The Chair Councillor Mohammed Pappu welcomed everybody to this evening’s meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Members noted that in line with current requirements, this meeting was being held in person, with some Scrutiny Members along with key participants present in the meeting room, whilst others are joining remotely with only those Scrutiny Members present in the meeting room able to vote.

Members noted that although national restrictions have eased, the Council recognises that rates of Covid-19 infection continue to cause concern.  Therefore, to help keep everybody safe, it has been agreed to take the precaution of restricting non-essential physical attendance, retaining a limited public gallery, and are retaining health and safety practices such as social distancing and encouraging use of masks for all attendees, when not seated.

Members were advised that they would have all received the Covid update slides (from Dr Somen Banerjee Director of Public Health) on 22^nd July 2021. It was noted that given the nature of the virus, it was important to note that some of the information may have changed since it was dispatched.

It was noted that the Borough is not immune to the pace of change and is now experiencing rising numbers on the rate of infection. Therefore, Members should remain cautious and continue to observe the hands face and space as good practice and importantly as Members of this Committee, it was imperative to encourage residents and families to take up the vaccination to help reduce the spread of the virus and protect the vulnerable.

The Committee received a brief update from the Chair that provided an update on his attendance at the Mayors Advisory Board (MAB) improvement session held on the 14^th July 2021. It was noted that the Chairs of the Council’s Audit and General Purposes Committees had also been invited and were in attendance.

The session had focused on Children’s improvement programme including special educational needs and disability (SEND) and the financial improvement programme with Cabinet Lead Members and senior officers providing an overview, which was followed by Question-and-Answer session from each of the committee chairs. In addition, there was also an update on Adult Social Care improvement programme.

The Committee was advised that this session was part of the preparations for a follow up visit from the Local Government Association (LGA) following their Corporate Peer Challenge of Tower Hamlets in 2018. It was noted that the visit will take place in September 2021 and the Chair has asked that the Committee be kept up to date regarding the recommendations which may inform the Committee’s future work programme.

Members are reminded to consider the categories of interest in the Code of Conduct for Members to determine whether they have an interest in any agenda item and any action they should take. For further details, please see the attached note from the Monitoring Officer.

Members are reminded to declare the nature of the interest and the agenda item it relates to. Please note that ultimately it’s the Members’ responsibility to declare any interests form and to update their register of interest form as required by the Code.

If in doubt as to the nature of your interest, you are advised to seek advice prior to the meeting by contacting the Monitoring Officer or Democratic Services

The following Members for transparency declared a potential interest in relation to Item 9 Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions:

1.    Councillor Marc Francis due to his wife Councillor Rachel Blake being the Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing; and

2.    Councillor Ehtasham Haque due to wife Councillor Sabina Akhtar being the Cabinet Member for Culture, Arts and Brexit.

To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Chair Moved and it was:-

RESOLVED

That the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 28^th June 2021 be approved as a correct record of the proceedings and the Chair was authorised to sign them accordingly.

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

Nil items

The Committee is asked to note the Cabinets Forward Plan.

Noted

The Committee received short presentation from the Statutory Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Lead for Community Safety, Faith and Equalities Councillor Sirajul Islam; Ann Corbett Divisional Director for Community Safety; the Safer Neighbourhood Board Chair Chris Weaver; and Inspector Clare Thomas from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Safer Neighbourhood Teams were in attendance to discuss the progress so far in delivering the challenge session recommendations. It was noted that in 2019, the Committees Vice Chair Councillor Bex White had presided at a scrutiny challenge session on how the Police, Council and Safer Neighbourhood Ward Panel Groups work in partnership with seldom-heard residents on improving community safety. The main points raised as part of the discussion are summarised below:

The Committee

v  Noted that the challenge session had focussed especially on the issues that seldom-heard groups faced on engagement and participation. It also examined how the partnership could help to improve the engagement and participation of seldom-heard residents on safer neighbourhood ward panels.

