Agenda and draft minutes

None

The Chair will consider the admission of any late reports in relation to the items shown on the agenda.

(Please note that under the Council’s Constitution  - Part 4 Section B paragraph 17 – no other business shall be considered).

There were no items of urgent business received.

A member with a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered must disclose to that meeting the existence and nature of that interest at the commencement of that consideration, or when the interest becomes apparent.

A member with a personal interest in a matter also has a prejudicial interest in that matter if the interest is one which a member of the public with knowledge of the relevant facts would reasonably regard as so significant that it is likely to prejudice the member's judgment of the public interest and if this interest affects their financial position or the financial position of a person or body as described in paragraph 8 of the Code of Conduct and/or if it relates to the determining of any approval, consent, licence, permission or registration in relation to them or any person or body described in paragraph 8 of the Code of Conduct.

Councillor Rice declared a personal interest by virtue of his membership of The Friends of Down Lane Park .

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

The Committee received deputations from Sean Fox, Andrea Holden and Helen Steel (Employee side representatives) on: Agenda item 6)Update on Procurement Service Function Review, Agenda Item 8) Proposal for the deletion of the Gypsy, Roma and Travellers Education team Agenda Item 12)Restructure of Recreation Services.

Details of their comments and representations are recorded under the relevant minute below.

The committee to consider a follow up report on the re-organisation of the Council. Report to follow

Following on from the previous consideration of the Chief Executive’s report on Rethinking Haringey on January 25^th 2011, the Committee received an update on a change to the reorganisation of the Council following consultation.  This was the proposal to establish a project support office which would report to the Chief Executive. This Office would generate further efficiency by bringing together resources deployed to support Council projects. It would enable better co-ordination of resources in the Council project activity area and would also mean that this office would replace a number of project offices in the Council including the one currently assigned to efficiency. The staffing changes arising from this proposal would be progressed in accordance with the standard Council employment processes for reorganisation.  It was noted that this would reduce expenditure on project resources.

Understanding was sought on how the Council were monitoring and managing the spans of control following the consequential restructures of teams .This was further to the Committee receiving a number of reports on service restructures in which some still contained proposals for a management post managing less than 5-8 staff, the recommended number under the Rethinking Haringey proposals.  The Committee were informed that   there was an analysis exercise, currently being undertaken by the Assistant Chief Executive, of the teams restructured under the Rethinking Haringey proposals to ascertain how they were conforming to the recommendations and principles of the Rethinking Haringey report. The Committee were informed that a number of teams do adhere to the spans of control principle   but this exercise would help identify where the spans of control principle was not being utilised and could lead to identification of further savings. The Assistant Chief Executive offered to report back his findings from this exercise to the Corporate Committee if needed.

It was clarified that the Member Panel Appointment process was to  be completed and the first phase involving internal appointments had been completed .There  were a further two  Member Appointment panels to be convened to appoint the Assistant Director for Frontline services and the Assistant Director for Finance.

RESOLVED

1. The progress towards restructuring the top three tiers of Council Staff was noted.

2. That the minor changes arising from further consideration of the Council structure agreed at Council in February 24^th 2011, as detailed in Paragraph 6.5 be agreed.

3. That the Equalities Impact Assessment attached at appendix one be noted.

The Assistant Chief Executive to provide a report back on the review exercise completed on the application of ringfences in the Procurement officer appointment process .Report to follow

Arising from concerns on the application of ringfences in the Procurement Service Function Review, the Committee had asked the Assistant Chief Executive to undertake a review of these. The Assistant Chief Executive had met with the Trade Unions, Human Resources representatives and Procurement Service Managers before completing the review. There was examination of the job descriptions, particularly the roles which were for assimilation and which had caused the most concern amongst employees. The Assistant Chief Executive had considered the criteria for assimilation and how it had been applied. He was satisfied that there was the required  substantial overlap in duties  between the former and new post to which  post holders were being assimilated to warrant this action. He had next considered whether a wider group of posts could also be included, generating ringfences for those jobs identified for assimilation.  Arising from this consideration he had recommended a change to the application of the ringfence of the Procurement contract officer. This would involve 5 posts being subject to an open ringfence meaning that more staff from the various departments could take part in the recruitment to these posts. It was noted that some of these 5 posts were in specialist areas and the staff involved in this interview process would be asked to state their preference to allow each interview to be tailored to the requirements of each job. It was noted that three other requests for changes from the unions were considered but not felt to warrant change.

