Agenda and draft 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. 

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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 agenda Item 1 as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at this meeting, and Members noted the information contained therein’.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Sheila Peacock and Helena Kania.

Apologies for lateness were received from Cllr Thayahlan Iyngkaran who joined the meeting at 6.55pm.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business.

Cllr Connor reported to the Panel that there had been a discussion at the recent Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting on 19^th June 2025 about strengthening the remit of the Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel to more accurately reflect the role that the Panel had in the scrutiny of health services. The Panel would be kept updated on any revisions made to the remit. (ACTION)

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 Members’ Register of 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 interest are

defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

Cllr Pippa Connor declared an interest by virtue of her membership of the Royal College of Nursing.

Cllr Pippa Connor declared an interest by virtue of her sister working as a GP in Tottenham.

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

None.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as an accurate record.

Dominic O’Brien, Scrutiny Officer, reported that there had been recent updates to the action tracker which had been circulated to the Panel, including a response on aids and adaptations and a summary of the main points discussed at the last meeting of the Adults Improvement Board.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 31^st March 2025 be approved as an accurate record.

To provide an update on the development of the Haringey Carers Strategy 2025-2028.

Jo Baty, Director for Adult Social Care, introduced the report for the Haringey Carers Strategy 2025-28 stating that this provided an update on the Council’s work with carers, voluntary and community sector partners, specialist services and networks that support carers in Haringey. Following a co-production and engagement process, some key priorities for the Strategy were developed:

• Improving access to timely, clear and accessible information and support.
• Strengthening carers’ rights, wellbeing and resilience.
• Creating inclusive, culturally responsive services that reflect the diversity of Haringey’s communities.

Providing further details to the Panel, Alexandra Domingue, Programme Manager – Adult Social Care Commissioning, explained that there were also six themes in the Strategy which were further developments of the key priorities. These were:

• Getting the Basics Right

o   Including a focus on continued identification of carers.

o   Acknowledging the importance of timely assessment and review.

• Information and Communication

o   Addressing the varied ways to engage with carers who have a range of different communications preferences.

o   Improving digital platforms and providing digital training for carers.

• Health and Wellbeing

o   Facilitating connections through peer support networks.

• Respite and Breaks

o   Ensuring access to a range of respite options.

o   Developing further innovative ways to meet respite needs.

• Financial Resilience and Employment

o   Empowering carers so that they are aware of the financial support that exists.

o   Supporting carers with future planning.

• Training

o   Including training for safe care practices

Alexandra Domingue emphasised that the key to delivering the overall strategy would be to join up all of these elements to ensure that carers were well informed of what was already available, what would become available and ways to engage with the Council to deliver the strategy.

Cllr Connor welcomed the strategy and acknowledged the work that had gone into its development. She also commented that the key performance indicators outlined in the report were particularly helpful.  Jo Baty (Director for Adult Social Care), Alexandra Domingue (Programme Manager – Adult Social Care Commissioning), Sujesh Sundarraj (Commissioning Manager - Adult Social Care), Sara Sutton (Corporate Director of Adults, Housing & Health) and Cllr Lucia das Neves (Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care & Wellbeing) then responded to questions from the Panel:

• Cllr Mason raised the financial needs of unpaid carers including possible changes to Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Cllr das Neves referred to the Council’s recent response to the Government’s consultation on welfare reforms, expressing concerns about the potential impact on vulnerable residents in Haringey. She also emphasised the need to listen to residents on this issue and noted her recent engagement with organisations such as Disability Action Haringey. Sara Sutton added that the Council would model the impact of welfare changes and that carers would be considered as a part of that. Part of the feedback from carers had been that they didn’t always know what was available to them, including financial inclusion support, so advice and signposting was required as part of the strategy. Jo Baty emphasised that there had been powerful conversations during  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

This report provides a finance update for Quarter 3 of 2024/25. It was considered by the Cabinet in March 2025 and by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee in April 2025.

It was proposed at the Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting that the parts of the report relating to Adult Social Care services should be considered in further detail by the Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel.

Discussion at the meeting will therefore be limited to finance issues relating to Adult Social Care services.

