To note any declarations of interest made by Members, including those restricting Members from voting on the questions detailed in Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992.  See attached note from the Monitoring Officer.

The following Councillor declared an interest that must be registered in Agenda Item 9

• Councillor Bex. White;

To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 13^th January, 2020.

The Chair Moved and it was:

RESOLVED

That the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 13^th January 2020 were confirmed as a correct record and the Chair was authorised to sign them accordingly.

To receive any petitions (to be notified at the meeting).

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Noted

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Asmat Hussain (Corporate Director, Governance and Monitoring Officer); and Ruth Dowden (Head of Information Governance) gave a presentation to the Committee regarding how the Council is responding to complaints and requests for information. The main points of the discussions on the report may be summarised as follows:

The Committee:

• Noted that at the September 2019 meeting it was agreed that OSC would consider the item once the Information Governance Toolkit had been published to assist in the development of relevant themes into the Work Programme.
• Acknowledged the importance to continue to have a culture of learning from complaints with a constant exchange between providers and users.
• Noted that the Councils Corporate and Departmental Leadership Teams track outcomes to ensure a consistency in addressing those issues that have been identified.
• Confirmed the Council takes very seriously any recommendations received from the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) to put things right.
• Noted that the Council ensures the right processes are in place to sustain improvement. 
• Noted that the LGO is running a pilot from January, 2020 to June, 2020 with the intention to provide a mutually beneficial exercise that (i) develops a closer liaison; (ii) allows for engagement with the Corporate Leadership Team; (iii) provides training for staff on key areas; (iv) will allow the LGO to reach the relevant officers faster; and (v) identify the current issues so that service quality can be properly addressed;
• Noted that the LGO is confident that LBTH properly addresses any issues raised.
• Noted the LGO provides guidance on the levels of redress through its web site.
• Was informed dealing with a customer complaint takes a great deal of tact, and ignoring it can have a serious impact in the reputation of LBTH; and
• Was advised that handling a customer complaint positively takes listening and understanding of the facts. Prompt resolutions are expected, and a follow-up to ensure that a complainant is properly satisfied.

The Chair Moved and it was:

RESOLVED to maintain a watching brief over how the Council is responding to complaints and requests for information.

Detective Chief Superintendent Marcus Barnett, BCU Commander for Hackney and Tower Hamlets gave a presentation to the Committee on the challenges and key areas of work undertaken to tackle community safety. The main points of the discussions on the report may be summarised as follows:

The Committee:

• Noted the BCU Commander must balance the available resources across LBTH and to those areas of greatest e.g. Night-time Economy and the linkages to criminality and public order.
• Noted that the one of the issue’s raised by the Scrutiny Challenge Session (Resident Engagement with Safer Neighbourhood Panels) on the 23rd October 2019 was that residents expressed concerned at the apparent lack of police officers on the Borough’s Streets.
• Commented that there are concerns regarding 101 non-emergency number for contacting the police and wanted examples issue’s so that they can be chased or evidence that the Police Service is working to increase capacity. In response it was noted that the there was a new Head of Safeguarding in post who was looking at addressing residents’ concerns e.g. detection rates and happy to come back to a future meeting discuss this issue.
• Noted that residents want the Safer Neighbourhood Teams to have a higher profile for and to be kept informed of changes in staffing on the Ward Teams and to see improved interaction with Safer Neighbourhood Panels. In response the Committee noted that Inspector Chris Scammell was working to address this.
• Noted that the picture was currently unclear with regards to the drugs market in LBTH.
• Commented that it would like policies on resolution/detection rates on Domestic Violence.
• Commented that it wanted to see more transparency by the Police Service about what is happening to help build linkages with SNP and enable residents to effectively challenge their SNT.
• Indicated that on the Isle of Dogs residents felt that SNP had proven to be less effective that the Police Forum that had preceded it.  Residents also wished to see an SNP that matches the Isle of Dogs boundaries, in response it was noted that (i) the BCU wanted strong functional SNP’s in LBTH to work with SNT’s and (ii) the BCU Commander indicated that he would be happy to meet on the Isle of Dogs Ward to discuss this issue.
• Noted that the BCU wanted a sharper focus on exploitation and slavery and multi-agency safeguarding hubs.
• Noted that the increasing numbers of officers will help to address short fall in neighbourhoods and provide greater stability and continuity; and
• Expressed concern regarding the levels of ASB and Criminality in Shoreditch and noted in response that the Police and LBTH officers have taken part in several operations funded by the Late-Night Levy to manage of late-night alcohol-related crime and disorder.