The Chair asked the Employee side to share their views on the report with the Committee. The Employee side acknowledged the discussions with the Assistant Chief Executive on this matter and the efforts made to analyse the ringfence applications to ensure that they had been fair and included opportunity for employees involved in the review to apply for posts.  However, further to the outcomes of the Assistant Chief Executives report, concerns remained and the Employee side wished to place on record their continued opposition to the final application of ringfences.  They advised the Committee that during this review period, staff had already been informed on the final plans for the application of ringfences which had left the employees and the Employee side with reservations on whether their views had been valued.  The Assistant Chief Executive advised that he had not been aware of this situation. Going forward, there were lessons to be learned from the service function review, including managers briefing their staff on Committee reports before they were considered at Committee. He acknowledged that there were sensitivities to be aware as this review progressed and advised that his dialogue would continue with this service and he would keep the Employee side and Chair of the Committee informed of any issues.

RESOLVED

        i.            It be noted that the Assistant Chief Executive had reviewed the ring fence proposals for the procurement service. This had included discussions with management, Human Resources and the trade unions.

      ii.            It be noted that arising from the review  ...  view the full minutes text for item 147.

The committee to consider the Equalities Impact Assessment arising out of the restructure of the Council’s Human Resources service in order to meet a Council approved level of savings of £822k in 2011/12. 

At the General Purposes Committee meeting on the 29^th March at which the Human Resources restructure was considered, the Committee had agreed to consider the Equalities Impact Assessment on this review which was only partially completed at the time of  this meeting. The Committee were now asked to consider full Equalities Impact Assessment on the service restructure and noted that there was no disproportionate adverse equalities implications for any group of staff who shared any of the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010. This conclusion had been assisted by the measures taken by the service in the application of ringfences .Members noted the  summary of the Equalities Impact Assessment contained in section 9 of the report.

RESOLVED

That the Equalities Impact assessment as attached at Appendix A be noted.

The report will propose the deletion of the Gypsy, Roma and Travellers Education  team (equivalent of 3 members of staff).

The Committee had considered proposals to close the Gypsy, Roma & Traveller Education Team at their meeting on the 22 March. This was a non statutory service affected by the budget savings required by the directorate and Council.  The service had been operating for many years and was valued for its contributions to the Traveller, Gypsy Roma communities.  The service provided advice, guidance, training and support to Children Centres, schools and colleagues and undertook casework with children and their families. The Committee were informed that over recent years much good work had been done to equip, the settings outlined above, to meet the needs of Travellers and Gypsy Roma children. At the meeting in March the Committee had asked the service to complete a consultation exercise, in an appropriate format, in order to engage with the users and obtain their views on this unit closure. The consultation exercise had subsequently been carried out in April and May and had involved sending out 424 copies of letters to families that had been translated into Bulgarian, Romanian and Polish and distributed via the Ethnic Minority Achievement Co-ordinators in 42 schools. There were 90 letters sent to families whose children were waiting for a schools place or had recently joined a school. The letters were sent to Children’s Centres where there were service users from these communities.  Some letters were further followed up with telephone contacts. The Committee were informed that no written responses were received from users. There were two meetings organised in Wood Green Library for families from the Gypsy Roma and Traveller communities to attend.  Two families attended with translators present to provide their views on the closure of the service. The Committee noted that these families were very positive about the support they got from the service and spoke about the assistance they received with filling forms, accessing services, and enrolling their children in school. The Committee were advised that, although this was seen as helpful by the users, this was not part of the specification of this unit. This type of assistance could be provided by other voluntary sector providers in the borough. The Committee were assured that there were existing settings to meet the needs and responsibilities of this group and therefore were asked to agree the closure of this unit.

Concern was expressed by the Committee on the methods of communications used by the service for the consultation exercise. Letters had been sent to the Gypsy, Roma families when there was knowledge by the service that literacy was an issue. In the introduction to the report the Committee had been advised that letters had been followed up with telephone contact, however the details from this communication were not included in the report. In response to these concerns, the Deputy  Director for Children’s Networks, advised that the  Gypsy, Roma, Travellers Education team had completed  follow up  work on the consultation  documents by going out and visiting the families and using  the sources of contacts known to them to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 149.

