Agenda item

·  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 government was coping.  They were now on the second set of surveys to gauge the local impacts.  It was essential to respond quickly with grants packages for local businesses and 80% of those had been issued already.  He also worked with the VCS on how to challenge the government to come up with the right packages of support.  There would be a need to look at resilience and befriending and tackling social isolation.  There would be a need to respond to expected increases in levels of domestic abuse reporting once lock down had eased and to look also at the longer term impact on young people and to continue to advocate for greater funding.  The Council was also working with the GLA in relation to emergency housing for rough sleepers.  There would of course be further phases of this crisis and resilience to that needed to be addressed as we moved to the next stage.  In terms of what happens next the focus would be on the principle of ‘Build Back Better’.  The Council’s key strategic docs would need to be revised including the Community Strategy and Sustainability strategies.  Young Futures initiative and Ageing Well Strategy would also need revising.

5.3  The Chief Executive stated that the pandemic was having a huge impact on the borough, affecting every part of our community as well as the staff.  It touched on every aspect of work.  There had been a great emergency response over the first few months giving humanitarian assistance and ensuring staff were safe and could deliver services.  At the outset the Council had set some key priorities to govern this work: To preserve, life, welfare, property, environment, to protect and assist the most vulnerable and to minimise disruption.  To assist the other key local organisations, to monitor and protect the welfare of staff and to facilitate a fast recovery to what will be a ‘new normal’.  In the first phase the council had provided emergency food to 2000 residents via the Food Hub in Hackney Wick and the helpline that was linked to that.  It had distributed millions of pounds of business grants to businesses and ensured that essential services could continue.  The calls on Adult Services and Children’s Social Care were many and complex and even Refuse Services were affected because collecting refuse from those with Covid was complicated.  Great work was done to ensure proper social distancing in parks. The council had to ensure that the children of key workers or those in vulnerable categories could still go to school.  He had spoken to staff meetings including some of 700 and 800 workers and this important internal communications work would also have to continue.

In a more normal crisis, such as a flood for example, it would be got through using the relevant business continuity plans and it would be followed by as quick as a possible a return to normal.  This was unprecedented however and its effects would go on and there would be as yet unseen impacts.  The financial impact alone would be significant and this was set out in stark terms in the recent detailed report to Cabinet. While we had Business Continuity Plans for every service this tested them to the limits, he added.  He stated that the government had issued further guidance on the previous Sunday which would have to be examined.  He added that the experience taught us a lot about the resilience of staff in working from home and it also meant more needed to be done about supporting their health and wellbeing. 

In terms of the community there were specific challenges for the Charedi community for example that had to be addressed.  The Council also got involved in a hot food offer to certain vulnerable residents and this was all new in terms of the service offer.  The feedback received from the public had been fantastic and he had heard about them in regular check-ins with staff and directly from residents.  The work of doing the day job in a crisis by for example gas servicing in housing services or in the parks team or in refuse services was to be commended.  Having to pay out nearly £50m in business grants so quickly was a new challenge and it had been met.

The Council’s sound financial management had meant that we were doing very well but we are still extremely stretched, he added. The Council was hit by both loss of revenue e.g. commercial waste charges, council tax, business rates etc yet we still had to pay out for many new services during this crisis.

There was much work going on in Public Health on the analysis of what is happening with the spread of the disease.  The Council’s new technology system had stood up very well and we had been able to run the business with almost all staff working from home while supporting those who had to go on the frontline. 

In terms of the challenges going forward, implementing social distancing would be a huge challenge as the borough opens up more and more.  There were challenges on testing and tracking and tracing and in relation to the schools opening up again.  We have been working amazingly well with partners especially the health partners and those involved in delivering sustainable transport.

He added that there were constant discussions with central government on funding and on new guidance and with TfL, the GLA and the health sector.  There was also a huge amount of work going on with voluntary sector with particular challenges around making sure the government offer via the food hubs included kosher food, on the urgent need for grants for VCS orgs, and on the need to sustain the VCS over the longer term as we begin to climb out of this crisis.

5.4  The Chair thanked the Mayor and Chief Executive for their opening remarks. 

5.5  Members asked detailed questions and in the discussion the following points were noted.  The Chair began by stating she had 3 key questions:

(i) Regarding the government’s announcement many residents were frightened about going back to work and what can we do to reassure them about keeping safe;

(ii) Regarding the government’s evolving plans for testing, tracing and tracking of Covid cases and the new App, she stated that she was interested to learn that the Mayor and Cabinet and local MPs had made a very bold offer to test the App locally and asked how they would reassure residents on the data protection and accuracy concerns about the App, which had put its effectiveness into question and also what help would there be for those in the community who don’t have smart phones. Also what ability would the private sector have to access the App and its data?  

(iii) The crisis had unleashed a great Hackney Spirit and much innovation and increased partnership working and what were the more hopeful signs going forward?

