Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Abdul Malik (Scrutiny Lead for Community Safety).

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

No Member declared a potential interest at the meeting.

To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on Monday, 4th July 2022.

The Chair Moved  and it was:-

RESOLVED

That the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 7^th June 2022 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record of the proceedings.

MATTERS ARISING

The Chair:

1. Reminded Members that following points raised by Councillor Francis the Committee had Requested:

                I.        Information on the performance of youth services since the provision has been commissioned had not yet been received (e.g., progress made to date; how the challenges have been managed and moving forward how will this improve provision; and what targets have been set for the provision and how they will be monitored) and

               II.         Information on the actual scale of digital exclusion in the Borough was outstanding (e.g., how digital skills vary for different groups of residents and some of the barriers to digital inclusion).

2. Thanked Councillor Mark Francis for raising these issues and requested officers to provide this information.

3. Reminded the Committee that Councillor Sabina Khan had accepted the nomination for the Scrutiny Lead for Resources and Finance.

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

Nil items

The Committee is asked to note:

1. The most recent editions of the Forward Plan.

2. The Forthcoming Decisions Plan (or 'Forward Plan') will be published at least 28 days before each Cabinet meeting setting out information on all the Key Decisions that are expected to be taken at that meeting, along with other Cabinet decisions where known.

3. Publication dates for future Forthcoming Decision Plans are available on the Cabinet web pages. In advance of being published on the new Plan, individual notices of new Key Decisions will be published as they are known and these are listed as New Issues.

The Committee noted Cabinet forward plan and that for the most up to date version, Members were recommended to check the Cabinet web pages on the council’s website.

The Committee is to consider the Council’s draft strategic plan 2022-26 and make recommendations on areas for improvement and further consideration.

Members are asked to refer to the report included in the Cabinet - Monday, 1st August 2022 5.30 p.m. as published on the Council’s website.

Tower Hamlets Council - Agenda for Cabinet on Monday, 1st August, 2022, 5.30 p.m.

The Committee considered a report that presented the Strategic Plan 2022 to 2026 which is the Council's main corporate business plan. That embeds the Mayor's vision and the administration's manifesto into a high-level policy framework and demonstrates how they will be delivered alongside the Council’s statutory duties.  A summary of the discussions on this report is outlined below.

The Committee

v  Noted that the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in very high levels of public spending and LBTH would have been £34 million pounds over budget if it had not received funding from the Government to cover the spending pressures and income losses due to Covid and had enabled LBTH to have a balanced position of for the last financial year.

v  Noted that the Plan sets a framework for performance monitoring and reporting.

v  Noted that it is (i) supported by and aligned with the Medium-Term Financial Strategy and (ii) accompanied by an Annual Delivery Plan that sets out how the Plan priorities will be delivered in 2022/23.

v  Noted that Annual Delivery Plans will be published each year until 2025/26.

v  Noted as mentioned earlier that the plan is based on the Mayor’s election manifesto, the Council’s statutory duties, and the ambition to keep improving customer service and ways of working.

v  Noted that the Councils commitment to equality, diversity, inclusion, and community cohesion also runs through the plan.

v  Agreed that it is important that LBTH is able to offer a support package to care leavers to provide educational and training opportunities that will improve their vocational and educational profile and open up future employment opportunities.  Therefore, Members wanted details on how LBTH children in care and care leavers will be supported and prioritised with access to work opportunities.

v  Agreed that in regard to the control of rent levels housing providers must have robust systems of internal control in place to ensure that rents are being charged appropriately and therefore wanted clarification on socially affordable rents stated at 30-40% of average market rents.

·         Wanted to know if this is the right time to bring housing services back under the direct management of the Council, as other councils have done (e.g., would the insourcing of Tower Hamlets Homes (THH) better align housing management and maintenance services to meet resident needs and place the full range of housing services at the heart of the Council’s efforts to improve outcomes for all our residents).  Accordingly, it was agreed that with regard to the Councils investment in public services they should have the details on the consultation process by bringing outsourced services such as THH back into public hands.

v  Agreed that with the Council now has to brace itself for a long recession as energy prices surge to unprecedented levels, leaving many residents at risk of economic hardship.  Accordingly wanted details on the Council’s communication strategy on the cost-of-living crisis and how residents can feedback.

v  Welcomed the £2.2 million package to support LBTH residents with the cost-of-living  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.1

The Committee is asked to review the OSC work programme for 2021/22

The Committee’s received and noted the Draft Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme.  The main points of the discussions on the Work Programme is summarised below:

The Committee:

v  Was informed that prior to tonight’s meeting, all members of the scrutiny sub-committees had been able to use part of their first committee meetings to feed in their suggestions for the work programme.

v  Was reminded that there had been a scrutiny awayday on the 16^th July to develop the scrutiny work programme and consider how Members might best align the work programme with the Council’s strategic priorities, resident’s concerns, and key policy issues.

v  Agreed that the goal was to produce a co-ordinated and tight work programme between all committees, which would look at fewer issues in more depth to ensure OSC and its sub-committees are adding value and supporting the Council to deliver service improvements.

v  Noted that the work programme is intended be robust and covers key areas that will both impact and benefit to residents including:

1.    waste and recycling and public realm issues.

2.    housing regeneration and support to homeless applications. 

3.    youth justice, youth provision, young people’s education children social care and SEND.

