Transcript

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to members of the cabinet executive, other members of their hair, officers, press and members, the public join in today's meeting of cabinet on Tuesday, 15th of October 2024 colleagues please note that the meeting has been live streamed. So, a big welcome to those watching this live streamed meeting of cabinet. We've got some really important items, not the items coming to cabinet all important. Just as a quick reminder, if there are any counselors, and I don't think there are that are online that want to participate in this meeting, they won't be satisfied to move or second a motion or vote. And their attendance will not be officially recorded, but I will be asking Clark to the committee joy. So let me know if anyone online wishes to speak. And if there are any officers online, I will bring them in the appropriate points. And if I can just kindly remind cabinet members, just come through the chair if you want to invite an officer to contribute to the debate with regards to meeting etiquette, please can I ask that you indicate you wish to raise your hand. Sorry, you wish to speak by raising your hand. And if you are online by using the hand symbol on the zoom dashboard. And finally, as a reminder, please can I ask members and officers to introduce themselves when speaking and members who may wish to outline your particular portfolio, as well as the word that you represent, please also be advised that there is a supplementary agenda pack setting out the report for agenda items seven October finance quarter to 2024 25 budget monitoring and review, and also just to advise on the supplementary agenda pack. Specifically on page 27, and this is for noting the purposes of the minutes. If you look at the table in landscape. There is two, three third row down words, state option not take taken, followed by column that says, raise our E s, followed by the code, a three six under the words option not taken. Could you please note that there's been an omission of words, which were meant to state additional efficiencies. If those could be noted for the purposes of minutes. And then the row below row which states, option not taken. There's a row in a slightly darker shade of gray would option not taken total. And that should read option not take option not taken total additional efficiencies total. In fact, let me correct that often not taken additional efficiencies total pages that page 27 on the supplementary pack. And it's. And presently on the fifth row. It has the words option not taken our E s, the code, a three six under the word in the first column of that row. We need to have inserted the words additional efficiencies. And then the road below, which currently is in a darker shade of gray and states option not taken total. And then if you move along that row to the final columns, there's the figures 20020. The words in that line should read option not taken additional efficiencies total. Yeah. Has that been noted Joy. Thank you very much. Right. Okay. Let's get going. Is that okay. It is but we are a little computer outside. Right. Let's move to the agenda. Apologies for absence joy. Have you received any formal apologies for absence. Okay, thank you very much. And are there any apologies that we've received colleagues. No. All right, fine. Thank you very much agenda right into the declarations of interest, it just set out on pages seven to eight, and this draws everyone's attention to the members code of conduct, as it relates to disclose for pecuniary or non pecuniary interests that any member of cabinet, or the executive may have in any matter being considered at this meeting. And can I invite any member cabinet or the executive to declare as appropriate if there are any disclose or non disclose pecuniary interests. or pecuniary non pecuniary interests. Are there any. No, that's a no joy. And then can I draw everyone's attention to the minutes of decisions made cabinets on the first of October, 2024 which are covered off from pages nine to 18. And then I invite members of cabinet only to confer. This is an accurate record of the decisions made at that formal meeting of cabinet on the first of October. Do we agree. And then if we move on to agenda for which is appointments to outside bodies on no appointments to outside bodies being made announced today. So we're now going to be moving on to the substantive agenda items, and we're going to be starting with the quarterly performance report. 2020 425. areas of as set out in the report. We just really want to bring to the surface as part of our transparency around how the council is delivering in accordance with the building a fair and new corporate plan. Obviously, we're operating in the context of extreme financial challenges and the performance report for the year 2024 25 represents an ongoing commitment, as I've mentioned earlier to the transparency and good governance agenda that we've been advancing since

1. And this specifically through the performance reports is in respects of how we are performing as an organization, and it sets out key achievements in the building a fair and new corporate plan which is the council's main corporate plan. It's iterating the manifesto building a fair new and it sets our progress against all of those manifesto commitments and highlights where improvements have been made, but where further improvements need to be made in March of this year we committed to provide the update on how we are delivering against the corporate peer review that we were part of that was driven by the LGA, and we agreed that we will be bringing progress checks against the LGA corporate pair challenge and action plan in subsequent performance as well. So you can see in this substantive report details of the second quarterly progress report as it relates to the LGA pair challenge and our action plan. First cabinet agreed are transforming new for the future plan. And this report, so sets out the current position and future reports will also be providing updates, the recommendations are set out on page 28, which I'll come back to once we get to approving the report following discussions, but at this juncture, I will invite James Partis to talk through some key elements. Over to you. Thank you Mayor. I'm James Partis, Assistant Chief Executive, Chief Graduation Officer, and what I happen to have in front of him today is very much a source of continually iterating and developing strategic support reports on council performance, and the Mayor's very helpful introduction sets out the main topics, particularly in terms of corporate plan delivery, performance highlights and exceptions, the LGA pair challenge action plan update and the strategic update on the transforming new for the future programs. It's quite a significant report to bring to you today. This is quite a strategic overview of what we're seeing. We clearly see the kind of strategic links between this report and the budget report which cabinet are also considering today, particularly in relation to the risks that are emerging in relation to corporate plan delivery. As you can see in the report under the section relating to revenue and corporate plan commitments, the most significant risks of reporting in relation to those commitments, particularly relate to future needs for capital investment and strategic investment in the new schemes and new activities that corporate plan has highlighted and that's set out in report number paragraph 4.9. That's been a kind of ongoing challenge, I think it's fair to say, for the organisation. We're kind of going to continually kind of twin track and continually deliver a corporate plan alongside for significant budget decisions that cabinet are going to be asked to make through today's report and future reports as well. When we turn our attention to the other side of that parcel, we are pleased to report some significant progress made across a number of commitments, particularly in relation to what's contained under the 4-1 progress section of the report, which goes through a number of sources of new activities. The information is delivered in line with the eight priorities, a few highlights, the opening of the shipment use zone, the launch of our health, the need for us engaging in world strategy, a range of other strategic developments have all been really positive in sort of demonstrating the council's commitment to driving through progress across the project. So very much sort of balanced picture is sort of how I describe the core plan commitments as part of the report. And the second section of why we want performance highlights is we are, as per the LGO peer challenge action plan, right in the middle of our plan reprocession and refresh process, which is delivered at the same time as the budget review and budget process. And it's really important, specifically for the council to see processes as the result of that resourcing and population and resourcing will absolutely have an impact on sort of eight people forward looking for the kind of remainder of the corporate plan. So the sort of priorities of the corporate plan frames are an important sort of policy framing for the budget. So, just an important piece of work that we're really happy to conclude at the same time as the budget. Moving on to performance. So, as I said, without an affection, beginning on paragraph 5.3. Not reporting a slight increase in number of red rated in this or add to previous board reports. We do line by line review of each of the red rated performance indicators, but in many cases, we are reporting, you know, long, long standing strategic talents facing it with only the things on nation, and kind of long, long term and significant challenges relating relation for supporting people in long term social care demand pressures, and on term of assessment challenges on a countable basis, which are not unique to do in many, many cases, based in many of the authorities in London with similar demographics and challenges to continuing on sort of transparent and regular reporting on those indicators. There are some changes since the last report. The most important thing that highlights first cabinet for this is the improvement on the indicators relating to particular repair service. And, you know, long term challenges in sort of a very stretching target. It's a very ambitious target around president's satisfaction. And so the right first time indicators of repair services in the administration, the council has been on the politics, which is that area. I think that's an important framing. We are, we are sort of an ongoing but very, you know, incremental set of performance challenges in those indicators in the red rated space, rather than being in the back of the base as a sort of change in previous reports, and the other area where we are seeing an incremental change in tracking or in relation to the indicators related to community safety and public safety from the cases relating to civil crime. And, and, you know, again, there are significant activities in both areas. You know, kind of moving forward our strategic partnerships with colleagues like the police and other kind of leaders and partners in those spaces to develop our long term plans for addressing those issues, or there are significant internal plans being developed within the housing directorate, for example, in relation to digitizing our repair service. And the right first time repairs indicators, based by reviewing the sort of materials available for people who are working in that space as well. So, on the performance indicators, I would feel that it highlights the change I want to highlight with this cabinet as opposed to this regular, to be provided. And I suppose I will just continue the report to conclude and then I will now... If you just any final concluding remarks, then we'll move to the question. The final comment I would make would be on the LGA peer challenge action plan, which is also attached to this report. And we're following through on our kind of commitment to publicly report our progress in delivering action plan. And, importantly, we note that the LGA peer challenge team are returning for their progress visits. Which we're all very keen to engage with, actually, because we have made some significant progress, lots of wide range of areas in the LGA peer challenge action plan. And we're hoping to be able to demonstrate that as far as return visits. The report that has been attached to this strategic cabinet report outlines the major kind of delivery rules and travel made relation to that. And I think it's fair to say, particularly in relation to the improvements made in our governance framework, improvements made to a sort of strategic response to the temporary accommodation challenge, the ongoing work around improving sort of organisational culture, the establishment of our transformation plan. Our council serves long term transformation plan, which was agreed by all this cabinet. And it's well underway with the binding reports and that's in this report, alongside a wide range of other more specific deliverables. I'm just speaking out of my strategic license there. And we think demonstrates quite substantial progress since published our action plan earlier this year. We're presenting maps for cabinet sort of information boards on retention and scrutiny as part of our regular public reporting process. And actually, just one final thing. The report also provides a strategic summary of the work that was taken to mobilise our Transforming Newman for the Future