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Overview & Scrutiny Committee - Tuesday, 26th November, 2024 6.30 p.m.
November 26, 2024 View on council website Watch video of meetingTranscript
Good evening everyone and welcome to this meeting of overview and scrutiny committee.
I'm Councillor Asma Islam and I have the privilege of serving as the new chair of this committee.
This is our first meeting since the publication of the best value report. The report contains
reasons and the need to improve in many areas including the statutory function of scrutiny
of this council. As I have been elected into this role, I see this as an opportunity for
us to reset how we work together as a committee with all our stakeholders. We must address
the need for cultural change and approach key scrutiny issues in a unified, constructive
and non-political manner. I'm determined to ensure the delivery of our
scrutiny improvement plan to drive this and lead this committee through a journey of meaningful
change and improvement. Together, I believe we can build a stronger, more effective approach
to our work and I look forward to collaborating with members, officers, chief executive and
the mayor and cabinet to enable this. Can I remind everyone that this meeting is
being filmed for the council's website for public viewing. Those participating in the
meeting will be included in the footage. If there are any technical issues, I will decide
if and how the meeting should continue after taking advice from officers.
Members, please, if you need to speak only on my direction and to ensure to speak clearly
into the microphones. Don't forget to turn your microphones on.
Before we proceed with the formal business of the evening, I would like to take a moment
on behalf of myself and this entire committee and officers to extend our heartfelt thanks
to our former chair of this committee, Councillor Jahid Chaudhry. His contributions have been
greatly appreciated and we are grateful for his dedicated service.
Thomas, please can you advise the committee whether any apologies have been received?
Good evening, chair. We have one apology from Councillor Chaudhry, as noted, and also Councillor
Jennifer is joining us online. Thank you. Thank you.
Can members declare whether they have any disclosable pecuniary interests and indicate
which aspect it relates to on the agenda? State whether their interest is of personal
or prejudicial nature. Any DPIs? Perfect.
So the minutes from our meeting on the 2nd and the 30th of September 2024 have been circulated.
Can members who were present confirm these as true and accurate record?
Perfect. The action log is within the papers with response
from services and officers. Do members have any comments?
Any comments on the action log? Councillor Hanema.
Thank you, chair. It is the parking spotlight response from
Simon Baxter. The response doesn't provide a timeline when
this will be implemented. Do you want to respond, Simon?
Sorry, Councillor, could you repeat that, please?
The parking spotlight we had, there was a question in there with regards to the parking
permits, the temporary ones. So your response does not provide a timeline.
Thank you, chair, and thank you, Councillor Islan.
I would like to speak to the director of public realm, because I was cited on that, but I
will give you a response in the next 48 hours if that works for you.
So we are going to wait for a timeline to be provided by your department, is that correct?
That's correct. Unless Ashra wants to comment on it directly,
I'm more than happy to find out some more on it, but I'm not aware of that at the moment.
Okay. It's just that you've said that there's progress being made, but, yes, we'd appreciate
some timeline as to when this will be done. I don't think I was at the onus. I think I
was on leave at that point. But I will get back to you and this, Ashra, as I say, can
update you now. But if not, you'll get a response by Friday.
On the parking, we could take it back. Sorry. I was just going to say we'll provide the
timeline, Councillor, we'll take it back, and we'll provide a comprehensive timeline
of the parking plan. Thank you. Any other comments on the action
log? Okay. Moving on. Appointments of co-opted member
to the subcommittees. This report asks us to approve the appointment of Alia Begum as
co-opted member on the health scrutiny subcommittee. Details on the process to recruit on this
role are set out in the report. Can we agree this?
Thank you. Next agenda, proportionality and allocation
of scrutiny subcommittees and appointment of lead members, 2024 to 2025. At the last
four Council meetings, we did not consider the revised proportionality report and I'm
aware of other subsequent changes. I'm therefore proposing to defer the appointment of scrutiny
leads to the next meeting. We don't have a full committee here today and we have Natalie
online who is unable to vote. Councillor Chaudry.
Thank you, Chair. Thank you. I think this was deferred in October, our last meeting.
So it's the second time it's going to be deferred. I think it will look nice on us, on the scrutiny
itself and the function of scrutiny on governance. So I'm proposing that this committee ratifies
the position tonight. Thank you. Mr Chaudry, Councillor Chaudry, is that a
proposal from yourself? Yes, it's a proposal from me, yes, thank
you. Can I have a seconder?
Okay. Councillor London seconded that. Any other proposals?
I propose that we have a spec for when they allow it to come to the next meeting.
Can I propose that it comes to the next meeting, please?
Any seconders for that proposal? Councillor James King.
Okay, so I'll have to take it to a vote because we have two proposals on the table.
So first vote is going to be for Councillor Chaudry's proposal to take the election today.
For all those that support this, can you put your hands up?
That's five. Those against?
That's four. Anyone abstaining? I don't think there's anyone left.
So that goes through. I can still take the vote for the next one.
Okay. Are you happy for me to discontinue because it looks like this proposal has gone
through with the majority? Yes, that's fine.
Can I see a clarification? So given that last week's full council deferred
the item on portionality to the next full council meeting, will we have an opportunity
to revisit that, given that once that report has passed?
Absolutely, you may bring that back. Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you, so moving on. Okay, Thomas, can you introduce the full proportionality
report officially to the committee? Yes, hi. Good evening, Chair. So as outlined
in the report, it talks about our updated proportionality, it talks about the subcommittees,
which we do have an appendix on, which also can be agreed this evening, and also we have
one outstanding scrutiny lead position, which is vacant at the moment. As we haven't had
any nominations at this meeting, sorry, before this meeting, members of which can make nominations
at this meeting for that vacant scrutiny lead position. But also do note the scrutiny subcommittee
nominations as in the agenda. Thank you. So I am now advised to take each
of the positions and take it to open it up for nominations. And if required, we might
need to vote if there's more than one nomination. So the first scrutiny lead for adults and
health services, any nominations? Mr Chavu? Thank you, Chair. I would like to propose
Councillor Bellalutin for that post. I would like to nominate Councillor Amy Lee.
Thank you. A seconder? Thank you. So I will have to take it to a vote. So the first proposal
that's come through is for Councillor Bellalutin. So all those in favour, can you put your hands
up? That's five. Okay. Thank you. Those that want to vote for Councillor Amy Lee in favour
of Amy Lee? I think we have to take it against first.
You have to take it against. Okay. Sorry. I apologize. My mistake. Those against for
the nomination of Councillor Bellalutin? That's four. So that actually passes, but I'm happy
to take the vote if committee wants me to take the vote for Councillor Amy Lee. Are
you happy for me to move on to the next one? Thank you. So the next scrutiny lead is for
children's and education. Sorry, Chair. Actually, can we have it? I'd like it on record. You'd
like the vote on record, please. So I'd prefer that we do it fully. Okay. Those in favour
of Councillor Amy Lee? One, two, three, four. Those against Councillor Amy Lee? One, two,
three, four, five. And that's recorded. Moving on to the next lead, which is for children
and education. Any nomination? Thank you, Chair. I'd like to nominate Councillor
Mandan. Can I have a seconder? Any other nominations? Okay, Councillor Amy Lee. Can I have a seconder?
Right. So I've got two nominations. We have to go to a vote again. Those in favour of
Councillor Abdul Mandan, please raise your hands. And those that are against? Four. So
those in favour of Councillor Abdul Muhammad? Four. Those who are against Councillor Muhammad?
Five. So Councillor Abdul Mandan wins that. Moving on to the next scrutiny lead for housing
and regeneration. Any nominations? Any seconders? Thank you. Any other nominations? Unfortunately,
co-optees don't have that privilege. Can they nominate? Co-optees nominate anyone they want.
All right. So can I have any nominations? I'll nominate Councillor Amy Lee.
Any seconder? Any other nominations? Okay. So Councillor Amy Lee for housing and regeneration.
Was there a first nomination? I thought there was only one nomination. So I'll have to take
it to a vote again. All in favour? That's five again. Those against? So for all those
in favour of Councillor Amy Lee? So that's four. All those against? Five. So four against.
One second. Point of order, Chair. That's not how it works. So the officer identified
after the fact, after the vote had been taken, as far as I'm aware, it's four, four, if somebody
isn't paying attention that's not on the Chair. So with officer's advice, it was late but
I count that as a vote. Let it be noted that it was an officer who pointed out the fact
and let it be noted that actually the vote had been taken. I do think there's something
deeply, deeply uncomfortable about what's happened there. So, Chair, that will be noted but as
Chair with the casting, you have the casting vote so as Chair you have agreed that and
that's fine. Sorry, just to clarify. So sorry, can I just clarify, that was four, four but
it was on officer's recommendation that you take the vote and I just heard there's a cast
and vote question. So it's on you as Chair to decide if you want to allow for that late
vote to happen or if you want to make the cast and vote. But I don't think it's for
an officer to dictate. I think it's for the recommendation to give it to the Chair. It's
not about officer's dictation, it's about advice. He put his hands up late but he put
his hands up and he could, anyone in this committee can ask for a rerun and we'll have
the same results. So I'm happy to rerun it. For clarity, would committee like me to rerun
the election? Okay. Yeah, please, we can rerun. Chair, sorry. Okay, Councillor Manan, please.
Thank you. Due respect to everybody here. These are, intentionally he didn't delay it
but then again, just a few minutes ago your Chair, our Chair, whatever his mistake he
would have knowingly didn't cast the vote. So what do you draw the line? We're here to
serve the community. You're just making an argument for nothing. Sorry, you do sorry.
No, no, no, Councillor Manan, Councillor Manan, can you just hold on? Councillor Mohamed,
one second. The original vote was for Councillor Boudreaux-Choudry. The voting question now
is if Councillor Salih voted against, didn't vote against for Amy. So if we were to rerun
that, I'm only rerunning the second part of that. So I'm happy to do that and I don't
think there's a reason to question this. I've just said, Chair, you made a decision, you
can rerun it, that's completely fine. I think it's just important to note that I was asked
questions and addressed in quite an aggressive tone where we accepted your recommendation
and your recommendation stands. I don't know what the need for that comment was. Okay,
I am the Chair and I'm reiterating something here. If I've already stated that we're going
to rerun the election, I don't think anyone needs to come in at this point and say anything
else. So we're going to move on, no, we're going to move on to that final election to
have that clarification. So those who are for Councillor Amy Lee's nomination, please
put your hands up. That's four. Those that are against Councillor Amy Lee's nomination,
please put your hands up. That's five. So that's Councillor Badr Chavri. Moving on,
for Scrutiny Lead for Resources, any nominations? One second, you did not put your hands up.
Councillor Mohammed, you had your hands up first. Can I nominate Councillor James King
please? Can I have a seconder? Thank you. Any other nominations?
I'll take it in order of the nominations. Those in favour of Councillor James King for
Resources? Four. Those against? Those against, I don't want to. So that's five. So moving
on to the second nomination, Councillor Ahmadou Khan, those in favour? Five. I've got that.
Those against? Thank you. You never miss the first vote. You're always paying attention
on the first vote. Moving on. So that one, Councillor Ahmadou Rahman Khan has won that
one. Second one is Scrutiny Lead for Community Safety. Any nominations? Is there any nominations
for that? Councillor James King? I'll nominate Abdi Mohammed.
Can I have a seconder for that, please? Thank you. Any other nominations? In that case,
if there's only one nomination, Councillor Abdi Mohammed is the Lead for Community Safety.
Moving on, Scrutiny Lead for Environment and Climate Emergency. Any nominations for that?
I'd like to nominate Natalie. She's joining us online. Thank you.
No problem. Any seconders for that? I think in the spirit of by-products, I'd
quite like to nominate, second that nomination. No problem. Any other nominations, then? Okay.
Natalie has won that one again. So that brings an end to the election.
Now we're going to move on to the next piece of agenda, which is spotlight of our Chief
Executive. So we've asked Steve Halsey to provide this committee with an overview of
best value inspection report findings, women's commissions progress, areas of improvement
and the annual resident survey. So can I now welcome Steve Halsey to speak on this item?
You've got up to 10 minutes. You don't have to take 10 minutes. It means that more
Councillors can ask you questions. And just to say, Mr Halsey has invited his entire corporate
leadership team, and I can see Councillor Kabir Ahmed, are you here for this item as
well? Thank you, Chair. One of the issues I'm going
to refer to this evening is the self-referral to the housing regulator. I'm also encouraging
as much as is practically possible cabinet leads to attend sessions where they can add
value and hopefully answer questions that members put forward once I've presented them.
And that one I think is a significant one, so I ask Councillor to attend this evening
if that's okay. No problem. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. So I have -- wouldn't normally do it in this way, but I have tonight prepared
a briefing note that I'm actually going to read from. I understand that you may have
already received copies of it. So I'm going to get through it as efficiently as I possibly
can. The reason, as I'm going to refer to later on for having the corporate directors
here, is to emphasize my position that this is a reset opportunity for the Council. It's
particularly a reset opportunity for overview and scrutiny committee, and I'm committed
to making sure that that works. Corporate directors will attend every overview and scrutiny
committee. There will always be one of us here. And where the Chair thinks it's appropriate,
I will ensure that we're all here if that's necessary.
So good evening. Let me begin by addressing the best value report received by the Council.
I've shared the statutory officer's representation in response to the draft directions with the
Chair of overview and scrutiny and group leaders. And we'll take this alongside the report and
draft directions to Cabinet on the 18th of December and full Council on the 22nd of January
for members to endorse the collaborative approach we are taking in response to the draft directions
and appointment of ministerial envoys. I've spent the two weeks since the report was published
having open conversations with staff, partners and members about the report findings. I am
resisting moving into solutions mode until the envoys are in place, and we can take this
forward with their guidance and support. I am clear that as an organization, this is
a moment to really hear, accept and reflect on the findings of the report.
In this spirit, I have spoken to over 1,000 staff in two-way forums, such as road shows,
had conversations with our strategic partners, including senior leaders from schools and
higher education, the NHS and the ICB Chair, police, fire, Canary Wharf group and community
organizations, Chairs of the Statutory Partnership Boards and members of the Transformation Advisory
Board. I have also spoken to the Chief Executives from other councils with recent interventions
to learn from their experiences. I have also briefed group leaders. It was
disappointing that my offer made by email on the 13th of November to brief members on
the report findings and next steps was not taken up by all groups. The offer remains
open and I have repeated that invitation again today. I have written to group leaders again
and I encourage members to fully engage with the report findings and next steps.
The MHCLG, the Ministry, team watched the full council meeting last week and are taking
a strong interest in our public meetings as they start the statutory support package journey
with us. We can expect departmental officials to be watching this evening and over the coming
months. I trust that they will see that as we move forward that all parties have reflected
upon the comments made in the report about the nature of politics and the scrutiny function
and are engaging constructively with the improvement agenda. I would encourage all parties to clearly
demonstrate that they are doing so. I want to reiterate that I and the senior
team at the council accept the findings of the best value inspection report in every
respect and acknowledge the need for urgent action to address the serious failings identified.
I want to assure you that the council will engage positively with the representation
process, the ministerial envoys and the strength in transformation and assurance board, welcoming
their oversight and input to address the issues highlighted in the report.
I have committed to bring an update to every full council meeting in 2025 and there will
be many opportunities to scrutinize the council's response and the improvement plan. The report
will be submitted on the 18th of December and there will be an opportunity to discuss
its findings with overview and scrutiny before the envoys are appointed and the collaborative
work on the improvement plan begins. Just as a point, the committee may want to
have a discussion in relation to the content of the best value report at its next meeting.
That is something I would recommend prior to cabinet considering the report.
The Secretary of State has concluded that the authority is failing to comply with its
best value duty with regard to the themes of continuous improvement, governance, leadership
and culture and partnerships as described in the statutory guidance. This will lead
to a broad statutory support package to ensure that the council is meeting its best value
duty. I recognize and accept the findings of the report. I often reflect about the phase
-- the phrase two-tier council
that I coined in letters to the LGA last year. I had been
your permanent chief exec for 20 weeks when the inspectors arrived. Many of the issues
highlighted in the report are concerns I was asked to address on my arrival, which I also
wrote to all staff and members about throughout 2023. It is interesting to note that the issues
raised as detailed in the inspector's report are not new to this council. I will work with
the LGA, ministerial envoys and strengthened TAB, Transformation Insurance Board, to address
mistrust, political toxicity and the move away from the blame culture outlined in the
report. It has been made clear to me by the Minister for Local Government that this support
package is a new approach by a new government and that the council as well as the department
have a responsibility for making it work. This is an opportunity for the council to
address the issues highlighted in the report with a positive and forward-looking attitude.
I have assured the minister that I will not be distracted from doing so, no matter how
challenging the circumstances might be. The overview and scrutiny committee will play
a key role in scrutinizing not only the development of our best value improvement plan that will
be co-produced in the coming months in partnership with the envoy, but also the progress we make
as an organisation against our improvement commitments, including how we embed the positive
behaviours required to address many of the issues highlighted in the report. It is also
important to flag that the best value report makes specific comments about the overview
and scrutiny committee, finding the scrutiny culture at the council weak and confused and
it is something that we should together address. The following points were made. The inspector's
noted that the CFGS observed party politics and loyalties being played out, which has
unfortunately impeded the effectiveness of the role of the overview and scrutiny committee.
The level of challenge is inadequate and directed to officers or partners and not towards cabinet
members. In the view of the inspectors, public meetings, including scrutiny committee meetings,
have at times been fractious. The tone has been occasionally aggressive and sometimes
there has been filibustering through repetitive, time-consuming, scripted speeches, question
and answers. The relationship between senior officers and the committee could be improved.
The chief executive is keen to make improvements but needs to balance this with the need for
ONS members to determine their own arrangements. The report comments on the strength of co-opted
members and is supportive of the recently agreed improvement plan for scrutiny. The
directors are also supportive of the initiative committee members have put forward to introduce
external expert advisors to support the committee on specific items and the appetite for continued
learning from best practice in other boroughs. I expect the assistant ministerial envoy and
TAB governance lead to take a strong interest in how effectively the committee is operating
when they are appointed and I am working to make sure you get the support you need for
the committee to be effective. All corporate directors are here tonight to
show how seriously we take over you in scrutiny as part of our improvement journey. There
are a number of other areas I want to update ONS on. In relation to home care procurement,
the section 151 officer previously updated order committee on a number of occasions about
the serious supply chain issue in relation to a third party home care service provider.
The outcome of the matter will be fully and transparently reported to the audit committee
on conclusion of the ongoing independent investigation. Progress updates will continue to be provided
at each meeting in the interim period. This is a separate matter to the decision to abandon
the procurement of the new home care service. This decision was correctly taken and based
solely on value for money and risk following a protracted procurement process involving
143 bidders and just prior to the conclusion of a standstill period which the council made
available voluntarily as part of our commitment to best practice in procurement. We were faced
with changes in national insurance thresholds and contributions to the autumn budget directly
and significantly affecting the costs for third party providers of home care services.
As a result of these changes, none of the tenders submitted were without significant
financial risk which have not been previously considered. Interim arrangements have been
made while we prepare to rerun the procurement exercise. This was a difficult decision but
a necessary one. Councils of all parties have been briefed on the issue and we will bring
a full report to scrutiny ahead of cabinet in December. Also, the final external audit
opinions for the years 2021, '21, '22, '22, '23 will be presented to audit committee on
the fourth of December together with an update on audit progress for financial year '23/'24.
The prior year's audit opinions will reflect the challenges the council has faced in a
number of areas including the challenges faced in risk management, effective strategic management,
use of data and decision making and the production of annual accounts. This ends the process
of addressing any outstanding issues in those years and offers a solid platform to move
forward. That is important. It is important that the council accepts and embraces as we
continue our improvement journey. Also, I formally notified the regulator for social
housing of our intention to self-refer on the fourth of October, 2024. There is a paper
going to cabinet tomorrow. Self-refer is a necessary step to ensure that we improve the
way in which we manage and improve the councils housing stock and engage with our tenants.
The housing regulator are still considering the position and we are yet to receive formal
confirmation of when we are likely to receive an adjudication. This is an important moment
in our journey of transformation. And the cabinet lead member, as I have mentioned,
is here to address any questions you might have in that respect. In line with the findings
of the BVI report, I will be encouraging lead members to attend scrutiny at every appropriate
opportunity. Part of our response will include establishing a housing cabinet subcommittee
to ensure that we have robust expert oversight of our social housing improvement plan. This
will be accompanied by additional resources being allocated to support the overview and
scrutiny function and additional meetings. The MTFS refresh will provide for additional
resources to support the scrutiny function and increase a dedicated team to seven dedicated
officers from the current base of four. I continue to closely monitor our corporate
performance reports with particular focus on RED and AMBA measures and I'm pleased to
see that there has been a reduction in RED measures from nine to four and AMBA measures
from eight to five over the last quarter. Also, the mayor and I have agreed a new member
development strategy. In addition to this, given the best value report feedback, we are
working with the LGA on a bespoke package of support for our members. There is also
an empowering services review to strengthen the corporate centre and empower directorates
underway. This will be reported in the new year and may be an area that I would encourage
the committee to scrutinise as we deliver and develop the new target operating model.
The mayor's office restructure is being progressed and there is agreement on a new structure
taking the team from a peak of 36 staff to nine. This will create a mayor's office that
is in line with other mayoral authorities and remove duplication of functions. I expect
this structure to be completed by the end of the financial year.
Finally, in line with the vision I set out at HR committee on the 16th of May, this year
I have been working to make my role more externally focused, ensure that we are learning from
best practice across the sector. I have started to attend the ICB and represented London chief
executives who are attending a roundtable with the Department of Health about new neighbourhood
approaches to integrated care. I have been asked to chair the association of chief executives
and mayoral authorities and now chair the corporate parenting board. I have also entered
into discussions with the LGA and the local government information unit about the council's
involvement in both regional and national forums. I apologise for the fact that I have
not commented on the annual resident survey or the women's commission. That is my error.
I will make sure that you get a detailed update about that immediately following this meeting.
I understand there has been some discussion around the annual resident survey and I have
responded to outstanding correspondence in relation to the women's commission. Thank
you, chair.
Thank you, Mr Rosie. That was over 10 minutes. I have allowed that this time because actually
there is a lot in that paper that you gave all of us to read, but unfortunately it is
not public so it is important that you did read it out going forward in order to make
the best of this committee. If we can all stick to our timing, then that would be great.
Any questions from the committee?
I will start with the first set of threes and then keep your hands up so I can write
the next set down in a minute. To start off with, Councillor Emilly.
Thank you, chair. I just wanted to touch on the comments that you have made about the
scrutiny and scrutiny committee in particular. You are absolutely right, there was a lot
in the report that was critical, but I think there were a few things that have been missed
from your presentation. The things that you have made to me in particular that were criticisms
of scrutiny and the scrutiny function of the council were that scrutiny is often directed
at officers rather than lead members, which I think is directly linked to the other criticism
in the report, which is that unfortunately a number of lead members were unable to answer
questions about their own brief. We sit in this committee once every couple of weeks
and we get a one minute presentation from the lead member who then immediately hands
over to the officers, which means it is rather impossible to scrutinise those lead members
when they speak for 30 seconds to a minute, which happens pretty much in every single
one of these meetings, probably with the exception of Councillor Armood actually. So I just wonder
what your thoughts are on that. In addition, there is also the elephant in the room of
the attendance or non-attendance of the mayor, which also hinders scrutiny. I just note that
those haven't been addressed in this section on the scrutiny committee, but those were
important parts of the report. So I just wonder if you have any comments on that.
Thank you for the question. I would say I agree. There was no intention for me not to include stuff. I even went over my time with what I did say. But I accept the point. The best value inspection report reflects upon the fact that it's an opportunity for scrutiny to scrutinise decision makers and policy initiators, which are cabinet members. And I have undertaken, as I referred to in my presentation, to encourage lead members to attend, to be briefed and to answer questions to the best of their ability or capacity. That's going to be a bit of a journey. And I would say the report also reflects upon the report comments on the capacity of members to be able to do that. And there will be a training and development opportunity for those members. So far in the discussions that I've had with the executive group, they accept that and have given a commitment that they will do so. I have not yet had a conversation with the executive mayor about his attendance at this committee, but I will be having that conversation. Thank you. Councillor Abdu Muhammad. Did you want to come in? Sorry. >> There's an element of politicians attending and staying. I do like to talk, so I'm happy to stay. So the first thing is, in relation to cabinet members, as I understand, there were certain cabinet members who didn't attend on a regular basis and scrutiny raised questions around that. I believe the current cabinet, when some have attended, and if there's more scrutiny and you specifically direct that at the cabinet members, they should be responding. I know I do. In terms of the attendance of the mayor, I suppose it's an area of portfolios and those who cover portfolios. So if there are specific portfolios that you need covered, then the relevant member will attend in relation to cover that, just like today with the referral to the social housing regulators. Thank you, Councillor Abdu Muhammad. >> Thank you, Chair. Can I thank you for this? I think it extracts the right tone and I think starting from a place of being positive is important. I think the need to listen rather than take immediate action I think is important and one I definitely welcome. I want to read you just a brief excerpt of the report. The inspectors are sceptical of the council's capability of self improvement. Significant concerns remain that a council will not make sufficient progress without external accountability, and that accountability is coming through the tab and coming in terms of an envoy. This strikes a very different tone to the initial response that was in your name to the public externally and internally. So my interest is what has changed, because this is more of a listening exercise. But your response as chief exec, I think this takes humility and it takes an understanding that the council is a lot of work to do. But your response publicly to date is, I think, being a very different tone and it's been one that hasn't taken a shot at this tone. So I suppose it's helpful to understand what's changed and kind of moving forward. One of the key things that the report talks about is a trust and rebuilding trust, and I'm hoping, you know, we can hope to see it's more of this tone than it has been a previous tone. But just welcome what's changed and whatever it has, I mean, I absolutely welcome it, because I think this tone tracks the right tone. But previous statements, I think, have slightly been tone deaf. Councillor Mohamed, do you refer to Mr Halsey's previous response? Can you state clearly what the - do you mean the council's statement? Council statements on the website are internal, so I refer to them as external and internal. So at the last week's careful council meeting on the bridge, which is an internal portal that goes to 5,000 or so staff that we have. So the previous internal and external communication that's been in your name, the chief exec, have not been in this tone. I think they've lacked humility, so I'm interested in what's changed. I just wanted Mr Halsey to have the context broadly. Thank you for the comment and the question. This actually came up in discussion with the minister, and the need for me to address - there's a balance to address here. I did not mean to set a tone that would be misperceived in any way, and if that's an error on my part, then I need to accept it and make sure that it doesn't happen again. I'm not perfect. I would say that the tone that you've reflected on in the statement that I've made tonight, the tone that I've adopted with the minister, the tone that I've adopted with the director-general, and then all of the briefings that I've given, do reflect the statement that I've made tonight. If the original council statement that I made does not represent that position, then I'll need to consider making a different one, because that was not my intention. I think that's really welcome, and actually, yeah, I thank you for that. Thank you. Councillor James King? I've only got one speaker. Who wants to speak in the next round? I've got more questions as well, if you want to hand me down. Okay, thank you. The best value inspection raised concerns about mayoral and councillor involvement in property transactions. This was also raised by the LGA peer challenge, and the best value inspection said that failure to address this means that the council will be failing best value requirements. It also noted that reporting of transactions would come to ONS, which hasn't happened. So could you tell us what you'll be doing to ensure that mayoral and councillor involvement in property transactions are looked at, prioritized, in addition to coming back to ONS, and be forming part of the strategic asset strategy refresh? Thank you for the question. I just wanted to check something before I responded. To be absolutely clear, all of the comments that have been made in the best value inspection report will be addressed and included and co-produced with this committee and others as part of our improvement plan. To date, and I've just checked with the section 151 officer, there have been no disposals. Where there are disposals or we sell assets or we go through a process, they will be reported to the both of the normal reporting process, and overview and scrutiny will be given the opportunity to question them, to scrutinize them, pre and post the decision being made. And I have no intention of misleading you here. If there have been transactions of the nature that you describe, then I will go away. I've got all the relevant corporate directors here, and we're not aware of any at the current time. Thanks. Just to quickly come back on that, it's what the best value inspection describes. Thank you for that reassurance that they will come to ONS, but I just would like some reassurance that this will be part of the Council's corporate response to the best value inspection as well, and it won't sort of fall under the cracks, as the best value inspection says it did with the LGA period. I can confirm that. Councillor Ackman. To mind, actually, one disposal does come to mind, which was on Mount Terrace, I believe, just on the side of New Road to the side. It was on a long lease, and I think, Steve, that was prior to you coming in. There was already an agreement set out from the previous administration's long lease that was given to the NHS, and we had to, through legal advice, honour that, and I believe that was sold for a pound, and that was out of this administration's control, because there was already legal precedents and everything tied up with that on Mount Terrace. Councillor King, did you... A freehold was sold for a pound. Quickly, though. I mean, just to reiterate what the question is about, that we've had presentations to full council from people who are leasing from the council, saying that they're not getting any, and they're community organisations that contribute a lot to the borough. We've had presentations from one, but I know there are others as well, and it's saying that the failure to deal with this is holding up the council's best value requirements with charitable organisations and other partners that we have a relationship with. I also want to comment on your answer, Councillor Ahmed. We do like to hear from you, so thank you for coming and being a cabinet member that does, but I think your answer, again, feeds back to another criticism of best value inspection, and that you've raised tonight, Mr Halsey, about looking backwards, talking, blaming previous regimes and everything like that. Councillor King. I really think, come on, asked quite a serious functional question looking forward, yeah? Thank you. Thank you, Councillor King. Is there a response back? You don't have to. I'd like to, if you don't mind, Chair. I'd just like to make the point that I'm very serious about looking forward, but I will, because I need to make sure that I'm actually giving the committee relevant information, go away and check back to make sure that's the case, and I will confirm following this meeting. Appreciate it. Councillor Ahmed. Sorry, for my part, I wasn't trying to be political, I was trying to be factual and transparent to the best of my knowledge. I've held this position for two and a half years, and that's the only one that I'm aware of that was a disposal, and I thought I'd be honest and factual about it. No, that's understood. Thank you very much, but I will say, just a polite reminder, one way to rephrase a sentence that you said was instead of the previous administration, you could try something like before our time in office, which takes the dialogue in a different direction. We help each other through this. So next set of questions, Halima Hwan. Thank you, Chair. So my question is to you, Chief Executive. So at the last OSE meeting, you outlined plans to restructure, scrutiny, support staff. The publication of the best value inspection report doesn't focus on staffing, but places emphasis on cultural and leadership challenges, such as withholding information, late reports and political interference. The committee has made it clear that we are happy with the support that we're being provided. Can you explain why you've chosen to prioritise the restructure of staffing, instead of addressing the culture changes out in the report? And also, have you had time to reflect and focus on how we might help and address improved culture change within the Council? Thank you. I'll let you come in. Okay. So the first point first, you will recall that my aspiration to restructure the support function for overview and scrutiny was part of a 13-point plan that was presented to scrutiny earlier this year. And my justification for doing it was to address some of the deficiencies that the best value inspection report refers to in relation to overview and scrutiny that I reflected on in my presentation. So I really do want to look forward. And by that I mean, make sure that you've got the resource to ensure that those failures of reports being late, withholding information, decisions being made slower than we would like, and the comments that you just make, are addressed by having adequate resource. The other thing I would say is that I think my desire is that the overview and scrutiny committee becomes considered to be best practice. And to do that, you need additional support, particularly given that the mayor, as I understand it, at cabinet tomorrow, will agree the creation of a new cabinet that you will require additional resource to scrutinise in the housing cabinet subcommittee. And I will be discussing in the next few weeks with the chair and coming back to committee about how that additional resource will be structured to make sure that that is administered properly as well. It wasn't a case of prioritising, it was a case of delivering all elements of the 13-point plan as consistently and in a continuous arc as I possibly could. The culture of the organisation is a really interesting thing. Culture, as I'm sure all members know and I don't mean to preach here, but it takes a long time to change. It takes a long time to change. I think the best value inspection report even referred to Cable Street. It takes a long time to change the culture of an organisation. We employ 10,000 people, we spend over a billion and a half pounds and it's a journey that we need to go on together. What I've learned personally is that I don't know everything and I need to reflect upon the fact, and the point was made actually when the corporate peer challenge action plan was considered as something that I had done without properly co-producing it. And that was probably a manifestation of the culture that existed in the authority at the time. And I have to take that on the chin and my view is that as we move forward, co-production, local solutions at a local level that are empowered and informed by the Ovarian Scrutiny Committee, by the whole council and all members is the way forward. I was really taken with a comment that the Minister made to me last week, or the week before, about how this whole support package is meant to be locally driven and locally led and provide local solutions and we reflected upon the nature of the culture of the organisation briefly during that discussion. So I intend putting together a framework or proposing a framework to the envoy and to partners and to co-produce a solution in that respect with them. Thank you. Councillor Munna. Thank you, Chair. I just want to briefly what you have said. The report identified the lack of trust between the staff, councillors and partners. I know you just talked about it a few minutes ago. How are you trying to address this and how are you going to rebuild this trust? Can you elaborate on that, please? Thank you. Okay, so I think it's a really interesting point and I mentioned in my presentation that I coined a phrase to council culture when I wrote to the Chief Exec of the LGA and the Lead Inspector last year. And it is an incredibly emotive issue. For me, trust work is a two-way street, but it's based on mutual respect. And from my conversations and discussions with the Lead Inspector during the inspection, both were lacking. So there was a lack of trust between officers. There was a lack of trust between members. There was a lack of trust between members and officers. And as a result of that, a culture pervaded in the organisation that was not conducive to effective governance. Culture changes in three respects, I think. Culture is informed by the environment in which we operate, people and the rules that govern their behaviour. We need to change at least two of those. Since the report was written and in the last 18 months, you have a brand new corporate leadership team. You have -- not since the report was written, I mean since in the last year, year and a bit, you have a brand new corporate leadership team. And I expect them, and they're here this evening and may wish to comment, to set the tone in their own departments and to be clear from an officer perspective about the important role they have in role modelling. We need to act as we expect others to behave. And I think that's a comment that I could make about a number of stakeholders and individuals within the organisation. And we need to make sure that we create proper protocols for engagement. Not just with -- there's comment, I think, in the improvement plan for your own committee around having, and you're considering it this evening, a protocol between the executive and the scrutiny committee. But that needs to be a much wider protocol that's adopted by all and impact upon all of our committees and the way in which the council operates. If you don't mind, I'm happy for corporate directors to comment if they'd like to, because we've had lots of conversations about this. Yeah, I'm happy to take quick comments. So my comment would be I was a new corporate director. I hadn't known the council at all before. And when I came in, it was to a team that really their heads were down a bit, I think, particularly probably in finance, not because of anything other than there'd been lots of change for them. But I think that the one thing they needed was confidence from their leadership, from me, and it's really important they get that confidence from you as elected members as well. I think that makes a real difference. I think they'll do all they can to earn that trust and confidence from you. But certainly for me, it was visible, dependent on how long people have been here. So some people who've been here 20-odd years are used to administrative changes, they're used to new directors, and they just go with the flow. Some people perhaps recruited immediately by a last mayor, found it quite difficult for a transition. New people recruited lately don't know any of the past, so you've got that mixed bag. But I certainly don't know of any staff member that gets up and decides to come to work and be part of a different culture. It's something that we need to collectively address, and I'll do any that I can to support making a difference tonight. Thank you. Yeah, if I can just add one other point, which is there are many different factors that impact on culture and how staff feel about it, and actually I'd say the bigger factor in my department, the housing and regeneration, is that a large cohort of my staff were recently in another organisation called Tower Hamlets Homes, which a year ago we brought back into the council, and I think there's a big factor there about making those staff feel welcome to be part of the council, that they can influence the wider council, and that they feel supported by the council, that they are now part of, rather than seeing it as an organisation over there, so I suppose it's just to say that there are other big contextual factors impacting on culture that I need to address with my team as well. Thank you. Anyone else? I'm happy to speak for Georgia. Georgia has started as the corporate director, and I think one of her key principles that's really shone through is that she recognises the importance of staff feeling safe and feeling listened to, so she's only just in, but one of the things, in terms of her leadership style, is to create space to listen to staff and their concerns, but she's also appreciated what fantastic staff we have, adult social care, commissioning public health, really passionate staff, and the challenge, the leadership challenge, is to enable people to meet their potential and show appreciation for the fantastic work they do, so that is what we model. Just to add to that, I've been fortunate enough to be here from 2010 to 2016, the return this year, and one of the things that I find constantly that people who've been here for 30 years or 30 months are passionate about where we are, and driving up service delivery, I think that's what we need to focus on. I enjoy the relationship between members and officers, and understand the boundaries between the two. ONS is often a place that you come to and we have some interesting conversations, and it can be really helpful. I'll refer to that later on when we talk about the Medicine Waste Improvement Plan, but I've not come across a culture of not disinformation or dislike, we just want to deliver for everyone, and I think that passion and commitment comes through from CMT and from members alike, from all parties, and I'm proud to be working here, and I think the people below me enjoy work. I'm down the depot on a monthly basis, I try and get out as much as possible, to be as visible as possible, but say the positive things about the Council as a whole, and actually in my 40-year career, this is still the most amazing place to be. I'm proud to be here. Thank you. Thank you for that. Sorry, can I say something? So, I think one of the key areas is the politicians who are involved within the Council, and I wear two hats here. One is that I'm a cabinet member, and the other is I sat on the appointment of every one of these individuals within the CLT, and a number of individuals within DLT, that's the director level. Now, I think it's important to highlight that I don't believe there exists a two-Council approach anymore. I believe we have the most diverse CLT we've ever had in this Council, and the history of this Council, as well as the most diverse DLT we've had in the history of this Council. I have absolute confidence in the CLT. I believe that this group of people will bring absolute stability to this Council. They are consistent in their approach. They have given this Council and its staff members direction, which we will move forward with more, and the most important thing is it's given the Council a drive to achieve excellence and move forward. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Ahmed. I appreciate your confidence in this, but I think the idea is over the coming months we give assurance to the committee members that through action and words. Moving on, Councillor Natalie. Sorry you've been waiting. That's all right. Thank you for the presentations. Apologies that I can't be with you in person. I don't want to give you all my lurgy. Some questions for the chief exec, and actually generally some comments because I think my questions have been generally covered by the rest of the committee. I'm pleased to hear, like Councillor Mohamed, the slight shift in your tone in this presentation. I think it's really important that we as a Council acknowledge that we did fail our best value duty. I note that the report has noted that we have a tendency to be defensive as a Council, so I'm pleased to see that that's already being addressed. I'd like to ask if this committee can request a timeline for the Council's improvement plan, and if that can come forward maybe for the December scrutiny meeting. A question on the chairing, just in the final paragraph of your report, why will you be chairing the corporate parenting board? >> There are two issues there, I think, that I should comment on. In relation to the timeline for the improvement plan, I'm very, as I've mentioned in the report, just to be clear, the statutory representation period ended yesterday. The minister now takes a moment to think about, and let's not forget, these best value notices, so he now needs to take a view on all the representations to decide what he's going to do. There is no statutory timetable or regulatory timetable for that, so that could take some time. From the conversations that we've had, I would anticipate, and this is not confirmed, this is just my reflections on the conversations we've had, I would expect to see intervention beginning January or February next year, and I need to be mindful of the fact that I am absolutely more than happy to bring a report here around the timeline, but not around the content of the improvement plan, because that's something that will be co-produced once the envoy arrives. In relation to me chairing the corporate parenting board, I've reflected on this with chief executives across London, it's considered to be best practice, I want to make sure that we're practising best practice, and have therefore undertaken to undertake that role. Thank you. Councillor Budu Tato. Thank you chair, thank you, good evening Steve and everyone on the panel. You said you're providing additional resources to support the scrutiny function from four to seven, if you could tell us what they will be doing to help us and help everyone to function well, thank you. So to be clear, I had a brief conversation with the chair about this earlier on, and if the committee would like I'm more than happy at the next meeting to bring back a report on my vision and view about the support function for the committee, but my view is based on three things. First of all the comments in the best value improvement plan, sorry the best value, you've got me on the improvement plan now, the best value report about where there are currently some deficiencies, secondly a need to ensure that you have sufficient resource to address the fact that there's going to be another cabinet and there's going to be a need for more housing scrutiny, and thirdly because we are currently going through a process of reviewing the SIT team, the strategy improvement and transformation team, which currently the workforce that do that work and support scrutiny comprise part of that restructure, and I suggested in my presentation that might be one that you want to consider at your next meeting as well in terms of progress that is being made. My view is and my commitment is that I want to make sure you've got the resources that you need. If over a period of time you conclude that you're over resourced or that you think you need a different type of resource, I'm quite interested at the moment we have a number of generic job descriptions, I would like some specialist scrutiny support that is separate to the more and this is not meant to be a demeaning or undermining or condescending comment to the more clerical administrative function of maintaining the committee. Scrutiny research, scrutiny policy initiation, scrutiny is a specialist area and I want to make sure you've got the most appropriate specialist skills available to you, but I mentioned to the chair earlier I'm more than happy to bring the paper back to the next committee. Thank you. On that note, I just want to ask one last question before I ask the committee about your proposal to come back next week regarding the best value inspection that goes to cabinet. I don't think that's next week, it's the week after, isn't it? The cabinet is on December 18th. We've got one on the 17th. Perfect. So we'll take that. Can I just come in and ask a question about the housing subcommittee. I just wanted to understand the rationale. So you have your cabinet means as it is and you have your MABsub and cabinet member has one-to-ones with his corporate director, then you've got the housing subcommittee. It makes sense why you want to take the proposal that the scrutiny committee has been proposing for a while about more meetings and empowering that. My question is what is this subcommittee going to be doing that isn't, all the other places aren't doing? The only thing I see that's missing is a place of where actual experts, opposition, exec are in one room to be able to discuss how to go forward, keeping track of where we are when it comes to performance, but actually some of the core issues, difficult issues that we have been able to co-design solutions. Okay. So there's loads in there. So as far as the housing subcommittee, cabinet subcommittee is concerned, the intention is that it deals with all matters housing. So housing matters will be dealt with there, not in cabinet. So the housing scrutiny subcommittee will have an opportunity to literally just focus on what the housing cabinet subcommittee are doing, proposing, and all the normal procedures would apply. That is subject to cabinet consideration, I must say, tomorrow. So there is a proposal, and the executive mayor and cabinet will take a view about that. Just a reflection, I suppose, on the second point. My aspiration is to get to a position where we can have politicians from all political parties and all persuasions, whether they be ungrouped, whether they be from the Green Party, the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, the Aspire Party, and we are in a position where we can co-produce strategic policy initiatives. We're not there yet. And part of the answer to the culture question that I was asked earlier on is reflected in the best value inspection report. There was a question, I'm sorry, I didn't answer it properly, around continuous improvement, I think earlier on, about having the capacity to do it. Part of that continuous improvement isn't just about having the capacity, it's having the will and the confidence and motivation to do it within a democratic environment. Because at the end of the day, we are working in a democratic environment. I can tell that I'm going on far too long about this. I do need to go away and reflect on the detail of the proposal. That's understandable, thank you. So I'm taking no other questions. I can't see anyone else that hasn't spoken. So I will move on. I want to thank Mr Halsey and the entire team, your team, for coming and thank you, Councillor Ahmed, you are almost a permanent fixture of this committee. And today we have many, many of you here in the meeting. His name's Zachariah and he likes to carry his own identity. Thank you. I'll give you a few minutes to leave. Thank you very much. Thank you. So the next piece of exciting agenda is Spotlight on the Mayor's Waste Improvement Program 2024-25. I'll just allow everyone to take the seats. So this is a key strategic objective and as such, it received a significant investment to make improvements to Council's waste management. So for this item, can I welcome Councillor Shafi Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Environment and the Climate Emergency, Simon Baxter, Corporate Director for Communities, Ashraf Ali, who's the Director of Public Realm, and John Wheatley, who's Interim Head of Waste Services. You'll have 10 minutes. Again, you don't have to take the 10 minutes. It will mean there's more time for questions for members. And I'll move on to members' questions after your presentation. Thank you, Chair. I just want to start off with, because I was here last year as Interim Director of Public Realm. So the Mayor declared a waste emergency in Yorkshire 2022. In response to this, the Mayor committed an additional £5 million to the service in April this year. There are some committee members that were on the ONS at that point, with Councillor Mark Francis, yourself, Chair, and Councillor Dormana, and Councillor Bortil Chowdhury, where there was concern that there was around the governance of the money being spent and the outcomes of that money and how it was being spent. So I'm pleased to share this report. It's an update. It's the first quarter of, sorry, second quarter, I think, of where we are. It's good news. People work very hard, and we should be proud of those achievements. I'll hand over to Councillor Shaffi. Thank you. Thank you, and good evening, everybody, and hopefully I can speak more than 30 seconds if you allow me. Welcome to a new role. Thank you. The Mayor's Waste Improvement Programme overview and scrutiny presentation, as mentioned by Simon, is of details of the governance, the service improvements, achievements up to quarter two, and budget and sustainability. So we're going to talk about service improvements. I want to give a shout out to all the staff. We know where we were prior to last year and where we are today. We know that significant improvements have been made. This is a journey that we are in together, and I'd like to, on record, thank the staff, thank the lead member, the director, and all others who came forward and helped and made sure that this is a priority, and we can see the commitment made by the Mayor by enhancing the budget for last year. So our service improvements have, so far, enhanced the waste clearance arrangements seven days a week, am and pm, and night time clearing up, separation of the domestic and commercial waste collections two different ways, introduction of a time banding, which is going live in the high streets and town centres to enforce unregulated waste, which we know has become an issue in Tower Hamlets. The introduction of an additional weekday and weekend sweeping beats in hotspots areas around the borough, and targeted deep cleaning. As you can see, the last weekend the weather and the storm that we had, I'm grateful to everyone, on Monday morning, driving through the high streets in Tower Hamlets, we were seeing so much improvement in terms of the waste or the storm that had left behind, I think the team worked really hard throughout the day and throughout the night, over the clock, to make sure that we have this cleaned up. Independent assessment of street cleanliness through Keep Britain Tidy group, deployment of the Find It, Fix It vehicles to respond immediately to problem areas, fly tipping, et cetera, updated service arrangements for recycling in all these states, and introduction of a pilot for daily use recycling sacks, which we have brought back in. So far, the achievements that we can see is 95% of our inspections in street cleaning were undertaken in Tower Hamlets, Keep Britain Tidy, were graded as acceptable. 15 wards, nine of them were graded as a 95% or above acceptable. The Tower Hamlets results of Quarter 2 significantly improved and better than London Benchmark litter. Recycling Quarter 2 data, which wasn't available at the time of making this report but is now available, we can see much, the needle has moved and we can see a lot of improvement. Recycling contamination, big issue, the rates were down and now showing a reduction from 30% to last year's 24%, and a 45% drop in the number of street cleaning litter requests compared to the last year at the same time. And we're decreasing the number of missed collections in 20 wards, 15 out of the 20 wards. What we want to talk about is the survey going forward, the annual resident survey, which I know you talked about in the previous agenda item, but we want to highlight the annual resident survey in terms of the improvements that were made in cleaning and recycling. So the numbers say 61% of my council is making a local area a better place for people to live, an improvement of 5% from last year. 69% of residents are satisfied that their wastes are collected, an improvement of 5% from last year. 63% of residents are satisfied with street cleaning, an improvement of 9% from the last year. 73% of residents are satisfied with their recycling service, an improvement of 11% as of last year. With this in mind, we know and we believe that education and communication is paramount to making sure the Mayor's waste improvement plan is successful and we need to make sure that we are working with local third parties to ensure that we educate and create awareness amongst our residents. So for this we have linked, we're going to show you a video today that we are working with the BAME community to ensure that we are educating them, we are putting these out on local media, YouTube channels and on advertising in the Sky channels owned by the BAME media and working in partnership with the East London Mosque has been a critical part and the Interfaith Forum to deliver the message to reduce, recycle and reuse. This is our key message to them. We have many sermons and the third sermon will be at the end of this month in the East London Mosque and community engagements with schools, organisations to deliver recycling workshops. We have wrote to all Tawahamuk primary schools to make sure that we can work with them to ensure that we create awareness amongst the schools to work on recycling. We have recruited partnership working workshops with registered social landlords. So RSL is a key integral part of making sure that we work together to ensure that we are on the same platform, we are singing from the same hymn sheet and we are making sure that we deliver for the residents who live in RSL. Recruitment of eight estate engagement officers and one comms officer and one HR officer. Faith in the Environment Summit is on December 11th. You are invited to all come along at the East London Mosque and the recycling engagement events including Boundary Estate and Lansbury Estate. I am now going to hand over to Ashraf, our well incapable hands up, who is our Officer and Director for Public Realm in regards to the governance and the budgeting and also the video that you will be showing. I hope that was long enough for you guys. I said ten minutes. Thank you. Is that good enough? Thank you. As a lead member I thought it was my responsibility. Do you think, are you happy for us to, did you want to show us something? How long is the video? It's thirty five seconds. I can do thirty five seconds. Excuse me, Amare Ke Thenon Bandar Bish Kono Hai. Recycler Bin Ku Hai. Oh, Oh No. Thank you. That was really good. Thank you. And I think there's local authorities with Bangladeshi populations across the country. I think they need to give us some money for these videos because this is going to help them as well. Any questions? So, Councillor Mohamed. Anyone else? I've got my number. Anyone else? Okay. So can I go? Natalie? I think you wanted to go last so I'll keep that in mind. Okay. Can I take Councillor Mohamed first? He had your hands up. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for the report. I'd be interested to know, I haven't just seen that, the data behind that. So the demographic data that indicates there's a particular problem in a particular part of a community. So I know there was no, you know, version for Somali. So I'm sure there's many other videos that you've done. And I'd be happy and welcome kind of the list of videos that you've done. And the cost that came towards the council. I think we can laugh about it, but this is taxpayers' money. So I would really like to know how much that cost the council. Probably could have done it cheaper. Second question I've got is around the general data within this report. It talks about loads of, I'm really pleased to see that there's rule improvements being made. I think that's really exciting to see. But for example, page 35, it says a decrease in number of missed collections, 15 out of the 20 wards. I think what this data doesn't do is get beneath the bonnet. Is there particular pitch points? Is there particular areas that are continually being missed? Or are there areas? I think it takes a very bubble-wide perspective. But I think there's a slide missing here where these are the top 10 areas or the top 10 streets, for example, that were problems and now aren't, for example. I think it glosses over and it paints data in quite a spinny way. So I think what needs to happen is there needs to be more data that gets real beneath this. Because I have no doubt, we're moving in the right direction. But I think if you ask every single councilor here, our inboxes don't indicate that. And our general experience of living in a borough, born and grown up in this area, I think it's better, but it's a lot of work to do. So I would like some more information on that, but also a lot more information on your data. Thank you. And I think Councillor Mohamed's point is, so in the report it says it's a quarter of a million pound for communications partnership and consultation. So I think, just to clarify, are those two videos part of that budget? Is it some of that budget? So maybe explaining that will help. First of all, thank you for the question, Councillor. So just on the data behind the advert, there is an existing advert already in the council website, which is a cartoon advert, which reaches out across the borough. And that sort of addresses it generally, actually. What we are trying to actually focus on, the BAM community, and then I'll take note of that. This is just a few of advert that we're working on, so there are a lot more to come, and also try to actually reach out to influencers that we can actually work, give the message about behavioural change, about understanding the recycling and about understanding the waste service in itself. So this is what few of many to come, in terms of sort of reaching out to hard to reach community and using the community influencers so they can send that message to those communities. So in terms of the full data we could actually provide there, so we know from population there are just over 110,000 Bangladeshi Muslim community in the entire hamlet. So we try to actually tailor a certain aspect of it to reach to those community by through these means, in terms of advertising and getting the message across. And that's why we're working with community organisations, the Council of Masks and another organisation to reach as far as possible to get them to understand about behavioural change on recycling and waste. So these are a few that we're actually working on, and there are a lot more to come. In terms of costing itself, which is touching about the 1.1 million council, that's not all on advert. This is also looking at resources that's gone into there, including staff, engagement staff which we mentioned in this slide. These are temporary staff that will be doing door-knocking, working with the community and explaining about recycling and behavioural change. So those costs, we could be happy to provide more detail on this, so it's not just on the advert in itself, so there are resources that's gone into engaging the community on the recycling in itself. The information about the 15 out of 20 wards. There is a MAB cabinet report going there, which gives you more comprehensive details about the data in each ward. You're quite right, so we just actually presented the highest 95% of those wards that reached. The other ones are, again, in the detail of the report, most of them, in comparison to quarter one, have increased in terms of the actual cleanliness of the streets in itself. So we just tried to flag out the 9 out of the 20 ward have that significant improvement. We benchmarked ourselves up 92%. Those 9 out of 20 reach beyond our target, which is 95%. So we are, you're absolutely right, known by means we're there yet, still much more work to be done. But we, trajectory is looking significantly going in the right direction, and there's much, much more work to be done. And as each quarter, we will actually present the data in more detail. And like I say, it's in the report by each ward, it gives you a bit more detail of each of the ward. I hope that addresses John. Anyone have anything? Yes. Sorry, I'm off. Please put it on for our public. Right, okay, that's, sorry, that's better. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think the, one of the questions that was asked was about, you know, which part of the community are not recycling. Well, we know that there's well over 80% of the community or residents live in flats or in high rise properties. And it's really about making sure they get the opportunity to recycle. And one of the first things I looked at when I arrived in April was the fact that I didn't think they had the same opportunity as street level properties to recycle. Street level properties were getting regular recycling sack deliveries, and people living in flats were not getting those deliveries. We've started a trail on Recycling 5, it's one of ten recycling crews we've got, and there's been an immediate improvement, and that's been through giving residents in that area, that's serviced by Recycling 5, recycling sacks and the opportunity to recycle. So I think the recycling rate has sort of itched up by just on two percentage points from 15 to just over 17%. The other thing we've done is we introduced in June what I call loop collections on all high streets and town centres, and they're going to be followed up in early December by time banded collections, so all high streets, town centres will get time banded collections. Residents living in flats above shops have not really had the opportunity to recycle before because of the way in which services were previously organised over the last five years, so one of the things we've done is we've unravelled the issues that were preventing people on high streets and town centres from recycling, and we're now running those vehicles so they've now got 14 opportunities in the week to recycle, and that has produced an immediate impact on recycling. Thank you both. Can I just ask that, if you can be as quick as possible when answering those questions, because I do want my members to be able to ask all the questions that they have in mind. There is one question that has been missed, which is about the Somali community, am I right? Yes, so I suppose it was the request for an understanding, so you kind of answered it, you kind of did, around the demographic data that shows I think you spoke about the number of Bangladeshi households, there was 100,000, something you said, but obviously what I want us to get away from is using the word BAME or using groups of people in together, so that breakdown of where the need for this video came from, I know that there's a bunch of data, as you kind of mentioned, that sits behind this, but the justification for making this video I think is important, and avoiding the use of BAME and talking about the particular groups, because we're not watching this group, it's important. Thank you. Did you want to respond? Can I just say, chair, welcome as always, but this is the second quarter, this is part of the journey, and it's not the completed article, and I take your point, I think for me, we've got a very diverse community, and what I think about most local authorities is one dimensional in terms of communication strategy, so what we try to do is diversify from that, and you know, I went to Friday prayers, I was lucky enough to go to the East of Moscow, and I think it's just a different way of delivering a message, but we're nowhere near the way we want to be yet, but we're on the right direction of travel, I would think, so I think your points are valid, and so we need to reflect on that. Thank you, thank you. Next question, Councillor Emilly? Yeah, thank you, thank you for your presentation, very good, it's all I ask for, genuinely, thank you, and just super briefly, thank you to you, because you just hit the nail on the head there, I got frustrated in this committee before about the idea of, we're doing all this, and we're doing videos, we're doing community engagement, but we're not actually allowing people, we're not giving people the ability to recycle, sometimes it's felt like banging my head against the wall, because it just seems so obvious, so the fact that this stuff is actually happening is a positive, and we can see that the changes are being made, so happy to say that, I'm really pleased to see that, the only thing that I would say though, is, under service improvements, you have included time banding, and you've included introductions to pilot for daily use recycling sacks, I just want to ask, are we getting ahead of ourselves a little bit, because it's just a question about how you're measuring these improvements, and what metrics have you used, because my understanding is, the time banding is only just being introduced, I appreciate you've been working on it for some time, and it's a long-standing project, but it's only just being introduced on the ground, and the pilot for daily use recycling sacks, also I think brand new, I think particularly in my ward, I had a stream of messages yesterday from people saying, why have they shrunk the recycling bags, what's going on, how does this work now, so it's, I think it's a good thing, but my question is, are we getting a little bit ahead of ourselves, and saying it's job done, isn't it great, and can you just let us know how you're going to actually measure this when the time comes? Can I just answer some of that please chair, another really good point well made, and I earlier spoke about ONS and how useful it can be, and Councillor Mark Francis is for me champions much of this, because he, I'll slightly digress slightly around the LTNs, and that was a difficult challenge session, but Councillor Mark Francis said, you know, if, obviously if the council listened to ONS, it would be a different outcome, so ONS has so much to give, and I think the points that you made there are fair, Councillor Mark Francis did mention how we're going to measure success, and that's why I wanted to keep it tidy, to independently evaluate what we've done, because if I've done anything else, I think we've been open to some question, so keep it tidy, a national charity, they do it across the UK, do a lot of work for Defra, just in terms of cleansing this I think that's important, is through that journey, I think it's early days, the eight people that have been appointed have only been here a couple of weeks I think, and from CMT's point of view we want to see there's a value for money outcome from that, to say actually are they making an improvement, recycling is slowly going up, it's a slog, the Mayor wrote to the Secretary of State asking for some assistance in bringing the residents of state landlords to account, as I've often said, we clicked the waste, and we tried to do our best job to do that in a very densely populated borough, but we're not responsible for what people put in there, we tried to change that surrounding communications in terms of working with the RSL's, we had the workshop and they've been taking part in that, but it's still a long way to go, so the Secretary of State, what I was asking for, was strategy, obligation for them to provide proper infrastructure and take responsibility for their leaseholders and tenants for putting the stuff in the right bin, so it is a journey, I think you make a very important point about it's not a done deal, this is quarter two, let's see what happens at the end of the year, I'm hoping it's still going to go in the right direction. Thank you, Councillor Manon? Thank you Chair, I just want to highlight, you mentioned on the report that it's been £5 million this year, and I know when we talked about the sub-committee in the past that the underground refuge system, that's where the money is going in, most of the money, I just want to get an update from you Simon, that how far are we going there to get additional pick up underground refuge lorries, that's one of the questions, the other thing I'd like to raise to the officers and the lead member and yourself as well, the thing has improved, especially the east of the borough where 80% is underground refuge system, where you have only one or two pick up bins, which I understand, but additionally what we have put through is if it gets over for the event going around and picking up switches, I'm very pleased, my resident has said even then I'm picking up a bin getting picked up, so that's a good phrase on that, and if my final, can I add another additional question, the other thing is recycle, yes we're doing a lot of things about recycling, how are we engaging ourselves to do their bit on recycling as well, because we have a lot of ourselves and 300, more than 70, and what are we, are we engaging them as a partnership to work together to improve, and how are they working or communicating to improve on that. And by the way there's no restrictions from me about asking questions, please give a response. Thank you chair and thank you Councillor Brennan, let's do the tricky one first, the underground refuge storage vehicles, they have been ordered finally, the budget's been allocated, they take up to a year to be ordered, so I know we have to be corresponding between the pair of us around what that looks like, in the real world I would imagine it would be this time next year before those vehicles arrive, I think is that fair to say, there's only one company that can build these things, so it's a bit of a restricted market, but we are having four new vehicles, and we just have to keep on ploughing through until they're complete, and the second part of your question, I'll ask you for an answer, thank you. I'll touch on the RSL, in the presentation it was already alluded that we had a number of workshops and engagement sessions with RSLs, so I'm pleased to say that in this place actually we had that discussion, so there are many discussions with the chief executive and the senior managers of the RSLs that attend, so there are dialogue and discussion in terms of working more closely with the RSLs, predominantly the big RSLs that have most housing stocks within their state, and we're developing a relationship in terms of what is their responsibility and what is also our responsibility, so there's a co-resistance between the two parties, so that understanding needs to be taken into consideration, so we are developing this community charter between the housing association and the local authority, and that's for certain a bit more close relationships, so we've actually gone a long way, and there is much more work to be done with the RSL, and we've seen positive relationships addressing some of the key challenges, so some of the key challenges that we face is also the access to the state, some of our crews cannot maintain, so we do need that cooperation and assistance from the caretakers within these RSLs, and I think we're making headway with the regime, so we've had a number of sessions, but there's more to happen in the next coming months. I think it's important to say that before we asked residents to do anything, we put our own house in order, and that's what we've been doing for the last six months, so we've got a long way to go, we've only just started, but we've started with the improvements, we've improved the industrial relations, and the culture that is in the workforce, and we're dealing with those that don't want to do a day's work, or don't want to do a day's work to the standard that's required, and we'll continue with that, and we'll also move forward with encouraging residents to recycle, there's a number of initiatives taking place and the signs are encouraging. My question is around engagement, but before I ask that question, I just wanted to know, is there any extra work being done around schools picking up the leaves, because I was walking down Bethlehem Road to a school the other day and it was awful, very slippery and dangerous, so that's the first question. Second question is around engagement, so it does follow on from what Councillor Abdi has said, so these two videos that were shown, are they just being published on the website, or are they going further more? If so, I think it would be good to understand how many people actually view, so to kind of measure that sort of engagement, and then the question really is, how have you measured the effectiveness of community engagement initiatives, such as the recycling workshops, and what's the feedback process to allow residents' voice to be heard and acted upon? And again, in addition, you've recruited some engagement officers, what are they going to be doing, you did touch on a bit of door knock, other than that, what else are they going to be doing? Thank you. If I touch the first, the engagement side, the plan and the effectiveness, and then John coming on the leaf side. Just on the advert, it's actually, in this room is the first peak to look at those adverts, so it's not actually finalised, maybe one or two other councillors have actually seen it, or certainly remember, so that's just early stages, so we're developing those. In terms of plan, we are working with the comms, our comms strategy in terms of how we disseminate this information, it's not just going to be on the Hopewell website, but we want to actually reach out to media channels, YouTube, and various other social media channels, so far unreached within the local community. So that's, we will actually have a strategy behind in terms of how we engage, and like I said earlier on, this is few of many to come in terms of advertising and small clips of videos. In terms of effectiveness, from those videos, we will actually look at the data behind in terms of views, in terms of likes, and how far and beyond in terms of local community is watching those videos, as opposed to just outside of those, so there will be a plan behind that. Through a number of workshops we've had, in terms of residents and all that, we have sort of assessed that in terms of understanding of what recycling or what sort of contamination is, it's been really fruitful to know from those residents, you know, basic things, for example, even a milk bottle, chucking it in the bin, and you saw it from the advert, without rinsing it, washing it, it's contaminated, it's not going to actually be classified as recycling. So understanding that basic thing through the workshop, and then obviously developing these videos to actually, in a language or in an understanding way where people can really understand what they need to recycle and how they need to recycle, and that's really important. So some of those things we're actually drawing out through engagement of residents, and I'm sure there's going to be a lot more that we will come out through the door knocking, the staffs are doing, and we will actually tailor an action plan behind each of those issues and challenges that we face. Yeah, so just on the leafing, I mean at this time of the year, first of all we have a leafing programme, and that's taking place during the week, every week between the third week of October and the second week of December. We're well into that leafing programme now, and we're also dealing with leaves at weekends. Just a few facts on leafs, each tree has about 200,000 leaves and there's 30,000 of them in the burrow, so you can imagine they all fall down roughly at the same time, so it's an enormous task for all London burrows to clear up leaves, but we're dealing with them. Leaves incidentally are not classed as litter by the teddy Britain group, so we don't get scored down for fresh leaf fall, we'll only get scored if the leaf turns into detritus, so we are in a hurry to get as many leaves cleaned up as we can. We totally recognise leaves can be a health and safety issue for residents, particularly vulnerable residents, and there's a full programme enforced to get them cleaned up, certainly by mid-December. Thank you, and thank you for that fun fact. Councillor James King. Thank you, I've got lots of short questions, so if you want to get your pens and paper ready. First of all, will you hit the target of the 23% recycling rate by next April, which is the target, we're at 18% at the moment. That's for the end of the 24/25. Could you just give us a second question, further detail of the breakdown of the 3.5 million spend within the 5 million, which is focused on street cleaning and parks. It's not apparent to me that that's a waste collection, as it were, so just further detail there. Third question, could we have the ward breakdown, it's great that 15 wards have reduced, but we know that there are specific, particularly the dense parts and the bits with new development where it's a problem. How much is budgeted to pay media companies to disseminate the adverts you showed us? That's another question. And you talk about door knockers going round advising people, they're temporary staff, how will they be recruited? That's the end of an hour, I've got more. Thank you, Councillor King. I'm going to take one more question, so if you keep your pens close to you, Councillor Botticelli, please. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for the presentation. The presentation suggests an increase in recycling rates from 15.4% to 18%, which is a great thing to have, very positive indeed. What plans are in place to further improve these rates and how do you plan to address the issues of recycling contamination which remains concerned? And I and the ex-chair was lucky enough to visit the site a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago, so we know how much is costing the council when it's contaminated. Thank you. Those two sets of questions, please. Okay. Obviously, that ties in with the Councillor King's question about 23%. We're optimistic, obviously, to achieve that by March 31st. With the turn of December, we're hoping to be around about 20%, so there is a plan behind that. The simple answer to the question is yes, we will actually reach you 23% in optimistic with the plans behind us. Following with Councillor Botticelli, the increase in rate is pretty much what we're doing, listening to some of the residents' concerns and issues in terms of access of recycling bags, educating them and behavioural change. So the more we can actually reach out to people, the more we can actually get the message, it will help in every way. Also, the operation they're looking at providing recycling bins, so our flat recycling project in parallel, that will also help with the capacity within the state and the residents who are able to actually recycle more. So the more tonnage that we have on dry recycling, that will increase the recycling. In terms of ward benchmarking, there is a cabinet report that's come in, and in my report, page 6, it gives you all the ward detail, so if I chair, then it's referenced into that in terms of detail of that. John, did you want to touch on the 3.5? Could you use your microphone please, I can't hear what's going on. My apologies, sorry. Sorry, thanks. Sorry, my apologies. So, just in terms of the 3.5 million, when the way I declared a waste emergency, when I arrived in April and I realised we had this MEZ waste improvement programme, we had significant issues, not just with the cleanliness of the streets, but with the fact that waste wasn't being collected, and that's a statutory duty, that we have to collect domestic waste. And it was all having an impact on the condition of the roads, of the streets, of certain areas of the borough, and so the arrangements that have been put in place, have been put in place to ensure we get that complete improvement, that the whole thing improves, and we've done that certainly on a stage where there were some major problems in April. In terms of addressing the contamination issues, the initiative that we've introduced for Recycling 5 is effectively, I know when you, sorry Councillor Amy, you said that, one of the residents said what's these small bags for, there was an explanation in the bag that went out, but the small bags are designed to get each resident in the borough to produce one kilogram of recycling a day, and if everybody got a kilogram of recycling in a day, we'd probably on a stage alone have 120,000 kilograms, and we would far exceed our targets on the recycling. And we've had some really positive feedback from the area, so we're going to develop that. Yeah, I think I've answered the questions. Thank you. There's another question, which one's missing? Two honest questions, how much is budgeted to basically pay media companies to air the adverts we're speaking about, and secondly how are door knockers going to be recruited, are they going to be temporary staff? In terms of the temporary staff, they already recruited three weeks ago, and they were a combination of temporary staff and internal secondment opportunity for staff within the existing council staff, so that's how they were recruited, for expression of interest internally. In terms of adverts, we haven't actually got costed because we haven't actually gone into media channels to look at that, but the only costing we've looked at is the two ads done, and that's just less than 5,000 pound. But in terms of going out, media will actually look at the costing details, so that's not being still done yet. Thanks. If you can, once you've got that budget provided, because obviously he was talking about influencers as well, so it's not just TV, it's social media as well, so not saying it's a bad idea, but I think we need to be conscious of whether we're getting that bang for our buck. Okay, thank you. Can I ask two other councillors who haven't spoken yet, so Councillor Hahn first and then Councillor O'Din, okay? Thank you, Chair. I thought colleagues are asking so many questions, and the questions I want to ask, they ask them, so there is not enough opportunity to ask. I think recycle and the bean collection is going in the right directions, but not up there yet, that standard that we're expecting to be. So my question is that, also some subjection in these questions. When you bean management, what direction you give to your people who collect the bean, is that get all the beans from recycle or bean, what are those beans in the containers, and leave those in the surrounding, because what we can see is that when people come to collect the beans, they just grab the container, they take it out of their bean vehicles, and they're left. Sometimes what happens is recycle is overfilled, so people put aside the same recycle materials, but they don't touch it. So I want to know what advice or instruction we've given to the people who collect the bean. This is what I want to know. This is my question. Chair, can I ask you something? Yeah, certainly. I think I mentioned earlier that there's been a reset with the workforce, so we've improved industrial relations, but we've made it abundantly clear to the workforce that they're required to do a day's work, and we're required to work to the standard that we set for the service area. And we're beginning to see the signs after however many years, five years, certainly, of the service being back in-house, that the management have got good control, and we're establishing good relations with the workforce, and we're dealing with those people who maybe were involved in picking and choosing what they have done previously. So that's being addressed, and we're taking a very serious approach to, you know, I've made it abundantly clear, probably to 30 or 40 individual manual workers and crews over the last few months, that if they breach the Code of Conduct, then they'll be dealt with quite, you know, quite firmly. So we're addressing performance issues every single day of the week, and I'm very confident that, as we move forward over the next two months, things will start to further improve. Thank you. Can I get cancelled into coming now? Thank you, Chair, and thank you very much. Thank you very much for your presentation. My question to you, you know, I live in the local land, and I used to, morning walk in the main wall park, and I can see every day, being, not every day, not regularly being not collected. People are complaining, I can see, and some, I can see sometimes the office, the cleaner coming, but not taking the, being, all are not being able, regularly. But I don't know why should, being I'm not taking the regularly, that's the my question. Okay, so, when I arrived, I looked at all aspects of the service, and one of the, first of all, there's this cultural issue, which is, I come to work every day, I'm an employee of Tower Hamlets Council, but actually, no one's looking at what I do. Well, I can assure you now, people are looking at what the workforce do, and when, when there are missed collections, people are now being held accountable. There are, there are still issues which we are addressing with communications, with the IT systems that we have, to improve, so that we're improving the service. So that information that comes into the public, comes straight in and gets relayed to the crews, and when the crews do the work, they press the button, and that information goes straight into the back office. So we're moving now from a very peer-based system, to an electronic digital type system, which will, combined with the new management approach, will certainly improve the performance of service. But I can say this, if any one of the councillors has a particular issue that your residents bring up with you, you can contact me, and I'll ensure it's dealt with promptly. We are also, by the way, ensuring that we ourselves are out monitoring more, so the management team are out managing the performance of the crews. Thank you. If you can turn your mic off. Right. Finally, last speaker on this is Natalie. Thanks, Chair. Thanks for the presentation, speakers. Apologies that I can't be there in person, but I'm sure you don't want my lurking. So I have a couple of comments, a couple of requests, and quite a few questions. So Chair, do cut me off if you think that I've gone too far, or that we're taking too much time. So comments are, firstly, thank you for bringing this to the committee early. It's really appreciated that you're so open and engaging with the committee early. Second comment is that these results for September are really, really incredible, and I didn't quite understand, so the other results for Q2, I assume the results for Q2 are now confirmed, because I think that was mentioned by Simon. The requests that I have are, oh, a comment that I have as well is that we as a committee don't have access to MAB reports. So Ashraf mentioned that there's some more detail in a MAB report, so if we could have access to that, that would be really appreciated. That's kind of a comment/request. Another request is that the costs breakdown is not clear enough. So some of the categories, I don't know, they seem to be the same. You've mentioned some things that fall into some categories that sound like they could also be in other categories in the breakdown. So if you could, maybe the things that seem of most interest to the committee are the adverts, the videos, which are fantastic, but we're also keen to understand how much we've spent on them as a council. And I know that you've already provided a breakdown, which is already responding to a previous request from the committee, but even further breakdown would be lovely. We love detail here. So, into the questions. The missed collection decreases, I would say, may not be in fact a sign of improvement. So anecdotal evidence from my own inbox suggests that residents may have given up reporting missed collections because nothing seems to actually happen when they report. I've been promoting the fact that we're supposed to be responding within 24 hours, but that is a potential risk. Following up on that, do we have any statistics for how many of those missed collections are actually collected within the 24 hours as promised? There was a situation in my ward that suggested that that is not happening. I would also like to know whether we had a survey from Keep Britain Tidy before the interventions so that we can compare the independent review. And finally, a question for the lead member. I guess we're in the middle of this project, but the money will come to an end at some point. And what do you see as the key risks going forward in this service from the one-off funding coming to an end? And how are you planning to ensure that we're sustainably improving going forward? Thank you. Thank you. If you can address those. So just on the first few in terms of the paper, paper is going to go to cabinet. So I believe that the cabinet is available publicly. So that should be going to December cabinet. On the 18th of December. In terms of the advert costs, as I said, we'll provide that detail once we actually have a plan of comp plan. And we could provide the costing of that. Keep Britain Tidy survey, which we didn't have last year. We only got benchmarks from April this year from quarter one. So we can't actually make that comparison in terms of last year's survey. John, do you want to touch on the mis-collection? Yeah. One thing I can say about the Keep Britain Tidy survey is they've sort of continuous improvement since the first survey was carried out in April of this year. Just in terms of mis-collections, first of all, I mean, I've spoken earlier about the fact that performance amongst the workforce in the management team, including myself, is important. And we're driving up performance within the service as a whole. But what I would say is that mis-collections aren't always the responsibility of the services. They're our responsibility to deliver that service. But there's many, many occasions where we attend or we attempt to get onto an estate and there's blocked cars or there's one reason or another. Gates are locked or whatever. Codes have been changed and so on and so forth. The crews know they have to go back and repeat the attempt at that collection. But we aren't gathering data of where we've attempted collections and the fault has not been the fault of the crew that are delivering that service. But we take mis-collections extremely seriously. Just one thing, I know the lead member is going to talk about what happens when MWIP finishes. But there's going to be a complete reorganisation of services to ensure they're organised efficiently and they're high performing. Because the money is an important thing and we know there's inefficiencies within the core service. But it takes time to change the culture and it takes time to change the service. You know, we have 100 vehicles and 400 people delivering this frontline service. But it's something that we recognise and we will embed a high performing culture and will ensure that it's an efficiently delivered service so that it's valued for money going forward. I'd just like to hear that. Thank you. So that brings us to an end. I just want to quickly summarise that I think from the committee there's been lots of positives and appreciation for the work that you do and the fact that there are signs of improvements. I know the lead member gave a shout out to the workforce and so do we. They work really hard and I hope you can relay that back on behalf of the committee. So there's a few items that I think is worth you taking back if that's OK. Mr Baxter, Mr Whitley. Signposting for council is about mis-collections. That's still an area of work. If you can try and start working on how you might want to brief us on us and the committee before you come back. March is our next time you're back in this committee. Then also reporting around how our residents report. That is a regular question and concern that comes up at this committee. So before we come back to the next committee I'm making that an action that we're able to have some clear lines and some answers. The one question that I didn't fully get an answer for and I'm happy for you to take this away is how you're going to engage with the Somali community and how you're going to engage with other hard to reach communities because I do have to give appreciation to that video. I've worked in this area so I know that that actually is going to go a long way. It's going to work for residents and it's money worth spent in the sense that it's never out of date. It's recycled reused but you have to make sure the balance is there. However, I do think tonight you haven't done justice to why we really hear is the money spending aspect of it. I think maybe a bit more clarity and think about your next presentation to the committee. For instance, when we talked about the engagement and the media spend, a few committee members here asked the questions and I don't think you were able to give a distinctive idea of how that money was spent. I also want you to understand that committee members here don't only speak to yourselves and just this area of work, they look at the entire council. There are some duplications. For instance, we've hired media advisors and we've invested very heavily on communications for this council. How is this all tied in? We didn't fully get that so I'm happy for you to take that away and maybe give us a response about the budget especially because we're going into the project process going forward. Otherwise, thank you very much. It was really, really helpful. I hope that gives you a steer about what we want to do coming forward. Councillor Ahmed, I almost feel like not sending you away because you look so comfortable in that chair tonight but thank you all. Thank you very much. Have a nice evening. Moving on to our final item of this evening is the scrutiny executive protocol. This sets out some broad principles on how we work with the executive. The protocol applies to all ONS and cabinet members including the mayor and is also part of our improvement agenda. This has been developed through review of protocol from other local authorities to learn from best practice. Members have previously been sent the draft version for any comments and I understand we did not receive any comments. Do members have any questions or comments at this point on this report? I've got one person's hands up. Anyone else? Two? Anyone else? This is an important piece of work. I'll start with you two, Councillor Emily and then I'll go to Councillor Muhammad. Thank you. Look, I do have some comments on this. It's good to understand where some of this has come from and that it's about striving for best practice and looking at what's going on across the local government. So that explains some of this stuff. However, I think this doesn't take into account some of what's been included in the best value inspection and I feel like it can't not now. I also feel like there's perhaps a lack of, how do I say this, understanding of the reality that we're dealing with. I think there's a lot of things in here that we would all love to see happen, but it isn't realistic. If I can, Chair, I just want to talk a little bit. I think there's a lot that talks a lot about what the mayor and cabinet members should do and should be doing, which just does not happen and never happens and hasn't happened in two and a half years. And we heard from the chief exec just earlier that it's a journey. Well, sorry, it's been two and a half years and I don't know about you, but I've made efforts to improve my performance and I don't understand why we're cutting slack for people who are not willing to come and do their jobs to this committee. And not just this committee and the subcommittees. I sat in one of the subcommittees where their most recent meeting, I was absolutely appalled by the performance of the cabinet member who read two sentences and then sat back in their chair, folded their arms and didn't speak for the rest of the meeting. I think we have to address that. It's in the report. We have to address it in a stronger way. That cabinet members have to come prepared to these meetings. They can't just read a pre-written paragraph and then sit back. They have to be prepared. But then that also stands for us as well. We need to be prepared. We need to have read the papers. The key lines of inquiry are super, super helpful in shaping what we do and giving us sort of ideas and clues. But we shouldn't just be reading these off a sheet of paper either, to be honest. It isn't really okay. There are other scripted questions that we see in this committee. I don't pretend to know where they come from. But it's quite clear they're scripted and they're being read. That's not what we're here to do. And I don't think this addresses the sort of specifics of that. I think it's sort of a more broad document. And I understand that there might be reasons it has to be like that. But I just don't think it's really taken into account the reality. And if I can, there's just a couple of things in here that I was a bit shocked to see. Which I think there's a line in there about sort of not being critical for being critical's sake. Which I have to say is really disappointing because I know that's not what I come here to do. And there's stuff in here about being positive. Which is great when there's things to be positive about. I think we've all actually just sat here and said, we see the positives and it's really great to see the positives. I think we do that on a regular basis. It's just a bit disappointing to sort of be told, if I can say it, we all need to change our behaviour and we're all behaving terribly. When actually most of us are coming here to do a scrutiny job. And in the face of, if I'm being honest, an executive that doesn't want to be scrutinised. Because the mayor never turns up and cabinet members can't answer questions. And I don't think there's anything in there about that. And I think in light of the best value inspection there should be. I think this would restrict this committee, what it's allowed to do. Whilst they can just do whatever they want and still continue to not really take this seriously at all. And I'm just not that satisfied with it in light of the best value inspection. Thank you. And I think with Councillor Lee's point about the comment about being positive. It's important to understand that there is members, officers protocol that we follow. But actually being positive can be also defined as almost gagging the committee here. Because the job here is to be honest about. And sometimes the honest is difficult and the honest truth is hard. And the harder the conversations here, the better our services are going to get. And I think there's a way to frame that and maybe we put that in the report. Really sorry Sharon, just something I forgot because you've hit the nail on the head. In the report it said that we rely too much on officers for scrutiny and we absolutely do. It's so true that when all these questions, we're not asking them to the lead members, we're asking them to the officers. But that's because we have to. It isn't a choice. I don't want the officers to sit there and answer every single question. They have to answer the questions because lead members generally can't or won. And I think that has to be acknowledged. It's a specific issue, well not just specific to this council but it is a massive factor in this committee. And it has been as long as I've been on it and I know you've been on it longer than me and I'm sure you'd agree. And my job is to be fair here. And this is not at all to say that it's all cabinet members. Not at all. There have been really positive, today was a really good example of our cabinet members who did really engage and answer our questions. OK, Councillor Mohamed. Thank you chair. I think I've got very little to add from what Councillor Lee and you've just said as chair. I think the onus of this paper is kind of shifted in the wrong direction. I think there's a lot about the protocol of what you expect of us as scrutiny leads. And in return officers will provide impartial information. I'm not necessarily sure in my two months, my two meetings here, it's always been the most impartial information. And we've made that point and actually tonight fair play to the chief executive. He held his hands off about something when he was challenged on it. And I think we need the space to be able to challenge in a very respectful way. Because you're right, there's officer member protocol which dictates a certain decorum for this room and this meeting. But I'm not sure this adds a great deal. And I completely echo what Councillor Lee said about the point. I don't think it factors in the best value inspection and the serious work that we need to do as a committee. And I don't think this does it justice. And all due respect to officers actually, it's on us not to have come back over email about this. And that's a point I hold my hands up to. But I don't think, given it's 15 minutes before the meeting ends, we're going to do this justice tonight. Okay, thank you Councillor King. Anyone else while James is speaking? Just very briefly, I think my comments would be, I think this would be strengthened by, I'm harking back to when I was the chair of overview and scrutiny. It was a while ago now. But there were quite clear protocols. There were unwritten understanding between officers, committee members, cabinet members about dissemination of information. So I think we should probably go, if we're going to formalise things which should be happening already, I think we should go away and do that. Because we had an issue tonight with the chief executive's presentation essentially coming sight on the scene with a verbal report. And I think perhaps we could bolster this by going away and formalising some of the deadlines that should be put in place in terms of, we've got the work programme. This is when we want to set the agenda. These are the topics we want to discuss so it's not broad. This is the written response we want, do you know what I mean? So that work that should go on behind the scenes, which happens informally between chair and scrutiny leads and scrutiny officers may be putting that in place as well. So there are expectations that go both ways. The other comment I want to make, I don't think we should agree this tonight. I mean, again, the more broad comment I want to make is like, is about if there are concerns with the way in which members of scrutiny are addressing officers, which I know there has been in the past and has been raised like a discussion with me informally. We have a standards procedure as well, a member officer protocol that can go through that as well, so I think we need to put that in there as well. I mean, again, not trying to duplicate the work of the council encompassing appropriate avenues as well. Yeah, and I think on that, I'll come back to this point that there is the members and officers protocol, but there is something about the balance of power as well, so exec and non-exec. So it's making sure that level of respect and transparency is also there. Thank you very much, Councillor Mannane. And then Steve, I'm going to come to you for a question about how we engage with this. Thank you, Chair. What I'd like to highlight on this is we can, let's not blame culture in here. What I'm trying to say, we are holding, we should be holding officers and a lead member accountable for it. At the same time, we have a duty as well as scrutiny members. When we get invite in a pre-long invitation, about months and months advance, a certain category of site visit, everybody invite. I just want to highlight Natalie's site visit a couple of weeks ago, when me and herself was there, it was very important. It wasn't months in advance, that was a week. I'm just saying, some of them. We should help ourselves for us to hold the officers and lead member accountable for it. I know some of us work, we can make it, but if we get enough notice, we should be able to put in a diary. When we have a site visit, we should visit those sites, see yourself, what it is, and then we have a better understanding of scrutinising the officers. We want to see, this has happened, this wasn't done, see where I'm coming from. I'll just give an example. I go on the children's education, the site visit is coming up in January and February. Hopefully, as soon as I get the diary up, I'm going to let you guys know when is the site visit, the first site visit coming in on my screen. I want everyone of you to go there. At least try, even for 15 minutes, go to see yourself, that way you can hold people accountable. That's what we're here for. We're here to scrutinise and hold officers and lead members accountable and answer those questions for residents. Thank you. Thank you. I just do want to come back to that point. I've also got one point. Before we go to Steve, I've got one question about adding something. Not going to Steve yet. Do you want to come in now? I'll come in afterwards. Yeah, sorry, thank you. I appreciate you. Just a suggestion, it will be a helpful time for Steve who can add this to the protocol. There's a standing item in the agenda around the Scrutiny Leads update and I think it's worth noting that there's only two Scrutiny Leads. The Scrutiny Leads for Environment and Climate Emergency and then the Scrutiny Leads for Adult Health and Services have given updates. Actually, what would be quite good in the protocol is given that three lead members, Scrutiny Leads haven't put in anything, I don't know anything about that and I think it would be helpful to have that. Are we able to mandate regular updates because I'd quite like to ask questions of these Scrutiny Leads who have elected themselves to this position. Great. I want to know how they're doing this. I think it's really important. So are we able to include that in the Scrutiny Leads because I take account of the man on this point. Something coming up in a couple of months. Granted, if we can get in our diaries now, we'll probably all be able to come. But the last example he gave, there was literally a week's notice and I've got care responsibilities and I've got a full-time job. So it's hard to be able to fit these in with a week's notice. So I'd really welcome actually being able to hold some of the Scrutiny Leads to account as a collective because they're elected to this. It's important that they're doing their job. Yep. Thank you for that. I was going to actually come on that point that it is important to understand that in the list of priorities, when you have members, especially when you have work and if you're having to come out to these site visits during the daytime, maybe there is a way of working around that we make sure a few of us are able to go to this one and a few of us are able to go to that one. There's caring responsibilities that you should take into consideration. I think it's unreasonable to keep asking committee members to take annual leave to attend these site visits. But also the last point that Councillor Mohamed spoke about is planning in advance and making sure everyone knows what's going on. So that is something that we definitely can work together as a committee and officers will support us. Before I go into our Steve for some help and advice on this, can I ask Officer to just summarise and give us your feedback. Thank you Chair and thank you for all the members for your feedback on this. So we'll look at that and I think particularly the points about the language and specific points if it's okay. I would like to follow up with just members on some of those. I think just a couple of things, one is this is not to replace any of our existing protocols. So the member officer protocol, a lot of members mentioned that, kind of already dictates how we work with members and between members and officers. And one of the things that we did do as part of that work is look at examples from other places and what's working around executive protocol. And it is deliberately set out to be quite an ambitious document and I note the point that members say around we are not there. But I think we want to be ambitious about how we conduct ourselves as a committee but actually how cabinet members conduct with us as well, how officers conduct with us as well. And I think that's quite important in terms of the protocol itself to be quite ambitious. And I think certainly I do kind of want to take the feedback that members have provided because we have been working on this for a while. And so we will take those on and we need to have a similar conversation with the executive in terms of making sure we have that bind because there's no point in us just agreeing this and we don't have that executive. I know Steve has spoken to Steve the chief exec as well so I don't know if you wanted to add anything on that Steve. Please. Thank you through you chair. I think it's really clear from previous discussions that there's some frustration that the improvement plan around scrutiny wasn't sufficiently shared with the committee and consulted and developed with the committee. And I think what chief exec is really saying today is that with input from the envoy that will be appointed he's making a commitment that you won't see a repeat of that and he wants to ensure the scrutiny improvement work is informed by yourselves which I think is really positive. Just on the specifics around site visits I think as officers we have to be really mindful that we ask a lot of our politicians in terms of sitting on these committees as well as your ward roles and training and all that. Occasionally officers will come to me and say wouldn't it be great if all members were trained in this and I have to say well how are you going to fit that in because they're already asking them to be trained on 17 things now that's 18. So I guess what I'm saying is we really have to be mindful of your diaries and your time but I also think it's quite a positive discipline for some of our officers to get into to think as we are going to get better at in terms of thinking much further ahead. Something's coming to cabinet, am I thinking about scrutiny, am I thinking about just extending an invite to scrutiny members to attend but on the understanding that we have to be realistic about your diaries I think that is a healthy thing for more officers at all levels to think about. Actually that's a good way to include scrutiny members as well as one of the things I really would like to do with your support chair is really get our managers at all levels thinking much further ahead and much sooner and getting things into the schedule much further ahead. So you don't feel like things are suddenly just introduced and you didn't see them coming and I've seen that happen well in other councils and I think through some training and development with some of our officer groups we can get that much more improved. But I do think coming back to an improvement and development plan that responds to quite rightly as people have said the best filing inspection report that has to be done in partnership together. Can I bring in Councillor Chaudry because I've missed him. No worries, thank you chair. Like myself and others I think we always miss a few things obviously because of work related, family issues or whatever. One more thing I'd like to highlight there are a lot of courses that have been run by the council itself and outside bodies, LGA and Warwick University which I've attended in the last two years to leadership and understanding your role as a scuttleweed. I would urge everyone to get in touch with the relevant offices to take that up, it's amazing. Couple of days out of London it's a vice versa, a lot of people from different parts of the world, different ethnic councilors coming together and it's a great couple of days we can learn from and I urge everyone to use that facility which the money is there sitting there waiting to be taken up. Very good point, thank you. Just to conclude, so I guess from what I'm hearing from the committee is we appreciate this is a good start but we have a lot more to add and we want this to be a flexible document for now so we don't approve this to be the end, we approve this to be the beginning. Am I right in thinking this is correct? So I'm definitely going to report back to cabinet as that and all the points that you've raised, Afasol's made the point so we're already going to start on that and then just to say this document actually did go out weeks ago. We've not had engagement from members, including myself, so I'll put my hands up. So now when this document hopefully goes back out again, let's try and look out for that and try and engage with it and see what changes you want, we'll definitely have another discussion in this committee. Is that okay? Can I just ask how's that going to happen then, is it going to come back? If it's a draft to cabinet, it's going to go to cabinet and you're going to have to speak on it and say that we're not really accepting it yet. I'll explain. So this is a two-part piece, we are the one piece that we've done, what I've chaired today is what the mayor's going to chair in his cabinet and then eventually we're going to get to a point where we're able to piece both together to create the ultimate document. So it's not like we've got the opportunity to discuss it first, they'll discuss it tomorrow, it's not for them to know, it's actually for them to hopefully engage with when they discuss it, and then we come back. Is that fair? Chair, just to be clear, it's not the cabinet agenda tomorrow, I think what we all do is obviously... Is it the 17th? We haven't scheduled it at cabinet yet, you want to make sure, ONS has a chance to comment, your comments are reflected. But it's still a draft to be clear. It is a draft. Very much a draft. We are not agreeing, as per the report, it says to approve the scrutiny protocol, the committee hasn't approved the protocol, it's provided comments for us to go and do some further work. Perfect, thank you. Okay, moving on. Now, we have pre-decision scrutiny questions, but unfortunately... Sorry, Chair, there is one more item before that, a scrutiny lead update, so we're not going to hear verbal updates from the other scrutiny leads who weren't able to give written updates. We should be generous and allow them to give verbal updates. That's fine, can I do this first? This is really quick, this is very quick, and then I'll come back to that one. So with the pre-decision scrutiny questions, I just want to notify that because this committee is one day before cabinet, by the time you get here, you've already missed your deadline for it. So this is one of the things, as chair, I'll be definitely raising with officers and the chief exec that this needs to change, because there's no point in you waiting for the committee to decide what your questions are, and then you've missed the deadline already. So, is that okay? We'll have that noted. I'll just provide a point of clarity, Chair. So, cabinet papers were obviously published last week. We are supposed to have pre-decision questions, following members' review of those cabinet papers by today morning. And obviously sometimes I appreciate it's not always possible, but I'm happy to look at the process of how we collectively pull together some draft questions. But it is based on cabinet papers that are published the week before cabinet. Okay. The issue here that I would raise is in line with what Mr Reddy said about making sure we have oversight of decisions way in advance. 