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 Kelly be elected Chair for the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Andrew Parkinson.

The meeting endorsed the approach of allowing Councillor Oliver Cooper to ask questions on Councillor Parkinson’s behalf.

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Webcasting of the Meeting

The Chair to announce the following: “In addition to the rights by law that the public and press have to record and film public meetings, I would like to remind everyone present that this meeting will be broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and will be capable of repeated viewing and copies of the recording could be made available to those that request them.

If you are seated in the chamber it is likely that the Council’s cameras will capture your image and you are deemed to be consenting to being filmed and to the use of those images and sound recordings for webcasting and/or training purposes.  If you are addressing the Committee your contribution will be recorded and broadcast unless you have already indicated that you do not wish this to happen.

If you wish to avoid appearing on the Council’s webcast you should move to one of the galleries.”

Any Other Announcements

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To note the terms of reference as set out below;

1.         To consider the Leader’s Annual Statement and any other relevant cross-cutting business of the Cabinet, or business deemed relevant by the advice of the Chief Executive;

2.         To consider, in particular, areas and a programme of joint working by the scrutiny committees (see Part 3 of the Constitution) with the power, for the purposes of individual projects, of agreeing to vary terms of reference between the committees (subject always to statutory provisions) to facilitate joint and cross-cutting scrutiny working; and

3.         To agree the allocation of scrutiny panels between scrutiny committees for the forthcoming year based on the Council’s agreed priorities within existing resources.

RESOLVED –

THAT the following terms of reference be noted;

1.         To consider the Leader’s Annual Statement and any other relevant cross-cutting business of the Cabinet, or business deemed relevant by the advice of the Chief Executive;

2.         To consider, in particular, areas and a programme of joint working by the scrutiny committees (see Part 3 of the Constitution) with the power, for the purposes of individual projects, of agreeing to vary terms of reference between the committees (subject always to statutory provisions) to facilitate joint and cross-cutting scrutiny working; and

3.         To agree the allocation of scrutiny panels between scrutiny committees for the forthcoming year based on the Council’s agreed priorities within existing resources.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 18^th March 2019.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting held on 18^th March 2019.

RESOLVED-

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 18^th March 2019 be approved and signed as a correct record.

Report of the Leader of the Council.

To consider the Leader of the Council’s Annual Statement.

The attached statement sets out the issues facing the authority in the year ahead and the way the Council will seek to meet these challenges, and the values it intends to work by.

Consideration was given to the report of the Leader of the Council.

Councillor Georgia Gould, Leader of the Council, took the meeting through her report highlighting the challenges facing the Council around the impacts that demographic changes would have on the borough; Council funding; crime and youth safety; the climate crisis; health and wellbeing; building an inclusive economy and citizen participation.

Councillor Georgia Gould and Pat Callaghan, Deputy Leader of the Council, then gave the following responses to the committee’s questions:

Creating a family friendly borough

·         The demographic change happening to the borough (20% reduction in birth rate, highest in the country) was being driven by the high cost of property in Camden; the reduction in housing benefit; insecure private rental housing market; Brexit; and the move to change private rented sector homes to Airbnb properties. All these issues were having a profound impact on the number of new family’s in the borough and therefore the number of children seeking school places, rather than Community Investment Programme regeneration schemes decanting.

·         Though effective systems were in place to assess school place planning, these combined issues had put pressure on school numbers much sooner than anticipated.

·         This challenge was being now addressed through the development of a family friendly approach to Council services. This would mean a different approach being developed for managing school place numbers (e.g. looking at the way schools could use the space they had to become hubs for the provision of other services), looking at new social housing provision to ensure more family homes were being built. Also the Council was seeking information as to why and when people were leaving the borough, especially as it was very successful in attracting young people to live and work in Camden. The development of the Council’s family friendly approach was being led by Councillor Anna Wright, in her role as a Cabinet Adviser.

·         Information would be provided regarding the number of children that would need to be born each year to keep its school places to existing numbers, along with the areas in Camden currently suffering the greatest level of decline.

ACTION BY: Executive Director Supporting People

·         The Council recognised the great work being done by local schools to meet the needs of deprived communities, and did not wish to see any close down. The Council had been working with school leaders to help develop a way forward for schools suffering a reduction in pupil numbers. Apart from the development of service hubs, this could also involve the sharing of staff and school leadership. This was a borough-wide issue (as recognised at the last Council meeting on 20^th January, when the theme of supporting 21^st Century Education was discussed) and did not just relate to one or two schools (e.g. Carlton Primary School). A report would be brought to the Cabinet in April 2020 suggesting a way forward.

·         Anecdotal evidence suggested that young people in Camden still wished to own their own home, but in order to do  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

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