Agenda and draft minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny has further agreed that the call-in procedure shall not apply to this urgent decision. This is because the decision is urgent and any delay in implementation caused by the call-in procedure would seriously prejudice the Council's or the public's interests given the current challenges posed by Covid-19.  Further, the decision amounts to a minor operational change to the decision already made by Cabinet and is consistent with that decision. Accordingly, the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee has agreed that the decision is both reasonable in all circumstances, and that it should be treated as a matter of urgency. This is in accordance with Part 4, Section H, and Paragraph 18 (a) and (b) of the Council Constitution.

The Leader of the Council considered the  attached report which outlined that the provision of ‘hard’ FM services by HfH on behalf of the Council is required to be commissioned outside of the formal Management Agreement which the Council has entered into with HfH for a period of up to 12 months to 31^st March 2021 through a Letter of Appointment for Interim Services as a temporary measure.

It was noted that a full-service specification and delivery plan would be produced by the Council’s Corporate Landlord Team.  The agreed specification and delivery plan will be led by HfH and overseen by the Corporate Landlord team.

The Leader noted that the development of a full ‘hard’ services specification was not possible pre-transfer of services for a number of reasons relating to the inaccuracy of estate and asset data received from the previous provider, and the knock-on resource impact of Coronavirus.  Both the Council and HfH intend to enter into this Interim Agreement in good faith and with awareness of the shared risks and opportunities arising from the FM insource.

Further to considering the attached report,

RESOLVED

1.    To approve the Interim Agreement for the provision of ‘hard’ FM services for a period of up to 12 months to 31^st March 2021, whilst the longer term detailed contractual agreement can be put in place.

2.    To approve delegated and insofar as is necessary retrospective authority to the Director of Housing, Regeneration and Planning to commission ‘hard’ FM services from Homes for Haringey within the forecast 2020-21 budget envelope of £1,650,000 as agreed by Cabinet in the FM Commissioning Strategy 2019.

Reasons for decision

Following the Cabinet decision on 9^th July 2019, joint mobilisation planning for the FM insource was undertaken between the Council and HfH to prepare for the transfer of all FM functions coming back in-house.

HfH has mobilised to take-on Hard FM Services and temporary management arrangements are required to manage transferring staff while the confirmation of an Interim FM Manager is finalised.

The Interim Agreement provides the authority for HfH to deliver ‘hard’ FM services from 1^st April 2020 while the detailed FM specification and delivery plan are developed jointly between both organisations.

There is currently a lack of detail relating to the condition of the Council’s estate to enable the Council to draft a service specification and delivery plan that would enable HfH to understand the cost implications. The Covid-19 crisis has impacted on the ability of the project team to develop the service specification and delivery plan and it is unknown how long this crisis will prevail. Therefore, adopting an interim agreement whilst the Council and HfH manages the Covid -19 crisis and understand the condition of the Council’s assets in more detail would enable sufficient time to develop the specification, delivery plan and cost model acceptable to both HfH and the Council.

The above approach underpins the principles of an open and collaborative / trusted relationship between the Council and HfH with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.