NOTES – MEETING WITH MATTHEW BRADFORD 04/04/2008

HEAD OF COMMUNITY SERVICES AT HARBOROUGH DISTRICT COUNCIL

I met with Matthew today to tell him a little about us & to discuss how we can engage with the council & link with their various strategic aims & priorities.

This was a very useful meeting, and lasted about an hour. In that time he mentioned that:-

• We can apply for a grant from the council up to about £5000 for start up costs • Its useful us building links with him & contacting Norman Proudfoot, Head of Environmental Services, who has responsibility for producing the authorities Climate Change Strategy

We discussed the present economic climate and I suggested they produce an Emergency support Assessment – basically a kind of business continuity type assessment – whose aim will be to explore if the economic crisis becomes worse or serve:-

• The potential impact this will have on the main services the council offers & • The impact it will have on associated services it funds through other bodies – like CAB or VASL – Voluntary services South Leicestershire (a bit of a risk assessment in nature)

Following the study a multi agency action plan could be created with the aim of supporting people through the crisis in a much more co-ordinated way – not just acting on a one off limited and fragmented fashion. The crisis could have deep and far reaching impacts for people locally and a ‘wrap around’ safety net type plan – which may not have much money attached but does have co-ordination, would really help us to care for each other & other bodies to start considering notions of creating resilience.

I proposed the work to Matthew & that I’d be up for helping them to do that.

Marion