Community Services Committee - 26 April 2022

Okay. Welcome to the Community Services Committee meeting of the 26th of April. My name is Laurie Mifsud. I'm the Director of Support Services. Hawkesbury City Council acknowledges the Darug and Darkinjung people as the traditional custodians of the land of the Hawkesbury. We pay respect to all Elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Persons of the country. Committee members and members of the public attending the meeting in council chambers are advised that in the event of an emergency, you'll be asked to proceed in an orderly manner to the nearest exit following the guidance of our warden. I'd also like to advise that meetings of the Council committees are recorded.

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This request relates to both your address to the meeting and any answers given in response to questions from the committee. As a courtesy to others, it is requested that mobile phones either be turned off or turned to silent. Do we have any apologies for the meeting today?

Councilor Lones Buckett. And Councillor Calvin.

Okay. Can we have a mover and seconder to accept those apologies? Moved by Councillor Sheather, seconded by Councillor Richards. Thank you. Do we have any declarations of interest on the matters before the committee?

No, so there is no disclosure of interest. The committee will deal with items that have registered speakers at the start of the meeting. Committee meeting attendees who have registered to address the meeting will have a time limit of five minutes to speak. Committee meeting attendees who have not registered will be asked by the chairperson at the end of the hearing, registered speakers, if there are any further speakers that wish to address the meeting and may speak for a period at the discretion of the chairperson. When called, please speak clearly. At the end of your submission, please remain available to permit the committee to ask questions. The first item on the agenda is item one, which is the election of the chairperson.

As this is the first meeting of the committee, we will need to elect a chairperson. The business paper contains a recommendation that the chairperson of the Community Services Committee be determined. Can I have a mover and a seconder to that, please? Moved by Councillor Richardson, seconded by Councillor Wheeler. Anyone speaking against that? Thank you, that's carried. The election of the chairperson will be conducted by me. Therefore, I call for any nominations for the chairperson of the Community Services Committee.

I'd like to nominate Councillor Calvert, please.

Okay. Is that seconded? Yes. Councillor Sheather seconded that. Councillor Calvert has indicated that if he was nominated, that he would accept that nomination. So that's fine. Are there any other nominations for the chairperson? Okay. As there are no one nomination for chairperson, I declare Councillor Calvert to be the chairperson of the Community Services Committee for 12 months. I can't hand over to the chairperson, so therefore then we'll need to nominate a chairperson for today's meeting in accordance with the committee constitution. So could I have a nomination to chair this meeting of the Community Services Committee?

I'd like to nominate Councillor Sheather, please.

Have a seconder to that? Moved by Councillor Richard, seconded by Councillor Wheeler that Councillor Sheather chair the meeting today. Do you accept that nomination? You do. Okay. Any other nominations? In the absence of no other nominations, I declare Councillor Sheather to be the chairperson of the Community Services Committee for this meeting, and now hand over to him.

Thanks, Councillors. Item two is Westrock, the Heat Smart program. There's a recommendation there. Would someone like to move it?

Could

We have some discussion? I think we can discuss before we have a recommendation on the table in committee. Could we discuss some of the information in the business paper before

We

Go to the recommendation?

I thought we needed a motion before we could discuss.

I think we're effectively in committee of the whole, is my understanding. So we don't necessarily— we can discuss before we have a motion on the table.

Okay, discussion.

So could I seek some clarification? The motion that Council passed in March was that we convene a meeting of this committee to make recommendations to Council regarding the Heat Smart program in the Hawkesbury. And the second point of that resolution was that we specifically consider whether Council should appoint a delegated staff officer as the Heat Coordinator. And I'm not sure that we have— I don't think that the recommendation does either of those things. But secondly, I'm not sure. I certainly don't feel like we've got sufficient information in front of us to make a recommendation about a Heat Coordinator . Although we could probably discuss that a little bit, I don't know that we're in a position to be forwarding a strong recommendation.

There's certainly plenty of information here that would, I guess, go to Council, but a lot of this has gone to Council before. I think we were supposed to be unpicking some of that information so that we could send further information to Council. It was Councillor Calvert's motion, and so it's a little bit difficult without him here, but perhaps we need to revisit this when he's present. I'm not sure where we... This just feels like we've not advanced this in any way. Regarding the HEAT coordinator, I think it might be we could perhaps consider that in conjunction with the disaster management coordinator or that position and whether we fund that . But I think if we go with the recommendation in the business paper, we're really just doing what we were doing rather than coming back to Council with anything further.

