Agenda and minutes

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The Chair referred Members present to Item 1 as shown on the agenda and ran through requirements. Members noted the information contained therein.

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To agree the minutes of the meeting on 24^th June as a correct record.

The minutes of 24^th June 2024 were AGREED as a true and accurate record.

Verbal update

The Leader, Cllr Ahmet introduced the Corporate Development Plan for 2024 – 2026 and ran through the achievements of the council so far.  Information that was highlighted is included below.

·         A translation policy has been introduced and will be bedded down into corporate culture over the next year. Several initiatives were to be trialed next year including a Participatory Budgeting Pilot, a Community Assembly, and a Youth Council.

·         It was mentioned that in response to the Climate Emergency, engagement work had started on the Climate Partnership and Forum.  This is the basis for a Climate Action Plan to be co- produced with residents. More school streets are also planned for next year and 400 more EV point locations by 2026.

·         The senior management team are working on a 10-year vision for the borough and are involving stakeholders in this.

·         The Homes for the Future Board chaired by Andy Donald are driving improvements and standards in housing. Consequently, the housing repairs complaints backlog is down and resident satisfaction with repairs is up. SLT is now focusing on reducing voids and housing disrepair legal cases. It was emphasised that Housing and Housing Repair had been a major priority for the last two years after Homes for Haringey had been brought back in-house. It was pointed out that the council had self-referred to the regulator and not shied away from doing what was necessary to get Housing up to standard. Timely progress has been made and work is still being done to get the service up to the level that residents expect. In the design and quality of builds, a new focus has been made on family sized and intermediate income housing. And the placemaking aspect of building was emphasised as key to creating great communities.

·         It was also noted that the borough had also built up a new Culture Team, which has led to Haringey being named the Borough of Culture in 2027. The library strategy has also been co-produced with residents and Cllr Arkell was now leading on its implementation.

·         Meetings were being held on a regular basis with Jewish and Muslim community groups in the area to reduce hate crime and increase safety following the events of Oct 7th. Also, Community Safety and Hate Crime strategies have been delivered. Other work included the effect of ‘Stop and Search’ and trauma on young people in the area. The council are also building a gambling harm reduction strategy for the borough.

·         Through Haringey Works, 800 residents have been placed in employment so far.

·         It was noted that the budget was a significant challenge with little or no funding expected from the government. The cost of adult and children’s social care had increased and was set to increase further, as had the price and availability of temporary accommodation.

·          It was pointed out that there were issues with clearing up the council’s property portfolio and historic leases.

·         The council will continue to work towards 100% decency in Housing Standards.

·         The insourcing of leisure centers  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

Cllr Carlin introduced the report, as summarised below.

• Reducing agency staff was a key priority of the council. However, in the pre-election period, there was a proposed increase in funding for the Matrix Contract - which at the time was up for renewal.
•  Cllr Carlin highlighted that the Matrix contract renewal should be seen as part of the overall workforce strategy - and in context of the actions taken to reduce the number of agency workers, including monthly performance monitoring of agency staff and quarterly meetings with directors to discuss making staff permanent.
• Although this approach had driven down numbers of agency staff, she noted that there were specific work areas where being made permanent was not an incentive. 
• A specific effort was being made to make permanent those agency staff who have been with the council for more than a year.
• However, converting the highest paid agency staff to permanent may not be cheaper for the council.   Pension arrangements are 23.5% for permanent staff whereas only 3% for agency staff.
• Previously spending on agency staff was £45 million, whereas now costs are £40million and are being driven down further.

The floor was open to questions from the Committee.

• Cllr White noted that the council had a drive to reduce agency workers – but the Matrix contract was being extended for an increased amount. He asked whether this was because efforts to reduce agency staff had been unsuccessful or were there other factors involved. Cllr Carlin responded that additional costs within the contract were because of unforeseen factors, such as the migration of staff from Homes For Haringey. In addition, post 2021 there had been an increase in salaries and extra costs associated with that. Furthermore, the council had migrated all agency workers on to Matrix contracts to reduce overheads. Cllr Carlin also noted that the focused drive to reduce agency staff has only recently been driven and overseen by the CEO and corporate centre. Now, every agency worker must be signed off by a director. This has resulted in a culture shift within the organisation- which is beginning to bear fruit.

