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 Cllr Gunes and Cllr Connor.

Cllr Connor and Cllr Worrell joined the meeting virtually through Microsoft Teams.

The Chair noted that Yvonne Denny resigned as a co-opted member of the Committee. The Committee thanked Yvonne for her many years of sitting on Scrutiny and passed on their best wishes to her.

The Chair advised that as there were only two Members of the Committee present in the room, the meeting was inquorate (with three members being required for a quorum). The scrutiny officer advised that the meeting would therefore have to continue on an informal basis. As the meeting was inquorate, no decisions could be taken by the Committee, these would need to be ratified by the Committee at another meeting, when there was a quorum.

The Members agreed to hold a short meeting on the 24^th June to formally agree any decisions that it was unable to take this evening. (Action: Philip).

None

None.

To agree the minutes of the meetings of 9^th January 2024, 1^st February 2024 and 11^th March 2024, as a correct record.

The Committee noted the minutes of the previous meetings. There were no points of accuracy raised.

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

·         Housing, Planning & Development Scrutiny Panel – 13^th March 2024

·         Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel – 22^nd February 2024

·         Climate, Community Safety & Culture Scrutiny Panel – 27^th February 2024

·         Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Panel – 5^th March

The Committee noted the minutes of the following meetings:

·         Housing, Planning & Development Scrutiny Panel – 13^th March 2024

·         Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel – 22^nd February 2024

·         Climate, Community Safety & Culture Scrutiny Panel – 27^th February 2024

·         Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Panel – 5^th March

The minutes would need to be formally agreed as a correct record at the Committee’s next meeting. (Action: Philip).

The Committee received a report which set out the Membership and Terms of reference for Overview & Scrutiny Committee and the four Scrutiny Panel that sit below the main Committee.

RESOLVED

That the Committee:

(a)   Noted the terms of reference, as set out at Appendix A of the report, the Protocol for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and its Panels at Appendix B, and the Protocol for non-voting co-opted Members on Scrutiny Panels at Appendix C;

(b)   Subject to approval by the Committee at its meeting on 24^th June, established the following Scrutiny Panels for 2024/25: 

-       Adults and Health; 

-       Children and Young People; 

-       Climate, Community Safety and Environment; and 

-       Housing, Planning and Development;

(c)   Subject to approval by the Committee at its meeting on 24^th June,  approved the remits and membership for each Scrutiny Panel for 2024/25 as set out in Appendix of the report; and

(d)   Proposed that Cllr Matt White and Cllr Pippa Connor be appointed as the two Haringey representatives to the North Central London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee for 2024/25, subject to approval by the Committee at its meeting on 24^th June.

The Committee received a report which sought comments on how best to develop the scrutiny work programme and sought member’s input into how targeted, inclusive and timely work could be undertaken around issues of local importance. The report was introduced by Philip Slawther, Scrutiny Officer as set out at pages 107-119 of agenda pack. Members were also asked to propose items for upcoming meetings in July and September. The following arose as part of the discussion:

a.    The Committee commented that they were broadly supportive of coming up with a different approach for a scrutiny café event. It was agreed that the session should be quite informal and conversational in nature, rather than a series a deputations or pitches.

b.    The Chair of the Adults panel suggested that she would like to be able to hear from frontline staff and to hear their perspective. It was suggested that this could perhaps be done through the unions.

c.    It was suggested that the Comms around the event should be framed in terms of ‘how you can help us improve council services’. It was noted that the idea of scrutiny and what it does might not mean a lot to most residents.

d.    It was proposed that Scrutiny needed to hear from a wide array of people and that it was be good to speak to people who perhaps didn’t engage with the Council very often. Local colleges were suggested as one cohort of people that members would like to engage with.

e.    Members suggested that a key age demographic would be 18-35.

f.     It was suggested that the café event should seek to hear from people who use council services, particularly private renters, council tenants, leaseholders and also potentially landlords. The Chair commented that organisations such as Acorn or LRU perhaps represented a fairly narrow group of very politically engaged tenants/renters.

g.    It was suggested that scrutiny would also like to hear from councillor colleagues, particularly in terms of persistent or unusual issues that have come up as part of casework and whether some of these people could be invited to the event.  

h.    In response to comments about whether Members were happy with having one event covering each of the panels, the Chair commented that he was in favour of one event – particularly as four different events might make it even harder for people to understand what was happening and which session they should attend.

i.      Members had differing opinions on whether it should be one joint session or whether there should be different stalls for each panel and attendees could focus on a particular stall.  The idea of timeslots was welcomed, in terms of trying to keep a degree of structure. Another possible suggestion was noted as having one joint session but allocating say an hour for each panel area.

j.      The Chair of the Housing Panel suggested that she would prefer to see small groups of people speaking to a particular panel chair and that this could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

N/A

·         23 July 2024

·         14 October 2024

·         25 November 2024

·         12 December 2024 (Budget – CSE).

·         20 January 2025 (Budget)

·         27 March 2025

The future meeting dates were noted as:

·         23 July 2024

·         14 October 2024

·         25 November 2024

·         12 December 2024

·         20 January 2025 (Budget)

·         27 March 2025