Transcript

introduction. I just want to acknowledge the sad passing of Mr Sam Springer, a former civic mayor of Hackney. Sam was the first Black Caribbean resident to serve as mayor. Hailing from Barbados, he first worked for London Transport as a trolleybus conductor and from 1957 as bus driver at Highgate Garage. Elected a Labour Councillor in 1971, he became mayor in 1982. He linked together pride and heritage and political change and provides an example for future civic and directly elected mayors to follow. I'd also like to acknowledge this is Councillor Young's first cabinet and welcome her again as our lead for climate change, environment and transport. And also just want to note that some of us have come back from Local Government Association annual conference, all of us of course waiting for the budget on Wednesday, but it was heartening to see the Deputy Prime Minister there reaffirming a commitment to multi-year funding settlements, to bringing stability and certainty to our plans, reform of high-cost public services with a welcome focus on prevention, reviewing key areas like right to buy, to stem the loss of council homes and also a commitment to tackling homelessness, which is impacting councils across the country and particularly our borough. There was a recognition of what councils and members have faced in previous years that was greatly welcome and a promise to develop a workforce development group and a leader's council to ensure greater understanding between local government and central government in future. Moving on to the business of the meeting. Item 1, apologies for absence. I've had apologies from Councillor Mwema, but she may be joining us online. She's online, fantastic. Item 2, declarations of interest. Do members have any interest they wish to declare? No. Item 3, urgent unrestricted business. Understand there are no urgent items of business. Item 4, notice of intention to conduct business in private. There are exempt appendices for agenda item 11 around the Hackney Council agency joint venture with commercial services tent limited. I will ask cabinet the appropriate agenda item when they require time to review and discuss these exempt appendices. Item 5, questions, deputations. There are no questions or deputations. From residents this evening I have received questions from Councillor Benny Lubbock with respect to agenda items 9, 10, 11 and 12 and welcome Councillor Benny Lubbock to the chamber. These were received without notice but I will accept the questions during consideration of the relevant agenda items. However I note some of these questions are technical in nature and cabinet members may wish to simply acknowledge and commit to responding and writing or indeed to invite officers to contribute if that would be more expedient and I will defer to you. Item 6, unrestricted minutes of the previous meeting of cabinet. Do cabinet have any comments they wish to make on the unrestricted minutes of the previous meetings of cabinet held on 30 September? No can we approve the minutes? Thank you. Item 7, unrestricted minutes of the cabinet procurement and insourcing committee. Councillor Chapman can I invite you to share some observations from the committee? I need to turn mine off. There we go, third time lucky. Thank you Mayor. Yeah just to say this particular meeting of the cabinet procurement and sourcing committee was even more interesting than usual in that it really, really, really did demonstrate the huge range of things that we consider at CPIC which are all of vital importance to the council including a procurement agreement for barristers, a crucial contract for capital maintenance of lift which would be a really, really important part of our ongoing plan to improve our housing stock and bring better standards in maintenance all round and also the energy framework contract which again was a vital step in stone in our climate action plan so I just I'm not sure what's supposed to do with but commend it to the cabinet to note. Thank you. Can cabinet note the unrestricted minutes of the CPIC meeting on 2 September? Thank you. Item 8, Hackney youth parliament presentation. Unfortunately the youth parliament aren't able to join us so I do apologise for that but we will ensure that their presentation comes back at the next suitable meeting of cabinet. Item 9, the overall financial position report. I always really deeply appreciate the work that goes into the overall financial position and the very important transparency that it offers. This overall financial position I think it's fair to say presents the stark reality of the challenges faced in Hackney at present and by local government more broadly. It does set out a significant in-year overspend reflecting the pressures we face particularly across children's, adults and homelessness services which are experienced by so many councils right now across London and indeed beyond. After almost a year of serving in the office of mayor seeking to stabilise the council with our now permanent chief exec and to support continuation of service delivery that so often means asking more of staff with less resources I know it's imperative to look also at our financial sustainability and our capacity for change not only in terms of where savings can and must be made but also to advance our work in transformation and how we might work differently and in partnership. I commend council Chapman