Transcript

Transcript

Welcome to the Cabinet Meeting and thank you for attending. Please note that the meeting may be recorded and broadcast by the Council or by persons present. Can I remind speakers to please turn on the microphone by pressing the speaker icon when speaking and off when finished and please speak directly into the microphone so that the audio can be picked up clearly for those joining the meeting in the gallery and remotely. Also, please note we are currently in a pre-election period in advance of the eventually Church End by-election on the 6th of March 2025. During this time, orderly council business can continue, but members are reminded not to refer to candidates in relation to the upcoming election. Thank you for your support in ensuring that these principles are respected at all times. Are the minutes of the previous meeting held on the 16th of 18th of February 2025 agreed as a true record? Great, thank you. Absence of members. There is no absence, but Councillor Radford is joining us online. Do members have any declarations to make in relation to the agenda items? Any declarations of interest? So, then we move on to questions from non-executive members. On this, it says brackets, if any, but I'm sure there are. Right, the constitution says that the councillors may ask a cabinet member a question on any matter on the agenda. The first four questions will be from opposition group members. I presume there are questions. And if we allow 15 minutes for this, and the 15 minutes will begin when the first question is asked. So, ready when you are. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I thought we'd start with the interesting issues of food waste collection. There was an exhibition at Collindale of the bins that we might offer to residents. And I wondered how many councillors from either side had actually been to the exhibition. Oh, well, I'm sorry, Mr. Miller, I'm sure I might know. Through you, Chair. I'm just looking at my officers who are down at the end. Chair, through you, if I can... Well, I'm sure you've got a point to take anyway, Councillor Zinken, so why don't you carry on? Last I was talking to Councillor Zinken. How many councillors came to the exhibition? It won't surprise you to know that I spent an hour with the team who were providing the bins for councillors to look at. And a number of issues clearly emerge in relation to the bins which are available, particularly as was discussed at Overview and Scrutiny around the fact that the paper that we've had so far merely discusses how waste is going to be collected once it's been put in bins, not what the offering is actually going to be, not what the offering is actually going to be. And as we know from previous work in this area, flats are always the most difficult problem, HMOs, houses of multiple occupation. And I wondered what the cabinet members' thoughts were about the various bins which were on offer and on display on that day. Well, I wasn't able to see the bins on that day, but as I understand it, they are the bins that are the best compromise in terms of value for money, convenience and effectiveness in being able to deter foxes from being able to access them. And if the cabinet member had been able to go to see what his offices had produced, he would know that there are choices and there are a series of different bins which were on offer and that there are choices that are going to have to be made. And the point that I would make to cabinet for when you discuss this later is you've done a third of the job, if that, in terms of the paper that's being produced. And please, as a matter of urgency, can we have a paper which explains how this service is going to be implemented in a way that residents will understand it, particularly in blocks of flats or areas where foxes are prevalent, so that we can understand how this service can be introduced without further messing up the streets, as happened last time we had a food waste service? The report tonight is time sensitive because these are the first decisions that need to be made, but you make a valid point about collections from flats and that is all of the detail and process that officers are currently working through. We want an effective universal service, but we know, and there was a trial of flats recycling last year which yielded some useful intelligence, but we know that collecting from flats is a challenge and that is something that's going to need to be worked through before the service starts in April 26th. I would urge the cabinet member to go and talk to his offices and actually see the alternatives, which are in the process of being offered. I should say, yeah, I have talked to them regularly and although I wasn't able to go and see the bins, the actual bins, I, you know, have been talked through what they do and what they look like, but I hope at some point I'll be able to get to see them for myself, yes. But, yeah, as I say, we are, yeah, as flat as you would know, it's a tricky, it's a tricky issue, but we will make sure that we get it right when the service starts. And we'd be in a far better position if you hadn't scrapped the service in the first place. If I can change the subject and make an apology, my colleague Councillor Grocock is not able to be here for the task and finish group report, but we have done a lot of work on understanding the recommendations that have been made. And there is only one recommendation which we are concerned about, which is the rejection of the first recommendation in terms of changes to the questionnaire. We've done research which has indicated that from the discussions that were held with the young people as part of the task and finish group, questions to identify whether children who are engaged with this service or have mental health issues, have mental health issues, is an exceedingly important recommendation that came into the task and finish group process. And therefore, we are utterly bemused. We can fully understand why you don't necessarily want to do everything that they suggested. But the reasons given in the reasons for rejecting the first of the recommendations, that the existing bank of questions does everything when manifestly they don't, is just mysterious. And yet again, there is an inflexibility and lack of listening associated with the reaction to a report that we just don't understand. Well, we are taking the full report. Do you want to wait to do the report to answer that? I will say that the rules of the, from a legal, from a government point of view, the