Agenda and minutes

1.1  Apologies for absence from Ian Williams, Corporate Director Finance and Resources.

1.2  Apologies for lateness from Cabinet Member Finance, Cllr Geoff Taylor.

2.1  None.

3.1  None.

4.1  The minutes of the meeting held on the 29^th October were not produced in time for the agenda dispatch.  The Chair informed Members the minutes for the meeting on 29^th October 2015 will be agreed at the next G&R meeting.

4.2  Matters Arising

The Chair thanked officers for attending the meeting at short notice.  The following actions were noted:

4.2.1  The Commission requested for the Head of Business Analysis and Complaints to return to the Commission to provide more information about the quality checks on service areas and to explain why the percentage of inaccurate record keeping is high.

This was item 5 on the agenda.

4.2.2  The Head of HR and OD to report back with details of the full range of support offered to staff on the skills based programme.

This information is provided on pages 1-3 of the agenda.

4.2.3  The Head of HR and OD to report back with the breakdown of the reasons for the 700 staff leaving the organisation.

This information will be provided by the Corporate Director Finance and Resources at the G&R meeting in December.

4.2.4  The Head of HR and OD to check and confirm if they could provide a more detailed breakdown of the ethnicity profile from the list provided in the ethnicity profile report. 

This information will be available at the next meeting.

4.2.5  The Hackney Management Team to provide an update on the impact of efficiencies to date on the whole organisation and the Council’s ability to achieve its aims and outcomes.

This information will be provided by the Corporate Director Finance and Resources at the G&R meeting in December.

4.2.6  The Commission requested for the Chief Executive to attend the next meeting to give a briefing about the senior management restructure and the implications of this restructure on the whole organisation.

This was item 9 on the agenda.

4.2.7  Overview and Scrutiny Officer to liaise with the Communications Team about a press release following the Executive response the Commission’s report.

This will be followed up as soon the report is agreed and signed-off by the Commission.

4.2.8  The Commission requested for the Communication and Consultation Team to provide an update about the Hackney a Place for Everyone consultation programme and the Council’s communication plans to inform and engage residents in a meaningful way about the budget setting process and the changes the Council is making.

This was item 7 on the agenda.

5.1  The Chair welcomed Bruce Devile, Head of Business Analysis and Complaints from London Borough of Hackney to the meeting.

5.1.1At the G&R meeting in September the Commission reviewed the Annual Complaints report.  During the discussion Members were informed about quality checks carried out by the Business Analysis and Complaints Team on service areas.  Following a review of the information Members asked for the officer to return to the Commission to answer some queries.

5.2  Discussion, Questions and Answers

(i)  Members raised concern about the low percentage some service areas were achieving for record keeping.  Members indicated their expectation would be for a service area to be achieving 95%.  Members enquired about the target service areas were expected to achieve for the quality check assessments.

The Head of Business Analysis and Complaints informed Members the quality checks carried out by his team have a high threshold for standard.  The record keeping referred to in the assessment related to the Covalent system.  The officer explained if one field is not completed on the system the service area will get a low score.  The aim of this process is to improve the quality of the information stored on our system so that there is a rich data to draw on to inform service improvements.  The officer also highlighted they request for additional information to be stored so they can assess what has gone wrong.  It was pointed out LBH holds more data about complaints than other borough do.  This is because the Council is striving for perfection and wants to hold a rich set of intelligence data.

(ii)  Members enquired if this process was necessary to improve the insight held.

(iii)  Members enquired if the plan was to get all service areas to 100% because they were aiming for gold standard across the board?

The Head of Business Analysis and Complaints informed Members when his team were reviewing the resolution and response it is based on the information available at the time of the review.  If all the information used for the investigation is not available at the time of the assessment this could lead to the service area receiving a low score.  The score the officer awards give the service are an indication of the standard they are working to.

The Chief Executive for London Borough of Hackney explained the Business Analysis and Complaints team carry out a quality benchmark rather than an absolute benchmark.  It was pointed out the quality of complaint response and resolution across the Council is high and feedback from residents inform the council the complaint gets resolved.  The reason why the Business Analysis and Complaints team carry out these assessments is to bring all responses up to a high standard.  They carry out spot checks on service areas to improve quality.  If required the team put in place support and give advice.  This process is not an indication that the current quality is not good enough.

(iv)  Members referred to the Overview and Scrutiny  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1  The Chair welcomed Paul Horobin, Lead Programme and Projects Manager and Cllr Philip Glanville,Cabinet Member Housing from London Borough of Hackney to the meeting.

6.2  At the last meeting Members requested for an update on the transition of Hackney Homes into the Council.  The presentation covered the work of the transition programme to transfer Hackney Homes operations back into the Council.

6.3  The Cabinet Member for Housing opening the discussion by making the following opening statements:

6.3.1  Early conversation with residents has been positive.

6.3.2  They are working with the Communications Team to develop a communication plan that will inform residents about the process and explain about the phased approach being taken.

6.3.3  To begin with the Council is holding conversations with staff first and then move on to residents.

6.4  Lead Programme and Projects Manager presented the following information about the transition:

·  The mandate for the Programme follows from the consultation with tenants and leaseholders.

