Issue - meetings

(Report of the Director of Corporate Resources and the Director of Urban Environment) To inform the Overview and Scrutiny Committee of the known extent of the last year of financial uncertainty and the slowdown of the national economy to a recession, to provide empirical and anecdotal evidence of how the state of the economy is impacting on the delivery of a broad range of our key services to residents and the borough and to provide details of mitigating actions that are being taken or are planned in order to ensure service delivery is not unduly interrupted.

The Committee received a report on the impact of the recession on the delivery of key services to residents and the borough, and mitigating actions being taken to ensure service delivery is not unduly interrupted.

In response to a question from the Committee, it was agreed that Members be provided with information on whether Haringey would benefit from the £10m additional funding for Citizen’s Advice Bureaux, announced in the press earlier in the week.

The Committee welcomed the activities to encourage take up of benefits and free school meals, and noted that each Councillor had a role to play in promoting the range of support services available to residents.

The Committee suggested that the key role of community centres in responding to the recession should be expanded further in the report and that the role of the Council in offering paid and unpaid work experience should be explored.  It was also suggested that the report should address issues relating to crime and community safety. It was reported that the Chair had received feedback on the report from the Mental Health Trust, and this would be passed on to the report authors outside the meeting.

The Committee welcomed the report, and thanked the Cabinet Member for Enterprise and Regeneration for speaking to the report.

RESOLVED

i)                    That, taking into account the comments and suggestions made by the Committee, the report be noted.

ii)                  That the report be put forward for consideration by Cabinet.