Agenda and minutes
Venue: Committee Room 1, Town Hall, Upper Street, N1 2UD. View directions
Contact: Ola Adeoye 020 7527 3044
No. | Item |
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Apologies for Absence Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillor Gallagher. |
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Declaration of Substitute Members Minutes: There were no declarations of substitute members. |
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Declarations of Interests 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.
Minutes: There were no declarations of interest. |
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Minutes of Previous Meeting PDF 108 KB Minutes: With regard to Item 80 of the minutes- Fire
Safety in Council Housing, it was noted that concerns about the
evacuation plans for vulnerable residents in tower blocks had the
Corporate Director of Housing comments that she will be discussing
the PEEP with Islington’s Housing Disability Panel at their
next meeting in May 2018 had been omitted from the minutes.
RESOLVED: That subject to amending the minutes to include the comments omitted in the minutes regarding fire safety and the inclusion of Councillor Hamitouche’s apologies, the minutes of the meeting held on 19 March be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them. |
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Chair's Report Minutes: The Chair thanked members, officers and the
public for their contribution to the committee’s business in
2018/19 and in particular expressed his thanks to external
organisations such as Clarion, Hyde and Partners for Improvement
for sharing their performances and plans with Members. In addition
special thanks was extended to the Executive Member for Housing
having attended all the committee meetings and his valuable
contribution.
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Order of Business Minutes: The order of business would be as per the agenda. |
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Public Questions For members of the public to ask questions relating to any subject on the meeting agenda under Procedure Rule 70.5. Alternatively, the Chair may opt to accept questions from the public during the discussion on each agenda item.
Minutes: None |
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Housing Services for Vulnerable People Review - 12-month report back PDF 230 KB Minutes: Helena Stephenson, Head of Housing
Partnerships on behalf of Paul Byers introduced the report which
provided a 12 month update on the Committee’s review of
services for vulnerable people and the following points were
highlighted:
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A suggestion that the definition of the meaning of vulnerable
resident should be extended to include elderly and frail persons
was noted.
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A request for details including the cost to the Council about the
recent judicial case that was settled in favour of a vulnerable
resident which involved Now Medical was noted. The Executive Member
for Housing indicated that the Council will be reviewing its
relationship with Now Medical in the future.
·
In response to a question on whether blind residents would able to
access the services available for vulnerable people published on
the website, Members were invited to review the web page and
provide feedback.
·
On the issue of domestic abuse victims, meeting was advised that in
comparison to other authorities, Islington has good practice in
place to ensure that domestic abuse victims are protected and are
not encouraged to relinquish their tenancies, however where safety
is an issue, the Council will re house them away from their
perpetrators.
·
Members welcomed the efforts of Housing Services in keeping staff
trained on how best to support tenants with additional needs as
staff awareness and knowledge will have a practical impact on their
work and how they interact with residents.
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Housing Services recognises the value of a skilled workforce to
manage service users with different needs and has recently reviewed
how staff are recruited as it is important that its staff have a
more holistic approach when dealing with vulnerable residents.
Officers were reminded that as part of its staff training that the
Council’s Equalities strategy is taken on board.
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With regards to recommendation 8, Housing Services will be
developing a resilience matrix which ensures that it is able to
recognise crises and life changing events which could mean more
people needing more extra support. Members were reminded that with
the council children’s services using resilience matrixes in
their services, there is good practice in place available to learn
from and build on. A suggestion that the resilience matrix should
not be made available to all council tenants and not only
vulnerable residents was noted.
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With regards to the essential information provided in welcome packs
for vulnerable residents, Housing officers were advised that the
Housing Disability Panel views should be taken on board as they
will have a better insight on experiences of vulnerable
residents.
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Members welcomed the Homes and Communities locality-focused pilot
in the Tollington area which aims to
bring key partners together to improve the range and quality of
community services. · In terms of recommendation 12, setting clear expectations for contractors working with disabled and vulnerable tenants, a suggestion that officers need to specify the level of training required from contractors right from the onset especially when the bid goes out was noted by the Assistant Director of Housing. Members agreed that compliance should ... view the full minutes text for item 89. |
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Further Development of the Responsive Repairs Service - Final Report PDF 210 KB Minutes: The Committee considered the
final report and recommendations. The following main points were
noted in the discussion:
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Recommendation 8 to be reworded to read - With
regard to future building projects, planned maintenance projects
and capital programmes, the Responsive Repairs Service should be
consulted and their recommendations should be acted
on. RESOLVED: |
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Work Programme 2018/19 PDF 34 KB Minutes: RESOLVED: |