(a)

further detail upon the developing 3-year Plymouth Prevent Action Plan would be discussed later in the meeting;

(b)

photo identification would be a requirement to enable people to vote in upcoming elections; this was something that the Audit and Governance Committee had created a working group to consider.

1.

that the Audit and Governance Committee Sub Group dealing with the Election Cycle/ voter identification would be referred to in the Councillor Bulletin to enable Councillor input;

2.

to note the policy brief.

(a)

in terms of the drop in percentage of recycling and composting rates between Q2 at 37% and Q3 at 31%, it was acknowledged that the change to the recycling and garden waste collection scheme could have had a minor impact on the drop in figures. It was also highlighted that the numbers of residents now working at home was potentially having an impact upon the figures as some resident’s didn’t properly separate their recycling therefore contributing to mixed waste;

(b)

it was recognised by the Cabinet Member that the Council needed to do further work in order to achieve the 65% recycling target by 2034;

(c)

in terms of the continued increase of full time equivalent (FTE) days lost due to staff sicknesses in a rolling 12 months period, it was acknowledged that the Council needed to be more granular in its understanding of the reasons why the levels of staff sickness were continuing to rise;

(d)

in relation to the downward trend from a green to red rating in the percentage of city residents who thought the local area was a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together, this had dropped from 55% to 42%; it was suggested this was due to covid however it was hoped that the community builders programme would be instrumental in bringing out some greater community cohesion, especially amongst the ethnic minorities in the city.

(a)

in terms of risk 11 ‘The Council having insufficient workforce capacity and resilience to deliver the required range of services to meet statutory obligations and administration priorities’, pay levels were not specifically excluded from the list of reasons as to why the Council was experiencing issues with recruitment and retention of staff;

(b)

the Council considered all methods of encouraging apprenticeships and employed apprentices across the whole range of the workforce; this was a recent scrutiny recommendation and was also key to the Council’s People Strategy;

(c)

in terms of risk 18 ‘Risk of financial impact of delivering proposed changes to Waste Services as set out in the Government's Draft Environment Bill’ and the possible necessity to have separate food waste collections, it was confirmed that the Council was aware of the legislation however it hadn’t yet been informed sufficiently to provide enough detail as to next steps to be taken.

1.

to recommend to the Audit and Governance Committee that they pay particular attention to risk 11 ‘The Council having insufficient workforce capacity and resilience to deliver the required range of services to meet statutory obligations and administration priorities’, specifically the pay conditions of staff and staff retention when next discussing the strategic risk register;

2.

to include Plan for Homes to their work programme, with specific consideration of risk 19 ‘Risk of failing to deliver the range of housing to meet Plymouth’s need’;

3.

to recommend to the Growth and Infrastructure Overview and Scrutiny Committee that they add to their work programme risk 18 ‘Risk of financial impact of delivering proposed changes to Waste Services as set out in the Government's Draft Environment Bill’ from the Strategic Risk Register, specifically the potential impact this legislation would have on food waste disposal;

4.

to recommend to the Growth and Infrastructure Overview and Scrutiny Committee that they add to their work programme risk 21 ‘Viability of commercial  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.

(a)

the threat from cyber-attacks was rising within the public sector with several councils having suffered major attacks in the last three years which has resulted in some cases in the total loss of IT services. There was a major focus within central government and the Local Government Association to ensure that local authorities reduced their exposure to cyber-attacks and have the appropriate business continuity processes in place to reduce the impact;

(b)

the report set out the different scenarios that the Council may face with each scenario assessed for the impact on the Council; the report then covered the action the Council had taken to reduce the impact of the attack; it was considered that there were significant parallels  to what was carried out in the commercial world.

(c)

enterprise grade applications were used by the Council in its cyber security covering monitoring, detection and protection activity; there were many layers of those defences including active detecting software looking at activity in and out of the Council’s estate, trying to identify threats and attacks before they penetrated the device or the services targeted;

(d)

the Council was increasingly moving its software to the Cloud; it was considered that this gave additional cyber security and also offered an opportunity to buy in a different way without the capital investment associated with on premise type solutions;

(e)

an un-editable backup software was adopted by the Council; this meant that physical devices that were used were complex to override therefore creating a way of avoiding some of the threat that ransomware presented to the Council;

(f)

the Council was still using CareFirst for Adults Services and some of Children's Services data. Some of the functionality in Children's data hadn't yet migrated across to the Eclipse programme so that programme would continue for the rest of this year. With regards some of the ransomware attacks that they have received, it was difficult to say what data they had extracted, if any, but there were processes in place to assess the impact, assess what data has been extracted, and then officers would work with children services to minimise the impact on the client. One of the most crucial things about the Council’s data breach management process was the impact that information could have on a client - this impact would be minimised where possible. Moving data records to Eclipse reduced the risk considerably, as it was a cloud hosted service;

(g)

the Information Governance Manager was a member of a regional forum on cybersecurity which had most local authorities in the southwest from Gloucestershire, Dorset, to Cornwall. This forum linked in with a national meeting which was convened on a monthly basis with the National Cybersecurity Centre and various  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62.

