Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to another formal meeting of cabinet taking place on the first day of October, Tuesday 2020. As we jump into the formalities, I just wanted to welcome all officers and any members of the public in the public gallery or watching online via the live streaming of this cabinet meeting on YouTube. And just as a reminder, those counselors unable to join the meeting in person are able to join in the debates remotely, but they won't be able to present an item move or second motion or vote and their attendance will not be officially recorded. And can I ask that any members and officer colleagues that will be participating in the discussions we're having this morning to just introduce yourselves, including your role function, and for members if you could just also indicate, would you represent on which portfolio, you hold. Can we firstly take apologies for absence that have been received. And to advise you that the chief executive is being represented. Okay, fine. So, formal apologies from Carolyn a data we've also got counselors and counselor Rohit desktop to have given apologies and we've noted comrade here deputizing for the chief executive this morning's meeting, and welcome to officer colleagues as well. Colleagues Can I also just all your attention to the declarations of interest covered on pages nine to 10 of the agenda part. And in accordance with the members code of conduct this is members to pay any discount pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, they may have in any matter being considered at this meeting having regard to the guidance attached to the agenda. So on that note, can I ask them to declare if they have any pecuniary or non pecuniary interests. Okay, surely there. And then if we can move on to minutes of the decisions made cabinet on the sixth of August covered off pages 11 and 18. I'm going to ask cabinet members only is this an accurate record of the decisions that we made on the sixth of August is great. Thank you very much. I'm moving on to appointments to outside bodies there are no points outside bodies that will be announced today. And then we're now moving on to the executive response to black boys, and the borrow scrutiny. Sorry. I've got the wrong agenda. This is the back to me. Sorry. Thank you. I'll just foster it for now and then I'll open. Right so gender number five and your complaints report 2023 to 20 pages 21 to page 152, and I'll invite out for Shawnee McLean to introduce this. Thank you chair. So, as the mayor said, I'm counselor Shawnee McLean cabinet member for resident engagement and resident experience. So, I'm pleased to introduce the annual complaint report for 2023 to 24. And this year's report summarizes the performance of the council in handling complaints, and it's a backdrop of increasing demand on our services, financial challenges and a change in statutory landscape for housing tenancy related complaints. So, the service undertook a comprehensive review resulting in a significant change to ways of working. It's launched in November 2023, given service is much greater oversight and for early resolution of their complaints for the report highlights a number of important achievements by which you have approved the way we resolve our residents concerns, maintain their performance while seeing a very small increase in the number of stage one complaints raised and continue to see overall an overall decrease in cases progressing through escalation. routes, indicating that we are fixing more mistakes earlier with positive outcomes for residents. So this is a trend that is strongly reinforced by the independent local government and Social Care Ombudsman, like to highlight in particular that our paid upheld rate for this year is 8% lower than the average for London, putting us the fourth highest performer in the city for 2023-24 and representing a significant improvement for the organisation from the previous year. Despite this, the report is honest about where things needed to improve and how we have successfully responded to these challenges, changing how we deliver services and our own ways of working to improve the experience of our residents and getting things right first time. In my role, I will continue to drive forward improved outcomes and accessible services through our Transforming Newham for the Future programme, harnessing the insight from complaints to prioritise those changes that will deliver maximum impact in our community. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Olivia Shaw and the WIDA team for their work in this area. You know, we're on a journey and there's a lot more work to be done, but we are making good progress. Olivia's here and so I'm sure she'd like to build a further on the contents of the report and its many appendices. And also I'm sure that my cabinet colleagues would also like to chip in on the areas that they lead on. I'll leave it there. Thank you, Jo. Thank you very much. I'm going to invite Officer Colleagues. Olivia, well done. I think this is the first report that you're presenting. It's inherited the last one. Right, OK. So this is yours fully fledged. OK, so is there anything else that you'd like to add? There's a lot of work to do. There are many other things that I would add in addition to what's already been said, is that the external landscape in which the parade is changing quite significantly, there's a number of new requirements. I have to respond to, which is reflected in the report. And with that, we have seen a reduction in areas like housing repair complaints, which I think is a real achievement. And there's a lot of partnership work going on with the Housing Directorate, which is paying dividends. And I think this report can take that a little bit further. It's also very high in the city for resolving cases to a satisfactory standard before it reaches investigation, which says to me that we know how to actually resolve those issues for those most in need before it needs independent investigation. So that's just one element that I wanted to add. OK, brilliant. And then I'm going to just note on big page 23, section 1.7 major complaint themes. Just really wanted balancing on housing repairs, we're down 6% on 2022-23. On waste, we're up 33% compared to the theme in third place, 2022-23. Parking and enforcement waste, 539. Housing services, tenant services not related to repairs. And housing allocations down 20 feet. Hopefully, you'll get a sort of view on that and how that reflects aligns with the changes that we've made operationally within each surface area, and also corporate grip that then go into relevant cabinet members to just hear from them in terms of what's happening in those areas. Yeah, I have to kick off in practice, cabinet or CLB, I mean, on the roof of the theme. So, in terms of sort of service improvement work that's sitting behind me there. As Olivia mentioned, there's been some really important work happening between the resident experience team and the housing service, particularly looking at early resolution joint working across the call centres and aligning the initial contact processes for residents to get through to the right person at the right time and to keep issues at an early stage. I'm really pleased to call that the leadership of the call centre, particularly within the housing service, has been much improved in the last year, particularly. Umar leads that team and has been a real ally to the resident experience director in joining up and providing a sort of, you know, the real leadership grip on what's happening within that team. And we're quite confident there'll be continued