Skip to main content

Meeting Details

Full Council
19 Jan 2023 - 10:30
Scheduled

This meeting is being broadcast live via You Tube:-

Morning session https://youtu.be/TLokqdBLgQc

Afternoon sessionhttps://youtu.be/2qEJs_LHpd0

  • Documents
  • Attendance
  • Other Attendees
  • Declarations of Interests

Documents

Agenda

Standard Items
2 Apologies for Absence
3 Declarations of Interests by Members and Officers:- (see note below)

(a) Disclosable Pecuniary Interests
(b) Private Interests (pecuniary and non-pecuniary)

 

4 Chairman's Business

a)    Presentation of Awards/Certificates (if any)

 

5 Constituency Issues (see note 4)
Public Items
6a Presentation of Petitions (if any) (see note 5)
9 Questions (see note below)

 

(a) Questions to Nottinghamshire and City of Nottingham Fire Authority

 

(b) Questions to the Leader, Cabinet Members and Committee Chairmen

 

10 NOTICE OF MOTIONS
Motion One

 

The Independent Review of Children's Social Care headed by Josh McCallister published in May 2022 a final report and recommendations that included:

 

"Government should make care experience a protected characteristic" and

 

"New legislation should be passed which broadens corporate parenting responsibilities across a wider set of public bodies and organisations."

 

On Protected Characteristics for Care Experience

 

"Many care experienced people face discrimination, stigma and prejudice in their day to day lives. Public perceptions of care experience centre on the idea that children are irredeemably damaged and that can lead to discrimination and assumptions being made."

 

One young person told the review that a teacher had told them "You're smart - for a kid in care" another young person said "I don't want people to point out that I am in care if I don't want that mentioned. It makes me so cross - that shouldn't happen."

 

This stigma and discrimination can be explicit and often comes with assumptions about the likely characteristics of children and adults that have care experience. They can also be implicit and are evidenced in the way care experience is discussed in schools, workplaces and the media.

 

At its worst this can lead to care experienced people being refused employment, failing to succeed in education or facing unfair judgements about their ability to parent when they have children and families of their own.

 

Hearing testimony from care experienced people sharing the discrimination they have experienced, even from a very young age, it is clear that such discrimination can be similar in nature to other groups that have a legally protected characteristic under the Equality Act (2010).

 

So, while there may be ways that society can help reduce stigma and discrimination, including creating greater public consciousness on these issues, just as with other areas of equality, there is a case to go further. Therefore, the government should make care experience a protected characteristic.

 

"Making care experience a protected characteristic would provide greater authority to employers, businesses, public services, and policy makers to put in place policies and programmes which promote better outcomes for care experienced people. It will make the UK the first country in the world to recognise care experienced people in this way. As a measure, it will bolster and pave the way for a number of the recommendations in this chapter."

 

Independent Review of Children's Social Care May 2022

 

Nottinghamshire County Council believes that Care experienced people face significant barriers that impact them throughout their lives;

 

  • Despite the resilience of many care experienced people, society too often does not take their needs into account
  • Care experienced people often face discrimination and stigma across housing, health, education, relationships, employment and in the criminal justice system
  • Care experienced people often face a postcode lottery of support
  • As corporate parents, councillors have a collective responsibility for providing the best possible care and safeguarding for the children who are looked after by us as an authority
  • All corporate parents should commit to acting as mentors, hearing the voices of looked after children and young people and to consider their needs in any aspect of council work
  • Councillors should be champions of our looked after children and challenge the negative attitudes and prejudice that exists in all aspects of society
  • The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public bodies, such as councils, to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation of people with protected characteristics
  • Nottinghamshire County Council acknowledges that Children entering the care system are often split from their siblings and placed outside their home Local Authority Area. That they don't choose to enter the care system, that they don't choose to be split up from their siblings and don't choose to be placed outside their local area.

 

Nottinghamshire County Council therefore RESOLVES:

 

1) When making any decisions in relation to its policies or formulating it's Council Plan that it recognises that Care Experienced people are an vulnerable group who face discrimination;

 

2) That it recognises that Councils have a duty to put the needs of vulnerable people at the heart of decision-making through co-production and collaboration;

 

3) That in the delivery of the Public Sector Equality Duty the Council includes care experience in the publication and review of Equality Objectives and the annual publication of information relating to people who share a Protected Characteristic in services and employment;

 

4) That this council will treat care experience as if it were a Protected Characteristic so that future services and policies made and adopted by the Council should be assessed through Equality Impact Assessments to determine the impact of changes on people with care experience, alongside those who formally share a Protected Characteristic;

 

5) To formally call upon all other bodies to treat care experience as a Protected Characteristic until such time as it may be introduced by legislation;

 

6) To formally call upon other bodies to adopt corporate parenting for children in care and care leavers until such time as it may be introduced by legislation;

 

7) For the Council to proactively seek out and listen to the voices of care experienced people when developing new policies based on their views.

 

Councillor Daniel Williamson     Councillor Helen-Ann Smith

 

Motion Two

 

As local Minerals Planning Authority, Nottinghamshire County Council is responsible for determining planning applications relating to onshore oil and gas development, including shale gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing, more widely know as 'fracking'.

