The Committee Support Officer informed Members that the Chair had sent her apologies for the meeting and asked for nominations for a Member to chair the meeting.  A Member nominated Councillor H Priest, which was seconded by another Member and agreed by the Committee.

Decision

To appoint Councillor H Priest as Chair for the meeting.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 24 May 2022.

Decision

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 24 May 2022as a correct record.

Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods)

This report provides a summary of recent and current work to address Domestic Violence and Abuse, including implementation of the Domestic Violence and Abuse Strategy and the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) which provided a summary of recent and current work to address Domestic Violence and Abuse, including the implementation of the Domestic Violence and Abuse Strategy and the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• Background information;
• The Domestic Abuse Act 2021- Safe Accommodation Duty and New Burdens Funding;
• Domestic abuse and the wider Violence Against Women and Girls agenda (VAWG);
• Conduct of Domestic Homicide Reviews; and
• Future funding and sustainability.

Charlotte Cooke from the LGBT Foundation informed the Committee about her organisation’s work with the LGBT community, both specific services for survivors of domestic abuse and other services and support that they provided.  She outlined how her organisation supported victims of domestic abuse in a holistic way, looking at all their different needs, using the Foundation’s own services and referring them to other services, where appropriate.  She informed Members how the New Burdens funding was being used by her organisation to provide casework support to low to medium risk survivors of domestic abuse, including supporting them into a range of housing options and providing group-based peer support.  She outlined the increasing complexity of many of the referrals, such as mental health issues, substance misuse and issues with basic needs such as housing, employment and financial support.  She informed the Committee how they worked with partner organisations, such as housing associations, and worked across different local authority areas, as an organisation based on a community of identity, rather than a geographical community.

Priya Chopra from Saheli informed the Committee about the work of her organisation, which had previously predominantly supported south Asian women affected by domestic abuse but was increasingly working with a more diverse group of black, Asian and minoritised women.  She informed the Committee that this included refuge provision and about Saheli’s recent acquisition of dispersed accommodation for survivors of domestic abuse, which had increased their capacity to support women fleeing from domestic abuse.  She outlined how Saheli worked with women who did not speak English and who were far removed from the job market, including building their self-esteem.  She highlighted a range of work that the organisation was doing including group-based work to help women identify signs of abuse and work with Afghani women, women with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) and older women.  She welcomed that the New Burdens funding had enabled Saheli to provide greater support to children affected by domestic abuse and to support women with more complex needs, including mental health issues. 

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To request a breakdown of statistics by protected characteristics;
• Concern about whether the main domestic abuse service providers were able to meet the needs of minority groups;
• What was the pathway for male victims of domestic abuse;
• What was being done to reverse the trend of the perpetrator of domestic abuse remaining in the home, while the victim had to flee;
• What work  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods)

This report sets out the position of Manchester City Council’s Homelessness Service in terms of how it supports local residents and how the emerging transformation programme is seeking to increase the prevention of homelessness, continue the successful reduction in rough sleeping, reduce the use of temporary accommodation and support residents, with a wide ranging variety of needs, including that of securing a place to call home.

In addition, set out in the report, is a deep dive into the activity to increase prevention, the support provided to people when placed in temporary accommodation and the arrangements to ensure the quality of the temporary accommodation provided.

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) which set out the position of Manchester City Council’s Homelessness Service in terms of how it supported local residentsand how the emerging transformation programme was seeking to increase the prevention of homelessness, continue the successful

reduction in rough sleeping, reduce the use of temporary accommodation and support residents, with a wide-ranging variety of needs, including that of securing a place to call home. In addition, set out in the report, was a deep dive into the activity to increase prevention, the support provided to people when placed in temporary accommodation and the arrangements to ensure the quality of the temporary accommodation provided.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• National, regional and local context;
• Rough sleeping;
• Prevention;
• Accommodation, including its quality;
• Support for people in temporary accommodation; and
• Homelessness Strategy and Partnership.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• Concern that the average amount of time people were spending in bed-and-breakfast or temporary accommodation was too high and the impact of this on the individuals in this position;
• The importance of focusing on the services that the Council provided and the areas that were within its control, such as the Housing Solutions Team working with the Private Rented Sector (PRS) Team to prevent people having to go into temporary accommodation or to reduce the time people spent in temporary accommodation;
• Questioning whether the rough sleepers headcount was accurate;
• To request a breakdown of table 2.3 in the report by protected characteristics;
• The factors leading to homelessness, including changes in legislation;
• That vacated social housing properties should have a quicker turnaround time for them to be ready for and matched with a new tenant;
• Noting thatthe PRS team had helped to secure 813 new private rented tenancies, to ask about the people they had not been able to help because Council systems were not quick enough to respond to the pace of the private rented sector;  
• Concern about people living in overcrowded accommodation who were not classed as homeless;
• To welcome the focus on preventing homelessness and to ask for more information on the progress of this work to be included in the next report;
• To note that temporary accommodation was concentrated in some areas of the city and to ask for more information on this and what was being done to address it in the next report; and
• To ask that the next report include what support was provided to help people to settle into their new accommodation.

The Director of Housing Operations highlighted the significant increase in people presenting as homeless and recognised Members’ comments about some of the factors affecting this.  He outlined how the Transformation Programme was looking at how the service could be more creative to find alternatives to placing people in bed-and-breakfast accommodation.  He agreed that the average length of time individuals were spending in bed-and-breakfast accommodation was too long and reported that, in particular, there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

Report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit

This report provides the Committee with details of key decisions that fall within the Committee’s remit and an update on actions resulting from the Committee’s recommendations. The report also includes the Committee’s work programme, which the Committee is asked to amend as appropriate and agree.

A report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit was submitted. The overview report contained a list of key decisions yet to be taken within the Committee’s remit, responses to previous recommendations and the Committee’s work programme, which the Committee was asked to approve.

The Chair proposed that any issues Members wanted to raise in relation to the work programme be discussed on Councillor Hitchen’s return.

Decision

To note the report and agree the work programme, subject to the above comments.