Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence from those Members who are unable to attend the meeting.

Apologies were received from Tom Brailsford, Richard Parry, Sean Raynor, Len Richards, Nicola Goodberry Keneally, Stacey Appleyard, Christine Fox, Liz Mear and Vanessa Taylor.

Matt England attended as sub for Len Richards.

Chris Lennox, attended as sub for Sean Raynor.

To approve the minutes of the meeting of the Board held on the 26^th September 2024.

That the minutes of the meeting held on the 26^th September 2024, be approved as a correct record.

Members will be asked to say if there are any items on the Agenda in which they have any disclosable pecuniary interests or any other interests, which may prevent them from participating in any discussion of the items or participating in any vote upon the items.

No interests were declared.

Most agenda items take place in public. This only changes where there is a need to consider exempt information, as contained at Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. You will be informed at this point which items are to be recommended for exclusion and to be resolved by the Board.

All agenda items were considered in public session.

The Board will receive any petitions and/or deputations from members of the public. A deputation is where up to five people can attend the meeting and make a presentation on some particular issue of concern. A member of the public can also submit a petition at the meeting relating to a matter on which the body has powers and responsibilities.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10, Members of the Public must submit a deputation in writing, at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting and shall subsequently be notified if the deputation shall be heard. A maximum of four deputations shall be heard at any one meeting. 

No deputations or petitions were received.

To receive any public questions.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, the period for the asking and answering of public questions shall not exceed 15 minutes.

Any questions must be submitted in writing at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting.

No public questions were asked.

The Board will received information which will bring awareness of the Safe Zones project, and identify any improvements that could be supported by the wider partnerships.

Contact: Chief Superintendent James Griffiths – Kirklees District Policing Commander

Chief Superintendent, James Griffiths, provided information regarding how and why Safe Zones were developed.  He explained that the aim is for the Safe Zone logo to be seen at different places around Kirklees and encouraged Board members to look out for the logo.

In summary, the Board was informed that Safe Zones were developed in December 2019 and was borne out of a discussion as part of a focus group with young people from a school in Huddersfield as part of the former Kirklees Children’s Safeguarding Board.  The discussion focused on what they would like the police to do for them, and the response from one young person was “there is nowhere to go if you are feeling unsafe”.  Although things stalled as a result of the pandemic; it has now been picked up and is widely developed across Kirklees.

The ambition of Safe Zones is:

-        to create a network of these safe places, where women and girls particularly, are provided with a place that they can use as a momentary retreat, although not solely just for women and girls, it did fit into the violence against women and girl’s agenda.

-       It can also be for vulnerable adults and for others who can use these areas if they feel unsafe.  They just need to call in if they need some help, or if they are lost

-       To work with partners sharing our knowledge and experience of the risks children and young people face.  This was an opportunity to give people better training around risks.

-       To ensure our Safe Zone partners feel confident in recognising, responding, and reporting safeguarding concerns.

-       To support and empower partners to help keep all women and girls safe (Active Bystanders).

The Board was informed that West Yorkshire Police are committed to creating an environment where women and girls can feel safe within the county, free of fear and harassment.  As part of the Force’s commitment to reducing Violence Against Women and Girls, it has launched its Strategy, outlining how it intends to ensure that women and girls are safe and feel safe. 

The three key priorities are:

•        Pursuit of perpetrators, 

•        Creating safe spaces (in private, public, and online),

•        Increasing trust and confidence in policing.

The Board was informed that in terms of how Safe Zones are trained, it involves explaining about the active bystanders, raising awareness, and looking at how Safe Zones are provided for women and girls in a complex world. It also includes the following:-

-       Making sure that people understand and have an awareness of child exploitation both sexual and criminal exploitation, debunking some of the myths around county lines exploitation

-       An awareness of grooming and that can include both grooming there and then, or non-recent grooming and how people may find that somewhere like a Safe zone may be the first place where they open up

-       Knowing the signs across a whole range of incidents and crimes, and behaviour that people  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Purpose of paper

·       To update the Health and Wellbeing Board on the Local Plan update in Kirklees, its purpose and importance

·       To ensure members are able to ask further questions about the Local Plan update

·       To ensure members are able to feedback on Local Plan update

Contact:  Lucy Wearmouth, Head of Improving Population Health and Hannah Morrison, Team Leader, Planning Policy and Strategy

Lucy Wearmouth and Hannah Morrison, provided the Board with an update on the Kirklees Local Plan, advising that in terms of the Local Plan, it is currently in the early engagement phase and there is still plenty of time to feedback through the process. The aim of the discussion at the Board is to enable members to find out more about the Local Plan, particularly if there has been no prior involvement and also to update Board members on how to can get involved.

