To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor Bellal Uddin and Jahed Ahmed.

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 declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest were received 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 28 January 2025 and 4 February 2025.

The Chair Moved and it was:-

RESOLVED

That the unrestricted minutes of the meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 28 January & 4 February 2025 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record of the proceedings. 

RESOLVED:

Members noted the action log.

No decisions of the Mayor in Cabinet 29 January 2025 in respect of unrestricted reports on the agenda were ‘called in’.

 Nil Items.

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

Nil Items.

 The chair introduced the midyear update on the Council’s Scrutiny Improvement Plan. Members were asked to give feedback to officers as the plan in continually developed.

The committee raised the following comments and questions:

•         Reading the actions within the plan and the officer assessments of how complete they are, does not always feel correct on what is happening in the council. While plans may be put into place, practical change has often not been achieved.

•         This report still feels officer led and in many cases members have not been engaged or be able to led on work that falls within their scrutiny area.

•         Allowing the members to meet before the committee, a few days in advance, to discuss the agenda can allow for greater depth in scrutiny.

RESOLVED

1.      Note delivery of the Scrutiny Improvement Plan to date. Review delivery of the actions set out to strengthen the Council’s Scrutiny function and provide any comments on completed actions and those not delivered to ensure Scrutiny in Tower Hamlets is effective, robust and adds value to strategic priorities and residents lived experiences.

2.      Identify additional actions which need to be included in the Plan in 2025/26.

3.      Agree on which actions should be prioritised in 2025/26.

Stephen Halsey, Chief Executive with Simon Baxter, Corporate Director Communities David Joyce, Corporate Director Housing Regeneration and Kirsty Roberts, Senior Strategy Officer presented the update on the development of the Continuous Improvement Plan in response to the Ministerial Directions published on the 22nd January 2025.

The committee raised the following comments and questions:

•         The role of this committee in the plan is not always clear and, in many cases, does not have a strong role for improvement.

•         There is a culture here of officers not challenging political leadership, and officers feeling unsafe to call out issues with political leadership. How will this be improved? Officers outlined the measures that will be put in place to allow officers safety and space to speak out on issues with political leadership. This will include the government envoys having a role in supporting officers to create an environment of speaking honestly.

•         This is a journey, and officers & members have all put in a great deal of work to see improvement across the authority, and ensuring that we measure progress is important.

•         Restoring trust is a key area of this improvement plan, can officers outline how this is being realised? Officers stated while this is very early in the process, bringing staff along the journey is critical in restoring trust.

•         A large budget has been allocated to this improvement journey, can we see a breakdown of the budget around this, and is this a fair amount of a new direction for the council? Officers agreed to write back to the committee of the budget, but stated that funding for this has been agreed for 3 years of the improvement plan.

RESOLVED

Members noted the update

The following items are due to be considered at the Cabinet meeting 26 March 2025.

The committee is invited to consider the reports below:

 Living with Stephen Halsey, Chief Executive, Julie Lorraine, Corporate Director for Resources with Simon Baxter, Corporate Director Communities David Joyce, Corporate Director Housing Regeneration, John Ainsworth, Senior Performance Improvement Analyst presented the Quarter 3 monitoring update of the Year 3 Annual Delivery Plan 2024-25 performance measures and the Budget Monitoring 2024/25 Quarter 3.

The committee raised the following comments and questions:

•         Can officers outline the ambitious plans for acquiring a large amount of private rented sector (PRS)? How much will this help homelessness in the borough? Officers detailed how acquiring large amounts of PRS will have an impact on the council’s spending on emergency accommodation. It will allow the council to make longer term plans for accommodation in the borough. This is also a move to by back many former council homes.

•         Can officers detail the spending on free school meals and feedback on the quality that is being seen in schools?  Officers detailed that the savings that are being reviewed over the next 3 years. Officers welcomed the feedback that members have been a part of, including visits to schools across the borough. Councillor Saied Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Resources and the Cost stated that the political leadership is having an internal focus on the free school meals to understand what more can be done with current resources.

•         Can officers outline what the issues are with legal services? It has been an ongoing concern in these monitoring reports. Officers confirmed that legal services have put in a significant growth bid to see improvement in the service, so this will help increase the concerns from monitoring.

•         The council is still performing poorly on education, health and care assessments completed in 20 weeks, there has been little progressed in recent quarters. When will we see improvement in this area? Officers stated that while there has been a slight improvement between quarters, the council is dealing with a high level of requests and completing them within 20 weeks remain challenging. However, recruitment is being carried out in this area. While reaching the deadline is important, we do still want to ensure there is quality in the work.

•         With fly-tipping enforcements on a downward trend as a KPI, can officers give more detail on the action plan to combat this decline? And can we understand if this has been affected by voluntary redundancies across services? Officers stated that there is a new director in the service to help bring a more robust plan to this area and the council is working in partnership with THEOs. The effects of voluntary redundancies will take a year to be seen. Officers agreed to share voluntary redundancy criteria with members.

•         The is an overspend forecasted of over £6.7M in Public Relam, is this taken into account for the council budget 2025/26? Officers detailed that overspend is related to electrical car charging points, which has seen a delay but and this is an area that will be taken into account in the future budget.

•         The council is  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

 Item was taken with Strategic Delivery and Performance report year three Quarter 3.

RESOLVED

Members noted the report.

To hear updates from the Overview and Scrutiny Leads on their work across the Council.

 RESOLVED

Members noted the update.

To consider the agenda of the 26 March 2025 meeting of Cabinet and agree pre-decision scrutiny questions/comments.

The agenda can be found by following this link:

Tower Hamlets Council - Agenda for Cabinet on Wednesday, 26th March, 2025, 5.30 p.m.

To review forthcoming decisions expected to be taken by the Mayor from the Executive Forward Plan and identify any areas for further Scrutiny for committee.

 RESOLVED

Members noted the forward plan.

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

 Nil items.

In view of the contents of the remaining items on the agenda the Committee is recommended to adopt the following motion:

“That, under the provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting for the consideration of the Section Two business on the grounds that it contains information defined as Exempt in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972.”

EXEMPT/CONFIDENTIAL SECTION (Pink Papers)

The exempt committee papers in the agenda will contain information, which is commercially, legally or personally sensitive and should not be divulged to third parties.  If you do not wish to retain these papers after the meeting, please hand them to the Committee Officer present.

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. 

Nil Items.

Nil Items

To consider any decisions of the Mayor in Cabinet in respect of exempt/ confidential reports on the agenda were ‘called in’.

Nil Items. 

To consider the exempt/ confidential agenda of the 26 March 2025 meeting of Cabinet and agree pre-decision scrutiny questions/comments.

Nil Items. 

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

Nil Items.