Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED:  To note that there was no attendance of Reserve Members at the meeting.

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

Agenda Item 7 – Resilient Harrow Programme – Adult Services Transformation

Councillor Jean Lammiman declared a non pecumiary interest in that she was Chair of Governors at Shaftesbury High School for Children with Special Needs.  She would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Councillor Chris Mote declared a non pecuniary interest in that his wife was employed by Orley Farm.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 16 September 2019 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 16 September 2019  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 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, 2 January 2020.  Questions should be sent to publicquestions@harrow.gov.uk   

No person may submit more than one question].

Reference from Cabinet.

The Committee received a reference from Cabinet together with the report considered by Cabinet on 12 September 2019 setting out its response to the recommendations contained in the Scrutiny Review of Highways Maintenance.

The Committee also received an update on the progress being made to implement each of the ten recommendations of the Scrutiny Review, including timescales, and during the discussion a number of issues were raised in relation to the following recommendations:

·                     Recommendation 6  - The importance and timing of the public event to be called by the Environment Portfolio was emphasised as this would help to create a greater awareness of the issues around highways maintenance and provide an opportunity to distribute relevant information especially the  leaflet referred to in recommendations 1, 7 and 9;

·                     Recommendation 8 – A number of members were already using the  EE members inbox and the importance of getting all members to  complete the transition was emphasised as this help to improve the tracking of queries and response times; and

·                     Recommendation 10 – The Committee looked forward to the completion of the deterioration modelling and maintenance treatment scenarios being developed as they would provide a mechanism for helping to ensure that the scarce resources available for highways maintenance are used more efficiently and effectively and also provide greater transparency in the way priorities are identified and  decisions made on the allocation of these resources to a very important Council asset.

The Committee, after welcoming the progress that was being made to implement the recommendations, asked to be kept informed of progress, particularly with regard to the leaflet and the public event.

RESOLVED:  That the progress being made to implement the recommendations of the Scrutiny Review of Highways Maintenance and a further progress report be submitted to a future meeting.

Report of the Corporate Director of People.

The Committee received a report describing the Resilient Harrow programme which had been established to transform the delivery of Adult Social Care services and to support delivery of the Adult Social Care Vision reported to the Health and Wellbeing Board in March 2018.  Appendix I illustrated the current programme structure and a table in the report showed how expenditure in Adult Social Care had increased from £34 million in 2013/14 to £51 million in 2018/19 and would continue to increase at a time when the Council’s resources were already stretched.

The report provided examples and summarised a range of projects designed to ensure that in the face of increasing demand, appropriate, good quality care is provided to meet the needs of citizens within the limited resources available.  Appendix 2 provided a summary of the projects pursued including their outcomes/benefits their current position.

The report went on to identify a number of other initiatives including examples of joint working, cross council and partnership working, and commissioning.

Since its inception in 2019 the Programme had achieved a number of outcomes including:

·                     the establishment of robust governance structures  at project and programme level;

·                     introduction of  robust effective systems to measure and report progress and performance against agreed objectives;

·                     predicted savings of £1.263m by March 2020; and

·                     the  successful creation of foundations for further initiatives.

The Resilient Harrow Programme Board had agreed in November 2019 to discontinue the programme in its current form (many of the projects having been completed and operating as business as usual) and the report explained that revised governance structures would be used to monitor closed projects and the delivery of future projects.

In order to provide members with a flavour of how the projects were progressed and the outcomes/benefits secured the Committee received a detailed presentation by Officers from Adult and Social Care Team on the project titled Empowering People with Disabilities and its two sub-sections Learning Disability Integration and Harrow is Home.

In response to questions from members a number of issues were clarified/explained including the following.

·                     as a result of the changes made to the Committee Timetable because of the General Election, the Market Position Statements and related commissioning plans would not now be submitted to the February meeting of Cabinet but to a later meeting;

·                     a Training Programme for staff affected by the restructuring of the Service had been organised and would be refreshed and offered to new staff;

·                     whilst feedback from users had been positive there was a need to carry out more in depth research and improve the methodology;

·                     empowering involved adopting a person-centric approach, encouraging the individual to identify their own preferences and goals and to make their own decisions;

·                     the Regeneration Team had been involved in the development of the Programme;

·                     there was no evidence to suggest that the Programme had had the effect of lowering people’s expectations about the level and quality of services they would receive.  Indeed the feed back from people had been positive with no complaints received;

·                     information  ...  view the full minutes text for item 91.

Report of the Corporate Director of Community.

The Committee received a report providing an update on the response to the 17 recommendations contained in the Regeneration Scrutiny Review Panel report Financing of the Regeneration Programme in Harrow having regard to Cabinet’s approval in May 2019 to commence a procurement exercise to identify a suitable Strategic Development Partner for Harrow Council.  The report explained that the Harrow Strategic Development Partnership (HSDP) was intended to deliver housing and regeneration across the borough via a new private entity which would be owned 50% by the Council and 50% by the private sector partner.  The Council launched this procurement in June 2019 and the HSDP was anticipated to take the form of a Limited Liability Partnership lasting 30-35 years. 

A detailed review had identified the following three Council owned sites as having the greatest impact and contribution to regeneration within Harrow’s Area of Opportunity. 

·                     Poets Corner (which currently houses the Council’s existing Civic Centre);

·                     Peel Road (which is the Council’s preference for the New Civic Centre); and

·                     Byron Quarter (Phase 1). 

The Partnership would be responsible for the construction of the Council’s New Civic Centre (building), maximising affordable housing across the 3 core sites and all at no cost to the Councils general fund.

The procurement process had successfully completed the Submission Questionnaire and Invitation for Outline Solutions which involved detailed dialogue sessions with the prospective bidders.  The next stage of Inviting Detailed Solutions commenced in Nov 2019.   The procurement exercise was programmed to be completed in April 2020 with the final decision on the appointment of the Harrow Strategic Development Partner anticipated to be made by Cabinet in June 2020.

During the discussion on the 17 recommendations and in response to questions a number of issues were clarified/emphasised including the following:

·                     the removal of savings of £473,000 from the budget relating to the addition of two floors to the Council’s Central Depot  due to completed in December 2020 was a separate issue and the option of using this additional space for Council staff had not been included in the procurement process;

·                     the extent to which summited bids meet the need to construct the new Civic Centre at no cost to the Council would be tested as part of the financial appraisal process;  

·                     the risk of the chosen Partner pulling out for the reasons identified in recommendations 7 and 8 remained a possibility but was considered to be low in view of the very high abortive costs each bidder would incur;

·                     Recommendations 12, 13,  15 and 17 were recommended to be “Closed” as they had been incorporated into this particular  procurement process and would be incorporated in future procurement processes, if and where appropriate;

·                     in accordance with recommendation 3, regular meetings/lobbying had taken place and would continue to take place with GLA Tfl, and Network Rail to meet parking needs and ensure that improved transport links were developed and integrated within the regeneration programme; and

·                     processes were in place to ensure that costs were properly apportioned between capital and revenue,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 92.

23 January 2020 (special) – 7.30pm

11 February 2020 – 7.30pm

21 April 2020 – 7.30pm

RESOLVED:  That the dates for future meetings be noted.