{Disestablished Committee} - Social Strategy Overview and Scrutiny Committee

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Present:

• Councillor Karney - In the Chair 
• Councillors Cowan, Evans, Isherwood, N. Murphy, Barbara O'Neil, Royle, Watson, Wilmott and Whitmore 

Also Present:

• Councillor Curley, Executive Member for Health and Social Care

SS/06/20 Minutes

Decision

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 8 March 2006 as a correct record.

SS/06/21 Welcome

The Chair extended a welcome to Councillors Nigel Murphy and Mary Watson as new members of the Committee, and to Kate Brown, Scrutiny Support Officer.

SS/06/22 Visit to Urbis

The Chair referred to the tour of the exhibits and collections at Urbis which had taken place immediately prior to the meeting, and he highlighted the extent to which the facility was being used by school groups to extends the minds of young people by heightening their awareness of the away that their city had developed and how it related to other cities around the world. Members extended thanks to the staff who had guided them on their tour of the facility.

SS/06/23 Overseas telephone charges

The Committee had previously expressed concerns in relation to consumer rights regarding usurious charging policies levied on UK citizens when making or receiving mobile telephone calls when overseas, and now gave consideration to a report of the Director of Children's Services on proposed EU regulations to outlaw these practices which disadvantaged UK citizens in relation to other EU citizens. The report outlined the arrangements being made to disseminate information and good practice guidance to UK travellers pending the proposed regulations coming into force.

Members indicated that phone companies operating in more than one EU country were beginning to rationalise their charging policies and to establish greater equity, though it was accepted that only legislation would properly ensure that citizens rights were protected across the EU.

The Chair cited this as a most blatant example of profiteering by a handful of operators and indicated that only legislation would force the necessary changes. He suggested that representations be made to the EEC Commissioner supporting the action that she has proposed to defend the rights of consumers throughout the EU.

Decision

To welcome the proposed regulations and to make representations to the EEC Commissioner supporting the action that she has proposed to defend the rights of consumers throughout the EU.

SS/06/24 Store Cards - Competition Commission Report

The Committee has been closely following the progress of an inquiry by the Competition Commission into customer credit provided through store cards. The Inquiry has produced interim findings which evidence the scale of customer disadvantage estimated at £55M per annum due to the APR on store cards being 10-20% higher than average interest rates. The Commission had proposed a number of measures to ensure that customers were fully aware of the consequences of using store cards at the point of sale and received more detailed and understandable statements.

Members considered that the limited measures proposed failed to reflect the scale of the problem or the extent of human misery caused to many because of poor or misleading information about the nature of store card transactions. Evidence from mystery shopping exercises had clearly demonstrated a disturbing paucity of detailed knowledge on the part of sales staff charged with promoting store credit facilities about the nature of the financial services that they were offering. The Committee was advised that Manchester Advice was dealing with £1M of new debt advice enquiries from Manchester residents each month, and that this underlined the importance of progressing the development of the Council's Financial Inclusion Strategy, one of the aims of which was to enable the citizens of Manchester to make informed choices.

The Committee focussed particularly on the insidious way that store credit was manipulatively targeted at young people so as to exploit their relative inexperience in commercial finance, and it was proposed that a number of high street retailers with market branding targeted at the young people's market should also be invited to an open meeting of the Committee to discuss their approach to store credit, their responsibility to safeguard the interests of young people by promoting financial products responsibly, and the importance of their sales staff being themselves capable of providing full information about the financial products that they are encouraged to promote.

The Chair indicated that the Commission had failed to fully recognise the scale of the human misery caused by mis-selling of financial products, and that the reform proposals fell well short of what was necessary to properly regulate this aspect of the financial services industry. To ensure that Peter Freeman, the Chair of the Commission, obtained first hand experience of the impacts of store card credit debt in deprived inner city communities it was proposed that he be invited to address the Committee about the work of the Commission and its proposals for change in relation to store card credit, so that the Committee can challenge the extent to which those measures were sufficient to tackle the scale of the problem, and specifically what more could be done to protect young people from the aggressive selling of credit products.

Decision

To invite the Chair of the Competition Commission to address the Committee about the work of the Commission and its proposals for change in relation to store card credit, so that the Committee can challenge the extent to which those measures were sufficient to tackle the scale of the problem, and specifically what more could be done to protect young people from the aggressive selling of credit products, and to impress upon him the impacts of store card credit debt in deprived inner city communities.

SS/06/25 Draft Sustainable Community Strategy

Consideration was given to a report of the Chief Executive on the draft strategy and the Committee was specifically asked to consider what specific aspects of the overall strategy it wanted to look at in greater depth.

Welcoming the work that had been done so far the Chair emphasised the importance of translating the strategy into outputs and outcomes that local communities could more readily relate to. One aspect of the strategy that he considered the Committee could do worthwhile work on was in relation to the changing face of Manchester's population and the extent of transience within local communities and the impacts of this for local schools, housing and in local employment markets.

Recognising the scale of the vision that the strategy embraced Members emphasised the importance of ensuring that young people felt engaged in the development of the strategy, and the officers were therefore urged to ensure that it was taken into schools and to Manchester Young People's Council for the purposes of discussion so that young peoples' views would be central to the development of the strategies that will shape the communities in which they will grow up, live and work.

Members also emphasised the importance of ensuring that the strategy ensured that the people of Manchester benefited more directly from the overall wealth generated within the city. Views were also expressed about the retention of communities, a member expressing the view that until improvements in educational attainments could be demonstrated in Manchester schools the drift of more mobile parents in search of better performing schools would not be staunched. A member also suggested that previous strategies had often failed to properly recognise generational issues within Manchester's communities and the extent to which older people often felt isolated and marginalised, and that though this had since found expression within the Valuing Older People Strategy it was important that key elements from that were taken up and embraced within the Community Strategy. Members also considered that the strategy needed to recognise the need for capacity building within communities to enable them to better help themselves.

Decision

To request the Chair to discuss with the Deputy Chief Executive (Performance) arrangements for the scrutiny of those elements of the strategy relating to the empowering of communities; taking ward coordination to the next level of development; the next phase of neighbourhood policing and local scrutiny, and the importance of supporting and encouraging family cohesion and good parenting within local communities.

SS/06/26 Work Programme 2006/2007

Decision

To agree to include the following elements in the work programme for the year ahead -

Crime and Disorder related items

Neighbourhood Policing
Police Reform
Domestic Violence
'Policing' of licensed premises/license conditions
Alcohol Strategy
Respect Agenda
Youth Nuisance 
Consumer Championing items

Financial Inclusion

Fuel price increases
Store Card Credit - meeting with Chair of Competition Commission to discuss report - dialogue with leading High Street retailers with specific focus on their responsibility to vulnerable young people and extent to which sales staff are fully aware of the financial products that they are selling. 

Community related items

 · Community Strategy
 · Cultural Strategy
 · Racial Cohesion (North)
 · Valuing Older People
 · Employment of older people
 · Firework control
 · Neighbourhood Wardens - value for money review
 · Sportcity - local pathways into sport/Olympic Games potential