The Chair Moved and it was:

RESOLVED to:

• Ask the Scrutiny Lead for Community Safety & Environment to (i) escalate concerns regarding reporting via 101; (ii) share the findings of the Scrutiny Challenge Session (Resident Engagement with Safer Neighbourhood Panels) with the Borough Commander; and (iii) examine  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.3

Councillor David Edgar (Cabinet Member for Environment); Dan Jones (Divisional Director, Public Realm); and Mark Griffin (Waste Mobilisation Advisor PR – Clean and Green) gave a presentation to the Committee regarding the creation of an in-house service for the integrated delivery of waste, recycling and cleansing functions for the 29th March 2020. The main points of the discussions on the report may be summarised as follows:

The Committee:

·         Noted that good progress is being made on procurement activities across fleet and contingency arrangements have been established with Veolia. With leasing and spot hire procurement a priority to enable a smooth transition from Veolia’s fleet to a new Council fleet.

·         Noted that steps have been taken steps to replace the Councils older more polluting vehicles with ones that met the requirements of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and to put in place an electric charging infrastructure. Smaller vehicles on the fleet will be leased for up to 3 years and during that time that will allow LBTH to look at replacing those vehicles with other electric or other clean technology vehicles.

·         Noted that there are issues with Euro 6 vehicles blowing filters but this can be addressed by effective maintenance and specific details can provide to the Committee.

·         Noted that (i) consultation with Veolia staff and trade union representatives is well advanced and has been positive; and (ii) practical arrangements for staff checks, inductions; training and employees’ terms and conditions with the creation of the in-house service are being finalized.

·         Was supportive of this project and encouraged to see work being done to keep Veolia to the contract.

·         Asked how (a) LBTH will ensure that performance improves and (b) will scrutiny be kept updated on progress.  In response it was noted that the performance management information using (i) visual inspections; (ii) residents reports; (iii) staff targets (iv) staff feedback; (v) more resources for Street Cleansing; and (vi) a new IT systems will all provide better information to enable a thorough analysis of performance.

·         Wanted more information on the environment impact of the new vehicle fleet.

·         Noted that there would be a review of the service 6 months after the establishment of the in-house service.

The Chair Moved and it was:

RESOLVED to:

1.    Request more information on the environmental impact of the new vehicle fleet.

2.    Undertake a scrutiny review of the service 6 months after the establishment of the in-house service; and

3.    Receive an update after 6 months on the employees’ terms and conditions following the formation of the in-house service.

Scrutiny Leads were requested to provide written updates prior to the next scheduled meeting.

To consider and agree pre-decision scrutiny questions/comments to be presented to Cabinet.

(Time allocated – 30 minutes).

As per attached appendices

The Committee not that:

1.    The Scrutiny Report on the Budget had been circulated for comment.

2.    There was to be an additional recommendation regarding the MTFS proposals.

3.    At the February meeting there would be an item on Changes to Customer Service.

As the agenda circulated contained no exempt/confidential business and there was therefore no requirement to exclude the press and public to allow for its consideration.

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To consider and agree pre-decision scrutiny questions/comments to be presented to Cabinet.

(Time allocated 15 minutes).

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To consider any other exempt/ confidential business that the Chair considers to be urgent.

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