improvement in that part of that system. It's a complex system and there's lots more work to do, but particularly that front door, this is working particularly well. On the waste front, our current understanding of issues affecting residents there more directly relate to policy change and some of the kind of routing changes that have been occurring in the server, particularly to try and streamline practice. And I'm sure colleagues in the environment like to add more detail to that. Again, we're developing really good working relationships with that team and a lot of the work in the transforming new for the future. How we can digitise and streamline early resident contacts have a lot of benefit in that particular area going forward as well. So those are two major highlights from a corporate perspective. The only thing I would add around the increase in housing services is that the housing ombudsman themselves are more active in advocating for residents and getting residents to advocate for themselves. So it's not a surprise to me that complaints relating to tenancy and all its aspects are on the increase because that's very much the role that the housing ombudsman is taking in that space. Okay, fine. Anything else that any of the cabinet members would want to say around parking and enforcing waste and waste generally, neither is Meraj. I think it's a really, really good report. I think Umar is one of our cohorts who's worked really, really hard to improve that resident experience. And I can remember when I was a deputy, one of the first issues was one of the big active maintenance issues that were happening when we didn't have no data. So we've really worked hard to get data in, get KPIs, look at those KPIs, work on those KPIs. And I think the other thing was The Rock being moved back, the call centre being moved back into RMS has really, really helped us. And I think it's testament that we're on one council approach where we're all working together to improve the service, improve that resident experience. And the repairs and maintenance service currently, we had the best KPIs for the last three years, but that doesn't mean we still got work to do. We need to get those complaints done, work with residents and investment that we're currently putting into the housing service in terms of our capital works programmes, fire safety issues that we're doing. Yeah, those complaints will start coming down once we start working on our housing stuff, thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you, Chair. Council Zafiq Ali, Government Lead for Finance and Resources. Again, I welcome this report and thank you both Livia and James for bringing it forward. And there's a lot of good news and I'm pleased to see that. But clearly there are areas where we do need to put some further effort and these have been highlighted already in the report. One thing I would also like to congratulate Council Neill-Wilson, that Social Care has had the most compliments. And I think it's good to acknowledge that we are not simply focusing on compliance but also on compliments as well. The couple of questions I have is, McCleary, compliance resulting from failure of services. And I think it would be good to see what the relationship of service request versus complaint is. Because if we get things right the first time, we wouldn't be getting this service request, we wouldn't be getting the complaints, etc. So it'd be good to see how we relate the relationship between service request and then we can identify where there are failures and those are leading to, because we are actually putting a lot of effort in stage one, stage two, Amazon, etc. So, what can we do to focus on getting things right first time? I'm sure you know that phrase. If you can look at that. And then 80% target. I mean are we achieving 80%? Clearly there are 30%. If you look at 5,000 plus, I'd say nearly 6,000 complaints, 20% is leading to another 1,200 that haven't been addressed. So, is there a way for us to collectively look at our systems and processes and management practices and performance management to see whether we can actually, by the end of this year, see a significant improvement in that area? It'd be good to hear what option there are. Thank you. And I would suggest that in terms of response, keep it brief, because that's something that really should be taken outside of a cabinet meeting. But suffice to say, the question is pertinent in the context of financial pressures we're facing and the costs of managing failure demand. And it will be useful for future reports as part of tracking, in a material sense, impact the impact it's having in financial terms, if possible. I don't know what the methodology or formula would be. But it is, I think, increasing what I have to start presenting, both to cabinet members as well, plus residents, around value for money. And we're entering into a period of public sector reform and high performance under the new government in any case. Anything else? Yeah, I did notice that Alan did it. So in terms of, and I'm sure we'll add some helpful detail, the importance of tracking complaints, performance and also service delivery is a self-evident truth, right? And I completely agree with the need to make sure we're not just looking at complaints in isolation as one indicator of resident experience. Actually, you know, the speed within which transactions are responded to and residents are contacted in response to their queer reasons. I agree, they all form parts of a resident's journey and the resident experience program, which is exactly under the track storming of each program. It brings together that sort of whole capsule view of our improvement journey and a wider set of experiences that residents have. And I think there's a definite opportunity in future versions of this report and in the transformation updates that will be coming through this cabinet to start to show you how and where those improvements are going to land and exactly what sort of impacts they're going to have on overall demand and what we're really focusing on. The real way to improve complaint response is to reduce the number of complaints that are being received because the team will then be able to have a much more impactful and fast-paced impact on complaints when they are received. The program is very much prioritising opportunities to reduce demand for services, to automate contacts, to protect officer time, to do the valuable work that only officers can do. And as a result of that, we expect to see not only improvements in performance, but as you set out there, some real significant efficiencies in how the council is delivering and reducing failure demand is the real area of that. We can track that. And in fact, the business case for that full program is coming through in short order to inform cabinet and to CLB for decision. And that will then feature in the next quarterly update to cabinet on the transformation program. Just some other ideas that other councils have explored. But once you free up officer time to focus on rapid response to complaints, you can start to focus on resolution rather than complaint handling. And some councils have invested some officer time, once they've got the capacity to do so, to contact the resident at a very early point in their complaint journey and just offer them an early resolution before it becomes a formal complaint. And that's the sort of thing we'd love to be able to start to explore once we've praised the capacity within the team, arising from reducing demand and doing all the wider work in the resident experience program. So those, just to give you a flavour, those