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Title |
Community Centre Saturday Opening (a continuation) |
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Purpose of the report |
To approve |
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Report Author |
Stephen Mortimer-Cleevely |
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Ward(s) Affected |
All Wards
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Exempt |
No |
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Exemption Reason |
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Corporate Priority |
Community Resilience Service delivery
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Recommendations
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Committee is asked to:
1. Continue to endorse the Council’s approach of expanding the Community Centres provision to take account of the impact of current cost of living, energy and social isolation crisis on our communities. 2. Continue with the provision of opening at least one community centre within the borough of Spelthorne for 6 days a week, which is currently in place, engaging centre staff to provide the additional provision. To agree delegated authority to Deputy Chief Executive Terry Collier in consultation with Chair and Vice Chair of Community Wellbeing and Housing Committee to agree a continuation every 6 months within the permitted budget envelope. Option 2 (preferred option)
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1. Summary of the report
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What is the situation |
Why we want to do something |
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• Two of our three community centres open on alternate Saturdays to offer a 6 day week centre offer. |
• The offer continues to support our most vulnerable client group. |
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This is what we want to do about it |
These are the next steps |
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• Seek committee approval to continue the 6 day a week offer for a further six months and then review. |
• If approved we will rota staff for the next 6 months and publicise to our residents. |
2. Summary of the report
Spelthorne Borough Council (SBC) seeks to extend our current response to the current cost of living and energy crisis with a proportionate and appropriate offer that will support the most in need, utilising its existing assets and staff resource, whilst minimising the impact on SBC budgets.
3. Key Issues
3.1 The Council has a continued opportunity to maximise its assets that were normally underutilised at weekends, to help support our residents by opening the Fordbridge Centre and Greeno Centre on alternative Saturdays. The offer includes a subsidised hot lunch and hot drinks to take home and also includes opportunities for social interaction, watching TV, reading the paper, playing games or light exercise. A shower is also made available at the Greeno Centre, which is available for those residents whose families or carers can support when using the shower.
3.2 Staff have been asked to cover these shifts by consent and both HR and Unison were consulted. Independent Living could not offer shift swaps as staff capacity is low, but full-time staff receive a time and a half payment for Saturday work. Staff are required to have food preparation, manual handling, and safeguarding training to cover this provision.
3.3 If the 6 day a week offer continues there will be a significant additional cost, which may attract external funding, but will be the subject of a growth bid, in the next 18 months adding up to 20% of the budgeted costs of running a community centre. This described in more detail in the options element.
3.4 If the current provision is extended, we would need to consult with relevant staff and review the agreement which is in place, as currently we are paying staff overtime to cover the opening of the centres. If this offer is going to be extended for a fixed period or a permanent arrangement, then we would need to consider amending staff contracts to include Saturday opening and giving a day off during the week to offset, which will also have implications for other community centre staff. We have also discussed with HR creating a flat overtime rate to give centre staff the opportunity to volunteer if they are all performing similar duties
3.5 Uptake of the current provision has been steady each week with gradual increased uptake.
See below stats for Saturday opening at Centres for the last 6 months
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Fordbridge Totals |
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Lunches |
382 |
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All food total |
£2,711.05 |
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Bus |
21 |
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*Fordbridge 12 Saturdays in total |
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Greeno Totals |
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Lunches |
203 |
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All food total |
£925.90 |
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Bus |
87 |
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*Greeno 13 Saturdays in total |
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3.6 Agreeing to open 6 days a week for a pre-determined period comes with some risk, particularly considering the current budget constraints, we risk raising client expectations with respect to a discretionary service offer, and ultimately disappointing if we subsequently decide to return to 5 day a week provision.
3.7 The current offer was agreed to be extended until the end of October 2024 by Community Wellbeing and Housing Committee with a verbal update in 28th November committee to revisit in 7th January 2025 committee.