programme. It's mostly a narrative form for this stage of the reporting cycle, because we are literally sort of six weeks into mobilising the programme. But we are reporting some really significant developments, particularly on programmes one and two of the Transforming Newman for the Future programme, where we are making some very significant transformational decisions soon around the future approach to respect contacts, making significant decisions about the sort of phone contacts and our sort of on the channel approach and opportunities to integrate resources and develop a much more sort of modern 21st century agile approach to managing that. And also some significant efficiencies and developments coming soon on the admin and business support parts of the transformation programme and those two parts of the programme where we provide the most substantial financial efficiencies, not much efficiency for accelerated transformation, but much more is happening across the entire footprint of that programme, but we'll take up to see what Simon cabinet's report today to go through all of that. So this was sort of a hopefully sort of helpful highlights of what the report is, it's like into cabinet today. Thank you very much. And just one comment, colleagues, and I trust that you appreciate the sentiment behind what I'm about to say. So, I mean, it appears, and it can be quite a difficult report to penetrate in the context of it having three pillars of work that correlate and interface. And over time, as we progress, for instance, the transformation programme, notwithstanding us wanting to demonstrate to the local government association and the peer review team that we're progressing, will we begin to see as a consequence of the transformation plan, a real discernible shift in performance improvement, particularly in those areas that have either been consistently red ragged, or have moved into red rag. And how do we make this more legible for residents to understand in simpler terms, because transformation is a practice, and a specialism, and it's not necessarily readily understood. I think those were all extremely useful and challenging questions posed to the approach we're taking to quit tracking all of this strategic activity at the moment, and certainly in relation to the first phase of the transformation programme, we absolutely would expect. And these things will take some time to have a kind of long term impact on indicators, but we would expect to see a clear connection between the investment being made, for example, in our resident access and experience programme, and benefits that residents will experience around an improved website, and an improved more easily accessible council, which actually brought some very clear and obvious links between the benefits of that programme we'll deliver, and specific cases where we are tracking what residents are experiencing. I think those are extremely useful early challenge questions posed to transformation programme and the kind of organizational performance position as we move through. There's obviously a significant efficiency side to the programme as well, which we'll be tracking, which I think is almost kind of, it's on people and equally significant importers as a sort of value for money and improvement resident experience metrics that we'll be tracking. But then, definitely in future reports, we will look to integrate the sorts of activity and outputs of the transformation programme with tracked improvements around our performance objectives. Can I just provide some clarity, so, and because the performance report is quite a dense document, so some of the indicators that we haven't read, that you'll see in the report are due to the over-external fact that the transformation programme will not remedy all of those. There are some around climate safety, it would be better working relationship with our police, which is very kicked off, but then there are wider issues in terms of temporary accommodation and homelessness that even with our transformation programme, it will not completely resolve that problem. What we do expect residents to feel over the next year or two is a better council and they deserve a better council, and they'll begin to engage and seal our services differently. But there are some indicators, as you pointed out, Mayor, that are read, that will take a longer term piece of work and significant policy shift for us to see the impact here locally. And then I think my final comment on that, because that's been really helpful, is how going forward, particularly in the context of the budget position and the MTFS period, how we align performance reports on a quarterly basis with the finance report we're bringing, because a not insignificant chunk of the transformation plan is needing to perform and contribute to efficiencies that only help the budget position over time, notwithstanding, absolutely, the policy shifts required, and government moving on more financial resource and a fairer settlement to local government across some key issues, particularly social services and TA. Any comments? I fundamentally agree, if I'm being honest. I think one way we will certainly be doing that within this report, and as we are increasingly doing work with colleagues in finance and across the departments to integrate this, is to start to really, in a very granular way, track the efficiency and savings of transformation programs it is delivering for the organisation. At the moment, there's a significant global target for the programme, which is broken down into specific work streams, but we're now accelerating decisions and perhaps, thanks to the Council's operating model, that will make it much easier for cabinet and for the organisation as a whole, to see exactly where the efficiencies are being delivered, exactly what processes are being digitised, for example, exactly which teams are now working in a better way, which not only demonstrates the value of the programme, but helpfully demonstrates cabinet to our stakeholders and to residents, and the Council is absolutely driving through that value for money efficiency agenda, which is an important part of the strategic approach, which the cabinet and community are adopting. We're having clarity and assurance that the two systems are indelibly aligned and talking to each other. Yeah, I think I can go back a little bit. So the MTFS, or the Reading Term Financial Strategy, as I said, in the gallery, if you don't understand all of our acronyms, is aligned to our three-year transformation programme. So it's a three-year transformation plan, which is aligned to our Reading Term Financial Strategy, which is also planned for three years. You will begin to see, in the reporting that comes through the congruence between the two, the impact of our transformation plan against our Reading Term Financial Strategy. Do you want to say anything, Conrad? I don't think there's anything I need to add to that, Chair, thank you. I'm going to open up to questions. I have Councillor Sarah Ruiz. Thank you, Roxana and Councillor Sarah Ruiz, Member for Environment, Sustainable Transport, Children's Services and Education. So I've got comments and questions. So I think, James, you did touch on briefly the performance highlights, and I wouldn't want people to underestimate the amount of time and effort that has gone into some of these highlights. I suppose I'm saying them because half of them are in my portfolio or in my ward. But actually, some of these things have made a huge difference. So the EnviroPrime and the play area in Warrior Square, I mean, have made lasting differences. But I suppose the one I'm probably most proud of is the, well, two, I suppose, the opening, the Shipman Youth Zone, which seemed to go up and down, down and up very quickly. But also the fact that we're recognising care experience as a protective characteristic. You know, we aren't fully there yet. Policy work has to be done. But actually, the difference that has made to our young people cannot be underestimated. And then I really want to go on, because for all the good things, children's social care is often lagging behind in various other things. So first on page 97, little 97. I really feel uncomfortable with that brackets and ideally father. I don't think it's necessary. What page? Little page, little 97. It says that within 14 days from birth by a health visitor with mother and in brackets and ideally father. We need to recognise also that not all children have fathers, some have double mothers. All right. So I just think it doesn't add to anything, but I have an 'and' father there. Oh, page. This is an inevitable report, of course. I think it would be worth commenting on the first time entrance into the Youth Justice System. It's not where we want it to be. But actually, what we're also seeing is the level of crime becoming more serious. And I think that somehow we need to capture that. So they may well be first time entrance into crime, but we are talking about holding a bit of weed. We're talking knife and guns. So I think somewhere we need to capture that. On the permanent exclusions, we are in education doing some really, really close work with our secondary schools. We want that to be down to zero. It doesn't help any child being excluded. And certainly, if they're ending up in the proof, languishing there. So, you know, we are very mindful of the areas in which we have to make significant improvements. And then, obviously, on our EHC P plans of education, health and care plans. This data was due and I think we've probably improved slightly. But it's an area that it's not just about the quantity. It's actually about the quality of those reports. And we are seeing a huge increase in the number of children presenting, wanting an EHC plan. So I just thought I'd put these, well not dull, impenetrable report into context. Because, you know, there are some really good work being done and we are on the way to doing other good work. Thank you very much. I mean, that's really helpful in terms of the nuance. And I think outside of this meeting with the team, we should perhaps look at whether there's different ways in which we can present performance indicators and provide some of that context. I just think it's helpful that, in the context, it isn't just necessarily, there is a big story behind that. Anyone? Oh, I've got Madeline. Just with relation to some of the, well, sorry, let me start again. I know that in this portion of the report on page 37 of the example, we have the gross indicators, which show some commitments, which are very, you know, fantastic aspirations. And I know that we then have the detailed of those interim assessments of how we're doing. I think it's very important that we can, that we mentioned, for example, that we have the excellent 12% reduction in fly-tipping. But even in the granular detail from page 106, it doesn't state who is reporting less. Is it residents? Is it actually our street cleaners who are reporting less? Because we want to make sure that people are reporting what's there rather than failing to report what's there. If I made, I'm going to direct that question to Alex, relating to who actually is reporting that and that cohort that we're measuring. It's residents, is the baseline through various tools that we use? It's certain residents predominantly, but obviously students report them, they have the tools to report them, but the vast majority of the residents. I think I'll just add that we are the second best performing authority in London in terms of reduction and increased supply tips. And we are against the curve of most of London reporting a huge increase in fly-tipping. We are the second best, I think it's behind, so a lot of good work has already happened, but it's still ongoing. Yeah, exactly. So I just wanted to, because it's the, I want to ensure that the positivity within that section of the report was properly reflected. And also, what's noticeable from the statistics from the document is that, you know, there seems to be a kind of, you know, we've got a bit of a roller coaster for when things are recanted. And it will be interesting to understand further, is it around the changes in lease at certain times of the year, and then house clearances, and it would be interesting to ensure that campaigns are linked to what we've been just causing the fly-tipping in particular. Good point. I just also wanted to comment on the achievement of 50% reduction by 2020. This is going to be really hard because of UK wide trends. Is that primarily, sorry, could you just explain that better as to what would make 50% reduction, well to shift, consequence of UK wide trends? It is going to be very challenging to get 50%, we're sure many are thought to either end up like Windy or that one. We are going in the right direction, but the only good thing is, which might increase that, you refer to the reported fly-tips. A huge amount of those fly-tips are actually collected before they're reported because of our IDT. We've also got an environmental crime team issuing a huge number of efforts done on people who have fly-tips. So we're hoping that those who are the predicted fly-tips, once they've got their fixed penalty notice, if it's 75% of them do pay, they won't do it again. So we're hoping over time, we'll see a reduction in the number of fly-tips there, therefore the reduction in the number of reported fly-tips. That's fantastic aspiration. Have you got evidence of that aspiration being correct in other boroughs? No, because I think