisy Chain, a local charity which supports families with children who have autism. Following this, the museum now offers a quiet time between 10am and 11am every Sunday morning where amendments are made so that certain sounds are muted and further signage is in place. We have ensured that staff have received Dementia Awareness training and that the museum is working towards becoming Dementia Friendly. In the last year, the Mighty Lunch was held in the Bellamy Pavilion, Kirkleatham, for those living with Dementia and their carers; this was a great success.
A wayfinding audit has been undertaken to improve signage within the museum ad in turn the visitor experience. All of this work has been possible by the NPO partnership and funding.
As part of the NPO work, the Museum has developed a set of Family Learning Principles which we can use in planning programmes and interpretation. This year we prioritised actions from the family learning report produced at the end of 2018, which provided us with a blueprint for improving the family visit experience. Throughout 2019 and the beginning of 2020 we have tested out new gallery resources
From our initial focus on families, the Tees Valley Museums Group has developed a commitment to all of our museums becoming more playful places for all our visitors. This year, the museum’s learning team took part in training around museums as playful places.
3.7 Museum COVID 19 Response
The Museum closed to visitors on the 19 March 2020. To ensure we could keep our doors open the museum team adapted the offer to online and developed a new programme of digital delivery.
All of our weekly local history talks were introduced and delivered online. To date we have delivered 11 talks, with an average of 80 – 100 participants each week. The online platform 23 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) has enabled us to reach more people and has included people from the area and from as far afield as New Zealand.
“Just wanted to thank you for organising the talk about Coatham School today – I watched it with my dad who attended the school from around 1942. We both found it very interesting and dad was especially pleased to see the photos of some of his teachers (Shiny, Conk & Little Billy I believe!!)” – talk, audience member
Museum in your Classroom was converted into Museum in your Home to enable parents/carers or schools to work with children to develop exhibitions at home. As part of our NPO work we worked with our consortium museums to introduce Arts Award Discover online. There is normally a cost and this was absorbed via NPO funding.
The Museum team worked with artists to develop new content for workshops and storytelling content that could be shared online. The work connected to the collections and also to key dates such as VE day, Mental Health Awareness week and so on. All of the videos were commissioned with the future in mind and will be used in future years as part of the museums digital reach.
We are in the process of commissioning a 360 degree video of the museum and the exhibitions. This will enable more access to our collections and also give access to the Museum if we had to close again.
We underwent an intensive period of planning to enable the museum to reopen its doors on Wednesday 22 July 2020 in line with government guidance. Visitors are able to book free tickets for a slot and follow a one-way system throughout the museum. Funding was secured to adapt certain elements of the exhibitions in line with guidance, this will include audio interactives to be accessible on a visitor’s personal devices rather than shared headsets and so on. The way we deliver our offer will be enhanced and at times delivered differently through digital interventions. We have also been able to extend the British Museum exhibition Nordic by Nature to stay at the museum until October.
4.0 Events
The table below gives an overview of events that were held in the borough in 2019.
Event Scream Factory – My bloody Valentine Date 14, 15 & 16 February 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 1,800 Description The Scream Factory Valentines Tour is a national award winning (ScareCon 2018) scare themed event and is organised by Stephen Tate T/A Imaginative Productions ltd.
The only event of its kind in the North East of England, this immersive scare attraction with a cast of scare and street actors takes event patrons into a simulated horror theme world. Patrons take a 20 – 30 minute walk through a 24 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) marked pre-set route around the event site, on the route patrons are entertained by theatrical performances throughout.
Event Redcar Beach XC Event Date 17 March 2019 Frequency New Event Visitor numbers 100 Competitors Description The Redcar Beach XC was a new event for 2019 taking place on Sunday 17th March 2019.
The model follows the well-established and very successful De Panne Beach Endurance Event in Belgium which attracts over 1300 International cyclists.
Event East Cleveland Klondike Grand Prix Date 14 April 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 3,000 Description The East Cleveland Klondike Grand Prix is a 1 day Elite Cycle Race delivered by Velo29 in consultation with Big Local in the area of East Cleveland.
The event has been successfully run in 2017 and 2018. The changes for 2019 included the addition of an Elite Ladies Race that took place prior to the men’s race, a slight route change to include Skelton and some additional support events to be delivered by British Cycling with Velo29 in Guisborough. The men’s race was a total distance of 105.1 miles and Ladies race was a total distance of 65.7 miles
Event Chaloner Street Market Date 28 April, 30 June, 25 August 2019 Frequency Quarterly Visitor numbers 1,500 Description A street market with local suppliers, music and street entertainment, bringing an additional shopping experience to the town of Guisborough.
Event 150th Saltburn Pier Celebrations Date 11th May 2019 Frequency Just this year Visitor numbers 2,000 Description The event was to celebrate the iconic Pier in Saltburn turning 150. Activity was programmed throughout the day including food and antiques markets, sand art and Victorian costumed volunteers parading around the town.
A firework finale and the turning of the newly installed lighting on the pier closed the celebrations. This family event was held on a Saturday.
Event Primrose Bell Market Date 1 June, 6 July, 3 August, 7 September & 7 December 2019 Frequency Selected months Visitor numbers 1,000 Description
25 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) Redcar’s Primrose Bell Market brings to the Town local independent businesses and crafters, featuring lots of makers, artisans, live music, food, drink and family fun.
Primrose Bell Market also complemented the Redcar Live events on 7 September and 7 December bringing a wider offer to the public.
Event Kirkleatham Woodland 5k Date 23 June 2019 Frequency New event Visitor numbers 250 Description Kirkleatham Woodland 5k is a fun run for all levels of ability aimed at those who are new to running and club runners. A mass start attracted approximately 200 participants, taking in the scenic trails around Kirkleatham.
Event Armed Forces Day Date 29 June 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 500 Description An event to show support for the Armed Forces Community. The events included a parade along Redcar High Street, military displays including a paintball range and climbing wall, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, charity stalls and entertainment.
Event Golf Week Date 1-5 July 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 200 Description An annual golf competition held in partnership between Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and Hartlepool Council. Held over 5 days and offering 5 golf courses, 4 in Redcar and Cleveland and 1 in Hartlepool with prizes each day. The event is a long running and established event. Most of the competitors are returning customers and travel from all over the UK.
Event Oddsocks Theatre Performance Date 11 & 12 July 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 500 Description Outdoor Theatre performance of a Midsummer’s Night’s Dream in the grounds of Kirkleatham Museum. This event has taken place in Redcar and Cleveland for more than 20 years.
Event Guisborough Forest Summer Market Date 13 July 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 1000 - 1500 Description The event is held in Guisborough Forest and Walkway and included stall holders selling gifts and food, children’s entertainment, woodland crafts and music.
Event East Cleveland Scarecrow Festival Date 3-31 August 2019 26 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) Frequency Annual Visitor numbers Unknown Description A community event aimed at making people smile also supporting local craft and produce and attracting people to East Cleveland. Businesses, organisations, community groups, churches the Town Council and residents were invited to make and display scarecrows on their own premises.
Event Eston Fell Race Date 20 July 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 1,500 Description The event consisted of; a running race over hill terrain, one of 10km for semi and pro runners and the other of 5km for beginners and junior.
Event Summer Sound Tribute Music Festival & Proms in the Priory Date 26, 27 July and 28 July 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 1,000-2,000 each day Description Summer Sound is the biggest tribute music festival in the North East, with themes including 70’s 80’s, rock & pop. It takes place at Gisborough Priory. Summer Sound was recently ranked in the top 3 events that the residents of the borough valued most.
Event Beach Festival – Clubland on the Beach, We love the 90’s and Beach Jam Date 26 July, 27 July and 3 August 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 3,000 per event Description Redcar Beach Festivals have taken place for 7 years consecutively. The 3 events are aimed at different audiences and consist of a stage and music at each. There are various concessions ranging from food outlets, fairground rides to festival merchandise. There are bars selling both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
Event Redcar Triathlon Date 28 July 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 600 Description The 8th Redcar Triathlon was organised in partnership with Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and TriHard Events Ltd.
The Redcar Sprint Triathlon is a continuous swimming, cycling and running race over the recognised sprint distances of 750m swim, 20km cycle and 5k run.
Event Saltburn Food Festival Date 28 July 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers Description Saltburn Food Festival is organised and managed by Food First, an incorporated community group. It was established in 2008 initially to run Saltburn Farmers 27 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) Markets. This was the 7th year the same group have delivered a food festival in Saltburn.
Usually the festival is a combination of food market, craft stalls, workshops and demonstrations. Hot and cold food and drink sold by licensed vendors.
