We asked, you said, we did

We asked

We asked what residents thought of our proposals for supporting people at home, including:

• Increasing use of technology and equipment in the home, short-term enablement support, and support for family carers.
• Increasing the use of Direct Payments so people can arrange their own support.
• Looking at how someone's independence can be maximised when they have their Annual Review
• Changing the way respite is provided to people who care for a friend or relative.

You said

You generally agreed with the proposal to look at new ways to support people in their homes. However, you said it was important that individual circumstances be considered to avoid people feeling isolated. Community facilities should be accessible to all. You said that some people may need extra help to manage Direct Payments, and to understand how they can be used. You also said that where respite was concerned, the needs of the carer should be considered on an individual basis.

We did

We will take into account the concerns you raised when implementing the proposals, and we have a legal duty to assess people's needs on an individual basis.

We will be re-establishing a Forum for Direct Payment Users and Carers to support them with using Direct Payments. We will also be looking into ways that we can improve accessibility to community facilities for all.

We asked

We asked for your views on our proposals for:

A new way of delivering adult social care in Barnet that would help people to stay well, to recover quickly from illness or injury, and to draw upon the support that their family, friends and the local community can give them.

A new way of organising our adult social care services to support the new way in which we want to deliver these services. In our proposal we short listed three potential options for how we organise the service:

• Option A - keeping the adult social care service within the council.
• Option B - creating a shared service with one or more local NHS organisations.
• Option C - establishing a public service mutual (an organisation that has left the public sector but continues to deliver public services).

An online questionnaire was published on Engage Barnet together with a consultation document which provided detailed background information about the councillor’s budget setting process and the financial challenges the council faces. Paper copies and an easy read version of the consultation were made available on request. Three consultative events were also held with groups of stakeholders.

You said

A total of 72 questionnaires and responses were completed by the public, interested groups and statutory bodies. 45 stakeholders attended the consultative events.

The majority of respondents supported the proposals for a new way of delivering adult social care in Barnet, including a strengths-based approach, use of hubs for assessments, and proposals for a collaborative approach with the community and voluntary sector. Most respondents also thought that extending the information and advice the council provides about access to adult social care support would be effective. However, only 42% of respondents thought that introducing new online services would be effective. Comments included concerns about online information not being suited to older people, those who have serious or long term sickness, those with learning disabilities and the visually impaired.

In response to the proposals for a new way of organising our adult social care services, option A (keeping the service within the council) had the highest level of support in the public consultation, with 50% of respondents supporting it. 41% of respondents supported option B (a shared service with one or more local NHS organisations). Option C (a public service mutual) was the least popular of the short listed options - 63% of respondents said they were opposed to this option.

We did

The qualitative responses to our proposals for a new way of delivering adult social care identified important areas which we have taken into account when implementing the approaches, such as ensuring that home visits are still available for those who need them.

Work to further develop assessment hubs, strengths-based practice and the mental health enablement pathway will include a co-design approach with staff and residents and take into account the consultation feedback. The work will also be coordinated with the Councillor’s Customer Access Strategy and Digital Inclusion Strategy, to ensure that everyone in the borough who is capable of being online is supported to get online and that there are special access arrangements in place for those who cannot use self-service.

Because of the feedback from consultation, the risks and the minimal financial benefit, the Adults and Safeguarding Committee agreed that the public service mutual option would be no longer pursued as an alternative delivery model approach. A progress report on the development of the two remaining options was presented to the Adults and Safeguarding Committee in March 2017.

We Asked

We asked for your views on the recommendations for the draft Playing Pitch Strategy (PPS).

A variety of methods were used to consult including:

• The questionnaire on Engage Barnet,
• Direct emails to all sports clubs for the questionnaires,
• Other promotion methods such as Facebook.

Public consultation on the draft PPS for Barnet was undertaken from 16th January to 27th February 2017.

You Said

Overall, we received 31 responses to the consultation. More respondents agreed or strongly agreed (average 49.98% across all sports) with the strategic directions for the individual sports than disagreed or strongly disagreed (average 7.91% across all sports).

