We Asked, You Said, We Did

We asked business ratepayers within the borough for their views on our proposed budget for 2023-24, as business rates are a key contributor to our income budget. Business rates help support local services including street lighting, waste collection and public parks. We laid out the Council’s seven Priorities and asked ratepayers to tell us what was most important to them, as well as asking what they thought we were doing well and what needs improvement.

• There is a good level of business support offered to its businesses and that the north of the borough had good public transport links, safe streets and school streets. People are able to live locally and avoid long journeys to reach work and leisure facilities. 

• There is support for increasing street safety and public transport, and a strong desire for a reduction in graffiti. 

• Business rates should be reduced generally and there should be more access to grants. You suggested that new businesses should be entitled to 100% relief in the first year and then a sliding scale for the next five years to enable the business to be established. The benefit of this being that the business would be better able to benefit the wider local community and create and protect jobs.

• The consultation was taken to the Council meeting on Wednesday 1^st March 2023.

• The Council recognises the difference between the north and south of the borough in terms of infrastructure provision and continues to work collaboratively with Transport for London and other partners to secure investment, to ensure that both capital and service delivery provides for all of our residents across all wards. 

• The Council’s Active Travel Fund, as part of its planned capital programme, seeks to increase the number of safe streets and school streets, and will work closely with Transport for London to improve public transport accessibility where possible. As part of the pressures funding for 2023/24 there is specific additional funding being made available to tackle fly tipping and ensure that the Council can continue to tackle and enforce against all types of antisocial or illegal activity on our streets. 

• Business Rates are governed by legislation, in particular the Local Government Finance Act 1992. Whilst we appreciate the comments in terms of the charges and applicable reliefs for new businesses, the Council are solely responsible for the billing and collection of Business Rates, not the setting of these.

• Tackling antisocial behaviour: Please provide your views on our proposed Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) here. 

To help Lewisham Council to prepare an assessment of the current and future needs of local people for pharmacy services, we asked you to tell us how your local pharmacy (also called a chemist) is giving you the things that you need. For example, your prescription, getting advice on treating minor health concerns and healthy living and/or essential vaccination.

Overall, 129 participants completed the survey, and more than 98% were Lewisham residents. Most of the respondents were from SE6 (postcode) or SE13. Majority of the respondents were female (78%) and age group of 45-74 (66%). About 59% of the respondents identified themselves as White British. Around 31% of the respondents consider themselves to have a disability and Hidden disability: Diabetes was declared from 64% of the respondents who said to have a disability.

The survey findings were as follows:

• The majority (95%) of the respondents use a pharmacy in Lewisham. Using a pharmacy one a month was the most common usage by the respondents (50%).
• Most of the respondents said they use the local pharmacy to collect prescribed medication (97%). Many used their local pharmacy for advice (33%) and to buy medication that doesn’t need a prescription (over the counter medicines) (58%).
• More than half of the respondents use the same pharmacy on a regular basis (73%).
• More than half of the respondents usually walk to their pharmacy (78%), and it takes no more than 10 minutes (66%)
• A quarter of the respondents said there is a more convenient or closer pharmacy that they do not use (33%).
• For weekdays, mornings (36%) and afternoon (31%) were the most convenient time for respondents to access as pharmacy.
• For Saturday, mornings (63%) and afternoon (28%) were the most convenient time for respondents to access as pharmacy.
• For Sunday, mornings (47%) and afternoon (27%) were the most convenient time for respondents to access as pharmacy.
• Collecting prescriptions (91%) or repeat prescriptions (93%), buying over the counter medicines (93%) and advice from your pharmacist (91%) were the most selected services that the respondents have used from the pharmacy.
• Most of the respondents wanted to have different public health and/or clinical services offered by the pharmacy, however, services that were not sure or not wanted by the majority of respondents were needle exchange (no: 18%, don’t know: 51%), stopping smoking/nicotine replacement therapy (no: 24%, don’t know: 35%) and supervised consumption of methadone and buprenorphine (no: 22%, don’t know: 46%).
• Majority of the respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with the opening times (79%), consultation rooms (42%), and medicines review and advice (47%).