In summary, The Board was reminded of the vision, priorities and ambition within the Kirklees Health and Wellbeing Strategy (KHWS) and that Healthy Places, which is one of the priorities in the KHWS, is an important theme within the Local Plan.  The vision for the Healthy Places priority is: “The physical and social infrastructure and environment supports people of all ages who live, work or study in Kirklees to maximise their health opportunities and to make the healthy choice the easy choice”.

The Board was informed that there are strong connections between Planning, Public Health and Health, and referring to the presentation slide entitled how the planning system can support health outcomes, the Board was advised that a great deal of work has already been undertaken with colleagues from Planning.

The planning system can contribute towards improving the health and wellbeing of the Kirklees population in several ways, for example:

•       The Local Plan through a spatial strategy which supports sustainable development and through planning policies which seek to support healthy placemaking, by promoting healthy and safe communities.

•       Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) – this is guidance produced to support Local Plan policies and of specific reference to health includes: Hot Food Takeaway SPD and Open Space SPD.

•       Health Impact Assessments as part of the determination of planning applications.

In reference to Hot Food Takeaways, the Board was informed that Public Health provide Planning with a tool which brings together a number of health indicators, which helps to understand health within a particular local area.  For example, if an application for a new hot food takeaway is received, a postcode of where the takeaway intends to be located, allows information to show what is happening in the area, in terms of levels of obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, things that have an impact on health and wellbeing, which are related to obesity.  If an area hits a range of different indicators, the advice would be to carefully consider that application.

The other aspect to bring to the Board’s attention is health impact assessments, which is already taking place.  When a new application for a major planning development within Kirklees is received, colleagues in the Public Health Team will assess the application, according to health.  For example, does the planning application consider access to green spaces, is it considering the community around it, questions are also asked regarding air quality, a broad audit of the application is undertaken, and advice is given to the developers in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To inform the Health and Wellbeing Board (HWBB) around progress in implementing the Inclusive Communities Framework (ICF) which is one of the key enablers for the achieving the Kirklees Health and Wellbeing Strategy (KHWS) priorities of Mental Wellbeing, Connected Care and Support, and Healthy Places.

Contact: Jill Greenfield, Director Communities & Access Services, Sarah Mitchell, Head of Communities and Tamsin Macdonald, Local Area Coordination Manager

Jill Greenfield, Service Director, Community and Access Services, provided the Board with an update on the Inclusive Communities Framework (ICF), advising that it is one of the council’s four top tier partnership strategies.  Overall, it is a commitment to work better with communities and in order to achieve this there is a need to change the way things are done, it is a partnership commitment to be inclusive and to really focus on inclusion across the district.  When the ICF was developed, it was undertaken in collaboration with a number of partners including the voluntary and community sector.

The Board was directed to the presentation slides, which outlined a refresh of the ICF, and advised that it is acknowledged that some people in the community do not always feel like they belong, and that what matters to them is not important to other people and they do not know how they can get involved in their communities.

The ICF offers an opportunity to give a framework to be able to create safer and more cohesive communities, to enable people to feel like they belong and that they can play a part.  The focus is not on communities getting things done, the focus is on how organisations and institutions can work alongside communities.

The ICF has been designed to be used across the whole of Kirklees and it has been a challenge making it relevant to every organisation and particularly strategic partnerships.  It offers a guide on how that can be done across services and partners, community groups and initiatives.  It is important that there continues to be a focus on the best practice.

The ICF is made up of three guiding principles:

1.      Belief - That communities have solutions to problems; they have skills and knowledge that organisations do not have.

2.      Belonging - Building trust and promoting belonging in local places. People may be different, but they have shared interests and challenges.

3.      Care - Care more about what communities’ care about and showing this

 through action.

The ICF sets out five inclusive approaches:

Connecting - whether that is working in partnership with local people or creating more connections in and between communities

Communicating - communicating more and better with communities

Equalising – creating opportunities to work alongside local people sharing

knowledge and resources

Trusting - trusting communities more

Celebrating - celebrating communities

In terms of what the ICF has to do with the Kirklees Health and Wellbeing Strategy (KHWS), the Board was informed that, it is one of the key enablers for achieving the KHWS priorities around mental wellbeing, connected care and support, and healthy places.  For mental wellbeing the ICF does support the idea of connecting with and giving to others.  It is well evidenced around mental health in terms of life satisfaction being closely linked to social interaction and participation and that is a real part of the ICF to foster that social and community life pride in community and social connection.  Healthy Places, ensuring that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.