Agenda item

Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member Finance and Performance was present together with Lela Kogbara, Assistant Chief Executive Strategy and Community Partnerships.

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

·         It was noted that there had been reductions in the number of children in alternative provision

·         There had been an increase in the number of leisure visits and fewer late transfers to care and Islington were amongst the top 10 healthy schools boroughs

·         There is a need to increase the number of disabled persons although improvements had been made in the number of BME staff in higher graded posts

·         Partners repair times were still not satisfactory

·         In response to a question as to children missing in care it was stated that a previous report from the Director of Children’s Services had looked at this in detail and that the data around children missing in care is looked at in detail at the Corporate Parenting Board

·         With regard to youth offending there had been previous problems with Police involvement, however there is now co-location of services. There is a need to listen to young people in connection with their relationship with the Police and stop and search to get local communities to support the Police

·         The view was expressed that with the reductions and further proposed reductions by the Mayor in funding for Safer Neighbourhood Policing it is likely that resources would be further stretched

·         In response to a question it was stated that whilst GCSE results were below target they were above target nationally as London outperforms the national results figure

·         Reference was made to the attrition rate in hate crime and that there is a lack of confidence in victims coming forward and that this should be an area of challenge when the Borough Commander comes to PPS in November to discuss the Annual Crime and Disorder report

·         Measures had been taken by the Council to address hate crime and work is being undertaken with a focus on information for the learning disabled and work with the Hate Crime Forum and the Mosque to raise awareness. In addition, the Police are setting up a scrutiny process to enable the community to challenge them

·         In relation to a question on homelessness it was stated that there were some people on the housing waiting list who had no realistic prospect of being rehoused and that demand in a borough in Islington will always be more than that which could be supplied. However the Council did have an ambitious programme of new builds and were trying to increase this wherever possible

·         The view was expressed that there needed to be a positive message given to the Police that they should take all issues of hate crime seriously and that the recent fire bomb incident at the Finsbury Park mosque needed to be investigated fully in order to reassure the community that such acts are taken extremely seriously

·         In response to a question as to the number of BME staff in the top 5% of grades it was stated that information on age/gender and ethnicity of these staff be provided to the Committee

·         In response to a question on recycling it was stated that measures were being looked and that with regard to missed collections , whilst the performance is slightly down on last year, this is mainly due to vehicle maintenance issues involving the ageing fleet, however the fleet renewal is being looked at

·         It was stated that the Executive Member Economic and Community Development is looking at measures that could be taken to address the fall in the number of library visits

·         In response to a question as to the number of residents assisted into sustained employment it was stated that a system is now in place for tracking new entrants and that  whilst this will not be 100% effective it will assist in providing more information about whether those assisted have remained in sustained employment

·         In response to a question as to whether there has been an increase in the number of residents on ESA/incapacity benefit it was stated that the Council did support residents to challenge decisions and where possible encourage them back into work

RESOLVED:

That Members be provided with information requested above in relation to staff in the top 5% grades within the Council