Council Plan Action Plan 2023 to 2025

Health and wellbeing support

The Council has commenced the work on an updated Housing Strategy, which will include a number of key actions focussed on working in partnership to deliver support around resident health, well-being and independence.

Employment support

This activity will deliver employment support to residents through training, information, advice and guidance. 
Work will include:

• Social Landlords initiatives and support through the Pathways to Work Charter.
• Monthly and quarterly progress on engaging residents to a range of employability initiatives.

• Recovering unlawful profit and compensation from fraud.
• Prosecuting cases for unlawful sub-letting.
• Recovering at least 25 properties per year for re-allocation to our housing waiting list.

We place a particular priority on specialist affordable housing for particular groups, including older people and those with learning disabilities.  We are committed to providing 65 Council-owned social rented extra care homes on the Lots Road site and have an ambition to provide many more new specialist affordable homes that meet the diverse needs of our residents. 

Mount Anvil have been selected by the Council as the developer for this site and aim to have a planning application submitted by February 2024. Construction is scheduled to start by August 2024. The scheme aims to create accessible services for residents requiring extra care, a service that supports independence and wellbeing using an accessible and user-focused design, as well as a wide range of other housing – including affordable housing – and commercial space. 

We are investing over £400 million in our Council homes to ensure they are safe, warm and modern. This will enable the delivery of key projects, ensuring high quality housing. Work will include:

• Maximising benefits from contracts with providers and partners. 
• Working to reduce fuel poverty.
• An effective handover process from Capital Works to Repairs and Resident Safety.
• Monthly progress and financial meetings. 
• Launch of new capital delivery framework.

The Council has a statutory duty to prevent and relieve homelessness for vulnerable residents.The Council has a number of initiatives to prevent and/or relieve homelessness.

Advice and assistance is provided in order to help residents keep their homes. The Housing Needs Service also provides alternative accommodation through the private sector of initiatives such as Bridge Housing Solutions to prevent and relieve homelessness.

The newly adopted Housing Allocations Scheme incentivises residents through private sector placements. In relation to rough sleeping, our Outreach Team patrol the Borough to support vulnerable rough sleepers. The Council also uses its Rough Sleeping Initiative funding to support vulnerable residents off the streets.

3.10 Grenfell Recovery Programme – ongoing delivery and transition to the next phase of support through a new Restorative Justice Programme.

Grenfell Community Programme and Curve Legacy.

The programme will include:

• New support for bereaved and survivors and the immediate local community in place from 2024.
• Support to reflect community needs and priorities, established through wide-ranging consultations (with support and challenge from an independent expert partner) and a refreshed joint strategic needs assessment.
• Ensuring bereaved and survivors and the local community are adequately supported throughout transition from existing programme to new arrangements.
• Targeted support through the new arrangements to sit alongside and complement wider support provided by mainstream Council and NHS services.

Timeline of activity: 

• Consultation and engagement (currently July to December 2023)
• July Leadership Team report on transition (July 2023)
• Leadership Team decision on new arrangements (early 2024)
• Implementation of new arrangements (early 2024)
• New support fully in place (April to September 2024)

Resident-led community projects and programmes to support residents impacted by the Grenfell tragedy.

Working with the Residents’ Panel, co-design and deliver:

• Grenfell Project Fund round supporting a range of community projects to support Grenfell impacted residents.
• Community Leadership Programme - An open and accessible programme of skills and training to build capacity and resilience of Grenfell impacted residents.
• Curve Legacy Working Group monthly meetings to establish an independent community trust with significant progress on establishing a legal entity to be responsible for the Curve Legacy Fund.

Leader of the Council

Lead Member for Communities

Chief Executive

Executive Director for Environment and Communities

The development will create more shared community space in North Kensington and includes:

• A New Day Service location for Adult Social Care replacing 1-9 St Mark’s Road.
• A new Community Hub led by residents including a new café.

Timeline of activity:

• Demolition works commence (July 2023).
• Construction starts (July 2024).
• Handover of the site to the Day Service (September 2025).

Work will ensure customers, families, and staff are involved in design, a business plan of Maxilla City attracts tenants to the community space and the facility meets the needs of residents and service users. 

Activity will work towards delivering and ensuring:

• All Children have the best start in life, their needs are identified and supported early, and they are school ready at five.
• A new targeted support programme for parents and families across Health Visiting and Family Hubs.
• Parents and carers are aware of eligibility for Early Education Entitlements to help them manage childcare costs.
• A range of Libraries provision.
• Affordable, flexible and high-quality Early Years provision available in our borough, so families will have more choice.
• Support speech and language in the early years through the delivery of Parent-Child and home visiting programme.
• Introduce the new intensive support service and an additional Health Visiting contact at 3-4 months to support the early identification of need.
• Review our Voluntary and Community sector-led stay and play and family and parenting offer to ensure effective reach and join up with our early help system.
• Programmes such as story time, stay and play, baby and rhyme are delivered through libraries and targeted at under 5s.
• Families will be contacted between 3 and 4 months by a health visitor to ensure that needs are identified as early as possible.

