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 Chair referred Members present to Agenda Item 1 as shown on the agenda front sheet, in respect of filming at meetings, and Members noted the information therein.

Apologies for lateness were received from Cllr Adam Small.

Scrutiny Officer, Philip Slawther, advised the Committee that late papers had been tabled which provided an update on the scrutiny membership and terms of reference for consideration under agenda item 8.

None.

None.

To approve the minutes of the meetings held on:

-       11^th March 2026

-       26^th March 2026

The minutes of the previous two meetings were approved as an accurate record.

Scrutiny Officer, Dominic O’Brien, noted that responses to the action points related to the Corporate Delivery Plan (CDP) would be provided to the Committee as part of the next full update on the CDP which was anticipated to take place in the autumn.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meetings held on 11^th March 2026 and 26^th March 2026 be approved as an accurate record.

To receive and note the minutes of the following Scrutiny Panels and to approve any recommendations contained within:

9^th February 2026 – Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel – To follow

23^rd February 2026 – Culture, Community Safety & Environment Scrutiny Panel – To follow

26^th February 2026 – Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Panel

9^th March 2026 – Housing, Planning & Development Scrutiny Panel

The minutes of the following meetings were noted:

• 9^th February 2026 – Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel
• 23^rd February 2026 – Culture, Community Safety & Environment Scrutiny Panel
• 26^th February 2026 - Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Panel
• 9^th March 2026 – Housing, Planning & Development Scrutiny Panel

To note the membership and terms of reference for the Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

Report to follow.

Scrutiny Officer, Philip Slawther, explained that the recommendations in the report were:

• To note the terms of reference provided in Appendix A.
• To agree the amended Scrutiny Protocol for 2026/27 in Appendix B.
• To formally establish the four Scrutiny Panels and to agree the membership of these Panels as set out in the tabled papers.
• To appoint two Councillors as Haringey’s representatives to the North Central London Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee (NCL JHOSC) for 2026/27.

Cllr das Neves reported that, following initial discussions between committee members, the preferred approach was to retain the existing terms of reference but that the committee may wish to realign these later in the year when more was known about the plans of the new administration, particularly the new Corporate Delivery Plan (CDP). She added that a session with the Centre for Governance & Scrutiny was planned soon to consider areas of best practice and how to evolve the scrutiny structures, including public engagement.

Cllr Cawley-Harrison added that, when the new CDP became available, this would provide an opportunity to review the remits of the Scrutiny Panels and ensure that they were properly focused on key scrutiny priorities. Cllr das Neves concurred with this and also noted the importance of allocating adequate time to scrutinise areas of cross-cutting work within the Council.

Cllr Cawley-Harrison suggested that Panel Chairs should report back to the Committee if they felt, after initial discussions with their new Panels, that there were any areas of responsibility missing from the draft remit.

A minor error on the Panel Membership list in the tabled papers was highlighted. While the membership of the Housing, Planning & Development & Scrutiny Panel was correctly listed, the Chair of the Panel was not recorded and it was clarified that the Chair for 2026/27 would be Cllr Cawley-Harrison.

With these points taken into consideration, the recommendations in the report were agreed by the Committee. It was also agreed that Cllr Lucia das Neves and Cllr Bethany Anderson be appointed as Haringey’s representatives on the NCL JHOSC.

RESOLVED –

• That the amended Scrutiny Protocol for 2026/27 be formally adopted.

• That four Scrutiny Panels be established with the remits and membership as set out in the tabled papers.
• That Cllr Lucia das Neves and Cllr Bethany Anderson be appointed as Haringey’s representatives on the NCL JHOSC for the 2026/27 municipal year.

To seek formal approval of the appointment of two Parent Governor representatives as voting co-opted Scrutiny members.

Scrutiny Officer, Philip Slawther, explained that the report for this item was for noting only. This was because the current Parent Governor Representatives had been appointed on a two-year term from May 2025. He also advised that the Parent Governor representatives primarily participated in scrutiny as members of the Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Panel but noted that they were also entitled to participate in meetings of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee for items concerning education matters.

The Committee noted the report and Cllr das Neves recorded her thanks on behalf of the Committee to the Parent Governor Representatives for volunteering their time to support Scrutiny.

To seek formal approval of the appointment of two non-voting co-opted Members to the Scrutiny Panels.

Scrutiny Officer, Philip Slawther, advised the Committee that, in addition to the statutory Parent Governor Representatives, the Committee was entitled to appoint non-voting co-opted members to the Scrutiny Panels. These co-opted members would typically represent local community groups and/or have specialist knowledge to contribute. The Committee was requested to reappoint Amanda Bernard to the Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Panel and Helena Kania to the Adult & Health Scrutiny Panel.

The appointments were agreed and thanks from the Committee were recorded to the co-opted members for their ongoing support to Scrutiny.

