The meeting made a number of decisions, including approving the grant of a lease to Sunnyside Community Gardens, agreeing to a sub-lease of 2-4 Old Street Yard to FareShare, approving the Executive's response to the Health and Care Scrutiny Committee's report on the transformation of Adult Social Care, and agreeing changes to the council's executive committee arrangements.

Grant of Lease to Sunnyside Community Gardens

The Executive discussed a report about a proposal to grant a lease of land at Sunnyside Community Gardens to Sunnyside Community Gardens.

Sunnyside Community Gardens is a charity, registered in 1992, that provides therapeutic horticulture for people with disabilities and those recovering from illness. The gardens occupy land owned by Islington Council. The charity has occupied the land since 1977, but without a formal lease.

The Executive agreed to grant the lease to the charity because:

This is a good news story because anybody that knows Sunnyside Gardens have occupied this site since 1997...this is...just strengthening the grant and the community lease for the community.

- Councillor Una O'Halloran, Executive Member for Homes and Neighbourhoods¹

The Executive's decision means that the Council will now publish a notice of its intention to dispose of the land. If no objections are received, the Council will grant a new lease to the charity.

The report considered by the Executive is subject to a number of exemptions from publication. These relate to the terms of the lease. You can read the non-exempt sections of the report on the council's website.

Grant of Sub-Lease for 2-4 Old Street Yard to FareShare

The Executive agreed to a report to grant a sub-lease of 2-4 Old Street Yard to FareShare.

The property is part of the White Collar Factory development. The council leases the property and sub-lets it to providers of affordable workspace, but the most recent tenant left the council with a substantial financial liability when they unexpectedly terminated their lease.

FareShare is the UK's longest-running food redistribution charity.

The Executive decided to grant the lease to FareShare because:

This is another really exciting item... This paper allows us to mitigate that pressure [of financial liabilities] by filling it with a high quality tenant in the form of Fair Share...It's really exciting.

- Councillor Santiago Bell-Bradford, Executive Member for Inclusive Economy, Culture and Jobs²

FareShare will pay a peppercorn rent for the property, but the council believes that this is outweighed by the social value that FareShare will bring to the borough, including:

• Increasing the number of meals they distribute in Islington from 1.1 million meals to 1.5 million meals each year.
• Using kitchen space in community centres to provide meals.
• Offering business coaching, mentoring, and employability support to residents.
• Seeking to employ local residents.

Some sections of the report considered by the Executive are exempt from publication on the grounds of commercial sensitivity. You can read the non-exempt sections of the report on the council's website.

Executive Response to 2022/23 Scrutiny Report From Adult Social Care Transformation

The Executive considered a report on its response to the Health and Care Scrutiny Committee's report on the Transformation of Adult Social Care. The Scrutiny Committee made eleven recommendations, which the Executive has now approved. The recommendations relate to:

Modernisation of Practice

• Increasing the use of technology by the reablement service, for example by providing carers with tablets to record information. The Executive argued that this would improve the service and free up staff time.
• Improving feedback mechanisms to ensure that residents' voices are heard.
• Bringing the 'seven-day recovery' model, currently being piloted, in-house.

Collaboration and Cultural Change

• Developing a shared ethos across integrated health and social care services, for example by providing consistent training and development plans.
• Prioritising the employment of local people in recruitment campaigns for the health and care sector.
• Identifying areas where collaborative working might add value for residents, such as working with Mental Health services, Housing, and the Voluntary and Community sector.
• Strengthening collaborative working with voluntary sector organisations to further develop the council's prevention offer.
• Exploring opportunities for greater collaboration between Adult Social Care and the Central Point of Access to increase referrals.

Smarter Travel

• Considering if reablement carers could make use of electric bikes and other active travel options.
• Reviewing the routing of reablement carers to make journeys more efficient and reduce the environmental impact of travel.

The recommendations are intended to be implemented within existing departmental budgets, though it is possible that additional funding will be required. You can read the full report on the council's website.

Executive Committee Arrangements

The Executive agreed to disband the Voluntary and Community Sector Committee and transfer its business to the Executive. The Executive also decided to include a new agenda heading relating to the Voluntary and Community Sector on future Executive agendas to ensure that this work is prioritized.

The Executive made this decision because it believes that the Voluntary and Community Sector Committee does not have enough business to justify its continued existence.

...we're taking this first important step by recognising the importance of the voluntary and community sector work we do as a council. At the moment we had it as a sub-arrangement of the executive meeting at a different night, but we want to give it the prominence it deserves and amalgamate it into this executive meeting.

- The Leader of the Council³

You can read the full report on the council's website.