Public Document Pack CORPORATE SERVICES Linda Fisher Deputy Chief Executive

GOVERNANCE AND COMMITTEE SERVICES TEAM Number One Riverside, Smith Street, Rochdale, OL16 1XU DX22831 ROCHDALE Tel: (01706) 647474 Fax: (01706) 924705 Website: www.rochdale.gov.uk To: All Members of the Council Enquiries to: Mark Hardman Extension: 4704 Date: Tuesday,14 January 2014

Dear Councillor

COUNCIL

You are requested to attend the meeting of the Council to be held in Council Chamber - Rochdale Town Hall on Wednesday, 22 January 2014 commencing at 6.35 pm or on the conclusion of the Extraordinary Meeting of the Council, whichever is the later.

Deadlines for submissions are as follows –

Wednesday before Council Noon Motion pursuant to Council Procedure Rule 11. (15 th January 2014) Notification of question at Council by a resident or ratepayer of the Borough.

Tuesday before Council Noon Notification of questions to representatives on Joint (21 st January 2014) Authorities and Outside Bodies and to Portfolio Holders and Committee Chairs. Notification of amendments to proposals and recommendations being submitted to Council.

Notifications should be forwarded to Peter Thompson, Senior Governance and Committee Officer on behalf of the Chief Executive.

The agenda and supporting papers are attached.

If you require advice on any agenda item involving a possible Declaration of Interest which could affect your right to speak and/or vote, please contact staff in the Governance and Committee Services Team at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting.

Yours Faithfully

Linda Fisher Deputy Chief Executive

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

COUNCIL

Wednesday, 22 January 2014 at 6.35 pm (or at the conclusion of the Extraordinary Meeting, whichever is the later)

Council Chamber - Rochdale Town Hall

A G E N D A

Apologies for Absence 1. Civic Prayers 2. Mayor's Announcements 3. Declarations of Interest Members are requested to indicate at this stage any items on the agenda in which they intend to declare an interest. Members are reminded that, in accordance with the Localism Act 2011 and the Council's adopted Code of Conduct, they must declare the nature of any personal or discloseable pecuniary interest required of them and, in the case of any discloseable pecuniary interest, withdraw from the meeting during consideration of the item, unless permitted otherwise within the Code of Conduct. 4. Minutes 1 - 9 To authorise the signing of the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 16 th October and 11 th December 2013. 5. Public Questions and Petitions To receive petitions and questions from members of the public, where these have been received in accordance with the Petitions Scheme and/or Council Procedure Rules. 6. Notices of Motion To consider Motions submitted in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11. 7. Nomination of Deputy Mayor 2014/2015 10 - 11 8. Council Constitution 12 - 14 9. Calendar of Meetings 2014/2015 15 - 17 10. Members' Quarterly Reports To receive quarterly reports from Members of the Cabinet, Chairs of Township Committees and Chairs of Overview and Scrutiny Committees and to permit questions from Members of the Council. (a) The Leader of the Council and Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board

(b) The Cabinet Member for Finance

(c) The Cabinet Member for Strengthening Communities

(d) The Cabinet Member for Place and Regulation

(e) The Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Townships

(f) The Cabinet Member for Adult Care with responsibility for the Voluntary Sector (g) The Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families

(h) The Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Customer Services (i) The Chair of Heywood Township Committee

(j) The Chair of Middleton Township Committee

(k) The Chair of Pennines Township Committee

(l) The Chair of Rochdale Township Committee

(m) The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee

(n) The Chair of the Health and Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee 11. Representatives on Joint Authorities and Outside Bodies To permit questions to representatives on any Joint Authority or Outside Body, where received. (a) Report of the Representative to the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority (b) Report of the Representative to the Armed/Reserve Forces and the Lead Member for Public Sector Reform (c) Report of the Representative to Transport for Greater Manchester

Agenda Item 4

COUNCIL

MINUTES OF MEETING Wednesday, 16 October 2013

PRESENT: The Mayor (Councillor Rush) (in the Chair); Councillors Farooq Ahmed, Shakil Ahmed, Shefali Ahmed, Daalat Ali, Sultan Ali, Beswick, Cecile Biant, Surinder Biant, Boriss, Brett, Martin Burke, Phillip Burke, Burns, Clegg, Danczuk, Darnbrough, Dearnley, Duckworth, Dutton, Neil Emmott, Susan Emmott, Farnell, James Gartside, Jane Gartside, Godson, Greenall, Hartley, Hobhouse, Holly, Hussain, Joinson, Kelly, Lambert, Linden, McCarthy, Mills, Mir, Mulgrew, Neilson, O’Neill, O’Rourke, Robinson, Hilary Rodgers, Martin Rodgers, Sheerin, Stott, Sullivan, Wardle, West, Williams, Winkler and Zaman.

OFFICERS: J. Taylor (Chief Executive), S. Downey (Executive Director), M. Rowan (Interim Head of Legal and Democratic Services) and P. Thompson (Corporate Services.

ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: 20 members of the public.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE: Councillors Iftikhar Ahmed, Bethell, Davison, Hornby, Martin, Murphy and Wazir.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST 30 There were no declarations of interests.

SENIOR MANAGEMENT REVIEW 31 The Mayor advised that this item was to be withdrawn from the agenda.

MINUTES 32 DECIDED – That subject to the deletion of Councillors Martin Rodgers and West, at Minute 25(3) and their replacement by Councillors Joinson and Linden, the minutes of the meeting of Council, held 18th July 2013 be approved as a correct record.

PUBLIC QUESTIONS AND PETITIONS 33 There were no matters for consideration under this item.

CAR PARKING CHARGES 34 The following Motion, of which Notice had been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, was moved by Councillor Winkler and seconded by Councillor Duckworth –

“That Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council withdraw car parking charges on all its car parks during bank holidays.”

Upon being put to the vote, the Motion was declared to be carried. DECIDED - That Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council withdraws car parking charges on all its car parks during bank holidays.

BRITISH NUCLEAR TEST VETERANS ASSOCIATION 35 The following Motion, of which Notice had been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, was moved by Councillor McCarthy and seconded by Councillor Lambert –

Page 1 “That this Council notes that its commitment to the Armed Forces Community Covenant ensures the needs of those residents in the Borough of Rochdale who serve or who have served, the country are recognised and supported at a local level.

Further notes that many other residents have, through a range of professions, served the country in equally significant measure, such as in national security and defence – including those who participated in the testing of Britain’s Nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s.

Welcomes that, following a Ministry of Defence commissioned Health Needs Analysis in 2011 of British nuclear test veterans, the NHS have introduced a number of practical measures to support them.

Believes that other parts of the public and voluntary sector should seek to introduce similar measures to support nuclear test veterans – and that the council should lead this at a local level by extending the provisions of the Armed Forces Community Covenant to those veterans who live in the Borough of Rochdale.

Urges the Government to support the campaign of the British Nuclear Tests Veterans Association by: (a) officially recognising the unique service of these veterans and acknowledge the Nation’s continuing debt to them and (b) support the intention to establish a benevolent fund of £25 million from the Government to provide assistance for those veterans and their descendants in need.

Agrees to ask our Members of Parliament to back this campaign and join the Council in urging the Government to support the requests outlined above.”

Upon being put to the vote, the Motion was declared to be carried. DECIDED – That (1) the Council notes that its commitment to the Armed Forces Community Covenant ensures the needs of those residents in the Borough of Rochdale who serve or who have served, the country are recognised and supported at a local level; (2) further notes that many other residents have, through a range of professions, served the country in equally significant measure, such as in national security and defence – including those who participated in the testing of Britain’s Nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s; (3) welcomes that, following a Ministry of Defence commissioned Health Needs Analysis in 2011 of British nuclear test veterans, the NHS have introduced a number of practical measures to support them; (4) believes that other parts of the public and voluntary sector should seek to introduce similar measures to support nuclear test veterans – and that the council should lead this at a local level by extending the provisions of the Armed Forces Community Covenant to those veterans who live in the Borough of Rochdale; (5) urges the Government to support the campaign of the British Nuclear Tests Veterans Association by: (a) officially recognising the unique service of these veterans and acknowledge the Nation’s continuing debt to them and (b) support the intention to establish a benevolent fund of £25 million from the Government to provide assistance for those veterans and their descendants in need; (6) agrees to ask our Members of Parliament to back this campaign and join the Council in urging the Government to support the requests outlined in (5) above.

Page 2

PROTECTING THE BRITISH PUB 36 The following Motion, of which Notice had been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, was moved by Councillor Brett and seconded by Councillor Godson –

‘That the Secretary of State help protect community pubs in England by ensuring that planning permission and community consultation are required before community pubs are allowed to be converted to betting shops, supermarkets and pay-day loan stores or other uses, or are allowed to be demolished.

The Council notes that if this power was acquired it would allow the Council to determine if pubs should be demolished or converted into other uses and could save many valued community pubs and calls upon the government to include in legislation that owners cannot place limitations that prevent pubs becoming community owned pubs.

The Council resolves to submit the proposal to the government under the Sustainable Communities Act and to work together with Local Works and the Campaign for Real Ale to gain support for the proposal from other Councils in the region and across the country.

Upon being put to the vote, the Motion was declared to be carried.

DECIDED – That (1) the Secretary of State help protect community pubs in England by ensuring that planning permission and community consultation are required before community pubs are allowed to be converted to betting shops, supermarkets and pay-day loan stores or other uses, or are allowed to be demolished; (2 )The Council notes that if this power was acquired it would allow the Council to determine if pubs should be demolished or converted into other uses and could save many valued community pubs and calls upon the government to include in legislation that owners cannot place limitations that prevent pubs becoming community owned pubs; (3) The Council resolves to submit the proposal to the government under the Sustainable Communities Act and to work together with Local Works and the Campaign for Real Ale to gain support for the proposal from other Councils in the region and across the country.

ROCHDALE HORNETS RUGBY LEAGUE FOOTBALL CLUB 37 The following Motion, of which Notice had been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, was moved by Councillor Lambert and seconded by Councillor Brett –

‘This Council congratulates the players, supporters and officials of Rochdale Hornets Rugby League Football Club on gaining promotion to the Championship Division. Rochdale Hornets was the first British professional Rugby League Club to be owned and democratically run by supporters as a member-owned co-operative.’

Upon being put to the vote, the Motion was declared to be carried. DECIDED – That this Council congratulates the players, supporters and officials of Rochdale Hornets Rugby League Football Club on gaining promotion to the Championship Division. Rochdale Hornets was the first

Page 3 British professional Rugby League Club to be owned and democratically run by supporters as a member-owned co-operative.

REVIEW OF SPINAL COLUMN POINTS 38 The Council considered the report of the Employment Committee presenting the recommendations of the Employment Committee arising from a meeting held on 20 th September 2013 in respect of the Review of Spinal Column Points. DECIDED - That (1) the outcome of formal consultations with Trade Unions on the options (as detailed in Section 5 of the report) particularly Option 1 which involves redefining the Council`s Grading Structure, as a means of implementing the Living Wage be noted; (2) approve the revisions to the Council`s Grading Structure as detailed in Section 5 of the report; (3) approve a Living Wage rate of £7.26 per hour (Scale point 10) for all employees, following satisfactory completion of the probationary period; (4) approve the implementation arrangements for applying the Living Wage with effect from 1 st September 2013, as detailed in the Personnel Implications Section of the report; (5) note the costs and funding issues relating to the implementation of the Living Wage at a rate of £7.26 per hour, as detailed in the Financial Implications Section of the report; (6) agree that costs associated with school cleaners be passed onto schools as an increase to the contract fees. As contracts have already been agreed for the 13/14 financial year, Members are asked to confirm whether they wish to meet increase in costs for this year from one-off funds; (7) note the Equality Impact Assessment, including the legal advice, as detailed in the Legal Implications Section of the report; (8) grant delegated authority to the Head of Human Resources, in consultation with the Portfolio holders for Corporate and Financial Services, subject to budget and legal considerations; to determine the detailed policy decisions in relation to the implementation of the Living Wage.

APPOINTMENT OF SENIOR INFORMATION RISK OWNER 39 The Council considered a report of the Chief Executive that sought from the Council an appointment of the Information Governance Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) . Information Governance is a critical issue affecting all aspects of the Council's work and therefore this report proposes the appointment of the Deputy Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer as the SIRO who will discharge the functions set out in the Report, taking overall responsibility for Information Governance within the Council. It is recommended by the Information Commissioner’s Office that the SIRO should be a member of the organisations leadership team and it is considered that the Monitoring Officer is the appropriate officer given the other governance responsibilities falling within the remit of this role and that the officer carries the level of seniority within the council. DECIDED – That the Deputy Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer, be appointed the Authority's Senior Information Risk Owner to discharge the functions attendant to the role.

MEMBERS' QUARTERLY REPORTS 40 Members presented their Quarterly Reports and received questions from Members of the Council as follows:-

Page 4 (a) The Leader of the Council (b) The Cabinet Member for Finance (c) The Cabinet Member for Strengthening Communities (d) The Cabinet Member for Place and Regulation (e) The Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Townships (f) The Cabinet Member for Adult Care (g) The Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families (h) The Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Customer Services (j) The Chair of Heywood Township Committee (k) The Chair of Middleton Township Committee (l) The Chair of Pennines Township Committee (m) The Chair of Rochdale Township Committee (n) The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (o) The Chair of the Health and partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee DECIDED – That the reports be noted .

REPRESENTATIVES ON JOINT AUTHORITIES AND OUTSIDE BODIES 41 The representatives to the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority, the Armed/Reserve Forces and Cadet Association and the Lead Member for Public Sector Reform, Transport for Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority presented their reports. DECIDED – That the reports be noted.

OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE WORK PROGRAMME 42 The Overview and Scrutiny Committee submitted the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme for 2013/2014 as required by Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule OS7. DECIDED – That the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme for 2012/2013 be noted.

HEALTH AND PARTNERSHIPS OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY WORK PROGRAMME 43 The Health and Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee submitted the Health and Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme for 2013/2014 as required by Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule OS7. DECIDED – That the Health and Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme for 2013/2014 be noted.

URGENT EXECUTIVE DECISIONS 44 The Deputy Chief Executive reported on decisions taken by the Executive in accordance with Special Urgency provisions and/or requiring exemption from call-in since the previous ordinary meeting of the Council. DECIDED – That the report be noted.

Page 5 COUNCIL

MINUTES OF MEETING Wednesday, 11 December 2013

PRESENT: The Mayor (Councillor Rush) (in the Chair); Councillors Farooq Ahmed, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shakil Ahmed, Shefali Ahmed, Daalat Ali, Sultan Ali, Beswick, Cecile Biant, Surinder Biant, Boriss, Brett, Martin Burke, Philip Burke, Burns, Danczuk, Darnbrough, Dearnley, Duckworth, Dutton, Neil Emmott, Susan Emmott, Farnell, James Gartside, Jane Gartside, Godson, Greenall, Hartley, Hobhouse, Holly, Hornby, Hussain, Joinson, Kelly, Lambert, Linden, Martin, McCarthy, Mills, Mir, Mulgrew, Murphy, Neilson, O'Neill, O'Rourke, Robinson, Hilary Rodgers, artin Rodgers, Rush, Sheerin, Stott, Sullivan, Wazir, West, Williams, Winkler and Zaman

OFFICERS: M. Rowan, M. Hardman and A. Leonard (Corporate Services)

Also in Attendance: Twelve members of the public

Apologies for Absence: Councillors Bethell, Clegg, Davison and Wardle

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST 45 There were no declarations of interest.

NELSON MANDELA 46 The Council observed a period of silence in the memory of Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa, who had died recently.

SENIOR MANAGEMENT REVIEW - RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE 47 The Council received a report of the Employment Committee presenting the recommendation in respect of the Senior Management Review, the report also advising of the considerations given to the recommendation by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Appended to the report of the Employment Committee was a further report and an addendum to that report that had been considered by both the Employment Committee and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

A question submitted by a member of the public in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10 in respect of this item was put before the Council and responded to.

In introducing the item, the Mayor advised of consent sought of behalf of the Mover of the Committee recommendation, in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 14.8, to alter the recommendation/Motion by the addition of the words “with effect from 1 st January 2014” within parts 3 and 4 of the recommendation/Motion for the purposes of clarification. The consent of the Council was given.

Councillor Linden moved and Council West seconded, on behalf the Employment Committee, the following recommendation/Motion as varied - “That (1) the outcome of the evaluations undertaken by the Hay Group following the completion of the review of the roles, responsibilities and remuneration of the Chief Executive’s post and five Director posts, as detailed within the submitted report, together with the further information as requested by the Employment Committee and

Page 6 provided with the assistance of North West Employers Organisation (NWEO), be noted; (2) the outcome of the consultation undertaken regarding the senior management review, detailed in paragraph 6 of the report, be noted; (3) the salary of the Chief Executive be established on an incremental salary scale running from the current salary point of £130,000 through to £175,000 with effect from 1 st January 2014, based on the current salary of the Chief Executive and a consideration of the NWEO paycheck data and comparator groups of AGMA and North West Councils, The current Chief Executive to commence on spinal point £145,000 progression through the salary scale be on the basis of spinal column points as follows:- Spinal Point - £130,000 Spinal Point - £145,000 Spinal Point - £152,500 Spinal Point - £160,000 Spinal Point - £167,500 Spinal Point - £175,000 with annual performance assessments to determine progression to be undertaken by a cross–party Remuneration Committee, with appropriate specialist advisors, established as proposed within paragraph 6 to the addendum document; (4) with regard to Director remuneration, the existing grade and salary structure as detailed below and presented as Option 4 within the appendix to the addendum document be retained – Director Grade Point Salary £ 1 91,464 2 97,185 3 102,897 4 108,618 5 114,330 6 120,051 with the assimilation of Directors onto the existing pay scales taking account of the Hay Job Evaluation scheme, relative positions and a bar at Point 3 of the grade such that progression to Grade 4 and beyond be for positions with a Hay Job Evaluation score of 1260 and above, with effect from 1 st January 2014, and progression through the grade to be determined on the basis of annual performance assessments to be undertaken by the Remuneration Committee established as above; (5) the Chief Executive be appointed as Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer for Rochdale Council with effect from 1 st January 2014; (6) the next phase of the review and the start of formal consultation with Trade Unions and staff affected be noted.”

An amendment to the recommendation/Motion was moved by Councillor Lambert and seconded by Councillor Williams such that recommendation of the Employment Committee be approved, subject to - (i) the deletion of all words within part 3 of the recommendation and their substitution with the words “the current freezing of the salary of the Chief Executive and the five Directors be noted and all those grades within the remit of the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) for Chief Officers be now offered a 1% pay rise as applied to the Council workforce, this pay rise to apply to JNC related posts with effect from 1 st January 2014”; (ii) the deletion of all words within part 4 of the recommendation from and including the word “remuneration” and their substitution with the words “posts, the

Page 7 five posts of Director be maintained or assimilated onto the Directors’ pay grade as shown within the report plus 1% with effect from 1 st January 2014, with progression through the grade to be determined on the basis of annual performance assessment, such progressions to be frozen pending consideration of such assessment at a future meeting of the Council; and (iii) within part 6 of the recommendation, the insertion of the word “immediate” between the words “and the” and “start of”.

Upon being put to the vote, the required number of members demanded a recorded vote in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 16.4. Voting in favour of the amendment were Councillors Farooq Ahmed, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shakil Ahmed, Shefali Ahmed, Daalat Ali, Sultan Ali, Beswick, Cecile Biant, Surinder Biant, Boriss, Brett, Martin Burke, Philip Burke, Burns, Danczuk, Dutton, Neil Emmott, Susan Emmott, Farnell, Godson, Greenall, Hartley, Hornby, Hussain, Joinson, Lambert, Linden, Martin, McCarthy, Mir, Murphy, O'Neill, O'Rourke, Robinson, Martin Rodgers, Sheerin, Wazir, West, Williams and Zaman; voting against the amendment were Councillors Darnbrough, Dearnley, Duckworth, James Gartside, Jane Gartside, Hobhouse, Holly, Kelly, Mills, Mulgrew, Neilson, Hilary Rodgers, Stott, Sullivan, Winkler and the Mayor (Councillor Rush); and there were no abstentions. The amendment was declared to be carried.

An amendment to the recommendation/Motion, as amended, was moved by Councillor Kelly and seconded by Councillor Mulgrew such that recommendation of the Employment Committee as amended be approved, subject to the deletion of parts 1 to 4 of the recommendation and their substitution with the words “a 1% pay rise across for Senior Management for those grades within the remit of the Joint Negotiating Committee for Chief Officers (JNC), in line with the rest of Rochdale Council employees, be approved, this pay rise to apply to JNC related posts with effect from 1 st January 2014 ”

Upon being put to the vote, the amendment was declared to be lost.

Upon being put to the vote, the recommendation of the Employment Committee, as amended, was declared to be carried.

DECIDED – That (1) the outcome of the evaluations undertaken by the Hay Group following the completion of the review of the roles, responsibilities and remuneration of the Chief Executive’s post and five Director posts, as detailed within the submitted report, together with the further information as requested by the Employment Committee and provided with the assistance of North West Employers Organisation (NWEO), be noted; (2) the outcome of the consultation undertaken regarding the senior management review, detailed in paragraph 6 of the report, be noted; (3) the current freezing of the salary of the Chief Executive and the five Directors be noted and all those grades within the remit of the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) for Chief Officers be now offered a 1% pay rise as applied to the Council workforce, this pay rise to apply to JNC related posts with effect from 1 st January 2014; (4) with regard to Director posts, the five posts of Director be maintained or assimilated onto the Directors’ pay grade as shown within the report plus 1% with effect from 1 st January 2014, with progression through the grade to be determined on the basis of annual performance assessment, progressions to be frozen pending consideration of such assessment at a future meeting of the Council;

Page 8 (5) the Chief Executive be appointed as Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer for Rochdale Council with effect from 1st January 2014; (6) the next phase of the review and the immediate start of formal consultation with Trade Unions and staff affected be noted.

