Agenda item - The Brighton & Hove Fairness Commission

Presentation and questions – Julia Reddaway, Policy – Fairness Commission.

The Fairness Commission

 

Julia Reddaway is managing the Fairness Commission in the Policy Team. This is an economically successful and thriving city, but with significant poverty. High housing and living costs were almost equal to that of London. A large number of jobs were in hospitality, tourism and other sectors with relatively low wages. The population was increasing as a lot of people were moving into the city, increasing the demand for services. Central government funding would be reduced each year for at least the next five years. The cumulative effect of welfare reform was very significant.

 

23% of older people were in receipt of some form of benefit and almost double the amount of Pension Credit claimants than in SE England. Many pensioners had mobility problems, or a disability and limited access to transport.

 

It has been set up by the Labour administration to take an independent look at fairness, inequality and poverty in the city. The Commissioners are experts in a range of relevant areas, rather than representing particular groups/sectors. Information can be found at https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/fairness-commission

 

25 Fairness Commissions have taken place, since Islington in 2010. There will be a city wide engagement campaign, including workshops, themed visits and public events to hear the views of residents, service users and groups. The Commission will make recommendations to the council, its partners and central government.

 

The Commission will meet in public to hear evidence on:

·         Thursday 26 November

·         Thursday 10^th December

·         Wednesday 20 January 2016

·         Thursday 18 February

·         Wednesday 16 March

These meetings will run from 6-9.30pm in accessible community spaces and be webcast, with details on the website. There is a ‘Call for evidence and ideas’ and people’s ideas and experiences, will be passed onto the Commissioners. They are asking individuals:

 

1.      How do you think the council and its partners can make Brighton & Hove a fairer place to live?

2.      What can residents do to make Brighton & Hove a more fair and equal place to live for everyone?

There is a larger group of questions for groups and organisations. If this applies, please fill in the questions online after talking to other members of your organisation/group especially about how they relate to older people. Please come and watch the public meetings and the OPC can receive progress updates.

 

Evidence gathered by the Commission will inform the council’s budget setting. Where there will have to be reduced spending on services, it will help minimise the impact on those who are struggling. The Neighbourhoods, Communities and Equalities Committee will monitor the implementation of these recommendations.

 

The recommendations will be made in May 2016 and the final report published in summer. All libraries will have information about the Commission and the staff can help you complete the online forms.

 

Q: In the Public Health report most of the statistics are ward based. Can you get data by class, employment etc?

A: The data can be drilled down to smaller areas and can be cross-referenced to different indicators e.g. housing tenure. Please ask Karen Amsden if you want this information.

 

Q: What do you mean by fairness?

A: Fairness is subjective.If you are on a low income with an electricity meter, you can pay more than if by direct debit, which can seem unfair. The Commission will focus on poverty and where service reductions disproportionately affect the poor.   

 

Q: Will you look at the issue of people entitled to benefits, such as pension credit, that don’t claim them?

A: Commissioners will visit advice agencies like the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, (CAB) to talk to people including benefits advisors. The CAB work to ensure that everyone receives the benefits they are entitled to. Please submit examples of such cases to the Commission.

 

Q: Who is funding the Fairness Commission?

A: It is being funded out of the existing budgets and will not impact on service budgets, e.g. using part of the community engagement budget to do this  engagement and consultation. We are also asking for help from the voluntary sector organisations.

 

Q: How much clout will the recommendations have?

A: There is cross-party support for the Commission, and a cross-party set of members sitting as observers (Cllrs Daniel, Littman and Simson). They also sit on the Neighbourhoods Committee who will ensure the implementation of the council related recommendations. The Commissioners will be aware of the budget situation when forming their recommendations. 

 

 Q: I welcome a focus on inequality and like the public questions. Will there be a root cause analysis to find out why this inequality is happening? 

A: The Commission will ask why this is happening and how to make things better. Service users are best placed to tell the Commission how to improve services. Commissioners will examine a lot analysis and only make recommendations which are:

_•                   Practical

_•                   Affordable

_•                   Capable of being implemented

 There will be a focus on the council’s budget.

 

Q: Do the Commissioners get a fee?

A: They will only receive travel expenses and subsistence. They are volunteers and very committed to the project.

 

Q: Is this an exercise in making limited resources stretch even further? This could remove the responsibilities from national and local politicians about reducing resources. The council tried to get a response from voters on the budget and now it should be their responsibility.

A: Future budget savings will be more dramatic, so the council cannot do everything and some services will have to be done differently. The council will act as a facilitator, helping the city to deliver services.

 

Q: Isn’t the council already using this kind of evidence when making cuts? Or is the council waiting to see what the Commission find to base its decisions on?

A:  The council will shortly be looking at the budget for next year so the Commission will inform the budget process from 2017 onwards.

Cllr Barford spoke in support of the Commission and its ability to develop a strong evidence base. It will be the lynchpin of future decisions, geared towards reducing inequality. Residents need to help the council make tough decisions. This is not a political process and has cross-party support. It is independent of the council and the named councillors are observers.

 

Q: What about the inequality caused by everything happening on-line? Older people can find it difficult to read on screen. If one is housebound then a very good way of finding out information is by the local radio. The Commission could also go out to local organisations and the OPC need to take a role in gathering the views of older people.

 The chair explained that the OPC appreciated the need to gain the input of older people as well as their carers (typically middle aged people looking after parents). The OPC activities will include writing letters to the press and contacting local areas such as the Hangleton & Knoll Carer’s Centre.

 

Q: What has been achieved by other Fairness Commissions?

A:  Edinburgh used it to change the way the council operated to increase community involvement. Many Commissions have recommended a Living Wage, leading to higher wages there. Some have set up Community Funds to support their most deprived communities. For example, a focus on child literacy support and educational attainment, to lift people out of poverty.

 

Q: How can one communicate with older and isolated people? The Pensioner newspaper could have played a useful role.  

Concerned about the level of rentals to students as they do not pay council tax and bring with them issues of rubbish and noise. The universities seem to be powerful in the city and have such an impact on the neighbourhoods, e.g. the LAT in Elm Grove.

A:   This is just the kind of information that the Commission needs to hear about.

 

Q: Central government cuts are making things worse and will the Commission cover this up?

 A: The scale of problems is unprecedented. National and local experts will be looking at this issue and what changes are needed. The more people become involved in the Commission, the more useful their recommendations will be. Even though there are limited resources for this project, we want the whole city to come forward.

 

Q: Who will bear the cost of analysing the evidence gathered? Will in-house resources be used? Will it be difficult to use the data to analyse trends? What evidence already exists and couldn’t common sense be used to resolve the issues we already know about, such as education and Type 2 diabetes? What outcomes have been achieved?

A:  The Research & Analysis team in Public Health has substantial links to the universities.  There have been evaluation reports on previous Fairness Commissions, but not seen any analysis yet on outcomes achieved. In the last few years key research has been carried out, including the cumulative impact of welfare reform and inequality in the city. The Commission will also be able to gather the human stories.

 

Q: Should there be any actions for the OPC to carry out to help the Commission? How could we take these questions out to the wards and reach older people.

 

The chair spoke of the need for resources, the importance of this project and whether the OPC could act as an observer. The Youth Mayor is one of the Commissioners.

 

A: The OPC could be valuable as a witness as well as attend the public meetings.  The needs of older people were likely to act as a focus in one of the public meetings The GP sitting on the Commission, Katie Stead, would have experience of many of the issues facing older people.

 

Julia Reddaway finished by offering to report back on the progress of the Commission.