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 item one on the agenda in respect of filming at the meeting and Members noted the information contained therein.

Apologies for absence were received from Vanessa Holt and Yvonne Denny.  

The clerk advised that there would be a change to the order of the meeting from what was listed in the published agenda, so that the Cabinet Member questions were taken immediately following the declarations of interest, as the Cabinet Member needed to leave the meeting at a specific time. The rest of the items would follow in the order they were listed on the published agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

Verbal Update

The Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Jobs and Community Cohesion, Cllr Jogee, gave a short verbal update to the Committee on his portfolio. This was followed by a Q&A session.

·         Cllr Jogee characterised his portfolio as creating jobs, creating opportunities, ensuring the economy worked for local people. As well as ensuring that Haringey was safe for Haringey’s communities to live and work here.

·         The Cabinet Member advised that earlier today he was part of a session, chaired by the Leader and the Borough Commander to discuss the findings of recent report by Baroness Casey into the attitudes and culture of the Metropolitan Police. The Cabinet Member commented that the report made clear that the atmosphere and culture of the police needed to change.

·         The Cabinet Member commented that the Council would shortly be going out to engagement with residents on the new community safety and hate crime strategy. The Cabinet Member emphasised that this was an important opportunity for local people to shape how these issues were tackled.

·         The Cabinet Member advised that as part of the Economic Development brief he was responsible for Haringey Learns and that he was proud of the Council’s adult learning provision.

·         Haringey Works created job opportunities for local people and the Cabinet Member set out that he wanted Haringey the best place to operate and keep a local business, as well as the best place for people to come and spend money.

The following arose as part of the discussion of this item:

a.    The Committee sought assurances about what was being done to support high streets and to rejuvenate declining high streets. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that he was working to ensure that there was a proper package of support in place, including support with energy costs. The Cabinet Member acknowledged he need to lobby government to provide the requisite support and funding.

b.    The Committee sought assurances about what was being do to ensure that there was trust built between the police and communities. In response the Cabinet Member emphasised the importance of making sure that the police reflected the communities they served. The Cabinet Member advised that he was not able to influence operational decision making by the police but that he saw his role as holding the police to account and calling out where things had been done that were not right. The Cabinet Member advised that he had regular meetings with the police and emphasised the importance of having dedicated ward officers and functioning SNT teams in Haringey.

c.    In response to a follow-up question, the Cabinet Member advised that he had conversations with senior local police officers every other day. In response to a specific case raised that had not been responded to despite happening one year ago, the Cabinet Member advised that he was happy to take this up on behalf of one of the panel chairs.

d.    The Committee sought assurances about what was being done to bring empty shops back into use  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67.

Deputation

The Council received a deputation around the lack of public toilet provision in Haringey on behalf of an organisation called Loos for Haringey, who were linked to the Haringey Over 50s forum. The deputation party was made up of: Patrice Wellesley-Cole; Gordon Peters; Ceri Williams; and Dr John Miles. The following key points of the deputation were noted:

• The lack of clean, accessible public toilets trapped people at home and prevented them from getting out and about. It was suggested that one in five got out of the house less than they would like, because of a lack of available toilets.
• Isolation and loneliness for people over 50 was a major factor.
• Only around 33% of public toilets in London are accessible to disabled people.
• The benefits of improving public toilet provision were set out as: people spending more time in Haringey shopping areas, businesses and cafés; reducing social isolation in Haringey; improving active lifestyles and tackling ill health.
• The deputation party requested that a meeting with a nominated Cabinet Member to discuss their concerns. They also requested that Haringey developed a strategy for improving public toilet provision and reported back on implementing this.
• Loos for Haringey advised that they had interacted with LBH officers and had met positive responses from the Ageing well partnership Board, but that they were requesting that the Council adopt a joined-up approach. Concerns were raised about particular areas of shut-off toilets, such as at Turnpike Lane; those in poor condition, such as at Chestnuts Park; and the lack of public toilet provision at Tottenham Hale Retail Park.

The following arose in discussion of the deputation:

1. The Committee sought clarification about what was being requested and also sought the deputation party’s views on the use of toilets owned by private businesses. In response, the deputation party advised that they recognised the importance of the community toilet scheme and the changing places scheme but the changing places scheme was only for those with a disability. Therefore, there needed to be a more joined up approach.
2. The Committee sought clarification about the proposed toilet strategy and how the community could be engaged on this. The toilet strategy had a key role in bringing all of the different strands together and to set out how and when the Council would improve provision. The deputation party commented that they were asking for a strategy with mixed providers and one which provided toilets that were geographically well spread around the borough.
3. The Committee commented on the need for different types of public toilets, including specialist public toilet provision for disabled children.
4. The Committee queried whether the deputation party was seeking the re-provision of disused public toilets or whether new toilets should be provided through planning requirements for future developments. In response, the Committee was advised that as part of a joined up approach that planning policy should play a role in provision of new public toilets but what was missing was that nobody in the Council seemed to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.

To agree the minutes of the previous meetings as a correct record:

·         12^th January 2023

·         19^th January 2023

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meetings on 12^th January 2023 and 19^th January 2023 were agreed as a correct record.

