Agenda and minutes

Please note that this meeting may be filmed or recorded by the Council for live or subsequent broadcast via the Council’s internet site or by anyone attending the meeting using any communication method. Although we ask members of the public recording, filming or reporting on the meeting not to include the public seating areas, members of the public attending the meeting should be aware that we cannot guarantee that they will not be filmed or recorded by others attending the meeting. Members of the public participating in the meeting (e.g. making deputations, asking questions, making oral protests) should be aware that they are likely to be filmed, recorded or reported on. 

By entering the meeting room and using the public seating area, you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings.

The chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any individual or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

The  Leader referred to agenda item 1 as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at this meeting and Members noted this information.

Apologies were received from Councillor Goldberg and Councillor Demirci.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of Urgent Business. (Late items of Urgent Business will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items of Urgent Business will be dealt with under Item 19 below. New items of exempt business will be dealt with at Item 23 below).

There were no items of urgent business.

A Member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

A Member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

There were no declarations of interest put forward.

On occasions part of the Cabinet meeting will be held in private and will not be open to the public if an item is being considered that is likely to lead to the disclosure of exempt or confidential information. In accordance with the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 (the “Regulations”), members of the public can make representations about why that part of the meeting should be open to the public.

This agenda contains exempt items as set out at Item [21] : Exclusion of the Press and Public.  No representations with regard to these have been received.

This is the formal 5 clear day notice under the Regulations to confirm that this Cabinet meeting will be partly held in private for the reasons set out in this Agenda.

No representations were received.

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 15^th of November 2016 as a correct record.

The minutes of  the Cabinet meeting held on the 15^th November 2016 were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

Cabinet will be asked to: note the scrutiny review which has been completed by The Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel, chaired by Cllr Hearn,  on  Disproportionality within the Youth Justice System  and to agree the  Cabinet responses to recommendations of the review.

The Leader advised Cabinet that they would be considering and noting the Scrutiny review which has been completed by The Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel, Chaired by Cllr Hearn, on Disproportionality within the Youth Justice System. Cabinet would further be asked to agree the Cabinet responses to the recommendations of the review. The Leader had agreed to await the attendance of Councillor Mark Blake who would be accompanying Cllr Hearn in the presentation of the Scrutiny review.

[Scrutiny Review to be introduced by Councillor Kirsten Hearn, Chair of the Children and  Young People’s  Scrutiny Panel. The Cabinet Member for Children and Families  and  Cabinet Member for Communities to provide the  responses to the review recommendations.

Following completion of all other Cabinet agenda items and in the absence of Cllr Blake, Councillor Hearn introduced the Scrutiny review. The review had demonstrated that if you were young and black, you were more likely to get into trouble and be a victim of crime, including serious violence. Long standing and complex issues with over 40 years of actions had not changed this position; apart from there now being an open recognition of this. Actions completed so far, had not worked and young black people still felt that how they were treated was on the basis of ethnicity, social class and background. The evidence in the review supports this view.

The review noted that this negative stereotyping drives agencies actions and that preventative intervention practices need to start earlier in the young person’s life to stop them entering the youth justice system. It was concerning that diversionary activities were likely to reduce with government cuts to services and this would have a negative impact on youth offending.

Cllr Hearn outlined that education still provides a means of escape and clear career pathways are needed to support young people to deter engagement in criminal activities. Also having strong role models has a powerful effect. There was a need to take account of the views of young black people in Tottenham, that feel the current regeneration is not for them and use regeneration funding for taking forward initiatives to support young black people, like training to increase young black teachers.

Councillor Hearn was pleased that most of the Scrutiny recommendations were agreed and understood the reasoning on the partially agreed items.

The Cabinet Member for Communities thanked the Scrutiny Panel for their work on this important review. This was a national issue, which the borough was not exempt from. The review recognised the need for partners working together to deter young people entering the youth justice system. This meant particularly working together on mental health and education issues which the Council was already taking forward.

The Cabinet Member suggested reviewing the progress with the Cabinet responses to the recommendations in a few months time.

The Cabinet Member highlighted some of the headlines released from the Charlie Taylor review of the youth justice system, received yesterday. The main message was devolving responsibility of youth justice to local areas. The Youth Justice Board in Haringey was well equipped to take forward devolved powers. The Cabinet Member felt that the Haringey Youth Justice Board was also well placed to deal with the recommendations in the report, including development of campus locally in terms of alternatives for custody.

