Agenda item

Notice of Opposition Business

Meeting of Council, Wednesday, 7th September, 2016 6.05 pm (Item 15.)

(time limit 30 minutes)

Motion 1

Councillor Sykes to MOVE and Councillor Williamson to SECOND:

This Council once more wishes to place on record its admiration for the courage, service and sacrifice of members of Her Majesty’s armed forces, past and present, during military conflicts, in countering terrorism and in carrying out peacekeeping and humanitarian duties.

This Council notes:

· The obligations it owes to the Armed Forces community within the Borough of Oldham as enshrined in the Armed Forces Covenant; that the Armed Forces community should not face disadvantage in the provision of services and that special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given the most.

· The absence of definitive and comprehensive statistics on the size or demographics of the Armed Forces community within the Borough of Oldham. This includes serving Regular and Reserve personnel, veterans, and their families.

· That the availability of such data would greatly assist the council, local partner agencies, the voluntary sector, and national Government in the planning and provision of services to address the unique needs of the Armed Forces community within the Borough of Oldham.

This Council therefore resolves to:

· Support and promote The Royal British Legion’s campaign ‘Count Them In’ to include a new topic in the 2021 census that concerns military service and membership of the Armed Forces community.

· Urge elected members for this Borough to sign up as individual supporters to the ‘Count Them In’ campaign.

· Ask the Cabinet Member with responsibility for the Community Covenant to write to the Secretary of State for Defence, The Rt. Hon Michael Fallon MP, setting out the Council’s position that we wish to see the UK Parliament approve a final census questionnaire in 2019, which includes questions concerning our Armed Forces community, for use in the 2021 Census.

· Ask the Chief Executive to write to the Borough’s three Members of Parliament asking them to also make representations on this matter to the Secretary of State for Defence.

Motion 2

Councillor Murphy to MOVE and Councillor Blyth to SECOND:

This Council notes that

· Dementia is one of the biggest health issues facing the UK

· In Oldham, over 2,500 people are estimated to be living with dementia

· This condition will affect one in three people over the age of 65, with that figure is predicted to rise by two thirds by 2030

· Dementia is an umbrella term for a set of symptoms that might be exhibited by people living with one of any number of diseases of the brain; it is not a natural part of aging

· Dementia is not just about losing your memory; it can also affect thinking, communication, inhibitions, and everyday tasks

· With the right care, support and understanding from those around them that it is possible for someone to live well with dementia and to continue to contribute to community life

Council commends the work that has been done so far in our borough specially:

· The training of well over 5,000 Dementia Friends across the borough

· Gaining recognition from the Alzheimer’s Society as one of just fifty communities in England as ‘Working towards a dementia friendly community’

· Establishing the Oldham Dementia Partnership and the Oldham Dementia Action Alliance

· Creating an Enhanced Memory Service to support people living with dementia and their carers

But Council also believes that as a major public-service organisation we can do so much more, particularly in:

· Delivering more dementia-friendly services with specially trained staff and from dementia-friendly buildings

· Promoting a more dementia-friendly transport network in order that people living with dementia and their carers can better access them

Council therefore calls upon the relevant Cabinet Member(s) to:

· Appoint a senior officer in each directorate as a Dementia Champion to lead on this issue within their directorate, with specific responsibility for ensuring that:

o All new Council staff appointed to customer-facing roles, particularly those in the Call Centre, the First Contact centre and our public libraries and parks, participate in mandatory Dementia Friends training as part of their induction.

o Existing staff in customer-facing roles participate in Dementia Friends training within twelve months.

o Environmental checks are carried out in all of the public buildings and open spaces within their directorate’s control to ensure that they are Dementia Friendly.

o The Dementia Friendly logo is displayed prominently at these locations once they are determined to be dementia friendly.

o Their directorate, and the Dementia Friendly public buildings and open spaces, are registered separately as individual entities with the Oldham Dementia Action Alliance, in addition to the Council being itself registered corporately.

o A report of progress for that directorate is prepared for circulation to elected members and for publication on the Council’s website during Dementia Awareness Week in May 2017.

· Ask these officers to work with the national charity Making Space and the local groups Let’s Be Heard and the Springboard Oldham Dementia Carers Group to support the delivery of staff training, the carrying out of environmental checks, and the completion of the registration process.

· Carry out a review of Council employment practices to ensure that best practice is being followed in offering staff living with dementia, or caring for a family member living with dementia, appropriate ongoing support and flexible working arrangements.

· Ask our partner organisations, Oldham Community Leisure, Oldham Mio-Care, and Unity Partnership, to make similar commitments.

· Create a new Dementia Hub in an accessible, dementia-friendly Council building by providing accommodation to co-locate relevant staff from the following organisations – the Alzheimer’s Society, Age UK Oldham, Making Space and the Memory Assessment Service – and meeting rooms and activity areas for people living with dementia and their carers.

· Investigate the merits and practicalities of introducing, and promoting, a Dementia Buddy wristband scheme with representatives from the emergency services and Transport for Greater Manchester. This scheme is operational and actively promoted within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan.

· Create a transport sub-group of the Oldham Dementia Action Alliance to look specifically at how bus, tram and taxi transport can be made more dementia-friendly.

· Urge schools to include information about living with dementia into the local Personal Social and Health Education curriculum delivered to pupils to help develop their understanding of dementia.

Council is also asked to appoint an elected member as a Dementia Champion to lead on this issue for Council.

