Issue - meetings

1.

Title of Item/Report

Anti-Poverty Strategy and Action Plan) and revised Equality and Poverty Impact Assessment

2.

Record of the Decision

Consideration was given to a report that provided a progress update on both the Anti-Poverty Strategy (and supporting Action Plan) and revised Equality and Poverty Impact Assessment (EPIA).  Both areas of work supported the Fairer Stockton-on-Tees strategic framework and the Powering Our Future programme.

Tackling poverty was key to supporting the Council’s commitment to addressing inequality as detailed in both the Council Plan 2023-26 and the Fairer Stockton-on-Tees Strategic Framework.

The draft 3-year Strategy and 18 month Action Plan had been developed with those affected by poverty, and in collaboration with wider VCSE partners. Co-production had been informed by a ‘bottom up’ approach, ensuring that residents with lived experience had been directly involved in formulating this work.  This had resulted in the creation of a lived experience group, the ‘Positive Living Forum’, a name which was chosen by group members.

Strategy development had been supported by a stakeholder group (Anti-Poverty Delivery Group) which met monthly and included representatives from both external partners and internal service teams (CAB, Thrive, Welfare Support, Family Action, Employment & Training Hub, Thirteen, Catalyst, Family Hubs & Public Health).   The Anti-Poverty Delivery Group also agreed to gather views from their service users.

In addition, other ‘conversations’ which had informed this work had included working alongside Thrive (an anti-poverty organisation), focus groups with those with lived experience, feedback from surveys undertaken and feedback from a range of partnerships i.e. Infinity and the network of Community Partnerships.

The Anti-Poverty Strategy and Action Plan included a range of previously agreed and proposed actions to be delivered to support those affected by the current Cost of Living situation.  The Action Plan brings together these ongoing activities with new priority actions to ensure synergy and avoid duplication.

The work undertaken by the Council in response to the Cost of Living challenges had been subject to a recent scrutiny review (undertaken by the People Select Committee).?Recommendations from this scrutiny review also supported the development of the Anti-Poverty Action Plan. 

The action plan would be co-ordinated by the FSOT Team and would be delivered by a range of partners across the Borough, with oversight to be undertaken by the Anti-Poverty Delivery group and Positive Living Forum.

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council had a long-standing commitment to promote equality, celebrate diversity and advance inclusion.  It was intended that the new EPIA’s were introduced to further embed this approach into the Council’s decision making and business planning processes.

The major change to previous EPIA was the inclusion of (a) Poverty / (b) Care Experienced and (c) Substance misuse in addition to the wider protected characteristics. This was intended to ensure that the decision-making processes include a ‘poverty lens’. For example, the EPIA template would ensure a high-level assessment of poverty impact, and where it was identified that there was a disproportionate impact related to the  ...  view the full decision text for item 9.