RESOLVED

1.    To note the Scrutiny Review Report in Appendix 1 and approve the responses to the Scrutiny recommendations as outlined in Appendix 2 of this report.

2.    To agree proposals for an additional recommendation in the report: that the role of the wider voluntary sector is also considered and consulted with for its contribution in addressing the needs identified of this vulnerable group of young people.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 135.

The Leader of the Council invited Chris Taylor of UNISON to put forward his deputation which had been received in respect of the Shared Lives report at agenda item 12.

In summary, Mr Taylor put forward reasons against the proposed outsourcing of the Shared Lives service and opposition to the Council entering into a social investment model with Shared Lives Incubator (SLI] together with an award of contract to Ategi Ltd for a period of five years for delivery of the Shared Lives service. This decision would also involve the TUPE transfer of 4 staff. These reasons were:

·         No evidence provided that outsourcing the service will help expand it and lead to growth in the number of carers. Mr Taylor argued that this could actually lead to less growth.

·         Council could recruit additional staff themselves if they wanted to grow the scheme.

·         Management had not answered questions on the barriers to the recruitment of carers .If the issue was the lack of referrals, then these numbers have historically been low and this issue not previously explored by the local authority. Also the proposed provider could not provide answers on how they could increase referrals.

·         The money the Council would need to borrow for supporting the running of the outsourced service and then pay back with an additional return for investors could instead be invested in the existing in house provision and an improvement plan.

·         The proposed provider did not guarantee London Living Wage to new employees and there would be a 2 tier workforce systems in place.

·         Although the provider was keeping transferred staff on existing Council terms and conditions, the Council would need to ensure that these agreements were kept to

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Health responded to the deputation and highlighted the common agreement expressed, that expansion of the service was needed. It was critical to deliver this through investment but by keeping the service in house, the Council could not provide the income required to grow this service to potentially also include older people and people with physical disabilities. Therefore the choice had been made to consider an outside provider.

It was critical to boost referrals from the Learning Disabilities Team but also to gather referrals for people with physical health needs and the elderly and provide them with   long term placements. Therefore in coming to this proposal, the Council had considered the experience of Ategi in both management and growth of other Shared Lives Services in the country and also noted the additional benefit the Council would gain from access to two senior managers in this organisation.

The Cabinet Member reiterated that the Council was committed to expanding the Shared Lives Service. In this arrangement, the investors were actually taking on the financial risk as they would not get a return until the 70% target of recruited carers was reached so this arrangement did provide good achievement of value for money.

[Report of the Chief Operating Officer. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance and Health.]To consider  the Council's  proposed Medium Term Financial Strategy   for 2017/18-2021/22 including the Capital Programme.  The final budget and Council Tax for 2017/18 will go forward to Cabinet and Full council in February 2017.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Health introduced the report which set out the strategic financial context and details of the major budget changes being proposed for the five year planning period 2017/18 to 2021/22, and, in addition, the process for setting the Council’s 2017/18 budget.

The Cabinet were aware that this had been a difficult year for the budget with a £20m overspend. However, it was important to keep in mind that the MTFS, devised in 2015, had provided real clarity on how to deliver a sustainable financial plan and had made the required strategic choices on how to prioritise resources in the context of staggering cuts to services and budgets.

The Cabinet Member continued to outline the context in delivering savings against the backdrop of a 45% reduction in staff and by having 12 fewer Council buildings.

The Cabinet Member further described the key influences on the budget for this year  which were not known in 2015.These were: business rate devolution with details of how devolution will work still to be agreed, Brexit, Housing policy reforms, welfare reform. Therefore, it was prudent to examine the MTFS assumptions made in 2015 to understand if accurate which these changes in mind.

Ultimately there was a £20m shortfall and the budget papers examined closing this gap through the use of the MTFS principles agreed in 2015 which still applied and  focussed on growth, early help and intervention .

The Cabinet Member thanked participants in the pre -budget consultation which had highlighted the difficulties both residents and officers had faced in finding priorities for spend. The Cabinet Member further encouraged residents, interested in the financial sustainability of the Council, to examine and comment on the proposals which would be released for consultation this week.

Councillor Weston, Cabinet Member for Children and Families provided assurance to Members and colleagues that, in coming to Priority 1 saving proposals, the Children’s Service had continued to prioritise providing the support of safeguarding services to vulnerable children. The majority of the proposals focused on transformation and improvement of the service. There would be continuing investment in early help and targeted services to stop escalations into social care services. The Children’s Service were not compromising the safeguarding of children and young people and the continued aim was to provide high quality support against a back drop of the significant cuts to Council budget funding.

