(a)

the Youth Service were now 12 months in to a three year transformation programme which was progressing well;

(b)

the Youth Service were ahead of their target to realise savings through the transformation programme, and so far this year had saved £178K;

(c)

savings had already been identified for the next financial year; this was a challenge also faced by other departments within the Council;

(d)

Youth Services were proud of their achievements and how they had accomplished them;

(e)

Youth Services had been able to increase the provision of community based Targeted Youth Support;

(f)

the number of volunteers for the Youth Service had doubled since the beginning of the year;

(g)

it was anticipated that an additional 50-70 additional adult volunteers would soon be accessible;

(h)

volunteers were highly motivated and committed to supporting young people.

Following members’ questions it was reported that –

(i)

volunteers were not financially disadvantaged as a result of volunteering, and the expenses package was currently under review;

(j)

there had been an improvement in the ongoing support of volunteers and

a volunteer training programme was now in place, with accredited workshops on a selection of topics being held at weekends and in the evenings;

(k)

community development was now more effective;

(l)

long term mentoring of young people was now possible since the introduction of the new role of trained mentor;

(m)

there were concerns surrounding sustainability of projects in the future – funding was available for short term projects, however the Council were unable to fund projects long term;

(n)

it was vital that Youth Services adopted a proactive approach to projects;

(o)

Youth Services targeted areas of the city where they were aware there was a need to support young people;

(p)

Youth Services did not need to promote their volunteer programme – potential volunteers contacted them to offer their help, and the programme was particularly popular with people who needed work experience (eg as part of a degree course);

(q)

the Youth Service volunteer programme had a good representation of various religions, faiths and ethnicity, and had regular contact with churches and cultural groups, links which were important to maintain;

(r)

volunteers did not necessarily specialise in any particular area of youth work, however all volunteers were passionate about working with young people;

(s)

young people were very mobile, and various parts of the city were popular meeting places;

(t)

there was a process in place to gather feedback from volunteers, and reasons why they stopped volunteering.

(a)

following the city’s unsuccessful bid for the UK City of Culture for 2017, Plymouth Culture Board had appointed Dominic Jinks as its Executive Director;

(b)

the Plymouth Culture Board was being re-energised, and a recruitment drive for new board members had recently been held; 25 applications had been received for these posts;

(c)

two major projects were being developed; the Plymouth History Centre and Mayflower 2020.  The History Centre would open in late 2019 in time to take a pivotal role in the Mayflower400 cultural programme;

(d)

the Plymouth History Centre was a priority as it would be a major capital development and it was important that the city supported this; there was cross-party support for this important cultural scheme with over £5 million committed from the Council’s capital programme;

(e)

Plymouth City Council were working in partnership with Cornwall County Council to transform Mount Edgcumbe House and Country Park;

(f)

it was hoped that a strong cultural programme would increase visitors to the city, boost the visitor economy and create a better place to live for its residents;

(g)

it was hoped that different cultures would be represented on the Plymouth Culture Board (eg Sport, the Arts etc);

(h)

it was important to communicate locally, nationally and internationally to ensure that events in the city were well advertised;

(i)

Dominic Jinks had recently visited Liverpool, Bristol and Limerick in order to understand their processes when submitting a bid and had also discussed their cultural programmes.  All three cities had sent their bids and cultural plans for reference and had stated that they would support and collaborate with Plymouth on future cultural plans;

(j)

an annual festival of sculpture and public art was planned that would animate Plymouth and showcase regional, national and international artists;

(k)

it was proposed to develop a programme of progression and opportunity built on the Arts Council’s Escalator programme, which would provide continuous support for new and emerging talent across all artforms disciplines, to enable graduates to stay in the city and develop their practice;

(l)

the proposed date for the next UK City of Culture was 2021 (with a possible deadline of 2017).  This was not confirmed and a decision would be made after the General Election in 2015.  2023 was the proposed date for the UK for the European of Capital of Culture, but this was still unconfirmed;

(m)

Plymouth had the people and infrastructure to host a variety of events such as MTV Crashes, Transat, Olympic diving etc.

In response to members’ questions it was reported that –

(n)

corporate sponsorship of events was important to enable culture to evolve in the city;

(o)

a national company who were experienced at marketing had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

(a)

the People and Organisation Development business case would deliver an organisation with suitably sized accommodation, which would deliver the correct services to customers in the right locations and cost effectively;

(b)

workforce delivery workstreams would be implemented to ensure that staff had the correct knowledge, skills and behaviours to work in new ways; there were 17 workstreams to support this;

(c)

an audit was being undertaken to determine what resources the Council had in terms of people, policies and processes;

(d)

it was important that staff understood what training they required;

(e)

a career transition workstream to support staff who may need to review or change their career, and if appropriate pursue other opportunities inside or outside of the Council, was nearing its completion and would be online soon;

(f)

the workforce was changing and the Council needed to change with it;

it was necessary to have the required workforce capability and capacity in the right place at the right time, with the right people, processes and kit to work well and flexibly;

(g)

it was necessary to understand how the performance management system was working;

(h)

the decant of staff to Ballard House had been a smooth process although it was acknowledged that a small number of staff had experienced difficulties with the new working environment; there were a few outstanding problems with the building which were being investigated;

(i)

the refurbishment of the new 1^st Stop accommodation was progressing well and was one month ahead of schedule, with the opening date planned for 10 November;

(j)

staff located in the new 1^st Stop accommodation would receive extensive training prior to opening, including British Sign Language (BSL) and disability awareness.

Following members’ questions it was reported that –

(k)

a large proportion of staff in the Transformation Team were on secondment from other departments; by the end of the 3-year period of transformation there would be a very small core team left;

(l)

it was acknowledged that some members of the Transformation Team had been brought in from outside the Council due to their experience in particular fields.

(a)

the Co-operative Children and Young People’s Services were currently undergoing Transformation;

(b)

the vision for the Health and Wellbeing programme was to establish a collaborative, integrated and strategic approach to working, which would in turn lead to a reduction in management costs and overheads;

(c)

there were three distinct phases to the programme;

(d)

phase one involved the integration of adult and children services;

(e)

phase two involved the integration of services for children and young people with schools, health and other partners in a cost effective way which would deliver services cooperatively;

(f)

phase three involved the introduction of the new delivery model which would take up to two years to fully take effect, as work to TUPE some existing staff to another provider would need to be undertaken;

(g)

early intervention and prevention were key factors to be considered.

In response to members’ questions it was reported that –

(h)

plans to save money were an ongoing process, and the department was constantly undergoing a re-structure;

(i)

new legislation had been introduced for ‘cradle to grave’ care, and SEN support was now available until the age of 18.