Based on the very successful farmers market and previous food festivals in town, the food festival showcases local food production and addresses issues of food miles, traceability, climate change and the importance of supporting local business, along with healthy eating and cookery workshops for children.
Unfortunately, due to extreme weather the food festival had to be scaled down to indoor stalls and vendors which had a major effect on the offer and visitor numbers.
There was an expectation of 20,000 visitors to the event had it gone ahead without changes.
Event Redcar Pirate Festival Date 2 & 3 August 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers Unknown Description Family friendly event which takes place in Redcar arranged by the Redcar Town Market Manager as an extension of his alternative monthly market and includes face painting, character meet and greets and theatre performance.
Event Guisborough Scarecrow Festival Date 3-10 August 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers Description Businesses, Community Groups, Prior Pursglove College and local schools were invited to produce a scarecrow as part of the festival. This festival was planned to coincide with the Guisborough Craft and Produce show. Participants were able to take part in a quiz and trail activity sheet.
Event Sci-fi Comic Con Date 4 August 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 2,000 Description A day of live action characters from films, comics and T.V. Approximately 30 characters were parading between the pavilion, grounds and museum. Trade stands and refreshments were also available.
Event Scarecrows in the Park – Loftus Date 11 August 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers Description A family day with old fashion gaming stalls at 10p per game making it an affordable day out. Some of the games included were Splat the rat, Hook the duck, Tin can Alice, Vinegar bottle toss, Hole in one, Kick and score.
28 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) Local business hosted face painting, food stalls, hair braiding, soft drinks and sweets stalls. Children were invited to make their own scarecrows to take home and join in the celebrations of the town’s scarecrow week.
Event Locke Park Family Fun Day - Redcar Live Date 15 August 2019 Frequency New event Visitor numbers 1,500 Description A family fun day arranged under the umbrella of Redcar Live. Various acts were programmed on a stage such as ‘The Lipsticks’. The day featured children’s entertainers, costume characters, kite making workshops and various other activities to entertain the whole family.
Event Redcar Live Finale Date 7 September 2019 Frequency New Event Visitor numbers 3,000 Description The final event under the Redcar Live umbrella included a large stage set up on Cleveland Street in Redcar and the event linked in with both the Alternative Market on the High Street and Primrose Bell Market on Station Road. Performances on the stage varied from young people from Tunedin who had taken part in workshops, local singers, to bigger acts such as a Little Mix Magic tribute act and the headliner for the day was Dr and the Medics.
Event Saltburn Historic Hill Climb Date 8 September 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 2,500 Description A successful annual event arranged by the Middlesbrough District and Motor Club. The event comprises of a parade of historical vehicles starting from Cat Nab carpark driving up Old Saltburn Bank. This event is very well attended and enjoyed by the spectators.
Event VIEWPOINTS Date 12 -19 September 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers Description Returning for a second year VIEWPOINTS focused on clean air in the Tees Valley. This exciting and ambitious project included sculptures, installations and artworks displayed across the Tees Valley in the week of the festival.
Redcar played host to three of the VIEWPOINTS commissions including Sit, Stop which invited visitors to mindfully reconnect with nature through simple observation. Sit, Stop has been created using plastic collected on Redcar and Saltburn beaches.
Event Festival of Thrift Parade and Festival Date 13, 14 & 15 September 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 37,000 29 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) Description Festival of Thrift is the biggest festival in the Borough and is of National significance.
The award-winning annual celebration of sustainable living saw 37,000 visitors attend the event at Kirkleatham over the weekend of 14 – 15 September. Visitors that attend the festival are from the Borough, the wider region and from all across the country with many staying in the Borough for the whole weekend.
The contribution to the local economy was £1,333,211 an increase on the 2018 festival.
Ahead of the main event, on Friday 13 September, crowds lined the streets of Redcar to welcome in this year’s festival at the opening parade. The parade called A Breath of Fresh Air, featured performers from the local community and ended with a dance performance where Kasia Molga’s unique Human Sensor costumes took centre stage relaying a powerful message about pollution. This was the second year of the Parade and it doubled in size and in audience numbers.
A festival that places art at its heart, the Festival of Thrift weekend offered a wide range of performances, workshops and lively talks and debates on environmental and sustainability issues, including Tees Valley Nature Partnership’s World Café and a thought-provoking discussion about the role of plastic. This year is the seventh outing for the Festival and its main themes for 2019 were clean air and the moon landing anniversary, which were marked in a number of shows and activities.
Event Redcar Running Festival Date 29 September 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 2,500 Description The 39th Redcar Running Festival was organised by Everyone Active in partnership with New Marske Harriers and Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council. The Redcar Running Festival Event takes place from Majuba Road car park. The event consists of; a half marathon, a Zetland 10km, a Beacon 5km race, Junior Family Fun Run 2km Races.
There was live music and entertainment programme along the route to spur the competitors on.
Event Scream Factory Date 11 -31 October 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 2,400 per night Description This event has successfully taken place since 2012 at Kirkleatham Museum grounds -The Old Nursery.
A scare event where visitors a thrust into an imaginative world of their worst nightmares. Visitors are entertained by quality themed sets and special effects.
Event Skinningrove Bonfire Date 5 November 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 30 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) Description The theme of the bonfire this year was The Greatest Showman. This annual event continues to be very popular and draws large crowds.
The event consisted music being played to depict the theme, a fireworks display and the lighting of the bonfire.
Event A Victorian Christmas – Kirkleatham Museum Date 30th November and 1st December 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 7,000 over both days Description A craft fair, arts and crafts workshops, Santa’s grotto, Reindeer and small animal encounters and Victorian promenade performers. An annual event that is well attended and enjoyed by the public.
Event Christmas Date November / December 2019 Frequency Various Dates Visitor numbers Description Many Christmas events took place across the borough during November and December. They were held in Redcar, Guisborough, Marske, New Marske, Saltburn, Loftus, South bank, Eston.
The events included Light Switch On’s, Parades and Christmas Markets.
Event Santa Trail 5km Date 8 December 2019 Frequency New event Visitor numbers 200 Description A 5km trail for all levels of ability aimed at recreational, those new to running and club runners. A mass start attracted approximately 200 participants, taking in the scenic trails around the Kirkleatham Estate. These events promote health and well-being to all levels of ability.
Event Beach Race XC 2020 Date 22 December 2019 Frequency Various Visitor numbers 100 Description Velo29 CX Race was held on Redcar beach over a 1km circuit with electronic chip timing. The base for the event was at Tunedin, Redcar with the course starting and finishing on the Promenade. The event went well with around 100 participants taking place.
Event Boxing Day Dip Date 26 December 2019 Frequency Annual Visitor numbers 300
31 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) Description The 50th annual Boxing Day dip organised by the Rotary Club took place on Redcar beach. The event involved “dippers” going into the sea off Redcar beach and either paddling in the water or plunging in the water. Most dippers obtain sponsorship for their “dip” raising, between them several thousand pounds for charity.
4.1 Tour de Yorkshire 2020
Great progress had been made to deliver a successful Tour de Yorkshire on 30 April this year, using the opportunity to promote cycling for all, community involvement and arts & culture; and build Redcar & Cleveland’s position as a prime place for cycling on the national and international map. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent ban on mass gatherings, the Tour de Yorkshire has been postponed until 2021. Although this postponement is disappointing, we look forward to welcoming the cycling elite to Redcar and Cleveland and for the event to coincide with the Year of the English Coast 2021.
4.2 Events Impact - COVID
Due to the uncertainty around the virus the Council, many of our partners and external event organisers have had to postpone a large amount of events already this year including the Triathlon, the Klondike, Parkruns, VE Day, Eston Fell Race, Redcar Running Festival, Skinningrove Bonfire and Saltburn Food festival to name but a few.
We will continue to follow the Government guidelines and support event organisers as much as possible.
Festival of Thrift is unable to take place at its normal scale but have created an exciting programme of virtual activity to take place on Saturday 12 September 2020.
Scoping work has started to look at how events can be delivered differently throughout the coming months including virtual offers and hyper local offers. In particular work is underway to look at an alternative Christmas offer for 2020.
Despite the situation with Covid we have a draft programme of events in development for 2021 and are considering COVID in the planning. A key theme for 2021 is Year of the English Coast and Climate Change and sustainability and this also incorporates delivery of Tour de Yorkshire and other large scale events.
5.0 Independent Museums across the Borough
5.1 Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum (CIMM)
CIMM’s ‘Room To Grow’ project, which has received £1.6 million in external grant funding to provide a new museum and associated facilities, is now on track to open to the public next year (2021). The project had been planned to open during 2020, but a range of technical and site-related issues have put the opening back until 2021. The project is currently at RIBA stage 4 (technical design) and the tender opportunity is to be published in September to procure a construction company to undertake the physical works, which are intended to commence later this year.
