Agenda and draft 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.

None.

Cllr das Neves informed the Committee that Cllr Anne Gray had been appointed to the Committee by Full Council the previous day. This had followed the departure of Cllr Bethany Anderson from the Committee. Further details had been provided in the supplementary agenda pack and the report would be discussed under item 7 of the agenda.

None.

None.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting, held on 22^nd June 2026, as an accurate record.

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

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 22^nd June 2026 be approved as an accurate record.

Report to follow.

Cllr Lucia das Neves drew the Committee’s attention to the recommendations in the report for this item.

The Committee noted that Cllr Bethany Anderson had resigned as a member of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee and that Cllr Anne Gray had replaced her following her appointment to the Overview & Scrutiny Committee by Full Council on 20^th July 2026.

The Committee also noted the changes to the membership of Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel and the Housing, Planning & Development Scrutiny Panel as set out in paragraphs 4.6 and 4.7 of the report.

The Committee determined that Cllr Anne Gray:

·       be appointed as the Chair of the Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel, and

·       be appointed as one of the two Haringey representatives on the North Central London Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee (NCL JHOSC). (NOTE: the other Haringey representative on the NCL JHOSC was Cllr Lucia das Neves as appointed at the previous meeting of the Committee)

RESOLVED –

That Cllr Anne Gray be appointed as the Chair of the Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel.

That Cllr Anne Gray be appointed as a member of the North Central London Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

To scrutinise the provisional outturn for 2025/26 for the General Fund (GF), Housing Revenue Account (HRA), Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and the Capital Programme compared to the original budget agreed by Council in March 2025. The report provided for this item was originally submitted to the meeting of the Cabinet on 14th July 2026.

Attendees for this item were:

·       Cllr Johann Beckford, Cabinet Member for Finance & Corporate Services

·       Taryn Eves, Corporate Director of Finance & Resources and S151

·       Josephine Lyseight, Director of Finance and Deputy S151 Officer

Cllr Johann Beckford introduced the report for this item noting that it reflected a difficult set of financial circumstances for the Council and challenging national circumstances following years of austerity. Specific points that he highlighted included that:

• The Council had required £40.6m of Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) in 2025/26, which was a significant increase on the £10m required the previous year.
• The Council had spent £792m on providing services in 2025/26, including 5,890 residents using adult social care services, 4,671 using children’s social care, and 2,725 in temporary accommodation.
• Spending on the largest services was connected to the broader picture in these areas, such as a housing market that fed the need for temporary accommodation. The new administration would be open about the financial responsibilities that the Council had to address but would also be an outward looking and campaigning Council on the changes required at a national policy level.

Taryn Eves then added the following points:

• The £40.6m EFS requirement in 2025/26 was higher than the £37m figure that had been anticipated at the beginning of the year. However, it was lower than the £54m figure that was being reported at Quarter 3.
• There had been a £15.5m overspend on services. There was a range of overspends and underspends as shown in Table 1 in the report.
• There had been an underspend in adult social care which was largely due to holding down inflation levels in services that the Council commissioned.
• An ongoing pressure was temporary accommodation where there had been an overspend of £7m, although this represented a £3.4m improvement on Quarter 3. There had been some improvements due to the impact of initiatives that had been put in place but there were still high numbers in nightly paid accommodation.
• Environment & Resident Experience (E&RE) had a £5.8m overspend which was largely from the parking and highway service and slippage in the delivery of staffing savings.
• Finance, Procurement & Audit had a £4.9m overspend which was largely driven by the corporate property portfolio.
• The second part of Table 1 showed £6m of unallocated Corporate Contingency which contributed to the overall bottom line. It also showed a £2.9m underspend on the Treasury Management Charges resulted from lower borrowing due to a 40% slippage in the capital programme. It also reflected slightly higher interest rates on the balances that were invested during the year.
• The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) reported a £3.2m overspend which was entirely from the high-needs block. This had been an ongoing trend over the past couple of years which was not unique to Haringey.
• There was a £4.3m deficit on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) which had required a drawdown of funds from the HRA reserves which had been reduced to around £15m. Relevant factors included a high level of voids and assumptions about the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Verbal update on developments relating to performance indicators, the new Corporate Delivery Plan (CDP) and the Local Outcomes Framework (LOF).

