WESTFIELD BIG LOCAL PARTNERSHIP MEETING

Minutes of the Meeting held on 17th December 2015

PRESENT: Mike Peat, Sharron Baroudi, Sally Thomas, Gareth, Kate Russell (Health Trainer Woodhouse, Hackenthorpe and Westfield), Julie Harrison (Early Years team manager) Steve Kinneavy (Interim Centre Manager, Com.Unity), Ryan Wileman (Westfield Pioneer Ministry), Gareth Hayden (Community Activity Leader, Activity Sheffield),Nicola Garnett (Project Worker, WDCF), Leslie Roberts (Leaning Champion, WDCF), Helen Thompson (Big Local Rep), Roger Tew, Jason Slade (Sheffield University), Aaron Daniels (Sheffield Futures),Carl Beckett, Julie Edmonds (BVDT), Fiona McLinn (Business Support Manager, MAST)

APOLOGIES: Tony Downing, Lee Crookes, Marion Oveson, Sue Stewart, Tracey Hawley, Pam Colton

We want to consult with you on how the centre is currently used by you and the organisations you represent and also do a little bit of Blue Sky thinking for Com.Unity going forward. 

Services at Com.Unity now for instance:

Steve Kinneavy, in the past large local events have taken place, street parties, royal wedding etc. The events helped in fostering a community spirit. This is the community centre for Westfield. Recent struggles with reduction in council funding have resulted in its withdrawal from Com.Unity. Partnership working is very important. Local residents were canvassed and an attempt was made to meet their needs. Some events were poorly attended. The announcement of local trust funding created a different atmosphere. The rise of interest and participation has been amazing. £1m pound seems a lot but actually is only £100K per year, particularly looking at 3 years and beyond for 7 years requires sustainable services. There are lots of different views and it is a challenge to work in partnership.

Carl Beckett: the Holiday play scheme has a captive audience of children and parents. The play scheme has got busier and busier without the need for advertising needed. The growth has been as a result of word of mouth. It started with 30 – 40 and now caters for 70-80. 80% of children are Westfield residents. Children who have attended in the past are now young adults who come down and help. The scheme is free. Working in partnership with the school. There is a Big Local Christmas Party on Saturday and the play scheme is on next week. Every age range in Westfield is catered for. Donations have been received from Crystal Peaks for the Christmas raffle.

Julie Harrison: There are targets for the MAST Team for age ranges 0-4’s. There is a forum talking about issues for Children’s centre reach, which is wider than Westfield. Targets are measured by OFSTED, and there is a need to prove impact on children’s lives. Ensuring targeting families that need most help and support is of primary importance. The MAST team offer universal support as well. Signposting people to access things in the area is important and they are not wanting to duplicate efforts. Of particular importance is encouraging families to take up their free entitlement to learning. There is a specific target around obesity with activities, as well as school attainment. Assessing children on their level

document.docx Page 1

of development following reception (identifying speech and language issues). MAST team put on groups that are focused within sessions. There is a target around encouraging continuation of breastfeeding. Referrals from MAST show that domestic violence, smoking and smoking in pregnancy are issues. MAST also encourages people back into work. MAST Team currently run the following services at Com.Unity.

Breastfeeding support group Play and stay Baby massage

Family Learning commissioned in through LA (6, 8, 10 week programme), under croft to deliver crèche.

Programme called Henry, healthy eating Parenting programmes Drop-ins if parent has got issue in school or nursery.

Roger Tew: Attended meeting with regard to CAB. WBL has a budget to deliver a half day CAB service but quote was too high. Tony Downing is to fund CAB for 12 months from the local council budget. It will be held in the Health Centre. Money will now be available until March 2017. Strong representations are being made to lease holders of Health Centre with regard to room for CAB. It is likely to be a full CAB where residents are able to drop in or make an appointment. There will be a ½ day presence. WBL may go into part funding with council.

Steve Kinneavy: Pooling resources is important, in the past there has been £65K pounds worth of benefits to Westfield as a result of a £10K investment in last CAB run through TARA.

Ryan Wileman: Salvation Army – Ryan is employed as a community development worker, Christian church and charity, social justice, areas of deprivation. Supporting local agencies and groups to make a difference. Ryan has been meeting people for last three months, working out where Salvation Army fits in. He will have a further two part-time member of staff from next year. Ryan will move into Westfield and become involved in community.

