Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Daksha Ghelani, Senior Democratic Services Officer  E-mail:  daksha.ghelani@harrow.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

71.

Attendance by Reserve Members

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

 

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

 

(i)            to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)          where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)         the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)         if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

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Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that there were no Reserve Members in attendance.

72.

Membership of the Forum

To note that Cabinet appointed Sharon Hayes as a Unison representative to the vacancy on the Employees’ Consultative Forum.

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Minutes:

The Chair welcomed Sharon Haynes to her first meeting of the Forum.

 

RESOLVED:  To note the appointment of Sharon Haynes, Unison Representative, by Cabinet to the vacancy on the Employees’ Consultative Forum.

73.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 102 KB

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

 

(a)          all Members of the Forum;

(b)          all other Members present.

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Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note the declarations received and published prior to the meeting as set out on the Council’s website and that no additional declarations were made at the meeting.

74.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 537 KB

That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 November 2021 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

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Minutes:

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 November 2021, be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

75.

Petitions

To receive petitions (if any) submitted by members of the public/Councillors under the provisions of Executive Procedure Rule 47 (Part 4D of the Constitution).

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Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no petitions had been received.

76.

Deputations

To receive deputations (if any) under the provisions of Executive Procedure Rule 48 (Part 4D of the Constitution).

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Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no deputations were received at this meeting under the provisions of Executive Procedure Rule 48 (Part 4D of the Constitution).

77.

Public Questions

To receive any public questions received in accordance with paragraph 16 of the Executive Procedure Rules.

 

Questions will be asked in the order in which they were received.  There will be a time limit of 15 minutes for the asking and answering of public questions.

 

[The deadline for receipt of public questions if 3.00 pm, 7 January 2022.  Questions should be sent to publicquestions@harrow.gov.uk

No person may submit more than one question].

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Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no public questions were received.

Resolved Items

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78.

Draft Revenue Budget 2022/23 and draft Medium Term Financial Strategy 2022/23 to 2024/25 pdf icon PDF 880 KB

Report of the Director of Finance and Assurance.

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Minutes:

The Forum received a report of the Director of Finance and Assurance, which set out the draft revenue budget for 2022/23 and the draft Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for 2022/23 to 2024/25 which had been considered by Cabinet at its meeting in December 2021.  The report also referenced that the budget and the MTFS would be brought back to Cabinet in February 2022 for final approval and with a recommendation to full Council.

 

The Director of Finance and Assurance introduced the report and informed the Forum that the approach taken by the Council to the budget setting process was different to that of previous years.  There was a legal requirement for the Council to deliver a balanced budget and, in order to do this, the Council was proposing to manage the budget gap for 2022/23 by using its reserves of £15.7m as a one-off measure to ‘plug’ the budget gap.  The Director added that it was not ideal to use reserves to manage budget gaps but the alternative was to make immediate substantial cuts which would not be sustainable.  She added that the Council was working on a strategy for future years with a view to managing the gap over the MTFS.

 

The Director responded to a question from a Member on the interest rate income that would be lost if reserves were withdrawn and used to manage the funding gap for 2022/23.  She explained that the loss of interest would be marginal compared to other measures.  She reiterated that there was a legal requirement on the Council to set a balanced budget for 2022/23.

 

A Unison representative asked how the loss of reserves would be funded in future years.  The Director referred to table 1 (summary of key financial changes 2013/14 to 2022/23) and table 2 (changes to MTFS – prior to indicated finance settlement) of her report and explained that a further saving of £14.8m would have to be found in future years.  For example, this could be achieved by restructuring debt and/or reducing expenditure.  She added that various assumptions had been built-in, such as additional grant settlements from the government, an increase in Council Tax of 2.99% per annum, demographic of Harrow and expected inflation levels.

 

The Unison representative urged caution in that whilst an increase or a change in demographic could result in an increase in Council Tax, it would also mean that more Council services would be required and provided for.  The Director of Finance acknowledged this point and stated that contingencies/growth would always be put in place.

 

The Director responded to additional questions from Unison and GMB representatives as follows:

 

·                  How would the sale of the Civic Centre site impact on the budget?  The Director informed the Forum that this question was related to the HSPB (Harrow Strategic Partnership Board) where the Council will be putting in the Civic Centre land and equity over the period of the HSPB. She added that the Council would receive capital receipts, interest and dividends in future  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

79.

Annual Workforce Equality Report 2020-2021 pdf icon PDF 432 KB

Report of the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development.

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Minutes:

The Forum received a report of the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development, which provided a detailed breakdown of the Council’s workforce from 1 April 2020 – 31 March 2021, as set out at appendix A to the report.  The report contained a snapshot of the current workforce, broken down into each of the protected characteristics where data was available, providing an overview of the diversity profile of the Council’s workforce and how this compared with the population of Harrow and the London average.

 

The report stated that the data would help inform the Council’s workforce planning and decision-making processes in relation to the levelling up of the Council’s offer for under-represented groups.  It was intended that the report would help shape the development of workforce initiatives to further improve the representation of minority groups within the Council, and to ensure more inclusive processes and practices across the organisation.

 

An officer introduced the report and made a presentation which is attached as an appendix to these minutes for reference purposes.  She reported as follows:

 

·                  the Annual Workforce Equality Report 2020-21 provided a data driven snapshot of the Council’s current workforce, which was made up of 2,071 full time and part time staff (excluding school staff) and had been compared to the populations of Harrow and London.  The workforce had been broken down into the following groups where data was held - age, disability, race, sex, religion, LGBTQIA+, maternity;

·                  a detailed analysis of protected groups had shown the interconnected nature of social categorisation, for example, disability and sex, race and sex, age and pay band;

·                  the report highlighted a number of issues around particular groups, and further conclusions would be drawn to inform the next phase, which would form part of the Council’s internal Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy;

·                  the report would help shape the development of workforce initiatives to further improve the representation of minority groups within the Council, to ensure more inclusive processes and practices across the organisation.

 

The officer extracted the key points from each of the presentation slides relating to Age, Disability, Race, Race and Sex, Sex, Religion, LGBT QIA+, Maternity and Recruitment, details of which are set out in the appendix to the minutes.  In relation to the presentation slide on Recruitment, the officer informed the Forum that, currently, no information was available on the jobs that women had been successful in securing under the gender section.

 

The Forum was advised of the following emerging recommendations which needed to be taken forward by the Council:

 

·                  create safe spaces for staff to share their personal and confidential data in order to increase the completion rate to allow the Council to better analyse the Annual Workforce Equality Report in the future;

 

·                  consider how the Council monitored agency staff and senior interim staff who made up a significant part of the workforce;

 

·                  monitor the impact of Diversity Talent Programmes which were launched in 2021 to identify progression of female and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff.  The officer  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79.

Appendix pdf icon PDF 294 KB

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