Agenda item

Briefing and answers to questions – The Leader, Councillor Claire Kober.

The Committee received the Leader’s portfolio briefing, advance questions submitted by Members and the written responses supplied. The following was noted, further to supplementary questions:

Re Q1 The Leader emphasised that the judgement in respect of the Wards Corner judicial review had been very clear on the narrow grounds on which it had succeeded and that there were very few circumstances where an application completely went away.

Re Q3 It was agreed that the link to the online version of Smart Talk be circulated to Members and it was suggested that future issues of Smart Talk include some of the suggestions arising from the staff suggestion scheme.

Re Q4 The Leader advised the Committee that Haringey People (HP) was not intended to replicate services offered by the local press in terms of advertising, and that the Council had to be careful with regards to who advertising space was offered to in HP as there was an expectation from the public that companies featured in HP were endorsed by the Council. Costs were being reduced by reducing the number of copies produced, and the number of pages, in particular the local pages.

Re Q8 The Leader outlined that challenges to marketing the policy bulletin format to other local authorities were that the policy bulletin was specifically tailored to Haringey, and this would need to be amended and that with the abolition of the CAA, it was felt that many in-house policy departments now had the capacity to develop similar formats and there would therefore be less market demand.

Re Q9 In response to a question regarding the condition of the housing market locally, the Leader stated that Haringey’s housing market had been robust, but that as an area with a high level of public sector employment, this may change going forward.

Re Q10 Stuart Young, Assistant Chief Executive, People and Organisational Development, reported that the Council was currently reviewing all discretionary payments. The amounts were decreasing as a result, but it was emphasised that such payments accounted for a very small proportion of the overall payroll.

Re Q11 The Leader advised that the target for reducing the number of consultants by the end of September 2010 had been met. The Committee was advised that there were a number of areas where it was essential for work to be carried out by an independent party, and therefore consultants with good working knowledge of the local area were needed. A report on the use of consultants would be brought to the Committee meeting on 2 December.

Re Q15 In response to a question on how Members could access the outputs of the Online Strategy Board, the Leader advised that any formal recommendations from the Board would be via the usual decision making processes such as the Cabinet or the relevant Committee but that the majority of the work of the Board was operational, and for action at officer level.

Re Q16 Regarding an opt-in e-communication or email strategy for residents, Mr Young advised that the Council was looking at RSS feeds and alerts as a means of communicating with people. The Leader reported that the Online Strategy Board would look into whether the Council’s systems were sufficiently robust to support regular emails on different service areas for those who had expressed an interest in receiving information about specific activities and that, if it was felt to be technically possible, Members would have the opportunity to decide whether to implement this.

Re Q19 The Leader emphasised that all consultants were engaged for tasks with very clear start and finish dates, and that their rates were only calculated on a day-by-day basis. In response to a request from the Committee, the Leader confirmed that for any particular consultant, information could be provided on the detail of the task they were working on, their start and finish dates and the value added by their engagement. Mr Young clarified that in respect of agency work, the Council tracked the posts concerned rather than the individuals in post, as there could be high turnover of individuals within a post. Further details would be provided in the report to the Committee in December. It was confirmed that there was a robust sign-off procedure for anyone wishing to engage a consultant.

Re Q20 The Leader confirmed that there would be no area of activity where the Council wasn’t working hard to negotiate reduced rates in the current financial climate.

The Committee asked about the impact of recruitment freezes in areas reliant on agency staff, such as safeguarding and care homes, in response to which the Leader confirmed that recruitment in essential demand-led services such as social services would not be frozen. In response to a question from the Committee regarding whether the Council’s performance could be maintained in light of the savings that needed to be made, the Leader confirmed that it would be a very challenging time, but that the Council had a duty to deliver the best services possible. Given the potential level of cuts, which would not be known until the CSR announcement, it was likely that a fundamental review would be needed of the services the Council could offer. It was noted that Haringey would be disproportionately affected by current policy changes, and that the demands and pressures on the Council would be significant.

In response to a question from the Committee in respect of the review of the policy and performance function, Mr Young agreed that a report on this would be brought to the Committee meeting on 20 October. The Leader confirmed that she was confident that the independence of the scrutiny function, as a Member-led function, could be maintained in light of any proposed changes.

The Committee thanked the Leader for her attendance and responses.