Agenda and minutes

Councillor Ismail

Councillor Jeapes stated that she was substituting for Councillor Ismail

Declarations of interest

 If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

*(a) Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b)  Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c) Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d) Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e) Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f)   Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

None

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 11 May 2015 be confirmed and the Chair be authorised to sign them

None

None

The Chair outlined the procedure for Public questions and filming and recording of meetings

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted

Nicky Freeling, Business Engagement and Employment Support Manager and Lela Kogbara, Assistant Chief Executive, Strategy and Community Partnerships were present and introduced two witnesses who gave evidence to the Committee. These witnesses were Sheri Lawal of Choices and Ken Kanu from Help on your Doorstep.

During consideration of the evidence the following main points were made –

·         Choices worked with the BEST team and added that they worked with the Job Centre mostly with claimants on ESA who were not work ready. It was added that it would be beneficial if the was more part time work available

·         In response to a question it was stated that Choices tried to give case support to these residents and it was important for them to experience what the job entails

·         The view was expressed that whilst employers often asked for qualifications such as GCSE’s and A levels, experience could be just as valuable

·         It was noted that residents were being placed in different Council departments to enable them to get work experience across different areas

·         Help on Your Doorstep is an outreach and referral service that works across Islington and links in with the voluntary and the public sector. It was a door knocking service that sought to engage residents and offered assistance with housing, financial advice, employment issues, welfare rights etc. and directed them to appropriate services and residents could also call in to one of the 5 community based offices

·         Help on Your Doorstep assists over 1500 residents per year and employment has been the main focus and the BEST team is the highest referral partner however there were no precise figures for those obtaining employment. There were challenges to the process and BEST acted as a brokerage for pre -screening and assessment but generally there is not a great deal of feedback for clients from employers

·         There is a need for good quality feedback to be given to applicants in order to show the areas that they needed to improve and boost their confidence in applying for jobs whether they were successful or not

·         The Chair stated that the work of Help on Your Doorstep is appreciated and concurred that feedback was fundamental to enable people to improve and enquired whether feedback could be included as part of an SLA with employers. It was stated that whilst the Council did give feedback to shortlisted candidates it is difficult to do this for candidates not shortlisted if there are hundreds of candidates for a post and in some cases a more general standardised letter is sent out because of time constraints

·         Nicky Freeling indicated that she had encouraged the BEST team, when it existed, to provide feedback and this is an area that needs improvement

·         In response to a question concerning employers expectations of young people it was stated that work is taking place with young people to stress the importance of what employers are looking for

·         It was noted that applicants did not have to have formal qualifications to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 124.

Kevin O’Leary, Director of Environment and Regeneration, Sean McLaughlin, Director of Housing and Adult Social Services and Steve Key, Finance and Property Services were present for discussion of this item . Debra Norman, Assistant Chief Executive, Human Resources and Governance was also present and laid round updated figures for the Committee.

Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member Finance and Performance was also present.

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

·         Councillor Hull stated that significant progress had been made in reducing the number of agency staff and there was a time lag on the data and that there would shortly be an additional 78 agency posts would become permanent staff with a further 42 planned

·         The target is to reduce the number of agency staff employed to 10% of the workforce by the end of 2015/16 and the figure is currently at 17%

·         The updated figures show that the number of temporary staff now employed had reduced from 972 to 869 posts

·         It was noted that the agency staff workforce is more ethnically diverse than the Council workforce, however the Council workforce employed more staff with disclosed disability

·         Councillor Hull stated that progress is being made in reducing agency staff, however the message had been conveyed to Directors and middle management that more needs to be done to reduce the figures, It was added that agency staff could now only be employed with the approval of the service Director

·         Councillor Doolan expressed concern that the agency figure is still some 4.6 % above the London average, and that he was concerned at the high levels of BME agency staff in comparison to full time staff

·         In response to a question it was stated that in terms of the appointment of agency staff to permanent posts in Environment and Regeneration Department, the Council recruitment procedures had been followed

·         Councillor Doolan expressed the view that the Committee, should at a future date review the Council policy on recruiting agency/temporary staff into permanent posts

·         The Chair stated that there is a need to ensure that managers update their records regularly so that the levels of agency staff are regularly monitored and assessed

·          In response to a question it was stated that the updated figures on the transfer of former Enterprise staff taken on permanently be sent to Councillor Doolan

·         In response to a question it was stated that in E&R the agency staff model had been inherited from the previous contractor Enterprise and that it had taken time to remodel the service but there will always be circumstances in which agency staff would be required, however measures such as increasing the flexibility of staff were being considered. Reference was made to the fact that the Housing Scrutiny Committee were recommending annualised hours for some staff in grounds maintenance and schemes like this could be considered

·         It was stated that the fact that a high number of BME agency staff had now been employed permanently in E&R  ...  view the full minutes text for item 125.

Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member for Finance and Performance was present together with Steve Key, Finance and Property Services Department for discussion of this item.

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

·         It was stated that there was a £3.1 million underspend which will be put towards contingencies and the redundancy reserve

·         It was noted that the HRA is forecast to break-even and the capital programme delivered 93% of the annual programme

·         The Housing General Fund continues to be impacted by increased demand for temporary accommodation and the increased cost of supplying it, exacerbated by changes to the housing benefit regulations and the changes to the welfare support system

·         It is anticipated that there would need to be substantial savings due to the election of the Conservative Government and that the savings required would be clearer following the Emergency Budget in July and the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement

·         Councillor Hull thanked the Finance Directorate and Directors for the work in achieving a balanced budget despite the difficult circumstances

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted

The Chair stated that he had proposed a scrutiny review on Tax Avoidance at the previous meeting of the Committee and that a SID meeting would be held with officers in the near future to progress this. The Chair indicated that a further scrutiny topic on knife crime had been suggested, however he was willing to consider other proposals and a final decision taken at the next meeting.

The Chair added that the Environment and Regeneration and Children’s Services Scrutiny Committees would be deciding on scrutiny topics at their next respective meetings and that Health and Care Scrutiny Committee were proposing a scrutiny review on the health implications of dampness in social and private sector housing.

It was noted that the Housing Scrutiny Committee were proposing a topic on Cyclical Maintenance but were considering other proposals at its next meeting.