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.

No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest were received.

The Chair made reference to the attacks that had taken place on Sunday 21 April at a number of locations in Sri Lanka including hotels and churches holding Easter mass. The Chair indicated that following this horrific attack the Committees thoughts and sympathies were with all the victims and their friends and families.

To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 25th March, 2019.

That the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 25^th March 2019 were approved as a correct record of the proceedings.

The Young Mayor and Members of the Youth Council will be attending the meeting to discuss how to get local young people more involved in the Council’s Scrutiny process.

The Chair welcomed the recently elected Young Mayor and a number of Deputy Young Mayors to the meeting

They firstly outlined their manifesto aims with regard to improving the health and wellbeing of young people and bringing together young people and the community to tackle the most pressing issues facing them in the Borough.

Priorities included: taking action to help address knife crime, improving community integration, strengthening engagement between the young people and the Council, promoting healthy lifestyles, raising awareness of mental health issues and support and raising aspirations and awareness of the career opportunities available to local people within Canary Wharf and City Fringe. There would also be a focus on improving the natural and social environment.

The Chair invited the Committee to ask questions of the young representatives, and the following points were noted:

·         The Committee recently carried out a Challenge Session of LBTH communications.  The Committee would welcome the representatives feedback on the report, particularly the plans regarding engagement with young people. The report would be sent to the young people.

·         Members noted the need to reach out to and engage with a wider range of young people. The young people considered that the Council should make greater use of social media platforms, particularly to reach out to ‘hard to reach groups’. The Council could also work with schools to bring visitors to school assemblies.

·         It was also suggested that emphasis should be placed on holding more workshops in schools and youth centres, with The Police in particular. This should help to change attitudes towards crime.

·         The Youth Parliament had made tackling knife a national priority, with the aim of promoting collaborative working across London to   develop a prevention and rehabilitation strategy.

·         When looking at the possible causes of crime, it was important to look at a broad range of factors, rather than focus on issues such as ‘grime music’.

·         Regarding education matters, it was noted that the Deputy Mayor’s Portfolio for the Community covered a wide range of issues including education support.

• There would be a scrutiny session on 30^th April 2019, looking at the issue of school exclusions. The Young representatives were welcomed to attend this meeting and share their views.

·         The young representatives expressed comments about the need for the schools, (especially independent schools) and the Council to work more closely together, on issues particularly effecting young people, such as apprenticeship and employment opportunities. 

·         Support was expressed for greater engagement with young people on the environmental issues, given the increasing importance of this issue. Councillor Perry referred to her role as Cycle Champion and expressed a wish to work with the young representatives on this issue.

In summary, the Chair the praised the work of the Young Mayor and his Team especially the opportunities that it provided to young people.

He also thanked the Young Mayor and Deputies Mayors for attending the meeting and encouraged them and elected Members to engage on future events and initiatives. 

The Chair Moved and it was:

RESOLVED:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.1

The Committee will receive a presentation on the structure of the Scrutiny function in Tower Hamlets.

Afazul Hoque, (Head of Corporate Strategy & Policy) gave a presentation on proposed changes to the scrutiny function, following feedback from the scrutiny away day held on 16 March 2019.  This presentation had been circulated as a supplementary agenda.

He outlined the main conclusions from the away day, focusing on the perceived issues with the present system around: overloaded agendas, limited engagement with non - executive Councillors, the need to consider a wider range of issues, the frequency of scrutiny sub – committee meetings and the the size and broad remit of the scrutiny lead’s portfolios, amongst other issues.  Consequently to address the issues, it was suggested that: the Scrutiny Lead Portfolios be revised to facilitate a greater oversight of their portfolio.  It was also proposed that the existing sub – committees would be replaced by three new sub – committee, each meeting 6 times a year, (instead of 5). There would also be in-depth finance and resources reviews and education and children’s services reviews (led by the relevant Scrutiny Lead) with a focus on post Ofsted issues.

Benefits of the new system should include: improved flexibility to deal with topical issues and more in – in depth and outcome based reviews. 

In terms of setting the work programme, there would be two work programming sessions (Members and stakeholders). There would also be a Communication and Development Programme. Subject to the Committee’s approval of the proposals, the proposals would be submitted to the new Committee to agree.

The Committee asked a number of questions about the proposals and the points raised are summarised below:

·         The Committee discussed and generally agreed that there should be five scrutiny leads and they should be about equal in size in terms of the work covered.  Support was also expressed for the creation of three subcommittees, meeting at a greater frequency with Scrutiny Lead reviews, reporting back to the OSC. This would allow for more in-depth reviews and more effective scrutiny.

·         It was suggested that consideration could be given to shorting the length of OSC meetings and reallocating the time to the sub – committees, as a way of distributing the work load and enabling more focused reviews.

·         Members were mindful of the issues around Officer’s time and resource constraints. It was noted that this issue would need to be taken into account in taking any future arrangements forward.

·         The Committee noted the need for the work programming session to be carefully planned and managed given the potential number of participants. It was emphasised that this exercise should be outcome focused.

