Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from the following:

Councillor Kaushika Amin

Councillor Nilgun Canver

Robert Edmonds

Lynne Featherstone MP

Dave Grant                            -Chris Barclay substituted

Lorne Horsforth

Michael Jones                       -Jackie Thomas substituted

David Lammy MP

Pastor Nims Obunge

Members of the HSP should declare any personal/and or prejudicial interests with respect to agenda items and must not take part in any decision required with respect to these items.

No declarations were made.  

A presentation will be made by Jackie Barry-Purssell, Audit Commission CAA Lead.

The Board received a presentation from Jackie Barry-Pursell and Christine Moody of the Audit Commission, on the findings of the draft Area Assessment.

A briefing note was tabled by the Audit Commission that provided an overview of the draft findings.

Following the presentation the Board was advised of the next steps in terms of finalising the Area Assessment and publication. It was noted that there would be a meeting between the Audit Commission and Council officers leading on the Area Assessment during the next week to discuss any areas of concern arising from the draft Assessment. On the 19 October the Council would formally received the findings of the Area Assessment, the Organisational Assessment and the Use of Resources evaluation.

There would then be a period of just over seven weeks prior to the publication of the Area Assessment on the Audit Commission’s website on 10 December 2009.

The Board discussed the draft Area Assessment and questions were put to the Audit Commission representatives.

In response to a query relating to the period of time covered by the Area Assessment, the Board was advised that although the timeline for CAA began in April 2009, some of the data gathered may be up to two years old. Conclusions had been drawn after looking at this range of data in the round.

Concern was raised with respect to some of the language used within the document and it was suggested that reference to an ‘emerging Red Flag’ with respect to ?? should be removed until Ofsted’s assessment had been received.

It was also suggested that NHS Haringey should liaise with the Audit Commission to re word parts of the document relating to ‘Economic Vitality and Prosperity Shared by All’ to reflect the recent improved figures and action being taken to reduce instances of teenage pregnancy and the recruitment of health visitors.

In terms of improving skills levels it was noted that the Council actively encouraged the organisations it worked with to use apprentices and it was requested that this was reflected in the document.  The Council had also given additional funding to support the Citizens Advice Bureaux to enable it to meet the increased demand it faced for information from people affected by the change in economic climate.

It was noted that further information specific to the role of the Council may fit better within the Organisational Assessment also untaken by the Audit Commission.  

There was agreement that partners should advised the Council’s Assistant Chief Executive, Policy, Partnerships, Performance and Communications, regarding any areas where they considered additional information should be considered by the Audit Commission.

A demonstrations of how the Audit Commission’s new website ?? This would provide a tool for members of the public to obtain information regarding their Local Authority and how it performance in certain areas.

Following the demonstration members of the Board put questions to Christine Moody of the Audit Commission.

The Board was advised that information relating to ‘Value for Money’ would be contained within the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 174.

To raise any items of AOB.

None.

To note the dates of future HSP meetings for the remainder of 2009/10:

• 5 November 2009
• 21 January 2010
• 25 March 2010

The dates of HSP meetings for the remainder of 2009/10 were noted:

• 5 November 2009
• 21 January 2010
• 25 March 2010