32 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) 5.2 Winkies Castle
2020 will mark the 15th year of Winkies Castle Folk Museum in Marske being open to the public. The museum attracts approximately 1,500 paying visitors each year, and is governed, managed and operated by volunteers. The Council is eager to secure the future of Winkies Castle through creating a service level agreement (SLA) with the volunteers that would, amongst other things, ensure that the repairs and maintenance of the 16th century building were a priority.
5.3 Guisborough Museum
Guisborough Museum is a very small facility located at the rear of Sunnyfield House in Guisborough and, like the other independent museums in the borough, is managed and operated by a small team of volunteers. The museum attracted a little over 1,000 visitors during 2019, a figure in keeping with previous years, and has built a set of interesting collections representing the social, agricultural and commercial history of the town. The museum also has an excellent collection of late 19th/ early 20th century photographs capturing key events and celebrations of Guisborough’s more recent history.
5.4 Zetland Lifeboat Museum (& Redcar Heritage Centre)
The Zetland Lifeboat Museum is host to more than 10,000 visitors annually, many of whom come to see a genuine national treasure – the oldest surviving lifeboat in the world. The Zetland lifeboat was built in 1802 and is accredited with saving over 500 lives during her 78 years of service. Consequently, The Zetland is listed within the National Historic Ship Register as part of the UK’s Historic Fleet. In 2018 the volunteers at the museum had raised sufficient funds for essential conservation work to be undertaken. This work commenced in November 2018 and was carried out by local boat builder Tony Young who painstakingly repaired and restored the lifeboat, returning it to the museum in fully conserved condition in the Spring of 2019.
We will be holding a joint museums meeting to look at the support needed for our independent museums, the impact of COVID and also their plans going forward. We would like to introduce this as a quarterly meeting. Winkies Castle, Guisborough Museum and Zetland Lifeboat Museum will all remain closed this season due to COVID.
6.0 Tourism
Given the role of Culture in driving forward Tourism please see below the most up to date visitor figures. The figures below are the latest STEAM figures, this data is produced externally and latest data available relates to 2018. Each of our three main visitor destination towns have seen a modest increase in both visitors and economic impact, and Saltburn remains Redcar and Cleveland’s most popular destination.
6.1 STEAM Data Comparison 2017 – 2018
SALTBURN 2017 2018 Increase / Decrease
Total Visitor 2.115m 2.132m 0.8% Numbers Economic Impact £80.73m £84.47m 4.6%
Employment 1047 (FTEs) 1065 (FTEs) 1.7%
REDCAR 2017 2018 Increase / Decrease Total Visitor 1.233m 1.242m 0.8% Numbers
33 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) Economic Impact £60.92m £63.65m 4.5% Employment 835 (FTEs) 848 (FTEs) 1.5%
GUISBOROUGH 2017 2018 Increase / Decrease Total Visitor 387.30 thousand 390.20 thousand 0.8%
Numbers
Economic Impact £25.44m £26.48m 4.1% Employment 315 (FTEs) 319 (FTEs) 1.3%
7.0 Strategic Developments
7.1 Arts in Health South Tees
Great work has been made in the development of Arts in Health South Tees, with Redcar and Cleveland playing a leading role alongside Middlesbrough Council.
Arts in Health South Tees is a social movement, with a vision to create whole system change in health inequalities by disrupting traditional approaches to wellbeing and engagement using culture. This will impact people in South Tees who will have access to culture as a fundamental element of health and social care provision. We believe that health is a ‘state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’.
The role of Arts in Health South Tees is supported by the Health and Wellbeing Board. All relevant organisations that are part of the board have signed up to the Movement for Arts in Health
Moving forward, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and Middlesbrough Council have committed to culture as a part of social regeneration. Both councils are working with partners after the success of the Creative People and Places programme bid, Borderlands described in more detail below and will provide a strategic link between the activity to the Health and Wellbeing Board.
The South Tees Arts in Health social movement were in the middle of developing a joint bid to the Combined Authority and the Arts Council England for resource to develop the strategic network and pilot activity, with a view to submitting bids in Spring 2020. Due to the situation with COVID 19 we are looking at how we adapt and strengthen the project given the current pandemic and the recovery period. We are looking at how to strengthen the partnership with other strategic networks and looking at alternative funding due to a pause on Arts Council project funding.
7.2 Creative People and Places
In 2019, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council were part of a consortium of partners that successfully secured £2 million in funding from the Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places scheme, focusing on community-centric arts programmes.
The bid was led by MIMA and supported by Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, Middlesbrough Council, Tees Valley Combined Authority and Teesside University. The Arts Council funding for Creative People and Places was open to organisations across the country to apply. The scheme is Arts Council’s National Lottery funded investment in engaging new audiences.
34 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) The successful project, Borderlands will see a major programme of creative growth in Redcar & Cleveland and Middlesbrough, with a particular focus on the wards of South Bank, Grangetown and in Middlesbrough, Brambles and Thorntree. As the project develops it will need to have a Borough wide impact.
The project will work with strong community hubs and creative organisations, the programme will be resident-led and will work at large and small scales, with local and international artists with an aim to deliver over 200,000 new opportunities for creative engagement over the next four years.
We continue to work with the partnership to develop the project through the Business Planning period, with final sign off in August. The project delivery with communities will not start until September. Shahda Khan has been appointed as Project Director and started at the beginning of August. The project is considering how COVID will influence and impact on the shape of the project and will adapt the programme and consultation with communities accordingly.
7.3 Redcar and Cleveland Culture Partnership
We are in the early stages of the development of a culture partnership for the borough. The partnership will represent the sector, to drive forward culture in the Borough and the development of a Cultural Strategy. We will also look to Arts Council for funding to support the development of the partnership and to support the strategic direction. To strengthen the strategic direction and increase wider partnership work we will also join forces in a collaborative approach with the Middlesbrough Culture Partnership and form the South Tees Culture Partnership that will meet to plan and deliver shared objectives around things like Creative People and Places, Arts in health and so on.
7.4 Tees Valley Combined Authority
We have made great progress working with the Combined Authority around developing strategic approaches to Culture and Creative industries in the Tees Valley. Regular engagement takes place and our Head of Culture and Tourism sits on the TVCA Culture group with the other Tees Valley Head’s of Service.
In response to the impact of Covid on our Creative and Visitor Economy we worked with TVCA to push forward a recovery package that was announced by the Mayor. The £1m included a £250k ‘Welcome back’ scheme that supported visitor economy businesses with COVID reopening costs. A Culture and Visitor Economy taskforce has been created to give a sector voice to the creation of the other strands of funding for the remaining £750k. The chair of this group will feedback into the Heads of Culture meeting
In regards to Culture investment from TVCA we have established some of our priorities for investment. We will look to develop opportunities across the Borough to develop a cultural and creative place. The investment from TVCA would look to build on recent successes to develop a place that people want to live, work and play, increase our destination profile and substantially increase visitors, create new jobs, grow cultural and creative activity and enable our children and young people and communities to have access to and engage in cultural and creative activity.
7.5 Great Place Tees Valley
Great Place is a Tees Valley-wide initiative, funded by Heritage Lottery/ Arts Council England and administered by Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA), that is aimed at providing cultural opportunities for communities across the sub-region. It is one of 16 Great
35 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) Place projects across England. The initiative began in 2017 and is due to be completed by June 2020.
Redcar and Cleveland initially undertook three projects to be delivered as part of Great Place Tees Valley. One of these projects, the restoration and future development of the Red Barns building in Coatham, was dropped when it became clear that purchasing the building was beyond the allocated budget.
The two projects progressed by RCBC were the Black Path project and the Reinvention of The Steel Gala.
7.6 Black Path Project
This project was proposed by members of the community to celebrate and focus on the history of the public right of way known locally as ‘The Black Path’. After extensive consultation it was agreed that a large mural (100m x 3m) would be created by the community under the supervision of appointed professional artists.
An arts organisation, Foundation Press, was appointed to develop the project through working closely with the community. This work involved collecting oral accounts of people’s experiences and memories of the Black Path.
The oral accounts were documented in a series of booklets which were produced under the supervision of Foundation Press at Golden Boy Green Community Centre. A set of approximately 75 booklets were produced, and these will be distributed to libraries and community centres during 2020. The oral accounts also provided the basis for the imagery and visual art to be included within the mural.
