Agenda and minutes

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.

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

To receive declarations of personal or prejudicial interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Committee;

(b)               all other Members present in any part of the room or chamber.

A Member stated that the Vice-Chair had raised the issue of dispensations for those Members of the Committee that were school governors in order to facilitate their participation in the discussion on certain education matters with Legal & Governance.  Members discussed issues around interests in relation to item 8, School Place Planning (including Admissions Policy).

An officer advised that there was currently no update on the position regarding dispensations but that she would follow this up.  The Chair stated that as the report related to primary schools it was, in his view, unnecessary for those Members who were governors of high schools to leave the room during the discussion on item 8.

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

Agenda Item 8 – School Place Planning (including Admissions Policy)

Councillor Kam Chana declared a personal interest in that although he was a governor of a primary school, it was not one of those included in the report.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Councillor Tony Ferrari declared a prejudicial interest in that he was a governor of a primary school accepting a bulge class.  He would leave the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Councillor Ann Gate declared a personal interest in that she was married to the Portfolio Holder for Schools and Colleges.  She would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Mrs Khan declared a personal interest in that she was a governor of a high school.  She would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon

Councillor Barry Macleod-Cullinane declared a personal interest in that his sister taught in a Harrow School.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon, unless the interest became prejudicial and he would then leave.

Mrs Rammelt declared a personal interest in that she was a governor of a sixth form.  She would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon

Councillor Sachin Shah declared a personal interest in that he was a governor of Rooks Heath High School.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Councillor Stephen Wright declared a personal interest in that he was a governor of a high school and his wife was a teacher in a high school.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Agenda Item 9 – Neighbourhood Champions

Councillor Susan Anderson declared a personal interest in that she was a neighbourhood champion.  She would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Councillor Kam Chana declared a personal interest in that he was a neighbourhood champion.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Councillor Barry Macleod-Cullinane declared a personal interest in that he had been a member of the Cabinet that had approved the Neighbourhood Champions  ...  view the full minutes text for item 192.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 22 September 2011 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 22 September 2011, be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

To receive questions (if any) from local residents/organisations under the provisions of Committee Procedure Rule 17 (Part 4B of the Constitution).

RESOLVED:  To note that no public questions were put, or petitions or deputations received at this meeting under the provisions of Committee Procedure Rules 17, 15 and 16 (Part 4B of the Constitution) respectively.

(if any).

There were none.

Report of the Corporate Director of Children’s Services

The Committee received the report which provided information on the Council’s primary school expansion programme and related school organisation issues.  These included proposals for the secondary school strategy, up-dates on free schools and academies, and school admissions.

An officer outlined the content of the report and advised that the consultation on a set of proposals affecting schools across Harrow would close on 11 November 2011.  The consultation documents were included at Annex A to the report.

Members made comments and asked a number of questions as follows:

·                     A Member stated that a number of primary schools had previously had smaller class sizes in order to accommodate equipment as they had children with physical disabilities and she questioned whether such schools, for example, Elmgrove, were going to be expanded or have their status changed.  She questioned how these schools could know that they no longer required additional equipment, and therefore space, for those children.  The officer advised that it was a calculated risk by the school but they had agreed to take on additional pupils either because they felt they could cope or did not foresee any issues.

·                     A Member questioned the cost of the proposals in terms of revenue and capital and was advised that the revenue budget was cost neutral as it was funded from the government’s Direct Schools Grant (DSG).  In terms of capital, the officer advised that London Councils were putting together a case to Government regarding the lack of sufficient funding.

·                     Referring to page 4 of the consultation document, a Member questioned how the list of proposed schools for extra permanent places had been prepared.  The officer advised that the criteria had been agreed by a group of officers and a representative group of primary school head teachers.  Another officer advised a range of factors, including accommodation and site size, had been considered.  The group had needed to be sure that there was potential to expand a school, had considered the popularity of a school, demand across the borough and the school ranking in terms of the primary school planning area.

·                     A Member stated that the report did not provide an analysis of how well forecasts of school roll projections had been done in the past and how changes in the number of pupils would affect the criteria.  The officer, referred to the table on page 22 of the consultation document, which presented the accuracy analysis.

·                     Given the current economic climate, a Member questioned the additional pressures given that parents may no longer be able to afford to send their children to independent schools.  An officer reported that this issue had been more prevalent in other boroughs, such as Richmond and Kingston, and that to date there had not been significant change in Harrow.

·                     A Member requested the details on applications to the government’s Priority Schools Building Programme for the 11 schools referred to on page 17 of the report and which schools they were.  An officer advised that the applications were as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 196.

Report of the Corporate Director of Community and Environment

The Committee received a report which set out the progress on the Neighbourhood Champions initiative, summarised the points raised at the Neighbourhood Champions Conference and described changes in principle to the scheme agreed by Cabinet.  The report advised that officers would be developing plans to implement the changes and seek the views of the Committee on the scheme.

The Corporate Director of Community and Environment outlined the content of the report and stated that the view emerging from the conference was that the anonymity of the neighbourhood champions could be a barrier.  There had been mixed views on this but it was clear that the champions were willing to take on more responsibility.

Members made comments and asked questions as follows:

·                     A Member questioned, in terms of anonymity, how much information was published.  The Corporate Director advised that there was a centrally held database within public realm that had limited access.  With permission, it was appropriate to share neighbourhood champion information with other champions within a ward or the ward councillor.  There was also a neighbourhood champion facebook page.  The issue would be discussed further at the next conference.

·                     In response to a Member’s question as to the target number of neighbourhood champions, the Corporate Director advised that the aim was to have one on each postcode section of a street, 2000 in total.

