Agenda and minutes

The Chair listed apologies received and noted that this would be his last meeting as Chair. The Chair thanked the Board for their efforts, noted their achievements and thanked the LGA officers. Councillor Stephens praised the commitment of members and wanted it noted that members have made the Board both professional and accountable.

Presentation to be given by Jennie Price, Chief Executive of Sport England

The Chair introduced Jennie Price, Chief Executive of Sport England, who gave a presentation on their new ‘Towards an Active Nation’ strategy.

Ms Price discussed a number themes emerging in the strategy, including the idea of investing for a wider purpose and particularly targeting people are who currently inactive. For instance, Sport England feels that walking should come under the heading of sport and physical activity as it appeals more widely, can be an entry level activity and can be taken up regardless of socioeconomic background. Sport England will be looking to target currently under-represented groups and will consider a number of factors, including employment, income and education, which dictate life opportunities.

To help deliver this new strategy, Sport England will be structuring support teams around influencing different behaviours. Some teams will specialise in inactivity, some in targeting low socioeconomic groups and some will work at a local level across the country. This should make it easier to approach the right people in the organisation when seeking support.

Members were advised that £130 million has been set aside to work in ten places across England and Sport England are currently dealing with expressions of interest in other investment opportunities. The shortlist includes a diverse mix of areas, including a variety of sizes, locations and urban/rural split.

Each of these areas will have dedicated staff helping them. The staff will not just be looking at the individuals, but at behaviours dictated by social environments, physical environment, and both national and local policy.

In addition to the local delivery pilots, Sport England will provide resources through a hub which all local authorities can access. Ms Price also committed to continuing the partnership with the LGA to provide leadership essentials programmes for elected members.

Members made the following points:

·         Local authorities are suffering from a lack of officer resources, as well as funding, and correspondence from Sport England can be missed if it is not properly targeted. Ms Price acknowledged that councils have fewer sports specialists than they used to and that in cases where an authority does not have a named contact, communication would go through the Chief Executive’s office. Ms Price also noted that Sport England has a regular newsletter specifically for local government.

·         Members welcomed the shift towards activity but raised some concerns about future availability of match funding. Sport England said that match funding would not apply in every case and authorities who are already doing well in this area and have innovative ideas going forward would be not prohibited from accessing support.

·         Concerns were raised about councils not having the capacity to enter effective bids for funding. Ms Price stated that Sport England needs to keep being reminded about capacity issues for councils but that they are trying to ask for less information at the early stages of the bidding procedure so what is asked of councils is not so considerable early on. Ms Price advised councils to contact their county sports partnership if they need additional support  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

Presentation to be given by Mark Coulson, Parklife Programme Manager

The Chair introduced Mark Coulson, the Football Association’s national Lead for the Parklife Football Hubs Programme, who gave a presentation about the restructuring of the FA and their change of focus onto strategic planning.

The presentation outlined some significant challenges for grassroots football in terms of drop-off participation levels, poor levels of transition into adult football, and the participation of the 14-16 age group. Key aspects of the strategic plan included a goal to double their player and fan base for women’s football, to provide more flexible, inclusive and accessible playing opportunities for all, and supporting volunteers and staff across all disciplines to encourage a diverse workforce.

The FA’s facilities strategy was shared with members and they were told that a considerable amount of investment was going into facilities in England but that there are significant challenges to meet demand for good facilities going forward. Shared national investment priorities set by the FA, the Premier League and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)/Sport England have been agreed, with their headline outcomes focused towards football being played by more people. The FA hopes that these outcomes will lead to better physical and mental wellbeing, individual, social and community development, as well as economic development. The key to this is that there are a number of offers available for different customer groups so projects are not imposed on groups who cannot afford 3G pitches, for example. Projects will be assessed on football outcomes as well as social added value.

The FA wants to roll out their national strategy to councils as soon as possible and have a commitment to having plans for football facilities in every local authority. The Park Life programme is the FA-led response to invest in public sector stock to make it more accessible and sustainable. Mr Coulson said they were aware that councils cannot continue subsidising pitches the same level they used to, so they want to provide a new management and operational approach to grassroots football facilities, where local charities may be brought in to help manage sites.