An extensive programme of community workshops resulted in detailed plans for the mural. Community members set about producing individual pieces of artwork under the supervision of professional artists. The individual artworks were assembled and installed on-site along with patterns and designs which were painted directly onto the bare wall selected for the mural.
The installation of the mural was completed in October 2019, and a community launch of the finished mural was held on 26th October 2019.
7.7 Reinventing The Steel Gala
During the 1960’s – 1990’s the annual British Steel gala was one of the most keenly anticipated events being held in the borough. Upwards of 20,000 people would regularly attend the event which was funded by British Steel and through subscriptions made by the workforce. It was agreed that the event could be ‘re-awakened’ as part of Great Place, and the focus for the event would be Dormanstown Working Men’s Club.
Dormanstown Club worked closely with Tees Valley Arts to create a one-day event which included some of the activities from the original Gala, alongside a programme of modern, arts-related performances. A community parade was also featured.
The event was successful and discussions are in place to explore the sustainability of the Gala and identify potential funding streams.
Additional project money
We were able to secure an additional project for the borough to deliver a project called Social Life of Steel, which was to be delivered late spring and into the summer. The project 36 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) will build on the work detailed above and on the work of Steel Stories. The project will be led by Tees Valley Arts. We are currently looking at the digital engagement elements of the project and will look to start in the Autumn/Winter 2020.
7.8 North East Cultural Partnership
We have continued to work as an active member of the North East Cultural Partnership (NECP). Our Head of Culture and Tourism has also been asked to support the work of a key strand of delivery around participation and engagement as a Local Authority lead.
We have actively fed into the development of the NECP Culture and Tourism Recovery and Resilience Strategy that has been developed and launched at the beginning of June in response to the impact of COVID on the creative sector. The strategy makes practical steps that people are planning to recover and is also a call for extra investment in the industry from government. It details how NECP will lobby for investment.
7.9 Palace Gallery
Tees Valley Arts (TVAs) were awarded the contract to run the Palace Gallery and to move their organisation into the Palace Hub. They have relocated from Middlesbrough to Redcar. TVAs have exciting plans for the gallery and for embedding the organisation in the town and the borough and working to strengthen the creative and cultural industries in the area. We are delighted to have brought a long standing and established arts organisation to the borough.
Festival of Thrift have also moved into an office space in the Palace Hub as part of TVAs agreement and will also look to programme and animate the gallery space.
7.10 Supporting the creative sector and communities during COVID 19
As well as the specific work detailed above in regards to COVID we have also created and delivered a number of projects supporting our creative and cultural industries and our communities.
7.10.1 Arts Council England Emergency funding
Our Head of Culture and Tourism supported on promoting and supporting applications to Arts Council England Emergency funds, ensuring that we increase the level of investment from the Arts Council.
ACE investment: 26 Applications were made for Arts Council investment and 19 awards were made, achieving success percentage of 73.1%. In total £228.8k was awarded to a total 12 Individuals and 7 organisations in the Borough.
Some of the organisations successful were Whippet Up, The Imaginarium, Saltburn Community Arts Association, Eston Arts Centre, Tees Valley Arts.
The total amount brought into the borough for the whole of 2018-19 was £161,355 for project grants. (19/20 yet to be ratified) This shows a much higher level of investment and only part way through a year.
We will continue to work with the Arts Council to drive up investment in the area.
7.10.2 Culture at Home
A joint initiative with Middlesbrough Council was delivered throughout lockdown. 37 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) Culture at home aimed to deliver high quality, accessible, fun, digital and physical, participation programmes that encourage moments of joy; galvanise a sense of community connectivity and pride of place via participation; celebrate and champion the role creativity plays in promoting wellbeing and happiness and support the creative economy of the region. This included a project that encouraged and challenged our communities to look beyond the rainbow and create their own window art to turn our streets into the largest outdoor gallery in the World. The first linked to VE Day and the second commission focused on favourite places.
We also worked with Arts Council to deliver 200 art packs to children in Redcar. The Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art worked with us to develop and produce a print version of MIMAZINA. This is the only printed version that they have developed. They worked with their over 55’s Creative Age group to create content and activity and this has been distributed to over 55’s in the Borough including care homes featuring local history stories, ideas for making and doing, crosswords and so on.
8.0 Communications
8.1.1 The communications team’s daily tasks include proactive and reactive media relations, website development, marketing and campaigns, print and digital publications, design, consultation and internal communications.
8.1.2 The team also advises members and officers ahead of media appearances, provides coverage of key events, writes award submissions and offers training for staff. Members of the team also manage the print and design framework used by the entire organisation.
8.1.3 The team have been integral in communicating the recovery from the cyber-attack earlier in the year and the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. This has involved managing significant interest from the national media. They have also taken the opportunity to promote the borough as an investment destination to journalists from European and Japanese-based outlets. This will continue as progress is made on the development of the South Tees Development Corporation ‘Teesworks’ site.
8.1.4 The team supported the visit of The Princess Royal last summer when she visited the world’s oldest lifeboat, The Zetland, in Redcar before going to Saltburn to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Cleveland Way National Trail.
8.1.5 Examples of other events covered and promoted over the past year include the East Cleveland Klondike, the Saltburn Pier 150th year celebrations, the award-winning Steel Stories exhibition, the Looked After Children awards, Pride awards and Inspiring Women awards.
9.0 Recovery from the cyber-attack
February’s cyber-attack decimated the Council’s IT systems. Among the huge challenges to all our services was how to communicate with members, staff, the public, stakeholders and the media without the usual forms of communication.
9.1.1 We were without email, landline telephony and printing facilities for the initial days following the attack. Mobile telephony worked initially, but individual accounts failed as the accounts attempted to synchronise with the Council’s systems.
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9.1.2 Gradually, the Council’s IT staff managed to re-establish our means of communication to allow us to update more effectively internally, but the corporate website was destroyed in the attack and a complete rebuild was required.
9.1.3 As our recovery continued, the Council’s communications team worked closely with Government to ensure clear communications during an extremely challenging time.
10.0 Recovery from Covid-19
10.1.1 The Coronavirus outbreak and ongoing recovery have dominated the work of the communications team following lockdown in March this year.
10.1.2 The team set up the Coronavirus Support Group on Facebook at the beginning of the outbreak. The group quickly gained membership and acted as a single point of contacts for residents, volunteers and community groups looking to support their communities, share information and find out about support available. The group gained nearly 2000 members and is a great example of how social media can quickly act as a key point of contact during an ongoing crisis.
10.1.3 The outbreak has also resulted in an increase in engagement with the local, regional and national media. At the beginning of the lockdown period media releases, statements and social media posts were being issued on a daily basis covering issues such as changes to Council services to the help being provided to those people isolated by the outbreak. Nearly 90 media releases have been issued relating to the Coronavirus outbreak since March.
10.1.4 The team also highlighted the great things our staff, residents and community groups were doing during the crisis with their ‘life on the frontline’ series of articles. These ranged from the work of the staff at the Meadowgate Centre to a Primary School, which remained open to care for key workers. The articles gained national attention and one of our refuse workers featured on the front page of ‘The Sun’ newspaper.
10.1.5 The outbreak has also created an increased need to communicate with staff and Members more regularly and the staff newsletter BBB has been issued weekly to keep staff up to date with developments and the communications team provided daily updates to members during the height of the crisis.
10.1.6 The team have also produced a number of videos to show staff the changes that have been made at Redcar & Cleveland House to keep them safe as well as what the public can expect when they visit the reopened gyms and Kirkleatham museum.
10.1.7 The Coronavirus pandemic has also meant that the team have had to interpret the latest Government guidance at a local level to ensure our residents receive the most up to date guidance and advice. The borough has experienced some challenges with the public visiting our beauty spots and coastline and the team have consistently sent out important information on the latest guidance.
39 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) 10.1.8 In May, Redcar & Cleveland was chosen as a pilot area for the Covid-19 test and trace scheme. The team, along with colleagues at Middlesbrough, are promoting the scheme to our residents and an information flyer has been delivered to every household in the area.
11.0 Campaigns and consultations
One of the most significant projects undertaken by communications in 2019/20 was the residents survey. Topics were agreed with each directorate before the survey was designed both digitally and in print. Hard copies were available in council buildings and delivered to all households as part of the this is Redcar and Cleveland magazine. The option to complete the survey digitally was promoted via the website and social media, face-to-face consultation was held with community groups and the voluntary sector also helped share the survey.
There were more than 1,500 responses to the survey and the results were analysed by team. The results were considered by Cabinet as the delivery plan for 2020/21 was devised and feedback from the survey also led to the communications team highlighting the work of the Council’s Transformation Challenge programme in the winter magazine. That content led to the team producing video case studies which were presented to the Live Well South Tees Board.