• A question was asked by Cllr Connor about the difference in cost between retaining staff as agency and putting all agency members on a permanent payroll. Dan Paul responded that there was no easy answer to this. Some agency staff are employed on council pay scales whereas others are not. The Committee should also consider that permanent staff members are entitled to more pension contributions and agency margin rates may also vary by tenure.

• Cllr Connor then asked when migration occurred from Homes For Haringey, if there had been an opportunity to put Homes for Haringey agency staff on permanent contracts. Mr. Paul responded that there had not been an opportunity at the point of migration, however all agency staff employed by Homes for Haringey had been migrated onto the Matrix contract therefore increasing the contract value.

• Cllr Connor asked why it is difficult to compare the number  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

Cllr Carlin introduced the Q4 report and provisional outturn for 2023- 2024.

·         Cllr Carlin noted that throughout the year her department had predicted a considerable overspend in the corporate budget. This was due to the increased cost of adult social care, children’s social care and temporary accommodation. Also, there was additional spend that came in late in the year, after the budget setting process. Consequently, these factors combined to create a £19million overspend in the corporate budget.

·         The overspend was covered from reserves at the end of the year, however the council used more than anticipated. The predicted overspend earlier in the year was £11 million, however £19 million was the final total.

·         Cllr Carlin assured the committee that steps were being taken to ensure that directorates were delivering savings and processes were in place so that directorates could not overspend without detailing how the overspend could be reduced.

·         She also stated that the overspend had been predicted earlier in the year, so steps were taken to build in additional funding in the budget setting process last year. However, this means that there will be an additional £5 million gap this year.

The floor was open to questions from the Committee.

• Cllr White pointed out that he found this report very concerning. The additional spend had not been predicted accurately, which meant that reserves were significantly reduced. Their ongoing use will not be sustainable. He pointed out that the pressures that had led to the overspend in adult and children social care and temporary accommodation will continue. Although it was good to hear that there was a plan to recoup the reserves, he wanted to know how the council could accurately predict the demand-led service budgets considering that demand is growing greater every year and our reserves are dwindling.  Cllr Carlin responded that Haringey was not in an exceptional position. The government had provided 29 other boroughs with funds in exchange for the selling off of capital. Cllr Carlin added that in terms of demand-led services as an Outer London borough our demand is high, however it also means that our reserves are lower.  Cllr Carlin referred to Taryn Eves regarding the detailed plans to be put in place.

• Ms Eves then outlined that Haringey’s reserves are lower than other boroughs especially when looking at net spend.  She also stated that we would be facing significant uncertainty in the coming years, so her department had been planning for the worst-case scenario and no increase in government funding for 2025- 2026.  Over the next five years her focus was to get spending down, and to top-up reserves with small amounts to ensure sustainability in the future. More understanding was needed as to the risks that were faced when setting the budget and more scrutiny in understanding whether the pressures were ‘one-offs’ or reoccurring. She stated that she will be able to update the Committee in the autumn with regards to the progress being made in this and the work being done  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

Cllr White then asked the committee to agree some recommendations as to the workplan of 2024 -2026.

• A discussion was to be had by the Committee outside this meeting on any changes to the workplan. ACTION
•  The Committee then was asked to recommend some agenda items and areas of work for scrutiny for forthcoming meetings. Cllr White then suggested that the new performance report should be on an agenda and suggested another meeting to discuss more agenda items. ACTION

The Scope in terms of reference for the scrutiny review for the financial planning process was then AGREED by the Committee.

The proposal to delegate the task of reviewing the statement of gambling harms to The Climate, Community Safety and Environment Scrutiny Panel was also AGREED by the Committee

·         14 October 2024

·         25 November 2024

·         12 December 2024 (Budget – CSE).

·         20 January 2025 (Budget)

·         27 March 2025

·         14 October 2024

·         25 November 2024

·         12 December 2024 – Budget CSE

·         20 January 2025 -Budget

27 March 2025

No new items of urgent business were recorded.