v  Noted that the challenge session had made eleven recommendations for consideration and six out of the eleven actions have now been completed. Members welcomed the introduction of the Ward Panel Handbook which promoted best practice and supported ward panels improvement.

v  Was pleased to note that despite the difficulties presented by the pandemic, ward panels had still continued to operate, and new opportunities have been identified to engage ward members with a long-term view to holding a mixture of physical and virtual meetings.

v  Challenged the Ward Panels to hold six meetings per year to ensure better continuity in collecting resident feedback.

v  Questioned whether adequate support had been provided by the Council and was pleased to note that each ward panel is now supported by an ASB officer who acts as their point of contact and can facilitate attendance from the public realm as and when required.

v  Agreed that Safer Neighbourhoods Panels should continue to discuss with police and council officers how to develop opportunities either through outreach, social media or other means as identified to seek wider community views so that the work of the Panels can be demonstrated to be locally representative in content. Whilst consultation should also be used as a means of identifying potential panel members so that they can be sufficiently diverse and truly representative of all within the community that they seek to serve.

v  Expressed concern that there are still issues of resourcing the 101 service with many local resident’s still complaining that they are left on hold for over an hour without a response. However, this is being looked at and that other means of contact are being developed so that residents can get in touch online and through social media. The Committee emphasised the need for further work in this area and requested a copy of the letter the Mayor sent to the Home Office to lobby for further resources to 101 service (Subsequent to the meeting this had been received and circulated to Committee Members).  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.1

The Committee received a report that presented the 2020-21 provisional outturn budget monitoring report for the General Fund, Dedicated Schools Budget (DSB), Housing Revenue Account (HRA), progress made against savings targets and the Council’s capital programme. It also provided projections on General Fund earmarked reserves and updates on

provisional outturn impacts of Covid on the Councils finances in 2020-21. It was noted that going forward this year, the Chair was keen for the Scrutiny Sub-Committees to take on some of the responsibility of scrutinising the budget for their respective areas. Thereby helping to prepare for a robust discussion when the Committee comes to scrutinise the budget in January 2022. The Chair then welcomed and thanked Executive Mayor John Biggs; Kevin Bartle interim Corporate Director for Resources; and Hitesh Jolapara, interim Divisional Director, Finance, Procurement and Audit for attending this meeting. The main points of the discussion maybe summarised as follows:

The Committee noted that:

v  One of the scrutiny functions key aims this year is to provide a robust scrutiny of the budget and engage in the budget process as early as possible.

v  A briefing session had been held last week to inform Scrutiny’s understanding of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan and Savills report. The Chair thanked Councillor Danny Hassell and Councillor Rachel Blake for attending this session. This had provided a useful response to some of the issues that Scrutiny had raised, and it was planned to submit further questions on the budget.

v  There may also be a follow up at another meeting to investigate this matter in further detail.

v  The Outturn report must be considered within the context of Covid where the uncertainty has proved difficult to forecast and draw accurate conclusions. Accordingly, the Committee asked a wide range of questions on the report including (i) How are the Council encouraging and supporting business to reopen and/or new businesses to open; (ii) Reflections on the rationale for growing reserves and why ‘earmarked’ reserves are not being used ; (iii) A request for an update on the additional COVID funding received from the Government for 2021/22 plus any roll over from 2020/21; and (iv) Given the underspend on the HRA, and level of improvement works required on estates, what is the rationale for squeezing day to day expenditure through the HRA and Tower Hamlets Homes (THH) management fees.  Which has caused pressure on the extent of the work conducted on estates. Accordingly the Committee requested a note from the Corporate Director for Place to provide further details on this.