Page 9 Agenda Item 7

Subject: Nomination of Deputy Mayor 2014/15 Status: For Publication Report to : Licensing and Regulatory Committee Date: 2nd December 2013 Council 22rd January 2014 Report of: Deputy Chief Executive Author Email: [email protected] Author : Mark Hardman Tel: 01706 924704

1. PURPOSE OF REPORT

1.1 To invite nomination to the position of Deputy Mayor for the 2014/15 Municipal Year.

2. RECOMMENDATIONS

2.1 The Licensing and regulatory Committee recommends

That Councillor Farooq Ahmed be appointed to the office of Deputy Mayor for the 2014/15 Municipal Year.

3. REPORT

3.1 The formula as agreed by Council for the nomination to the position of Deputy Mayor is as follows: "After every election (i.e. May each year or in the fourth year the date of the County Council Elections) one point be allocated to every Member of the Council and the Party having the highest number of points nominates the Deputy Mayor for the next Municipal Year, i.e. twelve months hence. After the next election, further points be credited according to the representation, but points equal to the total number of Members of Council, i.e. 60 be deducted from the total of the Party which last nominated the Deputy Mayor. This procedure of crediting and debiting points be continued after each election to maintain a running total".

3.2 The Finance Committee agreed on 17th September 1981 that a point would be awarded to the successful Party at a by-election where the seat was vacant at the May elections or in the fourth year the date of the County Council elections. The Regulatory Committee on 5th March 2002 decided that in the event of a tie in the numbers of points allocated to the groups under the procedure, the group with the highest number of seats of the Council will nominate the Deputy Mayor. The present position is as follows:

Event Conservative Labour Liberal Democrat Independent

Position at 2006/07 -20 9 5

May 2007 elections 8 20 30 Deputy Mayor: Cllr Parker -60 -12 -31 35

Page 10

May 2008 elections 8 18 33 Deputy Mayor: Cllr Swift -60 -4 -13 8

May 2009 – no elections 8 18 32 Deputy Mayor: Cllr Zulfiqar -60 Ali 4 5 -20

May 2010 elections 11 22 26 Deputy Mayor: Cllr Godson -60 15 -33 6

May 2011 elections 17 31 12 Deputy Mayor: Cllr James -60 Gartside -28 -2 18

May 2012 elections 13 42 5 Deputy Mayor: Cllr Rush -60 -15 40 -55

May 2013 – no election 12 42 5 1 (as at Annual Council) Deputy Mayor: Cllr Wardle -60 -3 22 -50

3.3 The Labour Group are entitled to nominate the Deputy Mayor for 2014/15.

Alternatives considered:

3.4 None. This report applies a formula as agreed by the Council.

Consultation undertaken/proposed:

3.5 The three Party Leaders have been consulted on the content of this report.

There are no background papers

Page 11 Agenda Item 8

Subject: Council Constitution Status: For Publication Report to : Council Date: 22 nd January 2014 Report of: Deputy Chief Executive Email: [email protected] Author: Linda Fisher, Deputy Chief Executive Tel: (01706) 924702

1. PURPOSE OF REPORT

1.1 Council is asked to note the progress made in reviewing and updating the Council’s Constitution, to consider a process to amendment the Scheme of Delegation to Officers insofar as it relates to the consideration of disciplinary and grievance matters, and to agree that a timetable for completion and agreement of the updated Constitution.

2. RECOMMENDATIONS

2.1 The Council notes the progress made in updating the Council’s Constitution.

2.2 The Council agrees to delegate to the Deputy Chief Executive the incorporation of revised delegations relating to disciplinary (power to dismiss) and grievance hearings into the Constitution following approval of revised arrangements by the Employment Committee as detailed in paragraph 3.5 to the report.

2.3 The approval and adoption of the updated Constitution be delegated to the Licensing and Regulatory Committee.

3. BACKGROUND

3.1 Members will be aware that the Council has undertaken a radical restructuring of its management arrangements over the past four years having undertaken a major organisational restructuring, including absorbing the Public Health function and related staffing; ending the Impact Partnership arrangement bringing most services back in- house; and reducing senior management posts from 24 to ten.

3.2 Similarly the arena within which the Council operates has changed radically, with the development of sub-regional arrangements through, for example the establishment of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Office of the Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner; significant legislative change through for example the Localism Act 2011 and the Health and Social Care Act 2012; and the implementation of new related structures, for example in the Members’ standards regime and the establishment of a Health and Wellbeing Board; and the increasing role of partnership working.

Version Number: Page: 1 of 3

Page 12 3.3 While the Council has considered and approved several reports with Constitutional implications on the above and other matters, and the Deputy Chief Executive/ Monitoring Officer is authorised to make certain incidental amendments to the Constitution arising from legislative and/or approved operational changes, the range of such changes is such that a more thorough review of these changes is required, rather than an ad hoc approach on a case by case basis.

3.4 A team of Officers has been working to update and ensure that all parts of the Constitution now reflect the current structure and working arrangements and relationships of the Council are properly reflected and are readily understood by those consulting the Constitution. The purpose of the review is to ensure that the Constitution is up to date and fit for purpose in terms of all previous approvals, and reflects current organisational and legislative position. It is not intended that the review, at this stage, would bring forward significant revisions in arrangements or working practice. It is therefore recommended that in order to conclude this review at the earliest opportunity that the Licensing and Regulatory Committee be delegated authority to approve and adopt, on behalf of the Council, the updated Constitution.

3.5 One item that has been raised as requiring early consideration is the consideration of disciplinary (power to dismiss) and grievance hearings which were previously delegated to Service Directors and above. With the Council’s restructuring there is a reduced number of managers with this authority under delegated powers. An informal paper has previously been provided to the staff side suggesting amendment to the Scheme of Delegation in this regard. It is proposed to take the final proposal to the Joint Consultative Committee on 25 th February 2014 and then to the Employment Committee for approval, and Council is asked to delegate to the Assistant Chief Executive amendment of the Constitution following such approval.

Alternatives considered Not applicable.

Consultation proposed/undertaken Prior to submission of the updated Constitution to the Licensing and Regulatory Committee, it is proposed to consult the Party Leaders; seek views from the Democratic Structures Member Working Group and consult the Chair of the Audit and Safeguarding Committee (as Chair of the Committee charged with the oversight of the Council’s governance); and to hold an open briefing session for all members on the Constitutional updates.

4. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

4.1 None applicable.

5. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

5.1 The Monitoring Officer is responsible for the Constitution and ensuring the lawfulness of the decision making. A Governance action plan has been prepared and consultation with the member working group and the Licensing and Regulatory Committee will take place to update the Constitution by the end of March 2014. The Constitution is a living document and we will ensure that updates are provided at more regular intervals throughout the year.

6. PERSONNEL IMPLICATIONS

6.1 None applicable.

Version Number: Page: 2 of 3

Page 13

7. RISK ASSESSMENT IMPLICATIONS

7.1 There is a risk that if the Constitution is not up to date decisions could be taken which are unlawful and the action proposed aims to mitigate this.

8. EQUALITIES IMPACTS

8.1 Workforce Equality Impacts Assessment

There are no workforce equality issues arising from this report.

8.2 Equality/Community Impact Assessments

There are no significant equality/community issues arising from this report.

Version Number: Page: 3 of 3

Page 14 Agenda Item 9

Subject: Calendar of Meetings 2014/15 Status: For Publication Report to : Council Date: 22nd January 2014 Report of: Deputy Chief Executive Email: [email protected] Author: Mark Hardman, Townships and Governance Manager Tel: (01706) 924704

1. PURPOSE OF REPORT

1.1 To present for approval the Council Calendar of Meetings for the 2014/15 Municipal Year, and advise of additional meetings for the 2013/14 Municipal Year.

2. RECOMMENDATIONS

1.1 That the Calendar of Meetings for the 2014/15 Municipal Year, as set out in the Appendix to this report, be agreed.

1.2 The Chief Executive be authorised to amend the calendar as necessary after consultation with the appropriate Cabinet/Committee Chairs.

1.2 The additional meetings for the 2013/14 Municipal Year be noted.

3. REPORT

3.1 The Council is required within Procedure Rules to agree an annual pattern of meetings for the formal decision making bodies of the Council. The Council has, at various times, requested inclusion of other individual bodies on this calendar when submitted to the Council, together with dedicated sessions for Member training sessions. The drafted calendar for the 2014/15 Municipal Year is appended to this report.

3.2 Members will be aware that the 2014 Council elections will be held on Thursday 22 nd May 2014 alongside the European elections with the Annual meeting of the Council (following the usual pattern) being held on Wednesday, 4 th June 2014.

As a result of the later than usual Annual Council, the respective Chairs of the following bodies were consulted with regard to additional meetings that may be required in the current Municipal Year - • Cabinet – 7th April 2014; • Licensing and Regulatory Committee – 28 th April 2014; • Heywood and Rochdale Township Planning Sub-Committees – 6th May 2014; • Middleton and Pennines Township Planning Sub-Committees – 7th May 2014; with any further additional Committee meetings being convened only to meet any urgency or procedural requirements arising. Members are asked to note these arrangements which were circulated previously on 18 th November 2013.

Version Number: Page: 1 of 2

Page 15

Alternatives considered: The drafted calendar seeks to ensure that meetings are scheduled appropriately to meet relevant statutory and procedural requirements and to enable effective decision making.

Consultation undertaken/proposed The Party Leaders, Leadership Team and other lead Officers have been consulted on the proposals. The proposed dates for the Health and Wellbeing Board have also been consulted on with the HMR Clinical Commissioning Group who are key partners on the Board.

There are no background papers to this report

Version Number: Page: 2 of 2

Page 16 CALENDAR OF MEETINGS FROM MAY 2014 TO APRIL 2015

Draft — Council version MAY2014 JUNE2014 JULY 2014 AUGUST 2014

M 5 12 19 26 M 2 9 16 30 M 7 14 21 28 M 4 11 18 25 - Council 615pm B/H LR B/H HTC SC CAB LR HTC CAB LR B/H

12 19 26 - Budget Fixing Council 615pm T 6 13 20 27 T 3 10 17 24 T 1 8 15 22 29 T 5

HTP TR PTC HWBB HTP lIDS TR PTC HWBB HTP AC Annual Council RTP OSWP RTP RTA JCC HTP RTP CHS RTP 20 27 W 7 14 21 28 W 4 11 18 25 W 2 9 16 23 38 W 6 13 All meetings commence at 615pm unless otherwise stated MTP AC RTC TR PTP PDF H RTC C PTP PTP MTP PTP MTP MDFS MTP CAB - Cabinet 28 21 - Th 1 8 15 22 29 Th 5 12 19 26 Th 3 10 17 24 31 Th 7 14 HT Heywood Township Committee VSP ASC (630pm) Eiection TR CPB OSC EMP MTC OSC ASC proposed MTC ASC RT - Rochdale Township Committee 29 F 2 9 16 23 30 F 6 13 20 27 F 4 11 18 25 F 1 8 15 22 MT - Middleton Township Committee PT - Pennines Township Committee

HTP - Heywood Township Planning Sub

RTP - Rochdale Township Planning Sub SEPTEMBER 2014 OCTOBER 2014 NOVEMBER 2014 DECEMBER 2014 MTP - Middleton Township Planning Sub

FTP - Pennines Township Planning Sub M 1 8 15 22 29 M 6 13 20 27 M 3 10 17 24 w i — —

HTC LR SC CAB LR CAB HTC LR SC CAB LR CAB PDF - Pennines Delegated And Funding Sub-Committee 9 16 23 30 T 2 9 16 23 30 T 7 14 21 28 T 4 11 18 25 T 2 MDFS — Middleton Township Devolved Funding and Services Sub HDS HTP HVVBB CHS JCC HTP YR PTC HTP HWBB RTA HTP TR PTC HDS - Heywood Township Delegated RTA RTP RTP RTP HDS RTP Sub-Committee (630pm)

RTA - Rochdale Township Action and w 3 10 17 24 W 1 8 15 22 29 W 5 12 19 26 W 3 10 17 24 31 TR Resources Committee

H RTC PDF PTP C PTP H RTC TR PTP PDF H C PTP Page 17 MDFS MTP MTP MTP MDFS MTP OSC - Overview and Scrutiny Committee Th 4 11 18 25 Th 2 9 16 23 30 Th 6 13 20 27 Th 4 11 18 25 - and Partnerships O&S VSP VSP H Health BH OSC MTC ASC CPB OSC EMP RTA VSP MTC OSC ASC CPB OSC Committee

19 26 OSWP - O&S Work Programming Session F 5 12 19 26 F 3 10 17 24 31 F 7 14 21 28 F 12

BH SC - Standards Committee

LR - Licensing & Regulatory Committee

ASC - Audit & Safeguarding Committee FEBRUARY 2015 MARCH 2015 APRIL 2015 JANUARY 2015 EMP - Employment Committee

HWBB - Health and Wellbeing Board (2pm) 5 12 19 26 2 9 16 23 2 9 16 23 30 6 13 20 27 M M M M JCC - Joint Consultative Committee (2pm)

CHS - Central Health Safety & Welfare SC CAB LR BH LR HTC LR LR CAB LR HTC Committee (2pm) 3 24 31 7 14 21 28 T 6 13 20 27 T 3 10 17 24 T 10 17 T CPB - Corporate Parenting Board (6pm) Jcc HDS VSP - Voluntary Sector Partnership (930am) PTC HTP RTA HWBB JCC TR HTP PTC CHS HTP HDS HWBB HTP RTP CHS RTP RTP RTA RTP TR - Member Training (615pm) W 7 14 21 28 W 4 11 18 25 W 4 11 18 25 W 1 8 15 22 29

RTC PTP C EMP H BFC RTC POF PTP H C MTP MTP MDFS 23 Th 1 8 15 22 29 Th 5 12 19 26 Th 5 12 19 26 Th 2 9 16 30 * if necessary LMP PTP ‘ to be notified BH MTC ASC OSC PTP VSP MTC ASC CPB OSC MTP MDFS MTP OSC BFC VSP F 2 9 16 23 30 F 6 13 20 27 F 6 13 20 27 F 3 10 17 24 BH Agenda Item 10a

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE LEADER OF THE COUNCIL/CHAIR OF THE HEALTH & WELLBEING BOARD TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY, 22 ND JANUARY 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Leader of the Council/Chair of the Health & Wellbeing Board.

Corporate Services • Rochdale Literature & Ideas Festival was held for the first time in October, as arts lovers descended on the town and Rochdale was full of inspiration, laughter and creativity. Over 40 performances took place covering drama, dance, music, theatre, films, visual arts and children’s shows. The fantastic new library was the perfect setting for the festival and was excellent to see such a strong line up … a mix of fabulous local talent alongside some of the biggest names in the business.

• In October the Rugby League World Cup showed Rochdale at its very best. The town was absolutely buzzing and it was a great pleasure to see so many people coming to support such an historic game. Ticket sales for the game were strong as soon as they went on sale and the fixture really captured the imagination of the public. To achieve a record crowd was wonderful and made for a truly amazing atmosphere. Sport is an important part of our community and the world cup combined with the Hornets success last season can only encourage more people to participate in it.

• We are very excited about the Tour de France coming to Rochdale in July and work is well underway preparing for this major event. It promises to be a historic, spectacular event and a perfect follow on from the Rugby League World Cup. Having the race pass through our borough will have a positive economic benefit on the area, in addition to the new visitors and publicity it will attract.

• New recruits have started to be appointed through our innovative new guaranteed interview scheme for ex armed forces men and women. This is one of a raft of new measures to support the Armed Forces, with more to be unveiled during this year.

• We have successfully implemented our new management structure by cutting our management team from 24 to 10 directors. This has saved £1.5m for the taxpayer. We still have the lowest cost management team for similar sized authorities across the region. This year we will start to evaluate the next level of management which will provide us with further savings.

• We have launched our online news service rochdalenewsroom.com, which is already receiving over 1,500 visits per day and is allowing us to communicate our achievements to a far wider audience.

• Lots of library events coming up including Novella Awards and author visit, plus Shakespeare Day and World book day in April.

Adult Care • Later this year, services offered by Adult Care will be taken over by a new social enterprise in an innovative move to improve our offer in the current climate.

Page 18 • The launch of a befriending service has paired young volunteers with older people who are isolated in the community.

• The new STARS team has generated positive feedback from service users, as well as providing better value for taxpayers.

• Launch of the Carer’s Resource volunteers at Rochdale Infirmary, with a view to increasing the number of carers supported through the service.

Children’s Services • A new Director, Gail Hopper, and a new Assistant Director, Paul Marshall, have been appointed to head Children’s Services. The Children’s Services transformation programme is well under way and we have started a recruitment programme for more social workers.

• The Building Schools for the Future programme in the final stage of £167m of improvements to schools, completing the delivery of the thirteen secondary schools under the programme - a wonderful achievement.

• Long awaited Serious Case Reviews (1-6) & (7) published.

• Rochdale Borough Council has been working with children and young people in its care to create the borough’s first Pledge to support looked-after children. This initiative outlines 21 different ways in which children can expect support from social workers and foster parents. Rochdale’s Pledge describes how the Council will help children and young people improve their health, family, education and home life. It includes commitments to celebrate each young person’s accomplishments, encourage them to achieve the best they can in school and help them access any support they might need.

• Rochdale AFC pledges to support Sunrise Team and Rochdale Council in raising awareness of Child Sexual Exploitation. On 18 January 2014 the Football Association (Manchester) is to award Rochdale AFC with its community award for embracing this important campaign.

Regeneration/Economic Affairs • The Rochdale Borough Design Awards continue to go from strength to strength. It is very positive to see how these awards are growing annually and their success illustrates just how much regeneration and improvement to our environment is taking place.

• N1R has won two prestigious awards. The Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Building of the year and Concrete Society Best Mixed Development.

• Through extensive collaboration with our partners we opened the new local transport interchange, which has created a welcoming and safe environment for public transport users. This means we can press ahead with the demolition of the old Municipal Offices, as well as the bus station and multi-story car park.

• We moved a step further to opening the River Roch, and showed the world the fantastic landscape under the town. Taking our colleagues in the media with us generated extensive press coverage and our pictures were included in American heavyweight publication The Smithsonian. The winner of the design competition will be announced soon.

• We held a number of successful local authority bonfire events which pulled in

Page 19 between 8,000 - 9,500 people. Initial figures show a 62% reduction in firework related anti-social behaviour.

• We have taken control of the market charter and are currently running a public consultation to ensure Rochdale has a market to be proud of.

Economy and Environment • Failing to sort rubbish properly costs Rochdale borough taxpayers around £70,000 each year as fines of £295 per tonne are levied for each contaminated load. Since November 18 no loads have been rejected across the entire borough. The regional Right Stuff Right Bin pilot in Rochdale was a huge success, improving recycling rates by 49%. In the trial area alone, this has saved £22,420 so far.

• We had an incident free and a successful campaign for festive bin collections. Our website saw over 8000 page views, while the Contact Centre reported no spikes in the number of calls.

• Life Plus is set to launch later this year. Rochdale Borough Council is working with the Greater Manchester Waste Authority (GMWDA) on a ground-breaking two-year project to encourage communities to waste less and recycle more.

• We helped 402 homes in Rochdale improve their heating and reduce their energy bills, generating £457,000 of ECO funding into the borough. We achieved the highest number of installations across 9 local authorities participating in the Get Me Toasty scheme, and look set to retain this till the end of the scheme in March.

• The school 20mph zone project is almost complete with only two schools outstanding. These are the first of their kind in Greater Manchester and have generated a considerable amount of interest from other local authorities.

• The Highways Improvement Programme is set to improve more than 300 roads across the borough and is on target to be completed by 2015. The four townships were invited to submit suggestions for schemes they felt to be the most important to their areas. We have given the go ahead to a total of 304 schemes and 142 of these have already been completed in the first six months (the first quarter) of the programme. This includes 52 of the 136 (38%) projects in Rochdale Township, 38 out of 74 (51%) in Pennines Township, 35 out of 59 (59%) in Middleton Township, 17 out of 35 in (48%) Heywood Township.

• Plans to build a small pilot wind turbine at the former Hill Top School in Kirkholt see Rochdale leading the way as a ‘green’ authority. This will not only bring in revenue but help us become more energy self-sufficient when fuel bills are on the rise. Each year the council uses 27.5GWh of electricity to power buildings and offices. The 2012-2013 cost was £2.8m, excluding street lighting and leisure sites. By harvesting our own source of renewable energy we could generate new multi- million-pound revenue streams, fund municipal services, put land assets to work, underwrite energy security and offset soaring energy prices, as well as fulfil our renewable power and carbon reduction obligations.

Health & Wellbeing Board In December 2013 the latest results from the Child measurement programme that the Council now commissions were published. Childhood obesity in Reception Year fell from 10.4% in 2011/12 to 8.8% in 2012/13. Obesity in Year 6 fell from 21.5% in 2011/12 to 20.7% in 2012/13. Rochdale is below the England and North West averages for all areas except Obesity in Year 6. We continue to prioritise action on this national challenge for adults and children and we continue to commission services to assist people manage their Page 20 weight, be more active and improve their cooking skills. We are continuing a range of local innovation projects such as the Healthy Chip Shop scheme which promotes simple changes by shops which reduces the amount of fat we eat. The recent findings of the Health Overview and Scrutiny study group on obesity have also been included where needed as part of our local action plans.

