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 disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Sub-Committee;

(b)               all other Members present.

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

Agenda Item 8 – Chair’s Report & Agenda Item 10 – Progress Report on Scrutiny Review of Private rented sector housing in Harrow

Councillor Graham Henson declared a non-pecuniary interest in that he was the former Portfolio Holder for Performance, Customer Services and Corporate Services and had been involved in the Corporate Scorecard and had been a Member of Cabinet when the Housing Strategy had been approved in 2012.  He would remain in the room whilst the matters were considered and voted upon.

To appoint a Vice-Chairman for the 2013/14 Municipal Year.

RESOLVED: That Councillor Sue Anderson be appointed Vice-Chairman of the Sub-Committee for the 2013/14 Municipal Year.

That the minutes of the Special meeting held on 4 March 2013 and of the meeting held on 23 April 2013 be taken as read and signed as correct records.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the Special meeting held on 4 March 2013 and the meeting of 23 April 2013 be taken as read and signed as correct records.

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 references received.

Report of the Divisional Director, Strategic Commissioning.

The Sub-Committee received a report which set out issues considered by the Chair since the last meeting of the Performance and Finance Scrutiny Sub?Committee. 

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Report of the Director of Finance and Assurance.

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Director of Finance and Assurance, which had been previously considered at Cabinet on 20 June 2013.   The report set out the Council’s revenue and capital outturn position for 2012/13.  An officer highlighted the following areas of the report:

·                    the council’s outturn at the end of the  year was showing a net under spend of approximately £1m, which was a significant achievement for the Council.  This was mainly due to the implementation of a number of spending protocols;

·                    there were budget pressures as a result of long-term social care,  staffing issues, the leisure centre contract and the recyclables contract;

·                    there were favourable variances in parking income, rental properties, and investment income;

·                    approximately £1m contribution had been made to the Insurance provision, which had not been budgeted for;

·                    there was a £0.4m surplus in the Housing Revenue Account, which was lower than budgeted for and the HRA balance stood at £3.18m;

·                    there had been a total spend of £31.8m in the Capital Programme and £65m in the revised Programme.  There was a minor under spend of £2.4m in the Capital programme due to some slippage in the School Expansion programme, IT projects and projects in the Environment and Enterprise Directorate.  This level of under spend was not uncommon and was due to delays in the granting of planning consent and in the area of procurement.

A Member stated that some aspects of the report did not contain sufficiently detailed information, for example, the figures relating to Whitmore school sports pitch were not easy to understand.   The officer advised that the Capital monitoring figures highlighted changes that had occurred in quarter 4.  The carry forward figures were from 2011/12 and would not show up in the original budget figures.  The Capital Programme was agreed at the February Cabinet meeting each year, whereas the carry forwards were approved at year end.  The officer undertook to provide Members with more detailed information regarding carry forwards from quarter one.

A Member stated that the figures relating to the Neighbourhood Investment Scheme (NIS) erroneously showed an under spend because projects funded by the NIS often took some time to complete and for funds to be disbursed.  In his view, the monies had been spent but this was not reflected in the data.  The officer advised that both revenue and capital expenditure were accounted for on an accruals basis and if works were carried out, then the expenditure is accrued and would have been included in the figures. 

A Member sought clarification as to the difference between slippage and under spends and why these figures were listed separately in the Capital Monitoring data.  For example, CCTV and Car parks were listed as zero in the slippage column and as 715 in the under spend column, furthermore, the commentary relating to these items contradicted the figures listed.  The officer accepted that the commentary was at odds with the figures and would investigate and provide details to members. 

A Member  ...  view the full minutes text for item 137.

 Report of the Divisional of Director Housing Services.

The Sub-Committee received a report which provided an update on progress of the recommendations made in the scrutiny review of private rented sector housing in Harrow in July 2012, and which had been incorporated in full in the Private Sector Housing Strategy approved by Cabinet on 11 April 2013.