we're one of the few boroughs who have actually set up a new viral crime team just specifically dealing with fly-tipping. But what we're looking at, the tonnage of the fly-tipping increase is going down compared with other boroughs where they're seeing a huge increase. We are seeing the amount of fly-tips actually going down slightly compared with others. So they're a bit of work. The environmental crime team has only really been in operation for three months. The tiny teams are actually removing fly-tips from the public realm, but also the private land. So we're doing a lot more than what other authorities are doing. But I think the issue of fly-tipping, because we've got a transient population here, because we've got a large increase in housing, multiple operations, it's always going to be a lot more challenging. All right, I'm going to pause now because some of this conversation could be taken outside just in terms of future reporting and making it more clearer for reader. Councillor Charlie McLean. Brilliant, thank you. Councillor Charlie McLean, Public Member for Resident Engagement and Resident Experience. So you're remiss of me not to comment on the items that are part of my portfolio. It's sort of like the tale of two cities. You've got Resident Engagement, which is green, and you've got Resident Experience, which is red. On the Resident Engagement side of things, it just clearly demonstrates that the people within the borough are very much for participatory democracy and that they're involved in our forums and our participatory forums. And that the People Powered Places programme is truly a success and something that's really valued by local residents. With Resident Experience, I know that James touched on this briefly, but the contact centre and our core answering rates are pretty dire. But I was wondering if James could speak a bit more about the transformation programme and the work that will help to just to make residents have a better experience when trying to contact us via telephone. Yeah, and obviously these indicators lag behind where we are today. The focus of this report is the June data both for the council tax benefits centre and the corporate contact centre. In June there's significant transitions on technology, particularly on our CRM website and other factors affecting staff lead and the ability to navigate that as the service shrinks substantially due to a delivery of efficiencies. There has been a blip, I'd certainly characterize it, in the indicators relating to both of those contact centres. We are increasingly confident as we exit that phase and we move into the transformation improvement phase of the work that we're going to see incremental and continuous improvement in both those indicators. There are also some really useful developments that will be brought to bear by the adoption of voice automation and some quite substantial reviews of the approach to phone contacts, particularly reviewing which types of phone contacts actually add value and which types of phone contacts don't. I'm highly confident we'll see a significant improvement in both of those indicators. We are also looking at actively exploring opportunities to start to share resources across the different contact centres. There are about seven or eight of them across the council. We're talking about resourcing, management and use of technology, and the transformation we need for the future program is actively prioritizing, addressing that. So it's a good one to highlight because I think that question the Mayor posed to the program, how are we going to see the benefits of the transformation program in terms of outcomes? We absolutely should be seeing that in that particular indicator set as part of the next item. Yes, that's OK. Councillor Shabam Hamid? Councillor Shabam Hamid, lead Member Power to set the system for modernization. I think one of the biggest challenges in the report is temporary accommodation. I think we are working really, really hard as a council to address that, including working with adult social care and children's services to address care leavers and all the support we can give residents. I think, again, it's market failure, which plays a big factor, and market rents as well. I mean, a lot of agents are switching from market rents to nicely paid rents. This is having a significant impact on keeping, not only keeping residents in barrow basis, the financial burden the council are facing and the right to increase the accommodation. Again, we are working really, really hard to address that. I mean, three years ago we started up the acquisition program, but we can't pour out ourselves out of the process. One part of it. The other thing is, it comes under me is repairs and maintenance. I think when we've moved the call centre back into where it should have been with repairs and maintenance, I think we've seen a real significant change in first time call fixes and, you know, we continue to invest a lot of money into repair the maintenance because I can remember when I first came in, how the service was. And, you know, we're doing a lot of resident engagement with 10 leaseholder forums looking, you know, we've got our own scrutiny panels, so there is a piece of work going in to drive performance up and look at our KPIs. And before, you know, 2018 we have no data, we've got data now and I think the other significant piece will be, once we have our open hour online reporting portal which should hopefully benefit residents and drive our KPIs down. Thank you. Thank you very much. I was just noting on page number 66. The performance costs housing repairs and satisfaction that's gone down is an understanding in terms of the red flag rating of those in nightly paid temporary accommodation. But we have shifted more families quickly out of expensive nightly paid temporary accommodation because of everything else that we're mobilising around housing acquisitions and also house building. And then the housing repairs completed first time remains red. Any additional explanation service wise, James or Paul, whatever you wanted to say. Paul Pitts and corporate direction for inclusive economy and housing at the council. So we've just heard about investment into the call centre, which is really important. So I'm pleased to say that we filled a number of key vacancies across the past three or four months into the call centre which is improving the speed at which we're able to speak to our residents. And we've continued to invest probably across the past 12 months into a range of improvements. The data that we're seeing actually from June is much more optimistic. So we're seeing the KPIs green or amber and that'll be reflected in the quarter two. So we've seen quite a difference so far, performance in quarter two to quarter one. We've linked to that though with our strategic approach to investment in housing. In the next item on the agenda we'll talk about the HR Business Plan. And that's a really important point at which the council commits to the amount of money it will invest into its properties and its housing stock. We'll get onto that under the next item, but we're making a commitment, subject to discussion around investing 120 million pounds, for example, across the next two years into our stock which might be around planned maintenance. So that's decency around people hoping for kitchens and parcels, but also it will include obviously the elements and make sure that the proper resource is put into responsive maintenance, which is repairs. So the statistics in this for quarter one are disappointing. I'm confident the data we've got from that point onwards actually is a vast improvement. We made the right investment under the next item in the HR Business Plan, we'll be in the right position to make sure that we serve residents properly under repairs. All right, brilliant, thank you very much. Are there any, right, I've got Councillor Neil Wilson. Thank you very much, Chair. Councillor Neil Wilson, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care. Following the lead from my colleague, Councillor Ruiz, I think it's important not to be, even with a difficult landscape in adult social care, just as there is in children's social care, to highlight where we've made some significant progress. And on paragraph 142, because this is obviously retrospective quarter one, we did launch the Health Unilever Strategy and that basically, we've had this discussion, Mayor, in other quarters, but also with James's team, how we're making certain that the new indicators would really reflect health and reducing inequalities for all residents, as outlined there. And we did win the health and social care category at the ODC Awards for Newham's Independent Living Support Service Trusted Assessor Initiative. And that's detailed on, in more detail, on page 43 of the report, where we've already, that's an innovative approach to supporting care workers, actively shaping and expanding the care market. And I think it shows a commitment across this council, as a one council approach, that we are not necessarily always being reactive to a rather fragmented care market. But this elevates the status of care workers much needed in societal terms, in my opinion, but providing a clear pathway for their professional development. So just those two, I think, indicate our direction of travel, both in terms of health equity, working with other partners in the independent system, make certain that some of these long standing and rather difficult issues around health inequities are addressed in our indicators with partners, but also in terms of where we are making progress with innovative approaches in the care system. On the ones that are highlighted as where we need to make improvements, the current providers, the leisure contract, they're providing services on behalf of us. The head of leisure and myself and the corporate director are making certain that there is a better way of recording their data, apart from this rather overarching one about the number of people going through leisure centres. So we're working on far more granular detail, including obviously fitting in with ageing well, the provision of free swims, free gym classes, women only gym, the actual numbers of people from different ethnic groups, the people using our leisure centres, because it's obviously part of making certain that we're improving our indicators on the number of people who are actively participating. And just on the final one, the number of people sleeping rough, from a very high base, we've gone down to 26 in May. And I'm pleased to say that in July, the figure was 25 on the bike monthly count that we do on behalf of the Department for Housing and Local Government, if I've got the right term now, and the latest one was 23. I don't think we should be complacent. I know there's some real issues in certain areas where we're having to design out the issues around rough sleeping, but I want to pay tribute to that one. And it's something that is a very good indicator, I think, of how we are an inclusive borough, where we have some, I think it's 1,500 people already gone through a pathway where they are no longer on the streets. And these are very sort of top level indicators, Chair, and I just think, you know, the level of detail we are exploring, both on the very important one about leisure centres, but also about how the rough sleeping pathway is effective and not being complacent on either. Thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else? No, I just want to quickly draw attention to the inclusive economy. Some priorities are set out on big page number 29. Specifically, just wanted to draw attention to the three RAG rated as it relates to our noon work. Two of those red RAG rated indicators have remained relative to corresponding period, the previous year, and also residents secure a job through our noon work with the London Living Wage has decreased. And I suspect that there's a correlation between that performance indicator and the performance indicator as it relates to businesses who've signed up to the Community Wealth Building Pledge, which also includes becoming the London Living Wage employers. And just really wanted to provide assurance that as a consequence of a review of our new service, particularly its role as it relates to enabling access to jobs and other work related opportunities, there's a review underway and ensuring that there's better alignment with the ecosystem as it relates to the world of work and how that's indelibly linked to the construct of the local economy that we want to incubate in Newham. In other words, it's a work in progress. There's a target in terms of getting people into work. If you look at the, I'm assuming appendix to this report, but it's small, age number 100, residents secure a job through our noon work. There's an annual target of 1000 and we're currently at 193 as it relates to the out-term position as of June 2020. So quite a lot to do and part of that is reflective, no doubt, of economic climate and general business competence as they're still dealing with issues of a high inflationary or the impact of recent high inflationary market conditions and then new government. That means around business, scale up and growth. Is there anything you wanted to add Paul? No. Okay, cool. James, did you want to add anything to that? No. All right, fine. I'm going to suggest that we move on. So we've noticed the report and I'm just going to move to the recommendations as set out on big page number. Recommendations on big page number 28. Cabinet is recommended to note 2.1, the progress made during quarter one 2025 in delivery of the building a fair annuum, especially in corporate delivery plan and aligned building a fair annuum, key performance indicators that are set out in the report on appendices. 