Agenda and minutes

1.1  Apologies for absence from Cllr Peters and Cllr Taylor, Cabinet Member Finance and Customer Services.

2.1  The first order of business was the election of a new Chair for the Commission.

2.2  Following formal nominations for the position of Chair, Councillor Anna-Joy Rickard was elected by the Members as Chair of the Governance and Resource Scrutiny Commission.

2.3  Following formal nominations for the position of Vice Chair, Councillor Susan Fajana-Thomas was elected by the Members as Vice Chair of the Governance and Resource Scrutiny Commission.

2.4  The remaining order of business was as per the agenda.

3.1  None.

4.1  Minutes of the meeting held on 19^th October 2016 were agreed.

5.1  The Chair welcomed Bruce Deville, Head of Governance and Business Intelligence to the meeting, also in attendance was the Chief Executive from London Borough of Hackney (LBH).

5.2  The Governance & Resources Scrutiny Commission receive the annual report for Complaints and Members Enquiries for LBH. 

5.3  The report in the agenda provides an overview of the complaints and enquiries for the Council during 2015/16 and appendix 2 provides an update on the first 6 months of 2016/17.

5.4  The report was as laid out in the agenda.  The main points highlighted from the report were:

5.4.1  The volume of complaints for 2015/16 were similar to previous years.

5.4.2  For the first half of 2016/17 there has been an increase in the number of complaints.  The increase is predominately related to benefits and temporary accommodation.  Residents appear to be using the complaints process to challenge decisions made.  The complaints have not been about the service received but are challenging decisions to improve their points or scoring.

5.4.3  Housing related complaints remains the highest volume of complaints received.  In the housing complaints category approximately 50% relate to housing management and 50% relate to housing repairs.  There has been some progress in getting complaints to a swifter resolution.  In the housing repair cases the main issue seems to be related to contractors.

5.4.4  Children Social Care complaints are slightly down and Adults Social Care complaints have increased.

5.4.5  The main challenge in relation to complaints is the turnaround time.  This is due to the focus being on resolution and not just on getting a response to the complaint.

5.4.6  The quality of complaints remains an issue for some service areas.  The Governance and Business Intelligence team have an increase in demand from services areas for the performance and quality information of their complaints.  The team is talking to management teams about areas of improvement.

5.5  Discussion, Questions and Answers

(i)  Members referred to page 21 in the agenda and asked for confirmation of the areas under the category ‘other’ and enquired if the Governance and Business Intelligence team were satisfied with the progress service areas were making in relation to complaints.

The Head of Governance and Business Intelligence advised he did not have that information at the meeting but would provide the breakdown to the category ‘other’ after the meeting.  It was pointed out the percentage of complaints for service areas in the other category would be less than 5%.

The Head of Governance and Business Intelligence informed Members he was satisfied with the progress being made considering the reduction in resources faced by the Council to date.  However, there was always still room for improvement.

(ii)  Member commented that good managers would use the complaints information as a source of data to support service improvement, therefore viewing complaints in a positive way.  Members were of the view that complaints were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1  The Chair welcomed Tim Shields the Chief Executive from London Borough of Hackney.

6.2  The Commission invited the Chief Executive to provide an update on the progress of the Council’s restructure and implementation of joint working across services.

6.3  The Commission received a verbal update.  The main points from the update were:

6.3.1  The Chief Executive issued the restructure on 27^th November 2015.  The restructure moved to implementation in December 2015.  This is the first restructure since 2010.

6.3.2  The restructure deleted 5 director posts and reduced the top tier of senior management to 3. 

6.3.3  The restructure also recommended a reduction to the 2^nd tier of management from 15 posts down to 8 posts.

6.3.4  The organisation now has a corporate management team of four 1^st tier management including the Chief Executive and 21 2^nd tier management. 

6.3.5  The new directorates have been completed and the new structure is in place.  All group director appointment made except for the post of Children, Adults & Community Health.  There is currently an interim Group Director in place and the recruitment is expected to be completed by December 2016.

6.3.6  In the 2^nd tier the last director post for adult social care was appointed and the officer joined the organisation this week.

6.3.7  The remaining part of the restructure to conclude is the posts earmarked for deletion.  The Director of Procurement post is scheduled to be deleted in April 2017.

6.3.8  There are 2 posts within the Chief Executive Directorate that are earmarked for deletion in March 2017.  The Assistant Director of Human Resources and Assistant Chief Executive.  These posts are being reviewed and will be completed by March 2017.

6.3.9  The restructure has been completed except for the post mentioned in the above points.

6.3.10  In response to the success of the restructure.  The Chief Executive pointed out the organisation has attracted new people bring new energy, created joint working across directorates and incorporated Hackney Homes back into the organisation under the Neighbourhoods and Housing directorate. 

6.3.11  The Council is now moving forward with big pieces of cross cutting work like the enforcement review and this has progressed to the stage of issuing a delegated powers report.  There will also be changes in relation to regeneration and public health within the organisation.

