Agenda and minutes

Councillors Klute, Kay and Chowdhury

Councillor Wayne stated that he was substituting for Councillor Kay

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 02 November 2015 be confirmed and the Chair be authorised to sign them

None

The Chair stated that the meeting of the Committee to consider the Budget 2016/17 would now be held on 21 January and the next ordinary meeting of the Committee will now take place on 11 February.

In addition there were visits to be arranged in relation to the Knife Crime scrutiny and Members expressed the view that they would wish to visit Arsenal in the community projects and the New River Green PRU, however they would wish the Margate Task Force and the Westminster Your Choice Gang Diversion programme to attend a future meeting of the Committee in order to give witness evidence

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

Catherine Briody, Victim and Offenders Service Manager and Tony Nagle, Head of Youth Offending and Targeted Youth support and Justine Wilson-Darke, Operational Manager, Targeted Youth support were present for discussion of this item. Tony Nagle outlined the report.

Members also considered the list of possible visits to be made in connection with the scrutiny review.

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

·         There is little evidence to show the strategies that actually have worked in deterring young people from crime but work is being carried out with schools to target  young people and family intervention and mental health work is being carried out

·         Of the current caseload of the Youth Offending service who live locally, 35% used youth provision funded by the Council in 2014/15. This represents 1 in 3 of the current YOS caseload in the general population, the equivalent figure using youth services is 1 in 5

·         Families First supports families with a very wide range of needs, from those with newly emerging problems, who have not received support of this nature in the past, to those being stepped down from Children’s social care with complex histories. Based on a review of quantitative data and from reviews from 12 case files, support appears to be effective at improving outcomes for around 80% of families it supports

·         It was stated that 80% of the families who engaged with Families First had positive outcomes

·         There is also targeted youth support and it should also be noted that the vast majority of young people in Islington were not involved in criminality. There is also the importance of the transition work from childhood to adult offending provision

·         In response to a question it was stated that for those offenders where criminality is entrenched it is more difficult to turn their behaviour around, and it was noted that 25% of the young people that the team worked with had speech and language difficulties. Some young people were hard to engage as they were more entrenched in offending and these were gang related and 80%-90% of the young people in custody were for gang related offences. The view was expressed that these speech and language difficulties surely should have been picked up earlier at school and it needed to be ensured that progress is being made on this

·         In relation to black young men from 2011-14 the numbers in the criminal justice system had fallen from 11% to 4% so there had been some progression in reducing the numbers. Work is taking place with schools and with young people to encourage educational opportunities

·         In response to a question it was stated that the Director of Children’ s Services would provide details of the exclusion of black pupils and whether there was any difference in exclusion rates from Academies to Local Authority schools

·         Early intervention is thought to be the key to preventing young people becoming involved in crime and it is hoped that going forward this will  ...  view the full minutes text for item 186.

Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member Finance and Performance and Lela Kogbara, Assistant Chief Executive Strategy and Partnerships were present for discussion of this item.

During consideration of this matter the following main issues were raised –

·         In relation to P15 Adult Social Care Members expressed the view that given the value of physical exercise for tackling isolation amongst older people whether this is included as part of the strategy for tackling this and the range of actively planned to tackle social isolation

·         A Member referred to PI 112 Children missing in care and that this is not on target. It was stated that all appropriate measures are taken each time a child goes missing, and that robust procedures are in place to prevent children from going missing whilst in care, but it had to be recognised that these were often very vulnerable individuals

·         With regard to P114 Alternative provision, a Member enquired if there was any difference  between children excluded from Academies and non Academy schools in alternative provision. It was stated that these figures should be provided to the Committee

·         In relation to P115 GCSE results Members expressed the view that the level of ambition was not enough and enquired the London average. Final GCSE figures will be released in January 2016 and these will be included in the Quarter 3 report, however the performance of London schools was generally good

·         In relation to P1 116 NEETS Members requested more detail about the measures being taken to retain them in learning, particularly at risk groups