2.2, the progress made in responding to the LGA corporate peer review and 2.3, the progress made in mobilising and initiating the new transformation plan. Are we noting? Agreed. Agreed. Thank you very much. Okay, colleagues, we're now going to be moving on to the next paper that's coming today relates to the housing revenue account and that's pages 151 to 194. And I will be inviting Councillor Shabir Muhammad and then passing on to relevant officers. Thank you, Chair. In the depth of the housing crisis at a country basis, social housing is a powerful resource to offer people stable homes. 16,000 council homes are an important part of the council resource to support our residents, and we must ensure that our homes are well managed and maintained with the capacity in the long term for investment and building increasing number of homes available. We set out ambitious plans for investment programs in our existing homes and states to ensure that our tenants are warm and efficient to heat and are free from damping mould and have modern facilities such as kitchen, bathroom and our buildings demonstrate my standards of building safety. Further we are developing plans to carry out our first projects to improve thermal and energy efficiency and decarbonise our 16,000 homes. Like housing associations across the country following politicians from the previous government, we face significant pressures and reduce income, as well as increase costs in managing our homes and delivering investment for building safety and decarbonisation. Alongside this, we want to deliver new council housing and invest in safety generations. Financing into our council housing are reflected within our housing plan, and the business plan reflects our assumption and external factors. And our plans within these investments manage and update our homes to ensure that they are good, efficient and safe. We are committed to building more homes and we hold on the government to unlock funding streams and provide certainty and work with Newham and all councils so we can tackle the housing crisis together. The HRA business plan will be updated again around six months to reflect government policy changes and update our plans with key part of the council future planning. This report also recommends Thames Water payments. This was a refund of commission payments from Thames Water to the council. The payment now is being passed back to residents. This followed a court case where no court authorities carried out similar arrangements in their council housing portfolios. Thank you Chair. Thank you very much. Okay, are there any additional comments that Officer colleagues to make? I think I have Darren Levy. Darren, I think he wanted to say, or Bobby. I think Councillor Mohammed has covered most of it. I think it's just to be clear that the plan includes much needed investment in our homes and also in our services. It also currently assumes that we're honouring all the current commitments of new build and regeneration schemes. We're expecting in the upcoming budget statement for a 10 year rent settlement to be confirmed by the current government. And that's to enable local authorities to deal with current financial challenges as well as to enable more development. What it does for Newham is it addresses a sort of longer term capital shortfall that the plan currently has and enables Newham to continue with that new build commitment and regeneration area commitments. As Councillor Mohammed has said, we're currently carrying out a full review of the next five to 10 years of investment requirements, including what will be required on retrofit. That will be completed by March 25 and at that point it will probably require the business plan being refreshed in lieu of the scale of investment that's going to be required at that point. But at this point in time, this is the best setting out of the 30 year forecast. I don't know, Bobby, if you wanted to talk specifically about the recommendations. Thank you. Hello, I'm Bobby Arthur, head of housing strategy and partnerships. I did want to speak specifically to recommendation 3.2, which is to agree a £44 million programme of acquisitions of around 125 homes. This is part of our wider reviewed approach to delivering more social rent homes and looking to deliver value there. It uses new flexibilities that the government allowed local authorities back in the summer, which is to use the rights of our receipts that we hold to fund the full cost of buying new homes. This is a change from kind of historic practice where we could only use those receipts to cover 30 or 40% of the costs and where the council would have to find the balance of finance. So this is a new flexibility. We think it's indicative of other positive moves that are coming from governments, including the rent settlement that I mentioned, which is expected in the autumn statements. So we want to take advantage of it. The rules are for this financial year and for next. So with that short timeframe, we see that the key opportunity is to deliver an acquisitions programme that builds on years of successful acquisitions programmes, primarily focused at buying back homes that have been previously lost through the right to buy itself. So we bring them back into social housing, we consolidate the management of homes within our block so that we can be efficient and we can put investments into those blocks across the piece. So that's the key recommendation at 3.2. Thanks, Bobby. Okay, right. Any questions? I've got Councillor Rohit-Dasgupta. Thank you, Chair, Councillor Rohit-Dasgupta. So, Councillor Mohamed, first of all, thank you for the very interesting thought. I think particularly the needs and resources for frontline housing management teams is much appreciated. For example, residents in Cannon Town South are really appreciative of having the housing hub in terms of kind of getting first hand information. So I just wanted to ask if you can assure us that the investment that you're going to be putting towards safety work and retrofitting will take into account the lessons that we've learned from Grenfell, but also new regulations that the Government is constantly bringing about? Yeah, I can guarantee that. And I think we've already started that part of that work. So we're looking at buildings, we've got a stock condition survey, which we've done and that investment is going in. And we are going to be looking at all those recommendations to make sure all our buildings are safe. And we'll be looking at decent home standards as well. So we're working really hard to put all those work streams in and make sure that we are given a real uplift to our council stock. Thank you. Okay, fine. Anything else? Anyone else? No? Can I just note, I know Darren's going to pass through the news, so I just want to thank him for all the work he's been doing. Thank you very much, and I absolutely commend the hard work and efforts during the time that he's been with us, and he hasn't gone yet. Can I? Yeah, he's there. Could I just add, because I think Darren finishes on Friday, so it's imminent, but the difference that Darren and his team have made to Children's Services should not be underestimated. We started that a couple of years ago, actually looking at accommodation for care leavers, and it's really, they have taken that forward with us, so if nothing else, you've done good for care leavers, Darren. There's been lots. Thank you very much Darren. Thank you very much. Yes, I think we're going to be embarrassing Darren. No, we're not, that's it, look. Alright, stop now. I just wanted to clarify something on the recommendations. On 3.2, the £43 million programme of acquisitions, which will translate around 125 new homes being purchased. Noting that the sum is reallocated from the existing approved for two budgets and section nine of the reports. And it relates to a decision that we made at cabinet in 2023, so my question or point of clarification is specifically once we approve 3.2 that supersedes the previous cabinet decision in September 2022. Yeah, so this will be the composite figure of all of it. So yes. Okay, cool. Alright, fine. Is everyone clear? Yes. Okay, cool. Right, so for the reasons set out on the report and its appendix cabinet is recommended to 3.1 note the HRA business plan 2024 for an appendix 13.3 of £44 million programme of acquisitions of around 125 new homes funded by 100% to buy receipts. This is reallocated from the existing approved affordable homes for new homes to budget, and is set out in detail at section nine of this report. 3.3 approve the proposal to fund council tax in relation to historic fees relating to administration of water charges, estimated total 7.96 million. Okay, do we agree? Cabinet members only. Is that agreed? That's agreed Joy. Right, now we're going to be going to the October finance papers 2022/2024/2022 budget monitoring and review. colleagues, I'm gonna say a few words I'm going to pass over to Councillor Zafi and then we're going to be passing over to Conrad Hall. This is a very significant paper, as all cabinet papers are, but particularly so in the context of the scale of the financial challenge and crisis facing local government in this country, particularly acute in London because of the homelessness crisis that London faces. I've been reminded that in the context of temporary accommodation households in the entirety of England, London houses, the majority of those TA households, some 80% from recollection. What we've presented in this report is a transparent articulation of the drivers that have resulted in a forecast budget gap over the period of interim financial strategy, i.e. years of 175 million pounds. 100 million pounds of those are attributable to temporary accommodation. In the last 24 hours alone, I dealt directly in support of a ward Councillor with a family household comprising of two parents and a baby just under one year. That baby has serious medical conditions. That household has been given an eviction notice. Unfortunately, the law relating to ending no-fault evictions is yet to come into force and we are pressing the national new Labour government, introducing it into the parliamentary timetable as soon as possible. But this family had to leave those premises at 8 o'clock yesterday morning. This is happening day in, day out each week. London has been carrying this country's failed housing market market crisis for too long, compounded by 14 years of a disastrous set of housing policies that have helped no one. We are going to be reversing that as part of our commitment to contribute to the 10-year mission of changing this country. But in the meantime, we are going to be changing the way in which the council does things. This paper sets out the identification of some 17 million pounds of savings so far. We will continue razor-like in our focus on identifying further savings, but also challenging ourselves about how we do things. And this is linked to the earlier conversations around transformation as well as performance. We're really clear about the outcomes that we want to achieve for our residents. We've been and make no excuses for wanting to build a fair renewal. What does that mean in simple terms? People should be able to live good lives. They should be able to have access to opportunity. They shouldn't be able to be held back because of the colour of their skin or because of their household income or because they are white working class or because they come from a single parent household or because they have lived in the care system. We know that structural inequality exists and the mission and purpose of this administration since May 2018 has been to change that and also to change the council because we know and we've been clear and we've been transparent that the council hasn't served new residents well. That's only what we have been doing over the last six years. The fact of the matter is that the temporary accommodation crisis, yes, which we foresaw, and there could be commentary about the scale to which we foresaw the temporary accommodation crisis, but no one could predict and you don't live your life using crystal balls. Yes, you do use robust modelling formula, and you have the brightest of minds, which we have in this council attending to the system wide issues, but as our chief executive has said earlier, we need shifts in government policy. We need more money. And I'm not going to be ashamed, asking and demanding government for more money, based on fairness, our residents are disproportionately impacted. And as someone who has experience for some 14 years living in temporary accommodation, and believe me, it is really not great, and you carry the experience for years, and families do not recover, they carry that trauma of losing your family home for a lifetime. And it manifests in so many different ways, but we are working really hard through a ambitious housing delivery program, which includes building our own homes, but also acquiring homes with the money that we've got, because it is presently cheaper. We make no apologies for what we have been doing, and we will continue engaging with our residents and with councillors to explain what we're intending to do. We've been transparent and honest and open and frank about the scale of