This report request authority to implement a range of organisational changes across the Adult Social Care Business Unit in order to establish an organisational structure appropriate for the delivery of adult social care services within a transformed social care system. The revised social care system is in line with the Governments Personalisation Agenda – Self Directed Care. Report to follow

The Committee considered a report proposing a range of organisational changes across the Adult Social Care Business Unit in order to establish an organisational structure appropriate for the delivery of adult social care services within a transformed social care system. The structure had been designed to enable adult social care users to choose the services they needed to support their needs.  The report included information on the range of services that would be available and the skills that would be needed to provide these services. The revised structure was in accordance with the assigned budget reductions to the service and there had been particular effort to ensure that a minimum amount of staff were displaced.

The Committee referred to the attached diagram:

This conveyed the pathway to adult social care services from the point of referral and showed how the services would be constructed to respond to user’s adult social care needs. Staff with the required expertise would be placed at the various points of the above pathway to ensure that users gained an optimum service at each point and were not delayed at certain parts of the pathway.  The Committee were advised that contact with the service would be made easier as there would be expert advice available to the user at each required stage. It was noted that the initial aim of the service, when receiving a referral, was to support the client to reach their optimum level of health before assessing which further services were needed. It was noted that residents accessing the service could always re-enter the pathway after receiving support.  The Committee noted that, where an individual was in receipt of the re-enablement service and was deemed likely to need an ongoing support, a social worker would complete an assessment which would lead to calculations on the cash amount to be allocated to them to buy services or products to meet their individual care needs. The individual could then decide if they wanted to supplement this allowance with their own personal funds to achieve a higher level of independence.

In response to a question on the cost of advice to a resident, it was noted that this was free.

Members sought clarification on the level of financial oversight provided by the Council when individuals were managing their own finances and there was particular concern on monitoring how funding was spent and if spent appropriately.  Members learned that the system of Direct Payments, which allows individuals to manage the finances of their own care package, had been in existence for around 7 years and therefore was not a new scheme for the Council to monitor. Individuals had flexibility to draw down their funding to suit their monthly needs. A Social Worker would complete an assessment which contributed to ascertaining whether the individual was able to manage their own finances. They would be required to set up a separate bank account to receive the payments for their social care needs and would have been advised by the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 150.

The report will set out proposals, following consultation,  for the reorganisation of services into a new single frontline service to deliver the allocated budget savings. Report to follow

The Cabinet agreed on the 25th January to the amalgamation of Frontline Services with the elements of services provided by Safer Stronger Communities business unit into a new single Frontline Service. A further report setting out the details of the reorganisation was presented to this Committee on the 29th March at which members considered and agreed, in principle, the proposed Single Frontline Business Unit structure for consultation.  This further report set out the final proposals, following consultation, for the reorganisation of the services listed above into a new Single Frontline Service.  This restructure would deliver £3.6m in savings, a  proportion of these savings £1.4million(of  the total £3.6 million savings to be made) had been predicated on the disestablishment of the Neighbourhood Management Service which had previously been considered at General Purposes Committee meetings on the 15th February  and again following consultation , on the 10th March 2011.The proposed restructure within this report sought to deliver the remaining savings, a net reduction of 2.2m from the existing Frontline Services structure.    In the opening presentation, the Committee were asked to note that in Appendix C, containing the structure chart for Neighbourhood services, listed 2 health and safety food officers reporting to the regulatory services manager, one of these post’s role also included senior environmental officer duties. The Interim Director of Urban Environment continued to set out the minor changes made to service specific areas. These included changes to : grading of posts (some initial evaluations to be verified but would have no impact on ring fencing), postholder reporting lines, deletion of a  Contract management post and Contract Support Officer post in order to create two Contract development officer  posts, adding a senior revenue officer post to Parking services as was a priority to maintain income level from this service, funding through the deletion of 0.5 Concessionary Travel Officer post and one correspondence officer post . The Committee were asked to consider and agree the Single Frontline structure.

Understanding was sought on the requirement to have a team of four smarter travel officers. It was noted that these postholders were directly funded by Transport for London and did not incur a cost to the Council. This was the first year of a three year funding commitment.

The Committee commented on the number of correspondence officers employed in the parking team and sought an understanding of their roles and duties. It was reported that a high volume of parking correspondence was received by the service on a daily basis.  The Interim Director of Urban Environment advised that the number of staff employed to deal with correspondence in parking was low compared to similar teams in other boroughs.