We used your feedback to help develop our draft of the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) which is now available to review from this link (https://consultation.lewisham.gov.uk/community-services/lewishampna/).

We are now at the second stage of our consultation. A Public Consultation is being undertaken from 30th August 2022 to 28th October 2022, to seek the views of members of the public and other stakeholders, on whether they agree with the contents of this Draft Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment Report and whether it addresses issues that they consider relevant to the provision of pharmaceutical services. We would like you to give us your views on the draft PNA report by the 28th October. The feedback will be reported and reflected in the final revised Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment Report, in November 2022.

Between 9^th May and 10^th June 2022 we asked residents about their knowledge of suicide prevention interventions and training available.

89 responses were received, mostly female and white. All those who responded had heard of the Samaritans but much fewer had heard of Papyrus or the Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SOBS). Not many knew what they would say to someone who admitted to wanting to take their own life.

In December 2022 the Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board (chaired by the Mayor) agreed the strategy and the action plan and work will begin to deliver against the aims set out in the strategy. Both the strategy and action plan can be found below.

This consultation was about involving the public in the design, commissioning and delivery of the health visiting and school nursing services. It aimed to capture the views of parents and carers in order to shape services.

The current contract for the provision of the Health Visiting and School Nursing Service is due to expire on the 31st March 2023. Before a new contract is awarded, we asked for your views on the current service and the ways in which it might be improved.

In total there were 183 responses to the School Nursing Service online parent and carer survey which included the following suggested improvements to the existing service:

• Improving access and information around the areas of support that are most important and needed.
• Increased face to face services.
• Better use of websites and social media.
• Improving partnership working with other services.
• Promotion and awareness raising about the service and what it offers.
• Greater visibility and awareness in schools.

We held workshops to discuss the results of the consultation with the current service provider. Feedback to all questions within the survey have been shared with the Children and Young People’s Joint Commissioning Team and the suggestions for improvement have influenced the 'service specification', a key document that will inform the re-procurement of the contract.

Thank you for responding to our survey about play which has informed developing a strategy for play. The survey was one part of the consulation and 427 responses were recieved. In addition to the survey a wide-ranging consultation and engagement exercise  was undertaken between February and March 2022. Views were asked from a variety of groups and sources including:  Adult and children online survey monkey, schools via a schools competition, Vox pops consultation at Lewisham shopping centre, Council Members and officers, Public Health, Early Years, Young Mayors and Young Advisors  and Children and family centres. This resulted in another 575 views - 902 in total.

 These are some of the questions we asked children, young people and their families:

Where do you like to play? 

Is this close enough to walk from home? 

Is there anything that puts you off playing where you want to?

What new play things would you like to see in Lewisham?

Why is play important to you?

The vast majority of the respondents reported that they appreciate and regularly use Lewisham play spaces. Some of the other issues highlighted were in relation to feeling safe in the play area, increasing the opening hours of play spaces and the maintenance of play spaces.

The Play Strategy has been published and includes an Action Plan informed by the outcome of the consulltation. See the link to the Strategy here: Play Strategy

This consultation was about involving the public in the design, commissioning and delivery of the health visiting and school nursing services. It aimed to capture the views of parents and carers in order to shape services.

The current contract for the provision of the Health Visiting and School Nursing Service is due to expire on the 31st March 2023. Before a new contract is awarded, we asked for your views on the current service and the ways in which it might be improved.

In total there were 51 responses to the Health Visiting Service online parent and carer survey which included the following suggested improvements to the existing service:

• Improving access and information around the areas of support that are most important and needed.
• Increased face to face services and group support.
• Better use of digital systems for appointment bookings.
• Strengthening communication with families.
• Improving partnership working with other services.
• Promotion and awareness raising about the service and what it offers.