and officers for ensuring our strong financial management to date. It does mean that we're better placed than some to meet the challenges that we have right now and that we'll face ahead and I'd like to invite council Chapman to introduce the report. Thank you again. The report reflects the serious financial position which we reported at the beginning of the month in the previous OFE. There's a slightly increase in the overspend which now is just reported at just under 37 million pounds which is obviously a very serious position. It's a position we have in common with most London boroughs. I think the last figure I know, the last figure I've seen for the overspend in London as a whole is 700 million for this year so it does reflect the terrible pressure that we're all under in respect of the cost of social care, both adult and children's and temporary accommodation particularly recently. The report also sets out the measures we've put in place to mitigate this. In the longer term we are making our case to governments for proper funding and measures to help with the housing and social care crisis and I just have to remark that the situation we're in reflects chronic underfunding that we've suffered in the last 14 years under the previous government. But as I reported earlier this month in the last report, we are undoubtedly in a difficult situation and we doubt to take measures ahead. The report also includes recommendations for the first stage of the 25/6 budget report which are set out in 2014 and in the appendix. So we've done our best to propose measures that will begin the process of bringing our budget into balance. As I said earlier, we're going to have to make some very tough decisions this year in relation to a very difficult financial situation and this is the beginning of that process. We've made every effort in doing this, though, to make sure that we protect our services as far as we can. But at no point pretending that these things don't have impact but we will do our best obviously in considering those things to protect the people. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to invite Councillor Benny Lubbock to ask his question. Thank you, Chair. I'd like to ask, do you have any idea why there is such dramatic overspend by Children's Education on agency staff and who is overseeing the investigation to ensure that it is independent and thorough? Councillor Chapman. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Benny Lubbock, for your question. Now, I've got quite a long answer here but I can actually present it to you in a nutshell. This overspend is really a reflection of the other issues that I've just set out in relation to spend on the social care, children's care, and it largely affects the expense on social work, that element of it. Both permanent and temporary. And we're addressing it in a number of ways. Obviously, there is a real issue there. We need the staff. They're a vital job for us, so it's important we continue to apply sufficient and skilled people to better do those jobs. But we will be looking to measures to reduce the agency spend particularly and to bring more people into permanent employment. Thank you. I think the chief exec has indicated. I just wanted to add, there is also, this should be taken into context as well, a nationwide issue with regards to recruitment of experienced social workers. It's a problem that local authorities up and down the country are facing. And because we are in a situation where it is a statutory responsibility of the council to ensure that we have sufficient social workers to be able to conduct the duties that we need them to conduct. So where there are issues around recruitment, around being able to fill roles, are necessary to be filled. Unfortunately, we do have to utilise the vacancy, agency routing in those circumstances. Thank you. Just the second part of the question, which was to do with the investigation that says into that overspend. I'm just wondering who's overseeing that and just so that we can follow up and see what that investigation provides in terms of extra information. I can see Dawn Ziegler coming in. So there has been a discrete piece of work that has been completed by the corporate leadership team looking at the overall spend on agency across the council. That did include a breakdown of the overspend in all areas, including children's social care. The details of that can be provided. There is justification which we're happy with as to why there was that overspend. Also, there are a number of spend controls which the council have agreed as part of the corporate leadership team, which will be introduced in the next couple of weeks or in a week or so. We'll also go to the examination around agency spend, how we get further controls as an organisation and making sure that agency spend, where needed, which is necessary, is proportionate as well. Thank you. Thank you. I think Deputy Mayor Brown would like to comment and then we'll move to the recommendations as set out. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Just on that point as well, Dawn and Councillor Chapman covered that, but just to give you some reassurance about the depth and support that we put in for all the agency staff in place. So there's an extensive honing programme to make sure that they are supported throughout the course of their role. As you recently know, when you came in, Oxford came in and we were recently offsetting good and that's because whether they are full time staff or agency staff, we're making sure that every member of staff that's working to our children and young people has all the support in place that they need. On a broader point, we're able to welcome a Labour Government after 14 years of a Conservative Government. We welcome the extension of the household fund, that government is going to employ over 6,000 teachers, that they're going to turn around the legislation so that members are able to meet online and for that to be stature and long, whether you're here in person or online. However, that does not negate difficult decisions that face us today. After only government being in just over 100 of days, they are working through a series of lots of things that they need to address as a nation. So while we welcome the opportunity to work with the Labour Government, we still have to make difficult decisions right now and work together to ensure that we do the best for our communities. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Can we move to the recommendations as set out in the report? Please show hands as well as verbal affirmation. Thank you. Item 10, capital update and property disposes and acquisitions. Again, this report needs to be contextualised in the difficult financial circumstances facing the borough, particularly in the rise in need for temporary accommodation. It's important to highlight how the council continues to invest, though, here in the allocation of over 15 million of local authority housing funding, which will help us deliver much-needed temporary accommodation and resettlement homes. In buildings used by our community sector partners, in new homes, in spaces for play and through the local implementation plan, healthier streets. Again, I'd like to invite Councillor Chapman to introduce the report. Thank you again. Despite the financial situation that the mayor set out and it is also set out in the OFP earlier, as we said, the wellbeing and the welfare of our residents is absolute priority. I'm delighted to announce that, again, despite the financial pressures we're under, we were able to announce the funding for the Pedro Club, which will make sure that this well-loved facility is brought back, well, stays in use and is fit for the future and the residents, particularly of Kings Park. Really, really welcome that. The other main thing in this report is the LHF3 grant from the Government for temporary accommodation, which we need to agree and agree funding from the local authority as well. It will be one of the vital strands in our work to give proper temporary accommodation and good standards to people on our list and help, you know, the revenue position for that and all the pressure we're getting on from homeless families as well, so I commend that. We're also in this report asking to extend the delegation to the director to purchase suitable properties more generally than before in the borough to meet this. Within this package, there's the Afghan citizen refugee scheme, which will provide, I think, four dwellings for families in Afghan refugee families in Hackney, which is another great thing that we're able to do, and so I commend wholeheartedly to cabinet. I mean, this is the thing, we can't overlook that we're still delivering things that will really change people's lives here in Hackney. Councillor Kennedy has indicated. Any other members? Councillor Ettie, Councillor Nipollson in that order. Thank you. I'm really glad that you mentioned the Pedro Club. First up, and chair, absolute demonstration of when we're prepared to do something bold as a local authority, partners will come in and do something bold with us as well, and the officers working on King's Park moving together have confirmed to me that Sport England are prepared to put in £1.5 million of the Pedro Club project for the rebuilding of that building, so when we're bold, partners are bold. Thank you. Very good. Councillor Ettie. Thank you, Mayor Woodley. I really commend this in terms of the funding. I mean, this is an addition when it comes to ensuring that we keep our residents within the borough in terms of their network, and I'm quite aware of a lot of great work that has gone at the backside in terms of officers. I mean, this morning, let me just give you an illustration of the benefits of this. I visited one of our projects, which was also funded by GLA, and the GLA representatives were highly impressed with regards to the project, and having to see this going forward, that we will be providing good quality temporary accommodation, and also for Afghan resettlement families, and also shows that this is happening. We are a welcoming borough in all that we do. I'm really proud of this, and I really commend this as well, and thank you to all the officers. To Jackie, I know there's been a lot of thoughts on banks in terms of meeting, you know, to Jackie, to everyone on the team. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Nixon and then Councillor Williams has also indicated. Yeah, thank you, Mayor Woodley, and I just wanted to kind of acknowledge the work that's been going on, and note that the nearly a million pounds worth of Section 106 capital funding is being also identified as to be invested into two major projects at the borough. One of them is to do with a new playground area on Hackney Downs, and also being a keen amateur entomologist, Mayor Woodley, I'm delighted to see that our august Parks Department, Hackney's award-winning Parks Department, are delivering pollinator corridors of which this will be part of one such pollinator corridor, so full square behind that one, but also, as importantly, it also signals a significant investment into bringing forward genuinely affordable homes in the borough on another scheme, and that scheme has to be based on the Frampton Park Estate, but it's another example about keeping that flow of money that has been raised as a result of planning gain, giving planning permissions in the borough, and that is investing into the infrastructure and the future of the borough. Thank you. And reminding me about the point of working in partnership that we're already doing where we can, thinking about Hackney Downs Park and how we engage with Stormont House and their student council there, those young people with special educational needs and disabilities coming into sort of shape, what we're going to do in that park, and then yes, the Hackney Buzzline working with Ecoactive and Jerry Tissier, a sustainable Hackney, the local postcode garden, there's so many kind of volunteers as well to bring that pollinator work in, so yeah, thank you very much. Councillor Williams. Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to acknowledge the work that's being done and to provide new homes for the Afghan Housing Scheme. We have an incredibly dedicated migrant refugee and asylum seeker service who quietly get on with their work to deliver on our objectives of being a borough of sanctuary, and I think this confirms and reaffirms our commitment to do that in what's been a relatively dry period of information, but I did want to assure cabinet, anyone else in the room or might be listening online, that that work is still being done in the background, and I think that this reaffirms our commitment as a council. Thank you. If there's no other questions or comments from cabinet, Councillor Vinny Lubbock, do you want to come in with your questions? Yes, please, thank you. Yeah, there's lots of really good things in this report. I just wanted to ask a couple of questions, so I'll ask them together rather than ask them separately. So the first question is, how does the council define genuinely affordable housing, particularly in relation to the housing commission guidelines, and why isn't it 50% simply being built as council homes? And we know that shared ownership is obviously not affordable for many people. My second question is, is the funding in the final year of the LIP program already accounted for, is there scope to use it to implement additional local plans in areas where car volume has increased and/or air quality worsened in line with the main road strategy? It would be good to see that. Could part of it ensure that residents can properly participate in co-designing the most ambitious and fairest transition to a liveable hackney in terms of roads and air quality? Thank you. Are you deferring to colleagues, Councillor Chapman?

Thank you, Mary. I would first of all welcome Councillor Binilovec's appreciation of all our work in the report. Thank you for that. But as you should, I will pass over to Deputy Mayor Nicholson to answer the housing policy question and to Councillor Young to ask the question on LIP. Thank you very much indeed. In a nutshell, I'm very happy to send a fuller response just in writing following the meeting, that in a nutshell, the definitions of affordable housing are actually set out in the national planning policy framework set by central government and obviously it was the previous government that was the most recent in reviewing and setting all of those criteria out. Suffice it to say that in Hackney we consistently refer to genuinely affordable homes because what's actually defined in the national planning policy framework as an affordable home, I think as all of us in the Chamber are more than aware, very, very rarely is actually affordable in reality. And that is almost applicable to all tenure types, to be quite frank. And of course, affordable homes and those with social rent affordable homes equally impacted by these high costs of housing in London and in Hackney. On that basis, we've always made sure that this Council has been very, very clear. It brings forward social rent, genuinely affordable social rent, i.e. it's benchmarked with Council rents on all of those homes that it builds. It brings forward what it calls the Hackney living rent as the kind of next layer of affordable housings, which is targeted at a third median household income and that sets the rent level for Hackney living rent tenures, which is not the same as what the previous government of the national planning policy framework defined as living rent, which actually goes up to 80% of market value, which is just unreachable and completely unaffordable. And then finally, we come to the third housing tenure type, which is shared ownership. And that is obviously more about home ownership rather than rental. And the shared ownership is the code of city that third product that comes through Hackney built schemes and is defined in Hackney planning policy as being one of those particular forms of affordable home options available to residents. There are, I appreciate, a great deal of tensions around shared ownership, even under the Council's regime and