are the sorts of things we'll be looking to explore and you'll hopefully start to see the benefits of that. But sorry, that wasn't a brief answer, I was hoping to hear what you said, hoping to hear where the program is focusing its work. Thank you very much. I'm going to bring Alec first. I'm just coming back to your point regarding the increase in waste complaints. There was a slight service change this year. There was an increase in missed collections as there was teething problems, but the missed collection is only with 0.01 cents, which is very, very small, but it generates a lot of complaints. Those complaints have now gone down as we have worked with the residents. A lot of those complaints were from residents who hadn't complied and hadn't put their papers down for mis-collections, but then we visited the residents to ensure that that issue is resolved. So I'm pretty confident those figures will go down significantly the next time we have these quarters. And in terms of parking, it's reassuring it's gone down 2%, but the question we're asking is, if you do get a parking fine, it is of little value to residents to phone the parking department because there is literally nothing the parking department could do because there's a statutory appeal process. I think a way which would be managing the residents' expectations that point them towards statutory appeal process, rather than wasting time on the phone with something which is not going to resolve the issue. Brilliant, thank you. Yes, Councillor Neil Wilson, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care. Clearly, I welcome the report and also the comments of a positive nature from colleagues so far. I want to draw the attention of the letter from the local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which is on page 63, where he says, The ambition is to work with colleagues across local government sector to ensure we continue to harness the value of individual complaints. He's very aware of the context that we are working in, in terms of the pressures on the sector. It's interesting, and I think it's important that we put on public record, Chair, that the letter does contain the reference to the Freedom Pass issue, where the Ombudsman issued a public report about Council's lack of policy to assess Freedom Pass applications in line with government guidance. The investigation is covered on page 64. I think a crucial point to highlight is, we asked the Council to apologise for the complaint and make a payment to recognise, etc. We asked the Council to produce a policy in line with review, and the most important comment for quoting, because we've discussed this at a previous Cabinet report, is, Pleased to note that the Council accepted our recommendations, completed the remedy actions as requested. So, I think that's an acknowledgement that when we do receive a serious complaint like that, with policy implications, and two directors rightly looking, one from the outside in to Adult Social Care and Adult Social Care, officers working very hard to resolve that issue, that that's been acknowledged. On the substantive report regarding the Statutory Adult Social Care Complaints report, 2324, which is on page 73 and following, it is interesting to note that, obviously, residents do have a right to complain through the process of statutory revisions related to the Health and Social Care Act 2008, and the tables there show the sort of responses to the complaint, how long they've been, and it's, I think, very statutory, and I think it echoes what Councillor Mahomet was saying about key performance indicators. The case resolved is a key performance indicator on our corporate register, and the performance of case resolved in time. We do use these, and I'm sure that officers are aware that the use of this information coming through, for instance, if I just go into one or two, that the access complaints, there was an upheld rate of 44%. We are talking fairly small numbers, but it's about how we actually improve service by, obviously, not having complaints in the first place, hopefully, but, you know, when we do receive them to respond, and I think it is important that we assure the people who we serve that we take their complaints seriously, and it is, as I say, on a downward trend, and I think that's a testimony to the, and I think the same is true in children's services, where, you know, again, people have actually been having additional training put in so that they are, I mean, there's a highlight there. I'm obviously wandering into Councillor Ruiz's area, but I just noted in passing that on page 81, there's a reference to additional training around appropriate statutory and court complaint. Routing is likely to be a contributing factor in the increase in statutory cases, because the more you train, the more you move on, but I'll hand over to Councillor Pontin on that one, but thanks, Chair. Thank you very much. Okay. Councillor Madeleine Salih Pontin. Councillor Madeleine Salih Pontin, Deputy Cabinet Member for Education. Following on from my colleagues' points, if we look at changes in departments in children's services, as my colleague, Councillor Wilson, has said, we've had a change of recommendations, which has led to an increase in complaints from 2020. Is it 54 this year? And whilst that looks bad in comparison to last year, the methods reflecting the information in managing the complaints has changed, so we haven't got historical data to compare that to. What is better is that people are having their due to the training, due, as mentioned by my colleague and mentioned in the main report for children in young people's services. The methods have changed, there's been training. There's also, as part of the approach, we're considering the work to ensure that some of the areas to do with the trainings and the statutory timings, under which assessments are anticipated. We are considering the work that's been done on actually commissioning and employing more highly professional staff, such as educational psychologists and speech and language therapists, to ensure that we can close those gaps, which are central gaps among other councils. One of the things that we also will be looking at, and this will follow on from this change in management, is ways in which that work has been mentioned by Olivia, to actually ensure that where possible, that there are positive resolutions and people's expectations are managed, but we saw there's mediation in the main stage so that people understand a council provision, what is possible to be provided and what is, and the approach to that provision, of course, as children in young people, and some of the statutory commitments, but also more than making an effort to be within a campaigning council. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much. Any comments before we leave? No? Any concluding comments? No, just thank the colleagues for reading the report and the appendices. For the contributions to the debate, as I said earlier, Chair, we're on a journey and we're making steady progress. Okay, fine. Thank you very much. Let's move on to recommendations on page number 24. Can you note the recommendations 2.1 and 2.2? We agree it's just cabinet members only. Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Okay, thank you very much. Now, moving on to the next agenda item, which is the 28 OXO Lane DCC 3. Sorry, Chair, it's a hard copy. I think there's a lot of things to be missing from it, but it is available to us. It's a mis-documentary. I think it's a supplementary. So, agenda item six is the supplementary agenda pack, and it's the 46 Clover Road refurbishment, and then we'll go to agenda seven. Okay, so I'm going to be inviting Councillor Zucca, Ali. Thank you, Chair. This is another report, which is designed to help the young in the care, but clearly there is, I don't need to re-emphasize the need that we are in desperate shortage of accommodation that is for our residents. And clearly, this is the result of clearly the government policies and the economic crisis we had. We have the highest number of people in temporary accommodation and what we're doing is everything we can to reduce that in order to find homes for our people, as well as reducing the financial burden that the council is currently facing, which is huge. This report recommends approval for the refurbishment of 46 Clover Road, E7, and the property has previously been used as an office. And it sits within the commercial portfolio. I've got Charles here who will be happy to answer any questions you may have on the technical side. There is also an unmet need for accommodation of single people, aged 25, 18 and 25 years old, and the offices have worked together jointly with children and young people and property services, and I come up with a proposal to convert this property into six bedrooms, and that would contribute towards meeting our needs in that sense, and then at a cost of 1.5 million. I'm pleased to say that the 49%, that 722,000 grant has been given to the council from the LA. This grant is for single homeless people who are in our care leavers. So, just to say, the following completion of the work, we will be the landlord and it is intended that we will go through a third party agreement to make sure that whoever we appoint through the procurement process has the skill and experience necessary to look after the people in care. The council currently had 30 adult care leavers who could potentially benefit from living in this area. And there are currently, just to let you know, but statistically 139 young people between the age of 18, 25, who are accepted as a priority, because they're vulnerable. And these homeless homeless people would benefit from this accommodation. Finally, just to update you in a cost us over 1000 pounds per person per week to provide the service to these people in 24 hours. The project will deliver the benefits for the people who are vulnerable, and it is financially viable. So, it has been considered as something that we can actually get on with it, because it's something that we own, and the initial works are about to be starting as soon as this approval is given, and RMS, our own company will do this work and then the rest will be commissioned out. And we expect the completion to be February 2026. As I said earlier, after the completion will enter into a third party agreement for management of this. And in terms of the financial viability that has been undertaken and it is clearly saving us money. We know the capital costs of borrowing is less than the cost we encourage to accommodate these people. I recommend that cabinet approves this Giles or Conrad anything you would like to add. I would, I would just draw cabinet's attention also to paragraphs 4.6 and 4.7. Because the works will require planning permission. We've been in discussions with the council's planning team and the planning application will be submitted in November. If the project is approved by cabinet this morning. So that will run in tandem with the detailed procurement of the work so we should be able to start in sight in March of next year, so that there is a degree of conditionality in the proposal, being able to proceed. But we think the risk is low. Thank you very much. And I'm going to be filling in Madeline, Madeline and I decided fronting cabinet member, the deputy cabinet member for education. And one of our roles as corporate parents is to ensure that our young people vulnerable young people have appropriate accommodation and have stability in that accommodation and where possible, we are able to keep them close within the bar and services within their communities. Not only is this a investment to save in terms of housing budget, because it would be more expensive to be providing private accommodation or having to pay for accommodation outside. For these vulnerable young people, but it's actually a cost saving across the other departments as well, because it means that those offices and services that needs to be provided from people. And by young people progress into adult social care, they will be able to have access to those services that more easily closer to home and able to meet people on a one to one basis. And it's an office in the father for these. So it's got a wide, wider ranging cost effectiveness, not just for counseling services. Thank you very much for that Councillor Neil. Yeah, just just briefly to highlight the same section for under the proposals that Josh referred to the planning advice and if we agree, but also the service leader, I think Councillor Pondon was highlighting the young people will stay here in a transition of three to 24 months. And it's important that I think we see that as an offer for young adults in that transition with low support needs, but better address the needs. It says in for two around mental health, independent skills, reducing social isolation and ensuring effective access to additional services such as health when required. So, I think it's consistent now without one Council approach to a preventative approach, but also a supportive approach for our young people. And I especially like the reference in for three to say the service will delivered will provide the environment, which is a customer practice, both in children's and adults in which the young people can gain independence and thrive. We're trying throughout the Council in both children's and adults social care for a greater independence and young people will step down. I think it's an important thing that this is a pathway to make certain there's employability. There is a smooth transition from particularly care leavers, but also to actually, as Councillor Ali said, we've got 139 single young people aged 18 to 25 already in temporary accommodation, which is pay expensive and be more unsettling because it's often out of our way from friendship groups and all the rest. So, I think this, we need more of this. It's obviously part of a longer term vision we have, but I think this is a very good project, so I support it. Thank you. Okay. Councillor Montas-Khan, the cabinet member for health and adult social care. I welcome this report and just echoing on Councillor Wilson and Councillor Bunting's point about giving our young people the best starter in life that they deserve. And, you know, I believe, and I'm confident that this is the best route to give our young people the opportunity to access housing. Without schemes like this, young people will really struggle to access housing in the open market, so I really welcome this report. Thank you very much, but I just got a couple of quick questions. Noting the contract value and the period of time that it would be providing the housing provision, the cohort of residents and care leavers are set out, and also noting that we've had a contribution from the GLA covering 49% of the refurbishment works. Given that this is an Invest2Save piece, how much will it save over the period, the Council relative to how much we're spending presently based on actual figures and modelling around future needs, where we're hostage to spot pricing, vis-a-vis the market? Does anyone know? So, the table 2 sets out the financial appraisal over the 50-year period, which is the common way of appraising property-related transactions. It