·  The timetable for the Programme is tied to the expiry of the management agreement on the 31^st March 2016.

·  The Programme will be successful if tenants, leaseholders and other stakeholders largely experience minimal disruption as a consequence.

·  The Programme will also be successful if, from April 2016, the current functions of Hackney Homes are delivered as indistinguishable functions of the Council.

·  The Programme is primarily concerned with the mechanics of organisational integration, with the highest volume of work associated with the TUPE process.

·  Risks are not high, although the Programme is vulnerable around critical work if other demands impact on capacity to deliver or if key staff leave.

·  Staff briefings from the 10^th November on the organisational change process, including handling TUPE.

·  Aligning HR policies, processes and practices to reflect the transition, e.g. re-design forms, unify schemes, etc.

·  Integration of Hackney Homes staff into Hackney Council following the transition, e.g. ID badges, staff induction, pay etc.

·  Trying to ensure that the changes resulting from the transition are not confused or conflated with other simultaneous changes taking place across Hackney Homes and Hackney Council.

·  Aligning financial, budgetary and accounting policies, processes and practices to reflect the transition, e.g. budget and rent setting process, CedAr, scheme of delegation, payroll interface, insurance, VAT (including notifying HMRC), etc.

·  Financial winding up of Hackney Homes Ltd and arrange the transfer of balances and assets.

·  Revising ICT and telephony customisations to reflect the transition.

·  Re-designing the Hackney Council website and staff intranet to reflect the transition.

·  Re-branding ICT content and communications, alongside the wider work on branding.

·  Re-align information governance and management to reflect the transition.

·  Revising Hackney Council’s scheme of delegation to reflect the post-transition arrangements.

·  Monitoring for legislative changes that may have an impact on the transition.

6.5  Discussion, Question and Answers

(i)  Members commented they were concerned about continuation of the service during this period of change.  Members advised the reason for their query related to them not getting responses to queries and service requests, despite making contact several times.  Members enquired  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.1  The Chair welcomed Polly Cziok, Head of Communications and Consultation from London Borough of Hackney to the meeting.

7.2  At the last meeting in October Members discussed having an article in Hackney Today. Following this discussion Members enquired about the Council’s engagement plans with residents.  The Commission invited the Head of Communication and Consultation to attend the meeting to give an update on the following:

·  Update on the Hackney a Place for Everyone consultation programme, its objectives and the extent to which these have been achieved.

·  To outline if the Hackney a Place for Everyone consultation programme is linked to the budget process and the communications strategy to inform residents about the savings the Council needs to make.

·  Consideration given to innovative engagement techniques such as citizens' assemblies, participatory budgeting, co-operative exercises or other deliberative techniques.

7.3  Members were shown a video that gave them a short preview of resident views from the consultation.

7.4  The Head of Communications and Consultation explained the objective of this consultation was to listen to residents and learn. 

7.4.1  This consultation exercise was different to their normal consultations.  The Council set out to create an open process of engagement that enabled them to hear residents’ views. 

7.4.2  The consultation was launched in March 2015 with a public engagement event.  The consultation has held 50 community events and 3000 questionnaires have been received – paper copies are all being entered onto the system.  Members were informed the questionnaires have a large amount of free text because the questions were open ended to allow comments.

7.4.3  The consultation has hosted themed events and the team have plans to do supplementary consultations, specifically targeted at hard to reach groups: care leavers, carers and people on the margins whose voice are seldom heard.

7.4.4  The Council has Ipsos MORI doing the analysis and they expect to get an initial report on resident views in December 2015.  Members were informed after the consultation the Council will end up with a rich set of intelligence data that informed them how residents feel.  This information will be used to inform policy and budget decision.

7.4.5  The analysis is currently in progress and it is anticipated - once completed - it will contribute to the Council’s future priorities.  It was noted that the emphasis of this consultation was to engage with residents, it was not about obtaining fixed information.

7.4.6  In response to Member’s query about resident engagement techniques and how the Communications team propose to communicate about the savings and budget.  The Head of Communications and Consultation explained it was important to explain to residents and use community engagement techniques that provide useful information.  The officer explained in her experience doing the types of engagement techniques suggested would not necessarily provide the information and views the organisation is looking for.  Generally when people are consulted they want to protect the services they use or protect the services for the vulnerable.

7.4.7  Members were informed the Council conducted an engagement exercise  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.1  The Chair welcomed Tim Shields, Chief Executive of London Borough of Hackney to the meeting.

8.2  Members asked the Chief Executive to report back on the outcome of the independent review that was commissioned to investigate the reasons for the problems with the 2015 Elections process.  Initial findings found there were problems with supervision and the culture within the Elections team. 

8.3  At the last discussion the Returning Officer reported the next steps would be:

·  To address the team and training needs

·  Renew the IDOCs system.

At the time of the discussion the investigation was still in progress and was scheduled to report later in the year.

8.4  The Chief Executive recapped on the core issues and challenges that materialised at the Elections in 2015.  The Chief Executive reminded Members that they carried out checks on the Monday before the Election (Thursday) and this did not identify any problems.  The problems experienced related to the Council’s IT system interacting with the Individual Electoral Registration (IER) system.  This did not manifest until the day before the elections.

