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Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Room 102, Hackney Town Hall, Mare Street, London E8 1EA. View directions

Contact: Tracey Anderson 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

1.1  None.

 

2.

Urgent Items / Order of Business

Minutes:

2.1  The Chair informed the Commission they were in purdah (called the election period), this started from the end of July 2016 leading up to the London Borough of Hackney Mayoral Election.

 

2.2  The ‘Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity’ provides that during the period between the notice of an election and the election itself – purdah - local authorities should not publish any publicity or controversial issues or report views or proposals in such a way that identifies them with any individual Member or groups of Members and campaign groups or individual campaigners.

 

2.3  Publicity relating to individuals involved directly in the election should not be published by local authorities during this period unless expressly authorised by law.

 

2.4  Factual information which identifies the names, wards and parties of campaigners for the election may be published by local authorities.

 

2.5  Local authorities should not issue any publicity which seeks to influence voters.

 

2.6  The Chair advised the discussions must avoid any reference or links to local policy.  It was agreed with the Monitoring Officer the discussion on Devolution will be generic and refer to Pan London plans.

 

2.7  There was no urgent items and the order of business was as per the agenda.

 

3.

Declarations of Interest

4.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 153 KB

Minutes:

4.1  Minutes of the meeting held on 15th June 2016 were agreed.

 

RESOLVED

 

Minutes were approved.

 

 

5.

Devolution - The Prospects for Hackney pdf icon PDF 81 KB

Minutes:

5.1  The Chair explained the Governance and Resources Scrutiny Commission commenced a review to explore the implications of the devolution process for Hackney.  The review aimed to give councillors an understanding of the implications of Devolution for Hackney.  The discussion focused on the area of education, employment and skills. The Commission submitted some questions in advance to our guest speakers.  The questions were noted on page 19 of the agenda.

 

5.2  The Chair welcomed Dianna Neal, Head of Economy, Tourism and Culture from London Council.  The Head of Economy, Tourism and Culture has been leading on employment skills devolution policy work at London Councils, making the case for resources in London and for London boroughs.

 

5.3  The Chair welcomed Professor Martin Doel, Professor of Further Education & Skills, University College London (Institute of Education).  Professor Doel is the first professor of further education and skills at UCL and the former Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges.  The AoC is a body that acts as the collective voice for colleges and represents them nationally to influence policy.

 

5.4  The Head of Economy, Tourism and Culture from London Council opened the discussion with the following points from her presentation.

 

5.4.1  In relation to skills there is a productivity challenge in the UK compared to a number of other European countries.  GLA recently looked at London’s productivity compared to other global cities and London is not doing well in comparison to other cities in emerging economies like Singapore.

 

5.4.2  London has had strong employment growth over the last 5 years leading to a substantial reduction in the number of people claiming JSA.  The labour market priority in London is to tackle long term unemployment and structural worklessness.  Despite reductions health related unemployment has risen significantly since 2010.  There are people with a range of complex needs that are locked out the labour market and this is a concern.  Although there is low unemployment London is still above the national average and still needs to get 300,000 into the labour market. 

 

5.4.3  In work poverty remains a big challenge.  London has more households who are in poverty and in work than those in poverty and out-of-work. One in five jobs are paid below the Living Wage, affecting 700,000 Londoners.

 

5.4.4  In relation to skills and employment Brexit potentially could have an impact.  Currently London relies on international labour both on high and low skills.  Particularly in sectors like construction, accommodation and food services, administration and support services.  London has a higher proportion of economic European nationals working in those sectors, estimated to be around 30% of the workforce.

 

5.4.5  In terms of employment, London Councils have been proposing and talking to Government about the commitment given to London and Greater Manchester in the 2015 spending review; to jointly design a new Health and Work programme.

 

5.4.6  The Health and Work programme will replace the work programme of work choice.  It is a contractor provision for specific groups of people.  This programme will be for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Governance and Resources Scrutiny Commission - 2016/17 Work Programme pdf icon PDF 123 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

6.1  Work programme on pages 21-28 was noted for information.

 

6.2  During Members discussion about the work programme, they expressed dissatisfaction with the time it has taken to receive the final formal written response to their review ‘Delivery Public Services – Whole Place, Whole System Approach’.  The Commission agreed to request for a formal response from the Cabinet Member for Finance about the delay.

 

ACTION

Members agreed a Chairs action to write to Cabinet Member for Finance for an explanation.

 

6.3  Members discussed reviewing the work of the Commission over the last 10 years for discussion at the next meeting.

 

ACTION

Overview and Scrutiny Officer to provide information about G&R’s work over the last 10 years.

 

6.4  Members requested for a written report outlining the findings to date for the devolution recommendations discussion at the next meeting.

 

ACTION

Overview and Scrutiny Officer to provide information about the key findings from the devolution discussion at the next meeting.

 

 

7.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

7.1  None.