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

·         Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel – 8^th December 2022

·         Joint meeting of Adults and Children’s Panels – 9^th February 2023

·         Environment & Community Safety Panel – 15^th December 2022

·         Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Panel – 3^rd January 2023

·         Housing, Planning & Development Scrutiny Panel – 12^th December 2022

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the following Scrutiny Panels were noted and any recommendations contained within were improved:

·         Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel – 8^th December 2022

·         Joint meeting of Adults and Children’s Panels – 9^th February 2023

·         Environment & Community Safety Panel – 15^th December 2022

·         Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Panel – 3^rd January 2023

·         Housing, Planning & Development Scrutiny Panel – 12^th December 2022

The Committee received a report which summarised Member Enquiries, complaints, Ombudsman caseload and FOI activity alongside performance from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022. The report was set out in the agenda pack at pages 71 to 92. An amendment to the published section 4 of the report was provided in the addendum report pack at page 11. The report was introduced by Cllr Seema Chandwani, Cabinet Member for Tackling Inequality and Residents Services. Kirsten Webb, Customer Experience Manger, Andy Briggs, AD for Corporate & Customer Services, and Elaine Prado, Head of Customer Experience and Operations, were present for this item. Beverley Tarka, Director of Adult Social Care was also present. The Cabinet Members for: Housing Services, Private Renters and Planning; Children, Schools and Families; and Health Social Care and Wellbeing were all present for this item.

The following arose during the discussion of this report:

a.    The Committee queried about the time lag in the report, given that the figures related to 2021-22. In response, officers advised that in the past these reports had been submitted around October but that since Covid there had been delays in receiving information from the Ombudsman and other statutory services as they were still catching up. Officers advised that they hoped the 2022-23 report would be produced earlier in the year and that they would also be looking to revise its format, so that it was not so backwards looking.

b.    The Committee sought assurances about the drop off in performance in relation to the percentage of complaints replied to on time in Children’s Services and in Adults. The Committee also queried what lessons had been learned and the extent to which these figures could have been worse without Covid. In response the Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families acknowledged the low scores and advised that there was work underway to better understand how the figures had been calculated and how to improve. A working group had been set up to look at this issue. It was commented that children’s social care complaints could often be complicated and that this would likely impact performance. There was a statutory 20 day turnaround timescale for these complaints, which could have an impact on the performance scores in relation to other services. There were also complaints that would be complicated by legal proceedings and the time taken to progress these cases through the courts. The Council had employed an officer dedicated to resolving complaints and it was hoped this would help improve scores going forward.

c.    In relation to the above question, the Cabinet Member for Health Social Care and Wellbeing acknowledged that nobody thought that these figures looked good and that work was being undertaken to look at how service requests were handled to ensure that they did not turn into complaints. The Committee was advised that work was being done to look at how service requests/complaints were dealt with at the front end, how they were responded to and how they were tracked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71.

The Committee received a report which provided an update on the Building Safety Act and anticipated changes to regulations for high rise residential buildings. The report also set out details of the Council’s resident engagement strategy around these changes. The report was introduced by Cllr Carlin, Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters & Planning. The Director of Placemaking and Housing was also present, along with the Head of Building Compliance. The report was introduced as set out in the additional report pack at pages 13 to 40. The following arose as part of the discussion of this report:

a.    The Committee noted some concerns after reading the report and sought assurances around whether all of the safety issued had been addressed, particularly following the recent fire at Kenneth Robbins House. The Committee requested clarification as to whether the eight medium priority actions relating to fire safety had been addressed. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that the building safety requirements were not to only in relation to fire safety . The Cabinet Member commented that the outstanding fire safety actions were all categorised as medium risk and would be addressed as part of the major works programme starting at the end of the year. Officers clarified that the report referenced Kenneth Robins House as it was the pilot building for the pilot building safety case. The report was in response to a previous action on building safety cases and was not about the recent fire.

b.    In relation to the fire at Kenneth Robins House, the Cabinet Member and officers gave firm reassurances to the Committee that the building performed as well as it was expected to perform, with its stay put policy in place, and that all of the fire doors held and the fire was contained in the flat it started in. A meeting was held with residents and the Borough Commander of the fire brigade, during this meeting the Borough Commander assured residents that Kenneth Robbins House was safe.

c.    The Committee raised concerns about a report released by the regulator for social housing that noted that Haringey had failed to complete a large number of remedial actions and sought assurances that there was sufficient staffing resources in the team to address this. In response, the Director advised that the Council had referred itself to the regulator and would be meeting monthly with the regulator to work through the actions identified until the notice was lifted. The Cabinet Member advised that some of the actions would be long term in nature and that strong mitigations would be put in place in the interim. In relation to staffing resources, the Director advised that he was building up the staffing resources within the building compliance team and that this was one of the tasks that had arisen following the transfer of housing services in-house. The Director commented that every local authority and housing association would also be looking to recruit additional staff in this area because of the additional  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72.

RESOLVED

     I.        That Cllr Ali be appointed to replace Cllr Wallace on the Environment & Community Safety Scrutiny Panel.

    II.        That Cllr Mason be appointed to fill the vacant position on the Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel.

RESOLVED

Noted.

N/A

TBC

The meetings for 2023/24 will be agreed at Annual Council on 15^th May.