·                     A Member requested transcripts of what was said at the conference and the Corporate Director undertook to see if this information could be provided.  Whilst being supportive of the role, the Member expressed concern at the possible overloading of the champions and she indicated that she would like to see the scheme being shared with other departments to enable them to identify suitable champions.  She also suggested that other schemes, such as Sutton’s book lending service, be considered and that the Communications team needed to report what had been achieved.  The Corporate Director advised that the scheme was approached in a ‘one Council’ way and agreed that it could be developed for use in Children’s Services.  It was about reporting anything that did not seem right for professional assessment.

·                     A Member questioned the number of champions trained this year and was advised that, due to the re-structure in public realm, there had been a period of 4 months when no training had taken place.  There was no issue in terms of funding this work area and training material was currently being revised.

·                     Referring to paragraph 9 of the report, a Member stated that burglary and security activities should also be included.  The Corporate Director acknowledged that the Safer Neighbourhood Teams provided regular newsletters and thanked the Police for their active involvement with the scheme.

·                     Members questioned whether there was any cost associated with inactive champions and what was being done to capture information on those individuals ceasing to be champions.  The Corporate Director undertook to look into this, although if there was clearly inactivity it would be investigated.

·                     Responding to a Member’s question, the Corporate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 197.

Report of the Director of Customer Services and Business Transformation

The Committee received a report which provided information on complaints received by Harrow Council and how they were handled. The officer reported that the number of complaints recorded on CRM had risen to over 1,500 and this could be viewed as positive.  If complaints were understood, they could be rectified and responded to and common themes could be addressed. 85% of complaints had been responded to within timescales set.

The officer reported that it was necessary to do more promotion to advise residents of the complaints procedure.  Currently, only 4% of complaints were received through the web and officers would like to increase the usage of this channel.  In terms of the next steps, officers would be looking at the possibility of sharing complaints data with neighbouring authorities.

Having considered the report and the figures contained therein, Members made comments and asked questions as follows:

·                     A Member stated that it would have been helpful if the officer had spoken to the officer that had attended the last meeting of the Committee to present the reports on Adults and Children’s Services’ complaints in order to address the issues raised at that meeting in the report currently before Members.

·                     In terms of communications, a Member advised that Aberdeen Council were doing well in this area and she questioned how Harrow was performing.  The officer responded that a considerable amount of data was collected via Access Harrow and that the complaints database was operated through a CRM system.  Work would continue with the Communications team in order to convey the message in terms of complaints reporting.

·                     A Member challenged the officer, questioning the aim of the report and what it sought to report.  The Member stated that the report contained 2 sets of unrelated data and that there was no basis for comparison.  It appeared that the complaints process was isolated from the operation of the Council and he questioned what residents actually complained about as the report did not provide that information.  The officer advised that the report detailed the 2011/12 figures compared with previous year’s, highlighted issues and provided information on Local Government Ombudsman complaints.  The officer reported that there was a mismatch of data as in previous years as not all departments had used CRM.  This would be improved in future years as the quality of data improved.  There were regular meetings of the complaints co?ordinators and information was shared at the quarterly improvement boards.  In order to try to address some of the Member’s concerns, the officer undertook to try to make the report clearer in the future.

·                     Responding to a Member’s question, the officer advised that the increase in the number of complaints recorded was due to the CRM system and that previously there had not been a holistic approach.  He advised that the complaint’s co-ordinators were authorised to respond to stage one complaints in their service area.  The Member reiterated the view that he had expressed at the Committee’s previous meeting in that the Chief  ...  view the full minutes text for item 198.

Report of the Divisional Director of Partnership Development and Performance

The Committee received the report which outlined the findings and recommendations from the recent scrutiny review which had examined the Council’s use of performance information.  The purpose of the review had been to consider the principles that should underpin Harrow’s local performance management framework going forward.

The Chair stated it was an extremely useful and well researched report and thanked all those involved in the review and with the production of the report.  He advised there had been three work streams to the report (Best practice, Customer engagement, and Technology and Data presentation) which had contributed to the recommendations arising and that he and the Vice?Chair (the Chair of the Review) had discussed the report with the Chief Executive and a meeting with the relevant Portfolio Holder would be arranged.

RESOLVED:

That the report of the review group be agreed and be referred to Cabinet for consideration.

Report of the Divisional Director of Partnership Development and Performance

The Committee received a number of reports of Scrutiny Lead Members.  An officer apologised for the delay in the Safer and Stronger Communities report.

In terms of the carbon reduction commitment, following a comment that there should be caution, the scrutiny lead advised that there was clear evidence that climate change existed.

RESOLVED:  That the reports be noted and the actions proposed be agreed.

Which the Chairman has decided is urgent and cannot otherwise be dealt with.

RESOLVED:  In accordance with the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, the following items, which were not available at the time the agenda was printed and circulated, were admitted to the agenda in order to enable the work to be progressed as soon as possible:

14.       Standing Scrutiny Better Deal for Residents – Phase Two Scope

15.       Standing Scrutiny Review of the Budget Scope

Report of the Divisional Director Partnership Development and Performance.

The Committee considered the scope for the second phase of the Standing Scrutiny Review of the Better Deal for Residents.

RESOLVED: That the scope for the project be approved.

Report of the Divisional Director Partnership Development and Performance.

The Committee considered the scope for the Standing Scrutiny Review of the Budget. The Chair of the Review reported that Place Shaping had suggested that spending on capital be considered but that, in his view, a challenge panel may be required for this topic given the Area Action Plan.

RESOLVED: That the scope for the project be approved.

In accordance with the provisions of Committee Procedure Rule 14 (Part 4B of the Constitution) it was

RESOLVED:  At 9.59pm to continue until 10.15pm.