In response to questions from Councillor Morris, the following information was noted:

• The Haringey Development Vehicle meets the growth priority for the borough and would enable the Council to increase income through the business rates and Council tax rate base by the provision of additional homes and businesses. The Council did not currently have the funding and expertise to drive growth through the development of new homes and business. The Council have land and already undertake transactions with developers. A joint partnership with a preferred partner would allow the Council to better patrol what happens with land deals to generate regeneration. The Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 137.

[Report of the Assistant Director for Commissioning. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Children and Families and  Cabinet Member for Finance and Health.] In March 2016 Cabinet approved in principal the Travel Policy in Haringey for Children and Adults with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities.Cabinet will be asked to agree the Travel Policy after consideration of the consultation results.

Cabinet agreed to defer this report to a later meeting to allow further consultation to be undertaken.

[Report of the Assistant Director for Commissioning. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance and Health.]Report to agree the appointment of the preferred bidder of an external organisation to take on the operational management of Haringey's Shared Lives Scheme.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Health introduced the report which set out the proposition for the Council entering into a new partnership with the Shared Lives Incubator [SLI] to provide investment and support to the new proposed provider, Ategi, building on the established in house Shared Lives Service and growing it further so that more people can feel the benefits of Shared Lives.

RESOLVED

1. To approve the proposed social investment model with the Shared Lives Incubator (SLI), which includes a ‘growth premium payment’ paid together with the weekly management fee through a new provider.

2. In accordance with Contract Standing Order (CSO) 9.06.1(b)(i) and CSO 9.06.1(d), to approve the award of a contract to Ategi Ltd, a not-for-profit Shared Lives provider, to deliver Haringey’s Shared Lives Scheme from April 2017

3. To award the contract to Ategi Ltd for a period of five years with an option to extend for two further periods of one year each at a fixed weekly management fee as identified in Part B (exempt information) of this report. The estimated contract value for managing the Shared Lives service could be £1.85million over the 5 year contract term. The value of each extension year could be £500,000.

4. To note the TUPE transfer of 4 staff (3.6 FTE) to Ategi concurrent with the commencement of the contract.

5. To delegate authority to the Deputy Chief Executive to approve the total amount of the social investment required and the corresponding growth premium payment, which will not exceed £35 per week, once it has been finalised.

Reasons for decision

Investment model

At a time of limited financial resources, the Council continues to seek innovative solutions to fund schemes that deliver good outcomes for local people. For Shared Lives, social investment provides such an option, as it:

Leverages funds from investors who want to put their money into causes that improves people lives, particularly vulnerable people

a)    Ensures investment is only paid back to investors when outcomes are achieved

b)    Provides a ‘catalyst’ to schemes to grow and deliver good outcomes by providing additional funding up front, alongside existing investment from the local authority

As part of seeking an alternative provider for Haringey’s Shared Lives scheme, the Council has worked with the Shared Lives Incubator (SLI) – a group of four organisations comprising Social Finance, Shared Lives Plus, Community Catalysts and Shared Lives Investments Limited Partnership – who are specifically focused on supporting the growth of Shared Lives schemes across the country. Working in partnership with SLI enables the Council to leverage investment, expert advice and business support to help achieve growth of the Shared Lives Service whilst repayment is on the basis of achievement of outcomes. All of this is a critical component to helping Haringey’s Shared Lives Service grow.

The contract itself is a payment by results delivery model. The Council pays the Provider a fixed weekly management fee for each arrangement supported. This model is enabled by the social investment. It is estimated that the social  ...  view the full minutes text for item 139.

[Report of the Director for Children’s Services. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Children and  Families.]Update on outcome of national consultation on funding and impact for Haringey and London.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Families introduced the report which put forward an in principle decision to join the London Regional Adoption Agency .This had been developed by the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services (ALDCS) with the aim of speeding up the matching of children, deemed to be suitable for adoption, to suitable adoptees and to improve outcomes for adopted children.

The Cabinet Member reiterated the in principle decision being sought with no further commitments to join the agency until a business case and detailed financial analysis is considered by Cabinet, later in the new year.

In response to a question from Councillor Morris, there was not expected to be an increase in out of borough adoptions.

