Agenda item - Member Involvement

To consider the following matters raised by Members:

(a)          Petitions: To receive any petitions referred from Full Council or submitted directly to the Committee;

(b)          Written Questions: To consider any written questions;

(c)          Letters: To consider any letters;

(d)          Notices of Motion: to consider any Notices of Motion referred from Full Council or submitted directly to the Committee.

45a     Petition(s)

45.1    There were none.

44b     Written Questions

44.2    It was noted that 1 written question had been received from Councillor Nemeth as set out below:

            “Does any data exist that can be used to make a meaningful comparison between the number of rough-sleepers in Brighton and Hove last winter and the number this winter?”

44.3    The Chair’s response to Councillor Nemeth’s question is set out below:

“The rough sleeping counts and evidence we use to make strategic and financial decisions are varied. All councillors ought to by now be aware of this especially members of the previous night shelter working group. We now have an increased number of datasets to use for decision making and I will describe those now. First we now use regular seasonal snapshot counts done by St Mungo’s. This last year those count figures were 91, 107, 78, and 64. The highest figure being summer time which reflects our usual pattern year to year. As we know as councillors, when the weather gets colder more people will consider accessing a service. Second, we also undertake an annual count. The methodology for this year was altered to bring us into line with the governments preferred methodology in order to provide a more uniform national snapshot. We have always said these are a snapshot. A methodology that is approved by government. In the previous few years we used a methodology which was an estimate rather than a count, however, by using that we have made national comparison on direction of travel more difficult, hence the change in methodology this year. Third, we now also have the city’s statutory and voluntary sector caseload on one system called BTHINK. This means we can use data from this year onwards to continue to design more effective services. So, it is clear that some Councillors are having difficulty understanding how we use these different datasets to make decisions, and to triangulate different information. They will be supported to understand better how the data is used via forthcoming workshops. Finally, I could understand the concern with this number if we were saying as an administration, this is the only number we use to make decisions. We aren’t. We are saying that was the number using a specific methodology. We aren’t relying on it to allocate resources.  Resources have been increased: Our hub which assesses people as early as possible to prevent entrenched rough sleeping, our night shelter, our increased Severe Weather provision shows we are making more resources available not less. We will undertake to publish data on a quarterly basis on the rough sleeping page of our website. The feedback from councillors via the workshops will help us shape that section in a user friendly way.”

44.5    Councillor Nemeth stated that he considered that he remained of the view that it was difficult to obtain a clear view of the numbers involved from the figures as presented. The latest count showed a fall in the number of rough sleepers to 64 from an estimate of 178 for last year and the council had released statements saying that that the 2018 results showed a “significant drop”. This had happened on a cold snowy night when fewer people would have been on the streets. A separate rough sleeper count in September by the council’s outreach service, St Mungo’s had recorded 78 rough sleepers.

44.6    The Chair, Councillor Daniel responded re-iterating that she could understand the concerns expressed with the numbers using the Government’s methodology if the council was saying that this was the only figure used, but it was not and it had not ,it was saying this was now approved by the Government. Data was collected from more than one source and the data collected was used to continue to design more effective services for rough sleepers and that the figures were triangulated to make sure that there was an accurate picture of rough sleeping. The council had increased the number of times when the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) night shelter had been open.

44.7    RESOLVED - That the position be noted.

44c     Letters

44.8    There were none.

44d     Notices of Motion

44.9    There were none.