shows a net benefit of some £7 billion over that period. There are, of course, a series of assumptions under that, and we would keep all the contract prices and similar under review in order to ensure those benefits will achieve. Okay. All right, thank you. Right, so are we, any other questions? Let's go to the recommendations on supplementary agenda, big page number 4 to 5. So the recommendations are 2.1 all the way through to 2.6. Capric members only is agreed. Agreed. Very much. Now, moving on to agenda item 7, which also lays the pre-unit acquisition. Over to you, Zulfikar. Thank you, Chair, and as Councillor Neill also said, we need more of these, and this is a continuation of the journey, as Councillor McLane said earlier. This is to purchase 63 residential units in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. And again, it is proposed that 43 of those flats, if agreed, will be for care leavers who are ready to live independently but do not currently have access to social housing or private or empty market. The proposal for new children in care, a sufficient strategy to improve and impact the accommodation and pathway for care leavers, and it will provide additional support for those care leavers who need it and reflect this in the Council's recommendation as part of our protected characteristic. The acquisition will also, no doubt, assist in reducing the financial burden of the Council because the nightly accommodation, which we're currently paying for, is becoming such a significant issue for us financially in this year and the coming year. So if we agree, the scheme is for completion, and the Council will proceed to complete the acquisition and take ownership of 63 of these units. It is intended to lease arrangements to a third party to make sure that they are skilled enough and experienced enough to manage this and provide a cost-effective setting for living value for money. There are currently, as I said earlier, 830 care leavers in need of accommodation aged between 21 to 25 who do not have access to social market. As a result, these young people remain in supported accommodation, which is costing us a lot. There is currently a projected overspend of 800k for care leavers in accommodation and support service in 2024. Care leavers, as we know, are not financially supported independently, but as they're not able to meet duty to find affordable accommodation. The scheme is located in Barking and Dagenham, and it is within 45 minutes of public transport journey as per our current policy. And the financial modeling is well within the Council's capital assumptions. There are currently a proposal for 43 one bed or studio flat and 22 beds, making a total of 63. And as I said earlier, we do have a number of young care leavers who will be benefiting from this scheme. And both housing service and children and young people have confirmed that the property and its location will meet the needs of new residents and will provide both improved life outcomes for families and care leavers, as well as improvements to the Council's budget situation. Again, all the 33 units are built at high quality and energy efficiency standards with EPA rating of A, and it is expected that the likely utility costs will be around 200 per year. And as part of the acquisition process we have notified Barking and Dagenham Council about the same. And if I hope that doesn't happen in future that the list demand uses, then clearly we will have opportunity to option to change the units to private social rent or ultimately sell on a market value but that I can't see that happening in a very short term in that sense. As I said earlier, we will go through that process to make sure we select the best person who's experienced enough to manage it. There is a commercial unit at the ground floor level and that will be part of our existing commercial portfolio which will be managed by our property services. In terms of the financial returns, the internal rate of return is 6.45%. And as we know the capital, the cost of borrowing is 5.5 so this does produce a positive internal rate of return, which means the cost we're paying less cost in terms of borrowing. So it saves money. And I'll leave it there and I'll ask Josh if there's anything else you wish to add Josh? The only thing I would probably add Councillor Ali is just to draw cabinet's attention to timing when this will be available. We expect practical completion of the building in December of this year so it will be available for residents to move into in the spring of next year so it's a reasonably short timescale which is which is obviously positive. Okay, Madeline? Again, children's and young people services we're really pleased to see more accommodation being provided, whilst not within the borough, very close to the borough, and very close to the communities of many of our children and young people. People may be surprised to see that some properties are two beds, it needs to be remembered that some of our children and young people are the corporate parent, actually within family groups, and that gives us the option if we have siblings, that they are able to actually live together as they choose to, and they want to continue that close family relationship. Also, it needs to be remembered that some of our children and young people within this age group are parents themselves, and to ensure that their children have the best start in life, it's appropriate to ensure that they have the appropriate accommodation from the start. Thank you very much. Are there any other questions? I've got Councillor Shabir Muhammad. I really welcome it. I think I've seen firsthand the work that we've done in Terry Wave House, where it's care leave with the location, and the difference it's made, especially around in here because someone, many residents have a stigma about care leave as well. Especially in Cangtan, the residents have been engaged with care leave, they talk to every neighbour leave, they go to their barbecues. I think this is starting life where if they're given the right support, they'll only excel and be beneficial to our community. The other point I wanted to make, Jerry, in light of your question on the earlier report, was the cost avoidance and saving. It is assumed that based on the current projection that this acquisition will result in anticipated cost avoidance, saving a T of $24.1 million over 50 years. And then there's cost avoidance, saving 46.5 or 50 years is based on the July figures in paradigm for 1-0. So the total combined saving of $70.6 million is the cost expected as a result of this project. How much was that? $70.6 million total. Right, okay. Over 50 years. Over 50 years, okay, fine. I think those are stats and information that we need to highlight in our conversations with residents as to why we're doing what we're doing and also in the context of project conversations that we're going to be having with them and other stakeholders and members. Okay, so let's just move to the recommendations on big page number 155. So that's 3.1 all the way through to 3.1.4. Is that agreed? Cabinet members only. Okay, thank you very much. Moving on to the agenda item eight. This is HIV prevention and support permission to establish a framework. Over to you, Neil. Thank you very much. So, Councillor Neil Wilson, cabinet member for health and adult social care. Clearly, there is a need for HIV prevention and support services. We're actually seeing new cases of HIV increasing in the whole of London, but particularly in East London, where we've got a proportion of residents diagnosed with HIV at a late stage. This is not just limited, obviously, I've