This activity will also focus on ensuring all our young people feel listened to, empowered to take action and have opportunities to co-produce/co-design services that affect them. Ensure wider representation of young people with protected characteristics in co-production and co-design of current and newly commissioned services. The activity will seek to create increased opportunities for children and families to influence decision making and evaluate the impact.

We have a joined-up programme of work across the Council and with partners to support residents with the rising cost of living, supported by an £8m cost of living and COVID recovery fund. This includes:

• Partnership working with Voluntary and Community Sector partners to support financial resilience in the community.
• Income maximisation, debt, grant and budget management support.
• Proactive targeted support for the most vulnerable residents. 

3.15 High quality Information, Advice and Guidance is delivered in community settings.

Joined up approach with Voluntary and Community Sector organisations and the NHS to support the most vulnerable with access to good quality and consistent support from whichever sector they engage with.

3.19 Culture Plan Delivery.

Creation of Cultural Quarters.

A new five-year Culture Plan 2023-2028 has been created in draft. This contains 50 actions divided into two sections, People and Place. RBKC Teams involved include Arts, Filming, Events, Markets, Museums, Libraries, Family and Children’s Services, Communities, Housing, Placemaking and Property Services.  The Plan will provide support for key cultural institutions and events in the borough including the Tabernacle, Chelsea Theatre and Notting Hill Carnival. The strategy will be adopted in late 2023 and will ensure the Council works with cultural providers to ensure residents are offered bespoke opportunities.

As part of the new Culture Plan, the Council is working towards putting in place three new Cultural Quarters.  These quarters are areas that will seek to promote cultural activity, for example Holland gate Quarter which will link our existing two world class museums, the Design Museum and a new cinema to create a centre for cultural events.

3.20 This activity includes:

• Ensuring that local employment and skills provision is accessible and attractive to young people and supporting young people not in Education, Employment or Training into employment.
• Strengthening the links between employers and education.
• Enabling entry to employment for young people.
• Improved local pathways at Morley College and St Charles Sixth Form College.

We will continue to promote supported internships, apprenticeships, work experience with our partners and employers to create employment pathways. We will also strengthen the offer of training and support around independence skills to Looked after Children and Care Leavers who we have a corporate parental responsibility towards. 

This will also look to increase employers linked with local education institutions and increase the numbers of opportunities for engagement with employers.

Activity will also focus on young people accessing employment or placements, working towards young people in employment or placements, engaged, starting and/or sustaining employment and young people progressing in other positive ways. 

Finally, we will work closely with Morley College and St Charles Sixth Form College to ensure the curriculum and offer meet identified needs and that there are strong connections with RBKC schools and employers and an increased take up of the college offer.

3.21 This activity includes:

• Working with school leaders through the Education Partnership Board and Schools Forum.
• Working with our partners in schools, the Vulnerable Children’s Collaborative, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Virtual School.
• Continuing to build on strong Special Educational Needs and Disabilities services.
• Enhancing our Early Intervention approach of supporting children and young people with Speech and Language Needs in Schools.

We will work to ensure children and young people have access to high-quality education and training opportunities, have good attendance at school and achieve their full potential including targeted support to help schools to deliver high quality education.

Children aged 4-6 displaying significant Speech Language and Communication Needs and at risk of requiring an Education, Health and Care Plan, have access to intensive packages of bespoke support as a preventative intervention on entry to primary school.

We will continue to build on strong Special Educational Needs and Disabilities services through working with partners, families and carers which will be overseen by our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Executive Partnership Board.

All mainstream primary school staff will receive training to enhance their expertise in working preventatively with Speech Language and Communication Needs at a targeted level through three tiers of professional development and direct work with children without an Education Health and Care Plan Vulnerable Children’s Collaboration (VCC) work to keep children in schools.

Work will include:

• School roles that are addressed in partnership with school leaders.
• Programmes of support for young people such as homework clubs and reading clubs delivered through our libraries.
• Continuing ongoing improvement process work with the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities self-assessment framework and the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities performance Dashboard. 

3.22 Better promote funded and unfunded activities.

Strengthen pathways between schools and youth services.

Create a more inclusive universal youth offer for young people with SEND.

Ensure the voice of young people is heard in establishing and monitoring youth services.

We will create an online resource that will communicate and widely promote the youth offer to families so that they are better informed about what’s available in their local area.

Work with schools, Early Help and youth settings to improve identification of young people who need additional support and ensuring they are directed to youth activities.

Work with our strategic partner to run a grant programme to either offer dedicated sessions for young people with SEND; create allocated SEND places in universal sessions; or run training for staff to become confident in working with young people with SEND accessing universal provision. 

We will engage with young people in reviewing services to understand their priorities and shape services around these; include young people in decision making processes to award funding; and involve young people in monitoring arrangements to hold services to account.

3.25 Provide training and support to those who need it in ways and places that make sense to people.

Grow provision supporting preparation for employment and vocational/in work progression.

Support businesses to create jobs, training opportunities and skills development.

We are working towards increasing access to support for those looking for work and for those seeking higher paid work in priority locations including the World’s End area. 

Applying the Council’s allocation of UK SPF funding for People and Skills to support residents during 2024-25. 

We are also planning for what comes after the Community Works project in 2024 including employment support in the north of the borough.