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 Members:-

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

(a)               all Members of the Committee, Sub Committee, Panel or Forum;

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

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

Agenda Item 4 – Question and Answer Session with the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive

Councillor Sue Anderson declared a personal and prejudicial interest in that she was employed by NHS Harrow.  She would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon unless public health was discussed and she would then leave the room.

Councillor Ann Gate declared a personal and prejudicial interest in that she was an employee of the Pinn Medical Centre.  She would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon unless the interest became prejudicial and she would then leave the room.

To receive deputations (if any) under the provisions of Committee Procedure Rule 16 (Part 4B) of the Constitution.

RESOLVED:  To note that no deputations were received at the meeting under the provisions of Committee Procedure Rule 16.

[The Question and Answer Session will concentrate on

• Corporate Plan, budget and service planning process
• Council’s response to the changing policy landscape – in particular the Localism Bill, the Local Government Resources Review, Health and Social Care and Welfare reform].

The Chair welcomed the Leader of the Council, the Chief Executive and Interim Director of Finance to the meeting and outlined the process to be followed for the asking of questions.

The Leader of the Council gave an introduction outlining the Council’s achievements, innovations, and challenges.  The Chief Executive identified some of the positives of the previous six months including Children Services and the Adoption Service as well as the success in dealing with the summer riots.  Resident and staff satisfaction was continuing to improve whilst staff sickness was reducing.  These achievements had been made in a difficult context. The Leader of the Council stated that whilst this coming budget would have a Council Tax freeze this was not something that, in his view, could be continued indefinitely.

Members asked a series of questions which were duly responded to as follows:

·                     Was there any potential for whole place budgets to be implemented in Harrow?  What do you think the implications might be, particularly in the context of the budget difficulties being experienced in health?

The Leader advised that the Council was working closely with the police and that work was being done to develop front line partnership.  The Chief Executive responded that better horizontal working needed to apply across the whole public sector.  If the near £2b public sector spend as a whole was considered, synergies could be made and he referred to the success of reablement.

The Chief Executive advised that there was an opportunity to co?locate services and that there were 147 public sector buildings in Harrow.  There were also potential opportunities such as Access Harrow dealing with not only Council services but GP bookings and non emergency police enquiries which would give rise to a more holistic service.  The Member expressed concern at what seemed to be a lack of progress in terms of the number of public sector buildings in the borough.  The Leader responded that a lot of work was being done in terms of reducing Council buildings as staff were being moved into the Civic Centre.

·                     In the context of the whole borough community budgets, what has the Council’s work around the top 100 families entailed?  How successful has our work been and how is success measured in this context?

The Chief Executive advised that, to date, work had started in October and that the council had applied to be a pilot for community budgets.  Many of these families had multiple issues including domestic violence, drug and alcohol misuse and exclusion issues.  Multi agency teams were being put together to identify and consider these families.  It was necessary to ensure that the Council had the capacity to deal with the issues and had the necessary financial resources as well as being able to get partners involved.  Success was about improved outcomes for these families, establishing a focus on early intervention, co-ordinating assessments and interventions across partners and Better Value for Money from the resources used. A Member expressed concern at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 208.

Report of the Divisional Director of Partnership Development and Performance

Members received a report of the Divisional Director of Partnership Development and Performance which updated the Committee on the delivery of the scrutiny work programme and identified new projects for inclusion in the work programme.

Members discussed the possible Chairs, including a backbench Member, for two of the projects proposed to be included in the work programme; Private Sector Housing Capacity and Customer Care.

RESOLVED:  That

(1)               the progress on the existing scrutiny projects be noted;

(2)               the following projects be included in the work programme

·                     merger of Ealing and the North West London Hospital Trusts

·                     Private Sector Housing Capacity

·                     Customer Care.