said before, to HIV, but late diagnosis as to more problems. And it remains above the London average within our borough, particularly amongst black African residents. And the complexity of support needs for HIV is increasing as people living with HIV become older, poorer and develop other co-morbilities. I've said in the introduction that the most prevalent additional needs of HIV with co-morbilities are cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes, high-policity, veneer, chronic renal disease, hepatitis B and C. So it's to address these inequalities consistent with our 50 steps approach route from the Health and Wellbeing Board with a focus to always look at the inequalities within our health provision. It's that these inequalities, we've taken a key role in shaping HIV services. At one time, they were seen as something to be added on. We see this as an integral part of tackling HIV via the London-wide Fast Track Cities programme that we are very keen on supporting and the 50 Steps Health Wellbeing Strategy. Existing services are delivering positive outcomes and we're delivering good value for money with them. Furthermore, the evidence from both resident engagement, because it's important that we don't particularly in the health arena do things to people, but with them and keeping them in the loop as far as possible in treatment plans, particularly bearing in mind sometimes the stigma that is still attached to HIV, particularly within some cultural communities that are represented already in the research. But qualitative research is also important where we ask people around people living longer that they're less likely to engage with mainstream support services as a result of that continuous stigma. Since 2020, there's been established a framework for the provision of services to support our residents with HIV in terms of their needs for practical, emotional and social support, together with targeted activity for prevention, which obviously includes screening, outreach, engagement and communication. I cannot stress to this audience, but also this cabinet as well and the people watching, that we are looking at a framework that is about all four of those. Screening, outreach, engagement and communication are all interlinked. So Newham Council is currently the North East London lead for all matters relating to Commission of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services. And we are paid to do that by all the other local authorities except City and Hackney to run the North East London shared sexual health commissioning service. The role of the shared service includes the contract management, the governance of it, the finance and procurement. The shared service provides an annual income currently of $255k to the council. Now the new framework is required because the current one is expiring and the new frame is required. And we're the logical choice to lead this procurement exercise on behalf of local authorities and health partners across London. By permitting access to the framework that is contained here, the local authorities and health partners across the whole of London, Newham Council could develop a future income policy. And there's a footnote there I wanted to stress that that would include wider sexual health and reproductive services. This would likely to increase the income opportunities. But we have to obviously caveat it with, if agreed by cabinet, the framework will be established for a period of eight years commencing from the 1st of May next year. The maximum total value of the framework over the eight year period for all of London is estimated to be $225m. There's no guarantee or income for any provider registering on the framework and neither is there any obligation for people on each partner to use the framework. But I think this is a very important tribute to the very hard work of our officer team regarding how we've turned around completely that sexual health framework and also to make certain that it's in line with our values to serve our population, particularly where there's unmet need and continuing stigma and under representation of the services. I'll leave it there, Chas. Simon, do you need to add anything? Nothing to add, chair. Okay, Jason, did you want to add anything? Okay, any questions, colleagues? No, I mean, I just wanted to say, you know, officer has such important work in the context of prevalence. The concern within wider communities with HIV, and it's not a typical stereotype of communities where this impacts and how HIV actually is not unique to one particular cohort of our community that then leads to stigmatization based on prejudice and fear, but actually it's wide ranging across all of our communities. I know in the context of certain ethnic minority communities, there's a prevalence amongst black African diaspora communities for reasons that everyone is acutely alert to. And I also just wanted to commend the service and officers for the attention that they're paying to this, given how important it is in the context of ending the impact of HIV on so many lives in our communities. Thank you very much. I would suggest that we make the recommendations 2.1.1 to 3. Do we agree on the recommendation? Oh, sorry, do you remember, under 2.1.1, I did alert you to, there's a little 9 at the end, because it says to establish and maintain a framework for HIV prevention support services for the up to eight years, as I've already stressed, on behalf of all the local authorities and health partners across London. And the intention for that framework, it's a footnote, it's quite important. I think at the bottom of page 170, footnote 9, it's too accessible to all local authorities, integrated care partnerships, integrated care boards, integrated care systems and the NHS trust across the whole of London, with the caveat in brackets or future equivalent bodies in the event of restructures. It may be a pedantic point here, but we never know what's going to happen with restructuring on what bodies are going to be governing. I mean, I'm assuming that, as with all frameworks, they will be subject to review at this period, so that will be picked up, but for the purposes of minutes, could we have the recommendations were approved if they are, obviously, just specify and draw out in the minutes. And that footnote 9, because I think it's important in the context of explaining what we mean by all local authorities and health partners across London. Yeah. Okay. We agree cabinet members only. Yeah. Thank you very much. Now, moving on to agenda item 9. This is highway contracts. I'm going to be inviting Councillor John Morris to talk to this paper in the absence of a necessarily. Thank you. This report is presented to cancel to start the process of we prefer in contractors and consultants who can help maintain things on our highway network allows the council to look at the market find best value money and providing these services. The cancer is a higher quality maintains over 400 kilometres of hardware and some 77 structures, but design and management of this is primarily done by counting on occasion. The services are specialised consultants somewhere contractors to implement schemes and undertake the physical maintenance to the network, good quality roads and pavements are important to everyone in them, and they help us deliver sustainable transfer objectives. The successful delivery of a group re procurement will allow the cancer to support names corporate delivery plan, making how highway safe for all do both juices, linking in with parties, your neighborhood, and they say her name. Okay. Right. Any. Okay, super. Thank you very much. Are