Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence and notification of substitutes (if any).

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Jyothi Arayambath and Chris Mountain.

Apologies for absence were also received from Councillor Anne Dorrian in her capacity as Leader of the Council and Councillor Emma Cresswell in her capacity as Portfolio Holder - Communities (People).

To receive declarations of interests in respect of any item on the agenda.

No declarations of interest were received.

To sign and confirm the minutes of the last meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 23^rd January 2025 were agreed and signed by the Chairman.

To answer any written questions received from members of the public no later than 5 p.m. two clear working days prior to the meeting – for this meeting the deadline is 5 p.m. on Monday 3^rd March 2025.

No public questions were received.

(A presentation by James Gilbert, Assistant Director – Corporate)

The Assistant Director – Corporate presented the report which provided an update on the Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Challenge which took place in May 2024. The Chairman indicated that the Committee had agreed to receive a report twice yearly in order to monitor progress.

The Peer Challenge Action Plan had been received in August/September 2024 and had then gone before Cabinet for approval. Since then, the Council had been working to deliver the actions within it. The follow up peer review was scheduled to take place on 15^th and 16^th May 2025.

The Assistant Director – Corporate indicated that one of the key pieces of evidence the peers would look at when they returned was the Action Plan and what the Council had done to deliver against it.

The Assistant Director – Corporate confirmed that the Action Plan contained a number of strands of governance. He advised the process was that the report had been considered by the Senior Leadership Team in terms of its delivery. The report was also presented quarterly to the Leader of the Council and the Assistant Director – Corporate who meets with the Leader to consider the Action Plan page by page. He indicated that the other key line of governance was for the Corporate and Community Committee to receive an update every six months which provided members with the opportunity to scrutinise and challenge it.

The Assistant Director – Corporate indicated that the action plan contained 29 actions of which 10 had been completed. 14 actions were on track and 5 actions, where the original target dates had slipped slightly, had delivery dates. Members noted that there were no “red” items, which was positive. The Assistant Director – Corporate confirmed that an additional action had been added to the plan where it was felt necessary that further consideration should be given, which was the development of a Borough-wide plan that would be presented to the Committee during the meeting.

The Chairman congratulated the Assistant Director – Corporate on the clarity of the report.

Members discussed the reports and commented as follows:

Clarification was sought in relation to the meaning of the word “ongoing” within the report and whether there might be better terminology which would more accurately capture the nature of the work required or would indicate that a review or progress date might be required. The Assistant Director - Corporate advised that for a number of the actions it was appropriate to have the word “ongoing” because, for example, on issues like updating the intelligence hub this would be an ongoing piece of work. He confirmed that any specific dates which were required for progress updates could be included in the future. He added that the evidence column was always “live” and subject to regular review to ensure it was reflective of the action to date. He agreed to review the word “ongoing” and see how it might be tightened. He also provided confirmation that every action in the plan  ...  view the full minutes text for item 132.

(A report by Emily Spicer, Assistant Director – Wellbeing & Community Leadership)

The Healthy Living Strategic Lead presented the report, supported by the Assistant Director – Wellbeing & Community Leadership. The report provided an update on the work of South and East Lincolnshire Partnership Healthy Living Board, including local opportunities the Partnership had provided in Boston in the last year in response to joint scrutiny recommendations.

In March 2024, the Committee received a report from Joint Scrutiny Panel around the establishment of the Healthy Living Board. The scrutiny was an opportunity for Members to help inform the Board’s remit. Membership of the Panel included Councillors Suzanne Welberry, Neil Drayton and Jyothi Arayambath. The scrutiny recommendation had rightly concluded that its role in health and well-being was not statutory or clinical but as a District Council it had a huge understanding of the needs of the community and opportunities to influence better health outcomes.

Recognising the broad scope of healthy living, including all the social and economic determinants of health, the Panel had recommended that the Healthy Living Board prioritise two areas locally and they were outlined in section 2.2 of the report. They were (i) activity and well-being, which included addressing inactivity to help improve opportunities for residents to be active; and (ii) working with communities to leverage unique links at place and engage with communities.

The Healthy Living Board had provided a platform for NHS colleagues, local charities and community groups to come and work with the Board, and it had given partners a way to work with the South & East Lincolnshire Partnership.

The report outlined the nine recommendations made by the Joint Scrutiny Panel from Section 3 within the report and provided an example of local delivery in response to each of those.