In December I launched the local Five Ways to Wellbeing programme and website and welcomed around a 130 delegates to the Town Hall to look at how we can increase our work on mental wellbeing. Our recent wellbeing survey results from a survey undertaken across the North West has shown us that numbers reporting poor wellbeing has increased with worries about debt, time to do things we enjoy and feeling safe being some of the factors reported. In 2008, the New Economics Foundation was commissioned by the Government’s foresight project on mental capital and wellbeing to identify a set of evidence-based actions to improve wellbeing, which individuals would be encouraged to build into their daily lives. The Five Ways identified are to Connect, Be active, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Give. In our Borough we have adopted the Five Ways to Wellbeing programme as a priority going forward. At the event we were pleased to report that Rochdale is now a world leader in developments of a wellbeing tool (WEMWEBS), having successfully worked with Warwick University to translate and validate the wellbeing tool into Urdu and Bengali recognising the language and cultural needs of our communities. The Five Ways to Wellbeing website is the first website nationally that allows users to measure and track their wellbeing. The next phase of the Five Ways to Wellbeing work will involve working with local children and young people to adapt the five ways message so it is meaningful for our children and young people. The website is linked below and you can all measure your own wellbeing here www.rochdale.gov.uk/livewell

The Health & Wellbeing Board has met twice since my last report. The Board has continued to receive updates on Public Sector Reform and in particular has received reports about health and social care integration and reform. We agreed the submission of the Integrated plan and have noted the requirements for social care funding agreements required between the CCG, the Council and the Health and Wellbeing Board for the use of the integration transformation fund now called the Better Care Fund which will be returning to the Board in January. The Board noted the Greater Manchester NHS Board Primary Care Strategy and endorsed the Borough Domestic Violence Strategy and noted the joint working required to implement this with the Safer Communities Partnership. The Board received a needs assessment on health protection matters and were assured that current arrangements were working and that performance would be monitored closely by the Public Health team and reported to the Board twice a year. An update was received on the work programme to reduce premature mortality. This joint programme with the CCG has seen action plans updated for the areas of cancers, heart disease, stroke and liver disease.

The Board considered an update on joint commissioning in the areas of children, adults and older people and public health. The Board agreed that the work on joint commissioning and an integrated team for children should progress to the business case stage and further discussions are to be held within the CCG, Council and with other commissioners regarding next steps for further integration in other areas. The Board also received an update on the Borough action plan for Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. The Board

received an update on the plans for the Joint Strategic Needs assessments and noted that updates are to be found on the Stats and Maps website http://www.statsandmaps.org.uk/jsna . The Board has also agreed to review how it does and should work now and in the future.

We have been out to procurement for our health improvement/lifestyle behaviour change support services including those for smoking cessation, lifestyle change, oral health Page 21 promotion and healthy weight and we will be informing members shortly about progress on this. We will be commencing reviews of services commissioned internally within the Council in 2014. We have also been working across services to support the development in joint commissioning for children and young people, public health and for health and social care.

I am pleased to say that our review work has identified that we do have public health funding for investment in 2014/15 and plans will be confirmed as part of the usual council budget setting processes. The priority areas for investment have been identified and include investment in our mandated services and priority public health outcome areas. Investments continue to be made in contracts and services transferred by the NHS to the Council in 1st April 2013 where reviews show these are essential to improve outcomes for residents. These include; mandated services such as sexual health and health checks, key priorities such as drugs and alcohol services and child health programmes such as the school health service. The core public health specialist team is funded from the grant. A Council prevention fund has been developed to ensue key programmes are invested in and then reviewed and the fund convers agreed overheads and support functions, health protection services and we maintain a contingency budget. All expenditure is within the ring fenced grant conditions set by the Department of Health. The budget for 2014/15 has been set nationally with a small increase for Rochdale. The 2015/16 allocation has not been confirmed as yet but the ring fence will be retained for this additional year and part of the grant will be subject to some incentive and performance which is due to be confirmed in March 2014.

Councillor Colin Lambert Leader of the Council/ Chair of the Health & Wellbeing Board

Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Leader of the Council/Chair of the Health & Wellbeing Board.

Page 22 Agenda Item 10b

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

CABINET MEMBER REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE CABINET MEMBER FOR FINANCE TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON 22 nd JANUARY 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Finance and Revenues and Benefits Portfolio.

Finance

2013/14

I can report that at this stage of the year we are predicting an in year saving of circa £3m on the 2013/14 budget, this position takes into account projected overspends in both Economy and Environment and Children’s Services but for 2013/14 these are offset by in year savings in other services and through Treasury Management. It should be noted however that the in year savings are in some instances one off and therefore the underlying pressures in 2013/14 will impact on the 2014/15 budget. We are working with both these services and have continued to make provision for a level of budget pressures in 2014/15 budget.

70,000

60,000

50,000

40,000

30,000

20,000

10,000

0

-10,000

ADULT CHILDREN’S CORPORATE ECONOMY & FINANCE PUBLIC FINANCE TOTAL SERVICES SERVICES SERVICES ENVIRONMENT SERVICES HEALTH CONTROL

APPROVED BUDGET (£000’s) 60,637 43,867 22,166 35,109 9,498 -4,463 31,635 198,449 FORECAST SPEND (£000’s) 58,474 45,194 21,932 36,503 9,164 -4,463 28,578 195,382 IN YEAR SAVING (£000’s) 2,163 0 234 0 334 0 3,057 5,788 OVERSPEND (£000’s) 0 1,327 0 1,394 0 0 0 2,721 OVERALL POSITION 2,163 -1,327 234 -1,394 334 0 3,057 3,067

2014/15

As I reported in October, when we set the budget back in February 2013, we set a 2 year budget covering 2013/14 and 2014/15. This approach meant that we were on the way to being able to set a balanced budget for 2014/15 Through the budget process we are completing for 2014/15 to 2016/17, the assumptions have been reviewed and the ‘gap’ amended to reflect the changes. There have also been national changes announced in respect of the 2014/15 budget that have/will impact on the gap, in the main in the provisional settlement announced in December 2013, including the reversal of the top slice of the New Homes Bonus which is welcomed. We have worked to bridge the gap in 2014/15 and I am pleased to report that I will be taking a report to Cabinet on 3 rd February 2014 which proposes a balanced budget that Cabinet is asked to consider presenting to Budget Fixing Council on 19 th February 2014.

The budget for 2014/15 makes provision for a Council Tax Freeze, by the Council, therefore residents in Rochdale Borough will not see an increase in Council Tax by the Council from 2013/14 to 2014/15.

Page 23 As Portfolio Holder for Finance I have worked with Officers to develop proposals around the budget using a combination of recurrent business as usual savings, maximising use of external funding and one off savings from the 2012/13 in year savings.

2015/16

In December 2013 the Council received its provisional settlement for 2014/15 along with indicative 2015/16 and 2016/17 figures.

As stated above we have analysed the detail for 2014/15 and are proposing a balanced budget, the position in 2015/16 and 2016/17 is however a significant challenge for the Council with over £50m of further savings being required across the two years. This position is in line with expectations as previously reported.

We have already begun to work on the budget for 2015/16 and this will be a priority for the Council in the coming months as we look to options to close the gap, looking at where we will spend the money we will still be allocated. I will update both the Cabinet and Council as this work progresses.

Welfare Reform and Revenues and Benefits

Council Tax Support Scheme

The Council Tax Support Scheme provides financial support to those council tax payers who meet the eligibility criteria; the scheme replaced the national council tax benefit scheme which ended in 2012/13. At the 30th November 2013 the award of support was £16.972m for the year which is £77K below the budget set for the year of £17.049m; The projection is within 0.5% of the original estimate. Within the overall position there are reductions in the number of claimants against the estimate however for working aged claimants the awards are slightly higher than estimated resulting in the forecast being in line with estimate

Local Discretionary Crisis Fund

Through my delegated powers I have made changes to the criteria for making awards from the Discretionary Crisis Fund, these include;

• Increasing the award for energy from £20 to £30 • Making awards for those claimants whose benefits have been sanctioned • Extending the eligibility around moves linked to under occupancy – e.g. provision of cookers.

The full impact of the above will not yet be understood however I can report that the number of awards made as at the end of December was 878 with a value of £260k. We will continue to monitor this position and report to Overview and Scrutiny.

Page 24

Benefit Cap

There are now 90 households affected by the Benefit Cap in Rochdale MBC an increase of 10 households from that provided in October 2013 , the impact on these households is a loss of benefit of between £3 per week up to £200 per week,. We are in direct contact with these households to offer advice and support around money advice and budgeting skills; in addition they have all been written to regarding applying for a Discretionary Housing Payment.

Current Number of Loss per week Number of Households as Households reported in October 2013 2 £0.01-£5 2 4 £5-£10 4 6 £10-£20 6 4 £20-£30 3 7 £30-£40 3 10 £40-£50 9 14 £50-£60 10 33 £60-£100 33 9 £100-£150 9 1 £150-£200 1 0 Over £200 0

Under occupancy tax

There are currently 2,653 households in Rochdale MBC where Housing Benefit is being restricted due to the ‘under occupancy’ rules. Of these 1,988 are having a 14% reduction to their benefit, whilst the remaining 665 are having a 25% reduction.

In April 2013 there were 3,285 households who had had their Housing Benefit restricted due to ‘under occupancy’, in October 2013 this was 2,783 and has now reduced to the 2,653 reported above . The reduction in cases is due to a number of reasons, e.g. tenants could have moved to a smaller property; or could have taken up employment etc.

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) There have been 1,053 applications for a DHP (up from 653 at October 2013) – of these 613 have been approved; with £185K awarded. Of the 613 awards, 335 have been to households affected by the ‘under occupancy’ rules.

Performance Data – Revenues and Benefits

Outstanding Housing Benefits and Council Tax and Work In terms of workloads, at the end of August there were 1,337 “items” unallocated, a reduction of 3,047 from that reported in October 2013, of which 75 were new applications (the bulk therefore being changes to claims already in payment). There are currently 3,905 claims being worked on, 2,568 of which are awaiting information from claimants. The 3,905 claims is less than the numbers outstanding at October 2013 when the figure was 7,652. This shows an improvement in performance.

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Processing Times During December we processed 1,036 new claims, with nearly 50% put into payment within 4 weeks (and over 84% put into payment within 6 weeks). In addition we processed 5,236 changes, with 57% of these dealt with within 4 week (and nearly 86% dealt with, within 8 weeks). Where there is a greater time lapse for completing an application this is due to the fact that we are awaiting information/documents from claimants.

Overall Performance As at the end of August the cumulative benefit processing performance was 22 days per claim (approx 3 weeks), this is a cumulative figure for both new claims (28.4 days per claim) and change of circumstances (21.1 days per claim) and takes into account those that we can process Page 25 immediately and those that we are awaiting further information/documentation from claimants..

Overpayment Subsidy As at the end of August we are anticipating to receive full DWP subsidy on Housing Benefit overpayments.

Council Tax Collection The collection performance for Council Tax of 80.39% at the end of December is behind performance at the same time last year of 83.31%. However, this reduction is not unexpected as there is an additional £10m to collect in 2013/14, due to the general council tax increase, the technical reform changes (local discounts and empty property premium) and the changes to council tax support. The changes to council tax support, amounting to £4m, brought around 13,000 households into council tax charge in 2013/14 that previously had nothing to pay.

The performance for reducing Council Tax arrears shows a reduction of £1.75m at the end of December which is behind performance at the same time last year of £2.10m. Again, this is not unexpected, as households will be struggling to pay higher 2013/14 bills.

We continue to look at ways to increase collection, including offer of instalments, letters to Council Tax payers , we do not take a ‘one size’ fits all approach but look to maximise the income to the Council recognising the challenges our residents face.

Business Rates Collection The in year collection performance for Business Rates of 85.05% at the end of August is ahead of performance at the same time last year of 82.17% and we are continuing to recover arrears from previous years

Councillor Farooq Ahmed Cabinet Member for Finance (Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council)

Being Positive, Generate's Positivity! Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Finance Portfolio

Page 26 Agenda Item 10c

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

CABINET MEMBER REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE CABINET MEMBER FOR STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY, 22 nd JANUARY 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Strengthening Communities Portfolio.

SAFER COMMUNITIES

Strategic Priority 1 – Increase Confidence & Satisfaction

A mixed picture has been evident across the four indicators, with two showing improvement and being on target and two remaining fairly static and off target. At local level we have seen some encouraging increases in the percentage of people feeling safe after dark across the majority of Wards. Personal safety week – The partnership supported the Suzy Lamplugh week of action through concentrated activity. A press release was issued and received coverage in the Rochdale Observer summarising the efforts of the partnership during the week of action. Social media – a series of tweets were scheduled promoting personal safety messages relating to public transport travel, dog walking, looking after possessions etc. Marketing – GMP postcards were distributed by Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and the youth service specifically aimed at reducing mobile phone thefts. Belfield Beat Sweep – the partnership focussed on a crime and grime sweep in the Belfield area to address community concerns and engage with the public face to face. A press release was issued and received coverage in the Rochdale Observer summarising the partnership’s efforts and successes of the sweep. A two page newsletter was also produced and distributed by Police Community Support Officers, door to door in the area. Neighbourhood newsletters – four regular beat newsletters were produced and distributed to residents by Police Community Support Officers. Neighbourhood surveys – gathered more qualitative data to understand the public’s concerns that contribute to their responses in the surveys around feelings and perceptions of safety. This information will be used to inform communications messages and service delivery in the future. @saferrochdale twitter feed – this feed has now been launched and is regularly maintained by the partnership’s communications officer. It will help to communicate crime prevention advice, increase awareness of the partnership’s activities and provide vital reassurance.

Strategic Priority 2 – Reduce Crime

The second quarter of 2013/14 saw us continue to perform well in driving levels of burglary down and we are currently on track to achieve our year-end target. Vehicle crime numbers increased slightly but are within target levels overall, while we saw a small but welcome reduction in the number of shoplifting offences recorded. This nevertheless continues to be a priority for Police and partners and specific plans have been put in place to tackle the issue in our most problematic areas of the Borough.

Police and partners have been engaging in a number of joint initiatives, including Operation Elf, which, not surprisingly, is focused on preventing and reducing the various forms of Page 27 crime that can occur in the run up to and during the Christmas and New Year. A crime prevention shop has been set up in Rochdale Town Centre, while additional patrols have been deployed in Town Centres in the evenings to promote safe enjoyment of the night- time economy. Staff have also been working to prevent vehicle crime in high risk locations through high visibility patrols and issuing advice about security of valuables.

The Domestic Abuse Working Group have completed work on development of the Domestic Violence and Abuse Strategy and are making progress on a number of the actions contained in the Action Plan.

Clare’s Law The Home Office have recently announced that the successful local pilot of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (Clare’s Law) has resulted in agreement to roll the Scheme out nationally. Greater Manchester was at the forefront of the pilot scheme and will now be able to further promote the scheme locally and consolidate its arrangements for dealing with applications for disclosure.

Strategic Priority 3 – Preventing the Harm Caused by Drugs & Alcohol

The majority of the workload carried out by the Drug and Alcohol Action Team this year has been focused on remodelling and tendering the substance misuse treatment system for the borough.

The decision was taken to keep Renaissance (the drug & alcohol outreach team) within the Council. This team will continue to provide the first point of contact for all substance misusers and are an integral part of Integrated Offender Management. Renaissance play a key role in new national and partnership developments and are involved in developing Intensive Community Orders (ICO) and the Problem Solving Courts that will be implemented in Rochdale from April.

Also excluded from the tendering process were partnership support officers, the alcohol liaison services, Inpatient services and other commissioning support activities and associated costs.

The procurement process is now complete and contracts have been awarded as follows:-

• Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust will deliver the integrated Drug & Alcohol Treatment service. This is a recovery focused service that will have the capacity to work with up to 1,400 individuals. It will be delivered in all four Townships as well as in GP practices and incorporates a harm minimisation service (eg Needle Exchanges). • High Level Northern Trust will deliver the Recovery and Reintegration service. They will support individuals in sustaining recovery from addiction by providing therapies and activities and access to training, employment, volunteering, peer support etc. The service will also be offered at venues across the Borough • Early Break will continue to provide substance misuse services for young people aged up to 21. This includes training and prevention, targeted support as well as structured treatment and aftercare. They will also offer family support as part of their award winning Holding Families Programme.

The new treatment system is more streamlined and will become operational on 1st April 2014. As not all existing services will continue, there will be some local impact however robust implementation plans are in place to support the transition of both clients and staff. It is anticipated that most will transfer and there should be very few if any redundancies.

During the next 3 months the Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) will start to raise awareness and promote the new treatment system, starting with reports to Cabinet, Page 28 Clinical Commissioning Group, Health and Wellbeing Board and other appropriate groups. Publicity material will be produced and there will be meetings and liaison with GP’s, health services and other agencies to raise awareness of pathways.

Strategic Priority 4 - Preventing & Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour

Figures • The percentage of people who perceive high levels of anti-social behaviour in their area has seen a decrease so far this year, with a 2% reduction in quarters 1&2.

• Whilst we have seen an increase in anti-social behaviour incidents, this has been replicated across Greater Manchester and Rochdale’s increase has been the 2 nd smallest.

• Criminal damage and arson fell and continues to fall, this time by 7.2% in Quarter 2.

Safe4Summer • Greater Manchester Safe4Summer campaign took place over the school holiday period. Locally Rochdale partner agencies provided an extensive programme of prevention, enforcement and diversionary activities for young people. • In terms of Youth Related Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB), we saw 24% reduction along with a 32% reduction for Youth & Alcohol Related Anti-Social Behaviour . Safe4Autumn / Treacle

• Greater Manchester also ran the Safe4AutumnTreacle campaign over the Halloween and bonfire period. Locally partner agencies pulled together various prevention, enforcement and diversionary activities along with publicity campaign providing safety advice. • Locally we saw a 62% decrease in anti-social behaviour incidents relating to nuisance caused by fireworks and a 48% reduction in deliberate secondary fires. We saw a slight increase of 4% in general anti-social behaviour. A full report is being compiled.

Levels of criminal damage continue a long-term downward trend and fell again during quarter 2. Anti-social behaviour incidents increased slightly in volume, though this is not untypical for the time of year. For the duration of the Safe4Summer campaign the increase was just 5%, considerably less than any other Borough in Greater Manchester. Youth related anti-social behaviour fell by 24% during the period. Partners have since worked together on Operation Treacle, and initial results indicate that there were some significant and encouraging reductions in incidents relating to fireworks, deliberate fires and attacks on fire crews.

Strategic Priority 5 – Prevent Offending by Children and Young People

There has been a small increase in the number of first time entrants over the last two quarters. However, there has been a steady increase in the number of young people referred for Triage assessments and for early interventions. The Youth Offending Team and Youth Service are both actively participating in the Borough’s Early Help Strategy. Both services provide help to young people and their families where vulnerability and needs are identified and consequently reduce the risk of young people entering the Criminal Justice System.

Both teams work closely with the Stronger Families initiative and have dedicated workers Page 29 in the teams. This allows for vulnerable young people and their families to receive the additional support they require and to reduce risk and vulnerability.

Strategic Priority 6 – Reduce Adult Reoffending

AR 3 – Increase the number of offenders under Probation supervision living in settled and suitable accommodation at the end of their order or license - Performance for quarter 2 has increased on the previous quarter and remains above target.

AR 4 - Increase the number of offenders under Probation supervision in employment at the end of their order or license -Performance for quarter 2 has increased on the previous quarter and remains above target. It is likely that seasonal employment will impact positively upon this measure in quarter 3.

AR 5b – Re-offending rate of Tier Three Restorative Justice Offenders - There have been no Restorative Justice Level 3 Conferences in quarter 2 so re-offending data is not applicable. This has largely been due to limited victim availability over the summer holiday period. Indicators for quarter 3 already look good. There has been one Level 3 Restorative Justice Conference to date and a second one is planned before the end of November 2013. A third one is also likely to take place in December 2013. The Probation Restorative Justice Lead recently attended a retailer forum and gained the “buy in” of this group. This has already had an impact on potential Restorative Justice Conferences as Conferences 2 and 3 above are in relation to shop lifting offenders.

AR 5c – Victim Satisfaction with the Restorative Justice Programme - There were no Restorative Justice Level 3 Conferences in quarter 2 so victim satisfaction data is not applicable.

AR 6 - Percentage of order or licences that are successfully completed - Performance for quarter 2 has increased on the previous quarter and remains above target.

AR 7 - Percentage of successful completions by 18-25 year olds - Performance for quarter 2 has increased on the previous quarter and remains above target.

AR 8 - Alcohol Treatment Requirement successful completion rates - Performance for quarter 2 has increased on the previous quarter and remains above target. NB It is of note that the small numbers of eligible cases can result in significant fluctuations in percentage performance.

Strategic Priority 7 – Developing Community Cohesion

The Cohesion Hub is continuing to make an impact on the way we interact with communities and how we manage any event that could undermine community relations, with the following being of note:

• Work is ongoing to develop a communication strategy and borough branding for cohesion activities and events • A successful community question time was held at the town hall and was attended by over a 100 young people from across the borough who were able to share their views with council leadership and senior officers from across the Community Safety Partnership • Rochdale Town Hall also played host to a seminar organised by Rochdale Community Forum to encourage discussion about the custom of wearing of the hijab or niqab • The responsibility for equalities now sits with the Community Safety team and cohesion hub and a Review of the way equality is practised in the council is underway and findings will be rolled out in the spring. Page 30 • The Consequence Management Team has continued to monitor any community reaction to the Operation Routh trials. These trials were completed with minimal public reaction at the time and arrangements remained in place in order to respond to any change resulting from coverage around sentencing which took place just prior to Christmas. • Good progress is being made on a range of actions within the Community Cohesion Action Plan, of particular note being completion of the pilot phase of presentations of the play ‘Somebody’s Sister, Somebody’s Daughter’, to highly positive feedback from students and professionals who watched it. Funding has been secured for roll- out to schools across the Borough

Equalities

One of the Council’s corporate equality objectives is promoting equality by knowing our diverse community and understanding its changing needs. We have recently produced new process guidance around carrying out consultation with communities, specifically ensuring that information about the protected groups is collected when carrying out all consultation. This will ensure we have a greater quantity of quality information around how service provision changes affect the protected groups. The guidance will be published in early 2014.

We have also been developing a corporate intelligence strategy detailing our corporate intelligence functions and resources, and future areas of work. This will also be published in 2014.

Over the past year we have continued to develop our intelligence around the makeup of the borough by producing a number of research reports analysing the data from the 2011 Census. Topics such as age structure, ethnicity, and religion have been analysed comparing our population to regional and national figures. These reports are able to be downloaded from Stats and Maps.