RESOLVED

1. To agree to the development of the London Regional Adoption Agency, a not-for-profit corporate entity, jointly owned by the founding London boroughs and working in partnership with Voluntary Adoption Agencies to deliver adoption services and as set out in paragraph 15 of this report;

2. To agree in principle to join the proposed London Regional Adoption Agency subject to the detailed business case and financial analysis; and

3. That there be a further report to Cabinet on the details of the proposed arrangement including the business case, financial analysis, arrangement for consultation with staff and other stakeholders and related legal documentation and for a final decision on joining the London Regional Adoption Agency.

Reason for decision

The Cabinet approval is required for the Council to work collaboratively with other London boroughs to continue to develop the London Regional Adoption Agency with the intention of joining the agency, when it becomes operational in 2017/18.

Alternative options considered

The London Regional Adoption Agency has been developed to meet the needs of London boroughs. It would operate in a similar manner to the London Admissions and London Grid for Learning Teams, with governance through ALDCS and London Councils.

The DfE require all local authorities to join a regional agency by 2020, therefore ‘do nothing’ is not an available option within the current policy and political landscape.

Alternatives to the London option would be to join another developing regional agency or create a new model. Other developing regional agencies have not been developed with the involvement of London boroughs. No other regional agencies have proposed a model linked to the governance of London local authorities. The London model is being developed with the complexity of the borough and provider landscape in mind. Many of the models being developed in other regions e.g. single LA host would not be appropriate to meet this complexity of need.

Any new agency being developed would have the same timescale requirements and would need to access development funding independently. ALDCS identified that using existing arrangements (e.g. consortia) would not remove the performance and service variation across London and most current consortia regions would not achieve the DfE aims for scale. A sub-divided London would lose the benefit of the wider pool of adopters and the standardisation of service offering.

Given  ...  view the full minutes text for item 140.

[Report of the Director for Public Health. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance and Health.]

Following an  open tender, award of contract for a service offering community based sexual health services.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Health introduced the report which recommended an award of contract to Embrace UK to allow them to continue providing a community sexual health service focussing on outreach and health promotion. The service would include; sexual health promotion, awareness raising and STI & HIV testing at the point of request.

The Council were already working with this organisation which provided excellent outcomes and would continue the Step Change programme.

In response to a question from Councillor Morris, Cabinet noted that the Council would be working with charities to support the LGBT community. The Council already worked with the London HIV prevention programme on outreach work and also accessed London level expertise through this programme .The community were also able to make use of inner London services and the Council was working locally with the ‘Wise Thoughts’ Charity and London Friends.

The Leader further reported that London Council’s have agreed to expedite the Pan London HIV prevention programmes from March 2017 to 2019 to ensure services were available in central London

RESOLVED

To agree to award, in accordance with Contract Standing Order (CSO) 9.07.1 (d), a contract for a community sexual health service focusing on outreach and health promotion to Embrace UK Community Support Centre, Selby Road, London, N17 8JL for a period of three years with options to extend for 2 further periods of 1 year at an annual value of £220,000.

Reasons for decision

From 1 April 2013, local authorities are mandated to ensure that comprehensive, open access, confidential sexual health services are available to all people who are present in their area (whether resident in that area or not).

A procurement exercise was carried out in accordance with the Council’s Contract Standing Orders and Procurement Code of Practice. As a result, it is recommended that the successful tenderer be awarded a contract as outlined in 3.1 in accordance with CSO 9.07.1(d).

Alternative options considered

As part of a rigorous exercise to explore potential options to strengthen sexual health service provision in defined target groups, the public health team considered merging the community sexual health service - outreach and promotion, back into the specialist Genito-Urinary Medicine (GUM) service. However, after careful consideration it was deemed that this option was neither viable, sustainable or in line with the Council’s medium term financial strategy.

[Report of the Director for Public Health. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance and Health.]Award of contract for services delivered through the healthy living pharmacy scheme.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Health introduced the report which set out a Framework Agreement for the provision of pharmacies enhanced services .The award of these contracts would enable the Council to tackle three important issues: poor sexual and reproductive health, smoking and vitamin deficiency in pregnant women, breast feeding mothers and children who are under 4 years of age, all of which are areas that were creating health inequalities across the life course, particularly for young people, black and minority ethnic groups and hard-to-reach groups.

The Cabinet Member welcomed the proposals contained in the report which would continue to enhance community pharmacy services for Haringey residents over the next 5 years.

RESOLVED

1. To approve the setting up of a Framework Agreement for the provision of pharmacies enhanced services; and

2. That the providers listed in paragraph 7.7 of the report be awarded contracts under the Framework Agreement.

3. That the contracts awarded under the Framework Agreement will be for a period of four years. The total value of the contracts awarded under the Framework Agreement will be £967,200.

