To debate any motions which have been submitted with advance notice, in accordance with the Council’s Procedure Rules.
Motion 1
Proposed by: Cllr Sally Beardsworth
Seconded by: Cllr Rose Humphreys
“Council notes the significant challenge that inflation and staggeringly high energy price rises are having on West Northamptonshire’s residents.
Council further notes that the rise in the energy cap will make the situation far worse for many, and in some cases potentially unmanageable.
Without suitable support and potential early intervention where necessary, West Northants council could face additional pressures on its services in the future. Taking an early, broad and proactive approach is a prudent measure to help prevent this situation emerging.
We acknowledge the report presented to Cabinet on 13th September however fine words alone will not suffice and believe that this council must act urgently to do all that it can to generate and promote actions to support those most in need through this cost-of-living crisis.
Council therefore resolves to:
· Establish, with immediate effect, a cross-party Cost of Living Task Force, as part of the Anti-Poverty working group, to explore how this council can do all that it can to identify further potential ideas and options to support residents who are most in need during this particularly challenging time.
· This ‘task force’ should ideally include representation from all relevant council directorates, multi-agency and voluntary sector representation from across West Northamptonshire and the group’s membership/terms of reference reviewed and/or clearly established.
· Ensure that the first meeting of this group takes place within the first two weeks of October and is run, initially, in the form of a workshop to ensure that ideas are translated into solid actions, rapidly. The group will further meet monthly schedule of for the following six months to review and track progress.“
Motion 2
Proposed: Cllr. Danielle Stone
Seconded: Cllr. Emma Roberts
“Personal budgets have been a success for many disabled people but there are areas of improvement that need addressing.
The culture of fear that disabled residents face.
This arises from judgements made about the decisions disabled people might make, or pragmatic choices made because of contextual factors.
The culture of blame that disabled residents face.
The market is beset with the perennial problems of low pay and poor conditions. Carers are leaving their jobs for better remunerated work in supermarkets and warehouses.
In turn, our disabled residents face the stress of finding and paying for their care in a broken market. As well as blame for budgeting issues arising from having to navigate a broken system during a financial crisis.
There are simple measures that can alleviate both of these issues:
Training must be offered to practitioners to ensure we dispel the cultures of fear and blame.
Adopting a more flexible approach to the provision of care using a combination of self-employed personal assistants, directly employed, local authority staff and agency staff where needed will be helpful.
The Council therefore asks Cabinet to commit to:
1. Training to reduce the culture of fear and blame
2. Co- producing with disabled people a strategy based on a social model of care.
3. Adopting flexible models of care provision and where direct care is the chosen option a process must be in place to support the client as the employer.”
Minutes:
At 21:45 the Chairman drew Council’s attention to Rule 10 of the Council Procedure Rules:
10 Extension of the meeting
10.1 If the business of a Council meeting has not been concluded by 9.45 pm, the Chair will draw the attention of the meeting to the time and to this Rule.
10.2 In the case of any motions or recommendations on the agenda that have not been dealt with by 9.45 pm the Chair will decide whether to end the meeting or to deal with the outstanding matters provided that those matters can reasonably be dealt with by 10.00pm.
10.3 Where the outstanding matters cannot be dealt with by that time each item will be put to the vote without further debate and a vote will be taken on whether the item should be accepted, rejected, referred, deferred or withdrawn.
Motion 1
Councillor Beardsworth requested that Motion 1 be withdrawn.
The Chairman accepted the request, and the motion was withdrawn.
Motion 2
Upon a vote, the motion fell.