the temporary accommodation crisis that we face. Million pounds forecast to tip gap as a consequence of TA's. Policy inefficacies and flaws and failures leading to growing costs, replacing children that are the most vulnerable in care homes to protect them. Ensuring that our elderly residents live a life fulfilled and live well. These are not stupid things to want to pursue. These are noble things that we want to pursue. We will continue pursuing, but it doesn't mean that we won't be probing and challenging about how we deliver those things. And being really exacting about every single penny and pound that is being spent by this organization because we have got to demonstrate rightly to our residents, of which all of us on the cabinet and the executive. We live in Newham, we want Newham, the place that is our home to be great for all of our residents, and we want to be able to demonstrate that the organization spends public money well. It does mean over the coming two to three years, we're going to need to be making some really tough decisions. So we talked earlier to the performance report that set out all of the performance indicators relating to all of the delivery items relating to the building of the earth can over a hundred ambitious targets to transform lives, places. We're going to have to reduce those. We're going to have to prioritize because we do not have enough money. We're being really clear about the reasons, being really clear about what we're currently doing about it, and we're going to be really clear going forward about what that will mean. But we will not compromise on the outcomes that we want to achieve for our people. We will be challenging to the organization and to us about how we do things. And ensuring that through benchmarking and all the other things, organizations ordinarily to do, which we are doing, that we benchmark against other local authorities. We are going to be entering into a period that is going to be challenging. We're looking forward to the ultimate statement. We are engaged in conversations with national government with regards to the exception financial support. This is not unusual. 14 years at all we failure and diminished money going to councils like us in a fair way where disproportionately, we have higher needs and demands for our services. We will make no apologies, go into this new government to say we need help. And we're not alone. Many councils are doing so. But here's the difference. We're not the same as Croydon. Councils that previously had gone to national government for exceptional financial support, rightly were pulled up for financial decisions made that didn't work out. We're looking forward to us for wanting to, as part of our legal duty, to house people who could alternatively end up on the street. We've got a legal obligation to house people. We've reduced our reliance on expensive, nightly, temporary accommodation in hotels and hostels. And we are spending our money well through the acquisitions program as well as building. If we've got plans afoot, it would be naive to suggest it's not hard. It is hard to have to make some quite agonizing decisions, but I will assure everyone this, that we will continue to be open and transparent and to be very factual in the drivers, so that we know that there's lots of misrepresentation happening and why this has come about. There are raging and screaming headlines that helps no one. We will continue on our course of getting this sorted, and I am confident with the hard work, focus and tenacity of all colleagues in this room and elsewhere, we will get through this. Thank you very much. I'm going to pass this to you. Thank you, Chair, and Councilor Zafiq Ali, Committee for Finance and Resources. I think the mayor has the same in terms of the situation we are facing locally as well as some contracts nationally. I think it is general knowledge that the last 14 years of the previous governments have had serious impact in terms of disparities, financial imbalance that's been created in high inflation, interest rate, etc. But there is also a more fundamental issue that the previous government didn't tackle, the failed funding review. That hasn't happened. You know, we are in outer London borough with inner London characteristics, yet our funding is completely disproportional, failed to deliver the children's services reform, social care reform. I remember Theresa May standing outside, number 10 steps on the first page and said she will sort out the social care reform, but then nothing has happened. The huge recommendation where it was stated that 1% of energy funding will be diverted to ICS is to focus on provincial work that hasn't taken place, and the ridiculous approach to the homeless prevention grant which completely penalizes far more significantly than the child councils. And there are many examples of, you know, the government's past failures. Chair, as the report here, we've got culture two report and then we have an overall financial situation report which is in Appendix C. You will note, colleagues, that the financial controls that we put in place are working reasonably well. We've seen a reduction in agency staff, we've seen a reduction in the time, we've seen a reduction in the purchase cards, and also received a reduction in the purchase orders that we do. However, the in-year position is we have a $47 million gap in the current financial year and as Mayor said, you know, 31 out of 47 is temporary accommodation, and the rest $60 million is, again, for the two status services that we had to deliver without social care and children's services. Those are the pressures, but our net budget is $395 per annum at this stage. And two-thirds of that goes to without social care and children's services. Can you imagine the gap that we have for the median drug financial strategy is $175 million, of which as Mayor said, $100 million is temporary accommodation. Had we not had the temporary accommodation crisis, we would have had no problem balancing our budget. It is the temporary accommodation, which is costing us the biggest amount. And that is not a new problem. That's something that has increased over the last few years, but for some reason, London seems to be facing the worst consequences. And in London, we are the worst one, you know, and for the benefit of, I'm sure colleagues are aware, but that those people who may be watching online, you know, our social care demand has gone up by 8%, yet the government only gave us 2% funding. The House of Commons report in 23-24 said that local government is facing $4 billion financial gap. This has increased in the current financial rate, yet there's been 17% reduction in government funding since 2010, which is about £60-65 million that we've lost during the last 14 years. These issues are facing us in that respect. Look at the councils in England, they're spending $1 billion on TA to hold homeless families, which is 50% higher than the previous year. And there's record numbers of people who are living in short-term temporary accommodation, and that includes 150,000 children. You know, in London, one in 50 Londoners is actually homeless. We have seen 11% increase in population, increase in poverty level, the mental health impact post COVID. You know, growing amount of regulations, you heard my colleague Shaban Mohammed saying already about the different changes that we brought by the government, the ageing population. And then the complex needs of that social care and children's services, they're all contributing to the overall cost. But this administration, as Mayor said, is committed to do everything that we can do for the benefit of the residents, and building fair and new is an integral part of everything we do. And there has been good effort on part of the executives cabinet and I would say, chief executive and the corporate leadership team. I know they've been working extremely hard. This year we started the budget process much earlier than we did before, and we've identified savings and efficiencies and other avenues which we have looked at in terms of how we can bridge the gap. If you look at appendix A, that looks at a number of savings which have been identified. And for the 2526, a number of those could be brought forward where possible if agreed, and they will help to deliver an appendix B is chair, a list of proposals which we do need to engage with public and consult because there are some of those services which are important, and the outcome those consultation process will enable us to formulate the draft budget proposals in January next year. The critical factor here is that the total savings we've identified are 70 million. And the gap is 175, which as I said earlier, under 100 million is temporary accommodation. So, we do have a major issue that we need to look at, and we need to work harder and smarter to see where else we can look at, but the efficiencies. One thing that we are already working on is transformation program and that transformation earlier is already right on its way, and we expecting tremendous opportunities here to look at remodeling the way cancer delivery services. Looking at business process and engineering see to see how we can think more make more efficient and greater involvement engagement with other partners, where possible. That work is ongoing chair. And in terms of the proposals clearly everything we want to do is for the benefit of the residents. There will be qualities impact on the result of these proposals and I can assure you that the every proposal in this paper has gone through a screening process, and where it requires a full equality is impacted assessment, and that will be developed as part of the process. I would also like to raise the point about reserves chairs reserves are important for any organization that clearly this is something that we've had good result up till the corporate, unfortunately, and then covert came along the government said spend spend spend. We will hit the hardest in the country and we did extremely well to help and support our residents to during that difficult period. And that led to 9 million pound that this cut previous government decided not to pay us. As a result of that, we had to use our reserves to balance the budget. And doubt that 9 million has had a big impact on us, since we have committed ourselves we had 3 million pounds every reserves until we get to a reasonable level, based on the recommendation of the separate and that commitment has been there and it's still there will continue to be there. But it's because it reserves are important to us, and they are utilized based on need. Can I say, we don't just relying reserves. As I said earlier, organization is not standing still. We are moving rapidly and seriously, looking at other ways to deliver savings efficiencies reviews of the way we approach the organization in terms of service delivery, and we're not leaving any stone unturned reserves is critical, and we will continue to make sure that we maintain reserves and looking at every possible old avenue where we can reduce the need to go to reserve. The exception of as a support Yes, it is something we applied for many other authorities have done 19 other authorities applied last year. Now think there is a rough estimate by LGA that probably on 25% local authorities will have to go through that process in the coming year. But that we're not standing still because we applied for itself we're not relying heavily on ourselves, we were looking at all alternatives to see how best we can save money, we can reduce spend and continue to meet the services that our residents expect us to deliver at the same time we have been able to continue to lobby at through LGA to London Council through our MPs and other channels that we have individually and collectively to ensure that new government recognizes that there is a need to support local authorities and in fact if you read the BBC article last night. There seems to be some recognition, they did not single out new and it was a wider London wide article which highlighted that this is a serious problem and it's a collective problem and the government has responded they'll find a way to address the fun local government will get to see what that comes up with. We look forward to the government's budgets on 30th of October, and we hope that there will be some direction given at that point in time. And then the local government finances settlement which is expected. Usually it's the day before Christmas. Under the previous government but I think there is a promise that they will be brought forward to early December. But the work with is carrying on will continue between now and the draft budget and indeed till final budget in February, and we will not leave any stone unturned. And based on whatever government comes up with on 30th October and early December and December. In terms of local government financial settlement and EFS, we will continue to do all, and to reduce the spend and manage the budget, but ultimately looking at the various T options as well, because that is something that's critically having an impact. If that T element isn't there, we would have had no problem we wouldn't be probably having this level of the serious discussion today, as we are now. So with those words here, I will. I will ask the cabinet and the call of the mayor to approve recommendation, actually do have both reports and the quarter to as well as the dependency, and I will invite Conrad hold a section 151 of it, and I will call the director of finance to say