The minutes of the discussion at the Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting in April 2025 are available to view at: https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=82208

The report for this item provided a finance update for Quarter 3 of 2024/25 and was previously presented to Cabinet in March 2025 and the Overview & Scrutiny Committee in April 2025. Jo Baty provided some information about the aspects of this report that related to adult social care. She reported that there had been an adverse movement of £1.1m in adult social care compared to Quarter 2 meaning that the forecast position moved from £14.5m to £15.6m overbudget. Contributing factors to this included an increase in older adult support needs and increased costs relating to complex cases. Conversely, there had been a lower than expected number of young people transitioning to adult social care from children’s services. There was work underway to better forecast and to ensure that controls were in place to mitigate against expensive packages of care for transfers over from children’s to adult services without any focus on independence, employment and supported living. An Adult Social Care Programme Board, chaired by Jo Baty, had been established which provided a leadership group with ownership and accountability for savings, efficiencies and improvement across the whole service. She acknowledged the vital role of partner agencies and co-production with residents in the service modernisation and improvement agenda. She also noted that, even with sophisticated forecasting tools, there was a degree of unpredictability with demand-led services and this impacted on all London Boroughs.

Jo Baty, Sara Sutton, Neil Sinclair (Head of Finance – People) and Cllr das Neves then responded to questions from the Panel:

• Cllr Mason expressed concerns about the increased number of adults aged 50-64 requiring support and queried the balance between physical and mental health difficulties in that group, whether the Covid pandemic was a factor in this and what support was being provided from the Government. Neil Sinclair, Head of Finance (People), confirmed that no additional funding had been provided from the Government on this specific area. Jo Baty said that details on the number of physical and mental health conditions could be provided in writing. (ACTION) She added that there had been recent discussions with Disability Action Haringey about supporting more residents with physical disabilities and that there were also better and stronger relationships with the Mental Health Trust. In relation to Covid, Sara Sutton said that modelling carried out at the time by the Integrated Care Board (ICB) had predicted that there would be a 20% increase in the acuity and complexity of cases as a consequence of the pandemic. Cllr das Neves commented that there was a relatively high proportion of people in Haringey with two or more long-term health conditions and that issues such as underinvestment in services that help people to maintain good health were a factor in this.
• Cllr Iyngkaran requested further details on the number of additional cases and the associated costs that had contributed towards the £1.1m adverse variation in the past quarter. Jo Baty clarified that there were many different groups of residents that factored  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

This report and appendices provide a performance update for Quarter 3 of 2024/25. It was considered by the Cabinet in March 2025 and by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee in April 2025.

It was proposed at the Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting that the parts of the report relating to Adult Social Care services should be considered in further detail by the Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel.

Discussion at the meeting will therefore be limited to performance issues relating to Adult Social Care services.

The minutes of the discussion at the Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting in April 2025 are available to view at: https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=82212

Cllr Connor informed the Panel that the report for this item provided a performance update on the Corporate Delivery Plan for Quarter 3 of 2024/25 and was previously presented to Cabinet in March 2025 and the Overview & Scrutiny Committee in April 2025. It was clarified that most of the performance indicators relevant to the Panel’s remit were under Theme 4 (Adults, Health & Welfare) in addition to a small number under Theme 6 (Safer Haringey) in Appendix 3.

The following points were raised by the Panel on specific performance indicators:

• Line 77 (Producing a Physical Activity and Sports Strategy) and Line 79 (Establish initial Wellbeing Model offer to inform the operation of the borough’s leisure centre facilities and encourage use of parks and green spaces)  – Cllr O’Donovan expressed concerns that the work on this item continued to be delayed due to the insourcing of Leisure Centres as health and wellbeing was important for the Prevention strategy. Cllr das Neves clarified that the Health and Wellbeing Strategy included policy initiatives from across the Council but that the detailed scrutiny of leisure services would be carried out by the Climate, Community Safety & Environment Scrutiny Panel. Cllr Connor recommended that the responsibilities for scrutiny of the various performance indicators should be made clearer in future reports. (ACTION)
• Line 81 (Development and implementation of anti-racism partnership action plan), Line 82 (Refresh the Welcome Strategy) – Cllr Mason requested an update on these items, noting that they were both marked as ‘decreased’. Cllr das Neves explained that the reason there hadn’t been progress on the Welcome Strategy was because an innovative and externally-funded project was being carried out with Haringey Welcome and Migrants Organise to develop a toolkit on how the Council works with refugees and asylum seekers. The audit included recommendations on what the community wanted and this would subsequently inform the development of the Welcome Strategy. She added that there could also be issues arising from national policy decisions that impacted on the amount of strategic time available, such as the recent closure of a hotel that housed asylum seekers in Muswell Hill. Sara Sutton added that the capacity for the strategic work was quite limited with a small team and that this was also a partnership function so the recent stretching of capacity had impacted on both of these performance indicators. However, there had recently been a recent increase in capacity so it was hoped that there would be further progress in these areas this year.
• Line 101 (Improvements in transitions for younger adults) - Asked by Cllr Mason for an update in this area, Cllr das Neves said that it had taken some time to get the team to where it needed to be. Savings had been quite low in the first year and higher in the second because it took some time to set up the joint working. Jo Baty reported that an event was planned the following week with SEND Power and a group of parents who were about  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

