Agenda item

Questions on Joint Arrangements

(time limit 15 minutes)

 

GM Health and Social Care Partnership

28th May 2021  

MIOCARE

15TH April 2021

GMCA

26TH March 2021

28th May 2021

GM Transport Committee

18th June 2021  

GMCA Waste and Recycling Committee

21st April 2021

Police, Fire and Crime Panel

14th May 2021

National Park Authority

21st May 2021

 

 

Minutes:

Council was asked to note the minutes of the following Joint Authority and Partnership meetings and the relevant spokespersons to respond to questions from Members.

 

The minutes of the Joint Authorities and Partnerships were submitted as follows:

 

Greater Manchester Combined Authority

27th November 2020

18th December 2020

29th January 2021

Greater Manchester Transport Committee

11th December 2020

Commissioning Partnership Board

22nd October 2020

28th January 2021

GM Police, Fire and Crime Panel

16th November 2020

Health and Wellbeing Board

10th November 2020

AGMA

11th December 2020

Greater Manchester Waste and

Recycling Committee

14th October 2020

Miocare

22nd October 2020

National Park Authority

13th November 2020

 

Members raised the following questions:

 

1.    Councillor Murphy asked in relation to Page 4 GMCA56/21 Equality Panels

“I note from the minutes that a budget of £50,000 has been allocated to each of the seven equality panels established by the GMCA in the current financial year.  £350,000 in total. 

Whilst I recognise the need for, and support, the GMCA’s objective of identifying and addressing inequalities within the city region, this seems an awful lot of money just to facilitate seven panels.

Can the Leader please explain what this money is going to be spent on?”

 

Councillor Shah, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Economic and Social Reform responded that the Equality Panels helped tackle the structural and organisational prejudice and discrimination that caused inequality and injustice in society, through the advancement of equity and fairness in decisions, policies and services across all sectors and communities.  

She could not do justice here to the huge amount of work the Panels did, but it varied from a nationally leading survey of disabled people, to shaping strategies to prevent violence against women and girls in GM.

The funding was used to enable the work, to provide officers from the GMCA and voluntary organisations to support the Panels, and to work with panellists to develop their skills.

She would strongly encourage Councillor Murphy to read the paper that was coming to the GMCA on Friday 10th September, which set out in detail all the amazing work the panels did.

 

2.    Councillor H Gloster asked in relation to Page 7 GMCA20/61 Covid-19 Contingency Support Measures for GM Work and Skills Programme

“Oldham regrettably now has unemployment levels that are the highest in Greater Manchester and twice the national average. Unemployment here has been persistently high for many years, particularly in our inner area wards and amongst our young people. Our skills base is low so our economic recovery from COVID-19 is likely to be slow and uncertain.

Can the Leader please explain what financial and other specialist help this Borough will be receiving from GMCA through these measures as Oldham is surely the Greater Manchester borough most in need of support?”

 

Councillor Shah, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Economic and Social Reform responded that the Covid-19 Contingency Support Measures for GM Work and Skills Programme was a timebound relaxation of contracts (April 2020 until March 2021), aimed at protecting existing programmes rather than increasing the level of delivery in the future.

As part of this, the GMCA removed payment by results clauses and replaced the contracts with a cost recovery model.

This allowed providers to focus on welfare support for vulnerable people, rather than purely focussing on jobs or skills outcomes.

The GMCA also allowed for services to invest in developing digital platforms and provide digital devices and data packages for service users.

 

3.    Councillor Al-Hamdani asked in relation to page 119 Greater Manchester Transport Committee 18 June 2021, GMTC 30/21 Mayoral Priorities

“The minutes note that the Mayor is looking to achieve a tap-in tap-out fare structure with a daily cap. I would like to ask how much did GMCA invest in the My Get Me Here system, and does the Cabinet Member regard that as a successful investment given that it is now being targeted for immediate replacement?”

 

Councillor Chadderton, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, indicated she would provide Councillor Al-Hamdani with a written response.

 

4.    Councillor Al-Hamdani asked in relation to page 121 GMTC 30/21 Mayoral Priorities

“The minutes note that the Greater Manchester Mayor noting the importance of community rail assets, and the Mayor prioritising that they are made accessible to all. Given that one side of the only railway station in the Borough, at Greenfield, still remains completely inaccessible to anyone in a wheelchair, and extremely problematic for anyone with a pushchair, what more will the Mayor be doing to make this priority a reality that is different to what he has been doing for the past four years?”

 

Councillor Chadderton, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods replied that Network Rail was currently responsible for rail stations in Greater Manchester, with the exception of Horwich Parkway which was owned and run by TfGM on behalf of GMCA. However, Greater Manchester had ambitions for local control of all GM rail stations to ensure that they were developed in a way which supported the vision for a modern, accessible, fully integrated transport network, and that there was greater focus on rail stations as a community asset. It was not acceptable that Oldham’s only station at Greenfield was not fully accessible to all residents.

Following representations to Network Rail from the Mayor and TfGM a dedicated GM Stations Accessibility Task Force had been established bringing together the Mayor, TfGM, Network Rail, and train operators. The Task Force was now working to identify sources of funding, prioritise stations for upgrade, and identify how to efficiently deliver improvements. In the short-term the Task Force would identify ‘shovel ready’ schemes, ready to go as and when funding was identified. The Council was working to ensure that Greenfield was one of those schemes ready to go.

 

5.    Councillor M Bashforth asked in relation to page 122 Greater Manchester Transport Committee 18 June 2021 GMTC 30/21 Mayoral Priorities

“Under Resolved the minutes state that it be noted that there was a clear consensus about the importance of delivering an integrated transport network, which was good news and it was good to hear that the Committee was supporting the delivery of an integrated network which was extremely important. Can I ask why we are still seeing some routes being withdrawn, such as the 58 service through Shaw, Heyside, and into Royton. We received a number of complaints from residents which showed this was a well-used service. Could I ask that this be brought up at the next meeting of the Transport Committee, to be discussed and looked at again?”

 

Councillor Chadderton, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods responded that she would speak with Councillor Briggs, who represented the Council on the Committee, to ensure that this was brought up for discussion as soon as possible.

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