Motion 3

Councillor Harkness to MOVE and Councillor Turner to SECOND:

Council notes that:

Free school meals are a critical safety net for children from low-income families
Free school meals help tackle child hunger, boost educational attainment, and save parents £400 per year
It is estimated that for one in four children a school lunch may be their only hot meal every day
The Schools Census does not collect information on pupils entitled to receive free school meals, only those who meet the eligibility criteria AND are registered to claim them.
In January 2016, the Census recorded that 8,253 children have been awarded free school meals, but that under 80% of children take up the free school meals they are entitled to
Some parents choose not to register their children and some children chose not to eat a school meal because of stigmatisation and social isolation
Not only does this mean a child might go hungry, but schools lose out on pupil-premium funding, intended to help close the attainment gap between the most disadvantaged pupils and their peers, as this is based upon free school meals registration
Neighbouring Calderdale Council uses centrally held housing benefit and council tax reduction records to identify any children eligible to receive free school meals, where their parents are not currently claiming, and then automatically enrols them; this leads to additional pupil-premium payments to the schools they attend
In March 2015, this approach led to a further 586 pupils being registered for free school meals and their schools receiving additional pupil-premium funding of £685,000

Council recognises that promoting the take-up of free school meals should be one of our priorities in addressing food poverty and improving educational attainment in the borough

Council therefore resolves to ask the relevant Cabinet Members and the Director of Education to look to adopt the approach taken by Calderdale in Oldham and to launch a campaign to promote the take up of free school meals by those pupils eligible to receive them.

Motion 4

Councillor Sykes to MOVE and Councillor Williamson to SECOND:

Council believes that it is a disgrace and a scandal that over the last nine months five Royal Mail post boxes have disappeared in Shaw and Crompton.

Council recognises that this has caused great inconvenience to residents; most particularly to those living on Dunwood Park Courts, who have been without a local post box since November 2015, and to the many elderly, infirm or disabled residents living adjacent to these five locations, who struggle, or simply find it impossible, to walk to the next available post box.

Furthermore, Council is deeply disappointed by the:

· lack of urgency in the response from the Chief Executive of Royal Mail to representations made on this matter by local Councillors

· vague promises made to reinstate these post boxes at some unspecified future date

· apparent lack of a statutory requirement for Royal Mail to consult with any local authority, and local residents, before a post box is removed from a public location

Council resolves to request that the Chief Executive writes to:

· The Chief Executive and Chairman of Royal Mail Plc conveying this Council’s robust view on this matter and demanding the early reinstatement of these post boxes as a matter of urgency

· The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport asking the Government to establish a statutory requirement for Royal Mail to consult any District or Unitary Council, and local residents, prior to the removal (or non-replacement for a period of more than one calendar month) of any public post box from their area

Minutes:

Motion 1

Councillor Sykes MOVED and Councillor Williamson SECONDED the following motion:

“This Council once more wishes to place on record its admiration for the courage, service and sacrifice of members of Her Majesty’s armed forces, past and present, during military conflicts, in countering terrorism and in carrying out peacekeeping and humanitarian duties.

This Council notes:

This Council therefore resolves to:

· Support and promote The Royal British Legion’s campaign ‘Count Them In’ to include a new topic in the 2021 census that concerns military service and membership of the Armed Forces community.

· Urge elected members for this Borough to sign up as individual supporters to the ‘Count Them In’ campaign.

· Ask the Cabinet Member with responsibility for the Community Covenant to write to the Secretary of State for Defence, The Rt. Hon. Michael Fallon MP, setting out the Council’s position that we wish to see the UK Parliament approve a final census questionnaire in 2019, which includes questions concerning our Armed Forces community, for use in the 2021 census.

· Ask the Chief Executive to write to the Borough’s three Members of Parliament asking them to also make representations on this matter to the Secretary of State for Defence.

Councillor Steven Bashforth spoke in support of the motion.

Councillor Ball spoke in support of the motion.

Councillor Sykes exercised his right of reply.

A vote was taken on the MOTION.

On being put the vote, the MOTION was CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

RESOLVED that:

1. The Royal British Legion’s campaign ‘Count Them In’ be supported and promoted to include a new topic in the 2021 census that concerns military service and membership of the Armed Forces Community.

2. Elected members for this Borough be urged to sign up as individual supporters to the ‘Count Them In’ campaign.

3. The Cabinet Member with responsibility for the Community Covenant be asked to write to the Secretary of State for Defence, the Rt. Hon. Michael Fallon MP, setting out the Council’s position that we wish to see the UK Parliament approve a final census questionnaire in 2010, which includes questions concerning our Armed Forces community, for use in the 2021 census.

4. The Chief Executive be asked to write to the Borough’s three Members of Parliament asking them to also make representations on this matter to the Secretary of State for Defence.

Motion 2

Councillor Murphy MOVED and Councillor Blyth SECONDED the following motion:

“This Council notes that

· Dementia is one of the biggest health issues facing the UK

· In Oldham, over 2,500 people are estimated to be living with dementia

· This condition will affect one in three people over the age of 65, with that figure is predicted to rise by two thirds by 2030

· Dementia is an umbrella term for a set of symptoms that might be exhibited by people living with one of any number of diseases of the brain; it is not a natural part of aging

· Dementia is not just about losing your memory; it can also affect thinking, communication, inhibitions, and everyday tasks

· With the right care, support and understanding from those around them that it is possible for someone to live well with dementia and to continue to contribute to community life.