Stats and Maps has been continuously updated throughout the year and a new joint strategic needs assessment (JSNA) section has recently been launched. This allows members of the public to profile different population groups to understand them from a needs perspective. The remaining 2011 Census data will also be loaded on to Stats and Maps over the next few months.

Over the last quarter, a wide range of equality impact assessments have been undertaken by services across the Council, to ensure that the specific needs of the protected groups are taken into account in the delivery of services.

Emergency Planning & Business Continuity

• Further revisions to emergency plan and key contacts • Training has now been provided to all Silver Officers • Bespoke emergency response plan to Turner Brothers Site has been produced

The Council’s winter resilience strategy has been revised for 2013/14 with key services to manage severe winter weather.

Regular winter planning meetings are continuing to run until April 2014 to monitor any impacts of winter and determine priorities to improve the situation.

Public Service Reform The team continue to deliver on the Public Service Reform agenda and I have taken 2 Page 31 reports to cabinet linked to my portfolio on delivering a Criminal Investigations hub and working more closely with Buckley Hall. Both reports are examples of the Council and our partners working together in a radically different way.

Police and Crime Commissioner Update The Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) made November a month of particular focus on domestic abuse, with a range of visits and events across Greater Manchester, and the signing of a pledge by the Leaders of all GM Councils to tackle and prevent abuse in their Boroughs and across the city region. The Police & Crime Commissioner visited local services and projects and heard the views of victims of domestic abuse both through ‘victim journey’ interviews and at a consultative event in Oldham.

Victims in the Borough will also benefit from a significant investment the Police & Crime Commissioner has approved for a project to embed domestic abuse referral and support arrangements in the A&E and Urgent Care Centres at Fairfield, Rochdale Infirmary and Royal Oldham. 5 domestic abuse caseworkers will be employed across the sites to provide victims presenting at A&E with injuries relating to domestic abuse with swift and direct pathways into safety planning and support. North Manchester is expected to become part of the project in its second phase during this year.

Another area of focus for the Police and Crime Commissioner currently is a consultation with victims of crime. The commissioner is keen to hear about victim’s experiences of criminal justice agencies responses with a particular focus on anti-social behaviour, fraud, violent crime, hate crime and burglary. The intention of the consultation is to see how the process can be improved for victims in the future. More information is available on the consultation on the Police and Crime Commissioner’s website.

HOUSING

• The Cabinet Meeting Held on 16 th December 2013 gave approval for the general terms of the transfer of the Homelessness Service and the management of the Council’s Travellers site to Rochdale Boroughwide Housing. The transfer is due to take place on 31 st March 2014.

• A Communications Action Plan for the transfer is currently being developed. One of the key actions in the plan will be the provision of information to service users, partner organisations and members about the future operational arrangements for the transferred services

• The Council has recently been informed about its provisional new homes bonus allocation for 2014/15 which is £1,068,956. This allocation places Rochdale in 3 rd place amongst the 10 Greater Manchester Local Authorities. As new homes bonus is paid for a six year period Rochdale NHB allocation for 2014/15 is supplemented by previous years allocations which total £1,561,378

The significant allocation received by the Council has in part been achieved through the excellent work carried out by Strategic Housing and the Rochdale Housing Initiative to reduce the number of long term empty homes in the borough.

• A total of 52 new affordable homes for rent have to date been completed by registered providers (housing associations) in 2013/14. The new homes are located in Castleton, Heywood and Rochdale. RP’s are currently on site with 7 schemes at locations across the borough. These schemes will deliver a total of 163 affordable homes and grant funding from the Homes and Communities Agency of over £3.6 million.

Page 32 Universal Credit • DWP has announced that the next stages of the roll-out programme will involve taking new claims for Universal Credit in the pathfinder areas from couples (in Summer 2014) and families (in Autumn 2014). Universal Credit will be rolled out to other LAs in the northwest in the later part of the 2014/15 financial year. • DWP has published an update to the Local Support Services Framework. A fully revised version will be available in 2014. • Work to deliver key messages relating to Universal Credit to key groups and Council departments is continuing. • An approach is being developed to identify and target early support to the most vulnerable households.

Energy Efficiency • Rochdale is topping the league table for the number of energy efficiency insulation measures installed in private homes under the AGMA ‘Get Me Toasty’ scheme, with over 200 households having benefitted so far this year (over a quarter more households than the next best performing borough). • With intense publicity campaigns about the schemes available and partnership working with Groundwork , Energy Wise/KYP and partner-installer Dyson Insulations the public are increasingly aware of how they can engage with us and thereby save money on their fuel bills both now and into the future. • Across all schemes a total of over 400 installations of insulation and replacement central heating boilers have taken place in Rochdale this year, with households receiving over £457,000 in national ECO grant funding.

Councillor Sultan Ali Portfolio Holder for Strengthening Communities

Page 33 Agenda Item 10d

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

CABINET MEMBER REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE CABINET MEMBER FOR PLACE AND REGULATION TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY 22 ND JANUARY 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Place and Regulation Services Portfolio.

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Rochdale Exchange Markets I’m pleased to report that further to the recent sale of the Exchange Shopping Centre, the council has taken back the management of Rochdale Market and the market charter which was originally granted to the town in 1251.

Consultation on the future location of the market has already begun with a well-attended meeting between traders and council officers taking place at the Town Hall in late December.

The atmosphere from the traders was very positive and it was explained to them that they would be involved in plans every step of the way.

The next consultation event will take place in mid- January which will include an update from the RDA on future plans for the town centre.

Environmental Quality Surgeries October saw the successful launch of Environmental Quality Surgeries. Environmental Quality Officers have hosted appointment based type surgeries which provided residents with the opportunity to meet and speak with their local environmental quality officer regarding issues in their neighbourhoods.

These surgeries took place in the main libraries and:

• Allowed the public to meet the front line officer(s) who is tasked with helping to sort out particular local issues based around Environmental Quality. • Allowed Councillors to meet front line officers and to discuss specific local issues based around Environmental Quality. • Highlighted a service which people might not be aware of and to make them aware of how Enforcement Officers can be of service to the local communities. • Provided a quicker response to particular Enforcement/Environmental Quality issues. • Promoted the usage of the contact centre with the general public.

These surgeries have been hailed a success and will be rolled out to all libraries in the New Year.

Convictions During the month of November the corporate enforcement team successfully prosecuted three offenders for littering and fly tipping, resulting in fines and costs awarded in excess of £1500.

Friends Groups State of the Art Skate Park installed at Milnrow Memorial Park. This was a project driven by the Friends Group and supported by Environmental Management. Page 34 1

New friends groups created at Limefield Park and soon at Denehurst Park.

Mandale BMX Track - Derelict Cycle Track renovation: • 100% externally funded via Groundwork Trust. Dangerous derelict track being replaced by professionally designed downhill track. • Different design to Queen’s Park track operated by Roch Valley Raiders, so widens the product on offer to BMX riders in the Borough • Long term, to be managed by cycle club that is just being set up now • Due to open late August • Youth Services involved

Fields in Trust Friends of Springfield Park achieved Queen Elizabeth II Fields In Trust status for Springfield Park. During 2012, Fields in Trust ran their flagship programme The Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge. This aimed to protect outdoor recreational spaces across the UK to create a grassroots legacy from the momentous events of 2012: Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

PROPERTY, HIGHWAYS, FACILITIES MANAGEMENT AND STREET LIGHTING

FM sickness is currently at 10.2 days which is the lowest it has been for a number of years.

RMBC have saved £13,707.00 in landfill costs and taxes for the 1 st 6 months of this year with the ongoing implementation of recycling bins in council buildings

Schools Place Planning - Detail design has now been completed for extensions to 6 primary schools (Sandbrook, Newhey, St Andrews, Hopwood, Boarshaw, Middleton Parish) – construction (£4.1m) is due to commence mid to late January with completion programmed for the 2014 intake in September.

Restructure of Cleaning & Catering and N1R & Town Hall teams is underway to improve efficiencies and service delivery.

Review of opening and closing times for the Town Hall has taken place to improve on staff utilisation and efficiencies.

Property service team is about to embark on a Joint venture with GMFRS and the local community for Fire risk assessment support in the Local Mosques.

R.A.D.A.G – this is another joint venture with the service to improve on residential DDA Access. Property Services works entail the processing of 40 planning applications.

Property Services is working directly with the RC Diocese for planned maintenance – this is a first for RMBC

PUBLIC PROTECTION & REGULATION

The Service continues to conduct routine inspections of premises, react to service requests, accident notifications, infectious disease notifications, takes appropriate enforcement action as necessary as well as arranging public health funerals for those who die with no next of kin.

Licensing Lessons learnt post CSE is continuing and the Service is proposing to introduce 2 schemes which it hopes will build and promote the reputation of the taxi trade within the Borough of Rochdale.

Page 35 2 The first proposed scheme is the Private Hire and Hackney Carriage Penalty Points Scheme. It intends to record offences and acts as a record of drivers’ behaviour and conduct to ascertain whether a person is fit and proper to hold the relevant licence.

The scheme will work alongside other existing enforcement options and offers a formalised, proportionate, transparent, stepped enforcement plan.

The second proposed scheme is the Private Hire Operator Award Scheme. The aim of this scheme is to promote the private hire trade within the Borough of Rochdale and reward high quality service by affixing a grade or award to the Operator Base and have that award displayed on vehicles and at the bases.

The proposals are subject to a 12 week consultation period which closes on 26 January 2014. Building on the changes and revisions to the new driver coaching sessions which are already in place, the Child Protection officers within the Team have undertaken additional child protection training in December 2013. The intention in the new year is to cascade training to all existing drivers and operators.

The team continues to work closely with GMP and continues to deliver joint visits to licensed premises under the “Homesafe Scheme”.

Joint initiatives continue to be conducted to check that all private hire journeys are pre- booked.

Business Engagement and Compliance Team During October 2013, the team delivered a healthy workplace initiative targeting the biggest child care provider within the borough called Fisherfield Nurseries Ltd. They operate 8 settings within Rochdale & Bury. (6 children’s nurseries & 2 after school clubs) There was a series of healthy lifestyle interventions sessions for staff, 9 managers/supervisors completed & successfully passed both the Royal Society Public Health (RSPH) Understanding Health Impacts Level 2 course and bespoke environmental health training specific for nursery settings.

The team has a successful outcome to a prosecution case that ended in Bolton Crown when a resident of Littleborough John Hallisey pleaded guilty to several trading standards and fraud offences for a scam where customers lost more than £50,000 after being sold cars with falsified mileage records and service histories. Hallisey was handed a 30 month prison sentence.

Just before Bonfire night the team reacted to intelligence received that a known supplier of counterfeit items on social media site Facebook was again selling goods via the internet from his home in Rochdale. A warrant was applied for and working with GMP a raid was conducted and illegal fireworks and counterfeit items were seized. A formal investigation is now being conducted into breaches of trading standards legislation.

In October the team worked with GMP and the regional Illicit Tobacco Team and visited a premise in Middleton. The premise was targeted following information received and the intelligence proved to be correct as a quantity of illicit tobacco was seized. A formal investigation is now being conducted.

Page 36 3

Communities Team

Awards Event – Healthier Chip Shop Campaign An awards event was held in November at the Town Hall to present successful businesses within the Borough who have participated in the Healthier Chip Shop Campaign. These businesses have committed to improving practises within their chip shops, have committed to reducing trans-fats in the oils they use and reducing the amount of salt used. 34 Businesses now hold either Bronze or Silver Awards, several of which are keen to improve further and are striving for the Gold Award.

Reduce Smoking Programme in Schools The “Decipher Assist” programme of peer education to reduce smoking and tobacco usage started in 2 high schools in December 2013. Both Hollingworth College and St Ann’s Academy were the first to participate in the programme. The feedback from students who attended the first sessions was very positive. The team is looking forward to building on this success and rolling the programme out in other high schools.

Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour The team continues to work with partners agencies to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour; “Operation Network” on 12 December was a joint initiative where officers targeted 3 second hand goods dealers in the Borough; 2 in Rochdale and 1 in Middleton. This resulted in a number of items being seized as they were suspected to be stolen. Follow up investigations are now taking place. The team used teenage volunteers to conduct test purchases of fireworks to check that sellers were asking for id and proof of age before selling fireworks. Unfortunately 3 premises did sell fireworks to the underage volunteers and follow up investigations are now taking place.

Land at Sandy Brow The Service was successful in gaining external funding from the Environment Agency to conduct an intrusive site investigation to ascertain if the previous uses of the land at Sandy Brow, Rochdale have contaminated the land. Works on site have now finished and we await the results and analysis report.

Councillor Jacqui Beswick Portfolio Holder for Place and Regulation

Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Portfolio

Page 37 4 Agenda Item 10e ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

CABINET MEMBER REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE CABINET MEMBER FOR CORPORATE SERVICES AND TOWNSHIPS TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON 22 nd January 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Corporate Services and Township Portfolio.

Corporate Services have been extremely busy since the last report and are supporting a number of key Corporate priorities. Across the Service we are supporting the Children’s Services Improvement Board work. Other work includes the recent decisions taken by Cabinet on the Adult Care Social Enterprise and the Strategic Procurement Hub and Wider Public Service Reform Projects.

The Councils Connected Council ICT Programme has a number of workstreams which will be moving forward early in the New Year and supporting service transformation within the Coroners Service and in Revenues and Benefits.

LEGAL SERVICES

The Legal Team Team is pleased to confirm that the Butts CPO has been confirmed. This will enable the re-opening of the River to proceed. Furthermore the completion of the Lease for the new bus station interchange in Rochdale means that Transport for Greater Manchester has now vacated the old bus station. Negotiations are continuing with the Wheatsheaf Owners and I hope to report to members in the near future that terms are agreed. This will then mean that the old bus station/Municipal Offices demolition can commence.

St Andrews Church and Community Centre has also been handed over and the old St Andrews Church is now owned by the Council. Another step forward for the Council with regard to its regeneration of the town centre.

The team is working on an Option Agreement with Hopwood Hall College in respect of Hopwood Old Hall. The proposed redevelopment of the Property will be for purposes complimentary to the objectives of the College and will ensure that Hopwood Old Hall, which is a grade 2* listed building, is reinstated sympathetically. The building is a considerable asset to the Borough from a heritage point of view and bringing it back into use as part of the College will be of benefit to the Borough.

The Legal Team are delighted to report hand over of the two PFI Schools, Falinge Park and Wardle High Schools and the final design and Build school, St Cuthberts RC High School. This completes the delivery of the thirteen secondary schools under the BSF Programme, a wonderful achievement in four years especially in view of the delays caused by the Comprehensive Spending Review. There will be demolition works and landscaping to complete in the New Year. The Service is supporting the Children’s Services Improvement Board and dealing with a number of high profile cases.

The Legal Disclosure Officer remains heavily involved in the disclosure work which is crucial in terms of supporting the on-going criminal investigations. The Legal Disclosure Officer was heavily involved in the recent criminal trial relating to Operation Routh which lasted a number of months and saw a very successful outcome in late December with many of the men on trial being found guilty and the Judge awarding them heavy sentences as a deterrent to others.

Page 38 During the course of the past year, the Local Safeguarding Children’ Board has been in the process of conducting a large number of Serious Case Reviews, some of which have been of national significance and two of those were published just prior in late December. The Team has been involved in supporting and advising in the Serious Case Review process and this has taken up a significant amount of time and resources. Going into this year there remains a number of Serious Case Reviews that are on-going and the Team will continue to be involved in supporting this work.

The work undertaken by the Team has been particularly challenging in the wake of the implementation of the pilot PLO (Public Law Outline) and a number of significant Court of Appeal decisions regarding the conduct of care proceedings/adoption proceedings which have certainly impacted on care proceedings making them more complex and contentious. This year the Team has been heavily involved in devising and developing a procedure for Children’s Services to ensure we, as an Authority, are complying with the requirements of the PLO. Our Senior Child Care Solicitor also devised and delivered a number of PLO training sessions for Social Work Practitioners. Our Lead Advocate has prepared briefing notes to assist Children’s Services with regards to the salient points of the decisions in the Court of Appeal cases.

The Adult Care Solicitor has been extremely busy over the past year with on-going requests for legal advice and support from Adult Care. There has been a number of Judicial Review matters over the course of the past year which the Adult Care Solicitor has been involved in together with the Litigation Legal Team. The Adult Care Solicitor has also been involved in work relating to Mental Health and Displacement of Nearest Relative cases.

INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY (ICT) Councillor Karen Danczuk – Assistant Portfolio Holder

Mobile Phone Device For Members We have improved the mobile phone signal in the Members’ area on floor two of Riverside. Any corporate mobile phone, or indeed any EE phone used near the Members’ area, will now pick up a signal from that device and will not rely on the normal EE masts.

The unit is a small white box that has been placed next to the printer in the Members’ area. No changes are required to phones and the connection is automatic. Any incoming calls will also be directed via this device so people ringing phones should always get through. If Members move away from that area, then phones will continue to work as normal.

The unit has been set up in a trial configuration and if successful we will look at the possibility of extending the devices to cover the rest of the building.

Giving Members the appropriate tools for the job A project to refresh and upgrade the ICT services and equipment offered to Members is nearing completion, the final stage being the roll out of a number of hybrid, touch screen laptops, to those Members who have requested them.

These improvements provide a secure platform for additional developments to further enhance the way Members are able to work and contribute towards reducing the cost of service provision. eCAF (Early Intervention Case Management System) RMBC went live with eCAF on 16/12. The need to have an electronic case management system was identified in the OFSTED inspection. Typical timelines for such an implementation are in the region of 18 months, however staff within ICT worked collaboratively with the supplier Liquidlogic and with the assistance of input from Children’s Services ensured the implementation was fast tracked and a go live date was achieved within the agreed timescale of December 2013.

Page 39 Member Enquiry System Rollout The new software for Member’s queries will be trialled from Monday 20 th January with 12 Members - 4 from each group. The trial will be carried out for a month with the system going live to all Members on Monday 24 th February 2014. The new system will give a point of contact in every service for Members with any queries, automatic reference numbers will be generated for consistency in follow ups along with frequent reminder emails sent to allocated officers until the query is resolved satisfactorily. This bespoke software will keep all Member queries in one system and has the functionality to produce reports highlighting response times to queries by service.

Connected Council Programme This continues to progress with increasing speed. 2 board meetings have taken place and the multiple projects are underway. The intention is to begin the procurement and development of new contact centre software, new web site software and new intranet tools to improve and automate the way Council staff work and interact with the Citizens. The Programme is on target to have pilot infrastructure and associated services in place by April with a clear go live plan set for after that. The digital Steering Group and Buiness intelligence teams are getting up and running and these are factoring the requirements in to ensure the Programme meets the needs of PSR and future savings needed from the Council.

PSR The Connected Council Programme is looking at data integration, categorisation and governance in-order to meet the requirement of the PSR. Specifically RMBC went live with eCAF (Early Intervention Case Management System) on 16/12. The need to have an early help electronic case management system was identified in the previous OFSTED inspection. Typical timelines for such an implementation are in the region of 18 months, however staff within ICT worked collaboratively with the supplier Liquidlogic and with the assistance of input from Children’s Services ensured the implementation was fast tracked and a go live date was achieved within the agreed timescale of December 2013.

Julian Massel (RMBC Head of Customer and ICT services) has now started a 3 day per week secondment to GM PSR team. This role is as ICT programme Director for data and information sharing across Greater Manchester. Changes have been put in place to ensure services in Rochdale continue seamlessly. This is a great opportunity for RMBC to be at the front of changes and inovations that drive PSR based savings and improvements for the public.

ICT service Desk Good news to report on the Service Manager open calls which went down to 996 calls over the Christmas period (386 Incidents and 610 Service Requests). This is the lowest it has been for at least 12 months. Open call totals have been as high at 1700 and to get the figure below 1000 is a great achievement. Improvements are ongoing to further reduce the open total.

The Information Governance (IG) IG Team is now fully staffed. An additional member of the team has successfully completed the ISEB Data Protection qualification – 3 staff members are now qualified DP specialists and Freedom of Information response times have recently improved supported by updated FOI intranet pages. The IG Unit will be rolling out a range of interactive drop in sessions for officers during 2014.

The ICT desktop refresh Programme: Since July ICT has installed and supported the rollout of: • 1017 Corporate, Library & Public & pcs, plus monitors and phones • Upgraded and installed 121 Lenovo laptops / Installed 100 Lenovo Twists There are 120 pcs left to do. This should be completed by the end of February.

Page 40 TOWNSHIPS The Township team continue to work within the Community Safety Unit. The Township Chairs met recently with The Portfolio Holder, The Leader and The Deputy Leader to discuss the role of Township Officers, and to discuss progress with regard to further devolution. The Service is working with the Township Chairs and the portfolio holders to consider options.

Work will now begin with The Portfolio Holder to develop refreshed Township Plans in line with Corporate and Directorate Planning.

The Team has recently delivered successful Christmas Lights switch-on events in all four Townships and has worked closely with ‘Town Teams’ to support Small Business Saturday events throughout the Borough.

HR SERVICE The HR Management Team are continuing to support the Leadership Team on key strategic priorities, and leading on review of HR Policies and Procedures. The modernisation programme of key policies and procedures is underway to ensure that these are fit for purpose in 2014.

Health Related Absence Policy The new policy and procedures for the management of attendance was launched with staff on 1 October 2013 and training of managers has been carried out all services including lunchtime bitesize briefings on key topics.

Support To Children’s Services The HR Service continues to provide support and guidance to the newly appointed Director of Children’s Services on the following:

• In support of the Improvement Notice and Action Plan and submission of a comprehensive report to the Improvement Board. • Dedicated support on the Remodel of Children’s Social Care and the recruitment strategy to ensure recruitment of high calibre officers to the new positions is carried out in timely manner. • Leading on the HR implications within Children’s Services on issues arising from the CSE investigations. • Referrals to the Health and Care Professions Council, and submission of information in support of these referrals.

Payroll & Pensions Team The HR Service has started preparations for the 2014 Local Government Pension Scheme which will take effect on 1 April 2014 and the HR pensions team will be working closely with schools, partner organisations to support them with the changes required.