4.    access to GP services, tackling obesity, mental health provision and ICS delivery

5.    customer service strategy and climate emergency; and

6.    food poverty and women’s safety

v  Noted that the draft scrutiny work programme would be shared with Members over the next few weeks as part of the development of the Committees plans.

v  Noted that the officers supporting the committee will also be engaging officers, services, and partners to help them better understand the Committee’s expectations over the course of the year.  With the final programme to be signed off at the Committees meeting in September.

The Committee is asked to note the recruitment process for a number of co-opted member roles and agree that the selected candidates be appointed to the Committee and to its three sub committees.

The Committee received and noted a report regarding the recruitment process for a number of co-opted member roles and to agree that the selected candidates be appointed to the Committee and to its three sub committees. The main points of the discussion on the report summarised as follows:

The Committee:

v  Noted that as was reported to the Committee in June 2022, the Local Government Act 2000 provides that the Committee and it sub committees may include persons who are not members of the Council. The Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules and the terms of reference for the Committee and its three sub committees together provide that scrutiny at LBTH shall include the following 12 co-opted member roles:

a)    OSC has two co-opted resident representative members.

b)    Housing and Regeneration Scrutiny Sub Committee has two co-opted members: a leaseholder representative and a tenant representative.

c)    Health and Adults Scrutiny Sub Committee has two co-opted members – a resident representative and a representative nominated from Healthwatch Tower Hamlets (see below).

d)    Children and Education Scrutiny Sub Committee includes a co-opted representative from the Muslim community.

e)    Five statutory education co-optees (see below).

v  Noted that an open recruitment process has been undertaken to select preferred candidates for roles (a) – (d) as detailed above and the report outlines the outcome of this process and asks the Committee to formally appoint the selected preferred candidates.

v  Was informed that the Council’s scrutiny arrangements provide for the appointment of statutory education co-optees who sit on the Children’s and Education Scrutiny Sub Committee. These statutory education co-optees are not chosen through open recruitment and are not considered directly in this report. Statutory education co-optees were appointed at the Committee meeting in June 2022 which also appointed the Healthwatch Tower Hamlets nominee to the Health and Adults Scrutiny Sub Committee.

v  Noted that the Council’s Code of Conduct for Members applies to scrutiny co-optees. Training will be provided by officers to the co-opted representatives on the Code of Conduct which will include declarations of interest, exempt reports, and data protection.

v  Noted that an advert promoting the roles was put on the Council’s website and the roles were also advertised through social media. Shortlisting and interviews for each role were undertaken by a dedicated mixed interview panel including the Chair of the Committee or relevant scrutiny subcommittee and officers.

v  Noted that (i) as a result of the selection process, the candidates below were selected to serve as co-opted members for the roles shown; and (ii) the Committee is asked to formally appoint the persons listed below to the co-opted roles indicated for the period of the current administration.

To review Cabinet decisions and make strategic recommendations.

Members are asked to refer to the report included in the Cabinet - Monday, 1st August 2022 5.30 p.m. as published on the Council’s website.

Tower Hamlets Council - Agenda for Cabinet on Monday, 1st August, 2022, 5.30 p.m.

(Time allocated – 30 minutes).

Whilst there are no pre-decisions questions the committee requested a response to the questions on both the Recycling Rate and the percentage of completed Education Health Care Plan (Item 10.2 refers).

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

The Committee is asked to note the current Action Log

Noted.

It was agreed that as part of the regular review of the Annual Strategic Performance Report 2021/22 Members should have going forward have time to properly consider the Report.

Accordingly, the Committee raised a number of questions and subsequent to the meeting received the following:

v  Question: TheCommittee requested for the outturn of the recycling rates for 2021/22 as there was no figure shown in the most recent quarter of the performance reporting.

v  Answer: Recycling rate for 2021/22 – 19.7%

v  Question: The Committee raised concerns on the low percentage of education health care plan assessments completed at 29% and wished to ascertain what and how this was measured.

v  Answer:

A.   The figure of 29% for completed EHCP’s relates to those completed within the 20-week timescale. The remaining 71% of EHCP’s will have been in progress and will be completed, albeit having taken longer than we would have liked. Q4 was a particularly challenging period, and earlier periods showed increased performance in this area.  Additional resources have been put in place which are starting to have an impact. It was noted that current cumulative performance is 35% (year to date) and increasing with May (42%), June (45%) and July (45%) demonstrating an improved trajectory. Noted that weekly meetings are held with services to monitor the impact of the increasing demand for EHCPs on timeliness of advice requests coming back into the SEN Service.

B.   This measure is a SEND improvement plan priority and is an inspection risk. It has been suggested as an additional focus measure by the Corporate Director. There is a statutory timescale for the completion of an EHCP assessment and benchmarking data is available. Data is also available for quarterly reporting. The challenge the service may have for this measure is that there is already a lot of focus on this measure.  The target for this measure is cumulative. The services are working on a backlog of cases which they plan to clear by the autumn term. In terms of benchmarking, the national figure for EHC timeliness is expected to be around 50% for 2020/21.  The targets are based on a modelling of number of monthly assessment requests and an internal target of 95% completion rate for all new cases Q1 target = 26%; Q2 target=35%; Q3 target =46%; and Q4 and end of year target =53%.

The Chair thanked Cllr Saied Ahmed (Cabinet Member for Resources and Cost of Living) and Will Tuckley (Chief Executive) for their attendance and providing responses to the committee’s questions.

As the agenda circulated had 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).

There were no exempt pre-decisions questions.

As there was no other business the Chair declared the meeting closed and reminded Members that the next meeting is scheduled for Monday, 26th September, 2022, 6.30 p.m.