Agenda and minutes

·         Paul Archer – Director of Policy & Governance, Hampshire County Council

·         John Bonney – Chief Officer, Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service

·         Tim Colman – Federation of Small Businesses (Wessex)

·         Felicity Cox – NHS England (Wessex Area Team)

·         Councillor Ferris Cowper – Leader, East Hampshire District Council

·         Simon Eden – Winchester City Council

·         Councillor Michael Fairhurst – Havant Borough Council

·         Andy Ferrier – representing Test Valley Borough Council

·         Gillian Finch, Hampshire Voluntary Sector Consortium

·         Martin George – representing Fareham Borough Council

·         Gill Kneller – representing Sandy Hopkins, Chief Executive of East Hampshire   District and Havant Borough Councils

·         Councillor Peter Langdon – Gosport Borough Council

·         Councillor Simon Letts – Leader, Southampton City Council

·         Andy Marsh – Hampshire Constabulary

·         Lt. Col. Philip Mileham – representing the Armed Forces

·         Councillor Roy Perry – Leader, Hampshire County Council

·         Councillor Stephen Parker – representing Hart District Council

·         Councillor Royston Smith, Chairman of Hampshire Fire & Rescue Authority

·         Councillor Clive Sanders, Leader, Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council

·         Andrew Smith, Chief Executive, Hampshire County Council

·         Nick Tustian – Chief Executive, Eastleigh Borough Council

·         Councillor Victoria Weston – Winchester City Council

·         Councillor Anne Winstanley – Hampshire Association of Local Councils

·         Date Yates – Chief Executive, New Forest District Council

Apologies were received from:

·         Alison Barnes (Chief Executive) and Councillor Julian Johnson (Chairman) –   New Forest National Park Authority

·         Dawn Baxendale, Chief Executive, Southampton City Council

·         Councillor Ian Carr, Leader, Test Valley Borough Council

·         Councillors Trevor Cartwright and Seán Woodward – Fareham Borough Council

·         Councillors Michael Cheshire and Tony Briggs – Havant Borough Council

·         Councillor Ken Crookes, Leader, Hart District Council – being represented by Councillor Stephen Parker

·         Geoff French, Enterprise M3 LEP – being represented by Tim Colman

·         Peter Grimwood, Chief Executive – Fareham Borough Council – being represented by Martin George

·         Sandy Hopkins, Chief Executive, East Hampshire District, and Havant
Borough Councils – being represented by Gill Kneller, Executive Director

·         Councillor Keith House, Leader, Eastleigh Borough Council – being represented by Councillor Anne Winstanley

·         Councillor Rob Humby, Leader, Winchester City Council – being represented by Councillor Victoria Weston

·         Steven Lugg, Chief Executive, Hampshire Association of Local Councils

·         Ian Lycett, Chief Executive, Gosport Borough Council

·         Councillor Keith Mans, Deputy Leader, Hampshire County Council

·         Councillor Peter Moyle (Leader) and Andrew Lloyd (Chief Executive) - Rushmoor Borough Council

·         Councillor Barry Rickman, Leader, New Forest District Council

·         Roger Tetstall, Chief Executive, Test Valley Borough Council – being represented by Andy Ferrier, Corporate Director

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and made announcements as below.

The Chairman reported on two events held on 29 April the first being the ministerial visit by Greg Barker, the Government’s Flood Envoy who attended a round-table meeting assessing lessons learned from the floods.  One of the key points arising from the discussion was good partnership working and that agencies in Hampshire knew each other which helped the way in which the problems were dealt with.  The Chairman was pleased to confirm that a further £6m had been awarded to Hampshire County Council to help deal with damage to the roads as a result of the floods.

The second event was a Frontline Reception in the Great Hall, Winchester for Hampshire County Council staff and representatives of the armed services to thank them for their support during the floods.  Over 100 service men and woman attended the event and cheques were presented to each of the three services Benevolent Funds in recognition of their support.   

On 2 June 2014 Hampshire County Council hosted a meeting with senior representatives of Southern Water, Thames Water and Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) to look, at a strategic level, to improve resilience across the county.  This was a helpful and positive meeting.

Finally on the topic of flooding, the Chairman invited John Bonney, Chief Fire Officer to update partners on the work Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service had been doing to manage the process of collating the learning post the events experienced.  John confirmed that all debriefs with the various agencies that had been involved were completed and a large-scale collation process was underway which would highlight common themes.  Post this exercise a report would be prepared which would be submitted to the Local Resilience Forum and to The Hampshire Partnership.

The Chairman reported that work to extend and speed up the broadband coverage across the county continues and he had met with BT representatives on 25 June.  Procurement of the next contract to extend coverage beyond 90% up to 95%+ is well advanced and approval is anticipated in the early autumn. The Chairman was pleased to announce that in addition to the extra £1m for rural broadband in the New Forest and Test Valley, a further £1m approximately has been made available for innovative technologies aimed at linking the final 5% to help hard to reach areas.

For the benefit of the non local government partners, the Chairman confirmed that he had been appointed as the Chairman of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Government Association for a two-year term of office.  The Chairman thanked District and Unitary Council colleagues who had entrusted him with the role.  Councillor Perry emphasised that he was determined to build good two and three-tier co-operation in local government and recognised that The Hampshire Partnership is leading the way by bringing together additional partners from the private sector, the voluntary sector, health and the Armed Forces.  Councillor Perry would be exploring the addition of new partners  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.

Paul and Simon will lead a discussion which focuses on taking the learning from multi-agency working to better enable the transformation of services at the community level. It will cover the leadership challenge, using and sharing resources better and the increasingly important role of the voluntary sector.

