(a)        To receive announcements from the Lord Mayor, Chief Executive, Service Director for Finance or Head of Legal Services;

 

(b)        To receive announcements from the Leader, Cabinet Members or Committee Chairs.

Councillor Shayer (Lord Mayor of Plymouth) made the following announcements:

 

a)    Made Councillors aware of, and opportunity for donations to, the charity “Jeremiah’s Journey”, which played a vital role in supporting children, young people and their families during challenging and emotional times when a loved one passed away or faced a terminal illness;

 

b)    The 2024 citywide “Enough” campaign, created by the Trevi charity had been initiated. This initiative aimed to combat gender-based violence and raise awareness about the urgent need to end violence against women and girls;

 

c)    The Youth Parliament election results evening had transpired on Wednesday 13 March 2024. The Lord Mayor passed on congratulations to all successful candidates.

 

Councillor Evans OBE (Leader of the Council) made the following announcements, providing elucidation on the actions of the Council during the previous year:

 

d)    There was concern from the administration of the instability of both national and local government during 2022/23;

 

e)    The current administration was working to deliver on key priorities including employment, affordable housing, community safety, the availability of NHS dentists, supporting the elderly, looking after children at risk of harm, roads maintenance and improvement of bus services;

 

f)     The Council was committed to assisting those in need during the cost-of-living crisis and a Cost-of-Living Action Plan had been created and implemented within the preceding year;

 

g)    Investment in the City had been ensured after securing the following funding;

 

                              i.        £1.3 million funding for a programme of works at Millbay docks;

 

                             ii.        nearly £20 million to regenerate the city by accelerating the Freeport, National Marine Park and Net Zero vision;

 

                            iii.        £11.6 million funding boost from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to deliver the UK’s first National Marine Park;

 

                            iv.        £50 million for the Civic Centre residential redevelopment;

 

                             v.        £25 million for Brickfields for a sports led regeneration;

 

                            vi.        £80 million for the Brunel Plaza regeneration scheme;

 

h)    New employment opportunities at Oceansgate, Langage, Sherford, Derriford and the City Centre continued to be fostered;

 

i)     The Council continued to prioritise the regeneration of the City Centre with a new commitment to delivery on housing working with Homes England.

 

Councillor Aspinall (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) made the following announcements:

 

j)     The Celebrating Excellence in Care Awards would take place on Saturday 23 March 2024. These awards would celebrate the very best staff working within the adult social care sector of the city;

 

                              i.        The variety of awards considered were in the categories of:  ‘Innovation in Partnerships and Engagement’, ‘Care Worker of the Year’, ‘Excellence in Dimension care’, ‘Volunteer of the Year’ Rising Star Award’ and also ‘Service User Stories’;

 

k)    A showcase of careers in Health and Social Care would take place on 19 April 2024 at the Duke of Cornwall Hotel for people looking to change careers and who would like further information about working within the caring profession;

 

Councillor Laing (Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Children's Social Care, Culture, Events and Communications) provided the following update and announcements;

 

l)     The ‘Planet Ocean’ exhibition, exploring pivotal moments in Plymouth’s past and present relationship with the sea had commenced at The Box and the Councillor urged people to attend;

 

m)  Congratulated The Box which celebrated its 250,000^th visitor ahead of schedule;

 

n)    Ofsted published its findings from the ILACS inspection undertaken in January 2024 and found significant improvements had been made since the previous visit in 2022. Staff within Plymouth Children’s Services department were thanked for their hard work in instigating these improvements;

 

o)    The report found that improvements were necessary in some areas, which included: the response to concerns for children out of office hours, the effectiveness of some aspects of joint working across the council and with partner agencies, the quality and availability of accommodation for children and young people as well as the timeliness of health assessments for children in care;

 

Councillor Briars-Delve (Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change) provided the following update regarding ‘Cleaner Streets’ priorities:

 

p)    Several new street sweepers had been purchased and were in operation, providing the capacity to clean up to 150 miles of streets per day;

 

q)    Neighbourhood cleaning teams had been established to increase structure for staff and to provide familiarity with the areas in which they operated in;

 

r)    A new “barrow-operative” round had been established;

 

s)     Rounds had been reworked in parts of the city and these would be expanded to Estover, Maidstone, Leigham, St Budeaux and North Prospect;

 

t)     Policies to tackle fly-tipping had been strengthened, for example ensuring Officers clean lanes they are called to in addition to clearing specific items;

 

u)    Fly-tipping hotspots had been identified and additional CCTV was being installed to aid enforcement.

 

Councillor Cresswell (Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Apprenticeships) provided the following updates:

 

v)    Following a successful application to the apprenticeship provider and assessment register, the Local Authority would commence delivering apprenticeships throughout the adult education provider Encore Southwest;

 

w)   The initial focus would be on youth work, early years, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and to serve our internal training requirements working alongside colleges and training providers;

 

x)    60 internship placements had been achieved, up four placements in the last month and 51 placements in the last year;

 

y)    The aspiration would be to raise this to 100 places across the city;

 

z)    There was great support and interest from employers for the scheme;

 

aa)  The first Supported Internship celebration event was held on the 8^th of March;

 

bb)The City's first personalised careers and education guide ‘Green Horizons’, which articulated the green pathways in the City personalised with local training, businesses and jobs, would be released in the coming weeks.

 

Councillor Dann (Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Sport, Leisure & HR, and OD) presented an update regarding the Cost of Living Plan as well as Sports and Leisure within the City:

 

cc)  The ‘Online Cost of Living Hub’ had been visited by more than 29,000 people since 23 August 2023;

 

                          i.        Around half of the 29,000 users had accessed information regarding the Household Support Fund (13,957 users), a fund which supported families during the Cost of Living Crisis- particularly those who were entitled to free school meals during the school holidays and families in crisis through Children’s Services, Homelessness and the Community Connections departments;

 

                         ii.        The Fund had had enough funds to last approximately six months;

 

                        iii.        Communication was an essential element of the plan and was accessible online and was being advertised locally;

 

                        iv.        Advice regarding “free things to do” was heavily accessed.

 

dd)The “Active to Thrive conference” was to take place at the Leisure Centre on the 22 March 2024 to support citizens to become more active physically and to support elite sportspeople achieve their aims.

 

Councillor Penberthy (Cabinet Member for Housing, Cooperative Development and Communities) provided the following updates:

 

ee)Provided an outline of the roles and responsibilities of, and thanked for their hard work and commitment, the Community Connections team and the Disabled Facilities Grant team. The teams had cooperated to close 204 cases during the elapsed period of the year;

 

ff)    The new Resettlement Support Service Contract had been awarded;

 

gg)  This was comprised of five separate local bodies in partnership, including the Odil’s Learning Foundation, Plymouth and Devon Racial Equality Council, Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support, Plymouth Access To Housing (PATH) and Students and Refugees Together (START).

 

(Councillor Tofan left the meeting at the conclusion of this item)