a few words with respect to from his perspective, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, cancer Ali, thank you. Thank you. My name is Conrad Hall on the council's corporate director of resources, and the statutory chief finance officer for the authority. There's not much that I need to add, but I would like to thank you for the opportunity just to say a couple of words. Clearly the financial position is very difficult, very challenging choose which word you wish to express that. But the point has been made that these are issues that the sector faces, rather than arising from. The report sets out the need to make savings of some 175Million pounds over a 3 year period. The current budget for the council is about 395Million pounds. So that adds up to over 40% of the budget, and over 100Million of that 175Million is the direct consequence of the housing crisis. I think any fair minded observer would say that it is very difficult for any single local authority to address that systemic failure in the London housing market. If I can put it this way, we can't beat the London housing market ourselves. And so the report makes it clear that we will need government support to help deal with that as the mayor and council rally have set out. I strongly believes that a more generous and fairer system of grant allocation is important, but of course it is also in the public domain that we have applied for governments exceptional financial support package. I don't have any update to provide on that and I don't expect to be able to until at least after the 30th of October budget. But it is clear that to earn that government support, the council must of course, fulfill its financial obligations, hence to everything that it is able to in order to reduce that gap as much as possible. And hence the report sets forth a package of some 170Million pounds worth of savings. Those are by no means all reductions to services, although that cannot be avoided. There is a very substantial package of transformation savings, but of course it is impossible to deal with numbers of this scale without also confronting very challenging decisions on levels of service as set out in the report. There are of course some 4 or 5 months between now and the 22nd of February, when council will be formally to conclude the budget for the next financial year and to set the council tax, during which period there will of course be refinement of the proposals here. There will be engagement with residents, with the public and many other interested groups about the package that is put forward and I'm sure amendments in consequence of that. And of course there's a lot that we don't yet know for example about government funding, but clearly we cannot allow the need for further savings over and above what is identified here and of course residents and councillors should expect effective management in order to maximise the amount of efficiency gains that can be made equally as has been set out. There will be difficult policy choices for council to make as part of that final budget. Well, I should pause them if that's all right. My deputy Andrew Ward is online if there are questions, then myself and Andrew are very happy to take those in this meeting. Thank you very much. Right, I'm going to open up to questions, and I have Councillor Robert De Soto, Madeline, Sarah and then I'll come to this side as well. Thank you Councillor Ali and Conrad, I think this is, you know, very sobering report, and for you and the mayor alluded to 14 years of austerity, unfair local government funding, and the demographics which make it difficult. I'm sure others are going to ask questions about the TA, but I think my question was really about our transformation, because, you know, that's something you've mentioned about the transformation programme and the organisational savings that's being proposed. And whilst you know I'm obviously very happy that you know frontline services also going to be running as far as possible. I'd like to start and ask Conrad and perhaps Abhi also want to come back and clearly transformation is looking at new ways of working, a new model, a survey delivery model, and looking at historically, how we did things, was the right approach, were we actually looking at outcomes or simply attacking activities without realising what outcome it delivers. I think that refocus in terms of the direction of travel by the corporate leadership team led by chief executive is leading to a way of services which are much more efficient, smartly delivered, and perhaps utilizing a lot of the IT infrastructure to make sure that we are, you know, up to speed and clearly measuring ourselves, delivering and looking at unit costs, looking at the outcome, looking at customer satisfaction and ultimately to make sure that they are relevant, they need to be delivered as opposed to historically where we've done it. I don't know whether Abhi or James or Conrad want to come in. Exactly. Just to reassure you, so the transformation journey is part of our way of identifying that we are using every pound that is being paid by the council is used in the right way. We know that there is still some inefficiencies within the council and it will be a little remedy that, hence why we believe actually it's worth it for us to do over the next three years to improve council delivery. I think the program enables us to be able to council but just to be a small account. And alongside everything else that's happening, wider in the sector, we also need to ensure that we're using the money that we have efficiently to deliver the right services for residents at the right time. I think probably the question that's going to be prompted by that was, when there are sessions and an expression of the right time, does that mean in essence statutory be required because that's a concern amongst local government in terms of the lobbying asked to central government. Will, in effect, local government become a deliverer of statutory services over all the other things. There is localised discretion in order to change these lives in the frame that I articulated earlier. And I think that is something that we're absolutely involved in the discussions around with national government and in collaboration with other local authorities, both in London and elsewhere. And I think there's also something really important for us to bear in mind in the context of some of the parallel policy agendas being pursued by the new Labour government. I'm primarily thinking of the Take Back Control Bill that was articulated in the King's speech in July, which talks about devolution and what that will mean for localities, including in localities in London, where we're having quite live debates around double devolution. And that may well open up interesting avenues of income generation in terms of local rates. Anyhow, right. Is that helpful? Comrade? I mean, I can add a little bit to that, I won't add any more to that sort of wider policy debate thing, but just on the numbers of this, the proposals in front of you today include planned savings and efficient funding over three years of some 23 million pounds from that transformation programme. I'm very confident, wanting if you like, to budget prudently, but deliver ambitiously. So I would hope very much that we could expand that failure because every pound there is a pound of frontline services retained. But I don't want to set an overly optimistic budget, but please rest assured that the intent is absolutely to go as far beyond that potential 23 million pound figure as we can. Obviously, risks associated with delivering any complicated programme like that, and those are being very carefully identified and managed. So it will become a key component of the budget for the next three years. OK. There was Madeline. I wanted to thank both Comrade and Councillor Ali for the work that's gone into these papers. I wanted to also thank you, Councillor Ali for reminding us to note that we had used some of our reserves, which are there for us to help protect our residents when they are most vulnerable during the COVID outbreak to ensure that appropriate measures will protect those of us. And yet, the government has actually helped us and helped us recuperate those reserves, which we were encouraged to suspend. And secondly, that we continue to not be funding the same as our neighbouring boroughs when it comes to a whole range of budget measures and areas. For example, when it comes to the Department of Education funding children in schools who are on SCND school supports. In our neighbouring boroughs, the schools get £11,500 per pupil. We get £6,500 per pupil on those measures. Having said that, and noting all of that, I also note that there should be information in the main cabinet papers on page 145 and in the substantial papers on page 12 related to the asset strategy. Is it possible to check how quickly we will be able to access funds from asset disposal and what can we use those funds for? Thank you for that question. So, the Cabinet in a period from February to April of this year agreed a substantial programme of asset disposals, some £40 million, I think, in total. Inevitably, of course, like all property transactions, those don't happen overnight. So, to date, only a small proportion of that programme has been realised, but many other transactions are quite substantially advanced. Ordinarily, capital receipts are only usable for further capital investment and/or reductions to borrowing. We will be asking government for flexibility in the use of those in order to deal with the immediate pressures that are set out fully in the report. One last thing to add, the report in front of you also includes some further planned reductions to the Council's estate, for example, to try and rationalise the use of various operational buildings as well. I hope that answers the question, Councillor Ponton. Okay, who was next? Me? Sorry. Okay. I think there was a slight drafting error, which I take responsibility for, because I should have picked it up on page 13. It says savings options cannot be taken. I think when we did the slides the other night, we added two or three words to that, because I think to the outside world, that looks misleading, as if you've thought about those, but you say, I don't mean that in the, you know, but actually, we have already made savings in our park service, which was how it came up to me. So, if we could just add a bit there, that would be really helpful. So, just for the clarity, on page 13 of the report, for the purposes of the recorded minutes, the title that currently says saving options considered but not taken should have read saving options considered, but not taken at this stage. And then if you look at the narrative across those items, you will note that, for instance, across the last two points, going into page 14, it says the shorter budget will be subject to further saving proposals for development as part of a revised promotion to existing enrichment heritage and cultural strategy programmes delivery, i.e. further savings will be met forward. Yeah, but thank you. I just think that the heading, people see the heading and breathe a sigh of relief. If we add to the heading before paragraph 4.20 at this time, and that will make that clear. Yes, that's possible. Thank you, Conrad. Well, obviously, Neil and I are not on the naughty step, but we are three of the big spenders in the council, and it's really hard when you know that actually trying to save money is really difficult. And we have particularly, I think, on, we look at looked after children. So on page 189 is a looked after children weekly unit cost. And I think that's a really stark reminder of how much some of our children and young people cost us on a weekly basis. And I do know that Laura, the Director of Children's Services and MAF actually meet on a weekly or fortnightly basis to review all of those placements. So, you know, we have been successful, we have got, we have reduced that, but actually, almost as quickly as we reduce it, somebody else needs our care. So, we are actually trying very hard to reduce that. The other area that I think we highlighted is the number of homes to school transport. Part of that is because the number of children that require transport. But the other part of that is totally down to us in the sense that we have an antiquated system. It wasn't that long ago where actually they were doing the routes on a bit of paper. They have moved on slightly, but we actually need a new system in there. And until we get that system bedded in and somebody who has the knowledge and the expertise to actually run a service, then we're always going to be constrained by that. The other area is the unaccompanied asylum seekers. We don't get the full amount of money if they are under a certain age, and so we are having to balance that out. We don't like to say no, but actually, unless the government, the new government, is going to honor the full cost of those placements, it does have a huge burden on us. As, of course, to the numerous refugees and asylum seekers who are based in this borough in hotels, not of our making, but placed by the Home Office, we get nothing for them when they go to our schools and use our services. So there is an inequitability there. Sorry, but I will have to go on to environment and sustainable transport. When you have a service that's already almost working to the bone, it's really hard to make savings without affecting our residents. So we genuinely did look at refuse