 

Nottinghamshire County Council notes the Conservative party's manifesto commitment in 2019 to ban fracking and the UK on September 22nd, 2022 - formally lifted its moratorium on hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

 

On 26th October, we had yet another u-turn from this Government on fracking - the Government policy on fracking is up and down like a modern high-volume hydraulic fracturing drill. It is therefore imperative that this Council has a policy against fracking.

 

This Council further notes that if the government decided to change its mind yet again, Nottinghamshire could see its first licenses to drill for shale gas issued since 2019, this includes the Misson Springs site, in Bassetlaw and Tinker Lane, near Barnby Moor and Blyth.

 

This Council believes that fracking would destroy the environment, not only locally through vehicle traffic at drilling sites and water contamination but also globally through the CO2 emissions from its combustion, and also from the direct escape of methane. This Council further believes that fracking would not solve the energy security or price issues Nottinghamshire and the UK currently face.

 

This Council recognises the climate emergency declared in May 2021, furthering our commitment to delivering actions to tackle climate change and ensure Nottinghamshire has a greener future. Fracking flies in the face of this.

 

This Council opposes fracking in Nottinghamshire, or fracking outside county boundaries, which could affect residents within our County and call upon the Government to clearly lay out its policy on fracking and commitment to a long-term moratorium on shale gas in the UK.

 

This Council therefore commits to not allow any fracking activities, including survey work, on Council owned or controlled land and property.

 

Councillor Jason Zadrozny     Councillor Steve Carr

 

Motion Three

 

Nottinghamshire County Council believes that it should do everything possible to ensure that no child goes hungry.

 

This Council notes that according to information from the October 2022 school census, covering pupils in years R-11 in all primary, secondary and special schools in the county (including academies) there are 25,265 - 22.1% of all pupils claiming free school meals.

 

This Council further notes the following table which shows the highest number of school children ever claiming free school meals across Nottinghamshire.

 

District of school Number on roll NCY R-11 (1) Number of pupils known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals (2) Percentage of pupils known to be eligible and claiming free school meals (2)
Ashfield 17,997 5,283 29.4
Bassetlaw 16,130 3,795 23.5
Broxtowe 14,910 2,913 19.5
Gedling 16,469 3,208 19.5
Mansfield 16,711 4,681 28.0
Newark 14,225 3,370 23.7
Rushcliffe 18,055 2,015 11.2
Nottinghamshire 114,497 25,265 22.1

 

This Council believes that there are children who may be entitled to free school meals but do not claim them for a variety of reasons.

 

This Council therefore resolves to increase Free School Meal take up by investigating whether Nottinghamshire County Council can:

 

1) Automatically enrol children onto free school meals, using existing Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction data.

2) Implement a policy of 'opt-out' meaning that those not aware of their entitlement can benefit from free school meals.

 

The council believes that this will significantly increase Free School Meal uptake in Nottinghamshire, which will lead to additional Pupil Premium Funding to help reduce the gap in attainment between children from higher and lower income households.

 

Councillor Francis Purdue-Horan     Councillor Debbie Darby

 

Motion Four

 

On Tuesday 20th December 2022, critical incidents were declared across all Nottinghamshire hospitals. When a critical incident is declared, this means non-emergency hospital treatment, such as elective surgery, is halted.

 

Nottinghamshire University Hospitals NHS Trust have declared 4 separate critical incidents in the last year and on Tuesday 3rd January 2023 Nottinghamshire NHS trusts confirmed that a total of 283 patients who were medically fit to leave could not be discharged due to a lack of suitable accommodation or care elsewhere, including care homes or accommodation in community settings.

 

This is a current and immediate crisis. It is also a recurrent crisis.

 

As a partner in the Integrated Care System, Nottinghamshire County Council share a corporate responsibility for the collective performance of health services in Nottinghamshire.

 

For the benefit of all Nottinghamshire residents, Nottinghamshire County Council must therefore do more to support ending this crisis and prevent further crises in future. We call upon this Council to:

 

  • Establish immediate emergency talks with Nottinghamshire NHS partners to determine how this Council can assist in freeing up of hospital beds during this current crisis.
  • As part of this Council's ongoing review of its property and asset portfolio, consult with relevant NHS partners and Government Ministers, to consider how the repurposing buildings or assets in the future could prioritise improving appropriate community care settings, and work better with partners to improve our collective service offer, so as to support the discharge of patients from NHS hospitals.

 

Councillor Kate Foale     Councillor Mike Pringle

 

Exempt Items

Attendance

Name
No other member attendance information has been recorded for the meeting.
NameReason for Sending Apology
Pauline Allanmedical/illness
Sinead Andersonmedical/illness
Sybil Fieldingother
Mike Intronaother County Council business
NameReason for Absence
No absentee information has been recorded for the meeting.

Declarations of Interests

Member NameItem Ref.DetailsNature of DeclarationAction
No declarations of interest have been entered for this meeting.

Other Attendees

Visitor Information is not yet available for this meeting

Contact us

Send an enquiry to our customer service team or speak to us face-to-face.

Contact us online Call us Visit us in person

Download our MyNotts app

Easy access to Council services while you're on the move.

Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store