Agenda and minutes

ATTENDANCE: Cllr James Hill (JH, Co-Chair), Pauline Woodhouse (PW, Co-Chair), Louise Cuzner (LC, Johnson Underwood), Carol Johnson (CJ, Johnson Underwood), Jenny Campbell (JC, Member of Afro Caribbean Community), Mavis Mundirwa (MMu, Power of the Mind), Amarjit Atwal (AA, Sikh Community Leader), Pindy Chahal (PC, SCCYC), Mary Clarke (MC, Connected Together CIC), Janet Gordon (JG, Royal and Derngate), Anjona Roy (AR, NREC).

APOLOGIES: Neelam Aggarwal-Singh, Ken Howlett.

MM and JW talked through the COTW event, passed flyers to all forum members.

Talked to the forum about the mapping exercise. This would look to get information about different community groups in one place to help direct people to new places.

JH: This is good idea, it is hard to find different community groups.

PW: This has been an ongoing discussion, it is important for new people at the town. VIN Northampton should have a contact list with some contacts.

JW: To get more information will be difficult from now on because of the new GDPR rules.

PW: Important to work in a partnership with other organisations to get the best out of this.

VIN has been known to try and charge organisations for access to this information.

GDPR date is 25/5/18 and any contact after this will need to be thought through and comply with the new legislation.

JW: Talked about how a new communities pack would be good to be distributed to new people in Northampton in a small leaflet.

Q: What would be good for a new community pack?

Q: Does that include things like residents association?

A: Yes.

JH: I think a lot from the mapping exercise would be good to include.

Q: Will it be available in multiple languages?

A: We are not sure, that will be looked into.

Q: Do you have an old communities pack?

A: No, we want to start fresh and add as much information with the help of Northamptons Residents.

Q: Have you thought about getting a communities ambassador to go out and gather information from organisations?

A: No but that does sounds like a good idea. We could also use our events as platforms to gather more information of what they want. We can also use feedback from different community groups.

MMu: It is good to be inclusive of all people, new and old.

JC: Was the question of the time change asked by Vicki Rockall to the Forum? When the name was changed, Forum members were asked but it doesn’t seem to have happened this time? Did it?

JH: We had a discussion about low attendance and cancellations so we changed to 11am-1pm to try and combat this.

PW: It seems from the report that more people attended the daytime meeting and there were positive outcomes from that meeting so we have looked to continue in the daytime.

JC: On the Borough Councils website, was it sent to all the people on the Diverse Communities list?

MM: No it was not sent out, the decision was made in the forum.

JC: I have had to take time off of work for this meeting, this is making it harder for people to work. The Police have asked different communities, what is the best time for them? Then they changed it to that date.

PW: We need to look at whether or not the times need to be alternated or not? What type of actions and outcomes are you looking for from this Forum?

JC: People are going to come for the agenda items, if it is something they really want to come to, in the daytime some people will not be able to make it.

It is wrong to compare Diverse Communities to other forums and change things because the performance didn’t match that of the Women’s Fourm.

JH: It seems that the inactivity of the forum is a reason for this change.

MC: I used to chair the equality forum, but because of many changes I can see why people may not be able to attend when they used to be able to attend. It is difficult because the daytime will attract mostly professionals, it may be best to alternate times. Healthwatch Northamptonshire hold volunteer meetings in the day time and know they’re missing key people in the community who work.

AR: It is about listening to the community, the process of the change needs to be made correct. The Borough website comms said it was in the evening, so there was some confusion. Even though the minutes said 11am, the forum was missed because the website was looked at.

The support of the new officers may have an impact on a more successful forum.

JC: It is also about the items on the agenda, it doesn’t matter if it is daytime/evening.

Day to day people will be looking at what effects their lives, I feel it is the same for people of other communities.

PW: We will speak with Cllr King and Vicki Rockall to make a decision or to think of steps to help the forum to move forward and make the forum suitable for as many as possible.

JC: I asked for the Windrush Scandal to be added onto the agenda. People have been concerned about this story and nothing has been done at local level. What else is  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

19^th July 2018