In the New Year communications presented the consultation exercise around designs for the Regent cinema site. This involved a comprehensive section on the Council website and a mini social media campaign centred around a video fly-through of the site. More than 1,000 responses were received in a short period of time.
11.1 The team is delivering a campaign to promote the Council’s Youth Employment Initiative. January saw an unprecedented number of referrals and self-referrals. A targeted, paid-for Facebook campaign focusing on Greater Eston and East Cleveland led to a record number of self-referrals and is likely to have contributed to a record number of Jobcentre referrals. Numbers were high enough for the campaign to be suspended at the time to allow the team to cope.
A strong story based on the 300th young person to find employment through the scheme was well used in the magazine, Gazette and other traditional media at around the same time.
40 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) 11.2 Our campaign to support the fostering team’s efforts to increase the number of foster parents continues to yield positive results. Pre- lockdown communications included a feature on the Dewsbury family in the magazine and in local media. Two features post lockdown - one a diary of a single mother in lockdown and the second from a full time worker who spoke about how fostering had changed her life - earned wide coverage across local media and did very well online. This recent work follows a major campaign last year.
11.3 Recruitment figures continue to improve. The number of foster carers overall increased by 47 from March 2017 to March 2020. The number of in-house carers rose from 81 in 2017 (less than half) to 130 this year (69%). Another more recent campaign is focused on encouraging local businesses to employ apprentices.
11.4 The Council has submitted its multi-million-pound Future High Streets Fund bid to Government in an aim to help transform Loftus High Street. The communications team, alongside colleagues in the Growth, Enterprise and Environment directorate, carried out a publicity campaign to encourage local residents to respond to the consultation exercise, asking them what they thought of the vision and proposals for the high street. Their views would be submitted as evidence as part of the Council’s bid.
The consultation exercise took place during the Coronavirus pandemic, meaning engagement exercises such as briefings and face to face meetings could not take place. Communications pulled together a strategy that would work around this; we created a digital survey and promoted the project via the Council’s media channels. To make sure we captured Loftus residents’ views, a paper survey was also issued to the TS13 postcodes. The Council had received 788 responses in total, with 88% agreeing with the Council’s plans.
11.5 The Council, alongside the Redcar Town Board, is preparing its multi-million pound bid for the Redcar Town Fund.
11.6 In July, the board carried out an engagement exercise, to collect local people’s ideas on what they would do with £25million to regenerate Redcar. The communications team carried out a publicity campaign to maximise responses; they issued a press release; publicised the survey on social media channels, including paid-for targeted advertising; issued the survey to colleagues via BBB; as well as sent the survey to Viewfinder Panel members and local businesses via the Business Bulletin and Redcar Cleveland Ambassadors. The consultation exercise received 704 responses.
41 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) 11.7 The team also supported Adults and Communities directorate to publicise the development and delivery of the Meadowgate Intermediate Care Centre in Eston which officially opened its doors in January this year. The team produced extensive video of the facilities for social media and ensured the project was well covered in the local media and resident’s magazine as well as online.
12.0 Regular publications
The ‘this is Redcar and Cleveland’ magazine was cited as the number one preferred source of Council news by respondents to the residents survey. The magazine is delivered to more than 60,000 homes and is led by human interest stories and useful information for residents.
The team also produces regular BBB updates for staff and a more user-friendly staff intranet system was introduced in February.
13.0 Media relations
Good media relations have been crucial for the successes outlined in this report and it is worth noting that traditional media outlets have strong, and growing, social media presences.
The team remains in close contact with journalists across Teesside and the wider region and media releases are routinely covered.
14.0 Digital and online media
The team delivered a new Intranet for the Council this year which represented a significant step forward for the Council in the way that we can communicate internally and share information with staff and members.
14.1 We have continued to make effective use of our social media channels to communicate and interact with our residents. Whilst we have seen an increase across all our main social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin) we have seen significant growth of our Facebook following – 1 July 2019 9,898 likes, 1 July 2020 13,330 likes, an increase of 35% year on year and around 10% of the total population of the borough.
This can be attributed to our increased use of video and high quality imagery with our posts. Both of these types of post perform particularly well on Facebook and we will continue to use them to engage with our residents.
14.2 The team have also expanded our use of paid social media as a means of reaching as many residents as possible. This has been particularly effective for targeting specific locations or groups within the borough to ensure they are seeing relevant messages. For example, the team have delivered paid social media campaigns for our colleagues in the YEI team that allowed us to get bespoke messaging to specific groups in specific areas of the borough.
42 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) 14.3 Several high performing posts this year include the Redcar Town Deal consultation which reached over 44k news feeds with over 4800 engagements representing a 9.8% engagement rate (the average engagement rate on Facebook is 3.6%).
14.4
The second is a post regarding the reopening of parks following the easing of lockdown restrictions which reached over 26k newsfeeds with a 7.4% engagement rate.
43 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) 14.5 The third post is our response to media claims about a spiking of Covid-19 cases in our borough. This was based on poor data analysis by journalists and wasn’t a true reflection of the number of cases in the borough.
This post reached over 90k news feeds with an 8% engagement rate. More importantly though, it demonstrates have we can effectively use social media to correct media inaccuracies quickly and directly to our residents.
These numbers represent significant progress in how as an organisation we can engage with residents and provide the Council with the opportunity for continued growth on our social media channels.
15.0 Design and Publications
As well as managing the design and print contract for the authority, which ensures value for money and high quality design, print and signage, the team produces quality design work in-house.
A number of key corporate publications and branding have been developed and produced by the team this year which include:
• Kirkleatham Estate branding • Asset Strategy • Workforce Development Strategy • Transport Plan: Transport for the Future • Events guides for the spring/summer and autumn/winter seasons • Enjoy Redcar and Cleveland mini-guide • Countryside Leaflet • Ceremonies literature • Apprenticeship materials • VEMT campaign (Vulnerable, Exploited, Missing or Trafficked) • Supported Lodgings – branding/leaflets/posters
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15.1
15.2 Internal communications
The need for staff to work from home and more flexibly following the Coronavirus outbreak has meant that internal communications is more important to the effective functioning of the Council than ever.
Communications have produced weekly editions of BBB throughout the pandemic. They have also produced a number of videos for staff including changes to the office accommodation and updates from John Sampson.
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15.4 The new Intranet will enable the Council to develop internal communications over the coming months, with plans in place for staff to engage more effectively with each other whilst working remotely.
16.0 Place marketing
16.1 The Redcar and Cleveland Ambassadors programme is designed to change perceptions of the borough and has attracted around 500 business and community activists to bang the drum about what a great place this is to live, enjoy and do business.
16.2 The Ambassadors social media channels have a combined following of more than 4,000. More than 500 influencers including business leaders, academics and community activists have attended events around the borough. The latest event, which focused on the borough’s recovery from the effects of lockdown was held virtually.
16.2 The programme will support all aspects of Redcar and Cleveland’s recovery to encourage the retention and creation of jobs and to welcome residents and visitors to our businesses and attractions in a safe manner.
17.0 Looking forward
As well as supporting the recovery from Covid-19 the communications team will plan for any potential setbacks that may arise as a result of further outbreaks.
The team will support the Redcar Towns Fund bid and is working on a project that would see the commercialisation of certain services. These would include a paid-for maintenance service and a new advertising model designed to increase revenue.
In terms of digital, we will continue to focus our efforts on promoting a broader range of Council services via video and social media. Our ultimate aim is to make the authority more relatable to residents and highlight the valuable services provided by our teams on a daily basis.
Continued support will be provided to key priority projects including progress on the Regent Cinema, Loftus High Street, Youth Employment Initiative as well as fostering recruitment.
Internal communications will become more important at the Council now that more members of staff are working from home. A staff survey is planned to obtain important feedback from colleagues and new ways of engaging with staff are being explored so they can find out the latest news and know where to go for further information.
46 of 58 Version 7 (08/03/2017) AGENDA ITEM 8B Cabinet Member for Adults
Annual Report for 2019/20
To: Borough Council Date: 27 August 2020
From: Councillor Mary Ovens, Cabinet Member for Adults Ref:
1.0 Introduction
1.1 As this is my first annual report since taking over the portfolio following the last election, I would like to start by passing on my thanks to the previous portfolio holder David Walsh for all the work that he did to champion the cause of Adult Social Care.
