Agenda and minutes

Venue: Civic Centre, High Road, Wood Green, N22 8LE. View directions

Contact: Philip Slawther, Principal Committee Co-ordinator 

Media

Items
No. Item

5.

FILMING AT MEETINGS

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.

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Minutes:

Noted.

6.

Apologies for Absence

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Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence.

7.

Urgent Business

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business. (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with at item below).

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Minutes:

None.

8.

Declarations of Interest

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

 

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

 

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

 

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct

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Minutes:

Councillor Jogee declared an interest in respect of item 10 on the agenda, as he was the EU Nationals Ambassador.

9.

Deputations/Petitions/Presentations/Questions

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, paragraph 29 of the Council’s constitution.

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Minutes:

None.

10.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 294 KB

To receive the minutes of the OSC meeting on 19th November 2018 and the Call-In meeting held on 6th December 2018 relating to the Tangmere and Northolt blocks on Broadwater Farm.

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Minutes:

The Chair noted that there were quite a few outstanding actions, and having discussed with the Committee it was felt that going forward, the Committee needed to be more stringent with setting deadlines for reports coming back to Overview and Scrutiny, or at least a response as to why it may not be possible to provide a report.

 

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings held on 19 November 2018 and 6 December 2018 be approved as a correct record.

11.

MINUTES OF SCRUTINY PANEL MEETINGS pdf icon PDF 150 KB

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

 

Children and Young People – 8th November 2018

Environment and Community Safety 16th October 2018

Adults and Health – 1st November 2018

Housing and Regeneration – 15th November 2018.

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Minutes:

The Committee noted the minutes of the Scrutiny Panels.  The Chair referred to the green flag reports for parks, and standards of parks and requested that this was investigated further as part of the work of the Environment and Community Safety Panel. 

 

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Scrutiny Panels be noted.

 

12.

CABINET MEMBER QUESTIONS - CABINET MEMBER FOR STRATEGIC REGENERATION

Verbal update.

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Minutes:

Councillor Adje – Cabinet Member for Strategic Regeneration – provided a brief outline of his recent Cabinet activities.  He and the Leader had met with the Haringey Business Alliance to discuss the development of a business pledge.  The Haringey Business Alliance were pleased with the pledge, and were happy that the Council was engaging with businesses in a meaningful way.  Further work would be undertaken in relation to formally recognising businesses which made a positive contribution locally and borough-wide.  There was a focus on employment and apprenticeships for local residents.

 

Councillor Adje responded to questions from the Committee:

-           Adult Education was not broken down into people with or without disabilities, and there was a wide range of initiatives available.  Councillor Adje would provide the prospectus of the team to the Committee.

-           The Council were looking to work with all businesses to identify barriers to trading, and to encourage growth where possible.  The main places being targeted were Tottenham High Road and Wood Green High Road.  One strategy was to encourage the letting of empty premises on a meanwhile basis so that there were fewer empty premises along the high roads.

-           Officers had been requested to review the Business Strategy as a whole, and to identify what was working, and to build on these, and to remove the strategies which did not work.  A briefing on the ‘quick-wins’ could be provided.  

 

Actions:

-                 Councillor Adje to provide information on education available for adults, and whether specific programmes were available for those with disabilities.

-                 Overview and Scrutiny Committee members to be invited to attend walk-about sessions with Councillor Adje when looking at the high roads and local businesses.

-                 Councillor Adje to provide information on meanwhile uses for empty premises – whether there was a strategy, and why the Council want to use empty properties in that way.

-                 Councillor Adje to provide information on funding for HEST apprenticeships, and the Council’s approach to apprenticeships.

-                 Councillor Adje to provide an overview of business support, including results so far from the review.

 

The Chair thanked Councillor Adje for attending.

13.

Budget Scrutiny - Priority X pdf icon PDF 236 KB

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Minutes:

Clerks note: The Chair varied the order of the agenda to take item 10 before item 9.  The minutes follow the order of the agenda.

 

Councillor Connor in the Chair

 

Richard Grice – Director for Customers, Transformation and Resources – and Councillor Tucker – Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Insourcing – provided an update on the budget proposals for Priority X.