in the Hackney context, because again of the affordability and the accessibility criteria. But the Council does strive to ensure that that shared ownership offer is of value as well. So I'll leave it at that, Mayor Woodley, if I may, and then very happy to follow up with a little bit more text and detail in a written answer. Thank you. Can I bring in Councillor Young? Hello, thanks for asking about this. Really, really important to think about how we engage with residents and how we engage on our transport strategy, our active transport, and you taking into account the needs of all of our transport users in the borough. I'm going to say a little bit more sort of on a technical level, particularly for people who don't know all of the acronyms involved in all of this. So the Hackney transport strategy is the underlying strategy that sets out the Council's priorities, and that in itself was subject to quite wide consultation. The local implementation plan, which is the particular plan that you asked about, programmes are subject to Transport for London's very tight deadlines, and the amount of funding is very limited and limited to Transport for London's funding priorities and to their formulas. So the Council builds its programme around the Mayor of London's requirements and where they align with our Hackney's transport strategy. So Hackney's approach to allocating our very limited LIP funding to schemes on main roads is contained in a technical note, which was just published recently but is really worth a look at, as it sets out in detail our priorities and how we're going to approach, how we're going to approach that in terms of actually how we get the kind of practical and technical application of the transport strategy. So in terms of the areas of overall delivery on the ground, we've got a three-year programme and that's effectively already been set, but there's flexibility in local level plans, both in the engagement and the co-design with residents, and that's built into what we call delivery mechanisms, which means each time we actually propose to implement a scheme, there's engagement at each stage of that, so not just the statutory consultation but we also engage before we start and throughout the process. And as I'm sure you know, that engagement is also through members, because members are always representing local interests and local concerns, and so all of that comes together in thinking about how we implement those individual delivery plans. And the technical note uses schemes such as Graham Road, Amherst Road and Well Street as examples going through the concept and analysis and the co-design and engagement stages before proceeding to detailed design and consultation. So there are other notable local implementation plan schemes on low-traffic and neighbourhood boundary roads and main roads, and then they include, for example, North World Road and Manor Park. So in this way the ethos of the programme is focused on creating healthy streets. Happy to come back to you on any kind of more technical detailed aspects of it, because it's really not just about the overarching approach we take, but also the very details of each scheme that we look at. Thank you, yep. Sorry, another very short follow-up. In Councillor Nicholson's answer, there wasn't a response, I don't think, to the question about why we aren't simply providing for 50% of council homes. I know you mentioned social rent, but obviously that's different to providing council homes and council rent, and I appreciate that the work that's going into the consultation on the local, the LTA and boundary roads, main roads. My understanding was that the North World Road scheme was not being taken forward. Is that not the case, or is there potentially some work going on with that scheme as well? Councillor Nixon and then Councillor Young. Thank you Mayor Woodley, thank you very much. Just in response to that, fundamentally it's about the ability to be able to build any homes of any tenure type, to be quite frank. Over the course of the last 14 years, as I'm sure you have gathered on the wider news channels through the media, there has been a declining amount of social new council homes being built by councils up and down the country, and this has purely been down to the lack of capital and the lack of cash to be able to physically build those homes and to pay for their construction, and to enable the maximum number of new affordable homes that we can possibly get the council to build and deliver more crucially, then we follow a planning regime, the council has adopted this and has been applying it now for some time, which is 50% of all new homes have to be affordable homes in new development, and it applies that if not exceeds that in its own developments, and of that 50%, the split is 30% for social rent, 20% for intermediate rent, and that all helps pay for those new buildings to come forward, it complies with national legislation and it complies with planning law through the local plan and so on and so forth as we go forward. That's the reason why. So if you can find down the back of the green party sofa, Councilor Vinnie Lubbock, some 150 odd million pounds, just for year one, then I can assure you the Housing Regeneration team in the London Borough of Hackney will love you dearly, have beat a path to your door, and many, many more council homes, as in council rent homes, would be built in our