Simon Eden, Chief Executive of Winchester City Council and Paul Archer,          Director of Policy and Governance at Hampshire County Council led a discussion on improving community outcomes through collaboration, something that is at the heart of everything the partners do.  All organisations in the           Hampshire Partnership face many challenges particularly in regard to expenditure, demand and public expectations together with other challenges such as economic growth, educational attendance and attainment, housing, people living longer and some with complex needs, vulnerable children, adults and families and health, wellbeing and safety.  To manage these challenges, drive service transformation and to remain resilient, the importance of working together to achieve the best possible outcomes for the communities of Hampshire was emphasised.  This would require genuine sharing – ambitions, objectives and aims, cohering organisations and ceding control, good engagement and strong leadership.

Paul Archer presented a case study on supporting troubled families which ably
demonstrated the outcomes that can be achieved through a multi-agency
approach.  As part of this programme, a number of road shows had been held
focussing on collaboration, sharing information and resources, the culture and
behaviour of the organisations involved and putting the customer first.  Tangible
outcomes had been achieved where leaders in the localities have been highly
visible and this relentless focus could be applied to many projects by
embedding it into an organisation’s ethos.  This approach has also improved
the dialogue with the voluntary sector and highlighted that more coherence was
required for a greater relationship.

A Q&A session followed and the outcomes from that can be viewed at
Appendix 1 to these minutes.  It was recognised that the landscape is complex
and hence it was not easy to fit all elements into one set of questions,
nevertheless it presented a steer in that collaboration was felt to be important
albeit with different emphasis in some areas.

In considering the next steps, there was acknowledgement of the value that a
multi-agency approach can bring.  Other partnership examples such as H3 (Hampshire Constabulary, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service and Hampshire County Council) which shares senior management, senior professional capacity and business operations across the three organisations and the benefits realisation that goes with that was commended.  The importance of ‘centring’ the collaboration to maintain focus, to build resilience and to really make a difference was highlighted.  Some potential project areas were discussed and in conclusion, there was a majority view amongst the partners that the focus should be directed to one or two priority projects in support of ‘really making a difference’.  There was a consensus of support for the vulnerable elderly encompassing housing outcomes such as helping people to remain in their own homes rather than entering residential care) together with support for the young persons agenda and information sharing and digitalisation.  Proposals for these three areas would be worked up for consideration by the partners in due course.

To address a point raised during the debate, the Chairman confirmed he would re-engage membership discussions with the Leader  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

Andrew will provide a short presentation on opportunities for joint working which will arise from Hampshire County Council Transformation programmes.

Andrew Smith, Chief Executive of Hampshire County Council gave a presentation on the impact of the County Council’s Transformation Programmes and the opportunities this had presented for joint working now and in the future.  Andrew set out the financial context of the transformation journey to date which commenced in 2008 and by 2015 will have realised a cumulative total of £200m savings.  The next phase of transformation through to 2018 was being worked up which would see a further tranche of savings.

Partners had been updated earlier in the proceedings on the roll out of superfast broadband, the troubled families programme and H3.  The superfast broadband project started with £3.5 million of District Councils and Hampshire County Council monies; the investment now stands at £32 million with some £20 million leveraged through the Hampshire Partnership.  The troubled families programme provides an excellent example of multi-agency             working; previously an average of 11 agencies would have been working separately with one troubled family.  The H3 partnership has crossed cultural boundaries, has 75,000 staff using it, has a new IT platform and is attracting new partners; this couldn’t have been achieved if the County Council’s headquarters building had not undergone significant refurbishment turning the former car park into additional working space.  Examples of local shared services (joint funding, Service Level Agreements and shared service, capacity building) are treasury management, legal services, technical resources to the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership, audit, human resources, IT (Hampshire Public Service Network) and procurement.

Andrew focussed on a number of initiatives that would be coming on stream soon which could benefit from a collaborative partnership approach:

·         acceleration of the Extra Care programme – leveraging funding through successful partnership working

·         modernisation and updating programme for country parks for the enjoyment of all – approximately one million people visit Hampshire’s country parks every year

·         joint funding of flood protection measures – if all funds were pooled, it might be possible to leverage further central government funding

·         contributions to LEP funded schemes – for example, providing training facilities for young people to grow skills and the economy

·         primary school places approved - £150 million of investment

·         Hampshire Cultural Trust was set up with Winchester City Council – would be made stronger by the addition of other local authorities

It was noted that capital spending at £600 million over three years was at its highest level.  Existing property programmes such as Workstyle continue apace with new or updated buildings in Basingstoke, Havant, Test Valley, Rushmoor, Eastleigh and Totton and a multi-agency hub located in Fareham.  The County Council will be looking again at its Contact Centre as part of a digital strategy for the Council and its partners, planning major land release, planning for secondary school places to 2017 and beyond to realise the supply of places that is required at this level of schooling and will be negotiating contract extensions for waste management and highway maintenance.  The largest single issue for partners going forward is the Better Care Fund (BCF)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

None.

None.

<INSERT DATES>

All meetings will commence at 10.30am in the Ashburton Hall, Elizabeth II Court, The Castle, Winchester unless stated otherwise.

It was noted that the next meeting of The Hampshire Partnership would be held on Tuesday 23 September 2014 commencing at 10.30am in Ashburton Hall, Elizabeth II Court (Podium Level), Hampshire County Council, Winchester.

Future dates:

Tuesday 9 December 2014
Wednesday 4 March 2015