There is a match funding requirement of 40% for any applications and while Mr Coulson acknowledged that this can be tough for local authorities, the FA will have individual discussions with councils about their potential sites.

Following the presentation, members made the following comments:

·         Members welcomed the report and asked how the strategy could be extended to rural areas with smaller populations. Mr Coulson suggested that a threshold was in place and was needed to make a programme worth investing in financial, which perhaps meant that Park Life may not be a solution for rural areas. He said, however, that they are keen to receive more feedback from local authorities about what their key requirements are so that programmes could be designed to better reflect the varying needs across the country.

·         Members said that idea of sports hubs or centres where a number of sports and activities can be played seem to be the way forward but  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

LGA Senior Adviser, Ian Leete, introduced the report, noting that the vision for the Libraries Deliver programme has now been published. He noted that communications work with all partners was ongoing and that there were four well-attended sector forums at the beginning of the year.

The report outlined the work of the Taskforce and its members over the past six months.

The report also provided an update on the LGA deliverables for the Taskforce: An evidence-based, sustainable planning tool, and sector-led benchmarking framework. Members were advised that progress on these has been delated, due to other priority workstreams, but that Steve Wood & Associates had now been commissioned to develop the benchmarking framework. A draft framework is expected to be ready for the next Taskforce meeting on 13 July.

Members made the following comments:

·         It was noted that libraries based in places where there are a number of other services and facilities available are doing well, particularly in those that haven’t compromised on library space.

·         Some members felt there was an omission in the report in terms of making libraries sustainable going forward. It was noted that no mention has been made of automation and members questioned whether this could be looked at. Ian Leete advised that work was underway but not yet published.

·         Members suggested that a longer-term vision would be welcome as this report only looks five years into the future and does not deal with the changing role of technology and how people might access books differently in the future. Ian Leete noted this comment and agreed that there was more work to be done on the future of library services.

·         It was suggested that there could be a conference session on sharing positive examples, for instance the City of York mutual.

·         Members noted that diversification in this area was needed, that multi-skilled staff should be employed and that both commercialisation and sustainability need to be considered in more depth.

LGA Events Manager, Jade Nimmo, introduced this item and outlined proposals to make changes to the Culture, Tourism and Sport annual conference.

It was noted that the LGA has received positive feedback following the last conference in March, but that income from the conference, as well as delegate numbers, has started to decline. This may be due to a number of factors including: the cost of the conference and accommodation, poor timing in terms of budget meetings, and school holidays.

Proposals suggested included: removing the conference dinner, making the conference a one-day event, and changing the date of the conference so that it was held earlier or in the first week of March.

Members made the following comments:

·         Members felt strongly that the date of the meeting was an issue for members with responsibility for budget setting. It was suggested that the date is moved into March to avoid this issue.

·         Members expressed concern about making this a one-day event as the majority of people would still need to book accommodation the night before and noted that the conference dinner is one of the most important aspects of the event in terms of networking.

·         Members suggested securing more sponsorship for the event, and inviting organisations along by offering them exhibition space. A suggestion was made that board members are asked to suggest organisations that may wish to be involved in an exhibition or sponsorship.

·         Members thought that more could be made of the tourism element of the board and they suggested that this might widen the appeal of the conference.

·         Members supported the conference being held in Hull in 2018.

Decision

Members voted to:

1.    Move the conference to a date in March;

2.    Hold the conference in Hull in 2018 and;

3.    Keep the conference dinner.

Action

Officers to progress as appropriate.

The Chair thanked members and officers for their work over the past year. He noted that he had been impressed by board members bringing forward their concerns, particularly to stakeholders who had given presentations at meetings during this cycle.

Thanks was given to those members sitting on outside bodies and it was noted that Councillor Sonja Crisp has taken over the appointment to the London Marathon Events Limited outside body.

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

Members gave thanks to the Chair for his commitment and dedication to the Board.