Agenda item

Street Culture - Progress Update

To receive a verbal update from the Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Community Safety and Partner Providers.

Minutes:

8.1

The Committee received a verbal update on the progress made on responding to the recommendations made by the Street Culture Scrutiny Task Group in determining how joined up the street culture provision in the city is, what services are out there and what more might be needed to make a difference.

 

 

8.2

In attendance for this item was Councillor Jim Steinke (Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Community Safety) and Tim Renshaw (Chief Executive, Cathedral Archer Project).

 

 

8.3

Tim Renshaw referred to the recommendations of the Scrutiny Task Group set out in Appendix 2 to the report, and provided an update:

 

 

8.3.1

Recommendation 1: Partners welcome the support from the Committee for HelpUsHelp. Tim Renshaw stated that the HelpUsHelp campaign run by local charities, the City Council and other local services, were making great strides in helping people who find themselves rough sleeping or begging for a variety of reasons, some often very complex, but added that there was still a great deal of work to be done. He mentioned in response to begging there was now interest from Student Unions to engage in raising awareness of HelpUsHelp campaign.

 

 

8.3.2

Recommendation 2: He said that the City Council had commissioned a psychology service to look at what it is like to be a rough sleeper, to see if the approach towards it could be done in a different way.

 

 

8.3.3

Recommendation 3: Tim reported that it was joined up, and that partners and services worked well to share information, and that the new and changing initiatives evidences this.

 

 

8.3.4

Recommendation 4: Safe Space, the project to come out of the Rough Sleeper Initiative (RSI), the previous item on the agenda, is a progressive piece of work, an alternative to a permanent ‘night café’.

 

 

8.3.5

Recommendation 5: There is ongoing work by all partners that improves provision.

 

 

8.3.6

Recommendation 6: Communication on Weatherwatch had improved and it was a successful initiative, especially with the additional space provided by South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue.  Provision was to be reviewed going forward.

 

 

8.3.7

Recommendation 7: This item on the agenda gives a multi-agency response to Scrutiny Committee recommendations.

 

 

8.3.8

Recommendation 8: Tim reported that partners and agencies are working with GPs on access to primary health care for homeless and how GPs deal with them, and added that there was to be a half day conference later this year to help GPs understand how to deal with the homeless. He stated that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) does contribute to homelessness and need services that can respond to this. Mr. Renshaw also stated that hospitals couldn’t identify a good discharge process for homeless people and this too was something that needed to be addressed, as no fixed address was a particular issue within hospital discharge processes and systems.

 

 

8.3.9

Mr Renshaw referred to the new Archer Project campaign ‘from sleeping bag to employment’. He stated, in response to a question, that rough sleepers are not choosing to rough sleep but regard it as the ‘best option at time’ for a safer place. That there was a concern in regard sector capacity to respond to growing issue, the impact of national policy and  austerity impact was not over.

 

 

8.3.10

It was reported that there had been a reduction in anti-social behaviour on the Cathedral Forecourt, that the benches had been removed and flower beds put in their place and sessions had been held with retailers and other agencies to deal with the effect on them caused by the use of Spice.

 

 

8.3.11

Recommendation 9: Councillor Jim Steinke stated that the local authority felt the legislative Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) was not the appropriate way forward and would not be pursuing that route.  He said that the multi-agency group would give future consideration to begging and the impact on the economy, perception, image, safety and vibrancy of the city centre and shopping areas; the impact of the Homelessness Reduction Act; with regard to Universal Credit, to lobby for the alteration and rent paid direct to landlords; and learning from other local authorities to understand and respond to street culture.

 

 

8.4

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

 

 

 

(a)       notes the report and thanks Councillor Jim Steinke (Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Community Safety) and Tim Renshaw (Chief Executive, Cathedral Archer Project),  for their contribution to the meeting; and

 

 

 

(b)       in view of the position reported in relation to PSPO, supports the recommendation that the Council will not be seeking such Orders be put in place.

 

Supporting documents: