Islington Council - Corporate Resources and Economy Scrutiny Committee

Corporate Resources and Economy Scrutiny Committee - Tuesday, 5th November, 2024 7.30 pm

November 5, 2024 View on council website

Transcript

The alarm is sounded, please evacuate the building. I'm not going to ask all the members and officers to introduce themselves at this stage, but the first time that you speak, if you can introduce yourself so that everybody that is following online can know who you are. Formalities first of all, apologies for absence, apologies for absence from Councillor Kondoka. Declaration of Substitute Members, Councillor Ruth Hayes is substituting for Councillor Kondoka. Any declarations of interest at all? No declarations of interest. Minutes of the previous meeting. Firstly, any matters arising? No, and I haven't been notified of any matters arising. Can we agree those minutes? Onto the Chair's report. At the last meeting, a request was made for really some data on our top 10 contracts and the social value aspect of them. We will be receiving at our next meeting a paper copy of the list so that we will be able to consider those, so that's not been forgotten about. The information is being compiled and will be with us for the December meeting. Few other matters to raise. Firstly, we've got some visits coming up, haven't we, Saminay? As part of the scrutiny. So can we have those dates so that they're on the record for the committee?
Yeah, so the, I'll turn myself off. So the visits are being planned for the 20th, but we're not quite sure on timings yet, but it'll be sometime in the afternoon, Wednesday the 20th of November. And then the virtual session is likely to be on either the 27th or the 28th of November, sometime in the evening. So pencil those into your diaries. The subcommittee on performance data has been working away. You will see that tonight the data that we are receiving is really confined to corporate performance. There will be each quarter a particular section of the council's corporate performance coming to this committee work remains ongoing on what data we will be receiving. For those of you that were on this committee and indeed other scrutiny committees last year, it's really important that we as a committee keep track of pledges and requests for updates and information. And that because of the reorganization of the scrutiny committees, we don't lose sight of that. So I'm going to be going through various minutes of various committees to go and see what should be coming back here. But I'm going to ask all of you to trawl through minutes and your own memories as to whether there is any particular items where you have made requests for information, you haven't had that information, and you should be getting that information. Get that over to me and I will make sure that it's all followed up on. We're going to be having a joint scrutiny with Councillor Clark's environment committee. 23rd of January, the focus is going to be on Thames water. Arrangements are being made with them to make sure that it is a meaningful session. Councillor Clark and I will be planning exactly how it's all going to work. But again, that's another date for your diary. 23rd of January. And finally, there will be an update on is access systems and hubs coming to a committee in January. And I know Councillor Hayes, that will be of interest to you for later on in the meeting. Those are all the matters that I wanted to raise in this section. The next matter, public questions. Do we have any public questions tonight? And I will just ask formally as a result of various communications over the last couple of days, anybody from Parkview TRA that wants to ask a question? No, I don't see anybody. And just one observation before we start the meeting and it's in relation to item C2, the update from the Executive Member for Equalities, Communities and Inclusion. There is an ongoing scrutiny review in the Homes and Communities Scrutiny Committee in relation to community centres. That sits alongside an internal review. This committee will have an opportunity later on in the municipal year to ask questions of Councillor Chapman in relation to community centres generally. But as far as tonight is concerned, given all of the work that is going on in different places in that area, I suspect that there are more productive lines of questioning for Councillor Chapman than around community centres. And therefore I will be expecting members' questions to focus on everything but community centres, but that's not with a desire to shut the topic down. It is simply that there will be other opportunities later on in the year to ask questions around that. So we will therefore move on to our scrutiny review topic. And I'm very pleased to say that I think we've got Guy Battle here from the Social Value Portal. I know, Guy, you're going to be doing a presentation for about 20 minutes. That will allow 25 minutes.
Yes, 15, 20 minutes.
15, 20 minutes. We always welcome brevity here. And of course, members will have read the slides. And then there will be an opportunity for 25 minutes for the members to ask questions. Of course. And for those watching onto their vision, that's Councillor Belle Bradford, the executive member with responsibility for community wealth building. I was expecting fireworks, not... Yep. Over to you.
Great. Well, thanks so much for the opportunity to talk to you about social value, Councillor. I did include within the committee papers whole other slides. I'm not going to go through every single slide. I've actually reduced it down somewhat. And I've added some animations for your enjoyment. So to allow me to actually bring it to life. So if you go to the next slide. So my name is Guy Battle. I'm the chief executive of Social Value Portal. What I'm going to do, I'm going to tell you ever so little bit about the portal, what we do. I'm then going to talk to you about measuring social value. This is really important. And then I will talk to you about what you've been doing and the opportunity as I see it for his links and council to take the leadership position within London. And within that context, I'm going to talk about progressive procurement, in particular, looking at the Procurement Act and the opportunity that exists around embedding that into what you do. I'm not going to go through all the case studies. I'm hoping you've read those. But I will then dive into place-based procurement because it sort of ties in with the anchor work that you're doing. And then I'll summarize right at the end of that. So if you go to the next slide, please, it's in a minute. Thank you very much. And the next slide. So very quickly about Social Value Portal. If you do the next slide, thanks. We're a tech solution. We provide a way of measuring social value. But importantly, we also are a procurement platform. So we'll help you and we help councils around the country manage their procurement. Within that, it's not only procurement, it's also contract management. And we, out of that, will measure and help you report your social value. The platform also provides reporting. We have online learning and we have a consulting team that helps organizations maximize the opportunity around social value. Next slide, please. It's in a minute. We work across sectors. If you do one tap, please. I'm showing this not because necessarily about all the customers, but you'll see our customers there. We have public sector at the top. And we work with about 80, 90 councils around the country. And we're working with another 20 or so other public bodies like government property agency, British Library. If you do one tap, please see me there. Thank you. But what's important is actually the relationship we help broker between the public sector and the private sector. So below there, you've got-- sorry, go back one. Below there, you've got all the public sector customers work with. And I see our job as unlocking the value through procurement for communities. So we're kind of a voice at the table of procurement to maximize and unlock as much value as possible for the communities within Islington. And so you've got all those organizations we're working with in the private sector that also share that objective. Next slide, please. We measure social value using something called the TOMS system. Islington embraced the TOMS system, I think, three, four years ago when we started working with you. It's the most popular measurement framework for social value. It's supported by the Local Government Association. It's used very widely across local government across the country. What's important about the social value framework, the TOMS system, is that it's broken down into four key themes. How do we promote good work? How do we support the local economy? How do we build a flourishing community? And then how do we regenerate our planet? In that respect, it's a kind of sustainability triple bottom line approach. But what's important about the framework, it's based around a series of themes, outcomes, and measures. Sounds like music on this, doesn't it? [MUSIC PLAYING] It's your phone. Is it the phone? Oh, no phone. I'll keep going. It's fine. I won't be distracted. So to build the sounds of themes, outcomes, and measures, what's important, it allows you to put a pound. [AUDIO OUT] What's important about it-- here, let's keep going now. Thank you so much for that. It allows you to put a pound value to the social value that you're generating. If you do the next slide. And that pound value reflects the benefit to the community of Islington or wherever we're working. And so we grab data from government data sources, and we reflect the fiscal saving to local authorities to the spend that you make and also government makes. We reflect the economic value that someone now has in their pocket. We spend locally. And it also will reflect some of the social value that's generated through the long-term well-being or improvement of well-being for individuals. And so these are just some examples of social value. It could be volunteering in the community. It could be saving tons of carbon. It could be apprenticeships. Next slide, please. So what's the opportunity with Islington Council? Next slide. So we started with you three or four years ago on your affordable workplace program. And it's actually been going very well. And if you do one tap for me similar, the number I want you to focus on is that bottom right, 30.47%. So that is the amount of social value per pound in additional value we've unlocked by working with your team. So for every pound spent, we've unlocked with you an additional 30 pence worth of social value at no extra cost for the people of Islington. And so we do that. We've done that around affordable workspace. But we've also just recently finished a project which was a pilot project for social value on one of your procurements that have unlocked an additional 41% of social value. Next slide, please. And so this is effectively what you've done over the years that we've been working with you. And you can see it includes 13 new jobs. We've got apprenticeships. We have jobs for disadvantaged people, a whole range of different social value opportunities. Next slide, please, similar. And when you put that in the mix, I got the number that you spent each year, which is 600 million. Do one tap for me. So you spent 600 million pounds per year in procurement. So I've got quite a few animations, so forgive me. 600 million for-- I've just initially said, how much would that be worth? It's 20% social value, which is the average across all of our platforms. We've been now doing procurements for over-- well, since 2015. We do about 100 procurements every month. So that's 20% equals, if I can do math, which is 120 million. So that's the social value that is the opportunity if you embed it into procurement properly. So it's a big number. The reality is you can do more than that. Next slide, next tap, please. So actually, remember that 30% I showed you, which is of your affordable workplace program? We could go as far as that. And the leaders we see doing 30%, so that could be as much as 180 million pounds. If we're really bold, you could go for that 40% number that we showed earlier, which is 240 million pounds worth of social value. So I put those there just because I want you to understand the scale of the opportunity. Of course, it's not the money. It's not the number that matters. It's everything that sits behind it that matters. Next tap, please. And sitting behind that is this opportunity. And I've just taken the average across what we've done in the platform, 38,000 weeks of training for apprenticeships and the young people. You've got 1,000 jobs for people who are struggling to find work. It could be 24,000 people supporting through well-being courses, 22,000 hours of volunteering in the community, equivalent to 13 years, of volunteering, 5,000 tons of carbon saved, and then 42 million pounds spent in the local economy and up to 14 million pounds spent with voluntary community and social enterprises in the community. So this is the opportunity if you embed social value into your procurement. Next slide, please. So what is progressively procurement? Well, it's setting that sort of target, right? Next slide. And it's set in the background of the New Procurement Act that you will have read about. If you just do two taps for me, please, Simanay. That's right. So I just pulled out two items here that I think are really worth you noting. One is that we're moving from meat, which is most economic advantageous tenders, to most advantageous tenders. And that means, as the procurement team, they have to take into account the wider benefits from an environmental and social economic perspective, but basically putting the community first in your decision making. So that kind of gives you the permissive environment to ask these sorts of things and embed social value. The other key piece in there is validation. So you're going to be required for greater transparency, which means that you'll be held accountable. This is specifically in the Act for the Project over 5 million. But you could decide to do it for any job, and I would suggest over 100,000 pounds. So whilst the Act is principally aimed at larger projects, I think what's important is that it presents that sort of permissive environment for you to work within and to take advantage of when you're engaging with your suppliers. Next slide, please. And so we've built this very simple sort of pathway for delivering social value. And I think it starts with understanding needs. It then allows you to map the social value framework, the TOMS system, to what you're trying to deliver. Very important to build capacity within your supply chain. We then need to think about how you're embedded into procurement. You then need to think about how you manage and report and validate social value. And then you need to improve and create feedback. And all of those about value creation around work, the economy, the community, and also the planet. So I've just got a list of 10 lessons that we've learned and one final lesson. Let me just go through those quickly. So embed social value into standing orders. So it must be made day to day, just normal business for your procurement team. Don't let-- it's not there for the office to choose. Anything above 100,000, I would say. It just needs to be in everything that you do. And that way you know that there's no question. It's going to be delivered. Doesn't matter what category it is. It's embedded into the standing orders. Next tap, please. I've got a whole series of red things. Go on to the next one. Whoops. I'll remember next time not to have so many animations. Forgive me. Second point is understand local needs. Remembering that the most opportunity, the greatest value is living where the greatest need is. So you need to help your suppliers understand where the need is. And this is all about giving them access to local needs analysis, giving them access to the information that you have about your communities so they can support you into living value. The next element is supplier engagement. Be as open and transparent with your suppliers as early as possible, help them understand what social value is, help them understand what the need is you're looking to achieve. The fourth point is make it easy. The easier you make it for suppliers to respond, the more likely they're going to be able to deliver social value. And that is really important in terms of giving access to your own programs. As part of the procurement process, your suppliers are going to be asked to deliver additional value and to link with potential programs. And if you can introduce them to your own programs, they're more likely to be able to deliver those. So you might have all sorts of programs around volunteering, around apprenticeships, even your work program. Next tap, threshold. I suggest you do everything above 100,000 pounds. And that we found is a good number. That means 20%, that means 20,000 pounds of social value that you can unlock. And that, I think, is a good sort of starting point. Next tap, your weightings should be at least 15%. So this sits alongside your price and your quality weighting, which might be 45% price, 40% quality, at least 15% in terms of the social value weighting. You could push that to 20% or 25%, but no more. If you go too much on your weightings, then you're in danger of the bidders putting more price into their-- or more cost into their bids, into their solutions. And so you might end up with some price inflation within your process. We found that the sweet spot, if you like, is about 15% to 20%. Evaluation, it's really important that you officers do the evaluation. Whilst we provide evaluation service, we think it's fundamental that you understand each category should do its own evaluation. They should be on top of what's needed. And within that respect, we also need to think about contract management. Local government is not well known for contract management. There's this mantra that says leave and forget. But that's something that is really important that you and your teams actually follow through on. And within that respect, really important to think about your contract and the remedies you have within your contract. So I suggest liquidated damages or some form of-- let's call it stick-- with which you can hold the suppliers to account. That's really important because that ensures that they will deliver what they said they can deliver. What you have to avoid is overbidding and over actually saying they're going to do more than they can deliver. And then the final point is be transparent. So I think it's really important that every single project should do its own report at the end of the contract. You should consider making these public. Consider publishing them for your citizens, for people within the community. So they know that you've employed an organization for delivering social value. What is that? I think you should be bold enough to say what that is and how they've done, whether it's good or bad, and how they've met their targets. And the final thing is for you guys to walk the walk. It's great to talk about social value. You also need to be thinking as if you are a deliverer of social value. So how many apprenticeships do you have? Do you give jobs to disadvantaged people? Are your people volunteering in the community? How are you supporting schools? Think about what you're doing as well. Next slide, please. Last few slides. I'm just going to shift the conversation now slightly to place-based social value. Next slide, please. And talk about the social value economy. And this is all about how do you unlock social value in a place, a place like Islington? How do you get organizations to work together in a coordinated fashion so that communities can flourish within environmental limits? And we've written-- helped write a paper with the National Social Value Task Force on the social value economy that I'll make sure you get a copy of. And it was included, I think, in-- at least the link was included in the information sent to you. That describes the process you need to follow. And I've got-- if you go to the next slide, be similar. The task force published a very simple four-step program for delivering social value, a place-based approach to social value. So you make it core to your organization. You ensure that you're accountable and that your partners are accountable. You create capability within your supply chain. And then finally, you think about collaboration. We call that radical collaboration because it's all about collaborating across boundaries. Next slide, please. So when we talk about collaboration, we mean more than just the public sector anchor institutions that I know that you have. We mean how do you work with the local businesses in the area? How do you work with the health sector? How do you work with the civic sector within Islington to deliver more social value? And each of your partners should be thinking about its business operations, how it embeds it into its own procurement, how it manages it through its own capital spending, how you might embed social value into planning to engage with the developers. And then finally, grant funding and volunteering. Next slide, please. Similar. And so this is your anchor program. Radical collaboration, I think, is your kind of on that path. But actually, reaching out to Microsoft, Google, Lebeth Burnside, local architects, Law from May, big lawyers, how do you get them to embed social value into their own processes? Is there a way of working together with them with a commonality? Next slide, please. We've done this already with Durham County Council. So we create a program called the Durham County Pound where all of these partners work together with a single aim of maximizing value through their procurement for the communities where they're working. And so it's about bringing these organizations together with a series of common goals. At the bottom of that slide there, you can see the common goals, which is create more jobs, reduce impact on the environment, both prioritize better health, support communities, et cetera. Next slide, please. Within this, each of those anchor institutions signs a statement of intent. That in itself was really important. We spoke to all the CEOs of each organization, both the public and private, and they signed a letter saying we are committed to embed the social value into how we do our business, whether that is through our procurement or whether that is through how we just employ people. And they signed up to this six-step process of delivering social value. Next slide, please. We built a website called the Knowledge Hub, and so this makes everything available. I spoke earlier about making it as easy as possible for businesses to engage with social value. So on here they have a needs analysis. They can access a whole range of different resources that helps the businesses understand what social value is about and how to deliver it. It's also a way of meeting partners. So if you're a business wanting to deliver social value, how can they meet your charity partners? How do they meet the VCES sector, VCSAE sector within the area? And so the easier you make that, the more likely they're going to be able to make those links to deliver social value locally. Next slide, please. What's amazing about Durham, there's a cumulative -- there's a spend of around about 1 billion pounds in the area, and so far the social value has been unlocked. Actually, it's more than the 250 million mentioned there. It's 300 million pounds a year that's been unlocked, and these are all the things that's happening. Jobs for local people, local spend, jobs for people who are struggling to find work. And again, it's about bringing your procurement spend together. So you have your own 600 million pound procurement spent, but imagine using Google spend. Imagine Microsoft thinking about how it spends locally. Imagine Leverburn, Science, Slaughter and May, if they could be part of this community. And collectively, you're embedding the easily and social value framework into how they're doing business, then you're maximizing the opportunity for communities within Islington. That for me is what's so exciting about this approach, and that for me is what progressive procurement is all about, about reaching across those traditional boundaries to maximize the opportunity and build the community, help communities flourish. Next slide, please. And so my final thoughts to wrap up before I take one of the questions, next slide, please. So I've just got six final thoughts. So I think it's very important that you embed social value into all your procurements. I would suggest that's above 100,000 pounds for each procurement, and that needs to be part of the standing order, as I said. I think you should set yourselves a target of at least additional social value of 20%. We're seeing this out of Waltham Forest, who I know you're meeting in a few weeks' time, Bissell City Council, Rotherham. All the leading councils are delivering between 20 and 30% social value on top of their annual spend. You need to make it as easy as possible for your suppliers to unlock and deliver social value. Provide the tools for them. Do a needs analysis they can lock into and make it easy for them to link with your third sector partners. Use social value to build trust within your communities. Be transparent about what you're doing. How do you help your community understand that through your procurement, you're delivering more value for them? And I think that is a fundamental part of this process. And social value can be used as that means of building trust. Our fifth is walk the walk. This is about what Islington does as well. If you're insourcing or if you're considering how you're delivering social value, then you are showing leadership because you're doing it yourselves. And for me, that is a fundamental part. And the final piece is the place-based strategy. Reach out to partners within the region, within Islington. How can you build those relationships so they are embedding your social value strategy into how they are delivering their procurements or they are delivering their capital spend or delivering their ESG programs? [ Music ] >> Guy, thank you very much for that presentation. I'll kick off with a question and then I will take questions from members of the committee. And somebody, can we put up the what we have learned slide? Really on the question of weightings, I've been involved as part of a constitution review with Peter Horlock and other members of the audit committee. Around the procurement framework effectively discussing the weightings, the amount on any procurement exercise that social value should form as part of the contract award exercise. And I'm interested in the fact that you have split between a proportion dedicated to climate and a overall figure. I mean, at the moment, Peter, the position is we're looking at 20% being the minimum, but there is no difference or distinction between climate and non-climate based social value. So I'd be very interested to know a little bit more about firstly why you're recommending effectively a distinction between climate and non-climate based. And just to say a few things about how we in terms of our procurement policy going forward might like to think about the distinction between climate and non-climate based social value. >> So I'll take my lead from Manchester City Council and actually the GMCA as a whole who have a weighting on the social value element of social value at 20% and they reserve 10% for climate issues or climate change issues. And I think their rationale is that it ensures that the climate challenge is not forgotten and not lost within the conversation around how business goes about its business. And that way it's like two-thirds around all the social elements which is jobs creation, which is support for community, which is spending the local economy, and then there's peace around the climate change through to the 10%. And that allows them to have that conversation with suppliers around how do they achieve net zero. And in Manchester they're looking to achieve net zero by 2028, 2038 sorry. And so it's a really important issue to them. You have to think how you're going to measure it and how you're going to value the climate bit. But nonetheless I think it's all about signalling to the marketplace. It's signalling that, you know, all the social elements are important but the climate elements are important too. If you separate them out then that provides that signalling. >> I'm going to bring Councillor Clark in first because I know that she wants to ask very much around sustainability and this topic. >> Thank you, Councillor Tricia Clark, Tufnell Park Ward, Chair of the Environment, Climate Change and Transport Committee. Thank you very much for your presentation. I just want to refer to the-- I don't know if this-- Chair, just check with you this Procurement Act 2023, get ready for change. Is that related to what we're discussing now? >> So the intention is it's for information only but Caroline Wilson is here, Peter is here. It's a companion piece to this but part of the reason why Guy Battle is here tonight is we are doing a scrutiny review, we have to make recommendations and of course there is an interplay between what we're seeing in this presentation and what our policies are. So, it's-- I'm further out of some free form discussion where if there is a point that is relevant to the second presentation, the officers and indeed Councillor Bell-Brafler's executive member can be brought into the discussion. >> OK. Thank you very much, yeah. So, I'm pleased to see you have couple of slides on plastic reduction and carbon emissions reduction and then you have a goal of a lessening impact on the environment and then in what we've learned, you have the item on potential climate, you know, that you're asking people to put into their procurement, I think. But it's-- we're really-- we're also a net zero council, we're aiming for net zero for 2030. So, I think we'd like to know more about what you're asking regarding sustainability from these businesses, you know, more detail about-- so the percentage that is raised by the chair is very vague. You know, we want to be really having an impact on the-- on the environment, it's a social value issue, isn't it? You know, exactly. >> Let me just-- so I'll explain it. So, Islington has adopted the TOMS system. Have you seen the full list of TOMS measures by any chance? Probably not. There are, I think within Islington, there are 35, 40, 35 measures. So, these are individual actions that the supplier is asked to deliver or could choose to deliver. And that list includes probably about, I'm going to say 5 to 10 that's specific around the environment. Now, we do have a longer list. So, we actually have a bank of social value measures, actually 117 measures of which there are many more environmental measures within there. And so, one of the things that is possible as we go forward with you is to work with you to work-- to select which measures are most relevant to Islington to engage with their suppliers. So, we could go through that process and we-- and sort of redesign the TOMS system. But in summary, within the environmental fact-- environmental section, there's many around carbon saving, there's around the circular economy, around biodiversity and greening our communities. Those are the three principle categories that we have around the environmental issues. With that said, there's 10 or 15 that you could choose from. >> Just one more. Is it OK? I know what you want to do. I mean, it would have been good to see a bit of that into the-- in that presentation, but, you know, it is missing. And also, just as-- to mention this Procurement Act 2023, get ready to change. So, that is something we need to look at. >> Can I just address that issue? Because I think the industry has one big criticism about the Procurement Act. On the face of it, it doesn't even mention social value, let alone climate change. But actually, it does mention what's called the NPPS, National Procurement Policy Strategy. That is a very, very important document. Within that document, which is at the moment with the Cabinet Office for consultation, it is being written to pick up all the social value elements including climate change, including work, and including-- in fact, including the five missions of the Labor government. So, they're looking to build the five missions into that document so that as procurers, you'll be able to deliver the five missions through how you go about your procurement using the NPPS as that framework. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Thank you. And my point is on understanding the local needs because I feel like that is the foundation of the work that needs to be done as a council before we go to providers and ask for a percentage or ask for, you know, percentage dedicated for the climate. So, I guess, my question would be do you feel like the council understands the local need? What are those local needs that kind of stay you in the face? And what work do we-- finally, what work do we need to do as a committee looking at this topic in terms of really grasping it because I feel like it is the frontline workers across all departments that will understand the local needs and usually with procurement is kind of senior officers and, you know, corporate directors and there is that gap. And if we don't know what that local need is, how are we then going to go to Google and go to Microsoft and say this is what we're asking for? >> Yeah, I wouldn't be so presumptuous to say whether you do or you don't know your local needs. And I'm assuming as councilors you have a good grip about what your communities do need. What's important is that finds its way into the recruitment process. We've also-- the tool that I think Waltham Forest is going to show you, so it's an automated local needs analysis that pulls on data from Islington. So, it pulls on deprivation data, indices of multiple deprivation, it pulls on health data, it pulls on data around crime, and it's live and allows any organization at any time to see what's happening. So, see what the needs are within the community and then design their offer around that. Now, that could be or is often supplemented with a sort of wider policy piece for the community-- for the suppliers, but also then can be supplemented by your own feedback from your own communities, because you're right. As I said earlier, the greatest values delivered where the greatest need is. And if you match those two up, then you've got something very, very powerful. >> Thank you. Councillor Igaros-Armstrong for High Group Board. I thank you for that presentation and social value is so important. As a physicist, I love measurement things. And this presentation and the portal itself, and you spoke about it being a reflection of what the council does. And probably a lot of people on this table would claim that we already walk the walk and we do an amazing job at that. And I do have a question leading to that. But is there any evidence to show that the use of the portal actually, through that feedback cycle, increases the amount of social value that the companies or councils actually gain from? And it'd be great to know from our local experience here, having worked with the portals since 2018, as to those contracts. Thank you. >> Yes, so the answer is we have -- so if I go back a little time in history, when we started out the portal, which is 2015, and 2016 we started getting a lot on there. We saw the additional value coming out of supplies of around about 5%, 10%, that sort of order. In working with us and also, importantly, councils working with suppliers and building their skills up, we're now seeing that to be 20 to 30%. So in a way, the responsibility is on you guys. If you build capacity within your supply chain and help them understand what's needed, they will be able to deliver more. There is a kind of -- I mean, my background is both private and public sector, but private sector mainly. I haven't come across a business that doesn't want to support its community in some form or other. I mean, businesses are run by people like us, right? And so they live in places. And so they want to do good, generally speaking. So I think there's an opportunity for the council to help those organizations understand how can we do good? How can we be more responsible and support the people of Islington? And indeed, we have seen a lot of progress. And when you look at the projects we've worked with you on, we've seen that progress being, you know, 5 to 10% to be 20, 30, 40% additional social value over the time. >> Just to add onto that answer, so obviously we use TOMS for our affordable workplace program. I think it's worth saying we tweak the system for our own needs. So I think TOMS kind of calculates lots of things. There are some things which we just give -- which TOMS wants us to calculate, but we just give zero value because we think it has zero value. And then there are things which we give more weight into. And I think you get that for our social value. We'll have companies come to us being like, oh, our social values will come to a school assembly view, which is, you know, great, lovely, buy more jobs or money or like things that actually matter to our community. And I think whatever system we have for TOMS, what we find it most effective is when we kind of tweaked it to the needs of our local authority. To answer your question more directly, the threshold we have is 135K. I think that's more because that's the number by which statutorily various things happen with the council in terms of procurement. But we have various things regarding social value from about 25 to 30K up with, anyway. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. My name is Councillor Jilani Choudhury. I'm Chair of the Wellbeing Health and School -- Health, School and Community here. I just want to have two questions. One is regarding the focus on the local job, yeah, but how you can make sure this local job for the local people? Are you going to be making something that going to be 20, 50% or 60% job should be for the local people? The second question is procurement, like, you know, that when I used to work as a voluntary sector in the small voluntary sector, the find it's very difficult to get any contact from the council because small organization can't compete with the big organization because they always recruit consultant and something, it's very difficult to find local organization to be getting that contact from the council or any other organization. How we can make sure that is linked on contact or you can put some kind of threshold, 70%, 80% contacts should go for the local organization, local-based organization, and they get -- if there is any difficulty, how you can help local organization to get that contact from it. Thank you. >> So on local jobs, so there's a waiting within the procurement process, certainly within the TOMS, that means that a business will more likely win -- a business will more likely win the work if it's providing local jobs. And what we do as an organization is make sure that that business actually employs someone and we require them to submit evidence that that person's been employed. So what's very important in this is that not only is a business employing local people, it is proving it's employing local people and that's validated and we provide that solution. And so in that respect, because the incentive is embedded into procurement, you'll find local jobs and local businesses should always do better compared to outside. Now that -- you have to ensure a level playing field. So you can't favor any business in Lissington from outside the Lissington, but you can make it very clear that this is how you reward good activity in the area. So that's how you do that in particular. And on the voluntary sector is a really, really important point. Voluntary sector -- there's a number of ways of doing this to make sure that you engage in voluntary sector. So first off, you need to build capacity in your voluntary sector around social value, help them understand it. They all think they know what social value is, but they all struggle actually to articulate it in a way that makes sense to the council. So that's a really important part. Within procurement, you might also think about ring-fencing, certain types of projects in certain categories. For instance, health and care for voluntary organizations, social enterprise, and say, look, this is who we're allocating that type of work to. And so you create a level playing field in that particular piece. But of course, you're limited as to what value that is. Otherwise, you need to find ways of supporting them so they have -- they're as skilled and able as any private sector organization in delivering that particular solution. >> If I could, sure. So the only things I'd add is I'm very parochial when it comes to jobs. Like I said, if we get jobs, it should be for Islington residents. There are some exceptions, especially in large organizations that like working with multiple boroughs. And often, if we do collaborate, it's across Hackney, Camden, and Islington. Often for construction, especially when you're doing apprenticeships as well, you have to be a year on site and trying -- and having consistently site places open within Islington can be challenging. So often, we kind of work with our boroughs to make sure people can complete their apprenticeships within the year. Outside of that, broadly, our job is for Islington residents. And within the Tom system, we value that very highly. I think it's one of the highest things you can do is give someone a London living wage job through one of our affordable workspace providers. And likewise, we do the same with procurement. More broadly, for what we're doing to support local businesses, I think the new procurement act does give us more tools to let smaller and local businesses get involved. We've worked with Amnesty UK specifically to get BAME, black founder, black-led businesses as well into our supply chain. I mean, one of my goals is to get to a point where we can work out what our percentage spend is on BAME-led businesses, and then from there, set a target to where we want to get through. I'm not sure Peter, does anything else you want to touch on about, again, bringing smaller businesses into our supply chain? Well, it's possibly just worth mentioning the changes which are actually coming in within the act, which actually will support that, and we are building in to our new contract standing orders. So there's actually a duty on us to look at ways to reduce barriers and to support SMEs, VCSEs, which will definitely help our local businesses in terms of coming through. We will be required to actually publish a pipeline, so that's all of our future procurements which are coming up. And although that's set quite high, we're looking at opportunities of maybe doing that slightly lower. So to give the opportunity for market warming effectively, so that those businesses are ready to respond, and actually we give them the tools and the training and the support they need to be able to respond well to those questions. Clearly, social value is where they have an opportunity to make a huge difference, which other businesses don't. And the knowledge of the borough and the local people and the local employment need really does make a difference in terms of responding to those questions. And I suppose the final thing which I would really say is, there's going to be one place for them to look for opportunities now for the first time, in terms of the W1 central digital platform, so they will actually obviously see all of the opportunities which are coming out across the whole of the public sector, which will give our local businesses an opportunity not just to look at Islington, but to look at the other public sector authorities within the borough. Okay, we're now into a quick-fire round, because we've got about five minutes left on this item. Councillor Abraham first, then Councillor Hayes, then Councillor Jackson.
Thank you, Councillor Bashiraben from Arsenal Ward. It was similar to, I had a question on this, what we have learned. And you just said a comment, Guy, which I thought was quite interesting. You said, you know, all businesses will, I forgot the exact word in my, you know, will want to provide some sort of social value, they want to help their local community. And it was about, you know, the education piece and where that responsibility lies. Because one of your third points talks about supply engagement, and I've read it as kind of supplier education, actually, which is supporting your suppliers to better understand social value. And I kind of just want to know, and maybe get some of your understanding doing this work. You know, do businesses know about social value? And there was a second question just before I give up the mic, which is...
I have one question for you, sir.
Oh, okay. Well, I'm going to leave out that one then. Okay, so this is where I think your place-based approach is really important. Arsenal, Arsenal Football Club, there's opportunities for Google, Microsoft. The answer is, they don't know that much about social... Arsenal will actually, but I guarantee Google and Microsoft won't. So there is a really big opportunity to engage them through your anchor networks. And I would say make available to them the SME community that they have, because they'll want to employ local organizations. It's in their interest to build up the community and to build up the fabric of Islington. And so I think engaging them around that is a really... Oh, it's an excellent idea to make that available. So I think reaching out to the business and helping them understand the opportunity through the anchor-based, place-based approach is exactly what you should be doing.
Can I say, it is an excellent idea, which is why we've already started doing it. Because we've got the construction directory, which we've created local construct building suppliers, plumbers, electricians, all in one place, Islington-based, Islington people, and then give them to the anchor. So if you want to do local work on Arsenal Stadium, and you're like, Oh, but we can't find Islington, no excuse now. Here is the list of the Islington providers you can use to do your building work. We kind of want to expand that. But it's the first step. I mean, that's only one sector that we want to get there.
Thank you very much, Councillor Ruth Hayes from Clark and Wellwood. I did have several questions, but I'll take Nick's point. My question is also about the launching community sector. And quite often, people have built links. So I was interested, for example, in the use of software, and May is an example, who have got very good links with the local law centre. How do we ensure that the social... And I grant you a lot of businesses do want to do good, but they're also wanting to make money and have got pressure quite often, like some genuine pressures, on their own spend. How do we make sure that this progressive procurement doesn't disrupt existing pro bono relationships or social value relationships that haven't previously come through the council? So how do we make sure it's genuinely additional and brings more value to the community?
So by engaging them, helping them understand what it is, I think they'll be the ones to decide what's additional, not additional. I think you tell them what the opportunity is and how a partnership with... When was the last time you reached out and met Slaughter May? Have they come to this space? Have they come to meet Islington? Have you reached out to Google, invited Microsoft in? Have all these... Have you done that?
My point was really that some of those organisations will have links with existing BCS organisations not brokered through a procurement process, but through a shared interest or a location or... And so my question is really how we ensure that we don't end up losing something that's been a good long-term arrangement that hasn't counted through TOMS because it hasn't been a procurement gain, but has been a genuine community gain because those relationships, some of those relationships will exist.
Yeah, I think... I don't think that'll be a problem. I think they'll maintain those relationships if they are given what they need and the function organisation gets what they need. And so there's no reason why procurement or how the place-based approach might... There's no reason for that place-based approach to suddenly substitute and come up with a different approach to that. I think they are complementary. And you've got to leave the responsibility to sort them out to decide just what's best, I think, ultimately. I know I haven't answered that perfectly, because, I mean, that's my thoughts on it.
Questions?
Councillor Jason Jackson, Chair of Homes and Communities and Councillor for Hollywood. Just to put on record, I think Guy Fox was a bit of a menace. We can experience it tonight. Question is, from your experience, what do you think would be the biggest challenge for us as a Council to be able to allow people of the global majority to be able to really get the full value on social values, commitment that we're currently going at the point?
So, where we see it succeeding is where the direction comes from the very top. So your leader and your chief executive is to say that social value will be in everything that we do. This is how we define it. So you need to make sure that it's within your corporate strategy that flows into a social value policy for procurement, that then flows into a social value policy for planning. You need to get into every single moment you touch the community, planning, procurement, and how you do your own work. But that comes from leadership. And where I've seen the most inertia is where officers, and this is unfortunate, but it is true, say, Oh, this is too much work. You know, I'm not being asked to do all this extra stuff. You know, why am I doing this? I thought my day job was just doing lowest cost. I'm not saying that's Islington, but I'm saying that where I've seen the inertia exist, it's in that area. But if there's leadership from you guys, then that won't happen.
Thank you. Really a final observation from me, directed at this committee. The reason why, guys here, the reason why we're having these scrutiny sessions is so that we can provide the steer to the executive and the leader of this council as to what we want. That slide there seems to me the starting point, really, for where our report should be going. Those are the questions that we need to be thinking about, and it provides, I think, a really good structure for us to start thinking from really tonight onwards. What are the recommendations that we want to be making? Where do we want to be focusing on, particularly with regard to local needs? And in the visits we're going to be doing over the next few weeks, and in the work that we're going to be doing over the next three months or so, keep that in mind. Because ultimately, this has got to be more than a talking shop. We've actually got to come up with meaningful recommendations that can steer the leadership of this council in the direction that we want to steer them. And finally, Guy, an ask from me. We've not been able to have, I think, all of the questions that members would have liked to have answered. You're working, I know, with the team here. If members do have further questions, would you be prepared to just deal with them by way of email? Not all in sort of one big dump, but if I put together some further questions, if members over the next seven days can submit them to me, would that be -- >> Yeah, no problems, including if members want to see a selection of the TOMS measures. I did have some in there, but if you'd like to see more detail, I'm very happy to go to another layer of detail. I was worried about swamping the committee, but if you want to be swamped, I'll swamp you, okay? My pleasure. >> Well, thank you so much for coming. It's been a really interesting, I think, valuable session. [ Silence ] >> Thank you. We will move on to item C2, the update from the executive member for equalities, communities, and inclusion. Councillor Chapman, I know you've got a presentation. We've all seen the slide pack, and I know we're not going to be going through the slide pack. You've got a focused presentation for us, and then some questions from the committee. >> Thank you, Chair. That's exactly right. I'm starting my timer, because I promised you I would not speak for more than 10 minutes, and I will not go for five to seven minutes. Thanks very much, Chair and members, for inviting me to give what will be a sort of interim and high-level update on the work that's been going on within my portfolio. You'll have had the lengthy report, so I'm absolutely not going to go through that. I'm going to speak to the one slide, one slide you're welcome to go through tonight. What I'm going to do is briefly run through three or four things that are going really well, I'm really pleased with, I'm going to flag to you two things that I think are on my radar as significant challenges, and then I just want to do a bit of horizon scanning, so to kind of give you an idea of what strategically will be happening over the next six to 12 months, okay, and then we'll move to questions. So things are going really well. The Access Islington hubs are going really well. So we've seen over 80,000 residents. We've had about 2,500 connector sessions, and you will have hopefully read that in the report, but these are great, and I've been to the north hub, and I've met the connectors, and the feedback, which is anecdotal and which, you know, we've given you some case studies, it's really positive, because those are people who are vulnerable residents with multiple and quite complicated needs, and the connectors are really very empathetic, trauma-informed, and they take on, you know, the various different strands of need in a very sensitive way, and crucially, they follow up, so that's going extremely well. And the Bright Life's well-being coaching also, which, you know, it's something we do that really puts us head and shoulders above other authorities. It's expensive, but it really will, in the long term, save us a lot of money. That's having really good outcomes from what we can see so far. So the other thing that's gone really well, and I don't know if you've had a copy of this, but we've launched our four-year to fanfare and fireworks partnership grant program, which is awesome, because we've got, you know, 400 BCS organizations in Islington, 51 of them we are in partnership with. We've been able to, and I'm really pleased, protect the funding so that we've been able to say to them, you've got four years of funding. I went to the launch, it was a lovely event. What you could really get, we had to do line dancing, it was great, we got food, it was at the Vibas Centre, it was really nice. You could see that we've got, our office has got a really relational approach with these particular organizations, and they're networked well with each other, so that was a really positive thing. The Borough of Sanctuary grants program is just an unadulterated good news story. That's 500,000 pounds that we're giving away of the government's money, not of the council's money, because we've pooled all of our various asylum refugee migrant grants into a big pot, and through participatory grant making, so working with people who've got lived experience, we will be giving that away to support refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers, and to promote cohesion between new and existing communities, which I'm, that's one of the things I'm really passionate about, and in the wake of the awful racist and Islamophobic violence of the summer, that really needs to be a golden thread running through everything we do, so I'm really thrilled about that. We are, I'm holding the first meeting, I think, in a couple of weeks, and that money is going to start going out the door, so that's terrific. And last, but absolutely not least, the Black Cultural Centre is opening tomorrow. I honestly could not be happier to give you that piece of information, please come. I'm really happy, we've gone with this pop-up model, and where that's worked well is we've got four organisations that, you know, we've been able to take a bit more of a risk, because, you know, we haven't had to, this is a pop-up model, they don't have any costs, we've refurbished the building very beautifully, and they've got it for two or three months each to sort of to try things out. And what's been really great, we've met some of them down there in the centre, is the networks that they're forming with each other, and so we keep an open mind about what the long-term procurement process will give us, whether it will be something collaborative with some of those organisations coming together to make an offer, or whether we'll go with just one of them or with another organisation, but it's going to be open, you know, the centre's got a kitchen in it, it's going to be open, capable of being open from eight to seven, it's right by the arsenal, and we've got, you'll see in the pack, I hope you've had a look, the four organisations which are doing different things, so I'm really confident that there's going to be some sort of great delivery and some sort of thought leadership as well that's going to come out of that. So that was all the great stuff. Look, challenges, something I'm really worried about, colleagues, is the number of asylum seekers in our two asylum hostels. So we've had over 300 more people in the last two months come into the two hostels, which you all know are, they're run by the government or through the government's partners that they commission to run the hostels, so we're not running them, we are going there to provide services, so we're up at about 900 in two hostels. I'm very worried about that, that's a lot of people living in shared accommodation who are themselves traumatised and very vulnerable and unable to work in a very uncertain place in their lives. So I'm going down to meet with home office, people from the home office, I've written to Yvette Cooper, I want a maximum occupancy placed on those two hostels. If we've got more people, we need to process them quicker and then we need another hostel because we can't have people for months and months of time living in rooms of eight to ten people. So I'm worried about it, it's on my radar, I'm doing all I can. Remember the government is running this, but that's a new government who we have got good links with and will listen to us, but I'm getting involved, our environmental health, our licensing teams, because I want to know what we can do to bring those numbers down, it's not acceptable. People shouldn't have to live like that. The second thing that I'm concerned about, and I've come and talked about it more when I talk about horizon scanning, so I don't need to tell you about the rising level of need, need, austerity, cost of living crisis, the ongoing effects of COVID, we're seeing high levels of need, multiple sort of intersecting disadvantage. It's putting a strain on our VCS partners, it's obviously put a strain on us as a council. We're in a funding constrained situation, they are looking to us for money that we are not just able to dish out because we don't have the cost of everything is going up, the amount of need is going up, so that is a challenge and I'm going to come and talk to that about the things that you can expect to see on the horizon. So strategic direction for the next six to 12 months. I'm going to talk three, let's see how my time is doing, it's gone off, seven minutes. All right, I'm doing quite well. Three areas, I'm going to talk about the strategic direction, the hubs, VCS and our challenging inequalities work. And I'm going to say that across those three areas the kind of two key imperatives that I want to see fed into all of the work in that area is that we need to be data led and that we need to be monitoring and measuring impact. So I'll start with the hubs, I told you it's a good news story, but we need to make sure that we're capturing data well, so we're starting to do that. So from the 1st of November we're capturing resident satisfaction and importantly first time resolution because that's what we're trying to get at here. Raj let me know today that we've still got a lot of people coming into the hubs who probably don't need to come into the hubs. So to give you an example, there's about 10% of people coming in with documents because the council wants to see original documents for various things like permits and stuff. You don't need to come into a hub for that, we need to get our digital offer up and running because we need to clear the way for people who need to be in the hubs. We want to, you know, I've given you some anecdotal case studies about how well I think the connector sessions are going, but we just need to be thorough there and so, you know, do proper surveys so that we're understanding, we're getting feedback on the connector's skills, knowledge and approach there. We want to be able to track waiting times and how long it takes to kind of work with people on their various challenges and then we want to try and track so that we can kind of measure the job we're doing. If we intervene early, if we, you know, we're spending all this money on the hubs and on connectors, how is that, you know, that's early intervention and prevention, how do we map that to cost savings? And I just want to say, I don't know if you've been, I think the best hub is the one very close to where I'm a wall counsellor in Manor Gardens. It's a lovely place, I think it's a really great example of sort of place-based delivery and working really well with VCS partners in a lovely place where there's a garden and, you know, a building that can be used for community uses. And so I'm thinking that, so this is horizon scanning with you that, you know, I want to explore options to relocate one or both of the other hubs which, you know, one of the hubs is in 222, that's a municipal building, nobody is filled with joy when they go to that building, there aren't that many confidential spaces, there aren't places for kids to play, you know, so I just, that's something that is on the horizon. So, in summary, the hubs, shoring up that kind of place-based model, make sure it's the people who really need the hubs are there and using our hubs as well to promote community cohesion which is working extremely well at the northern hub. VCS, you know, because I've said it in other fora that I don't believe in new vision statements and new strategies and all that because I think it's a waste of time, there is an exception colleagues because we don't actually have a VCS strategy at present time, so we really need to do sort of refresh our approach. I explained to you the challenges, rising needs, less money, so what are we going to do? We've got this, we're going to use this well-being index, so that's something, talking about being data-led, pulls together social, environmental, economic data, what that will tell us is, give us an overview of people's lives, but different parts of people's lives and what's going well, what's getting better, what's getting worse, use that well-being index to feed into a kind of a refreshed approach to VCS. So, not just look at, well, what did we fund the last four years and the four years before that and let's keep funding them in a same or, you know, slightly higher amounts, but actually what does the well-being index tell us about what the need is in the borough and then that should be what's informing our who and how we're funding. And also, we need to think more about working with VCS organisations to make them sustainable and it's not just about here's your grant for the next four years, it's about how can we work with the organisations so that they can diversify their income, how can we support them to get grants and other sources of external funding, how can we convene networks and maybe help them to share back-office functions which will save them money, do we have space, obviously we're doing a community centre review, do we have space that we can release to them cheaply, can we discount business rates, what else can we do to help them be sustainable. We're also launching a new grant management tool because what we're being told is, you know, don't oververt small organisations with hefty monitoring reporting which, you know, uses pointlessly a lot of that, so we don't want to do that, so we've got a new grant management tool. So we will develop a strategy, it won't be a waste of time because what we'll do is we'll align it to the overarching strategy we've already got which is Islington Together 2030 to make sure it's feeding into that and it's not something new that then you've got something else to monitor. Finally, challenging inequalities. You know we've got the challenging inequalities strategy 2021, so we don't need a new strategy. That was a lovely piece of work and we've done some good things pursuant to it, things like the Becoming a Man project, having more hate crime prevention champions, having women's only sessions at our leisure centres and doing mentoring for our global majority employees to try and do something about the lack of diversity at the top of the organisation. All of that's good, but they're quite, you know, from that list I've just given you, you can see that they're quite project based, they're the things we did, we delivered. What we need to be able to do is kind of measure our current performance on inequalities and we're going to use the local government equalities framework to do that so that we, you know, as we look forward I want there to be clear measurable targets on equality. We work with public health, we've got some great data analysts and scientists within the council and we can use the equalities framework local government tool so that we're not just doing, you know, great but difficult to get hold of projects. So I think that is all I want to say to you. I think it's been 10 minutes, Chair, it's been 13 minutes. >> Probably longer but a little bit of flex in the meeting so I think we've got time for about 15 minutes of questions. Councillor Hyde I know indicated a wish to ask some questions so Councillor Hyde, then I'll take Councillor Weeks then Councillor de Juarez-Armstrong, then Councillor Osterman. >> Thank you, Councillor. I'm very excited by the kind of Bright Lives Coaching intervention that's very similar to roles I've held in the past and there's so much good news there. I hope you'll forgive me asking on I think on page 45 there was a comment about on the right hand side 10% of respondents described their ability to cope since receiving coaching support is not good. I mean that in some ways is great but I was interested of course in what happens to those 10% of people who don't have a good experience. It might be more appropriate for you to take that away and come back to me. And I guess as you were talking this evening I was wondering about, you said there's a PhD student helping but about kind of longitudinal data collection for that project because that's obviously really important because the early intervention aspect and if you're looking at like a full cost recovery budget for projects like this, we need to understand what's happening there. And I also wondered about a kind of outreach element because particularly the area around Manor Gardens is very visible, high levels of adults with complex needs and I was wondering about as well as people coming in whether we have any ability to go out and work with some of the other teams in the council. Then I have lots of questions about VCS but maybe we can go with that separately. So my other, the other question I do want to ask if I may, the community cohesion stuff is really, really good. I couldn't help but wonder what are we doing to help receiving communities, not just putting them in hotels or more broadly, you know, so that we're not pursuing a one sided strategy where the onus is on the person that's already dealt with a lot of trauma and trouble. Thanks. >> Can I come back on those, Chair, before we take any more questions? >> Absolutely, yes. Go. >> Thank you. And I'll go first and then Raj pitch in if you want to. So, Councillor Hyde, the 10% of respondents described their ability to cope since receiving coaching support is not good so I just want to make the distinction there that that's not necessarily saying the coaching wasn't, you know, that they're good or useful but just their ability to cope is still not good. Maybe better than it was and still not good but so, yeah. So what happens to them, this is, this is kind of, we've got the anecdotal case studies and we do do, we do do follow up so those people aren't just then left. But in terms of capturing that and being able to say sort of in a more data driven way, well that was 10% and we followed up and then 5% then said I don't have that information but certainly that's, yeah, Raj will-- >> Just on that is we do follow up and generally that and we can get some really detailed data to present on this. It's generally because those individuals need more support and it's more complex than just coaching. So what generally happens is that the project officers would then refer them into further services that they need the further support on so that we can sort of compass left. So that's, that's the reason why that is. >> I'll just say something about, sorry, about Bright Lives that I picked up from the data which is that 40% of the referrals are for residents who are from global majority backgrounds but they make up a tiny minority of the people who actually take up the offer. So there's something there about how do we build trust in those communities. People are referring people to those communities but they don't take up the offer so that's something also on my radar. So we will come back on that. You picked up on the evaluation so I think the takeaway for me there is to, good lord, is to come back to this committee with the service evaluation when it's done. In terms of outreach, I'll say about how I know the VCS organizations are working on the site and then maybe Raj can come in to know if we actually have people who will go to people's homes. We have a sort of rotation of different, so you know, people from gambling, gambling aware or different, you know, different services kind of rotating through the manor gardens in addition to the connectors and counselors who are there and the housing officers who are there all the time. I'll ask Raj to pitch in because I don't know if people actually go to the homes of. So absolutely, Pastor Chapman was right, we don't have actual staff that are available from the hubs to go out to do outreach. However, what we are doing is a partnership we've got with manor gardens and working collaboratively with them that they provide outreach. But the plan is moving forward and Pastor Chapman referred to kind of that horizon scanning. Whilst we've had upper street open for some time with all three hubs now we've got that opportunity to collect as much data and information as possible. So if there is that need that there is a requirement for that, we'll be working with our colleagues across other services to look up what outreach is provided and refer in that way as well. So we'll build that model up as we get to know more and more. >> And the final question before the fireworks, community cohesion. So the sanctuary grants, the way that's set up is that allows us to fund, you talked about receiving the communities as well to tell you how that. >> Councillor Weeks. >> Thank you, Councillor Weeks, Marmee Wall, Chair of Licensing Committee. My question is to both to Raj and Councillor Chapman with regard to the Black Cultural Centre. So tomorrow the Council will launch the Black Cultural Centre to great fanfare. We picked up in press releases probably by the local press. But as a member of the Council we know that there were struggles in getting to this stage. So my first question is what lessons have been learned, should we pursue future projects of this type? What are the success indicators in a year, three years and five years from now and how can we ensure that for members of the community this is not just sort of like mere window dressing? Thank you. >> I'll respond to that and then I'll let Raj come in. So yeah, loads of lessons learned from the last unsuccessful procurement. Mostly around sort of having efficacious due diligence that isn't, you know, so rigid that you've got to jump through and kind of working with organisations. But, you know, kind of getting that balance right. We want to support people but there are kind of, for safeguarding reasons, there are basic levels which, you know, which need to be met. So I think a good learning which has kind of informed the pop-up approach because it enables us to be, to flex and to have a lighter touch due diligence was to say that rather than have a procurement for an all in, once and for all provider for the next five, ten years, let's try and do something a bit more agile and let's then have a lighter touch due diligence because we're only giving you the centre for two or three months each. So we can just, I don't mean take risks, but we can just be, we can open it up to, I guess, a broader range of people who wouldn't have been able to meet full due diligence criteria. So you've asked for success measures one, three, five years down the line. I mean, five years down the line it will be a flourishing centre if, you know, if I had, if my dreams come true it would be in a bigger, more majestic building. But that's the building we have got at the moment and we've made it as nice as we can. And it will be a great success. I don't know if there'll be one provider or if it will be a kind of combined effort. It is really nice on their own, but they can work with some of the people they've met through the procurement process is very nice. So in terms of, I want this next year to go really well at the pop-ups. That's, you know, and what will that look like? Well, that will look like that build, that site is animated. You know, there's not, they don't have to, their costs are covered. They don't have to generate money. We're not giving them money, but we're giving them the premises. So success there is for two or three months you've animated that space. People have gone. We capture the number of people who go and they, you know, have experience for them. And we kind of build the reputation of Islington's Black Cultural Centre. Three years from now we should have some kind of permanent provider, whether that be a group of people coming together or one provider. And they should be doing work which is not just, which is about delivering services, but also, as I mentioned before, that kind of thought leadership. So I think that I'd love it to be bigger. >> Thank you, Chair. >> Sorry, Chair. Yeah, just to add to what Councillor Chapman has said. I mean, in terms of the diversity of services that are going to be delivered through the pop-up process that we've put in place. And when you look at the slides, there's everything from education, history, taught arts and culture, youth entrepreneurship. So I think what we need to really, and this is what we will learn through this is they offer to be so diverse and fit for purpose according to need. And that's what we will learn and build on. But bringing organisations together to deliver that collaboratively, you know, has been absolutely fantastic in terms of workshops that we've done with them to get them to where they are now, and it's been really positive. So I feel that's a really good new story moving forward. >> Two or three months, officers in Raja and in Raja's team worked with them, brought them into the town hall, ran workshops with them to talk about their offer and how they were going to run the place. So it's been a really good to kind of, it's the first time that they're doing this kind of engagement. >> Early. >> Thank you, Cher. I love what you said about being data-driven, and there's a huge variation in terms of who presents at these accessible hubs, access hubs. I think Canal Ward has got about 4%, 2%, and I think Federal Park Ward has about 14%. So it's a huge variation. So it's a challenge about communication to residents and letting them know that these exist. And then there's also potential slight concern because I think a lot of money has gone into investing and creating these hubs, and you mentioned that you potentially, after less than a year, looking already to relocate some of them. How much is that going to cost, and what else are we looking for so that we don't have to repeat the same mistake again? >> Yeah, let me answer that. So the data you've got around which ones are the most used and from which ward, right, that's because we've only just opened the northern hub, so I think that's part of that, you know, because now the Manor Gardens northern hub is up and running. So I think we see that data shift. Yes, there's a piece of work to do on cons, so we want to get it on our digital notice boards and kind of build on that, and there is a cons plan on that, and I think it's referenced in the material. Look, in terms of the cost, look, I absolutely don't want to waste the council's money, but what I can -- this is, you know, spending money to save money, isn't it? Because if we are getting people, you know, especially when you think about Bright Lives coaching people before they hit crisis, if you can invest in them, then you are saving, I mean, you know, a huge amount. So what works really well in Manor Gardens is that people are able to come and be helped by the sort of socially prescribed help that is literally available right there, you know, because there's so much already going on in Manor Gardens. Main way on Upper Street, you know, people can come with their kids, there's a community garden, there's kind of play space, there's, you know, yoga going on, there's all sorts of people there who can translate Arabic, Somali, Turkish, you know, it's a very kind of -- there's nothing about it feels municipal, so I think having spaces like that in the three localities is worthwhile. Yes, we don't want to waste council money, which is why I said, you know, when we look at the -- when we're doing the asset review of all the assets we hold. >> Thank you, Chair. Just two questions. The first one's just around -- I think it's really great the way the data is captured with the access hubs and in reference to 39% being housing support and it kind of breaks down whether that's homelessness. My question will be, have any -- has any of the senior officers or managers been invited to the access hubs to see what kind of front door problems are coming? Because like you said, we want the right people to come to those access hubs and if we're seeing that housing's an issue, could they have been resolved over the phone or is there a more structural problem in housing? And secondly, just on your point around documents, I think actually that's a really positive thing for some of our elderly residents who -- especially when it comes to renewing like the blue badge, who don't have access to computers. So I think it would be good to kind of send that messaging out and say, look, there's a hub here, we can help you with that. And because I know as counselors we had, you know, they really struggled with that and they would have really appreciated a hub close to them to be able to do that. And also, using the Manor Gardens Library, which is just across the road, I think that's worth tapping into. And just secondly, on the challenges with asylum seekers, not to delve in too much into kind of the national problem and the government responsibility. And as much as I feel like it's really crucial as a council to lobby the new government and write into Yvette Cooper and hoping she will reply soon, I do kind of want to know more of the issues or the problems that they face of those who are -- because they're not just numbers, they are families, specifically those who have children. What other issues are they facing that we as a council, as a borough or sanctuary can help them and kind of just starting off with that work as a sense of urgency, whether it's, you know, visiting the family, speak to the families, really seeing the numbers, how many are living in -- like that really kind of face-to-face work with some of these families, as we know that that situation is quite difficult. So it would be good to kind of see what we can do, what we can offer those families. >> Yeah, so I'm going to respond. I'm going to take the migrants question first, then I'm going to just say a little bit about what you have to say about documents and older people. And then I'm going to let Raj talk about whether officers are going to the hubs. So of the 900 or so people in those two hostels, they are largely single unaccompanied men. So what we do -- and, you know, our work in Islington through our No Recalls to Public Funds network and our borough sanctuary work, the No Recalls to Public Funds network here with officers that we have, and we are -- you know, the work we are doing is recognized nationally. So we are in those two hostels, as I say, our government or, you know, controlled providing a huge amount of services. So the issues that those people -- it's not families, but the issues that they're facing is that these are extremely traumatized individuals packaged together in unsatisfactory conditions in a state of extreme uncertainty because they're, you know, in the process of seeking asylum. [ Inaudible ] >> I will confirm for you tomorrow absolutely in writing, but I don't think there are any children in those hostels. So we provide a whole lot of advice, a well-being by physically going to those two spaces. You know, we've got officers who are pretty much there all the time. And, you know, the numbers did come down to below 700, and that was, you know, things were looking better, and we were moving people out via housing fund and all but 70 of those have been used for our Afghan-Ukrainian families. But so we are there on the ground delivering those services, but it's a -- you know, these are people who are, you know, ultimately if their asylum application is refused are facing destitution. And that is, you know, we've got -- we're supporting about 47 families at the moment who have no recourse to public funds and who are effectively destitute. And the really experienced officers are there in those hostels. And the other thing I wanted to say, yeah, so people -- documents. So what Raj has explained to me is that sometimes the council says we need to see original documents when they don't. So we're causing -- you know, we don't need to do that. Just let people upload copies. Yes, it's good for older people to be able to come in and get help with that. But I've also started to sort of challenge my thinking a bit around people who, you know, are digitally excluded and to think about ways that we can digitally include them. So are there ways that we can support older people or people for whom English isn't their first language to become able to use technology in ways like this? But I agree with you and for those people to help. So I'll hand over to Raj to talk about officers actually in the hub. >> Thank you. So in terms of just the actual 39% housing and obviously there's a breakdown in the presentation of types of interactions that happen within the hubs. Absolutely senior officers are coming onto the hubs. They are involved in this. I take regular information and data back through to CMT to the council's corporate management team and to our chief executive so that the data is visible and everyone sees that. What -- I think that, you know, and I'll say this, this is a fantastic model because what we've done here is we've not just rolled out a model where we've got resident experience or resident services providing services. We've got -- Chancellor Chapman referred to the connector sessions. Those connector sessions are where we are, wherever the need is and we've got -- depending on the requirement that the resident had has, we can make those referrals into the services. We can book appointments with services. We can also have officers coming along and they do go to the hubs and they will spend time there seeing residents. But we also refer outside of the council. So we have our VCS partners. There's a list of them in the presentation slide around who actually works with us at the moment. We've got more VCS partners that are asking if they can also come in and spend some time in the hub so that they can provide services through our hubs and the types of services that they provide that the council doesn't provide. So it's a kind of a holistic service and it's almost like a package of service. I think just going back to Councillor Chapman's response also on the digital inclusion and exclusion. Within the hubs we've got digital hubs. So we have actually got devices that our staff will help and support residents if they say I want to -- I've been trying to do this or I want to do this online but I can't do it is we can support and assist. So we can empower them so that what that does is it frees up that time for the staff to be dealing with genuine crisis situations or vulnerable people who have no other way of accessing those services. So yeah, it's a very joined up offer and not just within one service area. And as I said earlier, we're building on that on a regular basis. So supplying that data based on the need. We're then building that into the model as we go on. >> I'm really glad to hear the wonderful work that's going on behind the scenes. And I am quite proud of the hub because that's where a lot of the community go and it's accessible because of Manor Gardens. So I just want to make that clear that because Manor Gardens is a charity, that's, you know, the whole building, people that go there don't see it as a council building. So they're walking through that way. What my concern is as quite rightly the riots that happened in August, even though it didn't touch Islington, but I know many, many, many residents that it has touched and there's a great fear out there. And I know that we're spending a lot of money on the migrants and the asylum seekers, which rightly we should. But I just want to remind people that we mustn't forget about the residents that are from the BAME background, but not necessarily a migrant or refugee that are going through a crisis at the moment because they are scared to enter any of these buildings. And there is a massive distrust between the council and quite frankly my community because they feel that there is a lot of right-wing racist thugs on the street in Islington and they feel the council hasn't addressed it. We had this lovely event and people attended, but people have been saying to me, okay, we keep having these events, but what's going to come of it? Nothing's going to help. We've been having these talks now for how long? What is going to -- how are we going to feel safe on the streets? And how are we going to promote all of this to a section of the community that, like I said, that are not -- because migrants and asylum seekers, I'm not saying they get special treatment, of course not, they need that because they're trauma, they are because we can't reach them. We can't reach them because there's no trust. So I want to know what is the council going to do to reach those communities and are our staff reflective of the communities that we serve? >> Okay, I'll take some of those points. So Councillor Pandle, you were kind enough to join me at that social -- at the community cohesion event where every single person who came told me, look, this can't just be a really nice event and we all have lunch together. So you will remember at that event we had over 100 people there, we were all on different tables bringing people together. We had facilitators on each table facilitating a discussion. So we captured what everyone had to tell us and the work is -- Lorna is one of Roger's officers is doing the work to collate all of that information and to say here is what you told us, here is the action plan that's going to come out of that. So various things did come out of that, very clear messages that we got around communication, channels of communication, languages, how when there's events of this kind people want to be communicated with, places need to be staying open. People commented that, for example, on the table I was sitting on had a couple of men from the Bangladeshi -- isn't in Bangladeshi Association. I had an Afghan person who settled here. I had TRAs and I had one of our black women who's a community organizer and all of them reflected that there is no way in which they ever find themselves around the same table. So that made me reflect on all of the events that we put on, all of the, you know, great celebratory events, the great, you know, Black History Month or Islamophobia Awareness events, LGBT, and it made me think, actually, I want to add another event to the calendar which is just about cohesion event and it's not about, well, this is directed at particular segments of the community but it's about bringing people together. That was a strong steer that we got from people. So to reassure you that that was not a one-off, nice event, we all had a great time, that that work is ongoing and I can come back and report to you but it's, you know, it's in train. As for, you know, Raj can talk about offices, right, that's all of our jobs as counselors, isn't it, to sing about the great work that's going on in Manor Gardens and bring people in. >> Thank you. I think one of the things that really hit home with me at that event was we had some residents that actually talked about their lived experience and that was, you know, really important for us to hear. But absolutely, I think the event itself, there is an action plan being developed as we speak. We'll share that, we can share that when we do come back again in the new year with yourselves on what that is but that's something I am taking to the Community Embodgering Sector Board that I chair, along with the Chief Executive for Voluntary Action is LinkedIn to talk about the action plan and actually what are the things that we can do jointly and deliver but equally what are the things we can do to empower BCS organizations to be able to take action because there was, like you say, a lot of mistrust with the riots that were happening around misinformation, around people being, you know, scared of various things. So I think it's really important that we absolutely pick that up when we see that through and further events so we can stand up. And Councillor Chapman can say, you said, and we've done this and this is what we're doing, this is the impact that more importantly that that has actually had on our communities and how people do feel comfortable coming and talking about the experiences that we can work together to deal with those situations. >> I'm afraid we are now going to have to move on. It's quarter past nine, we are 20 minutes behind schedule. Can I say that if members again have unanswered questions, get them to me in the next seven days and we can then incorporate them in. I have one from Councillor Staff who's not here tonight, for example, but we'll deal with them in that way. Thank you for attending, it's been a busy week for you in particular. And we can move on, because I am conscious of time, up to corporate performance, quarter one, C3. Joanna Dawes, I think you're presenting. Joanna, five minute introduction and then we should have about 15 minutes for questions. Workplace questions will be dealt with in the annual workplace report. >> Great, good evening everyone. So yes, this report brings you the quarter one performance update for 24/25, so that's April to June this year. And there is a focus on corporate resources as was agreed by the committee. So it includes the key messages on corporate resources performance in the main paper, which I'll briefly run through in a second. The scorecard in appendix one with corporate resources metrics and performance data. And then appendix two has the council wide quarter one update against the whole delivery plan for your information. For background, the delivery plan was adopted earlier this year, setting out our corporate priorities for 24/25 to act like a corporate plan. And as the role of corporate performance is to track progress against corporate priorities, performance updates now orientate around the goals of the delivery plan, around to that. So I'll just briefly run through some of the key performance messages for corporate resources for quarter one, set out in the main report. On the budget, I expect you've had a more recent update on this, but just to say, we managed the approved general fund budget well for the start of the year, and there's a net overspend of 0.6 million in quarter one. We've got a new metric on this this year, which is the value of the savings forecast to be delivered. And as of Q1, savings is forecast to be delivered by the end of the year. On the workforce, sickness, absence of performance has continued to improve actually over the past couple of years, and that performs the benchmark that we use for London Council's average, so this is going in the right direction. Also on workforce, the council continues to focus on the challenge of agency staff. After the growth that we've seen in agency use over the last year, actually the data brings better news for this year so far, and although it's still higher than we'd like, I think it does show that the efforts are starting to bring it down, actually, and make a difference. So while the Q1 percent for agency staff use was only half a percentage below Q4 from last year, the initial figures for Q2, which I'll just kind of informally release to you today, show that this has actually come down a further 1.5%, and we're actually back to kind of pre-quarter three figures last year. So associated with this spend has also come down. So spend has dropped by nearly two million pounds between Q3 and Q1. Initial figures again for quarter two show a further drop of half a million, so the measures that are in place, so hopefully we'll see this trend continue. On digital services, the strong performance of last year continues. The numbers of significant outages, which are kind of formally called in techie language P1s, is stable and there are actually fewer in quarter one than the average of last year, and 97% of projects, digital services projects, are on track. So these are digital fitting residents and RIT infrastructure and resilience. Information governance, which is the last area just to cover briefly. Performance continues to improve due to, I'd say, the actions that are put in place by the team, principally its centralization. Freedom of Information Act performance in Q1, that's actually the best date by far, with 97% despite actually a growth, a relatively high number received. So this means that we've met or exceeded our target, which is set by the Information Commissioner's Office, of 90% for the third quarter running now for that, so that's great news. Although the subject access requests completion rate target wasn't reached, it's the same target, 90%, performance was higher in Q1 this year, 73% and it was higher than quarter one last year, again, despite receiving actually 10% more cases. So performance actually is hopefully really improving here. NEB edges are still being put in place to try and improve that performance further, so we do hope to continue, we do hope. I'll leave it there and hand over to the questions. >> Just very quickly, Chair, as well as questions on the paper, keen to get members' view on the format as well, particularly Appendix 2, the delivery plan, which I find a very, very helpful format with the RAG ratings. >> And thank you for that, that was really helpful. I did want to pick up on something you just said, and it's also, I love the RAG ratings in the document as well. So it's come up before on this committee, which makes me slightly uncomfortable, which is the subject access request completion rate, and very helpfully, you've got data that goes back to 2019 and 20, and we've never seemed to have met the information commissioner's target ever. And so I just want to know where the issue lies with that. Is the target from the ICO too ambitious? And if so, it might be a question for Councilor Ward and others politically, is there a conversation to be lobbying to make this a more realistic thing, because we have not met, I'm just looking at the data, since 2019, we have never met this annually. And secondly, it was, or is it the other, in your answer to your question, do we need to put more resources into this? And the third one is, what's the outcome, like it seems like there is no penalty, if I can use that word, for not meeting this. So is there reputationally, is there a fine, you know, the information commissioner are very stringent with their fines, as many people in the public sector know. So I just thought you could give us a bit more information, but it just seems like this is either an unrealistic target, or there's a real concern in the resourcing of this area of the council. So could you give us a bit more colour, please? >> I mean, I can start with that. So yeah, that's right, it hasn't been met, it's a very challenging area in the team. It's just very dependent on the volumes that are received, and they do fluctuate, and they do put a lot of pressure on the resources that are available. Now I am aware, having spoken to the team briefly about this, that they were in a kind of regular conversation with the information commissioner's office. So it's not just the taxation about how they're managing the resources, how they're managing to deal with, you know, the process, and what they're putting in place. And so it's kind of, it's more of an input into it, but yeah, that's... >> And just to add, I mean, I think these things are really time-consuming and difficult to get the information out. We did restructure the service to centralise it, which I think did improve performance on FOIs as well as SARS. But, you know, it is difficult. Yes, if we threw loads of resource at it, we probably would meet the target. But, you know, that would be a lot of money diverted from other things. And, you know, there is a council, you might find this incredulous, but I have reason to believe that a council not far from here, in one bit of the council, has 60 members of staff working on SARS. We've got a tiny fraction of that. You know, if we had 60, that would cost a very, very large amount of money, which would be cost of online services. So it's difficult. >> I'm just going to slightly abuse that. Is it possible to benchmark, like, what other councils, because I wouldn't want us to be the only council that is not meeting it. So do you know roughly how other councils fare in meeting this target? >> There are difficulties, certainly, in the areas. We have got some information. I haven't got it all to hand. But, yeah, we can get some of that out, yeah. >> I haven't got it to hand, Councillor Ibrahim. But I don't know of any London council that meets their target. I think we are, as a local authority, we are the most regulated area of the public sector. And that's a good thing. But, yeah, I'd be a huge amount of resource into this when the numbers just go up and down. And as Joanna says, the team regularly talk to the information commissioner. So I think that's a good thing. >> Speaking of targets, another delivery plan, page 84, and then I'll come to you early. Answering calls. Target 90%. 16%. So that's one in six callers are hanging up. Why do we think that is? And what can we do to improve that in the spirit of let's get the basics right? >> As you know, Councillor, I've never used that before, of course. But, yeah, absolutely. It's a question that actually Ernest asked when this came to executive. And it's actually a question about the rate of calls. And we've got to address it. It's a lot better than it used to be. But it still needs to get up to where it should be. Don't do much to work with that at all. >> I don't know what to say other than agree. And we need to continue to work very hard to improve it with some of the things we've talked about and have been on the agenda of executive recently. >> Really just picking up. Sorry, Joanna, you may. >> I was just going to add that with the new structure that the committee is taking, of taking themes, calls falls under the quarter three. So you'll be able to have a more detailed kind of insight at that point. >> I think what I was looking for by way of an answer was some understanding of why you think we're not hitting our target. Is it lack of resources? Are there particular pressure points at particular times of the day where we are struggling to answer calls in time? Or is it just the fact that people are increasingly impatient? >> I don't think -- I mean, at this point, I just don't think we don't know Councillor Wayne. It's very frustrating because the software is so much better than it used to be and this shouldn't be happening. Can I suggest we do a bit of a deeper dive into this and come back to the committee? >> Thank you, Chair. So my question is about the new performance indicator on savings. I'm slightly concerned that within the first quarter we're already reporting that we will not be able to meet about 30% of it. So how are we -- how secure do we feel about being able to meet the rest of the savings as we progress through the quarters? What are we looking to do to happen and how are we going to manage that 30% that we can't meet? And maybe just a point to say that obviously we do have a new government now and hopefully we will be able to remove this key performance indicator as soon as possible. >> Fortunately, yeah, I think savings are going to be a part of our professional lives for the foreseeable future. I can't immediately -- I can't really envisage a time when we're not going to have to make savings and to some extent, the savings and efficiencies are healthy as you make savings to things which are maybe dropped in priority and refocus the resources elsewhere. So a general efficiency drive is something which should probably always be a part of what we do, even in a scenario where ideally there was plenty of resources. The -- obviously it's concerning when we don't manage to deliver savings. Often we find that they are delayed as opposed to not being delivered at all, which is manageable when we've got contingencies and things like that. And the monitor is the place to see the real impact of it on a net basis. And where there is detailed analysis in the monitor per saving of exactly where that is. And the monitor will be here I think next time, if I'm not mistaken. I think there will be a detailed analysis and suggest probably look at it then. >> I'm not seeing any -- I'm not seeing any further plans up on this topic. What I would invite members to do, have a look at the delivery plan. If there are items not on there that you think ought to be on there. Again, if you can feed that back to me and I can then share that around. Really just a point of clarification with the delivery plan. What was the input of the politicians in it as opposed to the officers? Because this is an important document. It's essentially what as a corporate body our priorities are. And I've looked at the ways a committee would be interested in having some influence on what is in that delivery plan. So effectively, where did it come from? Officer led or member led? >> It's something I've asked for for a while. Just a better way of presenting this. And this is what we've -- this is what authors have come up with. I like the way it's presented here. And if members think there's different ways of presenting it, we can do it a bit differently next time. And different -- I'm all ears. I mean, it should be a working document. If there's different ways we can do it, let's do it some ways. >> My question, less about presentation, more about substance. How did the particular objectives get selected? Was it officer led? Was it member led? >> The five missions were member led, and it was around the five missions. In terms of the particular objectives, that was officer led. >> Perfect opportunity then for us to go away, have a think, and provide some feedback. >> Conscious of time as ever, let's move on to item C4, the annual workplace report. And Adele and Claudia have been waiting very patiently for their opportunity to present. Again, what I would ask for, presentation around five minutes, and then questions. >> Thank you, Chair. I'm really pleased to present to you the annual workforce report for 2023-24. It is a retrospective looking report, but basically our equality, equity, diversity, and inclusion pillar within our workforce strategy meeting an equal future and challenging inequality within our workforce. The report, therefore, reviews our progress against that strategy. It measures the impact that works to reflect the diverse community that we serve. The report highlights positive trends. So we've seen that the percentage of Black, Asian, and multi-ethnic policy, that's higher than the Islington working age population. We've also seen year on year an increase in the top 5% of earners. So that was at 31%, and that is above our target, 6.8% above the London Council average. We've also seen those who have shared they have a disability, that we've kind of got the most accurate picture. So again, the number of disabled employees in the top 5% of earners has increased to 11.4%. Also we have procured, obviously one of the key aims that I think has been mentioned several times tonight is around data and multi-ethnic colleagues. So we're seeing that that continued investment as well as making sure that representation within open development programs is also diverse. Our focus on early careers development continues and that's supportive of reducing the age population and addressing any remaining or emerging disparities. So looking forward, we are obviously going to continue as well as identifying any emerging trends. We conducted a colleague survey towards the end of the reporting period and as we analyse the results. I'm going to invite you first. >> So I had a question around how you, so the data and the integrity of your data is what I want to drill into because I've lost my page so I'm going to start talking and hopefully I remember where it is. I found it, page 106 on the pack, which is the ethnicity profile and I don't understand it. It says, so you've kind of classified Asian, black and then we kind of have a group called black and Asian and minority ethnic and then there's numbers next to these and there's percentage next to these so there's clearly some sort of double counting that's going on because I think if you tally these numbers it will be more than the 4,000 odd. So I kind of wanted to know, so when you're asking employees for their ethnicity, how are you doing that because you can't simultaneously be black and bane and so I just kind of want to understand your data because, and the reason there's a slight concern is because if you go down to some of the other graphs and tables that you've given us, it's not consistent with those sort of bandings and those sort of groupings so it was just a broad question, how do we collect ethnicity data basically? Thank you Chair, so to answer the question, we've been reviewing our data categories in terms of going live with the Equality Data Campaign so it is broken down into broad equality groups, finer details, so this report takes I suppose a grouping approach and I think what you probably would like to see is maybe some of that breakdown, that we do have that data but for this purpose it is collated, obviously it's quite a long appendix as it is so we've kind of had to do that for this much more detail on the different elements. Okay so if I've understood correctly because I think that makes sense, so the black, Asian and minority ethnic, I would assume is the total number of Asian, black and mixed staff and I'm not going to do the maths here but is that how you then get to that broad, okay, and then you're saying you capture those specific, those specific standpoints as well, okay that's really helpful because as we were going down into the forms and into the other tables it was just really hard to kind of foster that scrutiny of seeing actually where are those disparities and the experiences, if you look at especially in the ethnicity profiles versus kind of the salaried bandings and like you know black staff members are over-represented for example in adult social care and that directorate but you know if we then, you know it would be really useful to correlate that to their experiences of kind of salaries and progression and things like that so yeah we just want to get into the weeds, this committee love detail so if you know I'll probably write to you separately but it would be useful to get that and see what the ethnicity profile of that is because I just thought you know it looked like there was, I did the maths and it looked like we were 75% ethnic minority when we weren't I just felt like there was a double counting, thank you. My question is just through your report, I want to make sure I get the title of the report right, through the annual workforce report and through your description there we understand there is a priority to ensure that you know the council have a diverse workforce and those from BAME backgrounds are sort of promoted into sort of more senior positions, yeah what assurance can you give that staff who are internally promoted within the council and who are sort of employed from elsewhere are sort of supported to succeed, now that's notwithstanding you know the sort of black on board programmes and the internal mentoring programmes because I've been a councillor for three years and my reflection is sometimes it seems staff are in one directorate and they move to another directorate and then before long they may not even sort of be in the job anymore and for me just talking to some BAME colleagues and I'm generalising here so forgive me but it seems sometimes they're moved into position, maybe senior position and then they don't have the optimum performance what they were having in their previous position and I just don't want you know that target driven culture which we see in this report to be at the detriment of them sort of I'm say excelling in their position if you understand what I'm saying, so I would like to know what assurance that you can give us that you know the BAME employees are being supported to succeed when they're given internal promotions or promoted and then from external organisations to succeed because for me my observation is that that's not always the case. There's been a piece of work, one of the focuses around the leading with care piece of work is to ensure that all of our senior leaders, they're progressing in their career and accessing some of the more senior roles in the organisation so that is obviously open to all of our staff but will include colleagues from monetised backgrounds as well. Just to be honest I just want to ensure that the committee are aware these are unique cases but because the numbers are so small I have to sort of raise it through my questioning and yet for me for example I'm just giving an example and this is not a real life example but if someone is maybe working in you know the finance admin position and then four months later you see that they're maybe in an assistant project manager position you know in a certain direction and then before long you then find out that they're actually left in the sort of my experience some of those cases have been staff who are BAME and who have sort of been promoted and I'm not sure that the promotion is you know sort of there to meet a target you know that may be crude but I just want to ensure that BAME staff are given the support but you know from your answer I get that the council are trying to ensure that they are supported but I will monitor it and maybe we can come to future reports. I want to broaden discussion out a little bit and I'll be bringing in Councillor Choudry shortly but I want to look a little bit at the overall structure of the workforce within Islington. In 2020, Islington had 48 senior officers, i.e. officers, chief officer for or above. That represented 1.04% of the workforce. By 2022, up to 58 officers, 1.21%. By 2024, 82 senior officers, 1.68% of the workforce. Fair to say that a number of council colleagues of mine have been surprised by these figures and have asked the question what is going on at a time when the council is facing severe budgetary pressures. So I'd be interested in a little bit of context to why the ratio of senior officers to more junior officers appears to be moving in the direction that it is and then Councillor Choudry I'll bring you in. I'll have a go at it. I think it's probably fair to say we probably need to come back with some analysis from each service and offer something along those lines along with the analysis which you've obviously seen which shows the increases. I can talk about my services and resources a little bit just to give you a flavour because there are some increases in resources. So going back to around the dates you mentioned, you may recall we had quite a large number of IT contractors. If you remember that, they were in the high teens at that time and costing a large amount of money. We have increased the number of more senior officers in IDS, not by as many as the high teens but there is an increase. We now have four contractors and that will be dropping further. So that which I know is not in keeping with other increases in agency staff across the piece but nonetheless that was the way we went about it. And recently with the resident experience business case, members of the committee wouldn't have seen the iterations of that but there was an initial draft which did include contractors and consultants and all the rest of it and those were cut out with a saving which was well in excess of a million pounds because we were able to work back towards the permanent staff. So that is my own area. We've also had some increases in finance as well, where we have felt the need for more senior staff covering things like the pension fund, you know, two billion pounds and also some of the other areas which have been very, very difficult sorts of, you know, thinking about schools and other areas where we've been hit with very major financial problems. So there has been some increases. I can talk about my own services, I'll have to bring back and I'll have to take questions on any of that but I'd have to come back with some other service insight. And so there's no mystery there was an exchange of correspondence today really to give the opportunity for officers as I always like to come prepared and I will be expecting some further figures to come to a later meeting of this committee. Councillor Ward. Something to say, I think it's a very, very fair question and the more we dig into this, I think the more we find there's all kinds of reasons for this and all kinds of reasons depending on which director you're talking about. Dave's given the example of IT but there's other reasons from other directorates. So I suggest we bring this back with some detailed stuff about each directorate. Thank you, Chair. Just regarding your point and I've got another two points to discuss. One is like, you know, that this is really when as a Chair of the Social Care, when our phone lines are suffering for the service, older people suffering the longer the proper service because of the money overspent in the Social Care and other thing. And when we see that this kind of top layer, yeah, just first thing I'd like to propose to Chair, we should have a clear timeline why this kind of officer was recruited, timeline what is the plan for future plan and when they will come back. It's not going to be like we should have some kind of timeline or that specifically why they were recruited from within this time limit, what was the necessary and also the timeline within the, how long it will come to come back to us about the report of that. This is my first proposal. Second thing is like, you know, the two questions. One is the council weeks raised about the BME staff, yeah, since 2010 I'm from there I'm involved the PPP as a member. Two issue only scheme, one is the agency staff and one is the BME staff. I always raise the BME staff. Why BME staff is, you can see the bottom there is a high level of the BME staff. When go to the little bit middle then BME staff disappear, yeah. I ask the question, same answer coming from, sorry I'm not, same answer I'm getting. But I would like to have some clear indication, yeah, that we, indication that the framework when the top level BMEs can reflect Islington Council people demographic. If any problem should have a clear answer that why we can't have met this kind of target. We should be have some kind of target for BME staff to the top level, yeah. Because this is a, you can see the ratio of the 7K. You can see the white 70 percent. You can see the other, you can see the, what is the difference between the income level. And it is, and also we want to clear which level grade how many staff are there, every demographic it should be there. And also regarding the agency staff, it should be some kind of now stopping the agency staff. If agency staff need to recruit should have clear, as is we say this is a member led council. We should have a member input that should be answerable to why we need agency staff, too many agency staff. And just I give you the one example and I give it with my committee. We need, we have a like social worker demand. But what happened like we saw that we redundant some social worker because some manager they don't like that manager. This kind of thing happening in this new council. Should not be happening because there is demand. We should not redundant giving money to where the post is needed. Thank you. Going to ask for a brief response. Of course, this is a high level scrutiny committee and we are not here to look at individual decisions. I'm sure Councillor Chaudry understands that. I think if we can have a brief response to some of the important points raised. Just to unpick those going backwards. On agency staff, you are absolutely right but as we talked about earlier in the previous report, there are huge efforts to get that number down, including the challenge panels that we have already talked about at previous committee. It will be a particular theme in this year's budget as well. How do we change those outcomes and really get a grip in terms of our staffing levels and using agencies where it's appropriate for those specialist rules but apart from that not having this just as a kind of a safety valve. There is a huge amount of work going on on that at the minute. There will be more of that in this year's budget. Going back to your first question which was, we can certainly give you a timeline on permanent staff and as Dave was saying before, it would be helpful if we just dug into every directorate and why senior staffing levels are going up in every directorate because as we said before, it's a mixed bag and there will be different reasons and different directors but we can come back to that. In terms of senior BAM staff and setting targets for that, I don't know if we can do that. I'm just turning to my colleagues to see. We will have a discussion, that's Sam and I, myself, Councillor Ward and Dave, just around how we present the data when it comes back to this committee. We won't do that tonight. I'm going to take two final questions from Councillor Galbally and Councillor Jackson. Thank you, Chair. I would like to take the direction that you gave us at the beginning of this meeting to do follow-up questions to make sure that executive members keep their promises. Just before the summer, Councillor Ward, we discussed about a four-day working week and you asked me to send a report from South Cambridge. I did so. Hopefully you've had the opportunity to read that report and I would like to kind of know your understanding how could potentially that policy, if it was applied to Islington, address the issues of agency going from 10 per cent to 15 per cent, address the issues of 1 in 8 staff having a turnover in Islington Council, because of the churn that's taking place, address the issues of when it comes to leaving staff, there might be some that would like some more flexibility, especially as we've got significant numbers leaving around kind of the ages where they might be when it comes to women experiencing menopause or kind of going through stages where potentially we might be giving birth and having childhood issues. So that would be great. And then maybe from council officers, have you done any kind of surveys, is there any research if there is appetite from council officers for more flexibility but also for their working week? So I did read the report. It was very interesting. I can't give you a specific answer on all the particular points right now, but perhaps we can go to Dave. We do have flexible working policies. Our four-day week is a whole different kettle of fish and I'm not aware of any London council that does this, but Dave, do you want to come in at all? Yeah, the four-day working week, as I understand it, is working four days without not compressed hours over four days. It is four days which is a fundamental change to terms and conditions and everything else. I think that's not something we're in a position to move to at this moment in time. Anything to add? I'm going to take Councillor Jackson. Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to bring attention to the apprenticeship, the start. I'm slightly confused and I want a bit of clarity on page 138 and 139. I think what I'm really trying to get at in terms of you've got existing colleagues. I'm just trying to get a bit of understanding around the number of people that have started and I guess when you say new starter, it's just a slight, for example, you've got mixed multi-ended background, existing colleagues, the 0% there's new starter 6%. Can you just make clarity and I guess you can use 46 as your guide here because you've made a statement which says 15% of external start were from a wide 44, I'm just the whole part I'm not clear. So if you could just explain a little bit and because of time maybe I would have probably sent you an email on this but if you can try and make sense on this for me now. 138 page, 138 on the, 138 and 139. Yes that would be one part and also when you say existing colleague, does that mean it's offered to existing workforce or is it just I'm not understanding the two. It all makes sense now and I guess when I, and I think my fellow members would, when I hear apprenticeship I look at it as new opportunity right but what you're trying to say to me is it could just be internal movement and I'm not too sure that I guess I would really like to know what's actually new in terms of new opportunity for example there's really a new opportunity for residents or you know because if it's just moving around or people taking opportunity for training and it could be quite confusing and I'm sure you can see how, where I would come from in terms of not thinking that that might not necessarily be a new apprenticeship. I know the definition now from just what you said but I'm of the opinion of a new opportunity of an apprenticeship that means a new job not necessarily someone changing a pathway or taking on a training. I'm going to draw that item to a close before we conclude the meeting tonight. Do any of the committee chairs wish to update the committee on anything that they are involved in? I don't feel we have to but if there is something you want to share with all of us before we all go off and stay up all night watching the American election results. Here's your opportunity. We're doing community census check. And I think it's Thursday night for those who can't get enough of scrutiny committees. Okay forward plan, work program, all in the papers. This is a living breathing committee so if any of you think in the next
oh I wish I had asked that or I wish that Jan had stopped me from asking that question. Get them in to me and one way or another we can have them answered and formally minuted. Thank you all for your contributions tonight. That concludes the meeting this evening. [BLANK_AUDIO]

Transcript

The alarm is sounded, please evacuate the building. I'm not going to ask all the members and officers to introduce themselves at this stage, but the first time that you speak, if you can introduce yourself so that everybody that is following online can know who you are. Formalities first of all, apologies for absence, apologies for absence from Councillor Kondoka. Declaration of Substitute Members, Councillor Ruth Hayes is substituting for Councillor Kondoka. Any declarations of interest at all? No declarations of interest. Minutes of the previous meeting. Firstly, any matters arising? No, and I haven't been notified of any matters arising. Can we agree those minutes? Onto the Chair's report. At the last meeting, a request was made for really some data on our top 10 contracts and the social value aspect of them. We will be receiving at our next meeting a paper copy of the list so that we will be able to consider those, so that's not been forgotten about. The information is being compiled and will be with us for the December meeting. Few other matters to raise. Firstly, we've got some visits coming up, haven't we, Saminay? As part of the scrutiny. So can we have those dates so that they're on the record for the committee?
Yeah, so the, I'll turn myself off. So the visits are being planned for the 20th, but we're not quite sure on timings yet, but it'll be sometime in the afternoon, Wednesday the 20th of November. And then the virtual session is likely to be on either the 27th or the 28th of November, sometime in the evening. So pencil those into your diaries. The subcommittee on performance data has been working away. You will see that tonight the data that we are receiving is really confined to corporate performance. There will be each quarter a particular section of the council's corporate performance coming to this committee work remains ongoing on what data we will be receiving. For those of you that were on this committee and indeed other scrutiny committees last year, it's really important that we as a committee keep track of pledges and requests for updates and information. And that because of the reorganization of the scrutiny committees, we don't lose sight of that. So I'm going to be going through various minutes of various committees to go and see what should be coming back here. But I'm going to ask all of you to trawl through minutes and your own memories as to whether there is any particular items where you have made requests for information, you haven't had that information, and you should be getting that information. Get that over to me and I will make sure that it's all followed up on. We're going to be having a joint scrutiny with Councillor Clark's environment committee. 23rd of January, the focus is going to be on Thames water. Arrangements are being made with them to make sure that it is a meaningful session. Councillor Clark and I will be planning exactly how it's all going to work. But again, that's another date for your diary. 23rd of January. And finally, there will be an update on is access systems and hubs coming to a committee in January. And I know Councillor Hayes, that will be of interest to you for later on in the meeting. Those are all the matters that I wanted to raise in this section. The next matter, public questions. Do we have any public questions tonight? And I will just ask formally as a result of various communications over the last couple of days, anybody from Parkview TRA that wants to ask a question? No, I don't see anybody. And just one observation before we start the meeting and it's in relation to item C2, the update from the Executive Member for Equalities, Communities and Inclusion. There is an ongoing scrutiny review in the Homes and Communities Scrutiny Committee in relation to community centres. That sits alongside an internal review. This committee will have an opportunity later on in the municipal year to ask questions of Councillor Chapman in relation to community centres generally. But as far as tonight is concerned, given all of the work that is going on in different places in that area, I suspect that there are more productive lines of questioning for Councillor Chapman than around community centres. And therefore I will be expecting members' questions to focus on everything but community centres, but that's not with a desire to shut the topic down. It is simply that there will be other opportunities later on in the year to ask questions around that. So we will therefore move on to our scrutiny review topic. And I'm very pleased to say that I think we've got Guy Battle here from the Social Value Portal. I know, Guy, you're going to be doing a presentation for about 20 minutes. That will allow 25 minutes.
Yes, 15, 20 minutes.
15, 20 minutes. We always welcome brevity here. And of course, members will have read the slides. And then there will be an opportunity for 25 minutes for the members to ask questions. Of course. And for those watching onto their vision, that's Councillor Belle Bradford, the executive member with responsibility for community wealth building. I was expecting fireworks, not... Yep. Over to you.
Great. Well, thanks so much for the opportunity to talk to you about social value, Councillor. I did include within the committee papers whole other slides. I'm not going to go through every single slide. I've actually reduced it down somewhat. And I've added some animations for your enjoyment. So to allow me to actually bring it to life. So if you go to the next slide. So my name is Guy Battle. I'm the chief executive of Social Value Portal. What I'm going to do, I'm going to tell you ever so little bit about the portal, what we do. I'm then going to talk to you about measuring social value. This is really important. And then I will talk to you about what you've been doing and the opportunity as I see it for his links and council to take the leadership position within London. And within that context, I'm going to talk about progressive procurement, in particular, looking at the Procurement Act and the opportunity that exists around embedding that into what you do. I'm not going to go through all the case studies. I'm hoping you've read those. But I will then dive into place-based procurement because it sort of ties in with the anchor work that you're doing. And then I'll summarize right at the end of that. So if you go to the next slide, please, it's in a minute. Thank you very much. And the next slide. So very quickly about Social Value Portal. If you do the next slide, thanks. We're a tech solution. We provide a way of measuring social value. But importantly, we also are a procurement platform. So we'll help you and we help councils around the country manage their procurement. Within that, it's not only procurement, it's also contract management. And we, out of that, will measure and help you report your social value. The platform also provides reporting. We have online learning and we have a consulting team that helps organizations maximize the opportunity around social value. Next slide, please. It's in a minute. We work across sectors. If you do one tap, please. I'm showing this not because necessarily about all the customers, but you'll see our customers there. We have public sector at the top. And we work with about 80, 90 councils around the country. And we're working with another 20 or so other public bodies like government property agency, British Library. If you do one tap, please see me there. Thank you. But what's important is actually the relationship we help broker between the public sector and the private sector. So below there, you've got-- sorry, go back one. Below there, you've got all the public sector customers work with. And I see our job as unlocking the value through procurement for communities. So we're kind of a voice at the table of procurement to maximize and unlock as much value as possible for the communities within Islington. And so you've got all those organizations we're working with in the private sector that also share that objective. Next slide, please. We measure social value using something called the TOMS system. Islington embraced the TOMS system, I think, three, four years ago when we started working with you. It's the most popular measurement framework for social value. It's supported by the Local Government Association. It's used very widely across local government across the country. What's important about the social value framework, the TOMS system, is that it's broken down into four key themes. How do we promote good work? How do we support the local economy? How do we build a flourishing community? And then how do we regenerate our planet? In that respect, it's a kind of sustainability triple bottom line approach. But what's important about the framework, it's based around a series of themes, outcomes, and measures. Sounds like music on this, doesn't it? [MUSIC PLAYING] It's your phone. Is it the phone? Oh, no phone. I'll keep going. It's fine. I won't be distracted. So to build the sounds of themes, outcomes, and measures, what's important, it allows you to put a pound. [AUDIO OUT] What's important about it-- here, let's keep going now. Thank you so much for that. It allows you to put a pound value to the social value that you're generating. If you do the next slide. And that pound value reflects the benefit to the community of Islington or wherever we're working. And so we grab data from government data sources, and we reflect the fiscal saving to local authorities to the spend that you make and also government makes. We reflect the economic value that someone now has in their pocket. We spend locally. And it also will reflect some of the social value that's generated through the long-term well-being or improvement of well-being for individuals. And so these are just some examples of social value. It could be volunteering in the community. It could be saving tons of carbon. It could be apprenticeships. Next slide, please. So what's the opportunity with Islington Council? Next slide. So we started with you three or four years ago on your affordable workplace program. And it's actually been going very well. And if you do one tap for me similar, the number I want you to focus on is that bottom right, 30.47%. So that is the amount of social value per pound in additional value we've unlocked by working with your team. So for every pound spent, we've unlocked with you an additional 30 pence worth of social value at no extra cost for the people of Islington. And so we do that. We've done that around affordable workspace. But we've also just recently finished a project which was a pilot project for social value on one of your procurements that have unlocked an additional 41% of social value. Next slide, please. And so this is effectively what you've done over the years that we've been working with you. And you can see it includes 13 new jobs. We've got apprenticeships. We have jobs for disadvantaged people, a whole range of different social value opportunities. Next slide, please, similar. And when you put that in the mix, I got the number that you spent each year, which is 600 million. Do one tap for me. So you spent 600 million pounds per year in procurement. So I've got quite a few animations, so forgive me. 600 million for-- I've just initially said, how much would that be worth? It's 20% social value, which is the average across all of our platforms. We've been now doing procurements for over-- well, since 2015. We do about 100 procurements every month. So that's 20% equals, if I can do math, which is 120 million. So that's the social value that is the opportunity if you embed it into procurement properly. So it's a big number. The reality is you can do more than that. Next slide, next tap, please. So actually, remember that 30% I showed you, which is of your affordable workplace program? We could go as far as that. And the leaders we see doing 30%, so that could be as much as 180 million pounds. If we're really bold, you could go for that 40% number that we showed earlier, which is 240 million pounds worth of social value. So I put those there just because I want you to understand the scale of the opportunity. Of course, it's not the money. It's not the number that matters. It's everything that sits behind it that matters. Next tap, please. And sitting behind that is this opportunity. And I've just taken the average across what we've done in the platform, 38,000 weeks of training for apprenticeships and the young people. You've got 1,000 jobs for people who are struggling to find work. It could be 24,000 people supporting through well-being courses, 22,000 hours of volunteering in the community, equivalent to 13 years, of volunteering, 5,000 tons of carbon saved, and then 42 million pounds spent in the local economy and up to 14 million pounds spent with voluntary community and social enterprises in the community. So this is the opportunity if you embed social value into your procurement. Next slide, please. So what is progressively procurement? Well, it's setting that sort of target, right? Next slide. And it's set in the background of the New Procurement Act that you will have read about. If you just do two taps for me, please, Simanay. That's right. So I just pulled out two items here that I think are really worth you noting. One is that we're moving from meat, which is most economic advantageous tenders, to most advantageous tenders. And that means, as the procurement team, they have to take into account the wider benefits from an environmental and social economic perspective, but basically putting the community first in your decision making. So that kind of gives you the permissive environment to ask these sorts of things and embed social value. The other key piece in there is validation. So you're going to be required for greater transparency, which means that you'll be held accountable. This is specifically in the Act for the Project over 5 million. But you could decide to do it for any job, and I would suggest over 100,000 pounds. So whilst the Act is principally aimed at larger projects, I think what's important is that it presents that sort of permissive environment for you to work within and to take advantage of when you're engaging with your suppliers. Next slide, please. And so we've built this very simple sort of pathway for delivering social value. And I think it starts with understanding needs. It then allows you to map the social value framework, the TOMS system, to what you're trying to deliver. Very important to build capacity within your supply chain. We then need to think about how you're embedded into procurement. You then need to think about how you manage and report and validate social value. And then you need to improve and create feedback. And all of those about value creation around work, the economy, the community, and also the planet. So I've just got a list of 10 lessons that we've learned and one final lesson. Let me just go through those quickly. So embed social value into standing orders. So it must be made day to day, just normal business for your procurement team. Don't let-- it's not there for the office to choose. Anything above 100,000, I would say. It just needs to be in everything that you do. And that way you know that there's no question. It's going to be delivered. Doesn't matter what category it is. It's embedded into the standing orders. Next tap, please. I've got a whole series of red things. Go on to the next one. Whoops. I'll remember next time not to have so many animations. Forgive me. Second point is understand local needs. Remembering that the most opportunity, the greatest value is living where the greatest need is. So you need to help your suppliers understand where the need is. And this is all about giving them access to local needs analysis, giving them access to the information that you have about your communities so they can support you into living value. The next element is supplier engagement. Be as open and transparent with your suppliers as early as possible, help them understand what social value is, help them understand what the need is you're looking to achieve. The fourth point is make it easy. The easier you make it for suppliers to respond, the more likely they're going to be able to deliver social value. And that is really important in terms of giving access to your own programs. As part of the procurement process, your suppliers are going to be asked to deliver additional value and to link with potential programs. And if you can introduce them to your own programs, they're more likely to be able to deliver those. So you might have all sorts of programs around volunteering, around apprenticeships, even your work program. Next tap, threshold. I suggest you do everything above 100,000 pounds. And that we found is a good number. That means 20%, that means 20,000 pounds of social value that you can unlock. And that, I think, is a good sort of starting point. Next tap, your weightings should be at least 15%. So this sits alongside your price and your quality weighting, which might be 45% price, 40% quality, at least 15% in terms of the social value weighting. You could push that to 20% or 25%, but no more. If you go too much on your weightings, then you're in danger of the bidders putting more price into their-- or more cost into their bids, into their solutions. And so you might end up with some price inflation within your process. We found that the sweet spot, if you like, is about 15% to 20%. Evaluation, it's really important that you officers do the evaluation. Whilst we provide evaluation service, we think it's fundamental that you understand each category should do its own evaluation. They should be on top of what's needed. And within that respect, we also need to think about contract management. Local government is not well known for contract management. There's this mantra that says leave and forget. But that's something that is really important that you and your teams actually follow through on. And within that respect, really important to think about your contract and the remedies you have within your contract. So I suggest liquidated damages or some form of-- let's call it stick-- with which you can hold the suppliers to account. That's really important because that ensures that they will deliver what they said they can deliver. What you have to avoid is overbidding and over actually saying they're going to do more than they can deliver. And then the final point is be transparent. So I think it's really important that every single project should do its own report at the end of the contract. You should consider making these public. Consider publishing them for your citizens, for people within the community. So they know that you've employed an organization for delivering social value. What is that? I think you should be bold enough to say what that is and how they've done, whether it's good or bad, and how they've met their targets. And the final thing is for you guys to walk the walk. It's great to talk about social value. You also need to be thinking as if you are a deliverer of social value. So how many apprenticeships do you have? Do you give jobs to disadvantaged people? Are your people volunteering in the community? How are you supporting schools? Think about what you're doing as well. Next slide, please. Last few slides. I'm just going to shift the conversation now slightly to place-based social value. Next slide, please. And talk about the social value economy. And this is all about how do you unlock social value in a place, a place like Islington? How do you get organizations to work together in a coordinated fashion so that communities can flourish within environmental limits? And we've written-- helped write a paper with the National Social Value Task Force on the social value economy that I'll make sure you get a copy of. And it was included, I think, in-- at least the link was included in the information sent to you. That describes the process you need to follow. And I've got-- if you go to the next slide, be similar. The task force published a very simple four-step program for delivering social value, a place-based approach to social value. So you make it core to your organization. You ensure that you're accountable and that your partners are accountable. You create capability within your supply chain. And then finally, you think about collaboration. We call that radical collaboration because it's all about collaborating across boundaries. Next slide, please. So when we talk about collaboration, we mean more than just the public sector anchor institutions that I know that you have. We mean how do you work with the local businesses in the area? How do you work with the health sector? How do you work with the civic sector within Islington to deliver more social value? And each of your partners should be thinking about its business operations, how it embeds it into its own procurement, how it manages it through its own capital spending, how you might embed social value into planning to engage with the developers. And then finally, grant funding and volunteering. Next slide, please. Similar. And so this is your anchor program. Radical collaboration, I think, is your kind of on that path. But actually, reaching out to Microsoft, Google, Lebeth Burnside, local architects, Law from May, big lawyers, how do you get them to embed social value into their own processes? Is there a way of working together with them with a commonality? Next slide, please. We've done this already with Durham County Council. So we create a program called the Durham County Pound where all of these partners work together with a single aim of maximizing value through their procurement for the communities where they're working. And so it's about bringing these organizations together with a series of common goals. At the bottom of that slide there, you can see the common goals, which is create more jobs, reduce impact on the environment, both prioritize better health, support communities, et cetera. Next slide, please. Within this, each of those anchor institutions signs a statement of intent. That in itself was really important. We spoke to all the CEOs of each organization, both the public and private, and they signed a letter saying we are committed to embed the social value into how we do our business, whether that is through our procurement or whether that is through how we just employ people. And they signed up to this six-step process of delivering social value. Next slide, please. We built a website called the Knowledge Hub, and so this makes everything available. I spoke earlier about making it as easy as possible for businesses to engage with social value. So on here they have a needs analysis. They can access a whole range of different resources that helps the businesses understand what social value is about and how to deliver it. It's also a way of meeting partners. So if you're a business wanting to deliver social value, how can they meet your charity partners? How do they meet the VCES sector, VCSAE sector within the area? And so the easier you make that, the more likely they're going to be able to make those links to deliver social value locally. Next slide, please. What's amazing about Durham, there's a cumulative -- there's a spend of around about 1 billion pounds in the area, and so far the social value has been unlocked. Actually, it's more than the 250 million mentioned there. It's 300 million pounds a year that's been unlocked, and these are all the things that's happening. Jobs for local people, local spend, jobs for people who are struggling to find work. And again, it's about bringing your procurement spend together. So you have your own 600 million pound procurement spent, but imagine using Google spend. Imagine Microsoft thinking about how it spends locally. Imagine Leverburn, Science, Slaughter and May, if they could be part of this community. And collectively, you're embedding the easily and social value framework into how they're doing business, then you're maximizing the opportunity for communities within Islington. That for me is what's so exciting about this approach, and that for me is what progressive procurement is all about, about reaching across those traditional boundaries to maximize the opportunity and build the community, help communities flourish. Next slide, please. And so my final thoughts to wrap up before I take one of the questions, next slide, please. So I've just got six final thoughts. So I think it's very important that you embed social value into all your procurements. I would suggest that's above 100,000 pounds for each procurement, and that needs to be part of the standing order, as I said. I think you should set yourselves a target of at least additional social value of 20%. We're seeing this out of Waltham Forest, who I know you're meeting in a few weeks' time, Bissell City Council, Rotherham. All the leading councils are delivering between 20 and 30% social value on top of their annual spend. You need to make it as easy as possible for your suppliers to unlock and deliver social value. Provide the tools for them. Do a needs analysis they can lock into and make it easy for them to link with your third sector partners. Use social value to build trust within your communities. Be transparent about what you're doing. How do you help your community understand that through your procurement, you're delivering more value for them? And I think that is a fundamental part of this process. And social value can be used as that means of building trust. Our fifth is walk the walk. This is about what Islington does as well. If you're insourcing or if you're considering how you're delivering social value, then you are showing leadership because you're doing it yourselves. And for me, that is a fundamental part. And the final piece is the place-based strategy. Reach out to partners within the region, within Islington. How can you build those relationships so they are embedding your social value strategy into how they are delivering their procurements or they are delivering their capital spend or delivering their ESG programs? [ Music ] >> Guy, thank you very much for that presentation. I'll kick off with a question and then I will take questions from members of the committee. And somebody, can we put up the what we have learned slide? Really on the question of weightings, I've been involved as part of a constitution review with Peter Horlock and other members of the audit committee. Around the procurement framework effectively discussing the weightings, the amount on any procurement exercise that social value should form as part of the contract award exercise. And I'm interested in the fact that you have split between a proportion dedicated to climate and a overall figure. I mean, at the moment, Peter, the position is we're looking at 20% being the minimum, but there is no difference or distinction between climate and non-climate based social value. So I'd be very interested to know a little bit more about firstly why you're recommending effectively a distinction between climate and non-climate based. And just to say a few things about how we in terms of our procurement policy going forward might like to think about the distinction between climate and non-climate based social value. >> So I'll take my lead from Manchester City Council and actually the GMCA as a whole who have a weighting on the social value element of social value at 20% and they reserve 10% for climate issues or climate change issues. And I think their rationale is that it ensures that the climate challenge is not forgotten and not lost within the conversation around how business goes about its business. And that way it's like two-thirds around all the social elements which is jobs creation, which is support for community, which is spending the local economy, and then there's peace around the climate change through to the 10%. And that allows them to have that conversation with suppliers around how do they achieve net zero. And in Manchester they're looking to achieve net zero by 2028, 2038 sorry. And so it's a really important issue to them. You have to think how you're going to measure it and how you're going to value the climate bit. But nonetheless I think it's all about signalling to the marketplace. It's signalling that, you know, all the social elements are important but the climate elements are important too. If you separate them out then that provides that signalling. >> I'm going to bring Councillor Clark in first because I know that she wants to ask very much around sustainability and this topic. >> Thank you, Councillor Tricia Clark, Tufnell Park Ward, Chair of the Environment, Climate Change and Transport Committee. Thank you very much for your presentation. I just want to refer to the-- I don't know if this-- Chair, just check with you this Procurement Act 2023, get ready for change. Is that related to what we're discussing now? >> So the intention is it's for information only but Caroline Wilson is here, Peter is here. It's a companion piece to this but part of the reason why Guy Battle is here tonight is we are doing a scrutiny review, we have to make recommendations and of course there is an interplay between what we're seeing in this presentation and what our policies are. So, it's-- I'm further out of some free form discussion where if there is a point that is relevant to the second presentation, the officers and indeed Councillor Bell-Brafler's executive member can be brought into the discussion. >> OK. Thank you very much, yeah. So, I'm pleased to see you have couple of slides on plastic reduction and carbon emissions reduction and then you have a goal of a lessening impact on the environment and then in what we've learned, you have the item on potential climate, you know, that you're asking people to put into their procurement, I think. But it's-- we're really-- we're also a net zero council, we're aiming for net zero for 2030. So, I think we'd like to know more about what you're asking regarding sustainability from these businesses, you know, more detail about-- so the percentage that is raised by the chair is very vague. You know, we want to be really having an impact on the-- on the environment, it's a social value issue, isn't it? You know, exactly. >> Let me just-- so I'll explain it. So, Islington has adopted the TOMS system. Have you seen the full list of TOMS measures by any chance? Probably not. There are, I think within Islington, there are 35, 40, 35 measures. So, these are individual actions that the supplier is asked to deliver or could choose to deliver. And that list includes probably about, I'm going to say 5 to 10 that's specific around the environment. Now, we do have a longer list. So, we actually have a bank of social value measures, actually 117 measures of which there are many more environmental measures within there. And so, one of the things that is possible as we go forward with you is to work with you to work-- to select which measures are most relevant to Islington to engage with their suppliers. So, we could go through that process and we-- and sort of redesign the TOMS system. But in summary, within the environmental fact-- environmental section, there's many around carbon saving, there's around the circular economy, around biodiversity and greening our communities. Those are the three principle categories that we have around the environmental issues. With that said, there's 10 or 15 that you could choose from. >> Just one more. Is it OK? I know what you want to do. I mean, it would have been good to see a bit of that into the-- in that presentation, but, you know, it is missing. And also, just as-- to mention this Procurement Act 2023, get ready to change. So, that is something we need to look at. >> Can I just address that issue? Because I think the industry has one big criticism about the Procurement Act. On the face of it, it doesn't even mention social value, let alone climate change. But actually, it does mention what's called the NPPS, National Procurement Policy Strategy. That is a very, very important document. Within that document, which is at the moment with the Cabinet Office for consultation, it is being written to pick up all the social value elements including climate change, including work, and including-- in fact, including the five missions of the Labor government. So, they're looking to build the five missions into that document so that as procurers, you'll be able to deliver the five missions through how you go about your procurement using the NPPS as that framework. [ Inaudible Remark ] >> Thank you. And my point is on understanding the local needs because I feel like that is the foundation of the work that needs to be done as a council before we go to providers and ask for a percentage or ask for, you know, percentage dedicated for the climate. So, I guess, my question would be do you feel like the council understands the local need? What are those local needs that kind of stay you in the face? And what work do we-- finally, what work do we need to do as a committee looking at this topic in terms of really grasping it because I feel like it is the frontline workers across all departments that will understand the local needs and usually with procurement is kind of senior officers and, you know, corporate directors and there is that gap. And if we don't know what that local need is, how are we then going to go to Google and go to Microsoft and say this is what we're asking for? >> Yeah, I wouldn't be so presumptuous to say whether you do or you don't know your local needs. And I'm assuming as councilors you have a good grip about what your communities do need. What's important is that finds its way into the recruitment process. We've also-- the tool that I think Waltham Forest is going to show you, so it's an automated local needs analysis that pulls on data from Islington. So, it pulls on deprivation data, indices of multiple deprivation, it pulls on health data, it pulls on data around crime, and it's live and allows any organization at any time to see what's happening. So, see what the needs are within the community and then design their offer around that. Now, that could be or is often supplemented with a sort of wider policy piece for the community-- for the suppliers, but also then can be supplemented by your own feedback from your own communities, because you're right. As I said earlier, the greatest values delivered where the greatest need is. And if you match those two up, then you've got something very, very powerful. >> Thank you. Councillor Igaros-Armstrong for High Group Board. I thank you for that presentation and social value is so important. As a physicist, I love measurement things. And this presentation and the portal itself, and you spoke about it being a reflection of what the council does. And probably a lot of people on this table would claim that we already walk the walk and we do an amazing job at that. And I do have a question leading to that. But is there any evidence to show that the use of the portal actually, through that feedback cycle, increases the amount of social value that the companies or councils actually gain from? And it'd be great to know from our local experience here, having worked with the portals since 2018, as to those contracts. Thank you. >> Yes, so the answer is we have -- so if I go back a little time in history, when we started out the portal, which is 2015, and 2016 we started getting a lot on there. We saw the additional value coming out of supplies of around about 5%, 10%, that sort of order. In working with us and also, importantly, councils working with suppliers and building their skills up, we're now seeing that to be 20 to 30%. So in a way, the responsibility is on you guys. If you build capacity within your supply chain and help them understand what's needed, they will be able to deliver more. There is a kind of -- I mean, my background is both private and public sector, but private sector mainly. I haven't come across a business that doesn't want to support its community in some form or other. I mean, businesses are run by people like us, right? And so they live in places. And so they want to do good, generally speaking. So I think there's an opportunity for the council to help those organizations understand how can we do good? How can we be more responsible and support the people of Islington? And indeed, we have seen a lot of progress. And when you look at the projects we've worked with you on, we've seen that progress being, you know, 5 to 10% to be 20, 30, 40% additional social value over the time. >> Just to add onto that answer, so obviously we use TOMS for our affordable workplace program. I think it's worth saying we tweak the system for our own needs. So I think TOMS kind of calculates lots of things. There are some things which we just give -- which TOMS wants us to calculate, but we just give zero value because we think it has zero value. And then there are things which we give more weight into. And I think you get that for our social value. We'll have companies come to us being like, oh, our social values will come to a school assembly view, which is, you know, great, lovely, buy more jobs or money or like things that actually matter to our community. And I think whatever system we have for TOMS, what we find it most effective is when we kind of tweaked it to the needs of our local authority. To answer your question more directly, the threshold we have is 135K. I think that's more because that's the number by which statutorily various things happen with the council in terms of procurement. But we have various things regarding social value from about 25 to 30K up with, anyway. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. My name is Councillor Jilani Choudhury. I'm Chair of the Wellbeing Health and School -- Health, School and Community here. I just want to have two questions. One is regarding the focus on the local job, yeah, but how you can make sure this local job for the local people? Are you going to be making something that going to be 20, 50% or 60% job should be for the local people? The second question is procurement, like, you know, that when I used to work as a voluntary sector in the small voluntary sector, the find it's very difficult to get any contact from the council because small organization can't compete with the big organization because they always recruit consultant and something, it's very difficult to find local organization to be getting that contact from the council or any other organization. How we can make sure that is linked on contact or you can put some kind of threshold, 70%, 80% contacts should go for the local organization, local-based organization, and they get -- if there is any difficulty, how you can help local organization to get that contact from it. Thank you. >> So on local jobs, so there's a waiting within the procurement process, certainly within the TOMS, that means that a business will more likely win -- a business will more likely win the work if it's providing local jobs. And what we do as an organization is make sure that that business actually employs someone and we require them to submit evidence that that person's been employed. So what's very important in this is that not only is a business employing local people, it is proving it's employing local people and that's validated and we provide that solution. And so in that respect, because the incentive is embedded into procurement, you'll find local jobs and local businesses should always do better compared to outside. Now that -- you have to ensure a level playing field. So you can't favor any business in Lissington from outside the Lissington, but you can make it very clear that this is how you reward good activity in the area. So that's how you do that in particular. And on the voluntary sector is a really, really important point. Voluntary sector -- there's a number of ways of doing this to make sure that you engage in voluntary sector. So first off, you need to build capacity in your voluntary sector around social value, help them understand it. They all think they know what social value is, but they all struggle actually to articulate it in a way that makes sense to the council. So that's a really important part. Within procurement, you might also think about ring-fencing, certain types of projects in certain categories. For instance, health and care for voluntary organizations, social enterprise, and say, look, this is who we're allocating that type of work to. And so you create a level playing field in that particular piece. But of course, you're limited as to what value that is. Otherwise, you need to find ways of supporting them so they have -- they're as skilled and able as any private sector organization in delivering that particular solution. >> If I could, sure. So the only things I'd add is I'm very parochial when it comes to jobs. Like I said, if we get jobs, it should be for Islington residents. There are some exceptions, especially in large organizations that like working with multiple boroughs. And often, if we do collaborate, it's across Hackney, Camden, and Islington. Often for construction, especially when you're doing apprenticeships as well, you have to be a year on site and trying -- and having consistently site places open within Islington can be challenging. So often, we kind of work with our boroughs to make sure people can complete their apprenticeships within the year. Outside of that, broadly, our job is for Islington residents. And within the Tom system, we value that very highly. I think it's one of the highest things you can do is give someone a London living wage job through one of our affordable workspace providers. And likewise, we do the same with procurement. More broadly, for what we're doing to support local businesses, I think the new procurement act does give us more tools to let smaller and local businesses get involved. We've worked with Amnesty UK specifically to get BAME, black founder, black-led businesses as well into our supply chain. I mean, one of my goals is to get to a point where we can work out what our percentage spend is on BAME-led businesses, and then from there, set a target to where we want to get through. I'm not sure Peter, does anything else you want to touch on about, again, bringing smaller businesses into our supply chain? Well, it's possibly just worth mentioning the changes which are actually coming in within the act, which actually will support that, and we are building in to our new contract standing orders. So there's actually a duty on us to look at ways to reduce barriers and to support SMEs, VCSEs, which will definitely help our local businesses in terms of coming through. We will be required to actually publish a pipeline, so that's all of our future procurements which are coming up. And although that's set quite high, we're looking at opportunities of maybe doing that slightly lower. So to give the opportunity for market warming effectively, so that those businesses are ready to respond, and actually we give them the tools and the training and the support they need to be able to respond well to those questions. Clearly, social value is where they have an opportunity to make a huge difference, which other businesses don't. And the knowledge of the borough and the local people and the local employment need really does make a difference in terms of responding to those questions. And I suppose the final thing which I would really say is, there's going to be one place for them to look for opportunities now for the first time, in terms of the W1 central digital platform, so they will actually obviously see all of the opportunities which are coming out across the whole of the public sector, which will give our local businesses an opportunity not just to look at Islington, but to look at the other public sector authorities within the borough. Okay, we're now into a quick-fire round, because we've got about five minutes left on this item. Councillor Abraham first, then Councillor Hayes, then Councillor Jackson.
Thank you, Councillor Bashiraben from Arsenal Ward. It was similar to, I had a question on this, what we have learned. And you just said a comment, Guy, which I thought was quite interesting. You said, you know, all businesses will, I forgot the exact word in my, you know, will want to provide some sort of social value, they want to help their local community. And it was about, you know, the education piece and where that responsibility lies. Because one of your third points talks about supply engagement, and I've read it as kind of supplier education, actually, which is supporting your suppliers to better understand social value. And I kind of just want to know, and maybe get some of your understanding doing this work. You know, do businesses know about social value? And there was a second question just before I give up the mic, which is...
I have one question for you, sir.
Oh, okay. Well, I'm going to leave out that one then. Okay, so this is where I think your place-based approach is really important. Arsenal, Arsenal Football Club, there's opportunities for Google, Microsoft. The answer is, they don't know that much about social... Arsenal will actually, but I guarantee Google and Microsoft won't. So there is a really big opportunity to engage them through your anchor networks. And I would say make available to them the SME community that they have, because they'll want to employ local organizations. It's in their interest to build up the community and to build up the fabric of Islington. And so I think engaging them around that is a really... Oh, it's an excellent idea to make that available. So I think reaching out to the business and helping them understand the opportunity through the anchor-based, place-based approach is exactly what you should be doing.
Can I say, it is an excellent idea, which is why we've already started doing it. Because we've got the construction directory, which we've created local construct building suppliers, plumbers, electricians, all in one place, Islington-based, Islington people, and then give them to the anchor. So if you want to do local work on Arsenal Stadium, and you're like, Oh, but we can't find Islington, no excuse now. Here is the list of the Islington providers you can use to do your building work. We kind of want to expand that. But it's the first step. I mean, that's only one sector that we want to get there.
Thank you very much, Councillor Ruth Hayes from Clark and Wellwood. I did have several questions, but I'll take Nick's point. My question is also about the launching community sector. And quite often, people have built links. So I was interested, for example, in the use of software, and May is an example, who have got very good links with the local law centre. How do we ensure that the social... And I grant you a lot of businesses do want to do good, but they're also wanting to make money and have got pressure quite often, like some genuine pressures, on their own spend. How do we make sure that this progressive procurement doesn't disrupt existing pro bono relationships or social value relationships that haven't previously come through the council? So how do we make sure it's genuinely additional and brings more value to the community?
So by engaging them, helping them understand what it is, I think they'll be the ones to decide what's additional, not additional. I think you tell them what the opportunity is and how a partnership with... When was the last time you reached out and met Slaughter May? Have they come to this space? Have they come to meet Islington? Have you reached out to Google, invited Microsoft in? Have all these... Have you done that?
My point was really that some of those organisations will have links with existing BCS organisations not brokered through a procurement process, but through a shared interest or a location or... And so my question is really how we ensure that we don't end up losing something that's been a good long-term arrangement that hasn't counted through TOMS because it hasn't been a procurement gain, but has been a genuine community gain because those relationships, some of those relationships will exist.
Yeah, I think... I don't think that'll be a problem. I think they'll maintain those relationships if they are given what they need and the function organisation gets what they need. And so there's no reason why procurement or how the place-based approach might... There's no reason for that place-based approach to suddenly substitute and come up with a different approach to that. I think they are complementary. And you've got to leave the responsibility to sort them out to decide just what's best, I think, ultimately. I know I haven't answered that perfectly, because, I mean, that's my thoughts on it.
Questions?
Councillor Jason Jackson, Chair of Homes and Communities and Councillor for Hollywood. Just to put on record, I think Guy Fox was a bit of a menace. We can experience it tonight. Question is, from your experience, what do you think would be the biggest challenge for us as a Council to be able to allow people of the global majority to be able to really get the full value on social values, commitment that we're currently going at the point?
So, where we see it succeeding is where the direction comes from the very top. So your leader and your chief executive is to say that social value will be in everything that we do. This is how we define it. So you need to make sure that it's within your corporate strategy that flows into a social value policy for procurement, that then flows into a social value policy for planning. You need to get into every single moment you touch the community, planning, procurement, and how you do your own work. But that comes from leadership. And where I've seen the most inertia is where officers, and this is unfortunate, but it is true, say, Oh, this is too much work. You know, I'm not being asked to do all this extra stuff. You know, why am I doing this? I thought my day job was just doing lowest cost. I'm not saying that's Islington, but I'm saying that where I've seen the inertia exist, it's in that area. But if there's leadership from you guys, then that won't happen.
Thank you. Really a final observation from me, directed at this committee. The reason why, guys here, the reason why we're having these scrutiny sessions is so that we can provide the steer to the executive and the leader of this council as to what we want. That slide there seems to me the starting point, really, for where our report should be going. Those are the questions that we need to be thinking about, and it provides, I think, a really good structure for us to start thinking from really tonight onwards. What are the recommendations that we want to be making? Where do we want to be focusing on, particularly with regard to local needs? And in the visits we're going to be doing over the next few weeks, and in the work that we're going to be doing over the next three months or so, keep that in mind. Because ultimately, this has got to be more than a talking shop. We've actually got to come up with meaningful recommendations that can steer the leadership of this council in the direction that we want to steer them. And finally, Guy, an ask from me. We've not been able to have, I think, all of the questions that members would have liked to have answered. You're working, I know, with the team here. If members do have further questions, would you be prepared to just deal with them by way of email? Not all in sort of one big dump, but if I put together some further questions, if members over the next seven days can submit them to me, would that be -- >> Yeah, no problems, including if members want to see a selection of the TOMS measures. I did have some in there, but if you'd like to see more detail, I'm very happy to go to another layer of detail. I was worried about swamping the committee, but if you want to be swamped, I'll swamp you, okay? My pleasure. >> Well, thank you so much for coming. It's been a really interesting, I think, valuable session. [ Silence ] >> Thank you. We will move on to item C2, the update from the executive member for equalities, communities, and inclusion. Councillor Chapman, I know you've got a presentation. We've all seen the slide pack, and I know we're not going to be going through the slide pack. You've got a focused presentation for us, and then some questions from the committee. >> Thank you, Chair. That's exactly right. I'm starting my timer, because I promised you I would not speak for more than 10 minutes, and I will not go for five to seven minutes. Thanks very much, Chair and members, for inviting me to give what will be a sort of interim and high-level update on the work that's been going on within my portfolio. You'll have had the lengthy report, so I'm absolutely not going to go through that. I'm going to speak to the one slide, one slide you're welcome to go through tonight. What I'm going to do is briefly run through three or four things that are going really well, I'm really pleased with, I'm going to flag to you two things that I think are on my radar as significant challenges, and then I just want to do a bit of horizon scanning, so to kind of give you an idea of what strategically will be happening over the next six to 12 months, okay, and then we'll move to questions. So things are going really well. The Access Islington hubs are going really well. So we've seen over 80,000 residents. We've had about 2,500 connector sessions, and you will have hopefully read that in the report, but these are great, and I've been to the north hub, and I've met the connectors, and the feedback, which is anecdotal and which, you know, we've given you some case studies, it's really positive, because those are people who are vulnerable residents with multiple and quite complicated needs, and the connectors are really very empathetic, trauma-informed, and they take on, you know, the various different strands of need in a very sensitive way, and crucially, they follow up, so that's going extremely well. And the Bright Life's well-being coaching also, which, you know, it's something we do that really puts us head and shoulders above other authorities. It's expensive, but it really will, in the long term, save us a lot of money. That's having really good outcomes from what we can see so far. So the other thing that's gone really well, and I don't know if you've had a copy of this, but we've launched our four-year to fanfare and fireworks partnership grant program, which is awesome, because we've got, you know, 400 BCS organizations in Islington, 51 of them we are in partnership with. We've been able to, and I'm really pleased, protect the funding so that we've been able to say to them, you've got four years of funding. I went to the launch, it was a lovely event. What you could really get, we had to do line dancing, it was great, we got food, it was at the Vibas Centre, it was really nice. You could see that we've got, our office has got a really relational approach with these particular organizations, and they're networked well with each other, so that was a really positive thing. The Borough of Sanctuary grants program is just an unadulterated good news story. That's 500,000 pounds that we're giving away of the government's money, not of the council's money, because we've pooled all of our various asylum refugee migrant grants into a big pot, and through participatory grant making, so working with people who've got lived experience, we will be giving that away to support refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers, and to promote cohesion between new and existing communities, which I'm, that's one of the things I'm really passionate about, and in the wake of the awful racist and Islamophobic violence of the summer, that really needs to be a golden thread running through everything we do, so I'm really thrilled about that. We are, I'm holding the first meeting, I think, in a couple of weeks, and that money is going to start going out the door, so that's terrific. And last, but absolutely not least, the Black Cultural Centre is opening tomorrow. I honestly could not be happier to give you that piece of information, please come. I'm really happy, we've gone with this pop-up model, and where that's worked well is we've got four organisations that, you know, we've been able to take a bit more of a risk, because, you know, we haven't had to, this is a pop-up model, they don't have any costs, we've refurbished the building very beautifully, and they've got it for two or three months each to sort of to try things out. And what's been really great, we've met some of them down there in the centre, is the networks that they're forming with each other, and so we keep an open mind about what the long-term procurement process will give us, whether it will be something collaborative with some of those organisations coming together to make an offer, or whether we'll go with just one of them or with another organisation, but it's going to be open, you know, the centre's got a kitchen in it, it's going to be open, capable of being open from eight to seven, it's right by the arsenal, and we've got, you'll see in the pack, I hope you've had a look, the four organisations which are doing different things, so I'm really confident that there's going to be some sort of great delivery and some sort of thought leadership as well that's going to come out of that. So that was all the great stuff. Look, challenges, something I'm really worried about, colleagues, is the number of asylum seekers in our two asylum hostels. So we've had over 300 more people in the last two months come into the two hostels, which you all know are, they're run by the government or through the government's partners that they commission to run the hostels, so we're not running them, we are going there to provide services, so we're up at about 900 in two hostels. I'm very worried about that, that's a lot of people living in shared accommodation who are themselves traumatised and very vulnerable and unable to work in a very uncertain place in their lives. So I'm going down to meet with home office, people from the home office, I've written to Yvette Cooper, I want a maximum occupancy placed on those two hostels. If we've got more people, we need to process them quicker and then we need another hostel because we can't have people for months and months of time living in rooms of eight to ten people. So I'm worried about it, it's on my radar, I'm doing all I can. Remember the government is running this, but that's a new government who we have got good links with and will listen to us, but I'm getting involved, our environmental health, our licensing teams, because I want to know what we can do to bring those numbers down, it's not acceptable. People shouldn't have to live like that. The second thing that I'm concerned about, and I've come and talked about it more when I talk about horizon scanning, so I don't need to tell you about the rising level of need, need, austerity, cost of living crisis, the ongoing effects of COVID, we're seeing high levels of need, multiple sort of intersecting disadvantage. It's putting a strain on our VCS partners, it's obviously put a strain on us as a council. We're in a funding constrained situation, they are looking to us for money that we are not just able to dish out because we don't have the cost of everything is going up, the amount of need is going up, so that is a challenge and I'm going to come and talk to that about the things that you can expect to see on the horizon. So strategic direction for the next six to 12 months. I'm going to talk three, let's see how my time is doing, it's gone off, seven minutes. All right, I'm doing quite well. Three areas, I'm going to talk about the strategic direction, the hubs, VCS and our challenging inequalities work. And I'm going to say that across those three areas the kind of two key imperatives that I want to see fed into all of the work in that area is that we need to be data led and that we need to be monitoring and measuring impact. So I'll start with the hubs, I told you it's a good news story, but we need to make sure that we're capturing data well, so we're starting to do that. So from the 1st of November we're capturing resident satisfaction and importantly first time resolution because that's what we're trying to get at here. Raj let me know today that we've still got a lot of people coming into the hubs who probably don't need to come into the hubs. So to give you an example, there's about 10% of people coming in with documents because the council wants to see original documents for various things like permits and stuff. You don't need to come into a hub for that, we need to get our digital offer up and running because we need to clear the way for people who need to be in the hubs. We want to, you know, I've given you some anecdotal case studies about how well I think the connector sessions are going, but we just need to be thorough there and so, you know, do proper surveys so that we're understanding, we're getting feedback on the connector's skills, knowledge and approach there. We want to be able to track waiting times and how long it takes to kind of work with people on their various challenges and then we want to try and track so that we can kind of measure the job we're doing. If we intervene early, if we, you know, we're spending all this money on the hubs and on connectors, how is that, you know, that's early intervention and prevention, how do we map that to cost savings? And I just want to say, I don't know if you've been, I think the best hub is the one very close to where I'm a wall counsellor in Manor Gardens. It's a lovely place, I think it's a really great example of sort of place-based delivery and working really well with VCS partners in a lovely place where there's a garden and, you know, a building that can be used for community uses. And so I'm thinking that, so this is horizon scanning with you that, you know, I want to explore options to relocate one or both of the other hubs which, you know, one of the hubs is in 222, that's a municipal building, nobody is filled with joy when they go to that building, there aren't that many confidential spaces, there aren't places for kids to play, you know, so I just, that's something that is on the horizon. So, in summary, the hubs, shoring up that kind of place-based model, make sure it's the people who really need the hubs are there and using our hubs as well to promote community cohesion which is working extremely well at the northern hub. VCS, you know, because I've said it in other fora that I don't believe in new vision statements and new strategies and all that because I think it's a waste of time, there is an exception colleagues because we don't actually have a VCS strategy at present time, so we really need to do sort of refresh our approach. I explained to you the challenges, rising needs, less money, so what are we going to do? We've got this, we're going to use this well-being index, so that's something, talking about being data-led, pulls together social, environmental, economic data, what that will tell us is, give us an overview of people's lives, but different parts of people's lives and what's going well, what's getting better, what's getting worse, use that well-being index to feed into a kind of a refreshed approach to VCS. So, not just look at, well, what did we fund the last four years and the four years before that and let's keep funding them in a same or, you know, slightly higher amounts, but actually what does the well-being index tell us about what the need is in the borough and then that should be what's informing our who and how we're funding. And also, we need to think more about working with VCS organisations to make them sustainable and it's not just about here's your grant for the next four years, it's about how can we work with the organisations so that they can diversify their income, how can we support them to get grants and other sources of external funding, how can we convene networks and maybe help them to share back-office functions which will save them money, do we have space, obviously we're doing a community centre review, do we have space that we can release to them cheaply, can we discount business rates, what else can we do to help them be sustainable. We're also launching a new grant management tool because what we're being told is, you know, don't oververt small organisations with hefty monitoring reporting which, you know, uses pointlessly a lot of that, so we don't want to do that, so we've got a new grant management tool. So we will develop a strategy, it won't be a waste of time because what we'll do is we'll align it to the overarching strategy we've already got which is Islington Together 2030 to make sure it's feeding into that and it's not something new that then you've got something else to monitor. Finally, challenging inequalities. You know we've got the challenging inequalities strategy 2021, so we don't need a new strategy. That was a lovely piece of work and we've done some good things pursuant to it, things like the Becoming a Man project, having more hate crime prevention champions, having women's only sessions at our leisure centres and doing mentoring for our global majority employees to try and do something about the lack of diversity at the top of the organisation. All of that's good, but they're quite, you know, from that list I've just given you, you can see that they're quite project based, they're the things we did, we delivered. What we need to be able to do is kind of measure our current performance on inequalities and we're going to use the local government equalities framework to do that so that we, you know, as we look forward I want there to be clear measurable targets on equality. We work with public health, we've got some great data analysts and scientists within the council and we can use the equalities framework local government tool so that we're not just doing, you know, great but difficult to get hold of projects. So I think that is all I want to say to you. I think it's been 10 minutes, Chair, it's been 13 minutes. >> Probably longer but a little bit of flex in the meeting so I think we've got time for about 15 minutes of questions. Councillor Hyde I know indicated a wish to ask some questions so Councillor Hyde, then I'll take Councillor Weeks then Councillor de Juarez-Armstrong, then Councillor Osterman. >> Thank you, Councillor. I'm very excited by the kind of Bright Lives Coaching intervention that's very similar to roles I've held in the past and there's so much good news there. I hope you'll forgive me asking on I think on page 45 there was a comment about on the right hand side 10% of respondents described their ability to cope since receiving coaching support is not good. I mean that in some ways is great but I was interested of course in what happens to those 10% of people who don't have a good experience. It might be more appropriate for you to take that away and come back to me. And I guess as you were talking this evening I was wondering about, you said there's a PhD student helping but about kind of longitudinal data collection for that project because that's obviously really important because the early intervention aspect and if you're looking at like a full cost recovery budget for projects like this, we need to understand what's happening there. And I also wondered about a kind of outreach element because particularly the area around Manor Gardens is very visible, high levels of adults with complex needs and I was wondering about as well as people coming in whether we have any ability to go out and work with some of the other teams in the council. Then I have lots of questions about VCS but maybe we can go with that separately. So my other, the other question I do want to ask if I may, the community cohesion stuff is really, really good. I couldn't help but wonder what are we doing to help receiving communities, not just putting them in hotels or more broadly, you know, so that we're not pursuing a one sided strategy where the onus is on the person that's already dealt with a lot of trauma and trouble. Thanks. >> Can I come back on those, Chair, before we take any more questions? >> Absolutely, yes. Go. >> Thank you. And I'll go first and then Raj pitch in if you want to. So, Councillor Hyde, the 10% of respondents described their ability to cope since receiving coaching support is not good so I just want to make the distinction there that that's not necessarily saying the coaching wasn't, you know, that they're good or useful but just their ability to cope is still not good. Maybe better than it was and still not good but so, yeah. So what happens to them, this is, this is kind of, we've got the anecdotal case studies and we do do, we do do follow up so those people aren't just then left. But in terms of capturing that and being able to say sort of in a more data driven way, well that was 10% and we followed up and then 5% then said I don't have that information but certainly that's, yeah, Raj will-- >> Just on that is we do follow up and generally that and we can get some really detailed data to present on this. It's generally because those individuals need more support and it's more complex than just coaching. So what generally happens is that the project officers would then refer them into further services that they need the further support on so that we can sort of compass left. So that's, that's the reason why that is. >> I'll just say something about, sorry, about Bright Lives that I picked up from the data which is that 40% of the referrals are for residents who are from global majority backgrounds but they make up a tiny minority of the people who actually take up the offer. So there's something there about how do we build trust in those communities. People are referring people to those communities but they don't take up the offer so that's something also on my radar. So we will come back on that. You picked up on the evaluation so I think the takeaway for me there is to, good lord, is to come back to this committee with the service evaluation when it's done. In terms of outreach, I'll say about how I know the VCS organizations are working on the site and then maybe Raj can come in to know if we actually have people who will go to people's homes. We have a sort of rotation of different, so you know, people from gambling, gambling aware or different, you know, different services kind of rotating through the manor gardens in addition to the connectors and counselors who are there and the housing officers who are there all the time. I'll ask Raj to pitch in because I don't know if people actually go to the homes of. So absolutely, Pastor Chapman was right, we don't have actual staff that are available from the hubs to go out to do outreach. However, what we are doing is a partnership we've got with manor gardens and working collaboratively with them that they provide outreach. But the plan is moving forward and Pastor Chapman referred to kind of that horizon scanning. Whilst we've had upper street open for some time with all three hubs now we've got that opportunity to collect as much data and information as possible. So if there is that need that there is a requirement for that, we'll be working with our colleagues across other services to look up what outreach is provided and refer in that way as well. So we'll build that model up as we get to know more and more. >> And the final question before the fireworks, community cohesion. So the sanctuary grants, the way that's set up is that allows us to fund, you talked about receiving the communities as well to tell you how that. >> Councillor Weeks. >> Thank you, Councillor Weeks, Marmee Wall, Chair of Licensing Committee. My question is to both to Raj and Councillor Chapman with regard to the Black Cultural Centre. So tomorrow the Council will launch the Black Cultural Centre to great fanfare. We picked up in press releases probably by the local press. But as a member of the Council we know that there were struggles in getting to this stage. So my first question is what lessons have been learned, should we pursue future projects of this type? What are the success indicators in a year, three years and five years from now and how can we ensure that for members of the community this is not just sort of like mere window dressing? Thank you. >> I'll respond to that and then I'll let Raj come in. So yeah, loads of lessons learned from the last unsuccessful procurement. Mostly around sort of having efficacious due diligence that isn't, you know, so rigid that you've got to jump through and kind of working with organisations. But, you know, kind of getting that balance right. We want to support people but there are kind of, for safeguarding reasons, there are basic levels which, you know, which need to be met. So I think a good learning which has kind of informed the pop-up approach because it enables us to be, to flex and to have a lighter touch due diligence was to say that rather than have a procurement for an all in, once and for all provider for the next five, ten years, let's try and do something a bit more agile and let's then have a lighter touch due diligence because we're only giving you the centre for two or three months each. So we can just, I don't mean take risks, but we can just be, we can open it up to, I guess, a broader range of people who wouldn't have been able to meet full due diligence criteria. So you've asked for success measures one, three, five years down the line. I mean, five years down the line it will be a flourishing centre if, you know, if I had, if my dreams come true it would be in a bigger, more majestic building. But that's the building we have got at the moment and we've made it as nice as we can. And it will be a great success. I don't know if there'll be one provider or if it will be a kind of combined effort. It is really nice on their own, but they can work with some of the people they've met through the procurement process is very nice. So in terms of, I want this next year to go really well at the pop-ups. That's, you know, and what will that look like? Well, that will look like that build, that site is animated. You know, there's not, they don't have to, their costs are covered. They don't have to generate money. We're not giving them money, but we're giving them the premises. So success there is for two or three months you've animated that space. People have gone. We capture the number of people who go and they, you know, have experience for them. And we kind of build the reputation of Islington's Black Cultural Centre. Three years from now we should have some kind of permanent provider, whether that be a group of people coming together or one provider. And they should be doing work which is not just, which is about delivering services, but also, as I mentioned before, that kind of thought leadership. So I think that I'd love it to be bigger. >> Thank you, Chair. >> Sorry, Chair. Yeah, just to add to what Councillor Chapman has said. I mean, in terms of the diversity of services that are going to be delivered through the pop-up process that we've put in place. And when you look at the slides, there's everything from education, history, taught arts and culture, youth entrepreneurship. So I think what we need to really, and this is what we will learn through this is they offer to be so diverse and fit for purpose according to need. And that's what we will learn and build on. But bringing organisations together to deliver that collaboratively, you know, has been absolutely fantastic in terms of workshops that we've done with them to get them to where they are now, and it's been really positive. So I feel that's a really good new story moving forward. >> Two or three months, officers in Raja and in Raja's team worked with them, brought them into the town hall, ran workshops with them to talk about their offer and how they were going to run the place. So it's been a really good to kind of, it's the first time that they're doing this kind of engagement. >> Early. >> Thank you, Cher. I love what you said about being data-driven, and there's a huge variation in terms of who presents at these accessible hubs, access hubs. I think Canal Ward has got about 4%, 2%, and I think Federal Park Ward has about 14%. So it's a huge variation. So it's a challenge about communication to residents and letting them know that these exist. And then there's also potential slight concern because I think a lot of money has gone into investing and creating these hubs, and you mentioned that you potentially, after less than a year, looking already to relocate some of them. How much is that going to cost, and what else are we looking for so that we don't have to repeat the same mistake again? >> Yeah, let me answer that. So the data you've got around which ones are the most used and from which ward, right, that's because we've only just opened the northern hub, so I think that's part of that, you know, because now the Manor Gardens northern hub is up and running. So I think we see that data shift. Yes, there's a piece of work to do on cons, so we want to get it on our digital notice boards and kind of build on that, and there is a cons plan on that, and I think it's referenced in the material. Look, in terms of the cost, look, I absolutely don't want to waste the council's money, but what I can -- this is, you know, spending money to save money, isn't it? Because if we are getting people, you know, especially when you think about Bright Lives coaching people before they hit crisis, if you can invest in them, then you are saving, I mean, you know, a huge amount. So what works really well in Manor Gardens is that people are able to come and be helped by the sort of socially prescribed help that is literally available right there, you know, because there's so much already going on in Manor Gardens. Main way on Upper Street, you know, people can come with their kids, there's a community garden, there's kind of play space, there's, you know, yoga going on, there's all sorts of people there who can translate Arabic, Somali, Turkish, you know, it's a very kind of -- there's nothing about it feels municipal, so I think having spaces like that in the three localities is worthwhile. Yes, we don't want to waste council money, which is why I said, you know, when we look at the -- when we're doing the asset review of all the assets we hold. >> Thank you, Chair. Just two questions. The first one's just around -- I think it's really great the way the data is captured with the access hubs and in reference to 39% being housing support and it kind of breaks down whether that's homelessness. My question will be, have any -- has any of the senior officers or managers been invited to the access hubs to see what kind of front door problems are coming? Because like you said, we want the right people to come to those access hubs and if we're seeing that housing's an issue, could they have been resolved over the phone or is there a more structural problem in housing? And secondly, just on your point around documents, I think actually that's a really positive thing for some of our elderly residents who -- especially when it comes to renewing like the blue badge, who don't have access to computers. So I think it would be good to kind of send that messaging out and say, look, there's a hub here, we can help you with that. And because I know as counselors we had, you know, they really struggled with that and they would have really appreciated a hub close to them to be able to do that. And also, using the Manor Gardens Library, which is just across the road, I think that's worth tapping into. And just secondly, on the challenges with asylum seekers, not to delve in too much into kind of the national problem and the government responsibility. And as much as I feel like it's really crucial as a council to lobby the new government and write into Yvette Cooper and hoping she will reply soon, I do kind of want to know more of the issues or the problems that they face of those who are -- because they're not just numbers, they are families, specifically those who have children. What other issues are they facing that we as a council, as a borough or sanctuary can help them and kind of just starting off with that work as a sense of urgency, whether it's, you know, visiting the family, speak to the families, really seeing the numbers, how many are living in -- like that really kind of face-to-face work with some of these families, as we know that that situation is quite difficult. So it would be good to kind of see what we can do, what we can offer those families. >> Yeah, so I'm going to respond. I'm going to take the migrants question first, then I'm going to just say a little bit about what you have to say about documents and older people. And then I'm going to let Raj talk about whether officers are going to the hubs. So of the 900 or so people in those two hostels, they are largely single unaccompanied men. So what we do -- and, you know, our work in Islington through our No Recalls to Public Funds network and our borough sanctuary work, the No Recalls to Public Funds network here with officers that we have, and we are -- you know, the work we are doing is recognized nationally. So we are in those two hostels, as I say, our government or, you know, controlled providing a huge amount of services. So the issues that those people -- it's not families, but the issues that they're facing is that these are extremely traumatized individuals packaged together in unsatisfactory conditions in a state of extreme uncertainty because they're, you know, in the process of seeking asylum. [ Inaudible ] >> I will confirm for you tomorrow absolutely in writing, but I don't think there are any children in those hostels. So we provide a whole lot of advice, a well-being by physically going to those two spaces. You know, we've got officers who are pretty much there all the time. And, you know, the numbers did come down to below 700, and that was, you know, things were looking better, and we were moving people out via housing fund and all but 70 of those have been used for our Afghan-Ukrainian families. But so we are there on the ground delivering those services, but it's a -- you know, these are people who are, you know, ultimately if their asylum application is refused are facing destitution. And that is, you know, we've got -- we're supporting about 47 families at the moment who have no recourse to public funds and who are effectively destitute. And the really experienced officers are there in those hostels. And the other thing I wanted to say, yeah, so people -- documents. So what Raj has explained to me is that sometimes the council says we need to see original documents when they don't. So we're causing -- you know, we don't need to do that. Just let people upload copies. Yes, it's good for older people to be able to come in and get help with that. But I've also started to sort of challenge my thinking a bit around people who, you know, are digitally excluded and to think about ways that we can digitally include them. So are there