Agenda and minutes
Venue: held remotely via video-conference
Contact: Dwynwen Jones
No. | Item |
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Apologies Minutes: Councillor Paul Hinge
apologised for his inability to attend the meeting due to being on other
Council business. Councillor Elaine
Evans apologised for her inability to attend the meeting. |
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Disclosures of personal interest (including whipping declarations). Members are reminded of their personal responsibility to declare any personal and prejudicial interest in respect of matters contained in Minutes: None. |
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Trading Standards (Scams) PDF 131 KB Minutes: The
Trading Standards & Licensing Manager updated the Committee on scams and doorstep crime issues and the work undertaken by
Trading Standards. In common with most trading standards authorities across England and
Wales, Ceredigion’s Trading Standards Team (TS Team) uses, as a first point of
contact for members of the public, the Citizens Advice Consumer Service (CACS)
which has been set up and funded nationally by central government to offer
consumer civil advice and to act as a portal for referrals to local authority
trading standards teams.
Relevant information is then passed to each local
authority on a daily basis for them to take any appropriate action. The TS Team
requests that 100% of scam and doorstep crime
complaints are passed through. The
Service also uses the National Intelligence Operating Model to identify
priorities based on consumer detriment and vulnerability and scams
and doorstep crime consistently features in its top 5 priority areas. In
2019/20, the TS Team received 552 reports from CACS, 40 of which were
specifically related to scams and doorstep crime. The Team also receive referrals from National
Trading Scams Team (NTS Team). During
the same period, the TS Team dealt with 48 scam victim
referrals from the NTS Team; each report is triaged and the intervention
depends on the level of risk associated with that individual. It
was explained that during the pandemic, with people having to stay at home,
many households became reliant on good internet connectivity for online
shopping, working from home, home schooling, online entertainment subscriptions,
etc., and the typical online and delivery scams that
fraudsters used to attempt to make money out of the unsuspecting public
included: •
Texts
and emails being sent to people to lure them to apply for the Covid-19 vaccine •
Automated
message saying that BT were going to suspend your broadband because your IP
address had been compromised, and the message asking the recipient to ‘press 1’
to continue. •
Automated
message saying the call is from Amazon Prime claiming that they would charge
the recipients card £79 for Amazon Prime. •
Text
messages purporting to be from Royal Mail stating that there is a package that
needs to be rescheduled, or an item is waiting to be
collected and asking the recipient to press on a ‘bit.ly’ link. Out of the 740 consumer complaints/reports received by the TS Team since
the beginning of the pandemic, 67 cases related to Ceredigion consumers having
experienced directly some form of unfair trading practice as a result of
Covid-19 e.g. breach of contracts, traders refusing to refund and return
deposits relating to cancelled holidays/weddings/events, or failure to provide
a service, etc. Doorstep Crime were outlined to the Committee. It is often elderly and vulnerable people that are targeted by rogue traders offering home improvement or gardening services, etc. Doorstep crime often results from an initial cold call. Unscrupulous traders will carry out unnecessary, substandard and sometimes even dangerous work and then use strong arm tactics to persuade consumers to part ... view the full minutes text for item 11. |
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Ceredigion Carers Unit Annual Report 2020-21 PDF 1 MB Minutes: The Cabinet Member and ‘Team Manager –
Through Age Carers and Community Support’ reported the achievements of the
Ceredigion Carers Unit and progress against their agreed targets and objectives
during the year 2020-2021. The
Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act gives Carers an equal right to have
their needs assessed as those they care for. Under the act, local authorities
must provide a support plan to help Carers to secure the outcomes that matter
to them. Taking forward actions to ensure that these enhanced rights are
recognised and actively delivered upon. The 3 national priorities were: • Supporting life alongside caring - All
Carers must have reasonable breaks from their caring role to enable them to
maintain their capacity to care, and to have a life beyond caring. • Identifying and recognising Carers -
Fundamental to the success of delivering improved outcomes for Carers is the
need to improve Carer’s recognition of their role and to ensure they can access
the necessary support. • Providing information, advice and assistance
- It is important that Carers receive the appropriate information and advice
where and when they need it. It
was stated that Ceredigion County Council remain committed to providing the
best possible outcomes-focused service to enhance the lives of Carers, and to
continuously improve support, services and recognition of Carers in Ceredigion.
The Act provides a definition of a Carer as “a person who provides or intends
to provide care for an adult or disabled child”. This removed the requirement that
carers must be providing “a substantial amount of care on a regular basis”. Members enquired about the respite provision that is
available. The Carers Development
Officer explained the various options that are available. Members emphasised how important the
dissemination of information is especially in schools and doctor
surgeries. The
Committee agreed to note the report. |
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West Wales Care Partnership Regional Carers Development Group Annual Report 2020-2021 PDF 2 MB Minutes: The Cabinet Member and ‘Team Manager –
Through Age Carers and Community Support’ presented the report that had been produced by the West Wales Carers development Group
for Welsh Government to outline the progress that has been delivered to meet
the Welsh Government Carer priorities by the West Wales Care Partnership
Regional Carers Development Group (WWCDG). In
April 2017, the West Wales Regional Partnership Board (RPB) agreed to include
Carers as a key work stream, reflecting the importance of this population group
within the responsibilities of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act
2014. The report presented summarised
the activity of the West Wales Carer Development Group (WWCDG) during the
period 1st April 2020– 31st March 2021. The WWCDG is a formal sub-group of the
West Wales Regional Partnership Board (RPB) which
includes representatives of Hywel Dda University Health Board (Health Board),
the three Local Authorities of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire,
as well as Third and Voluntary sector organisations, and representatives of
Carers in West Wales. 2019/20 reflects the Welsh Government’s transition phase
between the Carers Information and Consultation Strategies (Wales) Measure 2010
and the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014. In their budget letter
dated 14th March 2018 Welsh Government set out their
expectation that health, local authorities and the third sector will work in
partnership to support carers under the Act by: • Supporting
life alongside caring - providing opportunities for carers to have reasonable
breaks from their caring role to enable them to maintain capacity to care, and
to have a life beyond caring. • Identifying
and recognising carers - improving Carers recognition of their role and
ensuring they can access the right support. • Providing
information, advice and assistance - providing appropriate advice where and
when Carers need it. Members wished to highlight the importance of the Welsh language when
caring for someone who’s
first language is Welsh. Also, to ensure the links are there between health boards
when a patient is discharged from a neighbouring health board, in order that
the appropriate care is in place for the patient at home. Following questions from the floor it was
AGREED to note the report. |
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Minutes: Item
5 - The Committee noted that Cabinet members and officers had met with Lampeter Lions Netball Team and the Town Council and are
now in discussions. It was AGREED to confirm as a true record
the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 22 September 2021. |