RESOLVED –

• That Amanda Bernard be appointed to the Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Panel for the 2026/27 municipal year.
• That Helena Kania be appointed to the Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel for the 2026/27 municipal year.

To provide a summary of issues arising from the previous Overview & Scrutiny Committee’s work plan for 2025/26 which the new Committee may wish to consider for inclusion in the work plan for 2026/27.

Scrutiny Officer, Dominic O’Brien advised that the purpose of the report for this item was to assist the Committee in developing its work programme for the year. Areas for inclusion in the new work programme could be drawn from various sources including the ‘Scrutiny Café’ consultation event that was scheduled for September 2026, the Scrutiny Survey, the priorities of the Council’s new Corporate Delivery Plan which was currently in development and issues that had been identified by the previous Committee. The report also described the previous Committee’s schedule for scrutinising financial and performance data on a regular basis throughout the year.

The following points were then raised as part of the subsequent discussion:

• Cllr das Neves highlighted the importance of the topic of group-based child sexual abuse in Haringey which had been highlighted by the previous Committee. It was noted that the previous Committee had requested that a data report be provided on this topic by the Metropolitan Police but it had not been possible to provide this report in time for the last Committee meeting. The previous Committee had therefore recommended that this scrutiny work be continued by the new Committee. It was agreed that a further request be made by the Committee for the Police to provide a data report to a future meeting of the Committee. (ACTION) Cllr Cawley-Harrison added that it would be useful to understand the reasons why the report had previously been delayed.
• Cllr Cawley-Harrison referred to the Scrutiny Review on Walking & Cycling Safety which had been started by the Culture, Community Safety & Environment Scrutiny Panel at the beginning of 2026. While some evidence had been received, the Review had not been completed and so there would be an opportunity to continue with this work in 2026/27 and consider what other local groups should be consulted to provide evidence.
• Cllr Cawley-Harrison referred to the concern raised by the provision committee about parking and bad debt provision at a previous finance update item in March 2026. He noted that the levels of bad debt may have increased since then and suggested that this be considered as part of the Committee’s item on the Financial Outturn report in July 2026. (ACTION)

To consider an initial draft work plan for 2026/27 and to discuss possible agenda items for future meetings.

Cllr das Neves referred to the initial outline of the work programme including in the agenda papers. A number of finance items had been added including on the Financial Outturn Report in July which would be attended by the Director of Finance and the Cabinet Member for Finance & Corporate Services.

Jess Crowe, Corporate Director of Culture, Strategy & Communities, advised that it would be useful for the Committee to consider in advance which officers and Cabinet Members would be required to attend finance items. While the Director of Finance could provide a good level of detail, there could sometimes be issues relating to service provision where additional detail could be provided by the directors and Cabinet Members responsible for those services. Scrutiny Officer, Dominic O'Brien added that there had previously been difficulties when the Committee had a wide range of questions that related to different services. Options previously considered to address this had included cascading service issues to the relevant Scrutiny Panels or focusing finance sessions on specific service areas at different stages in the year. It was agreed that further discussion would be required with the Finance team on how best to structure future sessions. (ACTION)

Scrutiny Officer, Dominic O'Brien, informed the Committee that the performance updates had previously taken place twice per year (at the end of Quarter 1 and Quarter 3). The new Corporate Delivery Plan was not expected to be available for scrutiny until later in the year but there was also expected to be a new Local Outcomes Framework (LOF) published by national government which would display data outcomes in local authority areas across the country. The Committee agreed that an update on how performance would work in 2026/27 and the anticipated format of the data that would be available to scrutinise should be brought to the Committee meeting in July 2026. (ACTION) Jess Crowe added that the LOF would consider outcomes for a local area and would include a range of data rather than be limited to specific local government indicators. The Council had therefore been undertaking work to establish how best to interact with the requirements to report against particular indicators.

Cllr das Neves commented that effective scrutiny of performance data was an area that would be useful to cover in training for Councillors. (ACTION) Cllr Cawley-Harrison suggested that performance scrutiny should include a focus on corporate performance including the success on transformation and outcomes previously set out in Council strategy documents.

It was noted that the item to question the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive was now unlikely to go ahead in July, but Committee Members emphasised the importance of this taking place at the September meeting at the latest.

-       Tues 21^st Jul (7pm)

-       Thurs 17^th Sep (7pm)

-       Mon 26^th Oct (7pm)

-       Mon 30^th Nov (7pm)

-       Thurs 10^th Dec (7pm)

-       Mon 18^th Jan (7pm)

-       Thurs 25^th Feb (7pm)

-       Thurs 18^th Mar (7pm)

It was noted that Scrutiny Panel meetings would commence in September and October 2026.

Committee Members were reminded that finance training would be repeated on 9^th July 2026 for any Councillors who had not been able to attend the initial session.