CORPORATE SERVICES SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PLANNING

Corporate Planning Process A much reduced Corporate Planning Process is being consulted upon at the moment and the details will be approved by Cabinet in the near future, This is to recognise that we need a much more focused and less cumbersome process to capture our Council priorities and Service priorities.

Peer Challenge The council has committed to undertake a Corporate Challenge during June/July 2014. Page 41 This will cover a range of areas including Corporate Governance.

Organisational Development Officers are in the early stages of preparing the Organisational Development strategy to ensure the authority is best placed to meet the upcoming challenges and opportunities. This will cover area such as strategy organisational structures, operational systems and policies, recruitment, retention and training. The team has delivered the following training activity over the last year.

In terms of training, there has been 110 training courses held through the previous year. 3356 staff were booked on the courses of which 2865 attended. A full list of courses is available on request.

Policy Review A review of all policies is currently underway and the Governance Board is working to an action plan to improve many areas of Council Governance, Work on the Councils constitution is continuing.

Management Development Programme The Management Development Programme is drawing to the conclusion of the initial core elements; upon initial examination attendance has been relatively high. The next phases will be additional corporate and functional training, for example, governance, finance, supporting members.

Website The Digital Services Team has been praised again for its website development work by SOCITM - this is on top of recent awards. Other authorities are now looking at the work the council is doing and Rahna Riley, the Digital Services Lead, has been central in the process.

We received 8,000+ page views to the recycling and bin collection section over Christmas (21-30 December). The bin collection page was the most popular page on the website by far over the same period.

I phoned the contact centre to see if we could take some learning to improve the website. Here’s there feedback on calls received.

The indications are: - The website gave the customers what they were looking for. - Weather – no snow this year therefore indicating potentially fewer calls. - They were closed last year so no data for comparison. Reporting systems used for previous years not reliable. - People were informed by leaflets on bins by Environmental Mgt albeit some people didn’t receive these. - Overall it was a quiet Christmas for calls relating to Environmental Mgt.

ELECTIONS The annual canvass process started on 1 October 2013 and the new register of electors will be published on 17 February 2014. Registrations via SMS messaging, internet and telephone have risen this year with 16152 to date compared with 13400 in total for the canvass last year.

Last year, AGMA authorities took a collaborative approach to apply for funding to increase voter registration amongst under-represented groups within Greater Manchester during the annual canvass process. We were awarded £72k to run a communications campaign Page 42 focusing on 18-24 year olds as outlined in the original bid. This campaign started in October 2013 and the results are currently being analysed. The bid for Transformation Challenge Award funding to pilot a new approach to delivering electoral services was successful and a dedicated Elections Co-ordination and Support Team for Greater Manchester has been established. They will support the constituent councils by developing a consistent approach to the delivery of elections and electoral registration, increase resilience across all authorities and reduce the duplication which exists under the current model. The initial meeting has taken place to map the scope of the work to be undertaken by the team and formulate a project plan.

The transition to Individual Elector Registration (IER) will ‘go live’ on 10 June this year with the confirmation live run (CLR) taking place on 30 June. The dry run took place last summer and resulted in an average confirmation rate for the whole borough of 79.2%, slightly above the national average of 78%. The team has been working hard comparing data on the electoral register with other records held by the Council to ensure that the register is as accurate as possible prior to the transition process.

The team are also continuing to contribute to Public Sector Reform and working with ICT on data sharing and the ‘Customer journey’. We are looking at ways of automating the cross-checking of data sets within the council and sharing real-time information e.g. creation of new properties in Planning being automatically created on the electoral register. . CORONER’S SERVICE I reported in October how we agreed with Oldham and Bury Council’s to increase the resources available to the Coroner with the appointment of a full time assistant coroner in August 2013. This was firstly to assist with new legislation and secondly to deal with a growing backlog of cases. I am pleased to report that the Coroner has made significant progress with the additional resource and has dealt with 115 outstanding cases since the appointment of the full time assistant. The Coroner still has a number of outstanding and complex cases to deal with but we have increased the management support to the service for 2014 and our ICT service is undertaking a detailed review and transformation of the back office systems to assist the Coroner with the increasing complexity of his work.

REGISTRARS SERVICE The Government has brought forward the implementation date for same sex marriages, which will now be available from March 2014. Working details of these arrangements have yet to be released to the Registrars service and the likely impact on the service is unclear at this stage. The Registrars service is working with the Council’s events team on preliminary plans to hold a wedding fair around September 2014 the peak time for wedding preparations, which will include local businesses and showcase the potential of the Town Hall for a range of wedding events.

ROCHDALE BOROUGHWIDE CULTURAL TRUST, LINK4LIFE

PERIOD OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2013 Sport, Leisure and Civic venues The target for overall visit numbers for this period was exceeded by 17,000 (3%) with particular successes achieved in public swimming attendances as well as swimming lessons (in both school and public lesson categories). Youth gym usage was also up on target by 800 and exceeded visit numbers for the corresponding period in 2012 by 1,200. At Heywood Civic Centre, the attendance target for the period was exceeded by 1,640 visits in what proved to be a very busy training period. We have built up a small pantomime run aimed at lower income families that enables a family of 4 to attend for under £25.00. This has proved extremely popular and this year we sold out all 3 performances over 3 weeks in advance of the first performance.

Neighbourhood and Communities Page 43

The Go4it holiday activities in October attracted over 380 attendances during this Halloween themed half term, up by 11% compared to 2012. Children got to take part in swimming and sports as well as carving and designing their own pumpkins. As part of the Active Lifestyle strand, Link4Life has introduced new weekly health checks for staff at Number One Riverside in November. The take-up has been overwhelming with sessions being fully booked until February. Also during this period, Link4Life has delivered health and physical activity sessions to Rochdale Boroughwide Housing staff as part of RBH’s ‘Health Weeks, during which 59 employees undertook a health checks and around 30 employees attended the physical activity sessions.

Arts & Heritage The 2013 People’s Art Exhibition took place which is an annual open event for new and established artists to showcase their creative talent. This year attracted 200 very high quality entries from around the Borough. Two major exhibitions opened in December – the Jill Randall contemporary sculpture display together with the works of Lynn Setterington, a local textile artist who toured the Borough collecting over 300 signatures which were then sewn on to a quilt. This exhibition takes its staring point from a fascinating historic quilt in our Museum collection, which contains the sewn names of over two hundred Rochdale citizens in 1895. Both quilts are currently in Gallery Three at Touchstones Rochdale.

Councillor Martin Burke Portfolio Holder for Corporate Services & Townships

Page 44 Agenda Item 10f

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

CABINET MEMBER REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE CABINET MEMBER FOR ADULT CARE TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY JANUARY 22 nd

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments and matters relating to Adult Social Care.

WINTER PRESSURES:

Autumn and the lead up to Christmas usually brings increased demand for Adult Care services – particularly for older people. This year is no different as members will be aware the pressures within Accident and Emergency across the country have been reported nationally. This latest quarter has also seen increased pressure and high levels of demand in our local Hospitals with adult care staff working very closely with NHS operational managers to ensure people are discharged from hospital without any unnecessary delays and also that they have the support they need when they get home.

I am very pleased to report that the delays due to social care reasons remain low, and are amongst the lowest in the region. We also receive quarterly reports on how the local social care system is working – and again I’m pleased to report that the indicators are positive. These ‘system indicators’ are across health and adult care and include activity levels such as: The number of emergency hospital admissions – and re-admissions – for older people, and the number of people who are supported to live at home rather than in residential or nursing home care. These are all going in the right direction for the borough.

STARS (SHORT TERM ACCESS RE-ABLEMENT SERVICE)

Elsewhere in adult care the demand has also continued to be at a high level across all service areas. The above service is generally full to capacity and we will need to review for the future, how to extend services such as STARS. We continue to provide this service to anyone newly referred to adult care who may benefit from it – this is the way we support people to be more independent and reduce their need for ongoing paid support, which is what most people want for themselves.

I’m sure you will all be aware by now how highly I rate this service and in December 2013 the STARS service was inspected by the Care Quality Commission. After the inspectors had spoken to managers, staff and service users they received an ‘excellent’ all round report! It would seem others rate the service highly as well!

Part of the work of the services to support and enable people who are recovering from strokes is jointly commissioned by HMR CCG and is showing excellent results. This is just one example of the sort of integrated commissioning that we will be developing more and more in the coming months and years.

INTEGRATION PLAN

In my last report to Council I mentioned the ongoing work on this plan, since then I have joined the Integration Board and have attended 2 or 3 meetings. The board is a partnership between the council and NHS colleagues with the aim of developing greater integration across both adults and children’s services for the future. (A bit like plaiting fog!!) However, in relation to adult care services, integration is now a top national priority. Members will be aware that the chancellor’s Autumn statement contained a new transfer of funding from the NHS to local authorities for adult Social Care. This is now known as the ‘Better care fund’. Page 45 The details of this – how much it is and what it is to be used for – were announced on the 20 th December 2013 – and a detailed local plan for the use of this funding has to be submitted on the 14 th February 2014, in my opinion a ridiculesly short time – given the Christmas and New year break –for the local plan to be developed! So – it will be all hands on deck to work out the best way that this new funding can be used to help ensure that health and adult social care services are sustainable in the future.

In November 2013, we also received a report from the Office for public Management (OPM) to help us understand the future options for integration of Adult Care and NHS services in the Borough. This will be discussed by the Health and Wellbeing Board, the Cabinet and the CCG governing body in the coming months. As you will all appreciate I’m sure – the question of how we can be more efficient and effective through integration is a very challenging one and which is challenging us all at the moment!

DEMENTIA CARE AND SUPPORT.

This is another area of integrated working which will also be very challenging! I have recently been reading a Department of Health, ‘state of the nation’ report on Dementia Care and Support and I would share some of this with members: ‘Around 670,000 people in England have dementia, and this number is set to double in the next 30 years.) (We are also told...) ‘Dementia costs £19 billion a year, and this is going to rise massively. The cost in heartbreak is incalculable!’

‘Since the Dementia Challenge was launched in March 2012, there has been some major progress’ (it seems) ‘we are better at identifying and assessing people with dementia in Hospitals and have responsibly reduced the prescription of anti-psychotic medication’ but a further quote is ‘that less than half of people with dementia receive a diagnosis, and that there is a great deal of variation across the country in how long people wait before being seen by a memory service.’ The report also goes on to say that ‘47% of people with dementia do not feel part of their community, they often experience anxiety and depression, and 75% do not feel society is geared up to deal with dementia.’

There are other facts and figures quoted – I could go on, but it is a very lengthy report! I’m pleased to say however – one that has been firmly taken on board by partners within the Borough. We have a local ‘Joint Dementia Strategy’ which aims to improve diagnosis, support and treatment, and also to increase support for Carers – which is absolutely vital for the future – in fact we just could not manage without them! Work is also currently ongoing to develop three ‘Dementia Hubs’ in the Borough. Part of this work is with GP’s with a special interest (who work) with other health and social care professionals in a ‘locality’.

We also have a specialist arm of STARS that focuses particularly on people with dementia – and is an important part of this dementia network of health and social care support.

SAFEGUARDING ADULTS

The last meeting of the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Board (RBSAB) was held in late October, and would report some key messages from same.

*We are establishing better links with the Children’s Safeguarding Board (RBSCB) in welcoming Sandra Bruce who is presently manager of the RBSCB Safeguarding Unit, and reciprocally – Anne Carswell, Interim Assistant Director for Adult Care represents RBSAB on RBCAB. *The Board now has a Safeguarding Business Unit with three new workers to support the work of the Board. *A comprehensive profile of Domestic Abuse in Rochdale has been undertaken to better understand local domestic abuse patterns. Page 46 *This information has helped the Domestic Abuse Working Group to update the Borough Abuse Strategy, which is currently in draft. Once finalised the document will be available to all. * The Borough Substance Misuse Strategy was shared with the Board, and it has four key aims to deliver. +Protection children and young people from harm +Prevention of substance related harm in Adults +Treatment, Services and Sustained Recovery +Crime, Disorder and Communities

*Fire Service partnership Agreements – and how the Fire service have moved away from providing Home Fire Risk Assessments towards the provision of Home Safety Checks. This is a more holistic approach which whilst still looking to minimise the risk of fire looks at other issues relating to vulnerable adults: eg falls arising from dementia etc., This is carried out via a partnership agreement which allows the service to work with agencies to reduce risk/provide reciprocal training across agencies and develop mutual pathways.

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

In November Council agreed to establish a new social enterprise organisation for Adult Care directly provided services. The staff are highly motivated, dedicated and enthusiastic and I am sure (they) will make the enterprise a success! We are now well on the way with the implementation work and continue to be supported by the (National) Cabinet Office Mutual’s Programme, until the enterprise is established. The planned start date is 1 st April 2014. I look forward to it!

CARE BILL

We have recently commenced work on preparing for the Care Bill to become law. It is now in the committee stages of the Commons and is expected to come into being from1st April 2015, (the financial changes come in later from April 2016). The Care Bill will bring the most significant changes in Adult Care for many years and preparations for implementation (from) April 2015 needs to start now! I will be arranging some preliminary members briefing sessions on this new Bill in March 2014. (So this is your early notice!!)

There will be a total change in the way that people pay for their care, the thresholds, deferred payments and new duties in relation to assessment, personal budgets and carers support (amongst other changes!!) Additional funding is being made available to Council to fund the new arrangements – we are currently working out whether this is likely to be sufficient – given the scale of the changes!

Locally, carers are a key priority for Adult Care and I am pleased to report that more carers are being supported by the Carers Resource than at this time last year. We now have over 2000 carers registered, and as such they receive regular information, invitations to particular events and other opportunities through the Carers Resource. I would also mention that this organisation is working closely with NHS colleagues – another example of ‘integration’.

One new initiative is training for ‘Community Health Care staff’ to become more ‘carer aware’ (by) treating them as expert partners and referring carers for support when needed. This is just one example of the new work within the Carers Resource, if any members would like more information please e-mail [email protected]

Finally on Adult Care – I would like to thank all the staff who worked over the Christmas and New Year period. As you know – many Adult Care services operate 24/7, 365 days per year. Staff in the residential Intermediate Care units, in Supported Living, in Mental Health and in STARS – worked on Christmas Day. That they do so willingly to support the vulnerable members of our Borough is to be highly commended! I offer my sincere thanks. Page 47 VOLUNTARY SECTOR

A very brief note on the above. In October last I held the first of our new ‘Voluntary and Community Sector Assemblies (I am planning to hold these assemblies three times per year.) This first one was very well attended and received – and it included presentations on the new peer support scheme. This is a scheme where any voluntary or community group can receive this peer support from one of three chosen local voluntary organisations on a range of matters – from setting up a new service, applying for funding or compiling accounts. This is supported financially by the Council and is a way of encouraging self- help and skills growth in the sector.

I am also working with the Voluntary Sector Partnership (VSP) to review how it is working and how it may be able to become more representative of the whole sector in the future. This will be further discussed at the next Assembly – scheduled for February 2014.

Councillor Jean Hornby Portfolio Holder for Adult Care, with responsibility for the Voluntary Sector.

Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Adult Care Portfolio.

Page 48 Agenda Item 10g

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL CABINET MEMBER REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE CABINET MEMBER FOR CHILDREN, SCHOOLS & FAMILIES TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON 22 nd JANUARY 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Children, Schools & Family Portfolio.

Improvement Notice Following on from the last ordinary Council meeting that informed members of the subsequent findings of the Peer Review. Officers from the Department for Education DfE carried out an appraisal of the service against the initial improvement notice of April 13. Although we received verbal feedback in December they note that progress has been made and confirmed that we and our partners must continue to focus on improving quality and practice across Children’s Services.

This confirms the analysis of the findings of the Peer Review and our understanding and confirmation of how we move forward as a service. It is also evidence of the commitment demonstrated by all including key partners to deliver a service that is not good but better.

Restructuring of Children’s Social Care The massive investment and the restructuring of Children’s Social Care that embraces the management of change are now underway. This includes the recruitment of social workers, and managers that will deliver best practice. A transformation board has been established and focuses on the following key areas:

• Children’s Social Care Remodel • Communications / Marketing • Workforce Development / Organisational Development • Performance Assurance Framework • Accommodation & Information Technology • Information Technology • Procedures and guidance

In addition to internal ‘ring-fenced’ recruitment two external recruitment sessions which with regard to Social Workers there has been significant numbers of applications (103) of which 53 have been short- listed. The interest in the management posts has not been replicated; to date 2 Heads of Service and 7 Practice Managers have been appointed. The recruitment has not been to the level required to deliver a full complement of permanent staff. Therefore, the current recruitment approach has been reviewed and refreshed. This will be implemented in the next 2 weeks and will make use of a specific ‘micro-site’, ‘head- hunting’ agency to compliment a joint venture involving the service, Human Resources and Communications Team members. A “Go Live” plan has been established to implement the remodel within the service.

• Advice & Screening Service / First Response - 3rd February 2014 • CP & Care Proceedings – 28th February 2014 • Cared for Children Service – 31st March 2014

Regular workshops with staff are being scheduled in January 2014 ensuring staff are regularly informed, updated and are clear regarding expectations.

Page 49 1 of 3 Children’s Pledge Finally in December the Children’s Pledge was officially launched. The Pledge (the first) was developed and supported by a group of children and young people who are and represent children in care. They identified four areas: Health and Family issues; Education; Home Life; and Positive Outcomes that will enable them to achieve and lead successful and fulfilling lives.

More importantly for them ‘The Pledge’ acts has a guarantee that ensures we and our partners are held to account. The Pledge will be reviewed by the group on a yearly basis.

Children’s Homes Since last council two of our four Local Authority Children’s Homes was inspected by Ofsted. This inspection was unannounced, and therefore inspectors perceives the homes as they’ really are.’ The findings concluded that Children’s Homes were providing high quality care that ‘exceeds the minimum requirement’ and the overall judgement by Ofsted was ‘good’.

RSBCB Safeguarding Update

Following concerns highlighted through 2012 in relation to Child Sexual Exploitation, Serious Case Reviews (SCR’s) were carried out in relation to seven young women whose experiences were reflective of the broader issues and concerns identified as having occurred in the borough as long ago as 2003/4. The reports were published on 20 th December and can now be accessed on the RSBCB website.

In addition The Annual report of RSBCB for 2012/13 has been produced and can now be accessed on the refreshed RBSCB website which went “live” in early December. This was also forwarded to you all on publication.

Building Schools for the Future Finally the decade of Building our High Schools for the Future is now complete and last term pupils at the following schools: Wardle Academy, Falinge Park High, St. Cuthbert’s RC experienced school life in new and refurbished buildings that are fit for learning and teaching in the 21 st century.

£150m has now been invested in rebuilding, remodelling and refurbishing 13 secondary schools across the Borough. A further £17m has been invested in new ICT infrastructure and equipment across secondary schools in the borough, including to St Anne’s Academy, Oulder Hill Community School and Languages College and Redwood School.

Outcome of School Inspections Since the last meeting in October 3 Ofsted inspections have taken place in Rochdale’s nurseries and schools. These included 1 nursery and 2 primaries, no secondary schools were inspected.

The 2 Primary schools were judged as good (one of which was previously satisfactory) and the Nursery was judged to be Requires Improvement (RI). The school improvement team are working with the RI school in a similar way as with all our RI schools in putting together an action plan and suitable interventions to support the school.

Both schools presently judged as being in the category of Special Measures are making progress. Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI) has visited both schools and is pleased with the progress being made and the LA support and challenge provided.

School Place Planning Following on from the successful consultation group in relation to additional primary school places.

A new consultation group for additional secondary school places that also includes curriculum offer that is ‘fit for purpose’ held its inaugural meeting just before Christmas. The Council led the group of key stakeholders which consisted of Head teachers, The Chair of Governors Forum, Principles from both Colleges and the Dioceses The aim of the group is to report its findings back to Cabinet in September 2014.

Page 50 2 of 3 Family Journey Details of the Family Journey were circulated to you all in October and are already proving to be extremely positive. This supportive parenting programme not only supports families from ante natal and continues in twelve steps through to foundation stage. More importantly the philosophy for this programme (based on evidence) is to create positive networks either through peers or family created through practical support sessions in our children centres.

The programme began in 2012 and is one of the key building blocks in the Early Help strategy. It has been recognised as an area of promising practice by C4EO, a national Centre for Excellence and Outcomes, which evaluates local approaches and ensures the sharing of best practice nationally.

Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Children, Schools & Families Portfolio.

Councillor Donna Martin Portfolio Holder for Children Schools and Families

Page 51 3 of 3 Agenda Item 10h

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL CABINET MEMBER REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE CABINET MEMBER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND CUSTOMER SERVICES TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY 22 nd JANUARY 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Economic Development and Customer Services Portfolio.

PLANNING SERVICE

Core Strategy Following the submission of the Core Strategy to the Planning Inspectorate in May an independent Planning Inspector has given an initial view in relation to the ‘soundness’ of the Council’s Core Strategy document which will guide development in the borough over the next 15 years.

Hearing sessions to consider the policies contained within the Core Strategy took place in October. Before compiling his final report the Inspector has concluded he needs the Council to undertake a small amount of additional work to evidence the figure for new housing put forward in the Core Strategy. This requirement to undertake an update of the Council’s Strategic Housing Market Assessment is in order to provide sufficient evidence the Borough is meeting its housing needs. This is the only issue that the Inspector has highlighted with the Core Strategy and we are hopeful that once this work is completed the Council can, subject to further consultation and examination; adopt the Core Strategy during 2014. The Council considers that its approach to the delivery of new housing is positive as has been demonstrated by the number of new homes completed on sustainable sites in the Borough in recent years. Over 90% of housing has been completed on brownfield sites.

Flood and Water Management Strategy The draft Flood Risk Management Strategy has been the subject of public consultation during the autumn. This included presentations to Townships. The strategy focuses on the Councils new statutory role as a Lead Local Flood Authority and will identify opportunities to work with the Environment Agency and United Utilities to deliver improved flood risk management and promote sustainable drainage. There is a particular focus on increasing public awareness and preparedness in respect of flood risks and in seeking to reduce risk from water bodies and surface water where there is significant risk to residential property, critical infrastructure and economic activity in line with national flood risk management objectives and policy. The strategy, taking account of any modifications following this consultation, will be reported to Cabinet for approval in February 2014.