6.3.12  In terms of administration support to senior management, this was restricted too.  This has been reduced from 33 posts to 14 posts.  The team is bedding in with 1/2 posts pending recruitment.

6.4  Discussion, Questions and Answers

(i)  In response to Members enquiry about how the smaller senior management structure fits with an expanded Cabinet structure.

The Chief Executive explained the political structure for the Council changed over the summer (expansion of Cabinet Members and Advisors).  This has added complexity and a challenge to how they work – some Group Directors are supporting 3 Cabinet Members and in some instances a Cabinet Advisor too.  In response to this the officers are using a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.1  The Chair welcomed Councillor Jonathan McShane the Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care and Devolution and Tim Shields the Chief Executive for London Borough of Hackney to the meeting.

7.2  Following previous evidence sessions for the Devolution review, the Commission asked the Council’s lead Cabinet Member for Devolution and lead officer to inform them about the Council’s approach to devolution, its plans, ideal scenario and the principles being used to drive forward the Council’s engagement in devolution at different levels.

7.3  In the opening statement the Commission asked for information about the real opportunities for Hackney to influence the devolution discussions; if there is a plan that brings all the elements of devolution together or if the different elements will be led separately.

7.4  The Commission received a verbal update.  The main points from the verbal update were:

·  There is still no clarity on what the Treasury Department and Government will give up as part of devolution for London.

·  Discussion are being held with Leaders and Mayors from London boroughs.

·  Health devolution is the only devolution area for London that has made tangible progress.

·  In relation to the different devolution areas councils may end up working on different geographies; for example a council could be working with a different group of councils for housing than it would do for skills.  However there is an understandable desire in the process for everything to fit neatly.

·  In relation to devolution more broadly the current situation is there is no plan.  This reason for this is fluidity and continuing discussion. 

·  If the devolution asks are devolved they are unlikely to be devolved to a borough level.

·  Councils are involved in discussion about what will be devolved at either a pan-London level or regional level.

7.4.1  In relation to the health pilots, this is unusually asking for powers to be devolved to a borough level.  Hackney unusually has co-terminosity for its local health economy.

7.4.2  The key areas for devolution requests for London are:

·  Business rates

·  Employment and skills

·  Housing

·  Criminal justice

·  Health and social care

·  Transport.

7.4.3  Since the devolution requests were submitted there have been a number of changes to the current political landscape.  There is a new Mayor for London, new Prime Minster and new Chancellor of the Exchequer.

7.4.4  Progress of the devolution discussion for the areas of request listed above are:

For business rates, the request is for 100% retention of London’s business rates within London.  A request for a fair funding principle.  The requests are linked to the work of the Financial Committee led by Professor Tony Travers using the recommendations previously reported.  The request in this area is asking for the detachment of London’s business rates from the rest of the country.  The response from Treasury to this request is it is unlikely to happen.

7.4.5  In response to a query about Hackney’s involvement in discussions; it was explained for London, there is a lead Chief Executive from Boroughs and for London Councils a lead Cabinet  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.1  The work programme for G&R on pages 35 – 42 of the agenda was noted with the following comments, requests and amendments. 

8.2  At the last meeting the Commission discussed revisiting previous reviews to receive updates on.

8.3  From the list considered the Commission concluded they would like to revisit 2 reviews the Governance review especially in light of the restructure and Procurement review (2006/07) 10 years on. 

8.4  The review updates will be requested and scheduled into the work programme.

8.5  Members discussed the evidence from the devolution review and concluded the review was ready to report.  The report should include suggestions for local devolution principles.  The 3 key areas of the report are:

·  Summary of key points

·  Plan and process

·  Principles.

8.6  Commission members were asked to provide their views on principles for the report.

8.7  Members agreed to discuss the draft report with the Cabinet Member for Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care and Devolution and Cabinet Member for Finance and Customer Services once the report was drafted.

8.8  For the Joint discussion item in December 2016, the Commission discussed asking for the new Scrutiny Panel (in the new municipal year) to continue monitoring temporary accommodation and its pressure on the Council’s budget.

8.9  The Commission discussed the work programme item on commercialisation and income generation.  Members discussed wanting to find out how the Council will become a successful business in the new financial climate.  This would require a culture change and a change in the organisation’s attitude to risk and it was not just about fees and charges.  Members discussed holding 2 sessions on this item in January and February 2017.  Members also discussed sending a request to Directors before the first discussion session to ask for an outline of the opportunities, challenges and plans to generate income.  Members would want to know about their approach to risk, system change, culture change, workforce mind-set and mitigating action.

8.10  In addition to the Group Director Finance and Corporate Resources providing an overview about the organisation’s risk in relation to the culture change, new system and ways of working.  The Commission also agreed to ask discussed having a list of the services councils provides that could potentially be an opportunity for the organisation to enter into the commercial market.

9.1  None.