borough. Unfortunately, none of us are in that position just at the moment, but we continue to strive to increase the proportion of new council rent homes in all new developments that the council delivers. I have to come back to you on the detail where we got to our north road road, but the point was really about the engagement and design rather than the specific outcome, but happy to come back on where we've reached. Thank you. Can we move the recommendations as set out in the report? Again, a show of hands, as well as verbal affirmation. Thanks, everybody. Item 11, the Hackney Council Agency Joint Venture with Commercial Services, Kent Limited. This proposal is to set up a joint venture following the upcoming expiration of the contract with Matrix for temporary interim staffing, which expires in June 2025, which presents an opportunity to explore alternative arrangements for recruiting temporary workers. I'd like to invite Councillor Williams to introduce the report. I'm going to try not to get out of breath. So the paper proposes the creation of a joint venture agency between the Hackney Council and Commercial Services, Kent Limited. It's a new and innovative public to public venture. Partnership will provide recruitment agency services to all Hackney departments when our current arrangements come to an end. The JVE is a crucial step that demonstrates our commitment to our workforce, who deliver vital public services, many of which require specialist skills, as was set out by the chief executive earlier this evening, and which can be really hard to recruit to. By creating this JVE, the council will have more control over our recruitment of temporary staff, and it aligns with our goals while delivering on our commitments on community wealth, prioritising opportunities for Hackney residents with employment and skills outcomes, and will work with Hackney Works, the council's job brokerage service, to promote council opportunities to our community, and it will create an employer value proposition to bring in more people promoting Hackney as an employer of choice. The JVE will enable the council to fill hard-to-fill roles that require specialised skills. It will cut out the middleman, allowing the council to directly recruit staff, control quality of candidates, tailor the service to our needs, and, where appropriate, transition temporary staff to permanent roles. The JVE will enable the council to be more efficient in its recruitment approach. Currently, Hackney's annual agency staffing spend is around 48 million per annum, but not only will the proposal save money by keeping a check on temporary staff costs, it will only add up over time, it will also deliver value for money while delivering an income through profits, which will be paid as dividends to apartments, and that is the council and commercial services can be limited, and I'll leave it there. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments from cabinet? No? Councillor Spinney-Lubbock. Thank you. My question is, this joint venture may be bringing benefits compared to the current arrangement, but it would be good to see engagement with a longer-term vision for insourcing staff. This document itself acknowledges that the council has significant scope to reduce agency staff usage in line with broader objectives, and are there any plans in place to action that scope? Thank you. I mean, you'll know that we have a named especially cabinet procurement and insourcing committee, and we're always looking and tasking with every contract that comes up to look at insourcing as an option. This is really about the fact that there will always be agency staff and temporary staff, and to ensure that we run this in a more kind of efficient and perhaps innovative way. I think a lot of councils are going to be very interested in this sort of joint approach, because it's sort of money that goes out the door otherwise. Sorry, I'm getting carried away. I'll defer back to Councillor Williams. No, I'm happy to leave it with you. I mean, you've virtually covered everything, so I'm not sure whether there is anything else to add. But I'm sure Councillor Benny Lubbock has a supplementary. I don't, I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Sandra, I don't know if you wanted to come in, in terms of future plans. So, I do want to actually commend the public partnership. It is one of the most innovative things that we can do, because we'll actually be very much on the front line talking to the residents of Hackney, looking at where agency is absolutely necessary. However, where there are opportunities to move, you know, our residents within community to permanent roles, we are able to take more control over that and manage that. Where we have got challenges around some of our hard-to-fill roles, we've spoken about some of that today. We also have those specialists who will be working within the joint venture and can help us focus on some of those hard-to-fill roles also. When it comes to those sort of specialist roles and appointments, it does take a little bit more concerted efforts and time than you would with maybe some more of the generalised and regular roles. So, this gives us a really good opportunity, plus greater support when we go out into communities to offer permanent roles too. So, it gives us the autonomy in a way that we haven't had before. Thank you. Do cabinet need to review or discuss the exempt