Number One Riverside I am pleased to inform you that Number One Riverside continues to receive recognition for the quality of its architectural design and sustainability credentials. In the last two months the building won the prestigious Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Building of the Year and Concrete Society Building of the Year Awards. We also won the 2013 Public Sector Project of the Year at the Mixology Interior Design Awards.

Number One Riverside has also been shortlisted for a number of national awards in 2014 including the Civic Trust Building of the Year and the British Council of Offices Awards.

Page 52 Borough Design Award Nominations were submitted from the public for the annual Rochdale Borough Design Awards and 8 schemes were shortlisted. A Panel made up of Councillor West, the Council’s Head of Planning together with regional professional bodies and private sector representatives visited these developments in November. The Building of the Year winner is Brownhill Learning Community Centre, Heights Lane, Rochdale where it was considered the educational needs had been met with innovative solutions, and that a real attempt through design had been made to assist the children’s education.

Public voting has taken place on the Councils website for the People’s Award and this will be announced at a ceremony to be arranged early in 2014.

River Re -opening Following our successful bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund, we are making progress in partnership with HLF and the Environment Agency to re-open the river in Rochdale Town Centre, restore the historic bridges and improve the natural habitat of the river. A project officer has been appointed to work on our detailed bid which we hope to submit to the HLF in early 2014. Initial surveys of the bridge structures, abutment walls and the river bed have been completed. We have appointed a design team to produce a plan and programme for removing the modern bridges to expose the river and the historic bridges, a plan for realigning the highway to allow us to open up the river and a design to submit to the Heritage Lottery Fund. We will be consulting widely on the proposed design and programme as it emerges from the design team’s work. Updates will be made to the Township.

Rochdale Town Centre Design Competition Funding was secured from English Heritage with match funding from Rochdale Township to run an international design competition for improving public realm around the historic parts of the centre, notably around the river Roch reopening. The competition is being run in partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and is the only one of its type in the North West. The competition was launched in late July with a closing date for expressions of interest from architects and urban designers in early September. Shortlisting of the entries took place during October to confirm a final shortlist of five who presented their ideas to a Panel made up of the Leader of the Council, the Head of Planning, local architect Paul Clark and experts from English Heritage in late November. Evaluation criteria included deliverability and value for money with a ceiling imposed on scheme costs. The winning Design Team will be announced in the New Year. No commitment to implementing the scheme will be made at this time but may form the basis of future external funding bids.

Hopwood Hall College/Hopwood Old Hall Refurbishment of Hopwood Hall College (Rochdale Campus) was completed and opened in September. With financial support from the Council the College has improved the appearance of the college buildings and built a new restaurant and hair and beauty salon where students can get valuable training and supported work experience on campus.

Middleton and Edgar Wood Townscape Heritage Initiative We are continuing to make progress on the delivery of the THI project in Middleton Town Centre. An Assistant Project Officer was appointed in September meaning the project is now fully staffed. The Middleton Gardens public realm scheme is complete, work continues on improvements to Middleton Library and a number of grant funded projects with private property owners have recently been implemented. The Project Team is now targeting other property owners to progress more private grant projects. We continue to liaise with the Heritage Lottery Fund which remains happy with the success of the THI project to date.

Page 53 Business Support & Investment

A range of support is offered to local businesses to contribute to their growth and job retention and creation in the borough.

Business Growth Advisor

The Council is co-funding a Business Growth Advisor post with the GM Business Growth Hub. The post helps ensure that growing local companies receive the most appropriate and timely advice from a wider network of support services. This post is attached to the new and more integrated Business & Investment Team now being managed by the RDA, further enhancing the borough’s reputation as a business friendly location.

New RGF Bids

We continue to work with a range of businesses looking for advice and support on a range of topics, ranging from property enquiries to help with exporting for the first time. We are working with five companies who are bidding for RGF funding to enable them to expand – one of these is a relocation from West Yorkshire, with the others being expansions within the borough.

New Textiles Initiative

The Council are supporting the Alliance Project, a GM-wide project looking at bringing some textile manufacturing back into the UK.

Four local companies have been identified as having potential for growth and will be bidding for funding once the Textile RGF Fund has been released. Headen & Quarmby (in Middleton) continue with their growth plans and have now opened their training academy; the majority of trainees are drawn from within the borough. Interest has already been shown by other businesses who are keen to use the training facilities.

Superfast Broadband

The contract for the superfast broadband programme has now been signed. The co- investment by the local authorities, Transport for Greater Manchester and BT will enable BT to roll out their infrastructure programme at a faster rate – with Rochdale benefitting from the programme in early 2015.

Kingsway Business Park

The planning application for the Greene King pub was approved in July and work has now started on site for both the pub and the access road. The pub should be completed by the end of February and open in mid-March. It will be a Hungry Horse pub and will employ around 40 staff. They are committed to employing local residents as part of the planning consent and will work with the Council’s Employment Links Partnership to secure local jobs.

Staff numbers have increased over the past few months with the seasonal increase at JD Sports and Asda/Wincanton. There now around 1800 staff working on Kingsway, with approximately 70% from the Borough.

The Kingsway Metrolink stop opened in February and figures show that in August alone over 1,800 passengers used the Kingsway stop. The Kingsway Link bus service, which was re- launched in February, and now operates 7 days a week from 5am until 11pm, has also experienced a significant increase in passenger numbers with over 1400 trips were taken in October. Both services are seen as providing a successful alternative to car use to get to and

Page 54 from Kingsway, for local residents and employees from further afield.

The Middleton to Kingsway bus service, which was originally a trial service, is to be made permanent, enabling the 28 passengers to secure sustainable employment at the business park. This works alongside the Kingsway Link which also runs a direct service to Heywood, and covers the Railway and bus stations. This underlines the role of Kingsway as an employment site for the whole borough.

The 2nd annual Kingsway run took place on Sunday 22nd September, and was very successful with around 250 competitors across the 5k, 10k and two children’s races. The sun shone on the day and hundreds of pounds were raised for Springhill Hospice. It is hoped that the 3rd annual race will take place next year and there will be even more competitors.

There continues to be interest in Kingsway from occupiers looking for sites over 100,000 sq ft and RDA is working with a number of manufacturing companies looking at new premises in the 35,000 to 100,000 sq ft range. For example, one of the recent RGF applicants is looking to relocate onto Kingsway and we are awaiting the outcome of their bid in the Spring. If successful, the project will safeguard 120 jobs and lead to the creation of 100 new jobs.

There is also demand for properties in the 5,000 to 20,000 sq ft range, so the Kingsway Partnership is looking at the opportunity to develop another speculative scheme of smaller industrial units on Kingsway.

Rochdale Town Centre

The physical regeneration of Rochdale Town Centre is a major on-going programme. Significant progress has been made over the last few months and a few of the main highlights include:

• Town Centre East (Genr8) – Over the next few months Genr8 will continue to seek to secure key retail and leisure occupiers to anchor the new development. They will then be in a position to progress the submission of an outline planning application later in 2014.

• Wheatsheaf Agreement – heads of terms have been agreed for the surrender of the lease on the old library and other interests and the legal agreements are progressing towards a formal signing. It is hoped to complete the legal agreements in early January 2014.

• Demolitions – The demolition work has been tendered and, subject to the completion and signing of the Wheatsheaf Centre legal agreements, a contractor will be appointed with a view to starting the demolition in January 2014. The multi-storey car park above the old bus station and the bridge links were kept open during December to assist with access to shops in the town centre during the busy Christmas period.

• Metrolink 3b – Construction works are complete on the Metrolink route from Rochdale Railway Station into the town centre, and the majority of the fencing removed allowing the re-opening of Drake Street. Tram testing took place during November. A period of final testing, commissioning and driver training will take place before opening to passengers in spring 2014.

• Transport Interchange – the new interchange opened on 17 th November and the former bus station has been closed and secured pending its demolition in early 2014.

Medium Term Action Plan

Page 55 • The Action Plan guiding the physical development activity and improvements in Rochdale town centre over the next 3 to 5 years was endorsed by Cabinet and Rochdale Township Committee in September. The action plan will be updated to reflect progress being made on physical projects in the town centre. • These initiatives reflect our on-going commitment to regenerating our main town centre through a comprehensive package of improvements to the heritage, cultural, leisure and shopping offer.

Rochdale Town Hall

• The roof repairs scheme has commenced and has received positive news from BBC and other media outlets. A temporary hoarding will be installed and a series of banners have been developed to help people understand what is happening and ensure the building remains open and well used.

Stakehill

• Commercial Estates Group have continued to make new lettings: − UKMail have let 50,000 sq ft (Unit 52 – 54) bringing 20 new jobs to the Borough with the potential to double this over the next few months. − Aspray 24 Transport has taken 36,000 sq ft (Unit 63) and is expanding their operations securing 62 jobs. • The Council’s capital investment and highway works were fundamental to RDA being able to secure and retain these businesses. Further lettings are under negotiation and in total a further 150,000 sq ft of employment floor space has been let or is under offer since the improvement programme got underway. • The highway re-surfacing and street lighting works are about to commence. • RDA is working with the recently established Stakehill Business Steering Group to agree the overall investment strategy for the estate. The new investments and future plans are already encouraging new businesses, jobs and private investment.

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

Rochdale borough’s overall skills levels have continued to improve at all levels and the number of borough residents of working age with no qualifications has reduced. Our priority remains on young people, raising aspirations and ensuring skills development supports the local and GM economy.

The number of job seekers in the borough has reduced further with greatest progress being made with those under 24 which has been the priority over the last 12 months. There are 700 less 24 years and under claiming JSA than 12 months ago, a reduction of 3.7%.

The National Literacy Trust has recognised the Council’s commitment to improving literacy levels by launching nationally a new volunteer literacy programme called, Early Words Together, based on our own Literacy Community Champions. The Department for Education have funded this programme that will see over 100 volunteers in the borough support over 200 parents from the most disadvantaged groups to help develop their children’s literacy, narrowing the gap in attainment before the child reaches school. In recognition of the long standing relationship between Rochdale Council and The National Literacy Trust, Helen Chicot of the Economic Affairs Team was invited to a reception at Clarence House by the Duchess of Cornwall to recognise ‘Literacy Heroes’.

The Economic Affairs Team has worked with a small group of other northern local authorities to bid for resources from the Department of Communities and Local Government to support the

Page 56 development of English Language Skills amongst the groups that are currently unable to access ESOL (English for Speakers of other Languages) training. This bid was successful and the project has started this month (January) and involves Community Champions and local volunteers along with local businesses and public facing services, encouraging new English learners to speak English without embarrassment. This will help people integrate into the local community and support the development of their English skills.

The skills and employment outcomes achieved through the support of Community Champions through a range of activities including: work clubs, skills advice and support, help with money management and maths, and employability skills, has been processed through the Cost Benefit Analysis used to assess the combined economic, social and fiscal impact of an activity. This has assessed the value of the work done by Rochdale Community Champions through tangible outcomes to be in the region of £1.5m. This represents fantastic value and is a model that can be expanded into wider social and economic support that helps our residents become more independent and economically active.

Rochdale’s Community Champions are the first cohort for a new University Certificate in Community Research and Development through a unique partnership with Edge Hill University. The volunteers will be leading new community projects soon and will graduate from the programme in April.

A key part of the Greater Manchester Public Service Reform Programme has progressed very quickly since my last report. A deal has been negotiated with DWP and AGMA to provide for the first time, the opportunity for the direct commissioning of employment support by any body other than DWP. In Greater Manchester we have an opportunity to evidence that locally commissioned and designed support can work better than national programmes. The support to be provided is for those residents with health conditions that have been out of work for more than two years. This will start in March and needs to produce positive results within 18 months. This will need all services within the Council to integrate services for this group and have the support of health partners. This is an exciting opportunity which, if successful, will help make the case for future devolvement of power and funding from national government to GM.

To help improve the vitality of our town centres, several activities have taken place since my last report.

• As part of the AGMA Town Centre work, Marketing Manchester held an event at Number One Riverside, attended by over 50 businesses and residents to gather views on the marketing of Rochdale Town Centre. This will feed into a GM report on the marketing strategies for 8 town centres. • Middleton Town Team has been supported to open a pop-up shop in Middleton Shopping Centre for the month of December. The aim was to raise the profile of the Town team, a business-led group, and to provide retail space for a range of business and employment support and to showcase several Middleton businesses and organisations. This month (January) the shop is being used to promote the take up of apprenticeships. • Other pop-up shops have been supported for Rochdale Police to have a pre-Christmas high street presence in the Wheatsheaf Centre and students from Matthew Moss school developed their retail and customer service skills with a pop-up shop in the Emporium selling handmade Christmas decorations. • 16 town centre workers in Middleton have undertaken Ambassador training to improve customer service skills through increasing their knowledge about Middleton, its history, geography, attractions and facilities. This will be extended to Heywood soon. • The Council supported the first celebration of Small Business Saturday in the UK. A range of initiatives including cash mobs, festive window dressing competitions and

Page 57 shopping crawls were held across the borough with the aim of attracting new shoppers to small businesses that they didn’t know existed or had never visited before.

EVENTS MANAGEMENT

The events strategy has been developed and a report will be submitted to February Cabinet outlining the detail of this. A cohesive Event Application process has been finalised and promoted and can be found on the Council’s website along with relevant advice and guidance to support local event organisers.

LIBRARIES, CUSTOMER SERVICES, CONTACT CENTRE AND ADVICE

Libraries The Cabinet of July 29 th detailed the future direction for developing the library service. In line with the responses received during 3 months consultation, there will be no library closures. Great progress has been made in the last six months, and there will be further improvements in coming months. Libraries are being used as venues to particularly support customers in the following priority areas: Health and Wellbeing, Skills, jobs and business support, reading and literacy, digital inclusion, early years and stronger families, the elderly.

Rochdale Literature & Ideas Festival is an exciting new event, which took place in October 2013 with events throughout the borough. This festival, which is the flagship event of the Maskew Bequest will be held annually. Over 4500 people, of all ages and backgrounds, attended events throughout the borough in October. Class visits were held across the borough. Also there was a lead-in event in each township - the venues were Littleborough Library, Darnhill Library, Langley Library and Rochdale Central Library. Over 2700 attended the main three day festival which featured performances from a wide variety of quality performers including the poet laureate – Carol Ann Duffy, hip-hop artist Akala and Science Museum Inventor in Residence Mark Champkins. We received £20,000 from the Arts Council which enabled us to engage with local artists and arts groups giving them the biggest platform they have been able to perform at. Over 98% of attendees who responded to a questionnaire said they would come back next year. Feedback on the extremely successful festival can be found at www.rochdaleliteraturefestival.co.uk . Other regular and one-off events for all ages are held throughout the year across the borough’s libraries.

In October 2013, on World Mental Health Day ‘Books on Prescription’ service was re-launched. This is being promoted to staff, Armed Forces, via GPs and surgeries (as prescriptions given by GPs) and within libraries to customers. Customers benefit from clinically approved Books on Prescription books, and also Mood-Boosting books, which is a collection of fiction, poetry and non-fiction to lift people’s mood. Funding has also been received from the Armed Forces Covenant to support Books on Prescription making the service easily accessible to ex-Armed Forces personnel.

The number of IT Volunteers helping customers improve their confidence in using computers at the borough’s libraries is increasing all the time. 12 of the 17 libraries now have volunteer IT support available for at least one session per week. Since July nearly 1000 hours have been worked by volunteers supporting over 300 people via the ‘learn my way’ online training package .

Local start-up businesses are being supported more than ever at Rochdale Libraries. Funding has been received from the Arts Council Enterprising Libraries fund. This along with the GM ‘Ask About Business’ partnership will lead to high quality business resources and at least 5 events in libraries across the borough in 2014. ‘Open for Business’ specialist business start-up sessions, organised by Blue Orchid, began at Number One Riverside in October. Blue Orchid also delivers business advice at libraries throughout the borough.

Page 58

Rochdale Library Service manages the local implementation of the national Bookstart initiative. The library service manages the local implementation of Bookstart in the borough. Introducing young families to books and reading and increasing the communication and language of young children from 0-3. Sessions are held in 7 libraries, and within early years settings in the more deprived areas of the borough. Bookstart is proven to improve children’s language and communication.

The final phase of the refurbishment at Middleton Library is near completion. This project which has been funded by the Council and the Middleton THI has made the library accessible through the front door, and within the library via a lift. A new improved car park has been created, including dedicated parking for disabled people. Much of the exterior of the library has been repaired and restored to the way it used to look – including replacing the glass in the windows.

WEBSITE

Eforms We’ve undertaken an audit on the website to identify downloadable and eforms on the website and are undertaking a project to replace these using a standard eforms package. We went live with our first batch of eforms at the beginning of November 2013. Without any promotional work we’ve already received over 700 completed forms. Further work on making the forms live will continue in the New Year.

Gold award A report which looked at the availability of information relating to Small Rates Relief found on a sample of 120 Council websites in England most council websites poorly laid-out, out-of-date and inaccurate. Rochdale Borough Council's website was one of the 15% or so that had "Correct information, well laid out" and received a Gold Award.

Praise for Rochdale’s Web Team The Council’s Web Team has been highly praised in the latest report by Socitm* called ‘Better for Less’ for being determined, passionate and overcoming barriers to achieving usable online services, even in a sensitive area such as Housing Benefit claims.

The team successfully adapted the benefits claims software to improve its usability and encourage people to make their claims online. According to Socitm, “The greatest impact of this achievement may well be that it demonstrates to the whole council that it can deliver successfully a significant digital service in an area that is sensitive and complicated to administer. In this sense, this has become a flagship project within the council”. Greg Clarke, Managing Director from Team Netsol, who produced the software, said: “The system wasn’t being used to its full potential, we took on board the suggestions from Rochdale and it has benefited all our customers”.

Socitm, were so impressed by the work of Rochdale’s Web Team, that they also showcased it at their annual conference in London (9-10 December), attended by over 400 delegates from other local authorities and many people from the private sector. *Socitim is the professional body for leadership and management of IT for public benefit.

Page 59 Five Ways to Wellbeing website On Monday 9 December 2013 we launched the Five Ways to Wellbeing website at a conference for health professionals organised by Public Health. The website allows users to measure their wellbeing by completing a series of 14 positive statements to describe how they’ve been feeling over the last 2 weeks. It’s an internationally-recognised scale for the measurement of wellbeing, validated for people over 16 years of age. We’ve already received over 3,500 page views to the site. The website can be accessed at www.rochdale.gov.uk/fiveways

ADVICE

Rochdale Citizens Advice Bureau began the new Council funded contract for provision of Welfare, Debt and Housing advice in July 2013. The CAB dealt with 50% more clients in July- Dec 2013 than they did in July-Dec 2012. This is a reflection of the increased need in the borough, but also the considerable improvements in the way CAB deal with customers. Face to face appointments are delivered at Number One Riverside, Middleton Library and Heywood Library. The CAB contract is managed closely by the Council to ensure advice is delivered effectively to residents, and that the service offered continually improves.

Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Portfolio

Councillor Peter Williams Portfolio Holder for Economic Development and Customer Services

Page 60 Agenda Item 10i

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE CHAIR’S REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE CHAIR OF THE HEYWOOD TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY 22 nd January 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to Heywood Township.

Memorial Gardens Work on the plans to commemorate the centenary of World War One has already seen further enhancements to the Heywood Memorial Gardens, the Township Memorials flanking the Cenotaph have been inscribed to become a new Memorial to “All Veterans and Forgotten Wars” and have best utilised the existing Memorial structures. The engravings include the coloured flags of the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and the Merchant Navy.

Remembrance This year’s Remembrance Service on Sunday the 10 th November 2013 was again the best ever attended with over 2000 people in attendance representing all walks of life and ages in The Heywood Community. Two Chelsea Pensioners attended to enhance the event and also on Remembrance Sunday itself paid their respects at the grave of Lee Rigby at Boarshaw cemetery in Middleton. A touching Service of took place at 11.00 hours on Monday the 11 th November 2013.

Sunday the 27 th November 1967 saw the withdrawal of troops, from the bitter and bloody Aden conflict against formidable terrorists which resulted in 280 British Regular and Special Forces Service personnel losing their lives and many hundreds injured. This Anniversary was commemorated with a Service at the Memorial Gardens on Sunday the 24th November 2013 to which the National Vice Chairman and members of the North West Branch Aden Veterans Association and Community attended.

Sunday 24th November 2013 also saw Heywood celebrating and recognising Lancashire Day.

Christmas Festival This year’s Christmas festival on Saturday the 16 th November 2013 was the biggest and best yet with a full day of activities, charity and trade stalls, miniature railway, entertainment, miniature Fair rides, a music concert and massive Light Parade with five magnificent Floats. The Event was very well attended throughout the entire day. The Town was packed with people ten deep along the entire length of the main street and cramming on to the grounds of the iconic Saint Lukes Church to cheer and applaud the parade on. The Darnhill Christmas Festival was another success with over 300 people attending the event consisting of Santa’s grotto, art and craft stalls. Santa gave over 150 free presents to needy children. Cartwheel Arts have just secured funding to keep up all their Community work and projects not only in Heywood but the Borough.

A project to significantly improve the Towns festive lights has been completed with four trees on L/Cpl Stephen Shaw MC Way being professionally fitted with expandable tree lights which will grow with the trees for several years to come.

Mayors Carol Service Heywood was honoured to host the Mayors Carol Concert at Saint Joseph’s Church on Page 61 Wednesday the 11 th December 2013 which was very well attended and a special event.

Police and Community Safety Community Safety together with GMP have run Christmas Spirit Events for vulnerable adults who have been repeat victims of crime and given several presentations, run coffee mornings, given personal safety advice and security tips and given out security devices at care homes and luncheon clubs. Several safe plate events have been held at various locations in Heywood.

