Agenda and minutes

The Chairman undertook the register of attendance for Members and each Councillor confirmed their attendance individually.

The Democratic Services Officer completed the register of attendance for Officers and, as with Members, each Officer confirmed their attendance.

Meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 19 January 2021

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 19 January 2021 be confirmed as a correct record.

Members may make any declarations of interest at this point and may also make them at any point during the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest made at this stage of the meeting.

There are no outstanding Matters Arising.

The Democratic and Civic Officer confirmed there were no outstanding matters arising.

Committee to receive two presentations regarding the Focus on Leisure, to be followed by a question and answer session.

The Chairman introduced Simon Fearn, Regional Contract Manager - Midlands Area and Kerry O’Neill, Contract Manager, from Everyone Active, and Damon Parkinson, Head of Operations & Business Development for the Gainsborough Trinity Foundation. She explained that the focus of the Committee was to understand leisure provision across the district, including outreach programmes and how the council may be able to support local efforts. She invited Everyone Active to address the Committee, to be followed by the Gainsborough Trinity Foundation, with a short question and answer session to follow both presentations.

The Committee were provided details of exactly how the pandemic had impacted on the leisure industry, not only with enforced closures through lockdown but also the requirement for social distancing and close monitoring of numbers allowed to attend the leisure centre. Activity had needed to be booked in advance and a specially designed app for smartphones had proved highly successful in streamlining this for users. Attendance data was provided, including a breakdown by age range, and whilst there was an obvious reduction in user numbers, they had seen increasing numbers of people booking swimming sessions once the leisure centre had been able to reopen later in 2020.

It was explained to Members that the West Lindsey contract provided community hubs for physical activity and health and wellbeing. They offered gyms, classes, swimming and sports hall activities, A variety of community programmes were run from the facilities and in the community. These included targeted programmes which focused on the most inactive, including those with long term health conditions or disabilities, older people, families on low incomes, obesity and care homes. There was also a comprehensive Exercise Referral and Cardiac Rehabilitation scheme in partnership with NHS and community hospital John Coupland.

In addition to this, the organisation worked with local organisations such as One you Lincolnshire, Active Lincolnshire and Whittons Mill. The Vitality Group had a number of sessions based at West Lindsey including Parkinsons UK. Within the district there were community hubs at Scothern, Sudbrooke and Scotter with the aim of engaging with residents to understand what needed to change to encourage positive physical activities and the role the Leisure Centres could play.

Members were also given an overview of the Market Rasen Leisure Centre, which had been able to open briefly in between national lockdowns, alongside the proposed re-opening schedule of advertising and focus in the community.

The Chairman thanked both representatives from Everyone Active and invited the presentation from the Gainsborough Trinity Foundation.

The Committee heard that the Foundation was formed in 2016 and was now a registered charity. The charitable objectives were education, health and wellbeing, sport, community cohesion and supporting those living in poverty. In March 2020 the Foundation took over the full running of Roses Sports Ground which saw the completion of the new state of the art 3G facility. Since March 2020, they had made significant investment to update and upgrade the facilities at Roses to make the fit for purpose. They had also  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

The Committee heard from the People and Organisational Development Manager with the results of the second staff survey regarding covid-19. She explained that although the response rate was slightly lower than in June, the second survey was well received, with an overall response rate of 61.4% or 132 responses (compared to 73.7% or 177 responses previously) and the vast majority of staff continued to feel well supported by their manager. She provided the following summary of results.

·         Management Team were trusted to make decisions in the best interests of staff and staff felt that the right amount of information was being disseminated across the organisation.

·         Staff overwhelmingly felt that the Council was doing everything it possibly could to support them, with initiatives such as the Steps Challenge cited as something that had been hugely beneficial to mental wellbeing and something which staff would like to see return.

·         More staff were reporting adverse impacts on their mental health compared to June, with a higher number of people also worried about the impact of COVID-19 on their lives. .

·         More staff reported feeling very or fairly satisfied with their working from home arrangement compared to June, though network connectivity and a lack of physical workspace remained a persistent issue for some.

·         A higher percentage of staff had settled into a regular working routine and were working more productively compared to June.

·         Childcare and caring responsibilities appeared much less of an issue than in June, though concerns remained about school closures and the impact this would have on working from home.

·         Limiting hotdesking, the availability of a vaccine, staggering start and finish times and improved cleaning regimes would all make staff feel more comfortable about returning to the office.

·         Fewer people wanted to see a return to the office with more respondents preferring to work from home with scheduled office time compared to June.

·         An increase in people's workload and feeling under pressure as a result had emerged as a new issue with this being the single biggest work related concern that staff had.

·         Social isolation and missing social interaction in the office remained the biggest reasons why staff were missing the office environment.

·         Conversely, noise and distraction remained the single biggest thing that staff were not missing about working in the office.

·         More staff reported enjoying the flexibility and work/life balance that working from home brought compared to June.

The Chairman thanked the People and Organisational Development Manager and invited any questions or comments from Committee Members. There was widespread support for the efforts of staff to have continued providing services as usual through what had been, and continued to be, challenging times. It was acknowledged that working practices were unlikely to return to what had been ‘the norm’ before the pandemic.

Members expressed concern that staff were feeling more pressure than previously but there was also support for the measures put in place by management. It was stated that Members had received positive feedback and appreciation from their local communities  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

The contents of the Forward Plan were NOTED.

The Democratic and Civic Officer introduced the workplan for the Committee. The Chairman explained there was significant ongoing work in relation to the Flood Risk Working Group and as such it would be beneficial for the related report to Committee, as well as the presentation from the Environment Agency, to be postponed.

With no further comment, the Committee Workplan was NOTED.