We held workshops to discuss the results of the consultation with the current service provider. Feedback to all questions within the survey have been shared with the Children and Young People’s Joint Commissioning Team and the suggestions for improvement have influenced the 'service specification', a key document that will inform the re-procurement of the contract.

This consultation focused on exploring the barriers home-owners face to retrofitting their home to make them more energy efficient. Privately owned housing is responsible for the largest proportion of household carbon emissions in Lewisham, and a councillor-initiated project was setup to establish how the Council could support residents to overcome these issues.

There were 287 survey responses. About 40% of respondents hadn’t done any retrofitting work in the last two years and 20% had never done any. Draught proofing and insulations were the most commonly completed retrofits. Most respondents considered partial retrofits ‘as and when’ repairs and upgrades become necessary. Increasing comfort and the climate emergency were identified as the most common motivators, with reducing costs a close third. The greatest barriers identified were finding reliable contractors and the fear of escalating costs. Not knowing where to get good advice from, and the perception that technology is not good enough yet to make it worth investing in were also highlighted.

New governance arrangements supporting the ambition for the Council to be net zero carbon by 2030 have been approved by the Executive Management Team and a new internal officer Climate Emergency Board is being set up. A draft Retrofit Strategy will be presented to Housing Select Committee (Q1 2023/24). Guidance is being produced for retrofit which will be presented as a dedicated page on the Council website. A guide for tenants moving into retrofitted homes will be provided with the consultants/contractor designing and carrying out the works tasked with producing a draft for the Housing department to approve. A new community investment scheme has been launched with the aim of generating £1m for local projects to help tackle the Climate Emergency.

The Council wanted to establish levels of overall satisfaction with its waste collection service, public perceptions of the quality of service provided and service areas where future improvements could be made to achieve stated priorities.    

1. Over 79% of respondents agreed with the 45% recycling/reuse/composting target for household waste

 2. 74% of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with providing smaller bins for general waste

3. 80% of respondents feel that we should continue to promote home composting

4. 92% of respondents feel that the Council should minimise the waste produced from its office buildings

 5. 94% of respondents felt that businesses should separate waste for recycling

The consultation received 1,700 respondents and the overall response was positive and supportive of the Councils aims to maintain a high level of service whilst reducing carbon emisssions. The Council now has a clearer idea of what people who use waste collection want from the service.

1. The 45% target is included within the waste strategy, and in the Council’s Reduction and Recycling Plan

 2. The Council will not be looking to provide smaller bins for general waste at this time

3. This has been included within the waste strategy under Priority 2, the Council will “ensure that recycling and composting is easy” by “providing user-friendly services”

4. Council buildings will be required to develop responsible waste management action plans as part of the safe return to the office after the pandemic, as included under Priority 1

 5. The Council will ensure that businesses have access to appropriate waste disposal services, and will work to develop, implement and publicise a waste management policy

This consultation was about involving the public in the design, commissioning and delivery of health and care services. It aimed to capture the views of residents and stakeholders in order to shape a new outline for a Healthwatch and NHS Complaints Advocacy Service.

The current contract for the provision of a local Healthwatch and Complaints Advocacy Service is due to expire on the 31st March 2020. Before a new contract is awarded, we asked for your views on the current service and the ways in which it might be improved.

In total there were 18 responses to the survey which included the following suggested improvements to the existing service:

• Wider advertising for the services that Healthwatch provides.
• Strengthening of verbal communication by Healthwatch.
• Better engagement with the public so that their views are reflected in the development of health-related services.
• Increased funding for Healthwatch.
• More outreach support.
• Improved availability of support from Healthwatch.

Feedback to all questions within the survey has now been shared with the Associate Director of Joint Commissioning and the suggestions for improvement have influenced the 'service specification', a key document that will inform the re-procurement of the contract.