CORNWALL COUNCIL
VOLUNTARY COMMUNITY SECTOR COMMISSIONING BOARD
MINUTES of a Meeting of the Voluntary Community Sector Commissioning Board
held in the 2N-03/04, County Hall, Cornwall council, Treyew Road, Truro TR1
3AY on Thursday 19 December 2013 commencing at 10.00am.
Present:-
Mark Richardson (Vice-Chairman in the Chair)
Angela Andrews, Matt Barton, Gail Bishop, Rowena Brebner,
Judith Cook, Rosie Foster, Andrea Gilbert, Jamie Hendy,
Diana Higton, Ian Jones, Tim Jones, Donna Peverley, Jane
Royle, Scott Sharples and Jenny Trinder
Apologies for
absence:-
Sally Heard, Peter Jefferson, Sophie Hosking, Louise Knox,
Richard McKie, David Read, Tracey Roose and Carole
Theobald, Zoe Howard, Penni Barker
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
(Agenda No. 1)
VCS31
Mark Richardson welcomed everybody to the meeting.
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 8 NOVEMBER 2013 FOR ACCURACY
(Agenda No. 2)
VCS32 It was agreed that the Minutes of the meeting held on 8 November
2013 were an accurate record.
MATTERS ARISING
(Agenda No. 3)
VCS33
Actions from the minutes:-
i)
Strategic Challenges to the Sector
Ian Jones advised that he and Tracey Roose had discussed this with Peter from
CRCC. Representatives from the Voluntary Sector would meet in the New Year
to discuss transport and progress made, with Peter taking the lead.
ii
Forward Plan
Donna Peverley advised that this would be circulated after the meeting to Board
Members. The Comprehensive Impact Assessment update by David Red would
be put on the Forward Plan for the January meeting.
iii
Children’s 11+ commissioning
Donna Peverley confirmed that the link to the documents had been circulated
and that Penni Barker had extended the deadline for comments/suggestions to
the end of January. The link would be re-circulated to Board Members to
encourage them to provide feedback.
Action
Peter Jefferson to report back on transport meeting
Donna Peverley to re-circulate the link to Board Members to
encourage them to provide feedback to Penni Barker .
iv
Review of the Board
Mark Richardson advised that the logo and strapline had been agreed.
Members agreed to amend the logo to incorporate the strapline.
Board
Action
Donna Peverley to amend the logo to incorporate the strapline
v
Social Investment Conference
Donna Peverley advised that she would circulate her notes on the Social
Investment Conference when available.
Action
Donna Peverley to circulate her notes when available
vi
VCS Board Minutes
Mark Richardson confirmed that the draft minutes had been circulated as
requested and this would continue.
YOUNG CARERS STRATEGY
(Agenda No. 4)
VCS34 Angela Andrews and Rosie Foster gave an update on the Young Carers
Strategy as follows: Young Carers Strategy - Definition
 Young Carer’s Service in Cornwall – over 400 were registered and the
number was growing. Workshops would be run to raise awareness and
they would be working with schools to develop the support through
education. There was a wide range of support available – a website had
been set up and a newsletter was produced termly. The assessment tool
used had been developed nationally.
 Young Carer’s Strategy – Consultation to date
 Age profile of young carers
 Initial Findings
 Children’s Society Survey
 Comparisons with National Picture
 Initial Aims
 Discussion and Way Forward
If anyone had concerns, they could refer to this service. This was a
complex issue and the service was working with the Children’s Society to
establish a picture - it seemed that most young carers were caring for a
family member. The consequences for young carers included the impact
on health and relationships. The voluntary sector could play a vital role
in raising awareness of young carers within the workforce.
Action
Board Members to: Provide comments/suggestions to Cherry Martin and Richard
McKie
 Raise awareness of the issues of young carers
 Provide feedback/comments to Angela Andrews by mid
January
Jayne Royle and Angela Andrews to discuss ways of raising this
topic within the health agenda
Donna Peverley to facilitate an introduction between Angela
Andrews and ‘Crisis and Care’ colleagues to discuss the Crisis and
care loans and whether there could be more flexibility in the
criteria required
NEETS UPDATE
(Agenda No. 5)
VCS35 Donna Peverley advised that this item had been deferred to the
January meeting.
COMPREHENSIVE IMPACT ASSESSMENT
(Agenda No. 6)
VCS36 Donna Peverley advised that this item had been deferred to the
January meeting.
TERMS OF REFERENCE
(Agenda No. 7)
VCS37 Donna Peverley advised that the Terms of Reference had been
reviewed following the comments received from the Board’s recent review
(copies of which were circulated at the meeting).
During discussion reference was made to the following:



there should be reference to the impact on the quality of services within
the ToR
there should be reference to the Local Nature Partnership alongside the
LEP and HWB.
Membership – this should be looked at to ensure the most suitable
representatives from each organisation were invited to sit on the Board
(including Elected Members)
The quorum numbers should remain
Action
Donna Peverley to circulate a copy of the Terms of Reference to
Board Members with comments to be received by mid January
Donna Peverley and Mark Richardson to look at the ‘Aim’ and
‘How’ section of the ToR
Matt Barton to liaise with Paul Masters to discuss the most
suitable Cornwall
Membership
Council
representatives,
including
Elected
Paul Masters to discuss with the Public Sector (eg Health, Police)
the most suitable representative and invite them to sit on the
Board.
Theme Leads group meeting should be held so that they can
review VCSE representatives so most suitable representatives
could be put forward for the Board
Mark Richardson to liaise with the Theme Group Leads to check
the information was current and up to date on the VSF Website
INCLUSION STRATEGY
(Agenda No. 8)
VCS38 Andrea Gilbert gave a presentation on the Inclusion Strategy. Four
themes had been identified and four priorities had been established in order to
attract EU funding. . The Action Plan would go forward with Judith Hann,
Employment and skills manager- Economic Development and inform the
Structural Investment Framework (SIF). The Board was invited to provide
feedback on the Strategy and the relevant documents would be circulated to the
Board to enable this. The Board endorsed the document in principle at the
meeting.
Action
Donna Peverley to circulate the Inclusion Strategy documents and
the Board to provide feedback
VCSE - RESEARCH 'STATE OF THE SECTOR'
(Agenda No. 9)
VCS39 Mark Richardson presented information to the Board relating to the
VCSE – Research ‘State of the Sector’ as follows:
Transform Research had been commissioned by CDC to carry out
“research in the the VCSE sector on behalf of Cornwall Council and the
CVSF. 4,500 organisations and up to 1500 smaller community groups had

been mapped. Transform Research were continuing to research Social
Enterprises, the information on which would be useful to the LEP. A
further piece of work would be undertaken to identify how many social
enterprises there are.
Emerging Issues – a small number of organisations were currently paying
less than the minimum wage and an information campaign would be
launched notifying them of the current minimum wage rates in Cornwall
and making mention of the living wage
- Some Registered Charities who employ staff did not appear to be
aware of the liabilities for their Trustees if they were unincorporated
- The skills gap was well articulated
Action
Mark Richardson to circulate a word document of the State of the
Sector report to Board Members before Christmas
Board Members to provide
Richardson by mid January
comments/feedback
to
Mark
Mark Richardson to give a brief presentation on the main issues at
the January meeting
BIG LOTTERY OPT IN FUNDING
(Agenda No. 10)
VCS40 Mark Richardson advised that the LEP was writing its latest version of
the Structural Investment Fund. As reported in agenda item 8. He had attended
meetings with Judith Hann and colleagues to discuss. The are five areas likely
partnership areas which are:-
Future Peninsula
Digital World
Smart Money
Talent Match
Growing Families
Action
Donna Peverley and Mark Richardson to provide a briefing paper
regarding community led development for the Board for the
January meeting
Matt Barton/Donna Peverley/Mark Richardson to discuss ESF
representation on this Board (eg Judith Hann)
JOINT WORKING PROPOSAL WITH TOWN AND PARISH COUNCILS AND
VCSE/PUBLIC SECTOR
(Agenda No. 11)
VCS41 Scott Sharples gave a presentation to the Board relating to a joint
working proposal with Town and Parish Councils and VCSE/Public Sector. The
key areas for this were joint training programmes, joint events and specialist
advice.
During discussion, reference was made to the following issues:



An important issues was how organisations dealt with TUPE
Equity was an issue – the Council needed to take a commercial approach
to its assets but this givers problems to the VCSE trying to raise
investment capital
The Voluntary Sector and Social Enterprises were more interested in
people and less interested in maintenance servcies
Ian Jones would be meeting with Councillor Rowe and Paul Masters to
discuss local representation empowered democracy and how we generate
a greater participation in service delivery at grass roots level within a
community
Action
Donna Peverley to circulate the Discussion paper to Board
Members
Board Members to feed comments on the Discussion Paper by 18
January to All Board Members so that the Infrastructure Group
could take note of the comments made
The Infrastructure Group would bring a Briefing paper back to the
Board at a future meeting based on the comments received
Infrastructure Group may need to set up a Task Group in January
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
(Agenda No. 12)
VCS42
a)
Commissioning
Ian Jones advised that the Council’s Children’s Services had tendered for a
commissioning aspect on 21 October with a deadline for tenders to be received
by 4 November and the implementation date given of 12 November.
Mark Richardson stated that conflicting information appeared to be coming from
the Council regarding Children’s Centres. A two year consultation had taken
place and it was not clear whether they would be outsourced or not.
Action
Donna Peverley/Matt Barton to liaise with Children’s Services and
invite a representative to attend the January meeting and provide
an update
b)
Social Enterprise Strategy
Mark Richardson advised that there would be a consultation document out
shortly regarding the Social Enterprise Strategy and Board Members were
encouraged to pass to their colleagues for participation.
Action
Mark Richardson to circulate the consultation document
Board Members to circulate amongst colleagues and participate in
the survey
c)
Social Enterprise Focus Day
Donna Peverley advised that a Social Enterprise Focus day would be held 20 and
21 January at Falmouth University and Board Members were invited to attend.
Action – Donna Peverley to circulate link for the event
d)
‘Improving Public Health’ report
Jane Royle advised that the King’s Fund had recently published a report entitled
‘Improving Public Health’ which would be of interest to Board Members.
Action
Donna Peverley to circulate the Kings Fund ‘Improving Public
Health’ document which had recently been published.
e)
Winter Wellbeing
Tim Jones advised that a Winter Wellbeing evaluation document had been
published.
f)
DECC Fund (Department of Energy and Climate Change
Tim Jones advised that Green Cornwall had been involved with a DECC fund and
sought assistance/resources in understanding the process involved.
Action
Matt Barton/Donna Peverley to liaise with the Legal Service to provide
information regarding state Aid and report this to Tim Jones and the
board
DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING
(Agenda No. 13)
VCS43
The Board noted the date of the next meeting – Friday 31 January 2014,
2N:03/04 County Hall, Treyew Road, Truro, TR1 3AY at 2pm.
The meeting ended at 12.28pm
[The agenda and reports relating to the items referred to above are attached to
the signed copy of the Minutes].