Taryn Eves provided an update to the Committee on issues relating to performance data:

• The Committee had previously requested an update on the Council’s position in relation to the Local Outcomes Framework (LOF) which was a set of place-based metrics developed by the MHCLG to measure performance on key services relevant to residents. Due to recent change in political leadership in central government, there had been a pause in the launch of the LOF and so it had not been possible to provide a full update to the Committee.
• In terms of performance more generally, the work on the Corporate Delivery Plan (CDP) was underway and was expected to be brought to the Cabinet in October or November. This would set out the performance indicators that would measure progress against the actions in the CDP. This could then be considered by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee. The first set of performance data was expected to be related to Quarter 3 early in 2027.
• She added that the Cabinet were keen on the development of transparent dashboards from a financial and performance perspective which would be linked to the CDP and based on measures that really mattered to residents.

Cllr Beckford commented that the aim of the approach was transparency to enable scrutiny from both Councillors and residents. A financial transparency dashboard could be used proactively in communications with residents and enable more meaningful interaction and engagement. 

Cllr das Neves said that it would be useful for the Committee to discuss this further to explore the early ideas and understand the direction of the approach in advance of the formal publication of the new CDP and the performance data. (ACTION)

-       To note the current 2026/27 work programme for the Committee and to propose any amendments as required.

-       To consider and approve a Scrutiny Review on Communications with Residents (Adult Social Care).

At the outset of this item, Cllr das Neves declared that, in accordance with Part Four, Section G of the Council’s Constitution and paragraph 2.1, she would be recusing herself from this part of the meeting for item 11, Appendix C: Scrutiny Review – Communications with Residents (Adult Social Care). This was because, whilst the review was undertaken and concluded, she was the Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing.

Cllr das Neves then left the meeting.

Cllr Cawley-Harrison chaired this part of the meeting. He explained that the Committee were invited to consider and approve the Scrutiny Review on Communications with Residents (Adult Social Care). This report had been completed by the previous Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel in March 2026. However, it could not be signed off by the previous Overview & Scrutiny Committee as time was needed for the witnesses to the Review to make accuracy checks. This process had now been completed and the final report was provided on Page 171 of the agenda pack.

The Committee indicated that they were content to approve the draft report without any amendments and placed on record their thanks to the membership of the previous Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel for their work on this Review.

RESOLVED – That the Scrutiny Review on Communications with Residents (Adult Social Care) be approved and sent to the Cabinet for a response to be provided on the recommendations.

Cllr das Neves then rejoined the meeting and resumed the chairing of proceedings.

With regard to the Committee’s overall work programme, Cllr das Neves advised the Committee that there would shortly be a session with the Centre for Governance & Scrutiny on best practice for scrutiny and how best for the Committee to align itself with the new context of the Borough. There would also be a general training session on scrutiny for all Panel Members.

Cllr Cawley-Harrison proposed that an agenda item on the customer service experience could be added to the work programme. Scrutiny Officer, Dominic O'Brien, advised that the next available space for such an item would be at the October meeting and also noted that an item on digital transformation had also been suggested earlier in the meeting. Cllr Small noted that agenda items on these issues had been held in 2025/26 and so it was agreed that the reports and minutes from these items be circulated to the Committee before a decision was taken on whether further updates would be suitable. (ACTION)

To consider and determine next steps for the partially completed Scrutiny Review on Walking & Cycling Safety.

Cllr das Neves noted that this item was to consider next steps for the partially completed Scrutiny Review on Walking & Cycling Safety which had been developed by the previous Culture, Community Safety & Environment Scrutiny Panel.

Scrutiny Officer, Dominic O'Brien explained that the interim report had been seen by the previous Overview & Scrutiny Committee in March 2026 and it was determined that the new Committee would need decide on how best to take this piece of work forward.

Cllr Cawley-Harrison advised the Committee that he had been a member of the previous Culture, Community Safety & Environment Scrutiny Panel and had worked on the Review. He drew the Committee’s attention to paragraph 3.2 of the report which stated that scope of the Review had been narrowed to focus on the Walking and Cycling Action Plan in the context of exploring what safe cycling looked like for everyone in Haringey including pedestrians.

Cllr das Neves suggested that the Review be formally passed to the new Culture, Community Safety & Environment Scrutiny Panel which was now chaired by Cllr Small.

Cllr Small commented that he wanted the whole Panel to have a say on how best to take the Review forward but that he would convey to them the comments made by the Committee. He added that there had been two recent developments in this area - the contracts for the dockless bicycles had been retendered and the change of administration meant that there could potentially be a change of policy emphasis. 

RESOLVED – That the decision on the next steps for the partially completed Scrutiny Review on Walking & Cycling Safety be delegated to the Culture, Community Safety and Environment Scrutiny Panel.  

-       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)

-       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)