Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director of Resources.

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted and Portfolio Holders continue working with officers to achieve improvement against identified key challenges.

Reason for Decision:  To be informed of performance against key measures and to identify and assign corrective action where necessary.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:  None.

Conflict of Interest relating to the matter declared by Cabinet Member / Dispensation Granted:  None.

The Portfolio Holder for Communications, Performance and Resources introduced the report, which summarised Council and service performance for quarter 3 against key measures and drew attention to areas requiring further action.  The Portfolio Holder outlined the key achievements and challenges facing the Directorates, such as:

·                     Community, Health and Wellbeing – Harrow’s work on personalisation and how this translated to real improvements in outcomes had been commended by the government following a Ministerial visit.  There had been an increase in the use of computers in libraries which had also benefited from Wi-Fi. However, the issues following the implementation of the library management system were being investigated further.

·                     Children and Families – recruitment and retention of staff remained a major issue, timely assessments had produced positive results and early and timely interventions in child protection had helped to lower rates of children subject to child protection plans.

·                     Environment and Enterprise – a substantive re-investment in street cleaning in the main shopping centres had paid early dividends and a dedicated blitz team for the remainder of the borough had helped to reduce complaints drastically.  Residents were also benefitting from the maintenance of parks, including tree maintenance.  The Neighbourhood Champion Scheme had been re-invigorated and the enforcement of ‘beds in sheds’ had been productive.

·                     Resources - there continued to be an increase in the number of MyHarrow accounts and customer satisfaction with Access Harrow remained high.

The Portfolio Holder said that the journey towards a cleaner, safer and fairer Harrow had commenced.

A Non-Voting Non-Executive Cabinet Member was of the view that more services would be risk if the administration continued to use money from the contingency budget.  He asked about the projected overspend of £25m and the how this would be mitigated.  The Portfolio Holder for Finance responded by saying that the £4m of underachieved savings by the administration which set the last 2013/14 budget was underpinning the financial problems facing the Council. Contingency was used in budgets as a control account.  It was important for the Member to have an understanding of the purpose of contingency allowance and how it was used.  A question on autism levels against the figure it was being compared with was also answered.

Another Non-Voting Non-Executive Cabinet Member stated that a number of achievements were familiar to him as the foundations had been placed under his party’s administration.  He thanked the Divisional Director of Community and Culture for the achievements made.  He enquired how the increase in repeat incidents of domestic violence was being tackled in meeting the Safer Harrow Corporate priority.  In response, the Leader of the Council stated that the funding was limited but different measures were being examined, such as the provision of body cameras for use by the police, to tackle this type of crime.  They both agreed that it was important that the incoming administration championed and provided challenge to this issue, supported the victims of domestic violence and identified additional funding.  The Portfolio Holder for Children and Schools stated that the feedback received from a recent Ofsted Inspection had been good and that it had recognised that the work done in this area helped to improve outcomes for families.

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted and Portfolio Holders continue working with officers to achieve improvement against identified key challenges.

Reason for Decision:  To be informed of performance against key measures and to identify and assign corrective action where necessary.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:  None.

Conflict of Interest relating to the matter declared by Cabinet Member / Dispensation Granted:  None.