Agenda and minutes

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

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

Agenda Item 7 – School Expansion Programme

Councillor Paul Osborn declared a non-pecuniary interest in that he was a Governor at Norbury School.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Councillor Richard Almond declared a non-pecuniary interest in that he was a governor at St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School. He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

CouncillorPrimesh Patel declared a non-pecuniary interest in that he was a Governor at Bentley Wood School.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Councillor Michael Borio declared a non-pecuniary interest in that he was a Governor at Norbury School.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 16 February 2016 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 16 February 2016, be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

To receive any public questions received in accordance with Committee Procedure Rule 17 (Part 4B of the Constitution).

Questions will be asked in the order notice of them was received and there be a time limit of 15 minutes.

[The deadline for receipt of public questions is 3.00 pm, Thursday 14^th April 2016.  Questions should be sent to publicquestions@harrow.gov.uk  

No person may submit more than one question].

RESOLVED:  To note that no public questions or petitions were received at this meeting.

There were none.

Report of the Divisional Director, Strategic Commissioning.

The Committee received and considered the Scrutiny Annual Report  which outlined the activities of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the Scrutiny Sub-Committees and the scrutiny lead councillors during the 2015-16 municipal year.  It was noted that the Council’s Constitution required the Committee to report annually on its activities to Council.

Resolved to RECOMMEND:  (to Council)

That the annual report be endorsed.

Report of the Corporate Director, People Services.

The Committee received a report which set out how the school expansion programme had equipped schools to accommodate the additional children requiring places in Harrow schools and the opportunities taken to improve the school estate.

The Portfolio Holder for Children, Schools and Young People introduced the report, informing the Committee that to date the school expansion programme had created 26 additional permanent Reception forms of entry through the expansion of existing schools, six additional permanent year 7 forms of entry through the expansion of two existing schools and six schools had opened additional special educational needs places.  Most of the phase 1 and 2 projects were reaching project completion and were being handed over except for a issue with regard to Whitchurch Primary School which was awaiting resolution.  The final accounts were under review and robust contract monitoring arrangements had been established to hold all parties to account.

The following questions were made by Members and responded to accordingly:

·                     Did the uncommitted primary SEP4 budget of £3.615m take account of the virement of £1m to SEP1 and SEP2 schemes?

            The officer confirmed that this was the situation.

·                     Which were the three free schools that were the result of successful applications by Harrow schools?  What form did the support provided by Harrow Council take both prior and subsequent to approval of free schools?  Who administered the admissions process for free schools?

Harrow schools had made successful applications to establish The Jubilee Academy, Pinner High School and Harrow View Primary School.  The opening of Mariposa Primary had been deferred by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) to September 2017.  On receipt of a proposal for a free school, officer time was made available to talk through the plans and provide realistic advice on viability.  No funding support was available.  Once a scheme obtained approval the dialogue and guidance for successful delivery continued but this did not extend to help with setting up which was the responsibility of the EFA.

Free schools were their own admissions authority with Harrow Council acting as a clearing house for applications and the free schools allocating places.  Free schools were included in Head Teacher Groups and were encouraged to buy in to Harrow School Improvement Partnership (HSIP).

·                     Although financial implications were addressed in the report, more detail was required particularly with regard to any budget overrun with Keepmoat.

Problems had arisen in concluding the final accounts and officers were in dispute with Keepmoat in relation to a number of projects on which legal advice was being taken to try to reach resolution prior to any legal action.  The cost of agreeing all claims would be in the region of £2-3m but they were being robustly challenged and the overall costs should be contained within budget.  It was intended to draw forward from SEP 4 to offset SEPs1, 2 and 3 but until resolution of the claims and potential legal issues this could not be quantified.

·                     What was the estimate regarding risk and how exposed was the Council?

There  ...  view the full minutes text for item 146.

Report of the Divisional Director, Strategic Commissioning.

The Portfolio Holder for Environment, Crime & Community Safety introduced a report which summarised the Community Safety Strategy 2016-19 including current trends, emerging priorities and the implications of the Strategy.  He made the following points

·                     it was a live document which would go back to Safer Harrow;

·                     there was a greater focus on high impact and high profile events around the world;

·                     although there were concerns at the reduction in police numbers and its effects had been recognised,  Harrow was one of the safest London Boroughs.  Harrow police also assisted at the more high profile events in Central London;

·                     concerns had been expressed regarding the increase in violence with injury involving persons who knew each other;

·                     co-ordination had been improved with the sharing of data and information working successfully.

