The Cabinet considered a report of the Executive Director (Adults and Communities) setting out the strategic approach to promoting food justice and tackling poverty in the Borough to enable more effective targeting of interventions, avoid duplication, and support a collective recovery from Covid.

Resolved:

1. That the work to put in place a Food Justice Champion and the related work plan, be extended to address the wider determinants of poverty.

2. That the work to address the wider determinants of poverty takes into consideration the Notices of Motion raised at Council on 4^th March 2021 regarding Welfare Assistance and Fuel Poverty.

3. That an Anti-Poverty Plan be developed with partners and key stakeholders and progressed by an officer/partner task and finish group, supported by a project manager.

4. That, to ensure the project is embedded, the Executive Director (Adults and Communities) act as the Senior Responsible Officer and a Head of Service be identified to lead on and be accountable for the implementation of desired outcomes of the strategy.

5. That the officers and teams currently working on community resilience, and anti-poverty activity across the Council, be responsible for delivering the identified Anti-Poverty Plan actions.

6. That the Executive Councillor for Housing and Communities, be the Councillor Level Champion of this work.

Reasons for decision:

To widen the scope of the Food Justice Champion and related Action Plan to provide a strategic approach to promoting food justice and tackling poverty in the Borough.  Such an approach will coordinate, prioritise and add value to the breadth of current and future activity and align this work to a set of strategic objectives, and ensure services are integrated to better meet the individual needs of a person or family to lift them out of the many determinants of deprivation, encapsulating all relevant services within the Council.

Other options:

To develop a Food Justice Action Plan focussed solely on issues relating to food.

Note: This an Executive Function

Eligible for call-in to: Policy and Resources Scrutiny Committee

Cabinet Member: Cllr Jones