77.42% of respondents had taken part in formal sport activity during the year prior to the consultation.

We Did

The results of the consultation were delivered to the Environment Committee on the 15th of March 2017. The Environment Committee noted the outcome and adopted the draft Playing Pitch Strategy for Barnet. This has signed off by Sport England, England & Wales Cricket Board, England Hockey, Football Association, Lawn Tennis Association and Rugby Football Union. This creates a framework for future pitch provision as well as helping to deliver other outdoor pitch sports.

Work has started on the development of West Hendon, Barnet Playing Fields and Copthall Sports Hubs in line with the Playing Pitch Strategy. A detailed action plan with timeline is being developed for the remaining recommendations. Development of alternative facilities for Gaelic Football in Barnet has begun and the renovation of an artificial grass pitch at Graham Park.

A steering group formed of Sport England and other National Governing Bodies has been set up to develop schemes with national bodies and local interest groups to ensure that playing pitch need in the borough is met. Discussions have commenced with National Governing Bodies regarding improvements to the quality of pitches.

We Asked

We asked residents to give us their views on the effectiveness of the election and electoral registration services – especially those based upon personal experience, so that the independent reviewer, former Chief Executive and Returning Officer for Sunderland City Council, Dr Dave Smith,could use these to inform his findings and contribute to the recommendations that he made.

You Said

Overall we received 38 responses covering a wide range of topics related to voting and registering to vote in Barnet. This included feedback on personal experiences of registering to vote and of voting in polling stations, by post and by proxy. Respondents also gave us information about how easily they were able to access the necessary materials for registering and voting and the effectiveness of the communication channels used by Barnet’s Electoral Services.

We Did

All of the responses received in the consultation were provided to the independent reviewer. He used the responses, along with all of the other information that he collated and reviewed and the evidence gathered by conducting interviews with staff, councillors, Barnet MPs and Barnet and Camden’s GLA Assembly Member. He used all the feedback to produce his findings and recommendations in a report that went to the Council’s General Functions Committee on 9 November 2016. All of the recommendations from the independent review were accepted at the committee meeting. Council staff are now actively working on implementing these recommendations. You can read the report of the independent review and the council’s initial responses here.

We asked:

We asked for your views on the EY SENIF document which describes how early years settings, who provide the free entitlement for early years provision for children living in Barnet, can access the Early Years SEN Inclusion Fund for children with more complex educational needs.

You said:

We received 33 responses to the online consultation. Generally there was a very positive response in terms of the number of participants who agreed with the document. Of the 33 who responded generally the vast majority of participants agreed or tended to agree with various aspects of the document, in particular:

• what funding can be requested
• the duration of the funding
• the application process
• what guidelines do the decision makers have regard to when considering whether to provide EY SENIF and the extent of EY SENIF.
• the scope application and decision making process of the EY SENIF for children.

In addition, a number of suggestions were made in respect of various aspects of the document and were taken into account.

We did:

We reviewed all the responses helpfully submitted and made some amendments to the document including the need for the decision makers to provide reasons to the setting when refusing an application. In addition, we noted the importance of the applications, and thought it appropriate that we emphasise that the SEN Team should efficiently process such applications to ensure the young children are appropriately supported. You can read about the full results here. The revised EY SENIF document is available here.

For more information about this consultation please click here.

We Asked

We asked for your views on Christ’s College Finchley changing their admission arrangements with a view to becoming a co-educational school.

You Said

We received 627 responses to our online consultation. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive, with 91% of respondents tending to agree or strongly agreeing with the proposal. 93% of respondents thought that the change would improve both boys’ and girls’ educational and social development.

We Did

The results of this consultation and the responses following a consultation event held at Christ’s College, were analysed by the governing body of Christ’s College, who decided to submit their Business Case to the Regional Schools Commissioner to become a Co-Educational School

The governing body are currently waiting for a response to this request from the Regional Schools Commissioner.