The following questions were made by Members and responded to accordingly:

·                    Statistical comparison was difficult due to the recording of figures for recorded crime for the London context being the year to January 2016 whilst those for the Local context were for October to September.  This should be raised with the Police as the information was used to compare Harrow with the rest of the country.  Attendance by a Police representative at the Committee would have been helpful.

·                    The difficulty in making comparisons with such data was noted.  The figures were provided centrally by the Police Information Unit.  Consideration would be given to the subtraction of data in order to report on a common period although as it was received in pdf format there was a capacity issue.  The Borough Commander had access to more recent data than the officers.

·                    The fact that Safer Harrow was assisted in its work by the efforts of other strategic partnerships that had their own agendas and action plans suggested a lack of coordination.

The Divisional Director, Strategic Commissioning undertook to take the issue to the partnership Chairs in his capacity as the co-ordinator of the Community Strategy.

·                    Concerns regarding IT systems in the Youth Offending Service had been expressed for some time.  Whilst it was reported that the introduction of the new IT for the service had not been problem free and that in the medium term it would make the operation of the team more effective, iInformation was sought on the short term effects.  The Committee requested the submission of a report to Members of the Committee outlining the problems and the expected date of resolution.

Difficulty had been experienced in rolling out the new system which had gone live in September.  Teething problems had been reported to the supplier and progress was being made.  There had been some infrastructure issues during the move onto Citrix resulting in the system not working some years ago, but this was the old system rather than the new system.  The officers undertook to report back on the matter as requested.

·                    Additional information was sought on the increase in violence with injury of 10.4%.  How was it measured that this was due to an increase in reporting and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 147.

Report of the Corporate Director of Resources and Commercial.

The Committee received a report which set out a summary of the recommendations agreed by the Corporate Equalities Group arising from the Equalities review undertaken to develop a Vision for the Council for Equalities and revise the Corporate Equality Objectives which were a requirement of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) introduced by the Equality Act 2010.

An officer presented the report and made the following points:

·                     a revised set of Corporate Equality Objectives had been developed subsequent to consultation and discussion on a review commissioned by the Corporate Equalities Group in order to be clear on the focus and priorities for equalities and how it would be delivered;

·                     following feedback on the Corporate Equality Objectives, the options in the vision had been shortlisted to two and the objectives narrowed down to three in order to focus on a few priorities and do them well in order to make a real difference;

·                     there had been a change in emphasis from identification of work that was taking place in accordance with the vision to analysis of data and identification of where improvements could be made;

·                     a review of staff representation groups had resulted in a reduction to one group, the Making A Difference Group.

The following questions were made by Members and responded to accordingly:

·                     How did the percentage data  from the staff survey that 20% of gay men and 38% lesbians strongly disagreed/disagreed that Harrow demonstrated through its actions that it was committed to being an equal opportunities employer compare with responses from other protective groups and staff generally?  77.23% of staff had not answered the question about sexual orientation in the latest staff survey, how many people did that equate to?

The percentage response from gay men and lesbians had been disproportionately high against other protective characteristics.  With regard to the actual numbers the percentages in the staff survey equated to, the officers would seek the information.  The annual equality monitoring report was based on different data.

·                     Why was the decision taken to reduce the staff representation groups to one?  What was the attendance at the Making a Difference Group?

The consultation feedback was that the groups did not represent the intended staff, did not add value and a single group was sought.  The Making a Difference Group had done some excellent work and was open to all staff. There were about 100 staff on the database and over 250 staff had attended a recent International Women’s Day Event.  There had been good feedback from community organisations.

An Equality event was planned for 11 May with the objective to reach out and engage.  Initiatives to respond to recognised need had included special safe places for LGTB staff.

·                     Is the low proportion of Harrow Council employees aged less than 25 and the number of them leaving comparable with other boroughs?  Can barriers, for example driving vehicle age restrictions, presented by insurance requirements for under 25 be removed?

Information on comparisons with other boroughs would be sought from Human Resources.  The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 148.

The Committee expressed its best wishes to Mrs Miles, wife of the Chair, and hoped that she would have a speedy recovery.