Councillor, do you see an indifference of what you spoke of in relation to the recommendation?

I don't disagree with what you said at all.

The problem with the recommendation is it doesn't answer the Council resolution. I think perhaps we could defer this for further discussion when Councillor Calvert is present. It was Councillor Calvert that wanted this to come back to the committee. There's plenty of information here. It's really useful, and it gets us up to speed with what's been going on. But in terms of making recommendations back to Council for action, there.. . We're not at that point.

I was thinking that that was going to be my, based on what Councillor Will has said, that we defer Barry is basically the one with all of the motivation behind this resolution, and also as our representative on WesROC. So I think it would be pertinent to give him the chance to be able to discuss this in more detail, and unfortunately he's not here tonight, so if we could defer this item.

So can I suggest a motion? Yes. Mr Chair, that we defer this item to the next meeting, invite WesROC's HeatSmart program coordinator—I don't know what the position is called, but that'll do— to address the committee, and also consider the heat coordinator position at that meeting.

Is there a seconder?

Yep, we have that.

Okay. I totally agree with the comments that were made. The information that's here is, there's a lot. There's a couple of things that I would ask to the staff. One is in relation to a staff officer heat coordinator, or some of the other areas in there, in relation to funding and cost to council. Is there any idea on what's been done so far, to what degree of cost that might be?

Happy to answer that. Now, we don't have full details of what a new full-time position would entail at this stage, no.

And you're suggesting that whatever comes out of what we're discussing, you would look at the financial implications after that?

I think we can probably include some further detail in the report that comes back to the next committee meeting that sort of gives an outline of the types of some of those costs that would be involved. Yeah,

Thank you. Just before I put the motion, in relation to some of the comments that were made, and I agree, it's probably prudent to have some discussion with Councillor Calvert in relation to some of the issues in that that's in here, and the council officers before the next meeting so that we've got something of character to put forward. Otherwise, we're going to be discussing, if we get information like this, we'll be discussing the pros and cons for some time, and maybe an informal discussion about it might resolve some of those issues. Put the motion in favour? Against? Carried.

Item

Three.

Update on Council's social plan.

Would someone like to move it?

Could we have a report from staff before we discuss this?

Thank you.

Thank you. As noted in the report, this has been provided in response to a notice of motion regarding the committee meetings and the specific component of that notice of motion relevant to this report was that any outstanding matters held over by the previous committees also be considered, including reports from working groups such as the dementia working group. As the report states, there are a number of social plans developed and implemented, predominantly by the Community Planning and Partnerships Branch. Some of those plans are required to be developed under legislation, and some of those have actually been developed in response to Council resolution to respond to identified community issues.

Previously, or previous to the formation of this committee, there were a number of distinct working groups and advisory committees that oversaw development and implementation of those plans. Some of those working groups continue to operate, and some of those committees, such as the Access and Inclusion Advisory Committee, no longer are in operation since the formation of this committee. Irrespective of that, the plans that have been developed have continued to be implemented by staff since their adoption. But as acknowledged in the report, given, I guess, the nature of a lot of the activities and actions that were identified in the plans, they require a lot of face-to-face engagement, large-scale forums and capacity-building projects.

So it's been significantly hampered by COVID in the last couple of years, and therefore the duration of those plans has actually been extended in recognition of the fact that it has been difficult to implement a number of those actions. Prior to this committee being developed, or in 2020, there was a Human Services Advisory Committee in operation by Council, and that committee actually endorsed the Human Services Outcomes Framework, which is referenced in this plan. That's a framework that's been adopted by the New South Wales Government and essentially outlines seven domains of wellbeing that should be addressed for an individual to be well and thriving in their community. The key, I guess, considerations with that Outcomes Framework is that the New South Wales Government is actually looking to use that as part of its commissioning process, so they're going to embed that into funding contracts.

The New South Wales Government is resourcing a whole heap of data being gathered for benchmarks, which has always been something that's quite challenging at a local level to ascertain, you know, what's statistically is going on for our community, and then how do we measure what's happening in our community versus other communities in terms of a benchmark for wellbeing. The other advantage is that, I guess strategically, working within that framework is it really enables key representatives from quite high within those relative agencies to come together because they recognise the way that their particular services and systems intersect in terms of wellbeing and how collaboration can improve outcomes for individuals.

So this information in the report, again, I suppose it is not new information that's coming to Council, but it is new information for this Council. And going forward, the work of my team will be very much to engage with distinct groups, whether it be place-based or issues-based, if you like, but really look at these key wellbeing domains as a means to social plan going forward.

Thank you. Just a further question, excuse me. With things like the dementia, where does Council stop and start with that in relation to the responsibility from State Government, and what help, in terms of funding, would be likely to progress this, like a dementia-friendly Hawkesbury plan?

In terms of the responsibilities, I guess it really depends on the action that's been identified, if you like. Certainly in terms of, let's just say, safe and inclusive physical spaces, that is the responsibility of local government in terms of planning and construction and its consideration. But I guess when you're looking at more acute interventions in terms of health or respite, Council has a role, but rather than provision, it's more of an advocacy role So the plans do specify the particular action , if you like, in regards to the issue that's identified. And in terms of funding and planning going forward, I mean, that's, to be honest, the more robust engagement that we do with individuals and needs that we identify, the better position we are to either attract or advocate for funding, because we have a real sense of what the needs and opportunities are in the Hawkesbury.

Thank you.

Councillors? Councillor

Wheeler

Just a question. How do we ,

Without—

Previously we relied on committees like the Access and Inclusion Committee to run specific initiatives past to see if they met requirements. What are we doing now without that direct engagement with people?

At the moment, it's really been implementing the plans and the actions that have already been identified as needed. I mean, through the networks of our branch, we still facilitate all of the local interagencies, if you like, but it does, I guess, the direct engagement with the communities is somewhat limited and it becomes more of a service response. So, you know, to the letter of the law, if you like, the plans represent that we have undertaken engagement and that the actions that we're implementing are in accordance with what the community has told us. But in terms of an ongoing check and balance, aside from the Reconciliation Action Plan working group, there hasn't been a lot of other active working group engagement post the inception of the Community Services Committee.

Is there a need for us to—we've got capacity to call for a working group around issues as a committee—is there a need for that to happen around anything at this point, or should we be looking at doing that now? Is that something we need to be looking at in six months, 12 months' time? I guess what would be nice is to see some of these plans road-tested. Yeah, to see if they do more than that box ticking that you've talked about.

Look, I think in terms of a social planning perspective, the first instance, a really solid engagement piece specific to a cohort , if you like. So the Family and Domestic Violence Action Plan is a good example of that. We've gone and reviewed that plan. We've reviewed that with service providers and also with peak agencies. And now we're looking at doing a deep dive, if you like, with women with a lived experience of domestic violence and children as well. In terms of then what comes back and the proposed actions, I think that's really where the working group piece becomes most relevant, because it's really critical that, I guess, where everyone's energies and efforts lie are going to be in actions that the community actually say, well, this is what is going to make the most difference for us.

So I think that once the engagement piece is done, if you like, and that kind of preparation of, well, this is what we heard, this is what you told us, what's the best way that, as a council and a network of agencies and the community, can we collaborate to make a difference in this space? I think that's where the working group piece would really become critical.

So you'll let us know if you need that from the end? Yes, absolutely Thank you

Councillor Sheather. Just to clarify, thanks, Megan. So the plans are here. We have both of those plans, the Access Inclusion and the Dementia Friendly Plan, but both of them have actions that are remaining outstanding. When do you think they could be finalised, those remaining actions that need to be done, and how many are there? Is that an intensive amount of work?

Look, they'll be progressively implemented over the coming 12 months. So we're hoping to actually, I guess, have them all implemented and evaluated by the end of this calendar year. So quite a lot of them are a series of forums or educational events rather than a one-off intervention. The tables in the back have highlighted the number of outstanding, with the majority of them sitting within the dementia plan, and that's because of, I guess, the face-to-face nature of what's been proposed. So in saying that, we've got the staff and the existing networks that we facilitate within the branch to be able to do that within existing resources. Okay

So that's good. You're comfortable with achieving that, and we don't need to do anything further in terms of other external groups or anything like that. You're comfortable getting that done. That's fantastic. Absolutely. So by the end of the year, we should have both of those done, and there was no other outstanding work that this committee should need to take up based on outstanding actions from Human Services Advisory Committee, which I was on, so I understand what we were doing there. You know, we have a resolution from that committee to actually hire a staff member to implement a whole range of dot points, basically, that we pass through that committee and pass through council. Things like that, where do they stand, and how could this committee therefore take that forward?