there any questions, colleagues. Okay, thank you. I welcome this report and thank you for your efforts. I mean, I think the only comment I will make is that we need to use the issue need to maximize the value for money and get more for less. And also, perhaps, look at six years is a lot of, you know, technologies, materials, etc. So, we need to make sure that the those elements are included in fact, so that we move on with the market as opposed to simply going out today and today and finishing in six years time in the same place. Thank you. Okay. I mean, just to know on the executive summary 1.2. It does say financial money. I'm not sure, actually, whether or not you can get more for less. You can get more for less depending on how you package the word basically that's all I'm saying I think Paul knows what I'm talking about. Okay, fine. I mean, you can get more for less because it's a state of mind, as in your approach to excellence in delivery within the budget envelope that you work in. Okay, right. Any other questions, anyone else know. And I look at the partners was it cancer and so forth is any social value element that, and because I don't know it's been highlighted in this session that there is a social value element towards it, mainly best environment and local employment. But for can add. I've got a question, just on that point. So, any quantifiable terms how many young people have managed to benefit in social value terms with a skills acquisition or potential work experience or employment opportunity. How will this new contract framework materially shift that, as I do think to closely work with our community wealth building team, as it relates to opportunities for young people through the new service through the youth empowerment service I don't really see much of that. And I'm getting increasingly concerned about being such a young borrower. And with so much money being spent. You know important needs for the borrower, but opens up opportunity for young people to get work experience I don't know if those kinds of things are considered, I'm just in addition to those points, and I would walk the response Can we think more bolder regard. I want to get hands on experience on how to do some of the infrastructure books that these companies are doing, so I'm going to have for young renters from doing to actually join the next ones that actually have the new city college. And so that is the kind of thing that we're working with. And we'll quite ambitious targets, I mean they earn a lot of money from local governments, generally, so we should maximum for as much opportunity as possible. Yeah, I was gonna say this is a highly skilled area, and in this room so I think this is what a lot of young people will need to be involved in so I just echo that because I think to myself with the structure improvement somewhat within across the UK, so really, what we're looking into is my second point is just around, when you look at the level of maintenance that we do whether it's 10 cents or 10 is the communication aspect of it, in terms of the disruption that we just amplify that residents are aware because, as you know what is so clear sort of disruptions that take place that we're just really hot on getting the message out to residents that I think any issues are occurring that we communicate the community effectively that's my main thing, yeah. Okay. Thanks very much. Right, let's move on to recommendations. The recommendation is on page number 182 for the reason set out in the report and its appendix cabinet is recommended to approve the procurement exercise for highways professional services contract and framework contract reactive maintenance plans themes and works estimated value of 162 million pounds, over a six year period, expected to commence February 2026. I did that with emphasis, highlight and ram a point. So we should get at least 62 million pounds worth of social value for our people, work experience you're thinking oh my god how we're going to do it now and if you do a lot of money is massive. And bet you they get lots of profit. Anyway, I'm just supposed to not say that I'm always right. Okay, here we agree, agree. Okay, so thank you very much. Thank you for all your hard work and diligence on that and I look forward to seeing the quantifiable results. Just on a nice highway, or I don't work on highways pavements. Anyway, agenda item 10 local flood risk management strategy adoption. So colleagues, I'm really pleased to be introducing. And I wanted to say the reason I'm really pleased to be introducing this paper is because the last time a local flood risk management strategy was adopted by the council came to a cabinet, but probably a male proceedings was in 2015. And this is a long way, well, and well were document and paper, and I must commend Mark Partridge, who has been diligent in driving forward. Literally, over the last five years, and we've benefited from the input of scrutiny so I wanted to just make a formal note of banking scrutiny for their engagement with this. But, in summary, it's our local flood risk management strategy, which is a requirement for us as a borrower, given our proximity to water and line with the system that we occupy as a lead local flood authority, where we have got to demonstrate that we're diligently and effectively managing the flood risk in the borough, and the report sets out key elements relating to this requirement. And I am putting this forward, along with Councillor John Whitworth. I don't want to say a few comments, a few comments, and then I'll pass over to Mark Partridge. Thank you, Jim. Yeah, John Whitworth, cabinet member for funding and development, air quality and climate emergency. Yeah, I welcome this update of flood risk management strategy and echo the Mayor's thanks to Mark Partridge in particular. This is particularly welcome because we know that Newman is particularly vulnerable to flood risk, and this risk is likely to increase in the future with inevitable climate change. We are doing our best to slow down climate change, but will it ever to happen? And we need to be prepared for this. This report, this strategy fits in very well, actually, with the council's just transition plan, which has one of its main principles of resilience and sustainability to accommodate the climate change which will happen. And so we need to prepare the borough, the residents, the built environment, the natural environment, actually to be able to adapt to the changing climate and actually be prepared so that the residents can be well within it. And so this update of the flood risk management strategy, I think, plays its part very well and fits in with the overall council strategy in preparation for the future. Thank you very much. And just the final comments from just building on what John Whitworth has said. The local flood risk management strategy will very much respond to our just transition action report, and it's based on the latest understanding and modeling of climate change and flooding. And it also highlights the different types of things that can occur in the borough. It affects the unique circumstances affecting the borough in being able to manage flood risk, and how climate change is further increasing the likely building frequency of flood events within Newham. And so we'll open up the opportunity to maximize and optimize our partnership working and seek and secure resource and funds to introduce sustainable urban drainage systems which is something that we've been promoting for the last six years, especially. And finally, just in terms of this going forward. Obviously we will want to socialize this across key stakeholders, including local businesses and residents and I think this is a story, as in meeting a number of strategic objectives but also laying concerns on part of residents that live across some of our neighborhoods, particularly those areas where for period, there was proliferation of concrete driveways being approved which we've stopped because that inhibits the ability of the natural habitat and grass to soak up water and rain. And you also don't want to do things like use the rain to wash my car, then have an accident, which I'm still recovering from. Anyway, that's a different story. Right, any other questions? I just wanted to Mark commend you and also Jane. Did you want to say anything Mark because this is your moment? Nothing really further to add, just I can't take all the credit for this, although I managed the team with the lead local flood authority remit, Massimo D'Alexandris, who has been leading the LLFA function within the council for a number of years. And just say this is an opportune time for the adoption of this, like you said, with the Just Transition Plan being published and we've been working hard with the local plan as well for the surface, surface risk assessments. So it's a good time to adopt this and really drive it forward with the traction we currently have. Thank you very much for that and talking about Massimo, apologies if I've messed up his name, he will be really happy. He has been working on this for so long and feeling quite fatigued for seemingly lack of interest but no people are interested. Jane is there anything that you wanted to add to this? Well, I think it's a good piece to work and as you say it's a good time to get it adopted because it does fit with the Just Transition Plan and the local plan so well done to everybody who's inputting it and into it. And thank you very much for your interest in this subject. Thank you very much. Paul, it would be remiss of me not to invite you to say something given that you're the corporate director. Yes, I'll say something. So Paul Kitzen, corporate director for industry, economy, housing and culture. Thank you. I mean, I agree it's a great and timely piece of work and you've highlighted one of the key objectives that are set out in the strategy. Actually, there are two of the seven objectives that relate to the dissemination of information and one of them is the fact that our partners that have responsibility for the whole system of flood management across the borough are informed of their responsibilities and are reminded of them. How we need to make sure that residents understand what they can do and how they contribute to flood risk and how they should respond in the event of a flood incident as well. I think the very time I highlighted the real need to communicate that this has been approved, what it says and how it works, there are other objectives that relate there to asset management, making sure that assets are looked after properly, and that emergency procedures are in place as well. It's a pretty comprehensive, overarching strategy and thank you for your members' support and to the team. We've heard they've done a cracking job over the same period to get this. I'm just making an assumption, if I may, just taking advantage of being chair of this meeting. It's a question really. Given that we've updated and refreshed the strategy, given the requirement within the organisation to conform to the strategy, does that ergo mean actually higher costs or not necessarily because of advances in technology around flood management and materiality that's used in some of our own what's the word, I was going to say ingredients, but it's not a cake recipe, road surfacing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think that might be a question to Alid. Are you worried about the cost implications of this? The cost of sustainable urban drainage systems is quite high. It can be up to about 300,000 for one good rain garden. But again, this is something we should be doing to allow climate change. It's costly. Thank you very much. Neil, you had your... I suppose it's an important caveat to any of this work is that both there's isostatic and eustatic change, but basically where the land is sinking, we've got eustatic change where there's a rise in water levels caused by a difference in the volume of water. One of the main issues that we have, I think, and it does link with our corporate responsibility to our residents to make certain that we keep the pressure on, particularly in this context, Thames Water, because they haven't been mentioned so far. And I think we should just highlight that our relationships with Thames Water have not always been constructive for our residents. And I don't just mean about the roadworks that are temporarily causing problems all over the place, but an increasing issue around not just water, but sewage and the effects on that. So any first flood risk management scheme within the context of increasing sea level and that we're on an estuarine Thames Water with a barrier, yes, is also about the flow. Residents can do some things, as you say, about, you know, completing of driveways and get more absorption. But I think, you know, big partners we need to keep out the pressure, because I don't think they've always been constructive partners in this in terms of the flood. Thank you very much. Councillor Muntaz-Corms. I was going to add to that, residents who live near basins, like myself, with the fear of the visor and then, you know, heavy rain, and not being clear about, you know, what's the structure. This is going to be really helpful and a lot of work has gone into this planning, so I'm really grateful for that. Thank you very much. Right, I'm going to go to Councillor Alma Verde. I was going to say I welcome this because having gone through experience of some, well not me personally, but some that was flooded, it wasn't a nice experience. I think for me the key things around what we've actually done along the road is to highlight a testament to that and the infrastructure we're looking at with rain gardens and suns down up to Main. So, I think a lot of the residents will welcome a lot of this because a lot of those residents around Green Street neighbourhood are susceptible to flooding. So, just welcome. Okay, so thank you very much. Okay, so colleagues, we're going to just go to the recommendations and if you note the recommendations on big page number 212, for the reasons set out in the report and its appendices, Cabinet is recommended to agree the adoption of the latest LFRFS, a copy of which is obtained an appendix down to this report to act as the overarching flood risk management strategy for the Council to fulfil the statutory LFA function of the Council. Is that agreed? Okay, thank you very much. Now, before we conclude, there's a couple of things that I've got to cover off. So, we've got Agenda Item 11, Exclusion of Press in Public. And I just wanted to note that we've not needed to evoke that, but I did want to ask Cabinet members to formally note that we've got two exempt appendices listed as item 12 and 13. One is an exempt appendices for Agenda Item 6 and one is an exempt appendices for Agenda Item 7. Have those been noted? Noted. And then finally, just in light of an old Cabinet report, to clarify or correct, and I was going through the agenda earlier, I went to Agenda Item 3 minutes and it was decisions of Cabinet made on the 3rd of September, 2024, as contained in this actual, accurate report. Those minutes agreed. Great. Thank you very much. And yeah, now I'm going to close the meeting. Thank you everyone. Thank you. I don't know how that happened.