Accordingly, as a result of discussions on progress on the report the Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed that:

1. The Corporate Director for Place be asked to provide further details on the rationale for squeezing day to day expenditure through the HRA and THH management fees; and
2. It would submit a number of pre-decision questions on this item as they had not had the time to ask all questions during this discussion that they  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.2

The Committee received a report on the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) Challenge Session which examined how the council can improve its engagement with the Borough’s diverse community at a local level. The Chair welcomed back Councillor James King, who had chaired this session and  provided the Committee with a brief summary of this challenge session report. The main points of the discussion are summarised below:

The Committee noted that they had agreed the report and recommendations of the Empowering Communities Challenge Session held in March 2021.The session examined how the Council can improve its engagement with the Borough’s diverse community at a local level. The report made four recommendations which included:

That the Council:

v  uses its South Poplar and Isle of Dogs Community Development Panel as a model for engagement in other areas of the Borough

v  strengthens feedback loops into existing programme delivery including the Local Infrastructure Fund, the Capital Programme, regeneration schemes.

v  engages residents to determines local Covid-19 recovery priorities.

v  develops a geography-based partnership approach that brings collaboration from the council, public and private partners, VCS, and others to pick up local priorities.

As a result of discussions on this report the Committee indicated that community panels such as in South Poplar and on the Isle of Dogs provide a completely unique way of communicating and enable community members to interact and communicate on specific subjects between each other; instead of just having a one-way dialogue with the Council and its partners. This gradual development of such genuine communications, consultation, participation, and co-development would reveal insight that would be harder to extract from the more traditional methods and be critical to achieving any successful outcomes.

Accordingly, as a result of discussions on progress on the report the Committee:

1. Formally noted the Overview and Scrutiny Challenge Session Report and agreed the recommendations; and

2.    Agreed to submit the attached report to the Mayor and Cabinet for executive response.

The Committee received a copy of the Work Programme for 2021/22 and the Chair stressed that all of scrutiny committees need to be aware that the work programme and will need to be flexible so that the Scrutiny Function can respond to matters as and when they arise. The main points of the discussion may be summarised as follows:

The Committee

v  Noted that at the last meeting they had considered a draft scrutiny work programme for discussion. Since then, the draft has been circulated to Cabinet Lead Members and senior council officers for their comments. The draft Work Programme had also been presented to Full Council on 21^st July 2021.

v  Noted that following the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and Savills Information briefing session, the Chair has proposed for the Committee to hold a follow up spotlight session on this once it has been possible to scope this out with officers.

v  Noted that the scrutiny work programmes included key equality considerations of the Strategic Plan, including reducing inequality, promoting community cohesion, and enabling community engagement. Identifying and prioritising issues, which are important to local residents, and will play a significant role in developing the work programme to drive service improvements.

v  Noted that key to addressing equalities issues is to make scrutiny more accessible to residents. Accordingly, a Scrutiny Communication Plan had been developed and appended to the report, which provided an overview of the Scrutiny goals to raise and improve the profile of the Scrutiny Function.

v  Noted that to ensure that the Scrutiny work programme captures the diverse range of resident’s views and concerns, an online form has been created to allow them to submit their items for Scrutiny to consider as part of the 2021/22 work programme. This has been promoted through the Council’s social media channels to ensure all residents are aware of this opportunity and their submissions will be considered when reviewing relevant items.

Accordingly, as a result of discussions on the report the Committee:

1. Agreed the draft work Programme for 2021/22 2; and
2. Noted the specific equalities considerations as set out in Paragraph 4 of the report.

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

(Time allocated – 30 minutes).

Following comments by the Committee the Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions (PDSQ) Members agreed particular questions/recommendations that they wanted to raise with Cabineton the 28^th July 2021 (See attached appendix).

The Committee are asked to note the updates from Scrutiny Leads.

The Committee received and noted the updates from the Scrutiny Lead Members. Arising out of discussions on the updates it was noted that Housing & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub Committee would be looking at the performance of Registered Social Landlords in the very near future.

To consider any other unrestricted business that the Chair considers to be urgent.

With no other business to discuss the Chair called this meeting to a close; thanked all those attending for their contributions and informed the Committee that the next meeting would be on Monday, 20 September 2021.

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

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

(Time allocated 15 minutes).

Nil item

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

Nil items