1.2 It has been an extraordinary year, unfortunately ending on Covid19 Lockdown. This curtailed planned activity to visit staff and services. Fortunately, I had been able to manage to visit numerous establishments accompanied by staff, as appropriate and on my own. These have included The Grenfell Club, The Dunes, an assisted living development, our partners including MIND and our Reablement offices at Skelton. Exciting developments included the opening of Guisborough Central Activity & Wellbeing service, utilising the St. Luke Senior building, in partnership with Beyond Housing increasing supported living at the Dunes, Redcar and of course The Meadowgate Intermediate Care Centre in Eston, officially opened by HRH Princess Anne as patron of Occupational Therapists. I am hoping to return to more visits when appropriate and look forward to joining fellow Councillors on Rota visits to Care Homes.
1.3 I would like to thank all staff, care workers, informal carers, local community groups and individuals who have all come together to support the vulnerable during this difficult Covid 19 period. They have helped safeguard our residents, enabled them to live fulfilling lives whatever their age, situation or vulnerability. We know it has been very difficult for all concerned and I am sure that as we recover, many will need support around their mental wellbeing. However, we will continue to work in partnership, and we will rise to the challenge of supporting everyone who needs our help.
1.2 I also want to offer my commiserations to all those that have lost loved ones during the pandemic. Over 130 residents of our borough have lost their lives to this deadly virus, each death a tragedy and we must all work together and follow government guidance to limit its spread and stop any further deaths.
1.3 As we all know Adult Social Care faces a series of challenges including supporting an ageing population, an historic lack of investment in the sector and complex working relationships with health. The long-delayed government reforms of social care mean that there is no clear path as yet as to how the sector will be sustained in the long term. Given that as a Council we have had to deal with two significant emergencies, the first being the cyber-attack, followed almost immediately by the Covid 19 pandemic, this has been an unprecedented year.
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47 of 58 2.0 Cyber Attack
2.1 On Saturday, 8 February 2020, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council was the victim of a ransomware cyber-attack which targeted the Council’s IT servers. Our absolute priority from the first day of the attack was to protect our frontline services, ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the most vulnerable people in our community, while rebuilding our IT systems so that they could return to full functionality
2.2 Our first action in Adult Services was to set up an Adult Services Emergency Response Team and this was operational with an initial risk-based recovery plan in operation by the close of play on Monday 11 February 2020.
2.3 The initial consequences were that we were unable to access our Adults Case Management System, any documents saved on our servers or send/receive emails. Our first priority was to ensure that those who wanted to contact us for support were able to do so. Revised telephone and email arrangements were immediately put in place and advertised on social media and with all our key partners.
2.4 By the end of the first week we had implemented manual processes to ensure there was an appropriate paper trail for all actions and decisions taken by the service and that we were still able to support the people who needed our help.
2.5 By the end of February 2020, we had gained limited read only access to the case management system and by mid-March, just before lockdown, we regained full access.
2.6 The disruption caused by the cyber-attack did have implications for the efficiency of the service as all interventions and actions took longer than they normally would have. Plus, great effort has had to be expended inputting all the activity into the case management system once live access was restored. With the pandemic starting almost immediately after and the need to concentrate on limiting the spread of the virus, the service has not yet fully recovered to a state of normal operational activity.
2.7 However, the service has gone to incredible lengths, under very difficult circumstances to ensure that vulnerable adults in Redcar & Cleveland have continued to receive the care and support that they need.
3.0 Covid 19
3.1 The Covid 19 pandemic has affected every aspect of life, but has had a particularly devastating impact on Adult Social Care. The work of the NHS in combating Covid 19 has rightly gained much of the attention, but the impact on Adult Social Care has been just as devastating.
3.2 As at the 20 July 2020, there had been 312 care workers in England and Wales who had died as a result of Covid 19, that is only one fewer than the number of NHS workers who have lost their lives. In addition, there have also been over 20,000 deaths of care home residents where Covid 19 has been recorded on the death certificate.
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48 of 58 3.3 As a service, we have done all we can to protect the vulnerable from the virus, a summary of our response is provided in the following paragraphs.
3.4 Towards the end of February 2020, we began work on an Adult Social Care Pandemic Management Strategy. The strategy set out the principles, systems and processes to be followed in the event of a pandemic being declared. The first draft of the strategy was completed by the 13 March 2020, this then allowed informed and considered decisions to be made to ensure we protected our service users, staff and care workers, when the time came to take action.
3.5 Our initial response included a new regular Covid specific staff bulletin, a survey of all staff so that we could understand who was able to undertake duties that involved close contact with others and how we could best support each individual member of staff should they be required to work from home. A prioritised action plan was also developed for each team, so that should social distancing be implemented for staff, each team would still be able to work to its maximum capabilities in terms of protecting and supporting the vulnerable. Each provider also received a communication informing them of the strategy and the key elements that they needed to be aware of.
3.6 Shortly after, on the 20 March 2020, all office-based staff were sent to work from home and our Activity & Wellbeing services offering day opportunities for older people and people with learning disabilities were closed. Our pre-planning allowed for a smooth transition, with minimal overall disruption.
3.7 On the 19 March 2020, the government published hospital discharge plans which stated that clinically fit patients must be discharged from hospital within three hours of being identified. The target was to have 15,000 patients moved out of hospital beds within the next 7 days.
3.8 This policy placed great strain on Adult Social Care right across the country, as many of those discharged needed some form of social care intervention to facilitate a safe discharge. To support the process, we introduced a 7-day supported discharge service working out of James Cook University Hospital and all patients were moved on as required with the necessary support in place. As testing these patients for Covid 19 was not part of the government plan, we requested the South Tees Hospitals Foundation Trust to test them as we were aware of the potential for the infection to spread into care homes, our request was denied on the grounds that it was not government policy. Patients are now being tested prior to discharge to a care home. As at 20 July 2020, 153 patients were discharged from hospital to a care home in the borough under the emergency Covid provisions.
3.9 Key actions taken by Adult Social Care during the pandemic included:
• During the initial phases, when PPE was in short supply, we sourced and provided free over £240,000 of PPE to our care providers • Provided assistance to care providers on the interpretation of government guidance which changed regularly during the pandemic, especially in relation to the usage of PPE
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49 of 58 • From 23 March 2020, we have provided additional funding to residential care, care at home and direct payment recipients • Worked with our NHS partners to provide infection, prevention and control training to residential care homes • Introduced a weekly newsletter for Adults staff and produced a tailored wellbeing support offer for staff • Implemented new ways of remote working with providers to ensure we limited the potential spread of the infection into care homes • Information sheets were produced for our direct payment recipients on infection prevention and control • Made preparations for a second potential spike, such as creating a reserve of PPE
3.10 All of the work that we have undertaken together across out local care sector has certainly had an impact, with the care home infection rate in Redcar & Cleveland being the lowest in the area. However, we have not been able to stop the spread entirely and unfortunately as at 10 July 2020, there had been 49 deaths in care homes in the borough where Covid 19 had been recorded on the death certificate as a potential contributory factor.
4.0 Legacy of Covid 19
4.1 Even if we discount the potential for a second spike, the initial pandemic has left a legacy for Adult Social Care that will take a considerable time to address. Some of the main impacts are: • Until there is a vaccine or cure, there will have to be an element of infection control to keep our most vulnerable service users safe • Under normal circumstances, it is considered to be most effective if the social care intervention is conducted face to face, for example, an assessment of need being conducted in the presence of the potential service user, so a rapport can be built and detailed observations of the persons abilities can be undertaken. Therefore, there will be a continual balance of risk between infection control and ensuring the right support is given. • There has been an impact on overall mental wellbeing, from the trauma of losing loved ones, to service users fear of contact with others, to staff and carers suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome • A backlog has built up across a number of service areas, such as minor and major housing adaptations, annual social work reviews, and occupational therapy assessments. Clearing a backlog following a time of such intense effort and stress will not be easy or quick without additional resource. • Due to factors such as the three-hour hospital discharge policy, many service users missed the opportune moment to have the support or interventions designed to maximise their independence. This means some may now never fully recover to the level of independence that they might have achieved and could mean they will have an ongoing care need that they might not have otherwise had, putting further strain on our already stretched care sector. • There is currently increased under occupancy across the residential care sector, it is difficult to forecast when occupancy will return to previous levels, and this is putting some providers at risk of closure. The service is currently
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50 of 58 providing additional financial support to those most at risk, using the Covid government grant, but this position will not be sustainable long term without further government support. • Our support offer in services such as day opportunities, will need to evolve. Early consultation has identified that some service users and their families would like the service to be as it was, although this may not be possible due to infection control measures, whilst others are too frightened of the virus to return. Services such as these are just as important for any family carers to have a break and the long-term impact on carers emotional and physical resilience needs to be carefully considered in all situations.