RESOLVED

1. That the proposed new Single Frontline Structure as set out in the report be agreed.

2. That  the above decision takes into account  the outcome of the consultation with staff and trades unions as outlined in the appendices  of the report and gives due regard  to the Authority’s public sector duties including the consideration of the attached  ...  view the full minutes text for item 151.

Haringey’s Street Trading Policy sets out a framework for the approval and control of street trading in the borough.  This policy specifically prevents the issue of temporary street trading licences.   This report seeks to have a temporary relaxation of this policy restriction for a trial period.  Results of this trial period will feed into a wider review of on street trading and will allow options to be tested for the future use of land to the front of Hornsey Town Hall.

 The Committee were informed  that the Council’s street trading policy set out  a framework for the approval and control of street trading in the borough and this policy specifically prevented the issues of temporary street traded licences. The committee were asked to agree a temporary relaxation of this policy restriction for a trial period . It was noted that the results of this trial period would feed into a wider review of street trading  which would come before the  Regulatory Committee in 6 months time.  In the meantime it was proposed to complete a consultation  exercise with residents and traders in areas prior to any trial period being implemented .  Feedback to the Chair would follow on the outcomes of the consultation with  steer being sought on whether a report  back to committee was needed. There were two choices available to the committee,  to consider a  relaxation of the  policy for the whole borough  or for specified areas  listed in 3.1.b.

The committee learned that there had been interest reported previously to the service from perspective traders in obtaining street trading licences and it was noted that Haringey was the only borough to have a blanket ban on temporary street trading .

It was noted that the specified areas of Holmesdale Road N6 and  Archway Road set out in recommendation 3.1.b were essentially the same area  and policy relaxations would not proceed unless there was strong support for this scheme. Information was  further provided on the reasoning behind the suggested specified areas of Hornsey Town Hall, Lymington Avenue and Elm Park Road.

Members were informed that it would be difficult to report back the results of all the separate area consultations to this Committee as this  information would  be considered as part of the overall review on street trading licenses to  be reported back to the appropriate Committee in 6 months time . However, to ensure that there was appropriate communication with  councillors, officers would ensure that ward members  were part of the consultation exercise. It was noted that traders views in existing areas would be sought as part of the consultation and issues such as the economical impact  would be picked up in the overall review to be completed in 6 months time.

The Committee advised officers that  this  was also a  local policy issue which  would be very  relevant to the work of the  Area committees. Therefore it would be useful to add the topic of  street trading  licenses to their work plans. They further questioned whether licensing policy would be part of the Corporate Committee’s terms of reference as it was likely to now be in the remit of  the new Regulatory Committee.

RESOLVED

1. That amendments to  the current street trading policy so that applications for temporary street trading can be permitted for a trial period of 6 months from this decision be agreed.

2. That consultation be undertaken with ward councillors, Area Committees, residents and traders in the affected areas prior to any trial period being implemented.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 152.

The committee to consider proposals for the restructure of  Recreation Services following consultation. Report to follow

The Committee considered proposals for the reshaping of Recreation services.  These proposals were intended to tackle base budget pressure, support service externalisation and contribute to achieving an agreed budget saving of 2.7m over the next 3 years. They would result in the reduction of 50 posts in the service this would leave a majority of staff (145.3FTE) in Operational services, 13 FTE in Client service and 12FTE in Commissioning services. The Assistant Director of Recreation Services explained that he was seeking to keep the number of staff displaced and subject to compulsory redundancy to a minimum. Currently there were 14 posts in this situation but efforts were being made to enable them to take voluntary redundancy/recruitment to remaining vacancies.   Paragraph 11 was refereed to which set out the consultation methods used and the key changes made to the proposals following the consultation process. 

It was highlighted to the Committee that the significant changes to the structure of Recreation Services were the reductions to the Parks area due to decease in funding. The staffing structure for the Parks service going forward was illustrated with the following changes highlighted.

• There would be two operational areas each with a Manager, Assistant Manager and 4 Team Leaders. Each of these operational areas would have 3 generic Operational Zones/Teams , with a Team Leader, senior operative and 4 Operatives (36 staff in total) .Furthermore each operational area would lead a taskforce team , with a borough wide remit, and a Team Leader with 6 operational operatives. These teams would cover hygiene; gate locking, gang mowing, tree works and machinery, play and general maintenance.