5.6  The Mayor replied that he had stated on the BBC earlier that week that the main challenge for councils was that government announcements were firstly leaked in the press which created great uncertainty and then regulations appeared which have to be applied suddenly.  The announcement around green spaces came out on a Sunday with the implication that the regulations would be in place by mid week as the country faced into a holiday weekend and a period of hot weather.  He added that they had had weekly meeting with the trade unions and this was not the government’s approach.  He added that Cllr Bramble was rightly concerned about the mixed messaging around the reopening of schools.  Landing information suddenly into the public domain was proving difficult he added. The Council had taken the view that there were construction sites locally that could operate now but an announcement from the Secretary of State on longer hours then came out of nowhere.  He stated that the Council was looking to reconfigure streets and pavements in the borough in line with social distancing requirements to reduce traffic and ease pedestrian and cycle traffic.

On testing he stated that two weeks previously he had written to the Secretary of State and only that day had they seen some progress such as the high level appointments onto the task force on testing of Tom Riordan, the Chief Executive of Leeds City Council, a sign that they were finally listening directly to local government leaders.  He stated that it was disappointing that the government always seemed to reach first for Deloitte and Serco rather than the existing public sector infrastructure when responding to issues.  This had led to a situation where the public and unions were increasingly distrustful of what was being planned.  He added that the digital divide was stark and issues around community access and community languages needed to be considered.  Locally too, the Charedi community, for example, wouldn’t be using the technology needed to access the government’s planned contact tracing App.  A top down approach of using private sector always and avoiding tapping into local skills and knowledge was a mistake.  He added that all across the VCS new connections were being made eg with the growth of the excellent Mutual Aid Groups and these were completely different relationships.  There had also been some great work on safe discharging between the Homerton, the CCG and local GPs and that this kind of partnership approach was key to how we tackled such big issues as food poverty and unemployment.

5.7  The Chief Executive responded by stating that in relation to opening up the economy there will be a need to continue to support local businesses and residents and part of this is to give out clear advice in order to demystify the various new guidance and regulations.  In terms of travel safety, while it isn’t possible to give people assurances about safety, what the Council can do is to ensure alternatives are provided.  On testing, tracking and tracing, councils will have a key role in helping to shape the system and make it better.  The App is being tested in the Isle of Wight and there have been assurances re data protection. He added that it is not possible to comment on it in any more detail until we had more information from the pilot.

In relation to access and smartphones he was aware that the government intended to employ an army c. 15k people to work as direct contract tracers using mainly phone calls.  Since the lockdown the Council and health partners had built up a significant data base of the vulnerable and so are in a better position locally to navigate through this in a much more nuanced way.  Going forward he hoped the Council can build on these relationships and support networks.

5.8  Members asked detailed questions and in the responses the following points were noted:

(a) Members asked for further detail on the financial impacts including the lost income. The Mayor replied that there had been two tranches of emergency funding, the first one a month previously comprising £10.1m, with a second tranche of £7.4m to come and had been allocated on a per capita basis from a national pot of £1.6bn.  Another £600m had been announced for Local Authorities that day which was still to be allocated.  Another £6.4m hardship funding scheme had also been allocated for Council Tax Reduction Scheme and the Council had matched that with investment in its own hardship fund.  Despite all this, there remained a substantial gap of £19m for the year with areas not receiving special funding as well as the impact of the loss of revenue.  Unless further funding was received it was projected over the year that this gap would remain.  Added to this there were savings which had been foregone. Considering, that within the envelope of austerity, half of the council’s budget had already disappeared over the past decade, some real challenges would lie ahead, he added.  The Chief Executive added that they had presented a very full report on the finances to Cabinet and the Group Director of Finance and Corporate Resources was working hard to coordinate on behalf of the other London boroughs a response to the government’s proposals.

(b) Members asked whether the Council was delivering culturally and religiously appropriate food to residents via the Food Hub.  The Chief Executive replied that one of the unfortunate aspects of the government food deliveries had been that neither culturally nor diet specific foods had been issued and it had not been packaged in ways to be easily dispensed to individuals as opposed to families. Because of this, early on in the process, they had to come up with local solutions so that the local Food Hub could offer a more nuanced offer.  The Council had worked to deliver kosher food parcels to the Charedi community and to incorporate their needs as part of the helpline.  They had been delivering to over 100 Charedi residents in Stamford Hill.  There was also a hot food offer developed with the third sector which had accommodated to the culturally specific needs of the different communities. The Chief Executive added that he was very proud of the work to deliver food parcels to those who were shielding or who were vulnerable and the Hub had flexed the offer when the government response had not been appropriate for the local needs.

(c) Members commended the letter the Chief Executive had sent to staff for its content and tone. 

(d) Members asked how the Council could be more agile in supplementing the government’s actions in tackling the crisis.  They noted that Durham County Council had worked with its local CCG and tested residents in care homes and also set aside separate Covid areas within them.  They asked further that, without undermining the government message, what ability did the Council have to quickly supplement the inadequacies of the government approach, such as being slow in getting contact tracing off the ground, and how might the Council be able to input additional support.

