Agenda item

Mayor Marvin Rees (Chair) welcomed members, officers and guests to the meeting.

Apologies were noted and there were no declarations of interest.

The Chair outlined the route of discussion under each individual theme and asked that colleagues also consider resilience under each individual topic.

Rebecca Cox, LGA Principal Policy Officer, introduced this item and outlined key points for consideration. 

Members noted that although the overall LGA Plan for the next three years is final, they were invited to consider any changes to their own workplan that they felt was needed, in order to reflect the overall LGA direction and priorities.

In the discussion that followed, Members raised several comments:

·       The voice of Local Government needs to be heard much more loudly and problems around social care costs and other issues need to be re-enforced via media and other channels.

·       The LGA speaks quite strongly on behalf of local government, however it needs to be bolder and ensure regular and reliable attention from colleagues in Whitehall in order to ensure credibility.

·       Is there anything in place to measure achievements of the objectives set?

·       Consideration of concrete issues should be included in the workplan, and heat maps produced as a visual summary of important information and reference around this.

Rebecca thanked colleagues and agreed to feedback to the wider organization, including relevant Boards. Members were reminded that social care concerns had been reflected in the LGA media response and informed them of weekly meetings held between the LGA Chairman and Ministers in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities. Colleagues were assured that conversations will continue with government.

She invited members to contact her directly with any other suggestions.

The Chair acknowledged members’ concerns and said that teams should discuss who should be targeted under each workstream.  He suggested a discussion with colleagues from Communications as an item for a future Agenda.

Decision:

• Members agreed the work programme subject to additional suggestions.

Action:

·       Officers to feedback members’ comments and investigate the suggestion to invite colleagues from the Communications team for discussion as a future Agenda item.