Agenda item

31.1     The Chair of the Committee introduced the report which outlined the Committee’s latest work programme, and included a summary of the work of the Loneliness and Resilience Reference Group.

Loneliness and Resilience Reference Group update

31.2     The Chair of the Reference Group, Councillor John Ungar, introduced the summary of the Group’s work appended to the report. The Reference Group had been formed to consider a project on loneliness and isolation, which had been led by ESCC Public Health but delivered in partnership with partners across local government, health and the voluntary and community sector, recognising that loneliness and social isolation were complex and systemic social issues that could not be addressed by one agency alone. Collaborate Community Interest Company (CIC), a social consultancy and research organisation, were commissioned to support the project, developing the evidence base and identifying opportunities to mitigate loneliness and its worst effects.

31.3     The Reference Group had met four times across 2021/22 and inputted into the project as it was planned and delivered. The outcome of Collaborate CIC’s work was two detailed reports on insights and recommendations for a systems approach to addressing loneliness in the County, which the Reference Group had considered in detail and could be made available to other Members of the Committee on request. At the latest, and final, meeting of the Reference Group it had been confirmed that funding had been allocated to establish a System Stewardship Group, as a first step to responding to the other recommendations of the Collaborate CIC report. This would build on existing partnership work to ensure there was system-wide responsibility to tackle loneliness. ESCC would lead on convening the Stewardship Group on behalf of partners, with focussed planning to establish the Stewardship Group commencing in the new year. An interim evaluation of the Group and its work was planned to take place in December 2023, followed by a final evaluation in December 2024-March 2025. The Reference Group requested an update report back to the March 2024 meeting of the Committee, following the interim evaluation. 

31.4     The Chair of the Reference Group welcomed the work that had taken place, noting how positively Public Health had worked to find ways to tackle this issue. The Director of ASCH responded, thanking the Reference Group for its work on what was a very important issue, and which had impacts on people’s health and wellbeing and demand for social care. The Director noted that the membership and scope of the Stewardship Group was to be determined when concerted planning got underway in the new year.

31.5       The Committee discussed the update and commented on the following area:

·                     Role of poverty – it was suggested that the role of poverty needed to be considered in this work as people on lower incomes, or facing increased financial pressures from the rising cost of living, would increasingly struggle to take part in paid social activities, such as visiting a café or pub, which could increase social isolation and loneliness. The Director responded that it was correct that the rising cost of living would have impacts on a range of social issues, and on progress tackling issues such as loneliness. The work the Department was planning to commence on establishing new community hubs/networks could help with this by starting to provide some social or gathering space in local communities, which was free.

31.6       The Director of Children’s Services added that in the next phase of the work, it was intended that the challenges with loneliness and social isolation facing children and families (including new mothers) would also be considered.

ASC Reforms Reference Group and Market Sustainability Plan

31.7       The Committee agree to update the Committee’s work programme to reflect that the work of the ASC Reforms Reference Group should commence closer to the new anticipated implementation date of the reforms of October 2025.

31.8       The Committee also noted that the Market Sustainability Plan would be circulated to the Committee once finalised, but that this was no longer expected to be in February 2023 due to the delay to the planned charging reforms.

Forward Plan

31.9     The Committee considered the Council’s Forward Plan of executive decisions and agreed there were no issues that required more detailed scrutiny.

31.10   The Committee RESOLVED to agree the latest work programme, subject to:

• an update on progress with the systems loneliness work and Stewardship Group being scheduled for the March 2024 Committee, as requested by the Loneliness and Resilience Reference Group; and
• it being updated to reflect that the work of the ASC Reforms Reference group would commence closer to reform implementation.