8.4.1  The Chief Executive pointed out the main issue was the IER system and its interface with LBH.  The key challenge was explaining to residents how the IER system worked.  This entails getting the message across to residents that entering your details on the system did not mean you were automatically on the Borough’s Electoral Register.

8.4.2  The investigation showed the technical error resulted in a large number of calls coming through to the Elections Team.  The immediate concern was to draft in more staff to help with the call volume.  It was also noted that the BBC Elections website was directing people to the Town Hall to vote.  This was the reason for a large number of people coming to the Town Hall.

8.4.3  The Council’s IDOCs system will be replaced in the first 2 weeks in December once the registration process for the register is closed.  The new system being implemented is used by a number of other councils.

8.4.4  The other issues identified related to staff competence.  This led to a number of staff departures. 

8.4.5  The Elections team has been restructured into two sections one section is focused on the IER system and another section is focused on running elections.

8.4.6  The improvements are:

·  Implementation of a new system

·  Implementation of a new structure within the Elections team.

8.4.7  The Government has decided the electoral register will be run from the IER system only and process of transfer needs to be complete by 1^st December 2015.  The challenge to the Council now is ensuring residents are registered on IER system by 1^st December.

8.4.8  The focus for the Elections team is to ensure all residents are entered onto the IER system so they are on the Electoral Register. 

8.4.9  To meet the 1^st December deadline the Council is doing the following:

·  Sent every household a head of household form.  As a result have issued an additional  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.1  The Chair welcomed Tim Shields, Chief Executive of London Borough of Hackney to the meeting.

9.2  G&R discussed at their last meeting the senior management restructure.  Following the discussion the Commission invited the Chief Executive to the meeting to discuss the rationale and implications of the new structure to the organisation.

9.3  The Chief Executive made the following substantive points in his presentation:

9.3.1  Updates about the senior management restructure were communicated in the Members Update and via email.

9.3.2  The senior management restructure creates a smaller top tier of management that will have a broader remit of responsibility - 1 Chief Executive and 3 Group Directors. 

9.3.3  The structure also creates a smaller cohort of Directors reporting to the Group Directors.  The restructure will make a savings of £1million in costs.

9.3.4  Linked to this restructure is a review of the support staff to senior management.

9.3.5  The consultation on proposed restructure with affected staff closed on 6^th November 2015.  The Chief Executive informed Members one to one discussions were offered and he received 18 responses to the consultation. 

9.3.6  The consultation set out options for how services might be clustered.  The comments made in the response will be taken into consideration before the final Delegated Powers Report is produced with the formal structure.

9.3.7  In the restructure additional capacity has been retained for 2016/17 to enable the organisation to transition to the new structure and new way of working.

9.3.8  The final DPR report issued will outline assimilations.  Where there are clear gaps in roles the Council has advertised the post.

9.3.9  In this restructure a number of staff are moving up or retiring.  This has helped to limit the disruption and cost to the organisation. 

9.3.10  A small number are staff could face redundancy.  Therefore the Voluntary Redundancy Scheme deadline has been extended until 1^st December for Chief Officers.

9.3.11  This restructure will enable the organisation to participate more fully in strategic discussion like devolution, by providing corporate flexibility and minimise the need for compulsory redundancy.

9.4  Discussion, Questions and Answers

(i)  Members enquired how the new structure would fit with the current political structure and accountability and asked the officer to explain how he sees this structure developing.

The Chief Executive explained there are challenges with joining up service internally and across the public sector.  In his view this restructure will help to overcome these challenges and enable the organisation to participate fully in strategic discussion like devolution for London.  The structure will bring efficient and better working and it provide more logic to service delivery.  The achievements of the structure will be demonstrated as it embeds.

In response to Members question about the political structure and the new senior management structure.  The Chief Executive informed Members changes to the political structures would a decision for Mayor Pipe.  As a result of the changes to the top tier the Chief Executive is currently reviewing how the new structure will map to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

10.1  The Governance and Resources Scrutiny Commission embarked on a review looking at total public spend in the Borough - covering statutory public sector providers, voluntary sector and private sector - and how the Council and local partners can reconfigure services to meet demand with less resources.

10.2  This report from this review is intended to help the Council deal with two fundamental challenges: first, big cuts in public expenditure and second more complex social challenges that require a very different approach from the council, other public agencies and the wider community.

10.3  The Chair asked Members to agree the draft report on ages 7-118 in the agenda.

Members agreed the report.

11.1  Members noted the work programme on pages 119 - 126 of the agenda. 

11.2  Members agreed to discuss and agree the next phase of their review at the steering group meeting on 18^th November 2015.

12.1  The Cabinet Member for Finance Cllr Taylor informed the Commission the Cabinet Procurement Committee recently reviewed a business case submitted by Hackney for European funding to support getting people back into employment.  The Cabinet Member suggested the Commission receives an update on this work because the business case correlates to the work of the Commission’s recent review.

12.2  Members noted the information.