collection and street cleaning and decided it was not a hill we were going to die on because we've only just brought in a new system. But we have and will be making changes to our parking. We are desperately trying to encourage more people to go by public transport cycle or walk, and we are putting in the infrastructure to enable that to happen. We know it won't be popular, but we have tried our very best to increase the charges to the minimum number of people. So we're trying to have a lack of pushback on it. But, you know, again, and the reason I raised earlier is because we have made a decision to reduce our parks department by 10%. I think it should be worth noting that that means that we will not have the ability to go this year for our green flags. But Roxana and I and Analid and Louise have thought about actually doing our own park flag system for our parks. I don't think most people understand what the green flags are anyway. And that's not to diminish them. But actually we could do our own system. Sorry, I'm just smiling because actually inside conversations, he wants the equivalent of key guards on his... I was going to say that, but I thought I wouldn't. And then I really must address children's centres because I know that we are two weeks in the room and I just really want to assure you that the proformers were written because we had to do 12, 8, 4, 0. Okay. It is not our intention to do anything without working with you. And this was, it was clumsily done, not intentionally done. So please forgive us for sending you stuff without a conversation. Ali and Laura, I know will have been in touch with you and you have my assurance that we are going to do this together. So we haven't, we haven't appointed consultants yet. We haven't made any decisions as to what we're going to do on the basis that we don't actually know because actually we will be working with you to look at how best we can manage this. So I just wanted to say that because I know that you've taken the time to come here and I thank you for that. Thank you very much. Okay, I've got Councillor Neil Wilson. Yeah, I think it's a neat segue from Councillor Ruiz's comment earlier about the very real pressures and both the Mayor and Councillor Ali did indicate about, you know, the demographic rise of 8% in the financial year on our client base as people get older or have more disabilities. People are living longer, which is a good thing, but there is some indication, by the way, that that may have plateaued, that people are living longer with longer term conditions. And the funding mechanism, quite clearly, whatever central government, whatever few has been delaying and delaying, the only thing they did implement was the fair cost of care, which was a ratcheting up, by the way, on a already fragmented care market, where we're actually already offered some uplift and that's been captured by those care providers, some of which in neighbouring boroughs have gone under, under their business model. So it's a very difficult landscape, but the options that are under the agreement of Appendix A do include significant investor safe proposals in both adults and children. Councillor Ruiz has highlighted how some of those are being implemented, but the implementation is subject, and I want to put this on public record, to robust business cases being approved, has been sometimes in the past, and I think both Councillor Ruiz and I would share this, some optimism bias rather than quite clear modelling. Modelling is always difficult by definition. It's an inexact science. It is about population growth, but it's also about demand figures. We can get, for instance, greater integration, as we have done with health partners on integrated care hubs and discharge. But we are clearly also in an environment where the health service itself, with its funding pressures, and this is why it's important that we keep a robust exchange, I know the Chief Executive and others are having integrated care boards, that there is the pressure from the health service in order to actually make certain that we have an investor safe, which is about the large complex investment to save in a more preventative way. We still have an illness service, we don't have a health service. It's been a long running thing that people, the more we invest in the preventative nature, the more we don't have people with long-term conditions, and then having to go into very expensive, quite frankly, not always very good, residential care. We've already mentioned in this meeting today about how we've made quite transformative approaches to domiciliary care. Let's care it from home. We continue to look at savings options and the investor safe proposals are, by definition, a three-year MTFS. I always get the initials wrong. And I know there's an indication from central government for a more three-year, longer-term settlement. The MTFS, we are delivered, so far, savings. Last year, we did the largest amount of savings in the council and we delivered 93 per cent of those. It couldn't be seen as a complacency, though. There are three things operating here. We have to make certain, as I think has been said on pages 193, section 7, in quite good detail, really, about the operating budget, the out-term position, the cost pressures are all there, including these direct care packages. I think, Sarah, you alluded to some of these care cost packages, which are very expensive. We are trying, with housing colleagues and others, and children's colleagues, to, with our supportive living accommodation, make certain we've got more in borough provision, which is more tailored to the needs of our residents. And the great problem nationally are transitions across children and adults will be examined in terms of particularly difficult areas. For instance, the increasing demands upon our learning difficulties and disability service. People often think, stereotypically, that adult social care is for elderly residents, which are increasing in number and increasing in complexity. But on top of that, there is a real issue around learning difficulties and others who need supportive accommodation. The more we can actually make certain our cost pressures are contained by having the out-barrer placements reductions as far as possible. But this is, again, something that needs to be taken into account as a longer-term, also a median-term position. The savings that are outlined have been, you know, we included in the current budget savings of 9.767 million. And that was including a range of different approaches, largely centred, as I say, on prevention, improving short-term interventions, promoting independence, improving borough-supported accommodation and maximising external income. We continue to make certain that we are benchmarking across with other local authorities. There are other neighbouring authorities who have a great under-spend already in adult social care. They've been well documented in national press, as well as I could say. The important thing is to say that the current forecast reflects the proportion based on the risk of placements budget, bearing in mind that they've already rejected in some cases, I hope I'm correct, the offer that was made under some of our contract, some of our commissioning. So we're making certain that we're looking at an uplift for the residential care. But on page 195, it does say there is a risk identified in the corporate risk register that the proposals are rejected. We are dealing with a privatised care market and that can negatively impact on the forecast. As an example, several supported living providers have already rejected our 4% uplift. So the more we can make certain that we have three things going on, a transformation within the delivery of frontline adult social care, more preventative work, more transformation and investor save, but at the same time, continually challenging in a robust way, a care provider market and also working with health partners so that we make certain that we continue on this journey, as I call it, of change. And I just have to put in the mitigations are highlighted on page 195, that there are limited options for mitigations on cost pressures. But we do have to be very clear that we do have statutory requirements to meet the obligations set up for Care Act 24. And the recently introduced CQC adult social care framework and reductions in services, which are outside of the direct cost of care, which are providing prevention and early intervention measures, could result. But we have to be careful. We're using the 'could' and 'will'. We are looking at all options in terms of the increased cost in the longer term, but they are being fully explored. All expenditure is being reviewed. There is regular meetings with Councillor Conlon and myself with the team on a weekly basis to identify cost reduction. And I want to assure the people watching that this is certainly not a placent approach to the very real issues around adult social care. Thanks, Jo. Thank you very much. OK. Councillor Montas-Clan and then I'm going to come to Councillor John Whitworth and then I'm going to come to Councillor Alma Birdie and then Charlie McLean. Thank you very much, Chair. This question is for Councillor Ali. It's around our consultation process on the budget report. How do you intend to explain, May I say this earlier on, that she wants to explain better to others about your talk about consultation? And so she has apologised for some of our forgiveness in not being able to explain to some services about our planning budget, which is going to go to full council in February. So from now onward, what are we doing? Thank you. And I mean, the consultation is critically important for us because clearly we are here to serve the people of this borough and we want to make sure whatever we do meets their needs. And as the report says, the consultation is going to begin soon after the cabinet agrees these proposals. And the section in the report that clearly outlines the timescale, in terms between now and December, we go out and consult. I'm sorry about this noise at the background, but yeah, the consultation process will start. And the important thing is that we recognise the issues we are facing, the difficulty we are facing. And I think this is why I highlighted in my introductory remarks that none of the issues we are facing are our own making. If TA wasn't a problem, we wouldn't have to do any of this, we would manage our budget as it is, we would have balanced it. So we need to highlight the deficiencies that have led to the situation we are in, not our own making, and clearly any service implications of the proposal we have. We want to work with the community, we want to work with the organisations which may be affected as part of this process, because they know the best. They ultimately deliver services, so we want to make sure that there's a collective effort in the partnership in delivering those. And that's the approach we will take, and any feedback we get from the consultation process. There are various facets of consultation, and the report is going to be online, face-to-face too. And any feedback that we get from those will then inform the choices the Cabinet will have to make, and then the Council will have to make as part of the February budget, and they will be part of the draft budget in January. Thank you, Councillor Allick. I think the only thing to add is just to remind colleagues and those watching 23rd of October, so a week tomorrow, public engagement event at Stratford Town Hall, and a series of other events following on from that as well with particular groups. Thank you. Okay. Right. I've got next, John Whitworth. Thank you, Chair. That's good. I'm John Whitworth, the Deputy Cabinet Member for Planning and Development, Air Quality and Climate Emergency. My first question is rather the general nature. Given the scale of our potential savings, how confident can we be that they will be delivered? The second question is more specific. It's related to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, which features on page 110 of the supplementary agenda pack. Currently, we offer a maximum 90% reduction, given circumstances. The proposal is to cover this, possibly even the levels offered by neighbouring boroughs. So my question is really what are the levels of neighbouring boroughs? What level of exemption do they offer? I'll make a start, Chair. Thank you. In terms of your first question, clearly, savings are important. And when these things are identified, there is a robust process within which they are being considered. And by and large, or they should be, that deliverable. So our track record from previously is between 85 and 90%. But I'm absolutely confident that the City Management team are working extremely hard to make sure the savings we're putting forward are delivered and are delivered in a timely fashion, because any slippage in delivery of those savings is going to have budget consequences. So it's absolutely important we do that. And there's a robust monitoring system in place, which is where Chief Officers go through the extent of savings that we deliver so far to make sure that they are on target. And this is how we get the reports back to the Cabinet, on a quarterly basis, to see where we are. Anything else? Chair, if that's all right, just a couple of things to add there. So I mean, I agree with Councillor Ali there. The Council has a decent record of delivering plan savings. I think it'd be fair to say that probably no organisation ever has always delivered