(a)

the Council was committed to meeting its public sector equality duty, and was working hard to promote equality, celebrate diversity and support community cohesion. There was also a commitment to treating customers and employees with respect and dignity and understand the barriers that different communities in the city face. The ambition was to create a city where an outstanding quality of life was enjoyed by everyone;

(b)

the commitment to equality and diversity paper demonstrated the progress that the Council had made in meeting its public sector equality duty, and set out how the Council had been promoting equality during the past year. Some of the work delivered included involving members through a cross party equalities Working Group. The Group was scheduled to meet four times a year to deliver the city survey and using the insights to inform the development of the community builders programme, which provided additional engagement capacity in some of our most deprived wards, working in partnership with local organisations to improve the accessibility of events, supporting employee networks, supporting employees to effectively consider equality and diversity during procurement activities, and decision making;

(c)

a new equality and diversity action plan for 2023/24 was developed in consultation with the Corporate Equality Group and the Equalities Working Group; the action plan aimed to build upon the good work from previous action plans and the completion of actions allowed the Council continue its journey toward excellence on the equality framework for local government.

(e)

the majority of Members had completed the Equality and Diversity training; this was provided by the LGA therefore Members were required to notify their completion of the course to the Council so that it could be accurately recorded; Figures of those having completed the course would be provided to Members;

(f)

a session on equality and diversity was already worked into the new Councillor Induction Programme and this would continue to be scheduled in the future to promote the importance of equality and diversity;

(g)

the training on equality and diversity run by the LGA was considered basic and more of an introductory level, there was an ambition to create an enhanced training programme for Members that moved beyond the introduction of topics and demonstrated how Councillors behave and engage in the community;

(h)

a written response would be provided as to if there was an industrial diseases register maintained by the Council for local residents where those with disabilities were registered;

(i)

when a customer accessed Council services, data was collected in order to provide appropriate support in an inclusive manner;

(j)

a written response would be provided to Members as to if the public sector equality duty extended  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.

(a)

the report produced evidenced the great work around the area of hate crime being delivered in partnership across the city and overseen by the community safety partnership;

(b)

following the management of risk in law enforcement workshops in September, Safer Plymouth highlighted within the Strategic Crime Assessment, the need to continue to understand the impact of hate crime within the city. There had been a drive to report a crime when they happen, increase community cohesion, and empower individuals to know that hate crime was completely unacceptable. This was pushed by the Safer Community steam group within Safer Plymouth where multiple agencies met bi-monthly to discuss various operational community safety issues, including hate crime;

(c)

Safer Plymouth was a trauma informed Community Safety Partnership and had at its core, the welfare of residents in mind working towards preventing adverse childhood experiences. Devon and Cornwall Police had a diverse communities team who worked at building trust, community cohesion and working on breaking down barriers to reporting. This team worked closely with the Council and Safer Plymouth in order to provide a joined up response to hate crime reinforcing its unacceptability within the city;

(d)

understanding the impact of a crime on people was paramount to identifying ways to prevent it. Positive work was going on in the city and initiatives such as safer delivery schemes, various activities in Hate Crime Awareness Week, and greater third party reporting network, contributed to tackling the area of hate crime making all communities feel safer;

(e)

education was a key area of focus when tackling hate crime; the unacceptability  of hate crime was key to preventing it for future generations. The police have been working with a number of schools to provide this input. However, this was an area looking to have further work.

(f)

the reporting of transgender hate crimes in any area of the UK was very low; reporting was very slowly increasing in Plymouth over a number of years which was considered positive. It was suggested that this demonstrated that people were gradually more likely to engage, and that there was a growing confidence to report or just a wider response to the city to have an open conversation around transgender issues. Councillors were encouraged to signpost people affected by hate crimes to the Police;

(g)

the Diverse Community Team spent time working in schools in the city delivering a programme of work; it was considered that the more work that could be done in schools, the better. Police Cadets and the Mini Police was also a way of engaging with young people on wider issues and delivering the message;

(h)

it was considered that there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.

1.

that controlled parking zones would be removed from the work programme;

2.

the Equality and Diversity Select Committee Review to be removed;

3.

the Homelessness/ Community Empowerment Select Committee Review is to be removed from the work programme.