 

The total savings for Priority X were small as the bulk of savings had been made in previous budgets.  95% of the savings were being achieved in two programmes of work.  The Front Office and Back Office (FOBO) programme would look at the processes and systems which support the way the organisation works.  This was a significant programme of change, and would involve reviewing processes, removing unnecessary changes, and replacing with automation in some cases.  It was likely that this would result in a loss of around 100 posts.  The other savings programme was the vacation and re-letting of office space in Alexandra House.  This was a challenging target, but should save £1m, although it was noted that the savings would not be realised until the space had been let.

 

The Council were also looking at how insourcing would work in the organisation, and it was acknowledged that if more services were directly provided, there would be more opportunities available to redploy staff who had been affected by other budget cuts.

 

In regard to advertising, there was a new contract for street furniture advertising, which had been let en-bloc, so the income would be provided up front.  The income for future years had been estimated based on potential new street furniture becoming available for advertising.

 

The Committee requested the following:

-           An update to be provided on the FOBO programme as a whole – which roles were likely to be cut, how the staff could be redeployed, the timeline for the programme, and how / when it would be appropriate for Overview and Scrutiny Committee to be involved.  This was requested for the end of March 2019.

-           Information to be provided on staff insourcing – the financial implications and when it would be appropriate for Overview and Scrutiny Committee to be involved.

-           For the OSC agenda pack for 28 January to include the previous savings for Priority x, proposed savings for 19/20, and the total of these, along with the Capital information which had been provided in the Cabinet papers.

-           For clarification on whether the capital spend on the IT and buildings upgrade was for buildings or for IT.

-           Further information to be provided on raising revenues through libraries, and the radical ways of working programme.

 

The Chair thanked all for attending.

14.

Haringey Brexit Preparedness pdf icon PDF 235 KB

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Minutes:

Joe McBride - Leader & Cabinet Support Team Manager – introduced the report as set out.  The Chief Executive had tasked a working group of officers to consider the key areas and services which could be affected by Brexit.  Coporate Board had agreed that the Council would pay the fee for the application for settled citizenship status for Council staff.  The Leader had written to all EU residents in the Borough, and Councillor Jogee had been appointed the EU Citizens Ambassador.  Regular conversations were taking place with London Councils and the Home Office in relation to community cohesion, and a local resident meeting had been arranged for 4 February 2019.

 

Joe McBride responded to questions from the Committee:

-           The cost to the Council of paying the settled citizenship status fee would be around £20,000 – a commitment had been made that these fund would be made available.

-           The Council were applying to the Home Office for a grant to fund schemes to raise awareness of the resettlement process, and to highlight this to people who do not access Council services, or feel that they do not have to go through the process.  Marcus Garvey and Wood Green libraries had been identified for suitable hubs to provide help and guidance on completing the online application.

-           FAQs would be provided to residents at the public meeting on 4 February – this information can also be made available for Councillors.

-           The Director for Finance was exploring current government funding and assessing the impact that Brexit could have on the borough – this could be shared with the Committee at their meeting in April.

Action: Clerk

 

The Chair thanked all for attending.

15.

Consultation and Engagement pdf icon PDF 262 KB

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Minutes:

Joanna Sumner – Assistant Director for Strategy and Communications – introduced the report as set out.  She explained that it had been anticipated that the work would have been more fully formed, however the development of the Fairness Commission had taken priority over other areas.  The implementation of the Fairness Commission would be used to inform how the Council approached consultation and engagement.  A resident engagement pledge had been reproduced in the Borough Plan, and a residents panel would be set up to explore this further.

 

The Committee responded positively to the simple and clear language used in the pledges.  Suggestions were made that further focus was required on the deep value of participation and engagement in order to provide better services; that thought needed to be given to how residents in Haringey can have a leadership role in how the Council worked, and that good practices elsewhere needed to be explored, such as citizen jurys and citizen panels; the drawing up of the resident engagement pledge should follow discussions with residents; and an inclusive communication policy should be developed.

 

The Committee requested that a further report be provided to the Committee when more information was available.

 

The Chair thanked Joanna Sumner for attending.

16.

Work Programme Update pdf icon PDF 94 KB

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Minutes:

RESOLVED that:

i.          The work programmes for the main Committee and Scrutiny Panels at Appendix A be noted;

ii.         The scope and terms of reference of the reviews by the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel review on Special Education Needs and Disability (Appendix B), and the Environment and Community Safety Scrutiny Panel on Plastic Waste (Appendix C) be approved; and

iii.           Councillor Culverwell be appointed as a replacement for Councillor James on the Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel.

17.

New Items of Urgent Business

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18.

Future meetings

28th January 2019

25th March 2019

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