Community Safety officers have taken part in the Crucial Crew event which provides safety advice to all year six children in the Borough. Community Safety and GMP will be organising a community day of action in Heywood in the New Year, partner agencies to be invited. Regular case work has continued to tackle all aspects of anti-social behaviour both with privately owned property and properties within the private rented sector. Types of anti- social behaviour that has been dealt with include noise nuisance, criminal damage, ball games in the street and various neighbour disputes. From the New Year Crime and Anti- Social behaviour Officers will be moving to Middleton Police Station as part of a new enforcement hub that has been set up within the Neighbourhood Policing Teams. This will allow all agencies involved in enforcement action to share information in real time, creating a more efficient way of working.

Councillor Ray Dutton Chair of Heywood Township

Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Heywood Township Committee.

Page 62 Agenda Item 10j

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE CHAIR’S REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE CHAIR OF THE MIDDLETON TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY 22 nd JANUARY 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Middleton Township.

We have held the following Township Committees, sub-committees and working parties in the last cycle:

1. Township Committees During this period we have held one Township Committee meeting, which took place on Thursday 7th November 2013,which around 17 members of the public attended; Members received the following Presentations: Rochdale Borough Flood Risk Management Strategy Housing benefit Update Members of Middleton Township Committee noted the following reports School Governing Body Vacancies - Authority Governors Baytree Lane Adoption Under Section 22 Highways Act Disposal of Properties in Middleton Township A report advising of the Discretionary Fees and Charges for 2014 – 2015, relating to the following services;

• Finance Service • Adult Services • Children's Services • Corporate Services • Economy and Environment Services

Revenue Budget 2014/15 - 2016/17 - Update Highway Investment Programme 2013/15 and Highways Capital Programme 2013/14 Update Heritage at Risk Survey and Strategy During the Open forum at the Township Committee, the following questions were raised;

• Concerns about dangerous and inconsiderate parking around Alkrington Primary School • A request for information on the funding which Middleton Town Centre has received for Regeneration in relation to the rest of the Borough • An interest in acquiring land which Members have rejected • A request for a box junction in the Mills Hill area.

2. Township Sub-Committees and Working Parties Through its range of Sub-Committees and Working Parties the Township has also discussed, decided upon, overseen or coordinated the following issues;

Culture, Leisure and Tourism – one meeting has taken place during this quarter, on 21 st November 2013. Various issues such as the THI, events programme, Christmas lights planning and the ‘Golden Cluster’ were discussed. Regeneration – two meetings have taken place where issues such as the development of the British Vita site, the THI Programme, the proposed development of Warwick Mill, Transport Strategy, an update on Middleton Library, Car Parking strategy, Tonge Hall and Hopwood Hall update and an update on Middleton Gardens. Planning – three Planning Committees have taken place during this quarter and a number of planning applications have been heard. Environment Forum – one meeting has taken place on 20 th November 2013. A number of grot spots were reported and have been dealt with via the meeting, where Members of the group adopted new Terms of Reference and Constitution. In addition updates were provided by the ‘Friends of Groups’ for the Middleton area. Page 63 Devolved Funding and Services – One meeting has taken place in this quarter and the following applications were approved;

• Vehicle surveys on York Road East, York Road West, Andover Avenue and Lincoln Road • THE BIG GAMES 2014; which will be held at Middleton Arena • CCTV upgrade and improved security at Demesne Community Centre and adjoining buildings • Installation of fencing and gates at Penrhyn Park, Middleton The following items were also reported as delegated decisions during this quarter;

• Dog Fouling Campaign in North Ward • Funding towards a new pillar required for the Christmas Tree connection in Middleton Gardens • Funding for resident only parking schemes throughout Middleton. • Improvements to Wince Brook • An investigation into blocked drains at Boarswhaw Boxing Club • A number of schemes were also de-committed, allowing Middleton Township to claw back over £3,100 in funding.

THI/ Golden Cluster Month As part of the Golden Cluster Month, the accreditation for Visit England, at the buildings within the golden cluster needed to be re-evaluated. This has been very positive and the ‘mystery assessor who visited advised that he would be using Middleton as an example to inspire other towns, with no other town in England able to boast four Quality Rose Marque Awards in such close proximity to each other. Figures were collated for the Golden Cluster Month visits and are very positive, with 950 visits in total and a 150% increase alone on visits to the Edgar Wood Centre and a 160% increase on visits to the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. Special thanks must go to Kerrie Smith from the THI Team and Christine Grime, THI volunteer, for all their hard work.

Oktoberfest took place on Saturday 5 th October 2013 in Middleton Town Centre. The event was the first of its kind in Middleton and throughout the day over 1,000 people passed through the gates to sample drinks from local breweries and enjoy the fantastic atmosphere of the event. Special thanks must be made to Ashleigh Webb, Middleton Town Centre Manager for the organisation of this spectacular event.

Remembrance Sunday took place, as throughout the UK, on Sunday 10 th November 2013, as expected Middleton saw an increase in those attending and participating in the ceremony this year. Middleton Township would like to say a massive thank you to those Members of the RBL who in Middleton raised £24,000 from poppy sales.

Christmas Lights Switch On took place over the weekend of 16 th and17 th November 2013, and in total around 3,500 enjoyed activities such as a huge fireworks display, a reindeer parade, performances by local dance troops and bands such as Aura. Children attending the event were also treated to a free visit with Santa and received a toy or sweeties, plus for those who took part in the Reindeer Parade, antlers were provided to help people get into the Christmas spirit. Once again the event was a massive success for Middleton, and well done to those who assisted in planning and running the event, which as usual was done by a wide range of partners.

Councillor June West Chair, Middleton Township Committee

Page 64 Agenda Item 10k

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE CHAIR’S REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE CHAIR OF THE PENNINE TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY 22nd JANUARY 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Pennine Township.

Highways The Highways Service continues to progress numerous schemes that will improve traffic flow through the Pennines villages: Further Barrier works will be undertaken on Elizabethan Way and the resurfacing on Sir Isaac Newton Way Roundabout is complete. As part of the 2013 -2014 Capital Programme, along with Pennines Township allocation of the £10 million Highway investment Programme, Albert Royds Street has begun with works to widen the carriageway, along with subway maintenance and guardrail refurbishment. The road safety scheme in Littleborough Centre will commence in February with a completion due by end of March

Youth Service The Youth Service in the Pennines have been concentrating on work around how to stay safe and reducing young people’s risky behaviour due to the misuse of alcohol and drugs. We have also kept the theme of community cohesion high on the agenda. Two successful cohesion events, funded by Pennines Township, have recently been held at Smallbridge Library, they were extremely well attended and enjoyed by people of all age groups and backgrounds. Also a group from Wardle held a coffee morning at Wardle Library on Saturday 16 th November with all proceeds being donated to Help the Heroes.

The Mobile Youth Bus has been located in Stansfield on a Monday evening and Belfield on a Tuesday evening as well as also being located at Wardle Academy and Hollingworth Academy every week for lunchtime and twilight drop ins. Due to the success of young people accessing Youth Provision at Smallbridge Library we are going to start a new group at Wardle Library from the beginning of January. Milnrow Youth Club continues to open on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and we are promoting more outreach / detached work on Friday nights with a view of reducing the number of complaints of anti-social behaviour particularly around the area’s highlighted at a recent forum meeting where young people are causing concern on the new Metrolink in Milnrow and Newhey as well as visiting the usual hotspot area’s around Hare Hill Park, Milnrow Memorial Park, Wardle Bowling Green and Smallbridge. The Friday night multi-sport sessions held at Littleborough Sports Centre continue to attract high numbers of young people from the Pennines.

Future projects planned for young people in the Pennines include the opportunity for members of the Youth Forum to visit London with Youth Forum members from Middleton, Heywood and Rochdale to learn more about decision making processes and the importance of having your voice heard. It is also an exciting year with the Tour De France coming through Littleborough and Young People are gearing up to be involved in planning activities and promoting this event.

Community Safety Crime & ASB Prevention Officers manage ASB caseloads and liaise with colleagues in Strategic Housing, RBH, Housing Associations, GMFRS and GMP to try to resolve issues which are affecting the lives of victims. From the New Year Officers will be moving to Divisional Headquarters at Rochdale as part of a new enforcement hub that has been set up within the Neighbourhood Policing Teams. This will allow all agencies involved in enforcement action to share information in “real time” creating a more efficient way of

Page 65 working.

Community Safety and GMP organised a 2nd walkabout on Belfield Old Rd and Samson St area on Thursday 5th December, they invited Youth Service Workers who assisted in undertaking a door knocking exercise in relation to ASB perceptions. Some residents are affected regularly by loud music being played in vehicles late at night and into the early hours of the morning. Others say they have no issues. Youth Service are returning to the area in the New Year with their mobile unit to engage with young people who hang around in the evenings. We are continuing to gather intelligence regarding drug dealing encouraging residents to report incidents on 101.

Community Safety, Greater Manchester Police and Rochdale Borough-side Housing carried out a week of action on the Smallbridge Estate on 16 th – 20 th December 2013. The purpose of the WOA was to get information from the public regarding criminal activity and ASB on the estate. An extensive letter drop was carried out appealing for information and intelligence.

The CCTV camera system within Hare Hill Park has had an upgrade and Service. The next step is to train key stakeholders how to view and download footage for evidential purposes should a crime be committed in the park. There has also been regular maintenance undertaken on other cameras including one in Littleborough Town Centre.

Community News

Remembrance Sunday Residents showed their support and lined the streets in Littleborough, Wardle and Milnrow to pay their respects at this year’s Remembrance Sunday service. Littleborough and Milnrow began with a procession of Armed Forces personnel, dignitaries, guides, scouts, local community groups and members of the public. It was humbling to see how many people turned up on the day and we look forward to honouring our troops past and present at next year's 100th anniversary of World War 1 .

Littleborough Light Switch On LEAF (Littleborough Events and Associations Forum) once again delivered a fun filled light switch on event in Littleborough. Hundreds of people gathered in the town centre to watch the Mayor of Rochdale Councillor Peter Rush and competition winner Maisie Webb switch on the lights. Residents were treated to a choice of fairground rides for children and performances from Littleborough Brass Band, Dawn Chapman Dance Studio, More The Medley Choir and the Hellfyre Magpies.

Lancashire Day MoorEnd Development Trust celebrated Lancashire Day as part of its annual Tim Bobbin Festival on 27 th November. A member of a local amateur dramatic society took the part of the town crier raising the Lancashire Flag and reciting the Lancashire Proclamation. This was followed by the launch of the Tim Bobbin Beer Mat Collection at the Waggon Public House. Members of LEAF also celebrated Lancashire Day by raising the Lancashire flag in Littleborough centre.

Small Business Saturday Small Business Saturday took place on 7 th December. The purpose of the day was to encourage people to 'shop local' and support small businesses in their community. A cash mob was held in Littleborough, this involved local people gathering in the center pledging to spend a minimum of £5 in one of the independent stores. A shopping crawl was also produced featuring 26 independent retailers across the Pennines Township. The winner received a £25 food shop voucher donated from the co- op. Page 66 A window dressing competition was also held in Littleborough and Milnrow. Simon Danczuk MP, along with members from LEAF, Councillor Stott and Councillor Clegg awarded ‘Bliss Interiors’ as the winner of the competition in Littleborough, with ‘Classy Cakes’ being awarded the highly commended prize. In Milnrow, ‘All About Flowers’ was awarded Winner of the Best Christmas Window, and ‘Wisteria Lane Interiors’ as highly commended.

Milnrow Memorial Park Launch 14/12/13 Milnrow’s skateboarders, BMXers, scooter riders and inline skaters attended the launch of the brand-new £100,000 skate- park in Milnrow Memorial Park, Newhey Road on 14 th December. Organised by Friends of Milnrow Memorial Park the day started off with fun events with an opening ceremony at 2.00pm. Santa also popped by later in the day.

Councillor Aftab Hussain Chair, Pennine Township Committee

Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Pennine Township Committee.

Page 67 Agenda Item 10l

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

TOWNSHIP CHAIR REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE CHAIR OF THE ROCHDALE TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON 22 nd January 2014

Thank you, Mr Mayor, for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on matters relating to the Rochdale Township Committee.

As with previous reports, my focus will be around Regeneration, Community and Environmental issues, other work of the Township Committee and subgroups, and the work of the Area Forums as a vehicle for consultation and resolving local matters of concern.

Metrolink

Construction on the Metrolink extension from Rochdale Railway Station into the Town Centre is complete. Tram testing took place during November with further testing proposed in early 2014. A period of final testing, commissioning and driver training will take place before opening to passenger service in Spring 2014.

Kingsway update The planning application for the Greene King pub was approved in July and work has now started on site for both the pub and the access road. The pub should be completed by the end of February and open in mid-March. It will be a Hungry Horse pub and will employ around 40 staff. They are committed to employing local residents as part of the planning consent and will work with the Council’s Employment Links Partnership to secure local jobs.

Staff numbers have increased over the past few months with the seasonal increase at JD Sports and Asda/Wincanton. There are now around 1800 staff working on Kingsway, with approximately 70% from the Borough. JD Sports have committed to working with the Council’s local Employment Links Partnership to increase the number of permanent staff working out of the building and address some of the concerns raised in the press recently about employment practices at the facility.

The Kingsway Metrolink stop opened in February and figures show that in August alone over 1800 passengers used this stop. The Kingsway Link bus service, which was re-launched in February and now operates 7 days a week from 5am until 11pm has experienced a significant increase in passenger numbers, with over 1400 trips taken in October. Both services are seen as providing a successful alternative to car use to get to and from Kingsway, for local residents and employees from further afield.

The Middleton to Kingsway bus service, which was originally a trial service, is to be made permanent, enabling the 28 passengers to secure sustainable employment at the business park. This works alongside the Kingsway Link which also runs a direct service to Heywood, and covers the railway and bus stations.

The 2 nd annual Kingsway run took place on Sunday 22 nd September, and was very successful with around 250 competitors across the 5k, 10k and two ch ildren’s races. The sun shone on the day and hundreds of pounds were raised for Springhill Hospice. The 3 rd annual race has been pencilled in for Sunday 21 st September 2014.

The current outline planning consent, originally from 1999 and renewed in 2009, is to

1 Page 68 be updated in 2014 to ensure that Kingsway is still positioned to secure deals in an ever more competitive market place.

Town Centre East

During the next six months Genr8 will continue to seek to secure key anchor retailers for the scheme. They will then progress the submission of an outline planning application.

The demolition work has been tendered and, subject to the completion and signing the Wheatsheaf Centre legal agreements, a contractor will be appointed with a view to start to demolish in January. The demolition works will include the removal of the bus station, multi-storey car park, the overhead bridge links and Municipal Offices. Graphics will be displayed on hoardings to be erected around the demolition site to provide signage, maps and information promoting the town. The site is expected to be cleared by late 2014. The Township committee has recommended that the site then be used as a temporary car-park to generate income.

Wheatsheaf Centre Entrance

The planning application for the new entrance has been submitted, work to construct the new entrance is due to commence in Spring 2014.

Bus Station

The new interchange opened on 17 th November and the former bus station has been secured pending its demolition in early 2014.

Highways

The HIP scheme is well under way, and almost half way through. There have already been considerable improvements to the quality of carriageways and footways across the Township. The scheme is on schedule, and some underspend is predicted. It has been agreed that any underspend will be added to the patching programme budget and small schemes.

Street Lighting

The street lighting PFI project has now installed 10,007 new lighting columns with energy efficient lanterns throughout the borough. The total number of street lights reported as faulty in November was 377. These lights were repaired in an average time of three days.

Christmas festivities

All the festivities in Rochdale went very well. Congratulations to Debbie Hernon, Town Centre Manager, and her team for their superb organisation and optimism. The Council and the Rochdale Township continue to support events. The festive lights were considered to be a success, with new energy efficient features reducing energy consumption. I was delighted to be able to perform the switch-on in Rochdale with Katy McGlynn from Coronation Street, as the Mayor had to move on to do the honours in Heywood. I was also pleased to be invited to lead the Reindeer Parade down Yorkshire Street. I shall never forget the looks of awe and delight on the faces of the many children when they saw Santa and the reindeer. Both events had bigger attendances than ever before, and really did provide the feel-good factor.

2 Page 69 Other events included the Small Business Saturday, the Independent Shopping Crawl, an ice-skating rink and Christmas Market and log cabins. After persistent requests, I was also pleased that the Memorial Garden Fountain was switched on and lit up for a while leading up to Christmas. Further work needs to be done on this to reach its optimum performance.

Environmental issues

The Clean and Green Priority Group has received updates on plans for improvements to Rochdale Memorial Gardens, and on the work of Environmental Management’s Street Services Team. The group continues to receive updates on previous projects, to fund new ones, and is looking at ways of publicising the good work of the group. Rochdale Township achieved a Silver Gilt award for In Bloom 2014.

Involving communities

The Communities & Engagement Priority Group has now begun to see progress with the projects funded during 2013. Of particular note is the funding provided to the Whitworth Valley Angling Society, which has helped them to ensure sustainability for at least the next ten years. As part of this project a trophy has been named in honour of the late Cllr. Ann Metcalfe, and was awarded by Ann’s daughter Emma during their annual presentation in December. Rochdale Holiday at Home took place during the Summer, and it was so successful that the C & E Priority Group has already funded and commissioned a project for Summer 2014.

Area Forums

The third round of area forums has now completed. The forums have taken part in a number of consultations this quarter on projects such as Blue Orchid which provides assistance for new and start-up business, Get Me Toasty, and on the Strategy for Flood Risk Management. Some other issues raised include:

Bamford and Oakenrod Forum Residents have raised concerns about planned works by United Utilities; as a result UU will be invited to the next meeting. The forum also discussed difficulties with the planning process, and the possibility of planting new trees in the ward.

Central Rochdale Forum A presentation was given by the Rochdale Mediation Service, and information on healthy lifestyles via Link4Life initiatives was circulated. The forum continues to focus very much on environmental issues.

Spotland & Falinge Forum Actions are currently being progressed in relation to a dangerous derelict building (the former Church Inn), and the possibility of recreational facilities on land opposite the Innes Centre. The TBA site remains high on the agenda.

Milkstone & Deeplish Forum Transport for Greater Manchester gave a presentation entitled ‘Train, Learn, Drive, Earn’ which offers training and potential employment. There are ongoing concerns regarding vandalism and anti-social behaviour in the Broadfield Park area, particularly around the bowling green.

Norden Forum A number of residents came to report problems with parked vehicles on Albury Drive.

3 Page 70 Parking around schools is an issue throughout the country and is often discussed at most area forums. There will be some engagement work with the school and highways officers prior to the next meeting.

Castleton A scheme to amend the traffic calming features on Abbott St was discussed, as was a wider issue in relation to parking in Castleton – some residents feel that parking is too restricted and that a minimum of 30mins should be allowed, as opposed to 20mins. There was also a good discussion around grit bin allocation and availability.

Healey Forum . The news of a traffic calming scheme in the Shawclough Rd was greeted with enthusiasm. Concerns raised included frequency of travellers accessing land within the ward, and parking issues.

Kingsway Forum RBH gave details of ‘Our Choice’ which invites residents views on how funding should be allocated, a presentation on the Green Corridor was given and the forum was updated on progress of a TRO application for Milnrow Road.

Sparth Forum Due to lack of availability of the venue Sparth Area Forum will not meet until January 2014.

Balderstone and Kirkholt Forum. A presentation was given on the Queens Gardens Community Growing Scheme. The forum requested further presentations at future meetings on issues relevant to their ward, e.g. Kirkholt Bowling Club, Friends of Balderstone Park.

I thank all Members and officers for their continuing support.

Councillor Cecile Biant January 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor. I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matters relating to the Rochdale Township Committee.

4 Page 71 Agenda Item 10m

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE CHAIR’S REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE CHAIR OF THE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY, 22 nd JANUARY 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

This report covers four meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 10 th October, 14 th November, 28 th November and 19 th December since I last reported to the Council on 16th October.

10 th October 2013 Highways Scrutiny Study Group: The Committee considered a report of the Highways Scrutiny Study Group which had met on numerous occasions since it was established by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, at its meeting on 2nd August 2012. The Group was established to undertake a study into Highways management in the Borough work around this subject that was being undertaken by the Council and partner agencies. The Group came up with a series of recommendations, including the transfer of responsibility for the maintenance and management of the Borough’s car parks to the four Township Committees. The Group’s recommendations were subsequently approved by the Cabinet on 31 st October 2013.

Corporate Complaints figures : The Committee scrutinised a report of the Deputy Chief Executive which provided Members with details of complaints received by Services during the first Quarter of 2013/2014 (April to June), and in doing so referred to the number of complaints recorded in the report and questioned whether this was an accurate reflection of the total number of complaints received across the Council and asked how available and accessible complaint forms were at Council buildings across the Borough. Members of the Committee had also commented on the high volume of complaints about Council services that they have received in their post or at surgeries. The Committee requested that future reports should also include statistics for partner agencies such as link4Life and Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, and that this has been actioned.

Corporate Sickness figures: The Committee scrutinised a report of the Deputy Chief Executive that provided Members with a summary of service performance against the Corporate Health Indicators for the first quarter 2013/2014 (April – June). In line with previous resolutions made by the Committee, selected Directors whose Service areas of responsibility have poor sickness records, or which were displaying unusual patterns of sickness absences, were in attendance to explain to members of the Committee what remedial action was being undertaken/proposed to address specific sickness issues. The Committee requested that a specific report be produced for the Early Help and Schools Service to address the levels of sickness in that Service and for the report to come to the next meeting of the Committee.

Children's Services - Service Improvement Plan Update: The Committee scrutinised a report of the Interim Director of Children’s Services which provided Members with an overview of progress in respect of the Single Improvement Plan) that was being developed following the 2012 unannounced Ofsted inspection and subsequent Department for Education Improvement Notice. A number of actions have been completed and these achievements have been highlighted under the four overarching improvement themes that were set out in the submitted report. Various agencies connected to the Council, including the Improvement Board were monitoring actions that were behind target, but overall there was satisfaction that significant progress is being made, and that all activities will be completed by the end of October. Page 72

Other issues: at this particular meeting the Committee also scrutinised reports relating to the anti-money laundering policy, the proposed Revenues and Benefits Fraud Prosecution Strategy and a local Council Tax Support Scheme. As per previous resolutions of the Committee these policy matters were scrutinised at the Committee; prior to their consideration by the Cabinet.