·         Members also noted the need to reserve space in the work plan for unplanned items that arise during the year, such as call – ins and agreed that the new system needed to be flexible enough to accommodate such issues.

·         Support was also expressed for raising the profile and facilitating greater public engagement at scrutiny meetings at the OSC and also at the sub - committees through receiving petitions or resident’s survey feedback.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.1

The Committee will receive a report on improving three key priority areas for residents:

1.    Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour and Drug Related Crime;

2.    Education Aspirations; and

3.    Employment Aspirations.

The Committee received the report setting out the findings of the Overview and Scrutiny Review on improving the following three key priority areas for residents:

1.    Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and Drug Related Crime;

2.    Education Aspirations; and

3.    Employment Aspirations.

The Committee discussed and commented on each of the main sections of the report. The discussion can be summarised as follows:

·         Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour and Drug Related Crime

Recommendation 1: The Council works with partners, such as the Police and housing providers, to: Develop one central place for residents to report anti-social behaviour incidents.

The Chair reported that he had engaged with Registered Social Landlords about the need to find one central place in Tower Hamlets to report ASB. He strongly supported this recommendation and wanted the Council to take this forward.

A Member also requested that the Committee should receive statistics, showing the impact of the introduction of this measure. 

Recommendation 4: That the Council and the Metropolitan Police Service work with the Safer Neighbourhood Board and ward panels to carry out a number of activities etc.

The Committee wished to ensure that young people were directly involved in this and the decision making initiatives.

·         Education Aspirations

Recommendation 5: The Council partners with schools to collectively campaign to reduce pupils changing schools throughout the year and promoting social cohesion.

It was requested that the section should provide fuller details regarding the need for schools to work closely together to understand the pupil’s circumstances, particularly the needs of the vulnerable pupils. 

Recommendation 6:The Council monitors and adopts appropriate milestones to close the gap in 5 GCSE levels attainment for white British children within the next 10 years.

The Committee discussed the ten year milestone for improving outcomes and the merits of reducing this to a five year milestone with greater monitoring. Mindful of the factors taking into account at the scrutiny review, the Committee agreed to retain the 10 year milestone. The Committee noted that this was a longstanding and an important issue that needed to be address. It was felt important that the Council should adopt and monitor appropriate milestones.

The Committee also stressed the need to focus on early year  intervention and engagement with parents at this stage and requested that this be reflected in the report.

Recommendation 7: The Council works with schools and partners to support parents and young people with information around a range of education and career pathways, including those into university.

The Committee expressed a wish for this to be young person led and reflect the type of support they wanted.  It should include details of the age range.

·         Employment Aspirations.

Recommendation 14: The Council promotes the benefits of apprenticeships with parents and carers

This should state parents and guardians.

This should contain more information on Apprenticeships in terms of reasons for the take up, expenditure and the Apprenticeships levy.

At the invitation of the Chair, the young representatives commented on the report. They felt that consideration should be given to providing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.2

The Committee will receive the Annual Report provides a summary of the work the Overview & Scrutiny Committee, the Health, Housing and Grants Sub Committees and Scrutiny Leads have delivered in the 2018-2019 municipal year – To follow.

The Committee received and noted the Annual Report that provided a summary of the work the Overview & Scrutiny Committee, the Health, Housing and Grants Sub Committees and Scrutiny Leads have delivered in the 2018-2019 municipal year. A revised copy would be circulated to Members. 

The Scrutiny Lead for Resources and Chair of the Grants Scrutiny Sub – Committee asked for an update on the resubmission of A12 Acoustic Barrier proposals to the Grants Committees.

The Chair Moved and it was:-

RESOLVED

That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

1.         Agree the report for submission to Full Council in the new municipal year; and

2.         Authorise the Divisional Director Strategy, Policy & Performance amend the report in consultation with the Chair before submission to Full Council.

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

The Committee was advised that no requests to submit any petition’s had been received for consideration at this meeting.

The Committee are asked to note and to comment upon the Action Log - To follow

Item deferred

Members are asked to review the Forward Plan and to plan around the Committees priorities

The Committee received and noted the published Cabinet Forward.

No decisions of the Mayor in Cabinet on the 27^th February, 2019 in respect of unrestricted reports on the agenda were ‘called in’.

The Committee was advised that no unrestricted reports had been “called in”.

To receive verbal updates from each of the Scrutiny Leads.

(Time allocated – 5 minutes each)

Councillor Marc Francis Scrutiny Lead for Resources informed the Committee that there would be a Scrutiny Challenge session on Customer Access /One Stop Shops on 8^th June.

He also reminded the Committee of the Scrutiny Challenge session on 30^th April regarding Children’s Services.

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

The Committee received and noted those questions to be presented at Cabinet by the Chair in relation to unrestricted business on the agenda – See Appendix

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

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.

Nil items

Nil items

Nil items

Nil items

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

(Time allocated 15 minutes).

Nil items

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

Nil items