ways that we can support older people or people for whom English isn't their first language to become able to use technology in ways like this? But I agree with you and for those people to help. So I'll hand over to Raj to talk about officers actually in the hub. >> Thank you. So in terms of just the actual 39% housing and obviously there's a breakdown in the presentation of types of interactions that happen within the hubs. Absolutely senior officers are coming onto the hubs. They are involved in this. I take regular information and data back through to CMT to the council's corporate management team and to our chief executive so that the data is visible and everyone sees that. What -- I think that, you know, and I'll say this, this is a fantastic model because what we've done here is we've not just rolled out a model where we've got resident experience or resident services providing services. We've got -- Chancellor Chapman referred to the connector sessions. Those connector sessions are where we are, wherever the need is and we've got -- depending on the requirement that the resident had has, we can make those referrals into the services. We can book appointments with services. We can also have officers coming along and they do go to the hubs and they will spend time there seeing residents. But we also refer outside of the council. So we have our VCS partners. There's a list of them in the presentation slide around who actually works with us at the moment. We've got more VCS partners that are asking if they can also come in and spend some time in the hub so that they can provide services through our hubs and the types of services that they provide that the council doesn't provide. So it's a kind of a holistic service and it's almost like a package of service. I think just going back to Councillor Chapman's response also on the digital inclusion and exclusion. Within the hubs we've got digital hubs. So we have actually got devices that our staff will help and support residents if they say I want to -- I've been trying to do this or I want to do this online but I can't do it is we can support and assist. So we can empower them so that what that does is it frees up that time for the staff to be dealing with genuine crisis situations or vulnerable people who have no other way of accessing those services. So yeah, it's a very joined up offer and not just within one service area. And as I said earlier, we're building on that on a regular basis. So supplying that data based on the need. We're then building that into the model as we go on. >> I'm really glad to hear the wonderful work that's going on behind the scenes. And I am quite proud of the hub because that's where a lot of the community go and it's accessible because of Manor Gardens. So I just want to make that clear that because Manor Gardens is a charity, that's, you know, the whole building, people that go there don't see it as a council building. So they're walking through that way. What my concern is as quite rightly the riots that happened in August, even though it didn't touch Islington, but I know many, many, many residents that it has touched and there's a great fear out there. And I know that we're spending a lot of money on the migrants and the asylum seekers, which rightly we should. But I just want to remind people that we mustn't forget about the residents that are from the BAME background, but not necessarily a migrant or refugee that are going through a crisis at the moment because they are scared to enter any of these buildings. And there is a massive distrust between the council and quite frankly my community because they feel that there is a lot of right-wing racist thugs on the street in Islington and they feel the council hasn't addressed it. We had this lovely event and people attended, but people have been saying to me, okay, we keep having these events, but what's going to come of it? Nothing's going to help. We've been having these talks now for how long? What is going to -- how are we going to feel safe on the streets? And how are we going to promote all of this to a section of the community that, like I said, that are not -- because migrants and asylum seekers, I'm not saying they get special treatment, of course not, they need that because they're trauma, they are because we can't reach them. We can't reach them because there's no trust. So I want to know what is the council going to do to reach those communities and are our staff reflective of the communities that we serve? >> Okay, I'll take some of those points. So Councillor Pandle, you were kind enough to join me at that social -- at the community cohesion event where every single person who came told me, look, this can't just be a really nice event and we all have lunch together. So you will remember at that event we had over 100 people there, we were all on different tables bringing people together. We had facilitators on each table facilitating a discussion. So we captured what everyone had to tell us and the work is -- Lorna is one of Roger's officers is doing the work to collate all of that information and to say here is what you told us, here is the action plan that's going to come out of that. So various things did come out of that, very clear messages that we got around communication, channels of communication, languages, how when there's events of this kind people want to be communicated with, places need to be staying open. People commented that, for example, on the table I was sitting on had a couple of men from the Bangladeshi -- isn't in Bangladeshi Association. I had an Afghan person who settled here. I had TRAs and I had one of our black women who's a community organizer and all of them reflected that there is no way in which they ever find themselves around the same table. So that made me reflect on all of the events that we put on, all of the, you know, great celebratory events, the great, you know, Black History Month or Islamophobia Awareness events, LGBT, and it made me think, actually, I want to add another event to the calendar which is just about cohesion event and it's not about, well, this is directed at particular segments of the community but it's about bringing people together. That was a strong steer that we got from people. So to reassure you that that was not a one-off, nice event, we all had a great time, that that work is ongoing and I can come back and report to you but it's, you know, it's in train. As for, you know, Raj can talk about offices, right, that's all of our jobs as counselors, isn't it, to sing about the great work that's going on in Manor Gardens and bring people in. >> Thank you. I think one of the things that really hit home with me at that event was we had some residents that actually talked about their lived experience and that was, you know, really important for us to hear. But absolutely, I think the event itself, there is an action plan being developed as we speak. We'll share that, we can share that when we do come back again in the new year with yourselves on what that is but that's something I am taking to the Community Embodgering Sector Board that I chair, along with the Chief Executive for Voluntary Action is LinkedIn to talk about the action plan and actually what are the things that we can do jointly and deliver but equally what are the things we can do to empower BCS organizations to be able to take action because there was, like you say, a lot of mistrust with the riots that were happening around misinformation, around people being, you know, scared of various things. So I think it's really important that we absolutely pick that up when we see that through and further events so we can stand up. And Councillor Chapman can say, you said, and we've done this and this is what we're doing, this is the impact that more importantly that that has actually had on our communities and how people do feel comfortable coming and talking about the experiences that we can work together to deal with those situations. >> I'm afraid we are now going to have to move on. It's quarter past nine, we are 20 minutes behind schedule. Can I say that if members again have unanswered questions, get them to me in the next seven days and we can then incorporate them in. I have one from Councillor Staff who's not here tonight, for example, but we'll deal with them in that way. Thank you for attending, it's been a busy week for you in particular. And we can move on, because I am conscious of time, up to corporate performance, quarter one, C3. Joanna Dawes, I think you're presenting. Joanna, five minute introduction and then we should have about 15 minutes for questions. Workplace questions will be dealt with in the annual workplace report. >> Great, good evening everyone. So yes, this report brings you the quarter one performance update for 24/25, so that's April to June this year. And there is a focus on corporate resources as was agreed by the committee. So it includes the key messages on corporate resources performance in the main paper, which I'll briefly run through in a second. The scorecard in appendix one with corporate resources metrics and performance data. And then appendix two has the council wide quarter one update against the whole delivery plan for your information. For background, the delivery plan was adopted earlier this year, setting out our corporate priorities for 24/25 to act like a corporate plan. And as the role of corporate performance is to track progress against corporate priorities, performance updates now orientate around the goals of the delivery plan, around to that. So I'll just briefly run through some of the key performance messages for corporate resources for quarter one, set out in the main report. On the budget, I expect you've had a more recent update on this, but just to say, we managed the approved general fund budget well for the start of the year, and there's a net overspend of 0.6 million in quarter one. We've got a new metric on this this year, which is the value of the savings forecast to be delivered. And as of Q1, savings is forecast to be delivered by the end of the year. On the workforce, sickness, absence of performance has continued to improve actually over the past couple of years, and that performs the benchmark that we use for London Council's average, so this is going in the right direction. Also on workforce, the council continues to focus on the challenge of agency staff. After the growth that we've seen in agency use over the last year, actually the data brings better news for this year so far, and although it's still higher than we'd like, I think it does show that the efforts are starting to bring it down, actually, and make a difference. So while the Q1 percent for agency staff use was only half a percentage below Q4 from last year, the initial figures for Q2, which I'll just kind of informally release to you today, show that this has actually come down a further 1.5%, and we're actually back to kind of pre-quarter three figures last year. So associated with this spend has also come down. So spend has dropped by nearly two million pounds between Q3 and Q1. Initial figures again for quarter two show a further drop of half a million, so the measures that are in place, so hopefully we'll see this trend continue. On digital services, the strong performance of last year continues. The numbers of significant outages, which are kind of formally called in techie language P1s, is stable and there are actually fewer in quarter one than the average of last year, and 97% of projects, digital services projects, are on track. So these are digital fitting residents and RIT infrastructure and resilience. Information governance, which is the last area just to cover briefly. Performance continues to improve due to, I'd say, the actions that are put in place by the team, principally its centralization. Freedom of Information Act performance in Q1, that's actually the best date by far, with 97% despite actually a growth, a relatively high number received. So this means that we've met or exceeded our target, which is set by the Information Commissioner's Office, of 90% for the third quarter running now for that, so that's great news. Although the subject access requests completion rate target wasn't reached, it's the same target, 90%, performance was higher in Q1 this year, 73% and it was higher than quarter one last year, again, despite receiving actually 10% more cases. So performance actually is hopefully really improving here. NEB edges are still being put in place to try and improve that performance further, so we do hope to continue, we do hope. I'll leave it there and hand over to the questions. >> Just very quickly, Chair, as well as questions on the paper, keen to get members' view on the format as well, particularly Appendix 2, the delivery plan, which I find a very, very helpful format with the RAG ratings. >> And thank you for that, that was really helpful. I did want to pick up on something you just said, and it's also, I love the RAG ratings in the document as well. So it's come up before on this committee, which makes me slightly uncomfortable, which is the subject access request completion rate, and very helpfully, you've got data that goes back to 2019 and 20, and we've never seemed to have met the information commissioner's target ever. And so I just want to know where the issue lies with that. Is the target from the ICO too ambitious? And if so, it might be a question for Councilor Ward and others politically, is there a conversation to be lobbying to make this a more realistic thing, because we have not met, I'm just looking at the data, since 2019, we have never met this annually. And secondly, it was, or is it the other, in your answer to your question, do we need to put more resources into this? And the third one is, what's the outcome, like it seems like there is no penalty, if I can use that word, for not meeting this. So is there reputationally, is there a fine, you know, the information commissioner are very stringent with their fines, as many people in the public sector know. So I just thought you could give us a bit more information, but it just seems like this is either an unrealistic target, or there's a real concern in the resourcing of this area of the council. So could you give us a bit more colour, please? >> I mean, I can start with that. So yeah, that's right, it hasn't been met, it's a very challenging area in the team. It's just very dependent on the volumes that are received, and they do fluctuate, and they do put a lot of pressure on the resources that are available. Now I am aware, having spoken to the team briefly about this, that they were in a kind of regular conversation with the information commissioner's office. So it's not just the taxation about how they're managing the resources, how they're managing to deal with, you know, the process, and what they're putting in place. And so it's kind of, it's more of an input into it, but yeah, that's... >> And just to add, I mean, I think these things are really time-consuming and difficult to get the information out. We did restructure the service to centralise it, which I think did improve performance on FOIs as well as SARS. But, you know, it is difficult. Yes, if we threw loads of resource at it, we probably would meet the target. But, you know, that would be a lot of money diverted from other things. And, you know, there is a council, you might find this incredulous, but I have reason to believe that a council not far from here, in one bit of the council, has 60 members of staff working on SARS. We've got a tiny fraction of that. You know, if we had 60, that would cost a very, very large amount of money, which would be cost of online services. So it's difficult. >> I'm just going to slightly abuse that. Is it possible to benchmark, like, what other councils, because I wouldn't want us to be the only council that is not meeting it. So do you know roughly how other councils fare in meeting this target? >> There are difficulties, certainly, in the areas. We have got some information. I haven't got it all to hand. But, yeah, we can get some of that out, yeah. >> I haven't got it to hand, Councillor Ibrahim. But I don't know of any London council that meets their target. I think we are, as a local authority, we are the most regulated area of the public sector. And that's a good thing. But, yeah, I'd be a huge amount of resource into this when the numbers just go up and down. And as Joanna says, the team regularly talk to the information commissioner. So I think that's a good thing. >> Speaking of targets, another delivery plan, page 84, and then I'll come to you early. Answering calls. Target 90%. 16%. So that's one in six callers are hanging up. Why do we think that is? And what can we do to improve that in the spirit of let's get the basics right? >> As you know, Councillor, I've never used that before, of course. But, yeah, absolutely. It's a question that actually Ernest asked when this came to executive. And it's actually a question about the rate of calls. And we've got to address it. It's a lot better than it used to be. But it still needs to get up to where it should be. Don't do much to work with that at all. >> I don't know what to say other than agree. And we need to continue to work very hard to improve it with some of the things we've talked about and have been on the agenda of executive recently. >> Really just picking up. Sorry, Joanna, you may. >> I was just going to add that with the new structure that the committee is taking, of taking themes, calls falls under the quarter three. So you'll be able to have a more detailed kind of insight at that point. >> I think what I was looking for by way of an answer was some understanding of why you think we're not hitting our target. Is it lack of resources? Are there particular pressure points at particular times of the day where we are struggling to answer calls in time? Or is it just the fact that people are increasingly impatient? >> I don't think -- I mean, at this point, I just don't think we don't know Councillor Wayne. It's very frustrating because the software is so much better than it used to be and this shouldn't be happening. Can I suggest we do a bit of a deeper dive into this and come back to the committee? >> Thank you, Chair. So my question is about the new performance indicator on savings. I'm slightly concerned that within the first quarter we're already reporting that we will not be able to meet about 30% of it. So how are we -- how secure do we feel about being able to meet the rest of the savings as we progress through the quarters? What are we looking to do to happen and how are we going to manage that 30% that we can't meet? And maybe just a point to say that obviously we do have a new government now and hopefully we will be able to remove this key performance indicator as soon as possible. >> Fortunately, yeah, I think savings are going to be a part of our professional lives for the foreseeable future. I can't immediately -- I can't really envisage a time when we're not going to have to make savings and to some extent, the savings and efficiencies are healthy as you make savings to things which are maybe dropped in priority and refocus the resources elsewhere. So a general efficiency drive is something which should probably always be a part of what we do, even in a scenario where ideally there was plenty of resources. The -- obviously it's concerning when we don't manage to deliver savings. Often we find that they are delayed as opposed to not being delivered at all, which is manageable when we've got contingencies and things like that. And the monitor is the place to see the real impact of it on a net basis. And where there is detailed analysis in the monitor per saving of exactly where that is. And the monitor will be here I think next time, if I'm not mistaken. I think there will be a detailed analysis and suggest probably look at it then. >> I'm not seeing any -- I'm not seeing any further plans up on this topic. What I would invite members to do, have a look at the delivery plan. If there are items not on there that you think ought to be on there. Again, if you can feed that back to me and I can then share that around. Really just a point of clarification with the delivery plan. What was the input of the politicians in it as opposed to the officers? Because this is an important document. It's essentially what as a corporate body our priorities are. And I've looked at the ways a committee would be interested in having some influence on what is in that delivery plan. So effectively, where did it come from? Officer led or member led? >> It's something I've asked for for a while. Just a better way of presenting this. And this is what we've -- this is what authors have come up with. I like the way it's presented here. And if members think there's different ways of presenting it, we can do it a bit differently next time. And different -- I'm all ears. I mean, it should be a working document. If there's different ways we can do it, let's do it some ways. >> My question, less about presentation, more about substance. How did the particular objectives get selected? Was it officer led? Was it member led? >> The five missions were member led, and it was around the five missions. In terms of the particular objectives, that was officer led. >> Perfect opportunity then for us to go away, have a think, and provide some feedback. >> Conscious of time as ever, let's move on to item C4, the annual workplace report. And Adele and Claudia have been waiting very patiently for their opportunity to present. Again, what I would ask for, presentation around five minutes, and then questions. >> Thank you, Chair. I'm really pleased to present to you the annual workforce report for 2023-24. It is a retrospective looking report, but basically our equality, equity, diversity, and inclusion pillar within our workforce strategy meeting an equal future and challenging inequality within our workforce. The report, therefore, reviews our progress against that strategy. It measures the impact that works to reflect the diverse community that we serve. The report highlights positive trends. So we've seen that the percentage of Black, Asian, and multi-ethnic policy, that's higher than the Islington working age population. We've also seen year on year an increase in the top 5% of earners. So that was at 31%, and that is above our target, 6.8% above the London Council average. We've also seen those who have shared they have a disability, that we've kind of got the most accurate picture. So again, the number of disabled employees in the top 5% of earners has increased to 11.4%. Also we have procured, obviously one of the key aims that I think has been mentioned several times tonight is around data and multi-ethnic colleagues. So we're seeing that that continued investment as well as making sure that representation within open development programs is also diverse. Our focus on early careers development continues and that's supportive of reducing the age population and addressing any remaining or emerging disparities. So looking forward, we are obviously going to continue as well as identifying any emerging trends. We conducted a colleague survey towards the end of the reporting period and as we analyse the results. I'm going to invite you first. >> So I had a question around how you, so the data and the integrity of your data is what I want to drill into because I've lost my page so I'm going to start talking and hopefully I remember where it is. I found it, page 106 on the pack, which is the ethnicity profile and I don't understand it. It says, so you've kind of classified Asian, black and then we kind of have a group called black and Asian and minority ethnic and then there's numbers next to these and there's percentage next to these so there's clearly some sort of double counting that's going on because I think if you tally these numbers it will be more than the 4,000 odd. So I kind of wanted to know, so when you're asking employees for their ethnicity, how are you doing that because you can't simultaneously be black and bane and so I just kind of want to understand your data because, and the reason there's a slight concern is because if you go down to some of the other graphs and tables that you've given us, it's not consistent with those sort of bandings and those sort of groupings so it was just a broad question, how do we collect ethnicity data basically? Thank you Chair, so to answer the question, we've been reviewing our data categories in terms of going live with the Equality Data Campaign so it is broken down into broad equality groups, finer details, so this report takes I suppose a grouping approach and I think what you probably would like to see is maybe some of that breakdown, that we do have that data but for this purpose it is collated, obviously it's quite a long appendix as it is so we've kind of had to do that for this much more detail on the different elements. Okay so if I've understood correctly because I think that makes sense, so the black, Asian and minority ethnic, I would assume is the total number of Asian, black and mixed staff and I'm not going to do the maths here but is that how you then get to that broad, okay, and then you're saying you capture those specific, those specific standpoints as well, okay that's really helpful because as we were going down into the forms and into the other tables it was just really hard to kind of foster that scrutiny of seeing actually where are those disparities and the experiences, if you look at especially in the ethnicity profiles versus kind of the salaried bandings and like you know black staff members are over-represented for example in adult social care and that directorate but you know if we then, you know it would be really useful to correlate that to their experiences of kind of salaries and progression and things like that so yeah we just want to get into the weeds, this committee love detail so if you know I'll probably write to you separately but it would be useful to get that and see what the ethnicity profile of that is because I just thought you know it looked like there was, I did the maths and it looked like we were 75% ethnic minority when we weren't I just felt like there was a double counting, thank you. My question is just through your report, I want to make sure I get the title of the report right, through the annual workforce report and through your description there we understand there is a priority to ensure that you know the council have a diverse workforce and those from BAME backgrounds are sort of promoted into sort of more senior positions, yeah what assurance can you give that staff who are internally promoted within the council and who are sort of employed from elsewhere are sort of supported to succeed, now that's notwithstanding you know the sort of black on board programmes and the internal mentoring programmes because I've been a councillor for three years and my reflection is sometimes it seems staff are in one directorate and they move to another directorate and then before long they may not even sort of be in the job anymore and for me just talking to some BAME colleagues and I'm generalising here so forgive me but it seems sometimes they're moved into position, maybe senior position and then they don't have the optimum performance what they were having in their previous position and I just don't want you know that target driven culture which we see in this report to be at the detriment of them sort of I'm say excelling in their position if you understand what I'm saying, so I would like to know what assurance that you can give us that you know the BAME employees are being supported to succeed when they're given internal promotions or promoted and then from external organisations to succeed because for me my observation is that that's not always the case. There's been a piece of work, one of the focuses around the leading with care piece of work is to ensure that all of our senior leaders, they're progressing in their career and accessing some of the more senior roles in the organisation so that is obviously open to all of our staff but will include colleagues from monetised backgrounds as well. Just to be honest I just want to ensure that the committee are aware these are unique cases but because the numbers are so small I have to sort of raise it through my questioning and yet for me for example I'm just giving an example and this is not a real life example but if someone is maybe working in you know the finance admin position and then four months later you see that they're maybe in an assistant project manager position you know in a certain direction and then before long you then find out that they're actually left in the sort of my experience some of those cases have been staff who are BAME and who have sort of been promoted and I'm not sure that the promotion is you know sort of there to meet a target you know that may be crude but I just want to ensure that BAME staff are given the support but you know from your answer I get that the council are trying to ensure that they are supported but I will monitor it and maybe we can come to future reports. I want to broaden discussion out a little bit and I'll be bringing in Councillor Choudry shortly but I want to look a little bit at the overall structure of the workforce within Islington. In 2020, Islington had 48 senior officers, i.e. officers, chief officer for or above. That represented 1.04% of the workforce. By 2022, up to 58 officers, 1.21%. By 2024, 82 senior officers, 1.68% of the workforce. Fair to say that a number of council colleagues of mine have been surprised by these figures and have asked the question what is going on at a time when the council is facing severe budgetary pressures. So I'd be interested in a little bit of context to why the ratio of senior officers to more junior officers appears to be moving in the direction that it is and then Councillor Choudry I'll bring you in. I'll have a go at it. I think it's probably fair to say we probably need to come back with some analysis from each service and offer something along those lines along with the analysis which you've obviously seen which shows the increases. I can talk about my services and resources a little bit just to give you a flavour because there are some increases in resources. So going back to around the dates you mentioned, you may recall we had quite a large number of IT contractors. If you remember that, they were in the high teens at that time and costing a large amount of money. We have increased the number of more senior officers in IDS, not by as many as the high teens but there is an increase. We now have four contractors and that will be dropping further. So that which I know is not in keeping with other increases in agency staff across the piece but nonetheless that was the way we went about it. And recently with the resident experience business case, members of the committee wouldn't have seen the iterations of that but there was an initial draft which did include contractors and consultants and all the rest of it and those were cut out with a saving which was well in excess of a million pounds because we were able to work back towards the permanent staff. So that is my own area. We've also had some increases in finance as well, where we have felt the need for more senior staff covering things like the pension fund, you know, two billion pounds and also some of the other areas which have been very, very difficult sorts of, you know, thinking about schools and other areas where we've been hit with very major financial problems. So there has been some increases. I can talk about my own services, I'll have to bring back and I'll have to take questions on any of that but I'd have to come back with some other service insight. And so there's no mystery there was an exchange of correspondence today really to give the opportunity for officers as I always like to come prepared and I will be expecting some further figures to come to a later meeting of this committee. Councillor Ward. Something to say, I think it's a very, very fair question and the more we dig into this, I think the more we find there's all kinds of reasons for this and all kinds of reasons depending on which director you're talking about. Dave's given the example of IT but there's other reasons from other directorates. So I suggest we bring this back with some detailed stuff about each directorate. Thank you, Chair. Just regarding your point and I've got another two points to discuss. One is like, you know, that this is really when as a Chair of the Social Care, when our phone lines are suffering for the service, older people suffering the longer the proper service because of the money overspent in the Social Care and other thing. And when we see that this kind of top layer, yeah, just first thing I'd like to propose to Chair, we should have a clear timeline why this kind of officer was recruited, timeline what is the plan for future plan and when they will come back. It's not going to be like we should have some kind of timeline or that specifically why they were recruited from within this time limit, what was the necessary and also the timeline within the, how long it will come to come back to us about the report of that. This is my first proposal. Second thing is like, you know, the two questions. One is the council weeks raised about the BME staff, yeah, since 2010 I'm from there I'm involved the PPP as a member. Two issue only scheme, one is the agency staff and one is the BME staff. I always raise the BME staff. Why BME staff is, you can see the bottom there is a high level of the BME staff. When go to the little bit middle then BME staff disappear, yeah. I ask the question, same answer coming from, sorry I'm not, same answer I'm getting. But I would like to have some clear indication, yeah, that we, indication that the framework when the top level BMEs can reflect Islington Council people demographic. If any problem should have a clear answer that why we can't have met this kind of target. We should be have some kind of target for BME staff to the top level, yeah. Because this is a, you can see the ratio of the 7K. You can see the white 70 percent. You can see the other, you can see the, what is the difference between the income level. And it is, and also we want to clear which level grade how many staff are there, every demographic it should be there. And also regarding the agency staff, it should be some kind of now stopping the agency staff. If agency staff need to recruit should have clear, as is we say this is a member led council. We should have a member input that should be answerable to why we need agency staff, too many agency staff. And just I give you the one example and I give it with my committee. We need, we have a like social worker demand. But what happened like we saw that we redundant some social worker because some manager they don't like that manager. This kind of thing happening in this new council. Should not be happening because there is demand. We should not redundant giving money to where the post is needed. Thank you. Going to ask for a brief response. Of course, this is a high level scrutiny committee and we are not here to look at individual decisions. I'm sure Councillor Chaudry understands that. I think if we can have a brief response to some of the important points raised. Just to unpick those going backwards. On agency staff, you are absolutely right but as we talked about earlier in the previous report, there are huge efforts to get that number down, including the challenge panels that we have already talked about at previous committee. It will be a particular theme in this year's budget as well. How do we change those outcomes and really get a grip in terms of our staffing levels and using agencies where it's appropriate for those specialist rules but apart from that not having this just as a kind of a safety valve. There is a huge amount of work going on on that at the minute. There will be more of that in this year's budget. Going back to your first question which was, we can certainly give you a timeline on permanent staff and as Dave was saying before, it would be helpful if we just dug into every directorate and why senior staffing levels are going up in every directorate because as we said before, it's a mixed bag and there will be different reasons and different directors but we can come back to that. In terms of senior BAM staff and setting targets for that, I don't know if we can do that. I'm just turning to my colleagues to see. We will have a discussion, that's Sam and I, myself, Councillor Ward and Dave, just around how we present the data when it comes back to this committee. We won't do that tonight. I'm going to take two final questions from Councillor Galbally and Councillor Jackson. Thank you, Chair. I would like to take the direction that you gave us at the beginning of this meeting to do follow-up questions to make sure that executive members keep their promises. Just before the summer, Councillor Ward, we discussed about a four-day working week and you asked me to send a report from South Cambridge. I did so. Hopefully you've had the opportunity to read that report and I would like to kind of know your understanding how could potentially that policy, if it was applied to Islington, address the issues of agency going from 10 per cent to 15 per cent, address the issues of 1 in 8 staff having a turnover in Islington Council, because of the churn that's taking place, address the issues of when it comes to leaving staff, there might be some that would like some more flexibility, especially as we've got significant numbers leaving around kind of the ages where they might be when it comes to women experiencing menopause or kind of going through stages where potentially we might be giving birth and having childhood issues. So that would be great. And then maybe from council officers, have you done any kind of surveys, is there any research if there is appetite from council officers for more flexibility but also for their working week? So I did read the report. It was very interesting. I can't give you a specific answer on all the particular points right now, but perhaps we can go to Dave. We do have flexible working policies. Our four-day week is a whole different kettle of fish and I'm not aware of any London council that does this, but Dave, do you want to come in at all? Yeah, the four-day working week, as I understand it, is working four days without not compressed hours over four days. It is four days which is a fundamental change to terms and conditions and everything else. I think that's not something we're in a position to move to at this moment in time. Anything to add? I'm going to take Councillor Jackson. Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to bring attention to the apprenticeship, the start. I'm slightly confused and I want a bit of clarity on page 138 and 139. I think what I'm really trying to get at in terms of you've got existing colleagues. I'm just trying to get a bit of understanding around the number of people that have started and I guess when you say new starter, it's just a slight, for example, you've got mixed multi-ended background, existing colleagues, the 0% there's new starter 6%. Can you just make clarity and I guess you can use 46 as your guide here because you've made a statement which says 15% of external start were from a wide 44, I'm just the whole part I'm not clear. So if you could just explain a little bit and because of time maybe I would have probably sent you an email on this but if you can try and make sense on this for me now. 138 page, 138 on the, 138 and 139. Yes that would be one part and also when you say existing colleague, does that mean it's offered to existing workforce or is it just I'm not understanding the two. It all makes sense now and I guess when I, and I think my fellow members would, when I hear apprenticeship I look at it as new opportunity right but what you're trying to say to me is it could just be internal movement and I'm not too sure that I guess I would really like to know what's actually new in terms of new opportunity for example there's really a new opportunity for residents or you know because if it's just moving around or people taking opportunity for training and it could be quite confusing and I'm sure you can see how, where I would come from in terms of not thinking that that might not necessarily be a new apprenticeship. I know the definition now from just what you said but I'm of the opinion of a new opportunity of an apprenticeship that means a new job not necessarily someone changing a pathway or taking on a training. I'm going to draw that item to a close before we conclude the meeting tonight. Do any of the committee chairs wish to update the committee on anything that they are involved in? I don't feel we have to but if there is something you want to share with all of us before we all go off and stay up all night watching the American election results. Here's your opportunity. We're doing community census check. And I think it's Thursday night for those who can't get enough of scrutiny committees. Okay forward plan, work program, all in the papers. This is a living breathing committee so if any of you think in the next
oh I wish I had asked that or I wish that Jan had stopped me from asking that question. Get them in to me and one way or another we can have them answered and formally minuted. Thank you all for your contributions tonight. That concludes the meeting this evening. [BLANK_AUDIO]