Aaron Daniels: Originally there were 40 young people using Youth Club. It is always very well attended with recent increase in access to services of up to 67 young people. As well as activities, signposting and relationship building are an important part of the Youth Club... Staff identify vulnerabilities that have a negative impact on the community. A few young people are challenging and Sheffield Futures welcome feedback from anyone within the community. Sheffield Futures is not accountable as youth workers for what occurs following youth club but workers will address issues and bring about community responsibility. Marion from University has been running a meeting prior to the youth club involving a group of young people in talking about open spaces. The young people are going to look at barriers to improving the castle by consultation with local residents etc.

Gareth Hayden: Gareth is from Activity Sheffield and has met with Sharron and Kate regarding running a consultation event on 1st February 2016. The event will include taster sessions of various activities.

Nicola and Louise: Adult learning is a big issue in this area. The majority of people left school early and there are a lot of young mums. There is a definite need for courses for confidence building and meeting new people. Currently they run a Maths and English

course as a starter with a view to continuing on to other courses. An IT course is starting in January with 5 learners coming from the existing course but there is ample room for local residents to book on. The Paediatric First Aid course is to run on two Saturdays in January. It is an expensive course as it doesn’t come through adult learning. The lack of a crèche is a big issue. It was suggested that childminders could be approached to run a crèche. There is also an issue for local residents getting to Beighton as it requires two buses.

Mike: Suggested that WBL might be able to arrange bus to take potential students to Beighton Lifestyle Centre or places where courses are taking places with a crèche facility.

Fiona McLinn: MAST is divided throughout the city, they have prevention and intervention workers work at tier 1 and tier 2 of the assessment framework. These include mental health workers, children’s mental health workers, parenting staff, community midwives, early year’s workers and business support. They work from age 0-19 but 25 for young people with a disability. Staff are working with the benefits agency. MAST team has advisors who can help people get back into work. MAST team get weekly job lists.

Ryan Wileman: Ryan reported that the housing department have piloted a scheme in Westfield that expands support.

A Job Club is desperately needed in Westfield. A walk in job club funded by Big Local could be very beneficial to local residents. Beighton have a worker starting in January to run a job club. Job Club is run by Salvation Army in Woodhouse.

Going forward: Julie explained that the way that Big Local money is funded is in different categories e.g. community hub, events etc. The partnership agreed to employ a caretaker because the original plan for staff to open and close was not deemed safe. The new post will cost £6.5K to £7K per year. Julie needs agreement from the partnership as the money will need to be transferred from existing community hub budget. Julie will need to reapply for money next year. The group agreed that employing a caretaker would be a good idea. Action Sharron to email Partnership. Paperwork must be completed before employment can be approved.

Sharron highlighted issues with MAST arriving without keys to Rooms 1 and 2 and asked about working hours for the centre moving forward. Fiona confirmed that the team starts at 8.45 am and finishes around 5.30 pm. There are approximately 100 staff. Fiona suggested making MAST team members go back to the centre for their keys.

Blue Sky thinking

Sally: What we do reflects what community we are serving reflects. Sally has spoken to lots of people and identified some issues.

Sally would like a network of people who will find out what is wanted and WBL need to be flexible to be facilitate that, talking to people and making it happen. It’s important to find out the barriers to people coming to events/activities/training. Sally can facilitate partnership working between agencies.

Roger: Gala is a wonderful way of promoting services and all agencies can have a free stall, will take place on Saturday 13th August next year.

Julie Harrison: Important that joint consultation takes place. Can work together to ensure Westfield residents are consulted on what they want.

Every agency that works in the local community to submit questions to Sally in order to pull together joint efforts.

Need a mapping document- What’s on in Westfield.

It was agreed that a newsletter promoting what WBL has achieved so far would be useful. The mailing of a newsletter could include a’s on guide. WBL conducted a previous costing exercise of mailing to households.

There will be a meeting on 22nd January to discuss engagement. Action Sally.

Further ideas included:

Trips to seaside for children and young people or families – Carl did local trips for children including York. 60 seater coaches with parents. Aaron put trips on but funding not available any more. Julie suggested that WBL could buy its own bus?

Ryan suggested showing the European Championship football in the Cities room in summer. With a barbecue from 5-7.