In terms of social planning, all of the respective portfolios have been assigned to an existing staff person within the branch, and because it is a new approach, it's one that we're applying at the moment within the, or against the plans that were resolved by the Human Services Outcomes Committee to actually look at reviewing and renewing. So being the Family and Domestic Violence Plan in the first instance , I believe there may have been a resolution with regards to housing. You'd probably remember better than I do. I need to be honest, because that doesn't necessarily — In my branch, I probably am not the person best positioned to respond to that. But in terms of social planning, provided this outcomes framework is still endorsed by this committee as a way forward, it's absolutely something that we can, you know, progressively work our way through within our existing resources and networks to do that consultation piece, and then that check and balance back to individual community members and perhaps formation of new working groups to implement.

Well, that's very reassuring that that body of work is being handled, and you sound very confident that it's all going to get done. So that's actually a really positive step forward. Mr Chair, I think that therefore the recommendation needs to be put, and based on what the staff members have said, we need to endorse those community wellbeing outcomes framework, which will be part of the operational plan, so that you can implement these social plans properly. So I'm happy to put forward the recommendation as per the business paper, Mr Chair.

Councillor Wheeler.

Yeah

I'm happy to second it. I think it might be useful when some of this comes back to Council, because I think, depending on how much is in the Council meeting, these reports come back to Council that don't necessarily get read in the detail that they always should be. There's a few things I've noticed, and it's not the dementia plan is well advanced, and lots of work has gone into that. There was lots of briefing of previous committees, lots of eyes on that plan. I think just looking at the access and inclusion progress , there's still a few things. I mean, there's things in here that we can't necessarily do, but it would be really nice to have those drawn to Council's attention when it came to Council as a report, and there are things like...

The stuff around housing, you know, so work with housing providers to increase safe, accessible housing stock. So we've reviewed the planning instruments, and Council is now working to develop partnerships. But these are ongoing things that we have to stay on top of all the time. There's other items in the dementia report around advocacy. If we could flag those things that need to be in front of Council's eyes, not just the staff's eyes, I think that would be helpful coming back to us so that we can continue to work on those, and it just doesn't— it becomes an out of sight, out of mind thing for us, and we'll move on, like easily distracted children, we'll move on to something else. So these things that we need to be doing as a governing body and as a political body, it would be really helpful if they are perhaps highlighted or in our face in some manner.

Thanks

Just before I put the motion, in relation to the recommendation where it's got receive the note, the report and endorse the development, how's that reported to Council? Does this committee have the authority to endorse it or is the recommendation to Council?

So the recommendations would go to Council. Yep, good.

Okay, and I agree with the comments that were made that some of the stuff needs to be highlighted, and within these documents there's a lot of information there, but I think some of the stuff needs to be highlighted to just make Councilors aware of what is the intent and the like within it. While those in favour?

Could I just put a question on notice? Yes. Could we get some idea of whether we're going to proceed with the pocket parks review? I know in that affordable housing working group that we had, we talked a few years back about a review of pocket parks as a potential for freeing up land and/or money for some sort of affordable and accessible housing project. And I think because we've had so much to do with regards to the planning documents that's fallen by the wayside, if we could get an idea of whether that's something that this council is going to look at, or we just take that off the table for the time being, it will at least allow us to not think about that as a potential anything.

I could probably offer a comment on that. We're in the process of engaging a consultant to carry out a social infrastructure strategy, and part of that strategy will be looking at our various land that we have as far as pocket parks and going and seeing what we need available for that. So that consultant will be engaged shortly, and then from there we'll get that strategy back and that will outline what we're going to do with our social infrastructure, including our pocket parks.

Great. Any idea of a timeline when that would come back to us?

I can't give you an exact timeline, other than to say that the brief to go out to the consultants is about to be finalised in the next week or two. So from there it will go out and we'll obviously get expressions of interest and so on and go from there. So it's still some months away before we would... Put

The motion. All in favour? Against? Carried.

The Councilors and staff, thanks very much. Yeah.