Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chair for the duration of the meeting.

It was moved, seconded and agreed that Councillor Alison Kelly be elected Chair for the meeting.

RESOLVED –

THAT Councillor Alison Kelly be elected Chair for the meeting.

Apologies for lateness were received from Councillor Oliver Cooper, and for having to leave early from Councillors Oliver Lewis and Awale Olad.

Councillor Richard Olszewski, Cabinet Member for Finance and Transformation, also gave his apologies for having to leave early as he had to stand in to chair a meeting on behalf of the Leader of the Council who was unwell.

There were none.

There were none.

The Chair welcomed Manuela Solera-Deucher, Director of Corporate Strategy, as the Council’s new statutory scrutiny officer. 

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To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 13^th November 2017.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting held on 13^th November 2017.

RESOLVED –

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 13^th November be approved and signed as a correct record.

Report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Transformation.

This is the annual report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Transformation, Cllr Richard Olszewski. It provides information on the financial position of Camden Council in the challenging context of unprecedented funding cuts to local authorities. It also details transformative initiatives across the organisation which are ensuring the Council is meeting resident’s needs.

Note all Members of the Council have been invited to the meeting for this item so that they can ask the cabinet member questions on his report, by leave of the chair.

Consideration was given to the report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Transformation.

The Chair advised the meeting that as part of the Council’s Democratic Review Group proposals to seek to improve the Council’s decision-making making processes, the meeting would be piloting the consideration of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Transformation’s annual portfolio report that had previously been considered by the full Council. All members had therefore been invited to the meeting to ask the Cabinet Member questions, and Councillors Callaghan, Berry, Robinson and Tomlinson were in attendance for this item.

As Councillor Olszewski had to leave the meeting early, it was agreed that the meeting would provide him with written questions that he would respond to. These responses would then be placed on the Council’s webpage for the meeting.

                        ACTION BY: Committee Services

The meeting then agreed to focus questioning around the following headings identified in the report;

1.  Finance 

- capital

- revenue/income;

2.  Financial outlook / challenges;

3.  HRA;

4.  Schools funding;

5.  Business rates

6. Council tax;

7. Impact of welfare changes;

8.  Customer satisfaction / customer services;

9.  Digital, including shared digital and desired impact / outcomes / customer experience;

10.  CIP challenges, including falling house prices, labour shortages and increasing costs;

11.  Counterfraud and corruption;

12. Strategic and emerging risks, including short and longer term consequences of the tragedy of Grenfell Tower and of the Chalcots;

13.  HR - staff retention, staff satisfaction;

14.  LLW and contractors; 

15. Issues Camden is proud about;

16.  And etc. 

Councillor Richard Olszewski, Cabinet Member for Finance and Transformation, took the meeting through his annual portfolio report which provided information on the Council’s financial position, along with transformative initiatives across the organisation.

The Members present did not wish to ask questions relating to the Council’s revenue, capital budget and Council Tax as these issues had been considered at the full Council meeting on 26^th February 2018, when the Council’s budget was agreed.

Councillor Olszewski, and Jon Rowney Executive Director Corporate Services, then gave the following key responses to Members questions:

Financial Outlook/Challenges

·         The Council would continue to face a huge financial challenge going forward with it having to deliver financial strategies that would meet the forecasted budget deficit of £40m by 2021/22. The scrutiny committees would play a valuable role in helping identify what Council’s priorities should be, along with making innovative suggestions on how they could be delivered. An example of this was the way the Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee was looking at the way assisted technology could help people with care needs in future, along with helping to build community resilience so that more responsibility for adult community support was provided from within the voluntary and community sectors rather than directly by the Council.  

HRA

·         Currently the Council was forecasting having to spend at least £53M to cover the work relating to the Chalcots. This covered the removal of the cladding, evacuation, security, repairs along with the replacement cladding. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report of the Disability Oversight Panel

Consideration was given to the report of the Disability Oversight Panel

The Members thanked Councillor Roger Robinson, Chair of the Disability Oversight Panel, for the panel’s report which highlighted a number of issues of concern for people with disabilities it felt could be considered by scrutiny committees when setting their future work programmes for 2018/19.

The Members felt that the issue identified in paragraph 3 of the report should be considered by the scrutiny committee indicated when looking to set their future work programmes;

·         Affordable Housing – Housing Scrutiny Committee

·         Parking Spaces for disabled residents – Culture and Environment Scrutiny Committee

·         Refurbishment of Town Hall – Resources and Corporate Performance Scrutiny Committee

·         Gyms – Culture and Environment Scrutiny Committee

·         Affordability of Care Packages – Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee

·         Allocation of Accessible Transport passes – Health and Adult Social Scrutiny Committee

ACTION BY: Scrutiny Chairs

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

Report of the Executive Director Corporate Services

This paper aims to outline possible work areas for the Committee for the year 2018/19, including cross cutting areas between the different committees.

Consideration was given to the report of the Executive Director Corporate Services

The Members noted that it was the role of the individual scrutiny committees to determine their respective work programmes for the year, but when it was clear that a scrutiny committee wished to undertake a cross cutting scrutiny review then the respective chairs should discuss the way forward.

                                    ACTION BY: Scrutiny Chairs

Councillor Alison Kelly advised the meeting that she would be discussing with Councillor Awale Olad the setting up of a possible scrutiny panel to look at ‘healthy streets’, which could be a panel being led by the Culture and Environment Scrutiny Committee.

Members felt that due to the changing nature of the meeting it may now be time to have a permanent political lead for the scrutiny process, so as to ensure that these joint meetings were more effective.

Members asked that a report be submitted to the next meeting of the scrutiny committee that would provide the following;

·         An update on the recommendations agreed at the last meeting regarding the report on ‘Improving openness, transparency, accountability and the impact of scrutiny’.

·         Information from the Centre for Public Scrutiny regarding the different scrutiny models that were available

·         The outcomes relating to scrutiny arising from the Democratic Review Group and discussions with the Leader of the Council

·         How officers who were supporting the different scrutiny committees were sharing information and good practice, so as to ensure a good overview and consistent approach between them

ACTION BY: Director of Corporate Strategy

Officers undertook to support the chairs of scrutiny committees so that they were prepared for the meeting with the Leader of the Council.

                        ACTION BY: Director of Corporate Strategy (CK)

Officers undertook to share the scrutiny training proposals that were being developed as part of the Member induction programme following the local government elections in 2018 with the scrutiny chairs. This would also consider the scrutiny training offer given to chairs and members who were new to the process in-year.

                        ACTION BY: Borough Solicitor (OM)

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted and that a further report be submitted to the next meeting on the issues identified above.

To note the current programme of dates as follows (all at 6.30pm)

Monday, 30^th July 2018

Wednesday, 6^th March 2019

RESOLVED –

THAT the dates of future meetings as indicated below be noted (all at 6.30pm)

Monday, 30^th July 2018

Wednesday, 6^th March 2019

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