The Mayor replied that Members had hit several nails in the head with this question.  The Council’s room for manoeuvre was limited.  The communications gaps had been filled by the Council in providing information through people’s doors on 3 occasions with specifically targeted information for particular communities.  In relation to what Durham had done, it had to be remembered that parts of the country had retained public health labs for testing eg Leeds and Durham and their local health systems were able to tap into that.  We have coterminous NHS organisations in City and Hackney he added but for London wide initiatives 32 boroughs are involved.  In rolling out programmes the government sometimes decided not to use existing footprints.  The borough needed accessible sites for testing stations and they finally got that set up in Dalston and now a further solution is being rolled out locally for testing in care homes.  The government did not seem to learn that if you centralise things in this way you will replicate the mistakes made previously and so we pleaded with them not to pursue that approach.  Thanks to the LGA, the government was finally seeing the key role that local government has to play.  One area which Hackney was leading on was in PPE distribution as we were the local hub for the NE London boroughs.  They key was to supplement and not to duplicate.

The Chief Executive added that Hackney was in a position of reacting to government announcements and being expected to have the answers the following day, when official Guidance had still not been published.  He gave an example that a 50 page document which had been issued at 2.00pm that afternoon laying out how we were expected to manage open spaces, however there was a need to examine closely how this could be implemented locally.

e) Members relayed concerns from businesses about phase two of the easing of lockdown and queries from smaller businesses categorised as ‘non essential’ about when they were going to be allowed to open. They asked what was the guidance for businesses and how would it be distributed.

The Mayor replied that he was struggling with the how things land from central government because uncertainty is sown, for example, on returning to work.  The question is what bits of the economy will be returnable to, he added.  Parts of economy were already saying they were not ready with hospitality stating they cannot reopen with social distancing in place and continue to be sustainable.  There had been contradictions and mixed messages and an obsession seemingly with “home counties” concerns such as garden centres and golf clubs.  He explained that the government had announced a week previously a discretionary fund and the council had just received the guidance on that.  The Council would be able to use underspend to plug some budget holes he added.  A rich seam of information had been collected on the local economy and he urged every business in Hackney to join the Hackney Business Network who had just issued some great guidance for retail on social distancing.  He added that they were also communicating closely with the supermarkets.

The Chief Executive added that he was proud of the speed at which those business grants had been allocated and in the future they would go back and study how that had been achieved.   

f) Members commented that the Secretary of State for Transport had announced on the previous Saturday some £2m to promote more cycling and walking and added that what was needed was not temporary measures but rather the infrastructure to be put in place to make these changes permanent.

The Chief Executive replied that the plan with ‘Build back better’ focused on how to build on the changes made during the lockdown.  Of the £2m funding it was not clear how much was per local authority.  He concluded that we do need to try and capture some of the good things that have come out of this terrible crisis and see how we can boost cycling and make travel more sustainable

g) Members commented on the tragic loss of staff at Homerton University Hospital FT and gave their condolences and asked what guarantees there had been from the Homerton management that all the workforce would now receive optimal PPE.

The Mayor replied that he had written to Tracey Fletcher to pay tribute to those three staff members.  He added that he didn’t want to second guess the position around PPE as it wouldn’t be helpful.  Homerton had never reached over capacity and their logistical systems ensured the pressures on PPE weren’t the same as in other parts of country.  The Council and the Homerton were constantly checking PPE stocks he added.  He added that in relation to unions, that Deputy Mayor Bramble was working closely with the NEU and the Head Teachers on the concern locally about plans to re-open schools. 

The Chief Executive added that he too had sent condolences to the families of those staff who had died and added that he couldn’t comment on the union issue. 

h) Chair of Audit Cttee (Cllr Sharman) congratulated the Mayor for keeping meetings running and things open as part of building the community’s trust.  There was an issue in the medium term however and financial priorities would need to be amended and Audit Committee was looking forward to a financial framework emerging which would address this.  He suggested that Scrutiny Chairs should join Cllr Rennison as Cabinet Member for Finance to explore a joined up view of the financial priorities going forward and suggested that there be a meeting on this in the next week or so.

The Mayor replied that he agreed about the need to focus also on the medium term.  Huge financial pressures would lead to some difficult decision making.  There has been no short to medium term decision to pull back from services or to furlough staff or to stop doing things, but we do need to have an eye to the longer term also, he added.  He added that there wasn’t an emergency budget around the corner and that would give us some time and space to do what had been suggested.  The Chief Executive urged caution however.  He highlighted that the council as an organisation had been doing an amazing job in setting up new complex systems and it had been stretched to capacity. There would be a need to reflect in time on that work and on the next steps when all officers weren’t working from home and focused so much on frontline delivery. The organisation was being stretched by constant government announcements so the timing of this work would be crucial. 

5.9  The Chair stated that she would have to draw the item to a close as the allocated time had passed and she thanked the Mayor and Chief Executive for their attendance.