·         Discussion took place around PI’s for crime and community safety and that in relation to PI’s 20 and 21 anti-social behaviour, Members were concerned about these targets and that despite them being unambitious they were still not being met. In addition the response on estates is not considered satisfactory and  Members requested additional information in relation as to how it is intended to improve the response rate on estates

·         The Committee also expressed concern in relation to PI 24 and 26 Hate Crime and that this is below the target for sanction detections. Councillor Convery stated that this is the role of the Police and that the Council were constantly pushing the Police on this, and that they were leading on a new Hate Crime strategy and consulting on the Prevent Strategy. Members noted that the Quarter 3 Performance report would include details of actions the Police are taking to improve detections

·         A Member referred to P127 in relation to employment, and enquired the types of people that are being supported into posts and it was stated that this information could be circulated to Members

·         Reference was made to p130a and Members stated that despite this being a Council pledge the target had not been met. In addition, Members stated that they would also like information as to the types of placements apprentices were taking up and it was stated that a list of departments and job roles could be circulated to Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 187.

Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member Finance and Performance, and Mike Curtis, Director of Finance and Resources were present for discussion of this item.

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

·         It was noted that there is a projected overspend of £3.5m which would be funded by contingency reserves

·         The Council were faced with having to make further reductions of £70m in the next 4 years as a result of the Government’s recent spending review, however it was not known at this point the savings that would be required in 2016/17

·         In response to a question it was stated that schools had largely been protected from spending reductions, however there are likely to be future cost pressures

·         Reference was made to the cash flow forecast in relation to Moreland School and the Director of Finance and Property Services stated that more details could be provided to Members following the meeting

·         A Member expressed the view that in her view there should have been a resident impact assessment on the report. Councillor Hull responded that this was just a financial monitoring report and that a detailed resident impact assessment is prepared for the Budget report but this could be considered

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted and the Director of Finance and Property Services be requested to respond to the matter raised on Moreland school as outlined above

 Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member Finance and Performance and Debra Norman. Assistant Chief Executive Governance and Human Resources, were present for discussion of this item.

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

·         It was noted that there had been a 10% reduction in agency staff in the previous year and the full time equivalent figure as at 29 September is 719.91 assignments, as compared to the 900.46 reported in June

·         Based on headcount, agency workers made up 14.7% of the workforce, based on FTE 13.09%, compared to 17.39%, as reported in June

·         This compares to an average figure of 14.5% across all London Councils in 2014/15

·         In response to a question Members were informed that the Council had a target of12% for agency staff and it is felt that agency staff of this size will always be required to cover sickness, seasonal work etc.

·         Members were informed that the employment of agency staff in HR and Legal was due to difficulties in recruitment and provision of maternity cover and implementation of the new HR system

·         Members stated that there had been significant progress in reducing the number of agency staff in Digital Services and that there would be further reductions as a result of the forthcoming merger with Camden

·         Reference was made to the fact that there should be more ambitious targets set in order to reduce the number of agency staff

·         Reference was made to qualified and unqualified healthcare staff in Children’s Services and that a high proportion of these were black and ethnic minority and young people and that if these were in house staff this would be better than employing them from agencies

·         In response to a question it was stated that in relation to children’s social work Islington had the lowest proportion of agency staff in London

·         Reference was made to Appendix 3 and that there were a high number of social and unqualified healthcare staff and in manual trades and operatives. Members expressed the view that if significant numbers of these people moved into permanent posts this was acceptable, however if they were not being permanently employed and were agency staff this needed to be looked at

·         It was stated that some staff moved to employment under the temp to perm policy and that agency staff could now apply for employment with the Council

·         Reference was made to the 183 manual staff employed in E&R and the Assistant Chief Executive HR and Governance stated that she would provide more details on these to Members

·         Members referred to paragraph 5.4 of the report – types of assignment undertaken – and that these types of role should be more clearly defined if they were not administrative or clerical roles

·         A Member enquired whether the in house agency was still a possibility. It was stated that there were always temporary/agency staff needed  available for sickness cover and seasonal work and that given that this is the case for many London Boroughs in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 189.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted