Agenda item

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 to support their young people through transition. 
• Cllr Opoku queried why some of the milestone dates for the performance indicators were in the past and did not appear to have been updated. Sara Sutton explained that the milestones represented the original benchmark against which the RAG ratings were applied.
• Cllr O’Donovan noted that the report was originally sent to Cabinet and Overview & Scrutiny Committee in March/April and asked if there had been improvements in the red/amber indicators since then. Sara Sutton replied that the overall picture was broadly similar between Q3 and Q4 and that the update on Q4 would be available soon. Dominic O’Brien, Scrutiny Officer, informed the Panel that, for 2025/26, the Overview & Scrutiny meeting dates and work programmes had been sequenced so that finance and performance reports would be scrutinised shortly after they had been to Cabinet meetings. Any relevant issues arising from this could then be scrutinised by the Panels at their next meetings if required.
• Line 85 (Developing online resources to ensure information about localities is accessible to all) - Cllr Brennan noted that, according to the text, stakeholder communications would be shared on a six-weekly basis across the central and east neighbourhoods but did not mention the west neighbourhood. It was clarified that this was a misprint and that the west neighbourhood would be included.
• Asked by Cllr Brennan about disabled sport, Cllr das Neves said that, while leisure services led in this area, it was also relevant to her portfolio and there had been good recent conversations on this with oversight through the Health & Wellbeing Strategy. Jo Baty explained that this had included meeting with Disability Action Haringey about the promotion of basketball for disabled residents, sport was being included in dementia activities and there was also a focus on sports and leisure in the transitions work. Sara Sutton added that details of the ‘Get Out Get Active’ programme to support disabled people to be more active can be found at: https://www.haringey.gov.uk/leisure-parks-culture/sport-physical-activity/get-get-active-people-with-without-disabilities
• Cllr Iyngkaran requested an update on Canning Crescent. Cllr das Neves reported that she was receiving information on a weekly basis from the team that had direct contact with the contractors but she could not yet provide a launch date. The project had previously been beset with challenges with the previous contractors going bust, but it remained an important service. There had been a recent Cabinet Member signing because there had been some work not done properly on fire and airflow and so it had been necessary to correct this. There was a legal process accompanying that. Jo Baty added that the Council had been working with the NHS early intervention service co-located at St Anns on ideas to support residents. There was an art group interested in becoming established at Canning Crescent and also an over-50s peer support group. Cllr Connor said that it would be useful to see the final costs and projected future income for the project when available. (ACTION) Cllr das Neves clarified that there was a business case for the project in 2018. Sara Sutton added that there were ongoing conversations about the levels of rent at Canning Crescent which would be required as part of the business case to pay back the borrowing.
• Lines 136, 137, 138, 139 & 141 (Violence Against Women & Girls) – Referring to these performance indicators under Theme 6 (Safer Haringey), Cllr Connor noted that, while Violence Against Women & Girls was a policy issue under the remit of the Panel, some of the performance indicators related to housing. Sara Sutton suggested that a column in future reports which highlighted the Scrutiny Panel remit that each performance indicator related to could be useful. This feedback would be passed on to the Head of Performance & Business. (ACTION) Cllr Mason asked whether tackling online misogyny was on the Council’s agenda in this area. Cllr das Neves said that there were ongoing conversations about addressing perpetrators of VAWG as well as preventative initiatives such as education in schools. A commissioning process had recently been taking place, details of which would be provided to Cabinet ahead of the renewed Haringey VAWG Strategy being developed as the existing strategy was due to expire in 2026.
• Line 76 (Reduce Gambling Harms by commencing the community awareness-raising campaign) – Cllr Connor commented that, while this performance indicator was green, the wider causes of gambling harms were not being addressed mainly due to the limited powers that local authorities had in this area. Cllr das Neves said that Haringey had one of the most ground-breaking gambling harms initiatives in London. This included services that directly supported people experiencing gambling harms, a schools programme to educate young people about gambling harms and a training programme for professionals to identify the signs of gambling harms and make referrals. She added that the other aspect of this issue was campaigning for change. The Council had written to ministers about the prevalence of betting shops as this would require a change in the law to tackle and the Council had also joined the coalition against gambling advertising. The Council had won an award recently on the health inequalities work in this area at the MJ Awards. Cllr das Neves acknowledged the continuing prevalence of gambling harms but felt that Haringey was very active and innovative in this area which was why the performance indicator was green. Cllr Connor commented that this was very helpful additional detail to the limited information provided in the report.