Agenda and minutes

Moved from 7 February 2023, Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Thursday 9 February 2023 6.30 pm

Venue: The Auditorium - Harrow Council Hub, Kenmore Avenue, Harrow, HA3 8LU. View directions

Contact: Kenny Uzodike, Senior Democratic & Electoral Services Officer  E-mail:  kenny.uzodike@harrow.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

21.

Attendance by Reserve Members

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

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Member:

 

Ordinary Member

  

Reserve Member

Councillor Dan Anderson

Councillor Sasi Suresh

 

22.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from all Members present.

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Minutes:

RESOLVED: To note the declarations of interest, if any, as published on the Council’s website prior to the meeting.

23.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 161 KB

That the minutes of the meeting held on 8 November 2022 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 8 November 2022 taken as read and signed as a correct record.

24.

Public Questions

To receive any public questions received.

 

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 is 3.00 pm, 6 February 2023.  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.

25.

Petitions

To receive petitions (if any) submitted by members of the public/Councillors.

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Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no petitions had been received.

26.

References from Council/Cabinet

(if any).

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Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no references were received.

RESOLVED ITEMS

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27.

The Corporate Plan pdf icon PDF 236 KB

Report of the Chief Executive.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received an introduction from Councillor Paul Osborn Leader the Council, on the Corporate Plan with the following highlights:

 

The Leader explained that the Corporate Plan had been tabled late at the Committee due to the issues with Cabinet’s publication deadlines.

 

He explained that the Corporate Plan was underpinned by a Corporate Delivery Plan, aligned to the administration’s priorities.  The actions in the Delivery Plan would be integrated into the corporate objectives setting process, with a view to having clear performance targets for staff around the delivery of each action.

 

The plan contained twenty-four flagship actions which were deliverable, tangible and measurable things.  Each of the flagship actions was assigned to one of the Council’s three priorities.  It would deliver council services that were easily accessible and effective, promises that were delivered upon, clear customer service standards and improved communications to put residents first and restore pride in Harrow.

 

Other highlights included the following:

 

·                 All council homes including Grange Farm Community Hall had to deliver a planning website by the end of the summer to adopt new planning protections, to restrict tall buildings to create safe and secure cycle parking.

 

·                 The roll out of the first car park, by May 2024.  The use of Council car parking spaces for car clubs.

 

·                 Dealing with 90% of complaints within 15 working days and the improvement of the website to enable a more personalised service with my Harrow account as residents would be able to see the progress of staff that they have reported going through the system.

 

·                 The launch a consultation platform for my Harrow talk to help the Council engage with, listen to residents and increase their involvement in decision-making.

 

·                 The work with residents to create a new adult social care, mental health model, the old arrangement was about to end, and the Council wants to work with residents, community groups and the voluntary sector to develop a new mental health system, to improve and transform resource centres into true adult social care and wellbeing hubs to promote early intervention.

 

The Leader explained that now the Corporate Plan was completed, the next piece of work was the development of a corporate scorecard, and he was happy to engage with the Committee and the Portfolio Holder for Performance on a quarterly basis to develop a process on how the score card would be scrutinised.

 

Members asked the following questions:

 

The Vice-Chair asked the Leader what changes were necessary to ensure such timely provision of vital reports to the committee.  The Leader explained that as this was the administration’s first budget and corporate plan there had been a lot to do and the situation had not been helped by the timing of the Settlement from government.  He explained that he had requested Democratic Services address the scheduling issues with the cabinet agenda publication dates and scrutiny committee and efforts would be made to ensure timely publication of reports.

 

The Vice-Chair also questioned about the lack of mention of the career development such  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

28.

Scrutiny Review on Customer Experience pdf icon PDF 120 KB

Report of the Interim Deputy Assistant Director of Strategy & Partnerships

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members received a presentation on the Customer Experience from Councillor Samir Sumaria.

 

A Member commented that it was important to point out that while it was a good to put residents first and find out exactly what they wanted however, there may not be enough resources to meet those expectations, but it was useful for officers, to understand what the residents and businesses expect to help the Council tailor our services to meet those expectations.

 

The Chair agreed with the Member and suggested that the comment could come under resident consultation, which was actually speaking to the public and finding out exactly what they expect from their service areas.  The Chair suggested that comments could be included in the methodology in that section of the report.

 

The Acting Corporate Director, Resources, Strategy and Partnerships informed Members of the residents’ survey was currently out in the field which had the customer experience-based questions in it, so there might be relevant information for the Committee’s review.

 

The Chair suggested the establishment of a baseline and targets for measurement purposes.

 

RESOLVED:  That the Customer Experience Scrutiny Scope Document be approved.