An opportunity to question the Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care & Well-being, Cllr Lucia das Neves, on developments within her portfolio.

Cllr das Neves responded to questions from the Panel on issues within her portfolio:

• Cllr O’Donovan raised the recent government announcement that Healthwatch would be abolished and queried what this would mean for local Healthwatch arrangements, given that these were commissioned by the local authority. Cllr das Neves said that this was currently unclear but clarified that the local Healthwatch was funded from the Council’s Public Health budget. She added that the Council relied on the local Healthwatch as an important part of holding health services to account and also noted that Healthwatch was a part of the Health and Wellbeing Board. There would be conversations with the local Healthwatch about their understanding of what the national picture would mean for them.
• Asked by Cllr O’Donovan about the NHS neighbourhood model and how this might fit with Haringey’s localities approach, Cllr das Neves said that this could potentially build on positive developments in the community, such as on early intervention and prevention, which could deliver better outcomes for people. However, it was not yet clear how this overall approach would be funded. She added that there were ongoing financial issues to work through, such as the lower levels of NHS spending on Continuing Healthcare in North Central London (NCL) when compared to other regions. Sara Sutton commented that the recent announcement that Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) would be required to reduce their budgets by 50% meant that there were ongoing discussions about the future landscape of ICBs including potential mergers. In addition, the NHS 10-year plan was expected to be published shortly and to strongly signal a shift towards neighbourhood health. She added that Haringey was well positioned to align to this with strong existing strategic partnerships with health and good foundations through the Borough Partnership and localities work.
• In relation to neighbourhood health, Cllr Mason highlighted the lack of a good space for people to gather in the more deprived areas of Bounds Green. Cllr das Neves agreed that it was important to have the necessary infrastructure in place to enable the voluntary and community sector but acknowledged the current financial pressures that created challenges in this area. Sara Sutton added that the NHS was looking at various ways of shifting care from acute settings to community settings and there was a consensus to include the voluntary and community sector in this. However, there was not yet the long-term stable investment in the way that was needed in the sector to support complex coordination so the Council was making this case to the government. 
• Cllr Brennan requested a progress update on Continuing Healthcare (CHC) funding in NCL. Cllr das Neves responded that there was Freedom of Information data available which showed that some sub-regions of London were receiving more than twice as much CHC funding as in NCL so this was a very significant issue. Jo Baty added that the Council had conducted work in this area, reviewing the cases of residents with complex needs. This had resulted in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

To consider any additions/amendments to the Panel’s work programme for 2025/26.

Cllr Connor proposed that an item on the provision of maternity services in NCL and the impact of Haringey residents be added to the Panel’s work programme. (ACTION)

Cllr O’Donovan requested further details on the recruitment of co-optees to the vacant positions on the Scrutiny Panels. Dominic O’Brien said that a report including the details of the appointment procedure was discussed at the Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting on 19th June 2025 and this could be circulated (ACTION). He would also request further details about recruitment from the Democratic Services & Scrutiny Manager. (ACTION)

·         22^nd Sep 2025 (6.30pm)

·         13^th Nov 2025 (6.30pm)

·         16^th Dec 2025 (6.30pm)

·         9^th Feb 2026 (6.30pm)

·         22nd Sep 2025 (6.30pm)

·         13th Nov 2025 (6.30pm)

·         16th Dec 2025 (6.30pm)

·         9th Feb 2026 (6.30pm)