An officer highlighted the following areas of the report:

·                    the Private Rented Sector Housing Strategy focused on improving quality and standards and partnership working with private landlords;

·                    twice as many people lived in private rented accommodation than in social housing in Harrow.  In March 2013, there were 69 families in bed and breakfast (B&B) and this figure was rising;

·                    the Council had increased its stock of affordable homes and had exceeded targets set in this area;

·                    key areas of the Private Rented Sector Housing Strategy Action Plan were as follows:

1.                  increasing the supply of properties through the Help2Let Scheme, which was a social letting agency, providing cash incentives for landlords and investigating other sources of private rented accommodation;

2.                  improving standards through promotion of the London Landlord Scheme, under which 120 landlords had received training to date;

3.                  accessing additional grant funding from the Greater London Authority (GLA) through a successful West London Housing Partnership bid and the provision of information and advice sessions for tenants;

·                    the impact of new proposals such as selective licensing, would need to consider the potential impact on supply in the lower quartile of the private rented sector and the knock on impact this may have on homelessness demand;

·                    inspection of B&B premises would be undertaken by the Environmental Health team when they had capacity;

·                    landlords were being encouraged to increase the length of tenancies, which would offer greater security to tenants;

·                    provision of additional support to vulnerable households and the 300 or so families which had been identified as likely to be adversely affected by the benefits cap;

·                    the implementation of a number of energy efficiency measures such as the reduction of CO2 emissions in all housing tenures;

·                    increased partnership working with landlords, including regular meetings of landlord forums.

A Member praised the work of Housing Services in achieving the outcomes set out in the report.  An officer confirmed that Housing officers were liaising with officers in Housing Benefit.

A Member asked whether Harrow residents were accommodated in B&Bs outside Harrow.  The officer responded that a few families had been placed in B&Bs in the Midlands and Bradford, and added that these were generally agreed by mutual agreement with the tenant.  The Council also had some temporary accommodation in other parts of London.  The Members asked whether, in the case of vulnerable families, Housing Services liaised with the local authority and other agencies where the temporary accommodation was located.  The officer advised that, where appropriate, Housing Services liaised with Children and Families in Harrow to see if a move out of Harrow was appropriate, and monitored the re-settlement process for families that moved.  However, as there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 138.

Report of the Corporate Director of Children and Families.

RESOLVED:  In accordance with Committee Procedure Rule 4.1.1 – Part 4B of the Constitution, the Sub-Committee agreed that the following Member could speak at the meeting:

CouncillorZarina Khalid, Portfolio Holder for Children, Schools and Families.

The Sub-Committee received a report which set out the performance of the Children and Families Directorate for 2012/13. 

The Portfolio Holder for Children, Schools and Families stated that she had recently engaged in wide-ranging discussions with officers from the Directorate.  The Directorate had made good progress recently but still had a number of challenges, mainly related to workforce issues, to deal with.

The Corporate Director of Children and Families stated that following the findings of the Ofsted inspection of the Directorate in May 2012, an improvement plan had been implemented and completed.  A new improvement plan, which arose from self-evaluation, quality assurance activities and service improvement priorities, was now in place.

The Ofsted inspection under the new framework had awarded ‘Good’ status to only three Children’s Services in the UK, with 56% awarded ‘Adequate’ status and 33% awarded ‘Inadequate’ status.  The Directorate had made significant progress against the findings and recommendations of the inspection and had identified areas where more remained to be done.  She added that Ofsted had recently amended its inspection framework to be more rigorous and that an additional inspection of the service could take place at any time, and was likely in the Autumn of 2013.

The Corporate Director made the following additional points:

·                    Children and Families (C&F) Management Team had invited the Local Government Association (LGA) to undertake a peer review of Harrow’s safeguarding arrangements.  The review had identified areas where significant improvement had been achieved;

·                    a number of other reviews had been carried out over the past twelve months.  These had resulted in the implementation of a number of measures and fed into the overarching Child’s Journey improvement plan;

·                    the Directorate may be undergoing several concurrent inspections of its schools, children’s centres and other settings at any one time;

·                    Harrow schools that had contracted the services of the Harrow Schools Improvement Service had benefited from this service;

·                    recruitment and retention of social workers continued to be an area of concern, with an increased number of posts filled by agency staff.  There was generally a shortage of social care workers in London. An external human resources specialist project manager had been recruited and the service aimed to recruit 11 new social workers, advanced practitioners and a new service manager;

·                    the role of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board had been strengthened and was taking a multi-agency approach in dealing with safeguarding; 

·                    the Early Intervention Service had a sizeable caseload, which was increasing and there had been a 154% increase in the number of referrals in April 2013 compared with April 2012;

·                    with regard to Children Looked After (CLAs), Harrow has had much lower rates than statistical neighbours.  The service has now reviewed and  lowered the threshold for social care intervention to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 139.