4. Options analysis and proposal
4.1 Option 1
Do not extend the current temporary provision and risk increased admissions, loneliness and increased resident poverty and associated adverse health and wellbeing impacts.
Option 2 (preferred option)
Endorse the continuation of the 6 days a week approach and then review in 6 months. The additional cost profile added to Independent Living budget would be in the region of £42,015 p.a or £840 per Saturday. This takes into account a 20% increase in overall operating costs including energy costs and making enhanced payments for staff who work Saturdays. There is provision within the NWS Alliance Prevention Fund to further fund this initiative for another 18 months. It needs to be recognised to enable this initiative to become a permanent provision a growth bid would need to be submitted to embed the additional budget implications. Our community centres are a highly regarded and a well-attended resource, unfortunately they require a subsidy to operate. Service managers have had an indication from both Greeno and Fordbridge centre managers that they would be willing to continue to work alternate Saturdays to enable the 6 day a week offer to continue. Therefore, the projected budget increase we feel is a reasonable estimation of the projected additional 6-month cost of shared Saturday opening. This approach relies heavily on staff goodwill and is likely to result in increased burn out and staffing and rota issues.
Option 3
Endorse the continuation of the 6 days a week approach and then review in 6 months. Making contractual changes to staff contracts. The additional cost profile added to the Independent Living budget would include all items in Option 2, this would be in the region of £32,784.
Option 4
Defer a decision.
5. Financial implications
5.1 The Council were awarded non recurrent funding from the NWS Alliance Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) of £132,000 where we assigned an element (£30,000) to this project. A proportion of this funding is already earmarked for preventative services delivered by SBC. There was no deadline to spend this by the end of financial year 2024 but there is an expectation of timely use. Officers originally recommend that £30,000 be assigned to this project, with the option to increase this based on attendance and need.
5.2 There is currently only one funding options available which is the use of NWS Alliance Prevention funding, officers suggest that this would be appropriate use for this short term initiative, but a permanent offer would require an ongoing revenue growth bid in the region of £32,784 - £42,015 p.a. It is not being suggested at this stage that a growth bid is submitted and it is not clear that Independent Living would have the approved budget envelope to embed as business as usual.
6. Risk considerations
6.1 Risks of inaction are well documented nationally and ultimately inaction will lead to potential poverty, loneliness and increased presentation at primary care and increased hospital admissions.
6.2 These initiatives and additional responsibilities that are created by this approach draw heavily on our limited resources. There are staffing implications here that need to be funded, potentially from external sources.
6.3 If this is decided to be a permanent provision, then a growth bid will ultimately be needed to cover the ongoing costs once short-term funding has been utilised.
6.4 Staff welfare must be considered, at all levels, a service rarely opens out of hours without additional support being required.
7. Legal considerations
7.1 Section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972 provides specific authority for the Council to incur expenditure on anything which is in the interests of and will bring direct benefit to its area. The preferred option would support residents who are suffering from the cost of living crisis and are at risk of social isolation thereby benefitting the local community.
7.2 As the report has noted, there are employment implications for staff who are employed by the Council at these centres. A variation may be required to employment contracts of these staff to reflect the change in working hours.
8. Procurement considerations
8.1 There are none
9. Other considerations
9.1 The Council can agree and endorse this project, but although warmly received as a principle this still requires ‘buy in’ from our residents.
10. Equality and Diversity
10.1 This initiative potentially only ‘scratches the surface’ of this issue with many residents who are house bound and have little engagement with our services may struggle to access this offer. In the first instance we may only offer this provision to centre members. This autumn we are conducting a comprehensive service survey including feedback from members and residents.
11. Sustainability/Climate Change Implications
11.1 The proposed project will be informed by our sustainability and climate change team who will support in relation to cost saving and energy initiatives. This will include practical tips on energy saving.
12. Timetable for implementation
12.1 The Council are proposing that this initiative be instigated by 8th January 2025.
13. Contact
13.1 Stephen Mortimer-Cleevely 01784 448616
Background papers: There are none