The Network meeting took place on Wednesday 5th April at the St. Pierre Hotel in Newmillerdam. The speakers at the meeting are listed below and their presentations can be found in Related Documents.

 Fred Ross

Fred Ross covered the varying requirements of the quarterly monitoring form throughout Q1 - Q3 of 2005-06, and advised that the Q4 form was to be a return for the whole of 2005-06 to ensure accuracy of reporting to interested local and central government bodies. Some questions had been 'dropped' and the form has been simplified.  Details will be emailed out following the meeting, for return by the end of April.

Fred also advised delegates of the new Grant Application Form that replaces the need to submit an Invoice to claim NRF funding.  Full substantiation is still required.  The Grant Application Form must be used for 06-07 expenditure.  Following the meeting it was determined that the Grant Application Form is not required where NRF funding is claimed via Journal Transfer; nevertheless full substantiation is still required.  Any issues/queries please contact Liz Westwood/Sarah Davis 01924 305815 / 306422.  Copies of the Grant Application Form will be emailed out following the meeting.

Sue Gahlings

Sue Gahlings works for Young People’s service and are supported in their work with Youth Vans by a small grant from the NRF. Youth Vans have three mobile units operating around the district as an outreach facility for young people.  The aim is to:

• offer young people information and support
• give young people a voice
• opportunities to get involved 

One of the areas that has been worked on is transport and Young People’s service are hoping that improvements will be made but do not yet have this confirmed

Young Person’s services would like the new mobile unit to be equipped with sports equipment so that they can help increase the uptake and availability of sports, particularly in the west of Wakefield.

 

Tom Raper

Neighbourhood environment schemes project helps to educate people about the effects of littering, graffiti, fly tipping and more. Tom Raper along with Neighbourhood Patrollers is in the process of developing a new project of engaging with the students of Featherstone High School. Tom has received great enthusiasm from the School Council following the initial meeting in early March and is now in the process of developing some smaller projects with the whole school community at Featherstone High, for example the students now have cameras to take pictures of the litter, which can be mapped against the plan of the school.

At the School Council meeting Tom asked the question of what is liveability? To receive an answer of hushed silence. When he posed the answer he received a positive response and great enthusiasm! The definition was decided as: “People should be able to open their front door and step out onto attractive and clean street that make them feel good”.

Tom is trying to promote this philosophy within the district and show that children are more aware of the growing issues within the environment.  A formal launch of the project is planned for June following a further meeting with the School Council in May.

The project at Featherstone High to engage with the school is a pilot and it is planned to roll out to other schools around the District in the future

Andy Horrocks

Andy Horrocks stressed the importance of capturing the environmental outputs of NRF projects and feeding them into the broader aims of the Community Strategy.  He would like to extend his environmental wellbeing work to look at education and awareness-raising more generally.  Through working more closely with the community, Andy hopes to tackle the issues of fly tipping and graffiti, and to educate younger people about the environmental problems many localities within the district now face.  Andy is keen to promote environmental issues to people of all ages. If you feel you could work in conjunction with Andy and reach a common goal, contact him at ahorrocks@wakefield.gov.uk.

Glyn Levis

BTCV England aims are to enrich 1 million people’s lifestyle and improve biodiversity and the local environment of 20,000 places. Glyn first outlined the size of BTCV in England, with 720 staff, hundreds of volunteers and £26 million turnover. BTCV Wakefield comprising of 7 staff and tens of volunteers working in a partnership way for 3 offices.

 

BTCV offer four main activities, which are, Midweek volunteering, Green Gym/Allotment, Development Project, Wakefield Youth Safety Project (WYSP), and Entry Employment. WYSP is a structured programme for young offenders, aged 13 – 17 years old, its aim is to offer reparation activities for these beneficiaries. Other benefits of the scheme include developing transferable skills.

 

Glyn Levis gave examples of the great work that is being accomplished through the project, for example 12 community spaces have been improved in the Wakefield area and an otter holt that has been built within the district.

Glyn also gave praise to the programmes unexpected outcomes, which where two people being offered employment contracts, and 3 volunteering on Saturdays. The WYSP project also won a Wakefield Pride Award in the cleaner/greener category. The award was cited as an example of good partnership working between WMDC and a partner agency

Darren Holmes

Darren Holmes works for the organisation Groundwork. On Wednesday he spoke about the Intermediate labour Market (ILM), which helps local people get back into work whilst benefiting the local community. Developed to provide a sheltered employment opportunity for those wishing to enter the labour market scheme provides a 51-week work based training opportunity for the unemployed, with 50% employment from placement anticipated.

During the course of the contract they implement a series of environmental improvement projects on behalf of the community. Projects under taken relate to community safety, access, management of open spaces and healthy lifestyles. Groundwork Wakefield currently has four ILM teams recruited directly from the community within the Wakefield District, supporting 60 community projects.

Ground Work offers an extensive training package with 13 core components, such as, invaluable work experience, First Aid, and a City and Guilds in the New Road and Street Works Act.  

Vince Carter

Vince Carter, programmes and performance co-ordinater of the Community Strategy and Partnership Team outlined the new management structure for delivery of the Local Area Agreement (LAA), explaining the changes and what to expect in the next three years. He explained how the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund will no longer exist as an individual fund, but become part of the pooled fund, that will be used to deliver the actions in the LAA.

The structures include: -

1. The LAA board which reports to Wakefield District Partnership (WDP) and is the decision making board for the LAA. It will take decisions on funding of LAA activities including the deployment of all pooled funding and commission groups through the Project Team to deliver LAA activities.

2. An LAA project team comprising a member of lead officers. The role of the project team is to make recommendations to the LAA board and to implement the decisions that they take.

3. An LAA support team, which will provide expertise and objective advice to the LAA project team. The support team will draw on staff from all the partnership agencies connected to the WDP. Both the LAA project team, and the LAA support team liaise with partnership delivery groups, which develop and delver project plans. 

   The current thinking for the commissioning process was also discussed;

·    1st stage - “GAP ANALYSIS” - comparing where we are and what we do, with where we want to be.

·     2nd stage - “PROJECT DESIGN” - initially involving consultation between LAA support team and the existing NRF projects.

The whole of the project implementation phase will be supported by a comprehensive performance monitoring system. The systems and paperwork to support the emerging commissioning process are in the process of being developed.