We Asked

We asked for your views on the evidence we proposed to accept to support a Disabled Persons Freedom Pass application and the ways you can apply for a Disabled Persons Freedom Pass.

You Said

We considered 376 responses received from a mix of service users, residents of Barnet and statutory stakeholders and people who work with service users including:

• Disabled Persons Freedom Pass holders
• older Persons Freedom Pass holders
• residents interested in applying for a Freedom Pass
• relatives of Disabled Persons Freedom Pass holders
• those whose job involves working with Freedom Pass users in Barnet
• Barnet residents interested in Disabled Persons Freedom Passes
• voluntary/community organisations
• public sector organisations

73% of respondents (238 out of 376) advised they currently hold a Disabled Persons Freedom Pass.

Overall, 53% of the respondents agreed with the changes to the accepted criteria.

We Did

At the Policy and Resources meeting on 1 December 2016 it was agreed to adopt the new criteria for assessing eligibility for Disabled Persons Freedom Pass applicants.

In response to requests for GP letters to be accepted as evidence, this is adopted within the criteria where it is deemed appropriate by the Department for Transport. In some categories this cannot be accepted as evidence because of the risk of compromising the doctor/patient relationship.

Full details of the December committee report (item 12) can be found here.

We Asked

We asked how you felt about the proposal to expand Childs Hill Primary School from one and a half to two forms of entry (45 children per year group to 60 children per year group), in order to meet demand for school places in the surrounding area. The proposal explained that the expansion would be gradual, with the first intake of 60 pupils beginning in Reception for September 2016.

You Said

The survey for the school’s expansion showed that four out of six respondents supported the proposal (of which three strongly supported the proposal). A further respondent neither supported nor opposed the proposal, and one respondent strongly opposed the proposal. Two respondents raised concerns around the impact of increased traffic on air quality and parking. The governing body considered the responses and was satisfied that these concerns could be managed, and proceeded to the representation stage, which involved publishing a statutory notice. One representation was received during the representation period from Camden Council, which had no further comments or any objections to the proposed expansion.

We Did

The governing body of the school and the council considered the responses to both the initial consultation and the representation period and is recommending the expansion of Childs Hill Primary School, to come into effect on 1 September 2016. The school is committed to sustainable transport initiatives, securing TfL’s bronze sustainable travel accreditation annually since 2011, and has applied for gold accreditation this year.

We Asked

We asked parents with children aged four or under about their current and future use of childcare provision. We wanted to know this in order to better understand the future demand for the additional 15 hours of free childcare to be introduced in September 2017, for 3 and 4 year olds.

The consultation ran from the 22 February 2017 – 5 April 2017 with an online questionnaire (anonymous responses) being available during this period on the council’s Engage Barnet website available to all stakeholders. A document with information on the 30 hours of free childcare and eligibility criteria for parents to qualify for the additional 15 hours was available.

You Said

Overall we received 49 responses.

Of these, 78% had accessed some form of childcare in the past 6 months. The majority that answered questions on their current childcare answered that: their child attends a nursery school, playgroup or pre-school; they currently receive free childcare and their child(ren) attend for 8-14 or 15-20 hours a week; they pay for childcare from Monday to Friday, paying more than £161 a week and that it was easy for them to find a childcare provider at suitable times and dates.

Of the 7 parents that answered a question on if they plan to access formal (i.e. nursery) childcare in the next 18 months, 6 agreed they would.

Most parents said it was very likely that they would use the additional 15 hours of childcare if these were available now and most would access 11-15 hours of this a week. Most would switch to another provider to access this if their current provider couldn’t offer the additional hours, but would only use one provider for all their children.

Most respondents were currently in work and had a partner in work. Most agreed that the additional 15 hours of childcare would benefit them to increase their working hours and reduce the cost of childcare to their household.

We Did

The results of the consultation were presented to a 30 Hour Working Party on 19 April 2017 in order to plan future provision. This party included representatives from across the Early Years sector in Barnet, including nursery and daycare managers and reception teachers.