The Committee received a verbal
update from Cllr Chandwani, Cabinet Member for Tackling Inequality
& Resident Services on the recommendations from the Fairness
Commission. Jean Taylor, Head of Policy was also present for this
agenda item. The key points of the verbal update were noted
as:
- The Cabinet Member
noted that the Fairness Commission was part of the 2018 manifesto,
a dedicated panel was established and 32 recommendations were
agreed as part of this.
- The Cabinet Member
commented that she felt that the Fairness Commission did not tell
the Council anything it did not already know. The system is unfair
and the Council has some influence to tackle some of the drivers
that manifest at a local level. The Cabinet Member commented that
she did not feel it was possible to tackle the big systemic issues
by doing what the Council would usually do, with a series of RAG
rated spreadsheets.
- It was suggested that
within the recommendations, key themes stood out, such as the need
to change the way we engage with residents; a change in the
attitude of the Council to its residents; and to essentially change
the genes of the Council. The Fairness Commission highlighted a
number of excluded groups and the organisation to change how it
reached out to these groups and involved them in changes to their
community.
- The Cabinet Member
was concerned that one service became responsible for implementing
the Fairness Commission, when it should be the responsibility of
the whole Council.
- The Committee was
advised that the Haringey Deal was the next step and that this
would seek to take the key principles derived from the Commission
forward, such as the need for co-production. It was suggested that
in that sense, the Fairness Commission has served its purpose. The
task now was to ensure that the Council made the system fairer, as
far as it could within a local government context.
The following arose during the
discussion of this item:
- The Committee
welcomed the drive for co-production but cautioned that there was
probably a short window in which to embed this and to bring
residents along on the journey. With that in mind, it was suggested
that the Council needed to be clearer about what co-production
meant and what support we were giving staff to implement this
approach. In response, the Cabinet Member acknowledged these
concerns and set out that she would like to move away from adopting
the usual procedural approach. Rather, it was suggested, the
Council should be getting the basics right of listening to people
and of letting them know when their ideas were taken on board. It
was suggested that letting residents know about the status of
repairs was a basic expectation and shouldn’t require a terms
of reference or policy document. The Committee commented that some
form of process was still required to capture the Council’s
approach to co-production and reassure residents of the approach
being taken.
- The Cabinet Member
welcomed that the Haringey Deal was being driven by the Chief
Executive and that there was a push from the top. It was suggested
that leadership and direction needed to be set by the top of the
organisation and to cascade downwards.
- The Committee
welcomed the idea of a change of ethos in how the Council
interacted with its residents and commented that it should not be
the responsibility of one Cabinet Member to oversee this. Instead,
it should up to the Leader to ensure that all of the Cabinet
Members were driving forward this agenda and were installing a new
ethos in the Council.
RESOLVED
Noted