Agenda and minutes

There were no items on the agenda.

No declarations were made.

RESOLVED:  that the minutes of the meeting held on 16^th March 2023, be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

(A period not exceeding 20 minutes for statements from up to 5 members of the public on matters within the Panel’s remit, proposing action(s) which may be considered or contribute towards the future development of the Panel’s work programme).

There were no public statements made.

Prior to the report being presented to the Panel relating to Child Poverty across Doncaster City, the Chair stated that some Members of the Panel had recently undertaken a visit to the Adwick Family Hub and Your Place Teams in Adwick and Woodlands.  She explained that the purpose of the visit was to give Members an insight into issues some families were facing and had the opportunity to discuss this with partners, professionals and people who used Council Services.  The Panel highlighted the visit was excellent and thanked everyone for giving up their time to meet.

Additional to the report, the following information was provided to the Panel by way of presentation:

A.          City of Doncaster Council Overview of Doncaster’s Early Help Offer and Future Developments – covering:

·        Details of the Site visit undertaken by Members as detailed above;

·        Key themes highlighted through the visit conversations;

·        Factors influencing Child Poverty;

·        Doncaster’s Early Help Strategy;

·        Family Hubs – Community Based Early Intervention and Prevention Delivery Model;

·        Supporting Families – Early Help System Guide;

·        Local Need and factors that influenced child poverty;

·        Support service delivery;

·        Systematic challenges;  and

·        Early Intervention and Prevention in Communities;

B.          Reverend Gardner - All Saints Food Bank

An outline of the food bank launched in May 2020 during Covid lockdown was outlined to the Panel.  The service was run by volunteers and operated on a referral basis only and continued to provide support to many families, as follows:

·         Areas covered included Adwick, Woodlands, Highfields, Carcroft and Skellow;

·         Supported by City of Doncaster Council and other grant providers;

·         £5k per annum has been received from individual donors;

·         May 2020 to September 2021 approximately 1,500 boxes of food were supplied to families, with monitoring systems in place;

·         Since September 2021 support was provided to:

148 Households – 88 with children;

212 Adults, 231 Children;

Provided help between 2 and 30 weeks – average was 12 weeks;

5 long term referrals

·         Reasons for help included benefit issues/disputes/utility debt, debt, reduced working housing, fleeing domestic abuse and forced to move home;

·         The Food Bank’s key relationships with referrers;

It was explained that the next step was to provide a fully licensed and regulated centre to address debt, benefits, housing advice and advocacy and it was hoped this would be up and running by Easter 2024.

To conclude the Reverend explained that more volunteers were required to help with such projects across the City of Doncaster.  He concluded by leaving the Panel with the thought of joy on parents faces when they were handed baby wipes, sanitary products and toothbrushes for their children.

C.     Doncaster Youth Council provided a presentation on “Your Future, Your say”, including the following areas:

·         Whilst working through their projects Youth Councillors undertook collaboration with Primary Ambassadors, for example, with Learn Sheffield on its Sexual Harassment in South Yorkshire Schools Report;

·         In line with recommendations in the Children and Young People Plan the Youth Council had received Kooth Awareness training;

·         Mental Health and Wellbeing focusing on eating disorders  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Senior Governance Officer presented the Overview and Scrutiny Work Plan and Council’s Forward Plan of Key Decisions for the Panel’s information.

RESOLVED:  That the information provided, be noted.

Chair:                     ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­________________________

Dated:                    ________________________