everything set out in their budget plans. But clearly, as Councillor Ali sets out, it is important that we are as rigorous as we can be to ensure that there is not substantial slippage on the savings programme. In terms of the proposal around the Council tax reduction scheme, and I must emphasise, of course, this is a proposal that would be consulted upon and the final decision is not being proposed today. An important part of that will be setting out what other councils currently provide. Of course, just as we are going through a budget setting process in a very financially challenging time, so too are other councils across London, so it's almost not necessarily what they currently provide, so much as what they are planning to. I know that, for example, Enfield Council recently last year reduced their maximum discount to just 55.0%. I know also from an event that I was at with other London finance colleagues and chief executives and council leaders last Thursday, that a number of other authorities across London are considering changes to their scheme too. They are considering changes to their schemes too. They may not yet implement them and so on. But it is certainly the kind of thing that, as I understand it, councils across London are doing as we are doing and looking at making changes. Obviously, any such changes would have a substantial impact on residents, and that would need to be carefully weighed for financial cost reduction for the council. But above all, no final decision has been taken at this stage. We are being asked to authorise us to salt on that in order to present all the decisions. Thank you, Kamal. Are we with speakers now for local and East London boroughs? Page 111 is the local boroughs like Barking Diagram currently have 85%, Enfield, Barking Diagram have 85%, Enfield, as Conrad said, is 50%. Radbridge have a tapering arrangement where the people with disabilities get 78%, the rest of them get 65%, and your Baltimore is 85% and then Haybring is 75%. But these figures are up to you, and as Conrad said, quite rightly that they are all reviewing at this point in time, but ours is 90%, which is still above most of the other list here. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Councillor, I'm a very cabinet member for Community Safety and Crime. Councillor Alli, I think one of the things you mentioned that she needs to tell us are the local authorities are suffering from very significant challenges. One of the things I was mentioning is that the council requested exceptional financial support from the government in line with other local authorities. I'd like to understand a bit more about what that would look like in the history. Well, exceptional financial support is, as it says, exceptional because clearly we are facing the massive temporary accommodation costs. So we're going to the government to seek additional support to see if we can offset the TEA costs, because our medium term financing strategy forecasted that there is a 100 million gap, which is purely due to temporary accommodation. And as Conrad said earlier, you know, we have applied for this, but we don't know what form of shape will come through, it could be a grant, could be a loan, or a government maybe approaching it totally differently because we're not the only one going. So we don't know yet, but I think as I said earlier, we're not waiting for the outcome of that, because clearly that if we do get it's beneficial, but we need to carry on working to make sure that we maximize potential for any more efficiency, savings, new ways of working, income generation, or investor savings scheme, all options being looked at, once we wait for the government to see it, but as Conrad said, which is unlikely to be known till at least after 30th October, but we're not going to stand still, we carry on working. Okay, fine. Right, I have got two next. So it was Councillor Sharlene McLean. Thank you. Councillor Sharlene McLean. Oh no, I've introduced myself already haven't I, so I don't need to do it again, but I am the cabinet member for resident engagement and resident experience. So just on the resident experience side of things, so we touched earlier on about the transformation and the savings there, and so I won't stress that side of things, but in Appendix A, there's several things that we're going to be doing in resident engagement and participation, like increasing income in our community centres and town halls and reducing some activity. So they're things that we're just going to be getting on with straight away, because the resident engagement and participation budget is made of three main things. Activities, people and buildings, we did people last time, we're doing activity again, and so that all that is then left our buildings. So in the report, there is a proposal to have a review of the library service. So I'll just have a little correction on page 102, big page 102, about where it says, just a description is not for us, so it says that the council is committed to providing Newham's children with the best start in life, but will be consulted on how to optimise the provision of these services in the context of our financial position. Now that does relate to Children's Centre, but actually that could equally equate to libraries, but it is the wrong description that is there for that. So I think in page 102, big page number 102 in the supplementary agenda. B10, 11, 12. So B15 at the bottom. Library service. We have library review, so that description relates to Children's Centre. I'm not sure what happened to our description that was there, but it could be for libraries, because libraries are for children and young people. For purposes of recording that. For purposes of the minutes, just note that the item description for B15, library review, is incorrect. And can we have the correct text in the minutes of this meeting that we confirm at the next tablet meeting? Yes, yes, yeah, absolutely. We will take the appropriate text from the detailed pro forma that appears subsequently in Appendix B, and provide the correct summary on this summary sheet. So I'll get that correction. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah. So, as I said, the proposal is to review the library service and to ensure that it best serves the needs of residents. It says in the papers in 4.18 of the report that, you know, it's under consultation that library closures, but it may not necessarily be library closures. It's a review of the library service. Also in that paragraph, it mentions about children's centres and youth zones consolidation. Well, actually, the review of the library service may mean that those areas are consolidated into the current library buildings. Because the library review is in integral and fully aligned with the Council's emerging integrated service delivery models in our transforming new for the future plan, as we spoke about early on. So, you know, the face to face aspect of that is, you know, I can't see anything other than libraries and the model that we have at the moment that can help to assist with that. But, you know, it is a review of the library service. So, you know, we do recognise that things need to be looked at. So, libraries, our libraries are uniquely, they provide a front facing service to the residents of Newham. They'll cross all of our neighbourhoods. They maximise early prevention approaches for health inequalities and social impacts that it has. They are just truly wonderful places. And I just wanted to put on record my thanks to the library service. I know that it's very difficult for staff members to sort of read about library closures and to assume that they'll be losing their jobs. But I just wanted to emphasise that it's a review of the library service, not necessary closures. We may close some, we may not, we don't know because we haven't reviewed the service yet. So the review will use needs analysis and evaluation framework. We will be doing it in line with, you know, what as a local authority we need to develop a library strategy to ensure that the library service in the borough for the future is what is needed within the transformation plans. You know, you must remember that the library is a statutory service and that the service, it plays a much broader part in the lives of people who live and work within the borough. It's not just about books, it's about bringing people together, opportunities to learn and being informed and the council would actually probably fall over if libraries didn't exist because they do assist all different parts of the council. And they're a major part of the ecosystem of Newham. Yeah, I'll leave it there. But yeah, I'm sure that colleagues would agree that, you know, this is something that we do lightly at all. And I don't think any of us came into this role to close libraries or to potentially think about closing libraries. But we do recognise in resident engagement and participation that, you know, we're all in this together, we all need to play our part. And in doing so, we will review the library service to see how it can best fit in the ecosystem of Newham, but also deliver some savings for the council. Thank you, Chair. Okay, thank you very much. Right, anyone else? Oh, no. Okay, I'm really conscious of time. Is there anything else that anyone wants to say with regards to this paper? No. Okay, so colleagues, call your attention to the recommendations set out in the report. And those are listed on big page number eight. The reason set out in the report and its appendices, the Mayor and the Cabinet are recommended to agree. 2.1 financial forecast set out in Appendix C, the quarter to budget monitoring 2.2 to agree that the budgeted expenditure in financial year 2024-25 on items as detailed in Appendix A will now not be accepted as originally planned. 2.3 that the Mayor and Cabinet will recommend to council that the items scheduled in Appendix A should be removed from the budget for 2024-26 and future years. 2.4 to agree that work will start to increase fees and charges other than parking by an average of 20% were permitted to be implemented as soon as practically possible so that in year savings come in the final quarter of financial year 2024-25. 2.5 to agree to start consultation on certain items as scheduled with the intention of the preclusion in the 2025-26 budget or earlier if fees fall. 2.7 to note that lobbying of central government on the financial position continues. 2.8 to note updates in the capital monitoring report relating to the digital fibre grant funded project being added to the capital programme. Is that all agreed to cabinet members only? Just a point, Chair. The Appendix C. Sorry, okay, so just pause on the vote. As in, I read out the recommendations, I'm going to take the vote again. Just a clarification, because the Appendix C, there's a recommendation here to note the management action to reduce the overspend as set out in section 3.8, which is not part of the main recommendation. I just wanted to add that. Sorry, so page 174 is the recommendation. The first is fine, which is that we note Appendix C according to budget position. I can't hear you. Sorry, I'm going to pause you. Page 173, what section? 174. 174. What's the volume of my hearing aids? Yeah, don't worry.
2. What section? 2.1. It's not translated over. Note the management actions to reduce the overspend as set out in section 3.8 of the report. That's going to be helpful here. Okay, if it helps, I mean, recommendation 2.1 of the main report incorporates that, but, of course, it's fine. We can just add in the minutes just for the absolute avoidance of doubt. Those further recommendations contained within Appendix C. Recommendation 2.1 covers you formally on that. So, I would just similarly, and maybe more simply, if I may, to note the financial forecasts set out in Appendix C and corresponding appendices to budget monitoring reports. Recommendations. Did I say appendices? Yeah. I'm so sorry. To note the financial forecasts set out in Appendix C and corresponding recommendations on page 174. I was going to say it does actually say that in 2.1. Because it's all about fixing it, isn't it? Yeah. Unless you want to bring that out and add it. The reason for me saying that was because it notes the management action that we've taken, and that's important that we endorse what the officers. Okay, so it's just basically to note the financial forecasts and management actions. Yeah, just add that. Okay, so just on the big page number 8, 2.1, to note the financial forecasts and then insert the following words. And management actions set out in Appendix C. Is that fine? Is that what you said? You got there in there. Tense of it is clear. Tense of it is complete. See, it's simple. Yeah. Do the stuff in Appendix C. We'll do it. I know. I wasn't intended to ignore your genius question. I know. I agree. I'm sorry. I'm really bad that I didn't hear properly what he was saying. Right, so to note that all agree? I agree. Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone. Similarly, I just wanted to, before everyone heads off, say thank you to Zorfica and a big special thank you to Comrade, Andrew Waugh, Nicholas Pye, and the wider Finance and Resources team that have been working on the paper, because it has been really hard. So thank you. And would you kindly convey our thanks and appreciation to the team? Of course we will. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Take care. And that's good. Thank you. The rest of the team, I'm sure.
3. We didn't bring Kate. (indistinct)