Reasons for decision

The services being commissioned are required to support delivery of the Council’s corporate plan and are in line with its commitment to prevention and early intervention, empowering residents to live healthier lives.

The Council undertook a competitive procurement exercise, inviting applications from community pharmacists to provide a suite of public health services.

The process for selecting the preferred community pharmacies was based on the applications achieving the highest score based on quality.

        Alternative options considered

As part of a rigorous exercise the public health team considered no longer commissioning pharmacies to deliver these services relying on other specialist services. The conclusion was that pharmacies offer good quality, easy access services to residents at a lower cost than specialist services. They therefore enable the Council to increase its prevention activity and achieve its medium term financial strategy.

[Report of the Chief Operating Officer. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources.]To seek approval to award a new contract for the supply of Permanent and Temporary Agency Workers.  The award is made under the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) EU procurement compliant framework called MSTAR2 - Managed Service for Temporary and Agency Resources.

In the absence of the Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources, the Leader introduced the report which proposed awarding a new contract for the supply of Permanent and Temporary Agency Workers to Hays Specialist Recruitment Limited (‘Hays’) for a period of 3 years from 1 February 2017 with the option to extend the contract for a further period of one year.

The award was proposed under the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) EU Procurement Compliant Framework ‘MSTAR2 - Managed Service for Temporary and Agency Resources’.

In response to a question from Councillor Morris, temporary staff would not be replacing permanent staff as part of the budget proposals.

RESOLVED

1.    To approve the award of a Master Vendor contract under the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) EU Procurement Compliant Framework ‘MSTAR2 - Managed Service for Temporary and Agency Resources’ to Hays Specialist Recruitment Limited (‘Hays’) for a three year period with effect from 1 February 2017 with an option to extend for a further period of one year, for the supply of temporary agency workers and to administer the recruitment of all permanent Council staff at Tier 4 and below (below Head of Service level), and optionally to administer recruitment above Tier 4.

2.    The total value for the management fees payable for the temporary and permanent staff resource centre is on average £860k per annum and a total of £3.49m over the period of the contract (including the option to extend for one year).

Reasons for Decision

Hays have successfully supplied temporary agency workers to the Council since 2006 when they were awarded a seven year contract and in 2013, were again appointed as the preferred supplier following a mini tender competition using the ‘MSTAR1’ framework.

The Council awarded Hays the contract in 2013 primarily due to value, where on average, Hays were 10% more cost effective than other bidders. Hays have continued to offer competitive rates which is demonstrated as they were the highest scoring bidder in ‘Quality’ and ‘Price’ in the MSTAR2 framework.

The MSTAR framework was established following an EU procurement process and is supported by the Government Procurement Service (GPS) and Local Government Association (LGA). It is recommended to directly award with a Master Vendor model of delivery as this provides the optimum value for money that includes a mixture of large organisations and SMEs to deliver the resources the Council requires.

Over 30 local authorities were involved in developing the scope, specification and evaluation of the MSTAR2 framework to meet a broad range of user requirements. As the framework will be managed by ESPO at a national level, this will help drive performance on an ongoing basis and build strategic relationships with suppliers to gain better value for money, cashable savings and improve performance. Furthermore, having access to a national framework will enable the Council to share commercial knowledge, including supplier and market intelligence and expert advice.

Significant cost savings and efficiency gains have been made through the on-going relationship between the Council and Hays, including  ...  view the full minutes text for item 143.

To note the minutes of the following:

Cabinet Member Signing on the 7^th November 2016

Leader Signing on the 7^th of November 2016

RESOLVED

To note the minutes of the following:

Cabinet Member Signing on the 7^th November 2016

Leader Signing on the 7^th of November 2016

To note significant and delegated actions taken by Directors in November.

RESOLVED

To note significant and delegated actions taken by Directors in November.

To consider any items admitted at Item 3 above.

None

Note from the Democratic Services &Scrutiny Manager

Items 21, 22  and 22  allow for the consideration of exempt information in relation to items, 12, 14 and 3 respectively.

RESOLVED:

That the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting as the items below contain exempt information, as defined under paragraph, 3  Part 1, schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

RESOLVED

That the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting as the items below contain exempt information, as defined under paragraph, 3  Part 1, schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

As  per item 12

As per decision 139.

As per item 14

As per decision 141.

To consider any items admitted at Item 3 above.

None