Agenda item

To consider a report by Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets (copy enclosed) seeking Cabinet approval of the council’s proposed Community Benefits Policy and recommendations in support of its use.

Vote taken: 8 in favour, 0 against, 0 abstentions

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)       approves the Community Benefits Policy document, and

(b)       confirms that it has read, understood and taken account of the Well-being Impact Assessment attached as Appendix 2 to the report as part of its consideration.

Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets presented the report seeking Cabinet approval of the proposed Community Benefits Policy.

In June 2019 the Programme Board for Young People and Housing approved the creation of a Community Benefits Hub (CB Hub) to support and enable services to include community benefits in contracts at the earliest opportunity to increase value for council spend.  A CB Hub Manager and Officer had been appointed earlier in the year and developed the policy which had been presented to all Member Area Groups and reviewed by Communities Scrutiny Committee who recommended the policy for approval.  The policy would provide a framework for both internal and external stakeholders and work to support the CB Hub in monitoring the outcomes delivered from community benefits.  The council spent approximately £116m annually so there was scope to make some significant benefits as a result.  The community benefits referred to in this case were not financial benefits but in-kind benefits such as training and apprenticeships etc.  Although S.106 agreements fell outside the remit of the policy the CB Hub had taken on a ‘clearing house’ role in that regard to ensure maximum community benefit was derived.

The CB Hub Manager provided some further background reiterating the significant council spend on third party goods, works and services and the potential to gain additional benefits in kind from that spend.  The current policy stipulated contract spend above £1m should consider community benefits.  The proposed policy reduced that threshold to works contracts of more than £100k and goods services contracts of more than £25k in order to open up a significant proportion of the council spend to attracting community benefits.  However those thresholds would not apply automatically with a request and support approach to community benefits and engagement with procurement and commissioning teams in that regard.  Adoption of the policy would demonstrate the council’s commitment to community benefits, validate the council’s approach to enable opportunities to secure available benefits and maximise the value of spend for residents, and embed community benefits into procurement processes.  The policy would also complement the council’s carbon zero ambition with potential for community benefits to contribute to carbon mitigation and reduction measures.

The Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services and the CB Manager responded to members’ questions as follows –

·         in terms of apprenticeships there were a number of opportunities the council was pursing through Working Denbighshire but the purpose of the CB policy was to consider the benefits that could be secured through procurement spend.  However a number of placements had been secured through the community benefits approach and the CB Hub was working closely with Working Denbighshire to maximise any potential opportunities in that regard

·         clarified the role of the legal and planning departments with regard to S.106 agreements and explained that the CB Hub had taken on the role of monitoring and tracking the S.106 agreements to ensure they were properly delivered.  It was confirmed that details of that work could be shared with members

·         acknowledged the potential to expand the remit of the CB Hub but confirmed the current priority to ensure community benefits were embedded within the procurement process and considered at an early stage together with effective monitoring of those community benefits to ensure they were delivered

·         assurances were provided that the CB Hub was working collaboratively with Community Support Teams in terms of wind farm and other community funding both to avoid duplication and ensure they were not working at crossed purposes

·         provided an illustrative example of community benefits in practice involving small contracts for consultancy services, specifically in the delivery of social care, with consultants asked to commit a number of hours of remote care to offer to some of those community groups forming to access wind farm funding

·         explained that the CB Hub was working with different departments to ascertain the most appropriate community benefits within the different communities which must also be relevant and aligned to the substantive part of the contract and be within reasonable expectation of what the contract would be able to provide and proportionate to the size of the contract.

Cabinet recognised the merits of the policy and the Chief Executive also voiced her support for the work which aligned with the council’s aim of putting communities at the heart of its work.  She also confirmed that the Senior Leadership Team had fully endorsed the policy and thanked the CB Hub for all their hard work in that regard.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)       approves the Community Benefits Policy document, and

(b)       confirms that it has read, understood and taken account of the Well-being Impact Assessment attached as Appendix 2 to the report as part of its consideration.