AI Generated

Summary

The meeting considered a number of topics relating to the council's use of resources and their impact on the local community, including how to maximise social value in procurement, the impact of the Access Islington Hubs model and the opening of the Black Cultural Centre. It concluded by reviewing the council's Q1 performance update and considering the council's annual workforce report.

Maximising Social Value

The committee heard a presentation from Guy Battle, chief executive of Social Value Portal, on how to make Islington’s procurement strategy “progressive”, meaning how to use the council’s spending power to drive positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes for the borough. The committee considered a number of possible recommendations arising from the presentation, including:

Embedding social value into every procurement above £100,000, rather than just major projects.
Setting a minimum target of at least 20% additional social value on each procurement, in line with other leading councils, such as Waltham Forest.
Producing a local needs analysis that suppliers can use to assess where their services could make the biggest impact.
Using the council’s anchor institutions¹ to build relationships with other major local organisations, like Google and Microsoft, and encourage them to embed social value into their procurement practices.

Councillors highlighted the importance of ensuring that the council’s social value strategy does not displace or disrupt existing arrangements between private and third-sector organisations. They also asked whether the council’s minimum ask in procurement bids is sufficiently ambitious, in terms of the weighting given to social value criteria, such as carbon saving and local employment. Councillor Clark, Chair of the Environment, Climate Change and Transport Scrutiny Committee, emphasised the importance of ensuring that sustainability is a core part of any progressive procurement strategy.

Access Islington Hubs

Councillor Chapman, Executive Member for Equalities, Communities, and Inclusion, gave an update on the Access Islington Hubs. These hubs offer residents face-to-face support with council services, as well as access to health services and advice from the voluntary sector. Councillor Chapman highlighted a number of positive outcomes, including the Bright Lives well-being coaching scheme, which she said was producing “really good outcomes” and would save money in the long term.

Councillors asked about the impact of the hubs on residents who are not able to cope after receiving coaching support, as well as what was being done to promote the hubs to residents who are less likely to take up the services offered, such as older people and residents from Black and Minority Ethnic communities. They also asked whether the council has plans to relocate the South Hub at Finsbury Library to a more suitable location.

Black Cultural Centre

Councillor Chapman also updated the committee on the Black Cultural Centre, which is due to open the following day. The centre, located at 5-15 Cromer Street, will be initially run as a “pop-up” model, with four different organisations running programmes from the site over the next year. Councillor Chapman expressed her confidence in this model, highlighting its flexibility and the ability for the council to keep an open mind about the long-term arrangements for the centre.

Councillors asked about the lessons learned from the council’s previous unsuccessful attempt to find a provider for the centre, as well as how the success of the centre would be measured.

Q1 Performance

The committee considered a report on the council’s corporate performance for the first quarter of 2024/25. The report highlighted the ongoing issue of subject access requests (SARs), where the council has consistently failed to meet the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) target of 90% completion within one calendar month. Councillors expressed concern that this target may be unrealistic and asked whether the council had sufficient resources to meet it. They also asked about the possible penalties for failing to meet the target and whether the council had benchmarked its performance against other London boroughs.

The report also identified a number of other performance issues, including a failure to meet the target of 90% of calls being answered. Councillors asked what was being done to address this, as well as whether savings targets were on track.

Workforce Report

The committee considered the council’s annual workforce report for 2023/24. The report highlighted the success of the Access Islington Hubs in addressing inequality in the borough and pointed to a number of positive trends in the makeup of the council’s workforce, including an increase in the number of Black, Asian, and multi-ethnic colleagues in the top 5% of earners. It also identified the continued challenge of agency staff use, which has increased in recent years.

Councillors asked about the integrity of the council’s ethnicity data and how it was collected. They also asked what support was being provided to Black and Minority Ethnic employees to ensure that they were able to succeed in their roles and whether the council’s promotion practices were meeting diversity targets at the expense of staff performance.

The committee also discussed the number of senior officers employed by the council, which has been steadily increasing in recent years, despite the council’s difficult financial position. Councillors asked for a breakdown of the reasons for this increase in each directorate. They also asked about the council’s approach to recruiting and retaining staff from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, as well as its policy on agency staff use.

Anchor institutions are large organisations, like universities, hospitals and local councils, that are rooted in a particular place and play a major role in its economy and social fabric. ↩