5.0 Mental Health
5.1 The mental wellbeing of the borough is something that I am focused upon and want to ensure that we do all we can to promote good mental wellbeing and resilience. As I have already mentioned, the pandemic will have a potentially negative impact on many residents, and this is something that we need to address. Some example of the work that we have undertaken in the past year are:
5.2 Wider community offer – We are working with our colleagues in Health and Communities to broaden our mental health offer. For example, we have used some Better Care Fund monies to fund Whippet Up, a local group to offer wellbeing activities and events at Kirkleatham Pavilion. As another example, in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society we are currently delivering socially distanced dementia dances. We are also working with Public Health promoting messages such as the Five Ways to Wellbeing.
5.3 IMPACT Tees-wide Psychological and Wellbeing Therapies Service – As of 1 April 2020, a new IMPACT service delivery model was implemented across Tees supported by the Council. IMPACT is designed to provide a streamlined, single point of access route into an early intervention, prevention, treatment and recovery pathway for anyone who experiences emotional and mental wellbeing difficulties and also includes an integrated psychological therapy service addressing clinical threshold anxiety related problems and/or depression. The service is still in the mobilisation phase and is being delivered via telephone and digital means during the Covid 19 pandemic.
5.4 New Redcar & Cleveland Wellbeing Offer - In addition to IMPACT, the Council has commissioned a service with Redcar & Cleveland Mind, providing two mental health practitioners who offer general advice and signposting, up to 3 sessions for an assessment and triage to appropriate stepped support. Plus a further 8 practitioners to support residents recovery who have mild or moderate mental health needs.
5.5 Covid 19 Response - The physical health impacts of contracting the Covid 19 virus has taken up the vast majority of the focus, but I feel that the mental health consequences will be just as severe. The immediate impact of the pandemic and lockdown is not yet known or the longer psychological impacts, however, we are working to ensure that with our partners we can meet the wellbeing needs of our borough.
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51 of 58 5.6 Working with Public Health we have developed a ‘Trilogy of Risks’ partnership group which includes specialist services, colleagues from Community Safety, the NHS and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner. The group will look at how we provide support post pandemic, through a better understanding of the complex relationship between mental health, substance misuse and domestic abuse.
5.7 Working with Tees, Esk & Wear Valley NHS Trust (TEWV) our mental health provider, we are working on a refined package of support to ensure everyone no matter how mild or acute their need is, can find the support that they require. As part of the wider system approach to this the September Live Well South Tees Health and Wellbeing Board will be dedicated to mental health.
5.8 Enhanced offer to carers – As part of our new carers support package introduced last year, working with Redcar & Cleveland Mind we have created a specific offer for carers. This includes a Mental Health Professional role (part-time) working specifically on developing mental health support output for the Carers Service, and a small group support for carers of people with a mental health difficulty that focusses upon information giving, training in mental health disorders and management, risk management, and peer support. The service aims to promote preventative measures by supporting carers to strengthen their emotional resilience and wellbeing to prevent carer-breakdown.
5.9 East Cleveland base - Following a campaign by two local Councillors and support by the service, TEWV has acquired some space in East Cleveland Hospital to accommodate an East Cleveland Team. We are currently trying to acquire some space ourselves so that a comprehensive community based mental health offer for East Cleveland can be delivered from the hospital site and out into our communities.
6.0 Partnership with Health
6.1 An important part of the work of Adult Social Care is our partnership with our health partners. We have a long-standing working relationship with Tees Valley Clinical Commissioning Group, South Tees Hospitals Foundation Trust, TEWV and Middlesbrough Borough Council. Some examples of progress in the past year are given below.
6.2 Response to Covid 19 – Although, there have been some national tensions between Social Care and the NHS, for example, over the prioritisation of testing, at a local level all partners have worked together to protect our local population, putting aside any system barriers. As a partnership we have provided infection, prevention and control training to care homes, pooled PPE stocks, shared best practice and combined resources to achieve maximum benefit. As we move forward, we aim to capitalise on this new found way of working as we continue to integrate service delivery, especially in our response to the emerging mental health impacts of the virus.
6.3 Better Care Fund Plan 2020/21 – In April 2020, a new Better Care Fund plan was approved. The plan built on the success of previous plans and included some new initiatives such as an overnight planned care service. The service provides overnight
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52 of 58 support for those being discharged from hospital, so that they can safely return home, rather than potentially require an admission to residential care.
6.4 Primary Care Networks – Three networks have been created in the borough, they are an integral part of the NHS Long Term Plan, with general practices grouping together to form a network, typically covering 30,000-50,000 patients. The networks will provide the structure and funding for services to be developed locally, in response to the needs of the patients they serve. The Council has supported the establishment of the networks who are currently providing an enhanced offer to care homes, with a key focus on limiting the spread of Covid 19. Each network is delivering a social prescribing offer and two of the networks have commissioned this service from the Council’s Communities and Health Service.
6.5 Delayed Transfer of Care, Peer Review – In September 2019, NHS England undertook a 4 day peer review of delayed transfer of care performance on South Tees. A delayed transfer of care occurs, when a patient is still occupying a hospital bed for an extended time period after they are deemed well enough to move onto a new setting, whether that be some other NHS facility, back home or into residential care.
6.6 As a Council we perform very well in minimising the number of delays that are attributable to social care, achieving the stretch targets set by NHS England. However, South Tees is one of the worst performing areas in the country for delays that are attributable to the NHS. The delays reported by the South Tees Hospitals Foundation Trust are considered a system wide responsibility, and due to the poor performance the peer review was undertaken.
Areas of Strength identified by the Peer Review included: • Good examples of improvement projects and developments: - Single Point of Access (SPA) - Commitment to the development of an Integrated Discharge Team • Developing Primary Care Networks and co-located community services; • A strong appetite and much good will / openness to further joint work; • Talented highly skilled practitioners and middle managers who are keen to change things; • Ambition to deliver high standards of performance and person-centred care; • A well-articulated understanding of population health at all levels of the system; • A strong Public Health function to support the improvement journey with insight / intelligence; • Trusted Assessor is a positive development and being extended to cover the whole patch.
Areas for Consideration included: • Not clear what the whole system priorities are; • No clear statement of what “home first” means, or a clear shared narrative to support this; • Perceived under-investment in NHS Community Services and lack of strategic system leadership; • No shared understanding of patient flow issues and their relationship to avoidable delays;
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53 of 58 • Talk / ideas not always followed through causing frustration and potential for disengagement; • Governance arrangements / strategic leadership aren’t supporting innovation; • Senior Leaders need to drive an agreed vision and secure capacity to implement transformation;
6.7 The response to the Peer Review findings is being led by the South Tees A&E Delivery Board, however, progress has slowed due to us all focusing on the pandemic.
7.0 Safeguarding
7.1 I would like to thank my fellow Councillors for the proactive Member involvement at Adults & Communities Scrutiny & Improvement Committee and for undertaking rota visits to care homes. By your involvement you actively contribute to supporting the work that we do to safeguard our residents.
7.2 Even before the pandemic, it has been a year in which Adult safeguarding has taken on national prominence. On the 22 May 2019, the BBC Panorama programme exposed the shocking abuse of residents by staff at Whorlton Hall in County Durham. Whorlton Hall operated by Cygnet Health Care was an independent hospital providing assessment and treatment for men and women aged 18 years and over living with a learning disability and complex needs, the facility has now closed. There were no residents of Redcar & Cleveland within Whorlton Hall.
7.3 However, the incident highlighted the challenge faced by agencies to identify and stop abuse, in the year before the scandal was exposed, there had been over 100 visits to Whorlton Hall, by inspectors, social care and NHS staff. Ensuring vulnerable adults, live a life free from abuse and neglect is a nationwide concern and one that all Adult Social Care departments tackle on a daily basis.
7.4 Improvements to Safeguarding – On the 10 September 2019 a report was presented to the Adults & Communities Scrutiny & Improvement Committee on actions that that we were making to improve our Adult Safeguarding Practice, these included: • Infection Control project - An event was held at Markse Hall to promote Oral Hygiene for care home residents, Hand Hygiene systems for carers and a Mattress audit. • Capacity Tracker – Launch of the web based application which enables communication and information on ‘real-time’ bed capacity across Care Homes and can be accessed by CCGs, local authorities and NHS Trusts. • Community Care and Support Working groups - are held every 6 weeks with domiciliary care providers, to focus on 4 key areas to help improve quality and delivery of care. The 4 areas are: Funding & Pay Levels; Process & Systems; Recruitment & Retention; and Quality & Provision. • Care Planning Awareness - Several 3-hour sessions have been delivered to care providers by social work and commissioning officers. The training ensures care providers understand how to write their own high quality care plans to best meet the needs of their residents.