• It was noted that the teams would operate out of 6 depots and use 5 sub depots. There would be four depots shared with Veolia, whilst a further 4 would exclusively used by Veolia.

Following consultation with staff, there were changes made as further staff had come forward with voluntary redundancy requests.  These included: a management selection process being chosen instead of an interview selection process for Parks operational staff, use of slotting in as opposed to closed ring fences used where there was found to be no net reduction in staff and depot, the selection of the Broadwater Farm Community Development Officer post  was  to be appointed through a closed ring fence instead of an open ring fence and 2 vacant  apprentice gardener posts had been deleted. The Committee noted that  the service were  examining alternative employment opportunities for 3  female black and ethnic minority staff  working at the catering section of Tottenham Green Centre who were identified in the Equalities Impact Assessment was facing an unequal impact as a result of the restructure.

Following this information the Committee were asked to consider the recommendations at paragraph 3 and agree them.

The Committee expressed concerns at the reductions in Park staff and in particular pointed to one of the overriding aims of the Council which was to protect frontline services and questioned whether this was being adhered to given  ...  view the full minutes text for item 153.

The committee to consider proposals for the restructure of Property Services following staff consultation .Report to follow

The Committee were asked to consider the  proposals for the restructure of Property services . They were advised that the role of Corporate Property Services (CPS) in the future will focus on corporate asset planning, core landlord functions and services (both internal and external) and ensuring the Council receives competent and adequate professional advice. In addition the provision of essential building management services with continuing emphasis on health and safety, compliance and good use of resources, including facilities management.

Further to combined a number of teams and functions operational and support roles had been reviewed to seek opportunities for efficiency savings and reducing the number of posts. The following changes were therefore  outlined  to reshape the service to be able to focus on the above priorities and reduce the establishment with effect from 1^st July 2011:

• Integrated management support to Technopark within the Corporate Landlord Team, Hard FM team.
• A change of focus to the Hard FM function by adopting stronger commissioning and client roles and further developing the relationship with our Managing Agents and specialist property consultants.
• Revision of  the soft FM management structure to concentrate resources on leading operational delivery, combining the reception and building support teams. This was to provide supervision during extended day on a rota basis (7am-9pm).
• Bring  together administrative and database related soft FM functions (room bookings, ID, staff parking, stationery and requests) to provide a responsive and flexible response to service requests accessed through a Facilities Support team
• Re-design of the reception and building support service, increasing the mobility of BSO’s and reducing provision. Continue providing a responsive but less reactive service. Deletion of the River Park House Duty Officer post, revised, extended, shift pattern for River Park House reception and supporting a reception/concierge facility at other buildings.
• Cease the provision of the Building Maintenance Helpdesk function and route calls direct to the Managing Agent (Europa) to eliminate duplication.

The staffing changes to enable this were set out in paragraph 6 of the report.

RESOLVED

Further to no queries from the Committee, the proposed establishment changes to Corporate Property Services resulting in 15 posts deleted , 2 posts changed and 4 post created,  was agreed.

To inform the committee, as requested on the 15^th February 2011, of the delegated decisions take on staffing matters. Report to follow

The report informed the General Purposes Committee of delegated decisions taken by Directors in Consultation with the Chair of General Purposes Committee on staffing matters. At the General Purposes Committee meeting on the 15th February 2011, Members agreed that the Committee would be kept informed of the decisions taken by delegated authority , by the Chair and directors, in relation to staffing restructures by the means of a summary report being considered at a Committee meeting when a sufficient number had been completed. The report provided an update to the Committee on the number of decisions taken by Directors in consultation with Chair of General Purposes over the last 6 months. These decisions would have involved changes to the establishment, affecting 20 posts or less, where the relevant employee’s side are in agreement, or have not raised objections within the agreed timetables (Council Constitution, Appendices, Section E, Delegations to Officers, page 85.)

RESOLVED

That the report be noted.

The  following items  were subject of a motion to exclude the press and public from the meeting as they contained exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government 1972; namely information likely to reveal the identity of an individual, and information relating to any individual.

None

The committee to consider any exempt information in relation to items on the agenda.

The press and public were excluded from the meeting for consideration of the following item as it contained exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985): paras 1 & 2: namely information relating to any individual, and information likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

Exempt report from the Assistant Chief Executive – Report to follow

Agreed.