Agenda item

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

The Committee received the Leader’s briefing and responses to the advance questions submitted and the following information was noted in response to supplementary questions. 

Q3 – Debts outstanding – The Committee expressed concern about the large amount of outstanding debt and was provided with a breakdown of some of the figures.  In relation to parking debt it was reported that the Council was in line with other London local authorities although Haringey saw a high number of unregistered vehicles. 

Q5 – Shared Services – In response to concerns that the Council was not further advanced in arrangements for shared services the Leader explained that there was little evidence that other local authorities were any further ahead than Haringey.  It was noted that Haringey had agreed a Memorandum of Understanding with Waltham Forest about shared services and it could take three or four years for savings to be realised, which would not solve the Council’s current financial pressures.

Q9 – The Committee expressed concerns that its Budget recommendations were not agreed and that it was not able to scrutinise the original list of potential services from which money could be withdrawn and put forward alternative options in the short space of time available.  The Leader recognised that scrutiny of the Budget had been a positive process.

The Committee requested timeframes for the refreshing of the Council’s website which was currently being undertaken.  It was reported that the first phase would look at the customer experience of the website such as making things easier to find as well as removing pages that were not used, and the second phase would introduce systems for transactions to be conducted online for those Haringey residents who would prefer this to face to face contact (Action No. 192).

The Committee asked that Councillors be consulted on new procedures for member enquiries.  The Leader explained that there would be cross party consultation about the process for members enquiries in order to make the system more streamlined and more responsive.  It was recognised that some members and even members of local community groups received responses to their enquiries quicker than others and this could be due to the members themselves sending requests directly to the relevant officers, or an enquiry being sent to the wrong officer and causing a delay or simply a response being dealt with quickly.

In relation to the Council’s Governance review the Leader clarified that an Officer Board meeting led by the Governance Development Group will be drafting protocols for the new governance arrangements.  Anything requiring constitutional changes would be presented to the Constitution Review Group at the end of March and workshops for members would be arranged in the future.

The Committee expressed concerns about its ability to scrutinise Health and Wellbeing, outside agencies and the work of Cabinet Members in the future if it was restricted in numbers of meetings it could hold.  The Chair stated that he envisaged a minimum of 8 Overview & Scrutiny meetings for ordinary business and 2 Child Protection Scrutiny meetings each year.  The Leader stated that it was widely recognised that fewer meetings were required across the Council but that the numbers stipulated in the Governance Review report were a guideline. 

In response to a question on how the new governance arrangements would affect corporate parenting the Leader emphasised that there were clear arrangements for carrying out this role and all members of the Council had received training and shared the role.

RESOLVED to note the Leader’s briefing and response to questions.