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54 of 58 7.5 Provider Quality Management - We have recently introduced the Provider Assessment and Market Management Solution (PAMMS) application. This enable us to have better quality information and to be able to more proactively target our resources to the areas of care where we need to see the greatest improvements with care providers. This will support greater scrutiny, supporting more timely action planning to ensure that the provider either achieves the required standard, or is supported in a managed way that enables people to move to appropriate local alternatives.
7.6 Serious Concerns Protocol – Despite all the work that we do to support providers, in some instances the level of risk requires a provider to enter the multi-agency serious concerns protocol, then if they hit a certain trigger point the provider is requested to attend the Adults & Communities Scrutiny & Improvement Committee to explain the situation and for the Committee to gain assurance that the provider is committed to improving the standards of care. In the past year, three providers have attended the Committee, Meadowvale Homecare on the 22 October 2019, Ann Charlton Lodge on 21 January 2020 and Sand Banks Care Centre on the 28 July 2020. Ensuring all our residents receive quality, safe care will continue to be a challenge, especially with the added complication of Covid 19.
7.7 New Safeguarding Team – In November 2019, we introduced a dedicated Safeguarding Team, so that all core safeguarding activity was centralised in one place. It is anticipated that this will ensure we have a consistent and focussed response to all safeguarding enquiries.
7.8 Safeguarding & Covid 19 – It has been a challenging period for safeguarding. Since the start of the pandemic the focus has been primarily on keeping vulnerable adults safe from the virus. This has though led inevitably to changes that mean there has been less oversight at times of the quality of care. For example, Member rota visits were suspended, and less social work visits have been undertaken to care homes to mitigate the risk of infection being brought into the homes. For the same reason it has also been difficult to complete Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards with the same rigour.
7.9 However, keeping residents safe is our top priority and so where safeguarding issues have been identified that require immediate action and an onsite visit, these have taken place using appropriate infection control procedures. However, as we start to move out of lockdown we are looking at new ways as to how we can always ensure that we have suitable oversight of the quality of care, whilst minimising the infection risk to care home residents.
8.0 Other Notable Achievements
8.1 Opening of The Meadowgate Centre – For a number of years the service has adopted a Reablement and Independence approach, which is centred on supporting our residents to maximise their independence so that they can lead fulfilling lives within their own home for as long as possible. A huge step forward in our service offer was the £5m investment in the Meadowgate Centre. The 40-bed residential centre provides therapy-led care and reablement for up to six weeks, helping people
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55 of 58 to recover, build confidence, regain their independence and return home following a hospital stay.
8.2 The new centre opened its doors to its first residents at the beginning of December 2019, whilst the official opening took place on the 26 February 2020, by the Princess Royal, who is Patron of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists. Admissions were curtailed during the pandemic as a number of staff were either self-isolating or shielding, but by the end of this month, we will be back up to full operational capacity with all beds available.
8.3 During the past year, the Council has continued its policy of ensuring there is a wide range of quality accommodation to meet the needs of its population, in recent years we have seen the opening of new extra care housing schemes in Eston, Ormesby, Brotton and Redcar. In the past year we undertook extensive consultation to produce a Supported Housing Needs Assessment to ensure that our future developments meet the changing needs of our residents. . 8.4 New supported housing scheme for people with disabilities - A £1.3m development of 12 new homes by Home Group on Grosmont Close in Redcar is now complete, providing high quality accommodation for people with physical and learning disabilities in Redcar and Cleveland. The technology enabled development includes 8 one bedroomed level access apartments and 4 one-bedroomed bungalows (2 wheelchair-friendly), with the properties now occupied.
8.5 New Redcar housing scheme – A New housing development to meet the needs of older people and people with disabilities is currently being built in Redcar. In partnership with Beyond Housing. The £7m development of 52 new homes with affordable rent in Redcar is underway. The homes are being built close to the Redcare Partnership’s existing Extra Care Housing Scheme, The Dunes; and will provide much-needed accommodation for elderly and vulnerable people in Redcar and Cleveland, with four three-bedroomed, wheelchair-friendly bungalows and six two-bedroomed bungalows, designated for older people, in addition to 38 two, three and four-bedroomed houses for those with general needs. Completion is expected later this year.
8.6 Hummersea Hills Development – Informed by our Supported Housing Needs Assessment, the Beyond Housing development of 128 new homes at Hummersea Hills will include a substantial supported living element. 43 of the homes, including 9 apartments, 10 houses and 24 bungalows, will be provided with care services delivered from a support hub within the development. This element of the development is a continuation of the successful ‘Redcare’ partnership between Beyond Housing and the Council which provides bespoke homes with care and support for older and disability service users across Redcar and Cleveland.
8.7 Guisborough Central Activity & Wellbeing Services for Learning Disabilities – The Council was running two day services in East Cleveland for adults with a learning disability at High Hills in Brotton and North Skelton. It was felt that the service offer was limited due to the facilities on offer and so following a period of extensive consultation with the service users and their families we invested over £100,000 in a new facility known as ‘Guisborough Central’ which became operational in early
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56 of 58 August 2019. The centre closed due to Covid 19 but has now reopened on a reduced capacity basis as an infection control precaution.
8.8 The transition arrangements were managed very carefully and worked really well, supporting people who use the service and their carers in the move to the new service. New transport routes and activity plans were put in place and feedback from people using the service and their carers has been overwhelmingly positive. An official opening day was held on 3rd October 2019, which was a huge success, attended by people who use the service, their carers, staff, and Elected Members. One person who uses the service spoke of how much they liked the new service, and one carer spoke of how much difference the new service had made to their daughter.
8.9 Financial Management – The financial pressures facing Adult Social Care are well recognised. For the year 2019/20 the service again spent within budget, this is the eighth year in a row that the service has achieved this, which is a remarkable achievement given the significant overspends that occurred prior to this and the continued pressure on the service due to the ever increasing needs of the population. This performance has been achieved by an unwavering commitment to investing in services that maximise the wellbeing and independence of our service users.
8.10 In 2020/21 the service is facing unprecedented cost pressures due to the recovery from the cyber-attack and the impact of Covid 19. However, our commitment and approach to supporting our residents will not change.
8.11 Care Conference – In partnership with Middlesbrough Council and our health partners we delivered a two day event in June 2019 which brought together a vast range of education and training opportunities to enhance skills for 200 care home staff to improve and ensure safe practice, raise standards of dignity and care. Workshops included, the ‘Melissa Bus’, a simulation training bus delivering training about infection prevention and control, delirium, medicines management, palliative care, undernutrition and dietetics; and Occupational Therapists provided training in posture care and bed management. Due to its success a second event was planned for this year; this was cancelled due to Covid 19 but will hopefully return in 2021.
8.12 New Hospital Social Work Team – For many years the hospital social work team for the borough was provided on a South Tees basis by a team managed by Middlesbrough Council. Due to a desire to improve our performance and to ensure consistency with the service offered at our community hospitals, we created our own service that started in July 2020, since the implementation, feedback from the hospital and patients has been extremely positive.
9.0 Conclusions
9.1 This has been a year without equal in terms of the challenges that the service has faced. Yet, we have achieved many positive outcomes and service improvements and I am very proud of the efforts made by staff right across the service. Although, I must acknowledge again the collective response across all sectors of our borough in helping to fight Covid 19.
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9.2 This next year will prove to be just as challenging as we try and mitigate the impact of a second spike, whilst dealing with the long term consequences of the first spike. I am particularly concerned about the impact on mental health and I am pleased that the next Health & Wellbeing Board meeting will be dedicated to this issue. This issue is so large that we need to tackle it together, it must be a community wide response if we are to ensure that all those that need help no matter how big or small receive it. No one should face the consequences of poor mental health alone.
9.3 I hope that in the next year the government finally announce its reforms for Adult Social Care and that these foster a true partnership approach with the NHS, and ensure the long term financial stability of the sector so that everyone with care needs can have them appropriately met. Care workers deserve a decent wage, reflecting the important role that they play in society, and they cannot continue to be relegated to the back row. The care sector needs parity of esteem with the NHS.
9.4 I hope there will be a return to some ‘normality’ in the coming year, in particular visiting services and care homes, but we must all continue to use and improve new ways of working. A blend of traditional approaches with the best of the new, such as virtual meetings, harnessing the capabilities of available technology to deliver best outcomes. Challenging times we know are ahead, but I am sure we will continue to rise to the challenge and offer the best Adult Social Care services for our residents. I am indebted to Patrick Rice and Victoria Wilson for their support.
Mary Ovens Cabinet Member for Adults
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