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 Venassa Naidoo and Lourdes Keever. Apologies for lateness were received from Cllr Simmons Safo.

There were no items of Urgent Business.

The Clerk advised that an old version of the Scrutiny Protocol had been appended to the Membership and Terms of Reference report in error. The most up to date version was tabled at the meeting.

None.

None.

To agree the minutes of the meeting of 30^th March 2023 as a correct record.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting of 30^th March 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:

·         Housing, Planning and Development Scrutiny Panel – 27 February 2023

·         Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel – 13^th March 2023

·         Environment and Community Safety Scrutiny Panel – 16 March 2023

·         Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Panel – 23 March 2023

RESOLVED

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

·         Housing, Planning and Development Scrutiny Panel – 27 February 2023

·         Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel – 13^th March 2023

·         Environment and Community Safety Scrutiny Panel – 16 March 2023

·         Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Panel – 23 March 2023

Verbal Update.

The Committee received a verbal update from Cllr Ahmet, the Leader of the Council, on her priorities for the next municipal year. This was followed by a questions and answer session with the Committee. The Chief Executive, Andy Donald was also present for this agenda item. The Leader set out her priorities which are summarised below:

• The agenda that the administration is pursuing was about shifting the culture of the Council. The Leader characterised the approach as being collaborative, competent, and radical.
• The administration had a string focus on how the Council worked, as well as what the Council did. This was packaged as the Haringey Deal. As part of the Haringey Deal, the administration was looking at getting the basics right.
• There were also key manifesto commitments around climate, housing, and cost of living.
• The Council has pledged to work better with communities and be more engaged. As part of this there have been Cabinet meetings held in the community.
• The Committee was advised that the administration wanted to take every opportunity to make sure that councillors were involved in making changes, such as changes to the website, member enquiries and the housing improvement plan.  
• Underpinning all of this was sound financial management.

The Haringey Deal was about how the Council would get things done and some of the key aspects of this were identified as:

• Knowing our communities and the borough profile. There had just bene a census and it was acknowledged that things change over time. The Council needed to know who its residents were in order to be responsive to their needs in terms of both access and the services that are being delivered.
• Getting the basics right. The Council had to ensure that it delivered services to the best of its abilities
• Listening and prioritising relationships with residents. The Leader set out that she would like to hear the voices of people and groups that had often been overlooked in the past.
• Getting to a position where the Council shared its power.
• Learning from mistakes.

The Corporate Delivery Plan was described as the ‘what’ and this turned the manifesto into a set of tangible deliverables with dates and names attached to it. Some of the key aspects of this were around getting the basics right in the back office including HR, Finance, IT Procurement and reducing agency staff.

The Leader set out the key achievements of her administration:

·         Cost of living – the Here to Help campaign and the fact that the Council did its upmost to support people as part of the cost-of-living crisis.

·         Children’s social care has been rated good by Ofsted. The Leader characterised this as a watershed moment for Haringey and that the Council would be looking to build on this and achieve an outstanding rating going forward.

·         The SEND Safety Valve programme.

·         Haringey Learns was awarded a good rating by Ofsted.

·         Supporting Communities in crisis. The Leader advised that she had personally met with a number of communities across Haringey,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 84.

To follow

The Committee received a report which provided an update on the new performance framework that had been developed as part of the Corporate Delivery Plan. The Corporate Delivery Plan sets out what the Council would deliver over the next 18 months and was agreed by Cabinet in January 2023. The Committee was advised that the first performance report available to OSC would be in September 2023 and that updates from there on would be every 6 months. The report was introduced by Claire McCarthy AD Strategy, Communications and Collaboration as set out in the additional reports pack at page 1. The following arose as part of the discussion of this item:

a.    The Committee sought clarification over the fact that the first round of updates was done in April but that the Committee would not be receiving a report until September. In response, officers advised that the first reporting round was done largely as a test of the system, Monday.com, and the process of services self-reporting their data on to that system. As a result of that first round there would be some learning points incorporated for future rounds. The Committee would receive the first set of performance data in September. Officers advised that work had been undertaken to ensure that there was additional quality control in place and that the information received was valuable.

b.    The Chair acknowledged the explanation given by officers, but expressed a degree of frustration that there was no performance information available to the Committee to scrutinise today. The Chair commented that performance was a key area of focus for scrutiny and he looked forward to being able to review it. Officers agreed to supply a performance report for the October OSC meeting. (Action: Clerk).

c.    The Chair noted that, in the timetable included in the report,  the following report was scheduled for April and asked whether the timeframe could be tweaked so that the performance information could be received for the March OSC meeting instead. Officers agreed to consider whether a report could be produced for March or whether an alternative could be put in place, such as producing interim reports. (Action: Claire McCarthy).

d.    The Committee agreed that they would like to establish quarterly performance briefings with the chairs of each scrutiny panel on finance, risk and performance. The main Committee would receive 6-monthly performance updates at its regular meetings. It was agreed that service level officers should also be present for these meetings to ensure that operational questions could be answered.

e.    The Scrutiny officers agreed to have a conversation with officers outside of the meeting about establishing the performance reporting framework for Scrutiny. (Action: Scrutiny Officer).

RESOLVED

Noted.

Appendix D, Overview & Scrutiny Remits and Membership 2023/24  - To follow.

The Committee considered a report which set out the Membership of OSC and the four scrutiny panels, along with their respective terms of reference.

RESOLVED

That the Committee:

1. Noted the terms of reference (attached at Appendix A of the report), Protocol (attached at Appendix B of the report) for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and its Panels, and the Protocol for non-voting co-opted Members on Scrutiny Panels (attached at Appendix C of the report;
2. Agreed a change of name for the Environment & Community Safety Scrutiny Panel to Climate, Community Wellbeing and Culture Scrutiny Panel; and
3. Agreed to establish the following Scrutiny Panels for 2023/24: - Adults and Health; - Children and Young People; - Climate, Community Wellbeing and Culture; and - Housing, Planning and Development;
4. Approved the remits and membership for each Scrutiny Panel for 2023/24 (Appendix D of the report); and
5. Appoint Cllrs Connor and White as Haringey representatives to the North Central London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee for 2023/24

The Committee considered a report which set out the process for developing a work programme for the year. The report was introduced by Dominic O’Brien, Scrutiny Officer.

The Committee noted the upcoming meeting dates in relation to the Scrutiny Review on violence against women and girls.

The Committee put forward the following suggestions for possible future agenda items:

·         What the future service provision offer around leisure might look like.

·         Elections and the impact of voter ID requirements

·         The Council’s insourcing approach going forward and lessons learned from the insourcing of housing.

·         Some pre-scrutiny work around the new waste contract

A co-opted members emphasised the need for disability access in any future leisure service provision.

The Chair requested an update in relation to a recommendation from the review on the proliferation of gambling, which was around commissioning a targeted piece of research to look at the specific harms in Haringey. Officers agreed to review the twelve month follow up on this and come back to Members in writing. (Action: Dominic).

The Committee requested that the feedback from the scrutiny café be recirculated. (Action: Philip).

RESOLVED

Noted.

N/A

·         24 July 2023

·         12 Oct 2023

·         27 Nov 2023

·         9 Jan 2024

·         18 Jan 2024 (Budget)

·         11 March 2024

Noted as:

·         24 July 2023

·         12 Oct 2023

·         27 Nov 2023

·         9 Jan 2024

·         18 Jan 2024 (Budget)

·         11 March 2024