24 hours, 48 hours, one week is not always enough for the reports and the big piece of work that goes to cabinet. So that means looking at, and also in line with what you're saying, actually there is a two-way thing, so we need to figure out how we do this and it has to be part of that improvement plan. Is that okay? Right. Moving on, I need... Sorry, this is a pre-decision question from Councillor Natalia. Have we lost her? Has she emailed them over? Yeah, she's put it on the chat, so we have got those. Was they done before the deadline? Yeah, she sent it today, but it's fine. Okay, we've got that. So we've got some questions from Councillor Natalia and they will be presented tomorrow to cabinet. So moving on, I want to allow lead members to be able to give a report, but one of the reasons why I wanted to do it last is after each of your reports, if you just update the committee about the upcoming reviews and spotlights and anything else that you might have in your areas at the same time. So who wants to go first? I was elected three hours ago, so I haven't been able to get to grips with my brief yet, but I will come at the next meeting with more of an update. Thank you. I think it's time for a vote of no confidence, wouldn't you say? Okay, I'll start from this side. Councillor Khan, do you have an update quickly? It is a scotland update, it's page 51 and 52, if colleagues want to see, they can see there. But still I can, because you asked for it, I have three meetings with Julie Ruarez, and also the fourth one is expected on the 12th of December, and we're looking into three collections. One collection is council tax, rent and business rate. So we look into those three collections to see how best we can get the collections. Also, we're not articulating people who were not able to, on time, they were not able to pay them. So I have another meeting with Julie Ruarez, Finance Corporate Director, on 12th of December. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Khan. I think I was confused, you said on page 51 and 52 your update was there, sorry, I can't see it, but it's just an environment and climate emergency, and I don't want health and services, so apologies if I missed it. It says Councillor Bilal Uddin, I thought Bilal was the, I don't want some health. Councillor Khan. You've got your name next up. I've got your name, apologies then, Councillor Khan, because there's just a report fixed. Okay, we will fix, we'll have that fixed. Councillor Natalie, should I take your update and then you can start resting. You're on mute. Okay, we'll come back to you Natalie, I think there's an issue with your mic. Councillor Uddin, do you want to give your update? Okay, so there's no update, but you have a review coming up, do you want to tell everyone? Sorry, what did you say? Me and my other colleagues, Abdul Manan and my other colleague went to the site to visit, and also we visited to them. Another thing I just reminded to my, every female colleague, that will be the 4th of December, I think it's the 4th of December. By the 5 o'clock I request every female colleague to come to join us. Thank you. Thank you very much. Councillor Manan. Okay, I did highlight what's coming in months ahead, but we've got a meeting coming up on 5th, I believe 5th is mine. We talked about early help, we're going to discuss it, how we can help the children, and also we're going to discuss it about the items and children's social care inspection as well. So this is the thing we're expecting on 5th. We have the report, I think those are on the subcommittee, just get the paper out. That's the report from me, but there's some emphasis again, we're going to do an inspection in January and February at the school dinner. Which came up on O&S, is the best value for money free school meal, and why children are taking, a lot more children as a group person now we find out they're taking pack lunches. So free school meal, freebies, why pack lunches, was the quality being dropped, is there been change of habit of style or eating this and that. So that would be good to all of you to invite and make sure you're capable of this. Thank you Asma. Thank you very much for that, I'm looking forward to the school dinner as well. Councillor, I'll come to you last because you all wanted a big brief. Councillor Ahmet? He was late. Oh, he's not a lead member, okay. No, I've just lost my lead. I'm so sorry. I did lose it, I gave it. But at least now you don't have to give a report. Thank you. Not much, but yes, I will be, obviously I had my pre-meeting with the offices today, my meeting is on the 4th. And I've attended the Scrutiny lead special seminar last week. And I will give you some dates of site visits soon, I hope. And in February, hopefully I will be bringing the commercial asset to Scrutiny and see how we go from there. And that's community assets as well, isn't it? Yeah, thank you. Because we've had a few bits and pieces. Thank you very much for all your updates. Sorry, can I just say, Jo, just so I'm completely clear, is this item meant to come every time we have an ONS meeting? Because it seems that some members were caught off guard, so I just wanted to make sure I'm completely clear, because I'm relatively new. It's every other month. It's every other month, I don't have to add anything, so apologies to the members if they weren't expecting it. No race, there's always no harm in having it. There's no harm in reporting. Sorry, Mr Chair, can I just ask, for Scrutiny lead report, would it be nice, the officers here, to sit down with the lead members and it would be good to have, in layman terms, a good report of the officers, so that when we discuss it, it should be available on the paper. I think it would be a good idea to move forward on that. I'll pass that back, and I'll pass that feedback back. So, thank you very much for all your contributions today. Did you want my update? I think I rejoined. Oh, you're ready, you're ready, go on. So, I just wanted to apologise for the late notice on the flood risk site visits. That item came about through some meetings in the summer, so things were a little bit moved, and things moved a bit faster than we expected, so the site visits needed to be squeezed in with not much notice, so apologies. Hopefully, we'll give a good, like, overview of them. Myself and Councillor Mannan will give the rest of the committee some information about what we learned. Myself, I've been doing lots of work into the net zero scrutiny review, and I will just also highlight to members that we will be talking about flood risk at the December meeting. We were going to discuss it tonight, but we've deferred it, and we will be having an external consultant support us on the committee, so I'm hoping that we'll be able to meet with the consultants beforehand, so that we can ask them some factual questions, and then we can get on to some more kind of policy-style questions in the committee and ask the lead member some questions, which previously we've maybe not been able to get to, so yeah, just highlighting that. Thanks. Thank you for that, Natalie, and that concludes all the reports. Coming to an end now, I just want to quickly update, in my few days, is the fact that Stephen Halsey, the Chief Exec, before he came in today, on Monday afternoon, I received a letter from him about congratulating me and giving me a quick update about the BVI. He's also sent me the letter that he sent to the Ministry. You're very well informed after tonight's committee, but I am going to pass that to officers to share with you. I just do want you to have a look at that for transparency's sake. And going forward, when I have conversations around some of the things that we talked about today, after the Cabinet tomorrow, please let me know if there's, as we look forward to the improvement plan, but if there's issues and anything that needs changing before that, and you need me to raise on your behalf, please get in touch, email me, and if, I think officers are going to put together a review for me to speak at Cabinet tomorrow, if there's anything specific that you think that is missed, as long as it's a one-liner and doesn't take more than my 10 minutes, then I'm happy to raise it on your behalf. Is that okay? So there's no other business, thank you very much, and I close the meeting. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Summary
The Overview & Scrutiny Committee approved the appointment of Alia Begum to the Health and Adults Scrutiny Sub-Committee. The committee also approved the Scrutiny Executive Protocol and took note of reports from the Chief Executive and the Cabinet Member for Environment and the Climate Emergency, as well as updates from the scrutiny leads.
Proportionality of Scrutiny Subcommittees and Appointment of Lead Members
The committee discussed a report on the proportionality of scrutiny subcommittees and the appointment of lead members. A proposal to defer the appointment of scrutiny leads to the next meeting was defeated, and the committee instead proceeded to appoint leads for the following subcommittees:
- Adults and Health Services: Councillor Bellalutin was elected over Councillor Amy Lee, with 5 votes in favour to 4 against.
- Children and Education: Councillor Abdul Mandan was elected over Councillor Amy Lee, with 5 votes against to 4 in favour.
- Housing and Regeneration: Councillor Badr Chavri was elected over Councillor Amy Lee, with 5 votes against to 4 in favour.
- Resources: Councillor Ahmadou Rahman Khan was elected over Councillor James King, with 5 votes in favour to 4 against.
- Community Safety: Councillor Abdi Mohammed was elected unopposed.
- Environment and Climate Emergency: Councillor Natalie Bienfait was elected unopposed.
The committee agreed that it would revisit the proportionality report at its next meeting once it has been passed by the full council.
Chief Executive Spotlight
Chief Executive Steve Halsey addressed the committee on a number of issues raised in the recent Best Value Inspection report.
I and the senior team at the council accept the findings of the best value inspection report in every respect and acknowledge the need for urgent action to address the serious failings identified.
Mr Halsey stated that he had spoken to over 1,000 staff and various partners about the report's findings, including senior leaders from schools, higher education, the NHS and the Integrated Care Board, police, fire service, the Canary Wharf Group, community organisations, and chairs of the Statutory Partnership Boards. He also confirmed that he had briefed group leaders on the report, and encouraged all members to engage with its findings and the next steps.
Mr Halsey reported that he had formally notified the regulator for social housing of the council's intention to self-refer on 4 October 2024, and that he will be encouraging lead members to attend scrutiny meetings at every appropriate opportunity. He also provided updates on the following issues:
- Home Care Procurement: Mr Halsey stated that the outcome of the recent issue with a third-party home care service provider will be fully reported to the Audit Committee on conclusion of an ongoing independent investigation.
- External Audit Opinions: Mr Halsey confirmed that the final external audit opinions for the years 2021/22 and 2022/23 will be presented to the Audit Committee on 4 December 2024.
- Corporate Performance Reports: Mr Halsey noted a reduction in both RED1 and AMBER2 measures over the last quarter, which he was pleased to see.
- Member Development Strategy: The Mayor and Mr Halsey have agreed a new member development strategy.
- Empowering Services Review: A review is currently underway to strengthen the corporate centre and empower directorates. This will be reported in the new year.
- Mayor's Office Restructure: Mr Halsey reported that the Mayor's Office restructure is progressing, with agreement on a new structure that will reduce the team from 36 staff to 9.
Mr Halsey apologised for not commenting on the annual resident survey or the women's commission, and committed to providing a detailed update immediately following the meeting.
Mayor's Waste Improvement Programme
Councillor Shafi Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Environment and the Climate Emergency, provided the committee with an update on the Mayor's Waste Improvement Programme (MWIP).
Councillor Ahmed highlighted a number of service improvements that have been made as part of the programme, including:
- Enhanced waste clearance arrangements 7 days a week, including morning, afternoon and night-time clearing.
- Separation of domestic and commercial waste collections.
- Introduction of time banding in high streets and town centres to enforce unregulated waste.
- Introduction of additional weekday and weekend sweeping beats in hotspot areas around the borough, as well as targeted deep cleaning.
- Deployment of 'Find It, Fix It' vehicles to respond immediately to problem areas and fly-tipping.
- Updated service arrangements for recycling on estates.
- Introduction of a pilot for daily use recycling sacks.
Councillor Ahmed reported that 95% of inspections for street cleansing undertaken in Tower Hamlets by Keep Britain Tidy were graded as acceptable, and that Quarter 2 NI 1953 results show that Tower Hamlets has significantly improved and is now performing better than the London benchmark for litter and detritus.
The committee viewed a short video produced by the council in partnership with the East London Mosque to encourage residents to recycle. Councillor Ahmed confirmed that the council is also working with the Interfaith Forum to deliver this message.
Councillor Ahmed concluded by stating that education and communication are paramount to making the Mayor's Waste Improvement Programme a success, and that the council will continue to work with local third parties to educate and create awareness amongst residents.
Scrutiny Executive Protocol
The committee discussed a draft Scrutiny Executive Protocol, which sets out the terms of reference for all members of the Overview & Scrutiny Committees and the Cabinet.
Some members expressed concern that the protocol did not take into account the findings of the Best Value Inspection report, and that it placed too much emphasis on the behaviour of scrutiny members while failing to address the lack of engagement from the executive.
I think the onus of this paper is kind of shifted in the wrong direction. I think there's a lot about the protocol of what you expect of us as scrutiny leads. And in return officers will provide impartial information. I'm not necessarily sure in my two months, my two meetings here, it's always been the most impartial information.- Councillor Abdi Mohammed
The committee agreed to approve the protocol as a starting point, with the understanding that it will be reviewed and amended in light of the Best Value Inspection report and further feedback from members.
Scrutiny Leads Updates
Councillor Ahmadou Rahman Khan, scrutiny lead for Resources, provided an update on his recent work, which included three meetings with Julie Ruarez, Corporate Director of Finance.
Councillor Abdul Mannan, scrutiny lead for Children and Education, informed the committee that his sub-committee would be meeting on 5 December 2024 to discuss early help and the recent children's social care inspection. He also highlighted that there would be an inspection of school dinners in January or February 2025.
Councillor Amy Lee, scrutiny lead for Housing and Regeneration, confirmed that she had had a pre-meeting with officers and that her sub-committee would be meeting on 4 December 2024. She stated that she would be providing the committee with dates for upcoming site visits soon, and that she hoped to bring a report on commercial and community assets to scrutiny in February 2025.
Councillor Natalie Bienfait, scrutiny lead for Environment and the Climate Emergency, apologised for the late notice on the recent flood risk site visits. She stated that she had been doing a lot of work on the Net Zero Scrutiny Review, and that the committee would be discussing flood risk at its December meeting, with the support of an external consultant.
Councillor Bellal Uddin, scrutiny lead for Adults and Health Services, stated that he would provide the committee with a more detailed update at its next meeting. He also reminded female members of the committee that there would be a meeting on 4 December 2024 at 5pm, and encouraged them to attend.
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RED is a performance indicator used by Tower Hamlets Council that suggests a service is not performing well and needs urgent improvement. ↩
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AMBER is a performance indicator used by Tower Hamlets Council that suggests a service is performing to an acceptable standard, but needs some improvement to reach target. ↩
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NI 195 is a national indicator that measures the cleanliness of streets, based on a survey of litter and detritus. ↩
Attendees
- Abdi Mohamed
- Abdul Mannan
- Ahmodur Khan
- Amy Lee
- Asma Islam
- Bellal Uddin
- Bodrul Choudhury
- Halima Islam
- Jahed Choudhury
- Jahid Ahmed
- James King
- Nathalie Bienfait
- Suluk Ahmed
- Afazul Hoque
- Daniel Kerr
- Filuck Miah
Documents
- Public reports pack 26th-Nov-2024 18.30 Overview Scrutiny Committee reports pack
- CS MWIP 2024-25
- Scrutiny Lead Update
- Declarations of Interest Note 2021 other
- Draft MWIP OS presentation for 26.11.2024
- 2 September other
- OSCCallIn Mins 30 September PUBLIC other
- Agenda frontsheet 26th-Nov-2024 18.30 Overview Scrutiny Committee agenda
- Scrutiny Executive Protocol Cover Sheet
- Draft Scrutiny Executive Protocol_2425 003 other
- Forward Plan - 18 November 2024 other
- Appointment of Co-opted Member to Sub-Committee
- Cover sheet CE Spotlight
- OSC ACTION LOG 2024-25
- Supplementary agenda 1 - Scrutiny Query and Action Log 26th-Nov-2024 18.30 Overview Scrutiny Com agenda
- Supplementary agenda 2 - Proportionality and appointments 26th-Nov-2024 18.30 Overview Scrutiny other
- Proportionality report October 2024 other
- Lead Member report November 2024 other
- Appendix 2 Nominations to Scrutiny Subs Nov2024 other