Issue - meetings

A.   Report of the Monitoring Officer and Section 151 Officer on the Call In  - To follow

B.   Cabinet report on Leisure Management – To follow

C.   Cabinet Minutes on Leisure Management decision – To follow

D.   Copy of the Call In  - To follow

E.   Report of the Director for Environment and Resident Experience responding to the Call in – To follow

Cllr Cawley-Harrison presented his call-in and the following was noted in his presentation:

·         The reason for the call-in was that there was insufficient information provided to the Cabinet to make an informed decision. The decision was taken without evidence that insourcing provided value for money and providing value for money was a core part of the policy framework.

·         He contended that the Cabinet report provided no effort to quantify the costs and benefits of the different options. Cabinet was not provided with information about the comparative costs of a new leisure management contract in the immediate term. As details of the finances were not provided even under an exempt report, the external advice was not included. There was no consideration of a joint contract with another authority and residents had not been consulted about who should run the service. Given the poor financial position of the Council, Cabinet needed to consider not only whether the higher cost of insourcing could be justified, but whether this model of leisure delivery was more important than other services that it may sacrifice because the additional cost of insourcing would mean cuts to other services. Councillor Cawley-Harrison hoped that this would be sent back to Cabinet for them to make the decision again with all the information available.

There were questions from the Committee on the call-in and Cllr Cawley–Harrison responded as follows:

·         The information provided in the original Cabinet report did not provide sufficient levels of detail to evidence the fact of whether this was offering value for money. As the report indicated, value for money was not necessarily the only reason for decision making. It was believed that it fell outside of policy framework.

·         There would be an expectation that all information would be in a written report and listed as exempt if it contained commercially sensitive information. There was reference to a third-party analysis that considered all the options, but this analysis was not included in the report. There was also no evidence in the report that the Cabinet Members were given that information. It was imperative that all key information had been given to Cabinet Members.

·         Transparency was a key factor in this call-in. There was a weighted comparison between the options with a scoring system which had not been provided in the Cabinet report but had been provided in the response to the call in. The scoring system indicated that there was less risk to performance from the Council, insourcing versus using an external provider. Other than New River, the Council did not have leisure service experience. New River did not have a pool or a Lido, and the Council still did not have the experience of directly running those services, whereas an external provider would provide this expertise.

·         All decisions would carry risk, and one of the requests in the call-in would be to complete a 5-year risk analysis.

·

Cllr Arkell responded to the call-in, and the following was noted:

Cllr Arkell believed that Cabinet’s decision fitted within  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6

Report of the Director of Environment and Resident Experience. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Culture, Communities & Leisure and the Director of Environment and Resident Experience.

This report details a recommendation on future provision of leisure management in the borough.

The Cabinet Member for Culture, Communities & Leisure introduced the report, which considered the arrangements for the future provision of leisure services in the borough and recommended bringing this service in-house.

The Cabinet Member outlined that the three key sites providing leisure facilities: Tottenham Green, Park Road and Broadwater Farm. This report followed the July Cabinet decision to review the leisure provision and subsequent termination of the Leisure Services Contract with Fusion.

The Cabinet Member underlined the key focus of the administration on enabling residents to live healthy lives, through ending social isolation and providing access to leisure services. This was central to the health and wellbeing of residents and helping them lead healthy lives. This was the underpinning objective when considering future leisure arrangements.

The Cabinet Member continued that by ending the contract with Fusion, the Council would bring leisure services in-house, democratising and taking full control over the running of the leisure centres at Tottenham Green, Park Road and Broadwater Farm. The Council aimed to build on the success of New River Sport & Fitness, which was brought in-house in August 2021 and was now delivering better and more inclusive services to residents and communities.

In response to questions from Councillors: Hakata, das Neves, Chandwani, White and Cawley - Harrison the following information was provided:

-       In relation to engaging with residents on the insourced provision, the Council had spent time engaging with residents, as a whole, and were also encouraging those which had not used the service to also participate in the engagement process. Thought was being given to future provision which was responsive to the leisure services wanted by residents and how and when the engagement would take place. This would likely be in phases to ensure that the Council were listening and hearing as many residents as possible.

-       With regards to tacking health inequalities in the borough and having better health outcomes for residents in later life, the service would be looking at: what issues there were that preventing some groups accessing the service, co-locating services and looking to work with partners like the NHS and public health to provide those wrap around services, ensuring there was a holistic approach and providing the activities to improve approach to fitness.

-       Regarding the proposed insourcing model offering equity of provision in both the east and west of the borough, the service had spent a lot of time considering the service offer across the three leisure sites and it was recognised that the provision at Broadwater Farm Centre can be overlooked. There would be engagement with residents on the new service offer at Broadwater Farm. They would be looking to understand the enablers to increase usage and the type of wrap around services needed to support a wellbeing offer.

-       Achievements highlighted at the New River Sport & Fitness centre were the successful links made with the Autism Hub and after school activities, in key time slots between 3:00 and 6:00pm, and development of an older  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37