The Healthy Living Strategic Lead drew attention to a couple of the recommendations, particularly at section 3.6 around increasing place expansion and activity. She indicated that Sport England had announced place expansion last week and she highlighted this as a good example of an opportunity the Healthy Living Board had given Boston which fulfilled both priorities of strengthening communities and helping people to become physically active.

The Healthy Living Strategic Lead drew attention to section 3.7 of the report and the focus on providing a shift to prevention which was what most organisations were striving for as it would reduce poor health, reduce the risk of exclusion and reduce pressure on local services. This included examples of some of the prevention work, for example, a Lincolnshire based digital inclusion charity which helped people access and navigate support and give them confidence online. In Boston over 100 people had been engaged in those projects by coming to community-based drop-ins which had helped them access digital services and improve their skills and confidence, including data and devices.

The Healthy Living Strategic Lead highlighted the success of the Household Support Fund, which included a large amount of discretionary welfare funding in Boston and the Healthy Living Board had overseen local delivery. She indicated that this had been delivered successfully by working  ...  view the full minutes text for item 133.

(A report by James Gilbert, Assistant Director – Corporate)

The Group Manager – Insights & Transformation presented the report including the draft consultation document for the Boston Plan 2040. She explained that it included a shared vision for the entire borough, all 19 parishes and the town. It also linked to the LGA Peer Review updates which had been discussed earlier.

The Group Manager – Insights and Transformation confirmed that the Plan expanded on the town centre strategy to cover the whole borough. The Plan had been out for public consultation, in January and February, which included with residents, local businesses, schools and Parish Councils. There had also been public interaction at events, including Celebrate Boston and Boston Brilliance. Members were invited to consider the draft plan and feedback their views so that they could be added to the consultation, which would then be reported to Cabinet on 26^th March 2025.

High-level priorities included a thriving economy, community cohesion and resilience, and a healthy and sustainable borough. If the plan was approved, an action plan would be put together at the next stage, which would include the response to the consultation and the Committee’s views which would feed into the action plan that would be delivered by multi-agency working groups for each of the priorities. The Committee would also receive reports on progress, as would the Cabinet, and reports would be provided to the Parish Council liaison meeting to ensure their involvement.

The Group Manager – Insights and Transformation indicated that there were two key areas that had already been identified from the consultation, which would be included in the next draft submitted to Cabinet. The first area was around the potential impact of local government reorganisation. The report will indicate that it was a “living document.” The second area was regarding conversations with individual councillors about the potential for a rural strategy. She confirmed that rather than proceed in that way and have a separate one, the aim was to pull that together into the Plan, so that all areas were covered.

The Group Manager – Insights and Transformation advised that requests from by the Committee in respect of the Healthy Living Board report would be included in the Boston Plan 2040 so that it could incorporate the links with health and in particular reaching out to communities. Confirmation was provided that there would be more in-depth consultation and engagement on those actions themselves to include the Committee’s suggestions.

Members discussed the reports and commented as follows:

Consideration was given to information in the report about the potential disparity between lower rates of unemployment locally as against the national average and the higher number of people on out of work benefits. The Committee discussed how a probable explanation was that the disparity may have arisen as a result of the number of people who were economically inactive and not claiming out of work benefits. Another explanation may also have been that some claimants of Universal Credit were in work and on low wages. The Group Manager – Insights  ...  view the full minutes text for item 134.

(For Members to note/discuss the Committee’s current work programme)

The Assistant Director – General Fund Assets presented the Work Programme.

The Chairman confirmed that there would be an additional meeting of the Committee on 8^th May 2025 in respect of a review of the current scrutiny arrangements, particularly as over the next two years there would be changes in terms of local government reorganisation which provided the Committee with an important role in both scrutinising the changes and enabling members to bring forward ideas.

The Assistant Director – General Fund Assets reminded members that a briefing would take place, either prior to or at one of the Committees forthcoming meetings in relation to Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).

This would provide an opportunity to gain a shared understanding of what an HMO was, what a licensable HMO was and what licences did and did not do. The presentation would enable the Committee to consider the issues presented by HMOs and to consider what particular issues relating to that area of the Council’s work that the Committee wanted to scrutinise in more detail in the next municipal year. The Chairman confirmed that he would be inviting all non-executive members to the briefing.