appendices before making a decision? Nope. Okay, can we move the recommendations as set out? And again, a show of hands as well as verbal affirmation, please. Thanks, everyone. Item 12, City and Hackney Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report. Just want to thank the officers and Councillor Kennedy for this annual report, which importantly highlights our continued support and protection of adults at risk of abuse and neglect through the hard work and dedication of all those organisations in the area who work with us to safeguard our residents. This forms part of our commitment to always protect our most vulnerable. We can never be complacent about our achievements and we seek to continue to help people recover from and be resilient to abuse, thus preventing it from happening as far as is possible in the first place. I'd like to invite Councillor Kennedy to introduce the report. Thank you, Chair. Yes, you will, all of you, be familiar with this report. It comes every year. Two cabinets. You might all remember the reason why. That's because in the Care Act of 2014, safeguarding adults boards were established. They have three statutory responsibilities. That's the forming of a strategic plan, the producing of an annual report, which you've got before you in the papers today, and the commissioning of any safeguarding adult reviews that need to take place during the year. In the report, you've got all the progress against the strategic plan and the eight principles in the plan. You've got 10 really good case studies, and I'd really recommend, even if you only dip in and have a look at three or four of them, you'll see how different organisations approach their statutory duties when it comes to safeguarding adults. The sad thing, I suppose, to note from the report that I would highlight is that self-neglect, once again, is the most common reason for us accepting a safeguarding adult referral, and it has been self-neglect ever since the pandemic. It wasn't before the pandemic, and it has been since the pandemic. In terms of us thinking about where the focus of our work should be as an organisation and how we support our most vulnerable adults, we should always be bearing that in mind. The final thing I wanted to say, Chair, is normally you'd have our independent safeguarding adults board chair, Dr Aidee Cooper, presenting this to you. She can't be with us tonight, and she won't be with us again because it's her last year of chairing the safeguarding adults board for City and Hackney. Ten years, amazing service, and I do want to put on record my heartfelt thanks for her. I mean, she's nationally renowned, regarded, and an expert, and to have had her expertise here in Hackney for 10 years, we've been very lucky, so can we please record our thanks to her. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Kennedy. I'm sure everyone across the Chamber would like to join in that thanks to Dr Aidee Cooper. Any questions or comments from Cabinet? Dr Mayor Bramble? Just to commend Councillor Kennedy's words and the work that Aidee has done alongside Jim Gamble and working with us as lead members and officers, and really making sure that transition from child to adult has been seamless. And actually, it's the learning that's going on between the two areas in the Council that, for me, has been really enlightening, and just wanting to acknowledge her body of work and wishing her well in the future. Thank you, and thank you, Councillor Kennedy, for your work and championing this area. Thank you. Okay, if there's no other questions or comments, Councillor Binney-Lovett? Just a very short one. I was glad to see that the mental health triage team appears to be working very successfully in the City of London, and I'm wondering if this has been considered for Hackney as well. Councillor Kennedy? Thank you, yes, that's a good section of the report. And actually, on the same page, you'll see above, actually, the Metropolitan Police, because in Hackney, it's dealing with a different police force. It's a bit harder, the Metropolitan Police Forces. Our attention at the moment is very much on right care, right person. But in terms of going forward with the idea of a mental health triage, I think it would be a case of asking the Met and asking the foundation trusts who are responsible for mental health in Hackney. So that's East London Foundation Trust and North East London Foundation Trust, because they cover Tower Hamlets and Borough Command is a two borough unit. So it would be a bit trickier, but that's where the ask would be. But I've got a much, much fuller written answer that I will send to you, Councillor Binney-Lovett. Thank you very much. Okay, item 30. Oh, sorry, we should move the recommendations as set out in the report, please, for noting. Thank you. Can everyone note the report, please? Do you need a show of hands? No, that's okay. Okay, thank you. Item 13, updated appointments and nominations. This is a routine report outlining updated appointments, and we'd just like cabinet to note the updated membership of the Cabinet Procurement and Insourcing Committee with Councillor Young joining as substitute. I commend this report to you, cabinet members. Any questions or comments? In that case, can we move the recommendations as set out? Please show hands and verbal affirmation. And I think that concludes business this evening. Thank you, everybody. [BLANK_AUDIO]