Agenda and minutes

1.1  Apologies for lateness were received from Cllrs Hayhurst and Wrout.

1.2  The Chair stated that this was the first formal meeting of a Hackney Scrutiny Committee which was taking place virtually under the government’s new guidance as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic.  She read out the guidance for how the meeting would operate and the expectations for behaviour from all participants.  She reminded everyone that the meeting was being both recorded and livestreamed via the Council’s YouTube channel and that everyone needed to be mindful of this. 

2.1  Cllr Gordon stated that the meeting would also be a joint one with Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission and that item 4 related to that Commission’s work and would be chaired by Cllr Patrick.

2.2  She welcomed Members of Living in Hackney to the meeting and also all the stakeholders and officers as well as the Mayor and Chief Executive.

3.1  Cllr Lynch stated that she was employed by NHSE and NHSI and currently working on the emergency response on Personal Protective Equipment. 

3.2  Cllr Gordon stated that she was a solicitor and an advisory lawyer for the government’s legal department, advising the Department of Work and Pensions on pensions issues.

·  An update on domestic violence (locally) and the support available. 

·  An update on the support services available to residents living in council housing and housing association properties in the borough.

4.1  Cllr Patrick took the Chair and stated that there were two aspects to this item.  A briefing on the impact on Domestic Violence support services locally of the Covid 19 lockdown and a briefing from Housing Services providing an overview on how they are supporting residents across council, Registered Provider and Private Rented Sector housing.

4.2  Members’ gave consideration to the briefing papers in the agenda pack about the impact of Covid-19 on patterns of domestic abuse within the borough and information about the service responses for DV and ASB/Noise.  She welcomed for this item:

Detective Chief Superintendent Matthew Barnett, BCU Commander, Metropolitan Police Service

Cllr Caroline Selman, Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Policy and the Voluntary Sector, LBH 

Sarah Wright (SW), Director of Children and Families, LBH

Cathal Ryan (CR), Service Manager for the Domestic Abuse Intervention Service, LBH

4.2  Cllr Selman thanked the Commission for focusing on these key concerns adding that home was not a safe place for many and increased pressures for those stuck indoors added to existing economic and social pressures.  The key focus was to reach victims in need of support and to ensure there was enough resilience to meet demand.  As well as the current increase in referrals they were expecting a further increase after the lockdown when more would feel more comfortable to report.

4.3  CR stated that there had been a 73% increase in high risk cases in Hackney during April as well as a 60% rise in reporting since 23 March.  Demand had been met by redeploying staff.  The team chaired fortnightly meetings with the statutory partners and third sector providers of domestic violence support services.  The focus was to look at all current barriers to access, to ensure they’re aware of difficulties, to ensure adequate risk assessments have been done and that all vulnerabilities in the system are met and ensuring the work between partners is joined up.  He described the social media campaign which is now running in various settings.  This was a key part of their 4-pronged approach to ensure key messages got out to the public.  The messages were: it is safe to leave the home; there is support out there; if you can’t leave safely there are ways to reduce risk.  They’d also worked to ensure Mutual Aid groups etc were able to identify and properly respond and there was a need to provide a raft of training to partner agencies in the community to ensure that victims were properly identified and supported.  He added that there remained sufficient capacity in the Refuge Providers across London and that they were fully staffed. They did however expect a surge as lockdown eased.

4.4  MB stated that these were difficult times but that the Met Police’s partnership working in the borough had been improved and strengthened.  They had not seen any rise in reporting of domestic violence to them however.  There had actually been a 10% reduction in cases compared with 23 March to 30 April  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

·  Cabinet Question Time session with the Mayor of Hackney and the Chief Executive.

5.1  Cllr Gordon took the Chair and explained that a key element of the scrutiny function was to hold the Mayor and Cabinet to account, in public, as part of a Cabinet Question Time Session.  The Mayor’s question time session was the responsibility of the Scrutiny Panel.  The current pandemic (Covid-19) had had a significant impact on the UK, its economy and the daily lives of people, she added.  Local authorities  had to refocus their support offer to local residents whilst keeping key services operational.  Councils also had to ensure their resources were best placed to help with immediate challenges presenting now and in the future.  The Mayor and the Chief Executive had been invited to discuss how the Council was responding to the pandemic, the lessons learnt, strengths, weaknesses and the resilience of the Council and had been asked to address these three particular questions:

1.  The Council’s preparations and response to the crisis particularly for vulnerable residents. 

2.  How the Council was working with partners, voluntary sector, local businesses and trade unions. 

3.  How the Council was reviewing the long term impacts of the pandemic on the borough.

She welcomed to the meeting: Mayor Philip Glanville and Tim Shields, Chief Executive.

5.2  The Mayor stated that he echoed the Chair’s opening remarks on the economic and human impact on the borough.  There had been 200 registered deaths and 142 of them had been Hackney residents.  The Council had of course taken part in a pandemic flu exercise previously but it turned out that this was a very different proposition and indeed this was a lot worse.  With something like a flu pandemic you preserved the rest of capacity of council to continue but this pandemic was had been all encompassing.  He paid tribute to the council staff who had moved to remote working very quickly and to making sure front line services had kept running.  Close partnership working with the NHS was critical and the crisis needed a political response not just operational ones, thereby leaving the administration to focus on frontline aspect.  A Cabinet Sub Committee on response to Covid-19 had been set up comprising himself, Cllr Selman and Cllr Kennedy and initially it had met daily. It now meets Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Work had to take place to ensure that the governance structures returned promptly and there was also a need think of the impact beyond the immediate health crisis.  They knew that shielding and humanitarian aid would be needed and setting up multiple new services to lead on the humanitarian effort was important.  They were now moving on to the ongoing work on befriending and on mitigating the impacts of isolation.  He had set up fortnightly meetings with the Voluntary Sector and especially HCVS and Volunteer Centre.  Weekly meetings had been set up with the Hackney Borough Police and with the CCG as well as weekly meetings with other boroughs via London Councils.  This had been important in getting a sense of how the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1  Members gave consideration to the minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 3 February 2020.  The Chair stated that the actions would be reported on at the next meeting.

7.1  There was no other business.