14 th November 2013 St. Andrew’s School: the Committee scrutinised a report on proposals to create nursery provision at St. Andrew’s primary school, Littleborough, considering the detailed work that had already been carried out on this matter, noting also an input from Pennines Township Committee at recent meetings. The Committee was advised that this was fresh consultation, due to an administrative error, and all the responses submitted earlier were to be taken into consideration.

Adult Care Social Enterprise: The Committee scrutinised a report, prior to its submission to the Cabinet, of the Director of Adult Care Services which outlined the progress made in establishing a social enterprise for adult care directly provided services, to be operational from 1 April 2014.

Discretionary Housing Payments Policy 2013/14 & Council Tax Technical Reforms - Review of Empty Discounts for 2014/2015 The Committee scrutinised two reports of the Director of Finance prior to their submission to the Cabinet on 18 th November 2013.

Children, Schools and Families, Children's Social Care Quarterly Performance Management Report: The Committee scrutinised a report of the Director of Children’s Services that provided details of Children’s Social Care Performance for the first two quarters of 2013/2014. The Committee was asked to consider the impact for the Council in terms of on-going monitoring of this performance information, and the information gained from a performance report could be used to understand what is happening and enable support from the Council to drive forward service improvement. The Committee was advised that it will in the future, along with the Cabinet, receive performance management reports in relation to Children, Schools and Families on a quarterly basis

Remedial Action in relation to sickness absence within Early Help and Schools: Further to the Committee’s last meeting on 10 th October 2013, the Committee scrutinised a report of the Director of Children’s Services that updated Members on remedial actions put in place within Early Help and Schools Services to address the levels of sickness absence, which had increased in recent months.

Discretionary Fees and Charges: as part of the budget consultation process the Committee were consulted on proposals for Discretionary Fees and Charges that Services are proposing be levied in 2014/15. Whilst specific recommendations were put forward in respect of charges proposed for Corporate Services and Economy and Environment Services Members expressed a preference that in future the Director of Finance prepare a composite report detailing proposed charges across the Authority rather than each Service providing a separate report.

28 th November 2013 Senior Management Review: At the request of the Employment Committee’s meeting, on 16 th October 2013, Members scrutinised a report of the Hay Group in relation to the review of the pay of the Council’s senior managers. In addition, the Committee considered the recommendations that the Employment Committee (which had met earlier on 28 th November) were making to the Full Council meeting on 11 th December 2013, in this regard. The report recommended the establishment of a pay policy for senior management posts which reflects the Council’s current position and one that mirrors the aspirations of the Borough to meet future challenges. The report recognised that the Council would need to Page 73 consider the development of pay policies to ensure that their senior management team were appropriately rewarded to lead necessary changes and to deliver key outcomes for the Borough. The Committee noted the Employment Committee’s acknowledgement of an aspiration to attract and retain high calibre senior officers who were able to lead Rochdale. The Committee considered the report in detail and noted the report, but acknowledging that a majority of the Committee’s membership were opposed to the proposed pay increases for senior staff preferring instead that no action be taken.

Corporate Complaints: The Committee scrutinised a report which provided Members with details of complaints received by Services during the second Quarter of 2013/2014 (July to September). Members noted that in line with approved reporting arrangements the Committee is responsible for scrutinising the in-year performance of all Services including complaints received by Services. Services provide details of complaints received via the complaints recording system, and the Corporate Complaints Team extract and report on the information recorded during the quarter period. This includes the number of complaints received at each stage of the process, the number investigated and responded to within timescale and the number of which were upheld.

Corporate Sickness figures: The Committee scrutinised a report of the Deputy Chief Executive that provided Members with a summary of service performance against the Corporate Health Indicators for the second quarter 2013/2014 (July – September). The Committee noted that the report provided a brief commentary by Directors on the workforce profile data for disabled and ethnic minority staff, and we requested that a future report, to be presented annually, includes a breakdown of ethnic minority staff, employed by the Council, by nationality .

Local Education Partnership: The Committee scrutinised a report summarising the quarterly performance of the Rochdale Local Education Partnership for the 2 nd quarter 2013/2014 (July to September).

Capital Financial Update: The Committee scrutinised a report of the Director of Finance which provided Members with details of the Council’s capital financial position as at 30 th September 2013 and, in doing so, identified adjustments required in respect of the budget and a number of capital schemes.

Revenue Financial Update : The Committee were updated on the Council’s revenue financial position at 30th September 2013 and were also provided with a mid-year update in relation to Treasury Management activities. In scrutinising the report Members expressed their concerns at the projected financial situation, moving into 2014/2015 in respect of the Council’s Economy and Environment Service, and special consideration thereon was given to the Development Control, Facilities Management and Highways elements of that Service. The Head of Development Control advised that the projected overspend had been significantly reduced, and further reductions were projected. With regard to Facilities Management the Committee sought clarification on the budget for Councillors’ “Committee Teas”, the maintenance budget for Number One Riverside and clarification on schools that are ceasing to use Rochdale MBC for cleaning work from 2014/15. The Committee were informed that written answers to these questions would be submitted to the Committee’s membership by the Head of the Facilities Management function.

19 th December 2013 Called-in Item of Business: the Committee considered its first called-in item of business, in 2013/14, in respect of a decision made by Heywood Township Committee on 4 th November 2013. Two Members of Heywood Township had called-in the decision of the Township not to support proposals for a “no-waiting at any time” restriction at Barley Hall Street, Fold Street and Harold Lees Road, Heywood. After a full discussion, which involved members of the public affected by the proposals the Committee resolved that the issue be referred Page 74 back to the Township Committee for determination.

Revenue Finance Budget 2014/15 and Capital Programme 2014/15: The Committee scrutinised reports of the Director of Finance regarding the preparation for the budgets for 2014/15 and beyond. In scrutinising the Capital Programme report Members of the Committee expressed their concerns that priorities highlighted by the Township Committees had been recommended for refusal by the Cabinet.

Discretionary Crisis Fund: The Discretionary Crisis Fund has been considered by the Committee, in detail, at each of the four recent meetings of the Committee. In light of concerns raised by the Committee at our meeting on 10 th October, with regard to the processing of applications, representatives of the administrators of the Fund, appointed to run the Fund on behalf of the Council, Northgate Limited, attended the following meeting on 14 th November and discussed issues of concern with the Committee and answered various questions posed by Members. Subsequently the Committee has received updates at its meetings on 28 th November and 19 th December as to progress made with respect to the application process, the time taken to turn around applications, the amount of awards granted and reasons for refusal – and how those reasons are transmitted to applicants. The Committee has recently been consulted on draft proposals for continuation of a Discretionary Crisis Fund into 2014/15.

There has been some serious scrutiny carried out by the Members of the Committee over the past three months and I am grateful to the Members of the Committee for their diligence in pursuing their lines of question. I am also pleased to report that in many cases our concerns have been listened to and appropriate action taken, particularly with regard to the Discretionary Crisis Fund.

Councillor Mike Holly Chair, Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Page 75 Agenda Item 10n

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

HEATH AND PARTNERSHIPS OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE CHAIR’S REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE CHAIR OF THE HEALTH AND PARTNERSHIPS OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY, 22 nd JANUARY 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Health and Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

EVENT The first thing I did from last full council was attend a launch of the new wing to be built at Rochdale Infirmary from an invitation from the trust. The new wing called the oasis Unit is solely for the support of those suffering with Dementia. We were also privileged to have the presence of Baroness Finley whom has worked tirelessly for sufferers. She asked many questions of all the partners present, including myself. She seemed very interested in finding out how the Scrutiny Committee work with partners and if they attend our meetings etc.; she was very impressed with how we are at the present working together. So much so she has written to each of the partnerships including a letter to myself. She stated she would like to come back again once it is finished. COMMITTEE Various people attended the committee to give their reports. The Acting Director of Public Health presented a report on the Breastfeeding Initiative; with the focus on targets by the National Childbirth Trust’s Breastfeeding Welcome Scheme. The first phase has already been progressed and they are starting to move into the second phase, with council buildings making provision for breastfeeding mothers. Committee Members asked questions as to how the data was collected. Also concerns again about mothers being pushed against their will to breast feed (freedom of choice) being taken away from them. The new Chief Nurse introduced herself and gave a thorough in site to her background and her links with Rochdale. She talked about transparencies and publishing good news stories. The committee raised concerns about also highlighting bad experiences and action taken to resolve issues. This we would hope to be evidence based. We requested she attend the committee in six month with an update on her work. The Director of Commissioning NHS England, the Greater Manchester Team came and gave a presentation on the Primary Care Commissioning Strategy; to ask the committee for comment. We discussed the role of the ‘demonstrator communities’. Two are based locally in Rochdale based at Heywood and Middleton. We made comments on the need for a combined approach to look at service provision and transport infrastructure and other links. The Service Director for Corporate Services presented us with a report on Rochdale’s Safer Communities Partnership’s first quarterly report. This is the first time a report of this nature has been presented to committee. We felt some of the statistics were out of date and requested that future reports would have more up to date information. The committee also commented on the fact that this type of report should be going to all the townships as at present they are not. The officer acknowledged this and confirmed that this would happen in the future. The committee also requested information on the proposed privatisation of the Probation Service, with a report to come to the next meeting.

Page 76 The Acting head of the Public Health and Wellbeing Team presented a report on the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy. Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust - update. We were presented with a quarterly report from the Assistant Chief Executive of the Trust. With regard to issues around budgetary deficit, waiting times, (which are changing all the time). The Transparency Programme, the winter provisions and an update on foundation status. The committee congratulated the Trust on behalf of the council on the future opening of the Oasis Unit. CQC The Care Quality Commission has written to all Members whom are part of or sit on Mental Health Scrutiny Committees. Informing us that they are undertaking a radical review of how we inspect Mental Health Hospital and Community Services. They will be looking at key services and other areas such as Acute Admissions wards/long stay/ (CAMHS), and services for older people etc. We will have to make better use of information and evidence. The inspections locally are starting between January and March 2014. COMMITTEE UPDATES I took my report on ‘Child Obesity’ to Cabinet last year with 11 recommendations. I was told that 10 of the recommendations have been agreed in principle. There is one that would be agreed in principle if there are no costs implications. - The leader stated he would be writing back to the committee with the findings and actions. I wrote a letter to the leader and Cabinet on behalf of the committee with our great concerns about a provider for support services for Adult Care. Who have totally refused to attend any of our Scrutiny meetings. Instead we had to make do with a report from one of our own officers. The committee will not let this go away and wish very strongly to voice their concerns. We also have concerns that they may be working in other areas of the borough. We requested further scrutiny by the Cabinet as this involves funding. – Committee are still waiting for a response back, so we can take further action. Working Groups. - Both the Housing and the Mental Ill Health Study groups are well into the middle of the studies. The Mental Health Group are now at the point of looking at Service Veterans and how their illnesses impacts on their families and friends, and can have an indirect impact on work and job opportunities. We did not realise just what a maze of information there is that we need to look at.

Councillor Linda Robinson Chair, Health and Partnerships Overview and Partnerships Committee

Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Page 77 Agenda Item 11a

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE GREATER MANCHESTER FIRE AND RESCUE AUTHORITY TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON 22 nd JANUARY

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority.

This quarter has seen excellent progress against targets. This has been against the backdrop of industrial unrest which is still on-going. We saw three strikes over the Christmas and New Year period which were covered by the Emergency fire crews (County Guard).

We saw in the New Year’s honours list that TWO members of the GMFRS have been recipients of awards. These are:

Neal Pickersgill- MBE for services to the International Urban Search and rescue teams and; Mike Dillon- BEM (British Empire Medal) for services to the community in the Moss-side Boxing club.

Heywood Fire Station took a Silver Award for Heywood in Bloom this quarter for their work throughout the summer months and their associated fire safety messages.

Rochdale Fire Station is now at 25-27 Halifax Road, Hamer, Rochdale as from the 8 th January 2014 and we have two fire appliances with the addition of the new Incident Command Vehicle being operated from the station covering the risks for the whole of GMFRS.

A Service Level Agreement has been signed up to between GMFRS and Rochdale Borough-wide Housing for sharing of information on vulnerable persons.

Fire Related Activity

Accidental Dwelling Fires- 40 Out of these, 15 were cooking related and 12 were due to faulty equipment and 10 were combustibles too close to the ignition sources.

Accidental secondary Fires 14 These were generally refuse fires with 12 incidents being in the garden of the occupier of the properties.

Deliberate fires- 128 Out of these, 27 were wheelie bins 35 were deliberate Primary fires broken down into: • 6 dwellings • 8 non-residential • 1 woodland/conifers Page 78 • 7 outdoor structures- sheds, garages etc. • 13 road vehicles

98 deliberate secondary fires which were broken down into rubbish/refuse, skips and wheelie bins as list above.

Road Traffic Collisions We attended 24 RTC’s over the quarter and 23 of these incidents required fire service intervention (Extraction)

Of all the incidents we attended in dwellings, full Home Safety Checks were offered and delivered to the occupiers.

Fire Prevention Activities

Safe 4 Autumn/Treacle Number of Persons 10 x high School Presentations 1820 Multi-Agency day for Yr 6 90 Youth groups- 2 mosques and 3 youth clubs 130 Halloween event at Heywood Station Fire Crew 37 cadets 1500 10 Drug and Alcohol Week Rochdale DAAT 30 Fire Crew 37 Cadets 10 Crime and Disorder Prison Me No Way- 3 x high Schools 365 Forest Bank Prison RTC Project 20 Interventions/walkabout Harehills Park- Post 30 Incidents Restorative Justice for youths involving 10 deliberate fires 2 x career talks in schools 190 APH Post Incident 5 x APH talks 100

BME Post Incident 20 shops, mosques, businesses and schools 500 in Deeplish following serious fires

Safe 4 winter 4 x high schools 2170 2 x community Centres 120 B&Q advice to general public 50 Fire Smart 2 x Visits per week

Days of Action/ASB 100 plus homes

Total Numbers Reached 7745 persons

Page 79 Fire Protection Activities

Continue to support the interfaith Cultural Completed seminars in recent quarter project regarding Fire Safety advice to the local BME Business Community Support newly formed Bridging Cultures Meeting took place on 25th October to working group regarding fire safety advice to finalise the Fire Volunteers Awareness Day businesses and confirm the EID Town Hall Dinner party attendance of fire service. Also FP supported the Volunteers awareness day on the 30th October by providing information desk and meeting i nterested would be volunteers with Fire protection introduction ( it is expected that the fire protection department will have access to greater business links including Mosques and other local businesses and will have the support of volunteers from the local area by being part of this Bridging Cultures working group Identify and support local clothing UMAR Enterprises suppliers of fabrics and manufacture business following a large trimmings is suppo rting the FS by providing number of enforcements served on this type list of manufacturers in area.10 premises of premises have been identified and FPO's will be visiting and supporting with education along with Robina Yasmin CSA. It is hoped that in Q4 one of the businesses will assist us with developing Fire retardant clothing re- cooking accidents Joint Visit to Factory in Spotland area 18th October - Robina Yasmin attended 231 Following extensive Fire Protection and HSE Spotland Road Rear to offer support to activity at premises female workers at the site regarding HFSC and to gain awareness of fire safety precautions at this type of clothing manufacture factory premises Joint visit to Guinness Trust Housing group On the 4th November Robina Yasmin and fire incident at Clement Court Newbold attended the fi re scene at Clement Court and subsequent Housing managers meeting to discuss vulnerable persons issues and possible HIMO concerns at premises. This was a joint CSA and Protection visit due to Fire Investigation and vulnerable persons and possible LA housing issues at this premises following a serious fire on the 3/11/13 Continue the support of the Rochdale Fire Rochdale FPO's have attended various Station Bridging Cultures Working Group October meetings and sit on this newly formed working group. Already this has provided access to the Rochdale Council of Mosques regarding community business links for fire safety education and has also completed a BME Volunteer recruitment event on the 30/10/13 at Rochdale FS which saw 30 interested persons visit the event and enquire about becoming a volunteer which will ultimately assist the Protection Team in reaching out to the BME business community Page 80 Provide assistance on day- discuss Assist with Volunteer recruitment day Protection role and links with volunteers and provide tours of pumps. During the Month of October Rochdale Fire protection team have established support partnership with the local Bury Probation Establish a multi-agency fire service Service in relation to support from fire approach to MAPPA referrals in support of service Protection and Prevention team Terri Byrne resulting from recent MAPPA referrals regarding vulnerable persons being released into local Hostel. An audit to Mona Cliffe Residential Care Home Littleborough was carried out with Training in APHs CSA Robina Yasmin shaddowing . With a question and answers period at the end. Following concerns raised by CSA Rod Holmes we carried out a full audit of 37 Newbarn Lane Rochdale, which is a Training in Supported living supported living hostel for Drug and Alcohol users. Items discussed were fire alarm systems and protected routes/fire resistance. 20/11/13 joint visit made to premises with Following a number of UWFS at the Robina Yasmin and Vicky Weiss (volunteer) premises a joint visit is planned to Pegasus to give fire safety advice to the residents and court APH. to complete a full RRO audit. Explanation of building design given.

We have also just been informed that Rochdale LA Housing team have secured government funding for a joint multi agency partnership aimed at targeting Rogue Landlord enforcement activity. This partnership agreement will be taking shape this month January 2014 with the support of Paul Whittaker and Gill Lucas.

Rochdale Protection team have also established links with the Rochdale Council of mosques through the Rochdale Fire Station Bridging Cultures Group. This will hopefully provide a pathway into supporting local mosques with fire safety awareness and compliance.

Councillor Amna Mir Councillor Shaun O’Neill

Members of the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority

Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Grater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority.

Page 81 Agenda Item 11b

ROCHDALE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

CABINET MEMBER REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

REPORT OF THE LEAD MEMBER FOR ARMED FORCES AND PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON 22 nd JANUARY 2014

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Armed Forces and Public Sector Reform Portfolio.

1st BATTALION ROYAL REGIMENT FUSILIERS Tuesday the 19th November 2013 saw Rochdale say a massive thank you and welcome home to soldiers of the 1st Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers for their overseas service in Afghanistan during a parade through Rochdale Town Centre. Thousands of people lined the streets to show their appreciation for the way they carry out their duties. A reception was held in the Rochdale Town Hall.

SUPPORT FOR VETERANS The veterans support services have continued over the Festive period regarding a range of issues, also meals, social activities and company have been provided at this special time. One disabled socially isolated veteran received, in addition to support, an iPad which will allow her to keep in contact and communicate effectively.

LINK4LIFE The Link4Life Board have approved not only the continuance of the current scheme to provide free use of facilities to serving soldiers in its current form for a further twelve months to 31st December 2014 but will extend it to unemployed Veterans. The scheme will be subject to a quarterly monitor and review process. An exit survey was sent to all current registered users on the scheme and the below is an extract from the report on the findings:

Extract from Link4Life Board Report 5 th December 2013. Link4Life has engaged 125 serving and reservist military personnel in 5 months and reports the following key facts:-

3 877 gym visits and 204 swims, total usage = 1,081 3 38% of users used the facilities 3 times a week or more, 28% twice a week and 23% once a week on average whilst on leave. 3 80% of these users have reported that the activities experienced at Link4Life have contributed to both their physical fitness and mental well-being with the remaining 20% reporting that this contributes to just their physical fitness. 3 100% of users would recommend our facilities to friends and family and wish to continue using Link4Life facilities. 3 60% report that they would be interested in supporting sports activity programmes within the community.

The top 3 reasons given for what attracted these users to a Link4Life facility were as follows: 1. Range of facilities 2. Armed Forces discount 3. Location

CORPORATE COVENANT RRG Rochdale has entered in to the first Corporate Covenant in the Borough and registered with The Ministry of Defence, which complements the Armed Forces Covenant and sits alongside the Community Covenant. It ensures the Armed Forces community faces no disadvantage in their engagement with business.

Page 82 Businesses can show their support to the armed forces community by signing a Corporate Covenant and can tailor it to what they wish to pledge.

STREET RENAMING The three street re naming’s in honour of the Boroughs Victoria Cross recipients are still being processed, the ceremony for ex Grenadier Guard Private Anthony Palmer V.C. will take place in Heywood on Sunday the 24 th August 2014 and the services of the Grenadier Guards Regimental band has been secured which will make the event very special.

ARMED FORCES KEY WORKER POST The post holder started on Monday the 6 th January 2014 and has been circulated to all members.

HEYWOOD MEMORIAL The existing Township Memorials flanking the Cenotaph have been enhanced in to a Memorial for “All Veterans and Forgotten Wars” as part of the commemorations of the centenary of WW1. The engravings include the coloured flags of the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and the Merchant Navy and were unveiled on Remembrance Sunday, 10 th November 2013.

WW1 CENTENARY £80,000 Capital Funding bid subject to Cabinet approval for WW1 Centenary events/projects, when and if Capital funds are allocated, all Townships will be involved. The outcome of a bid to The Heritage Lottery Fund is still awaited.

PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM The PSR team is now in place to drive the Public Service Reform agenda forward. We should see more actual deliverables emerging now as a result of this.

Communication plan for PSR is nearing completion containing a range of activity including training for Portfolio holders/ PSR Champions which will be crucial moving forward.

Reviewing the council constitution and governance arrangements to ensure they are PSR fit for purpose and reinforce the way we need to think, work and deliver in the future.

PSR features strongly in the councils emerging corporate plan which in turn is linked to the GM strategy and growth plan.

Councillor Alan McCarthy Representative to the Armed/Reserve Forces and lead Member for Public Service Reform

Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Armed Forces and Public Sector Reform Portfolio

Page 83 Agenda Item 11c

Page 84