whole thing about home and active education is being looked at and trained since the unfortunate death of abuse from, what was, several young people. Yes. I mean, all I would ask is that, I'm sorry, I can't be here for that discussion, but all I would ask is that when you get to that discussion, please could there be a relook at the full rejection of that first question? And the rest of the report was absolutely fine, but it's just that first question, which doesn't quite make sense as to why you have completely rejected all of the suggestions. Because the question I asked was, okay, it's clearly changing things as expensive, we haven't got any money, I get that completely. So what is the most important sub-recommendation in that part of the report? And it was this linking of homelessness, mental health, and young people, and whether that needs to be included within the bank of questions in a different way than it is at the moment. And it seemed to us that that was the key point, which came out of the task and finish group, which, I mean, you know, you picked up a number of the things, but that first question was just no. Well, I'll make sure that that is answered when we look at the report in full. But I would say that the, probably the most important thing is to ensure children are safeguarded. So yes, all right, I'll make sure it's reported. And that answer is sent to you. Very much indeed. How things are moving from a trend perspective. And therefore, I wondered if there's anyone who can point to the report to those areas where the performing less well box is most important. Because if you turn to page 27 of the report, as an example, and you look at the section on performing less well, this is within the box of reducing poverty, which is a fairly important area, I would have thought. Somehow, we managed to give less financial support to residents. Less residents completing the financial, well, half the number of residents completing the financial calculator went to visit web pages to apply for national benefits. The number of jobs sustained went down. The number of locations offering employment support services went down. The number of families in temporary accommodation went up. And 1% less council tax was collected during the year, which is a couple of million pounds, which seems quite serious. So, we've got these items, but there's no context for explaining how important they are. Because, you know, £2 million of council tax not collected, £300,000 or £400,000 of grants not given out seem quite important. 380 more families in temporary accommodation seem pretty important, and the trend is awful. And yet, the fact that there were nine locations offering employment support services rather than 10 seems, frankly, almost completely irrelevant. So, there is funding what this report is really trying to tell residents, and it does feel as if a template is being filled in without much thought as to what messages you're actually trying to give to the, I suspect, two or three residents in the borough who actually read this report. Yeah, on those, I mean, partly there are different reasons for each one, but also some of them, I would argue slightly different from you. It doesn't actually say we're performing less well. The fact that fewer people using the financial calculator is probably because so many have used it beforehand and, obviously, and have received extra benefits, and that number's going down. The fact that temporary accommodation is going, or homelessness is going up, is recognised throughout London. So, whether that's a demand rather than a performance is how you describe some of these things. But, basically, yes, there are too many families in temporary accommodation. The part of that is a lack of house building over the last 10, 15 years, or perhaps longer, to be fair. Over the last 25 years, there's been not enough houses built. But, on the one on council tax, I agree. And, we have now got an incentive scheme to try and improve that. That is one thing we are trying to – the connection rate is something we are prioritising. But, it is a bit of a result of the cost of living crisis that, you know, when people have to choose what bill to pay. So, I think what the idea is, this gives an overall picture. It's not necessarily giving answers. Because, you can argue with performing less well. Some things are to be expected. Performing less well are your words, not mine. I'm making a different point, which is that what these things mean is very obscure. We spend money producing reports like this. I don't know what the purpose of this report is. I don't know how anybody can understand it. And, I can't imagine more than a tiny number of people in the borough actually reading it. And, what I'm asking is, is producing a report like this, wasting officer time putting it together, really a good use? I mean, let me give you another example. On page 32, performing less well, 361,298 visits across better leisure facilities, worse than estimated poor target of 401,000, but improved on estimated baseline of 359,000 in 22-23. The reason that I raise this is because, in the budget, you've got an income generation of 1.2 million from these centres. And yet, this data suggests that usage is completely static. So, you know, arguably, this is quite serious. But, there's no context. And so, again, I say to you, what is this report for? Let's use that example you said about the visits. A, we do have targets, we do collect information, and that information is no point unless it's useful. What is use here would be that we have to, with GLL, focus on attracting more people in. We have to know where we're not doing so well to know how – it helps us prioritise actions that are needed, in this case, by a third party, so it's not a cost to us. I absolutely agree. The information is essential. It does raise the question that perhaps we'll pick up tomorrow night about whether that particular cost saving is real or not. But my question is that the way that this report is presented is simply not of benefit to the residents. And my real point is that we produce thousands of pages of paper a year, most of which are not read by anybody, that take hundreds of thousands of pounds of office time to produce and are completely and utterly pointless. Not the information, but the way we produce them is just pointless. And given the scale of the financial problems that we're facing, I really need to think somebody needs to think about this stuff. Mr Moore, you. If I'm – my memory, and correct me if I'm wrong in terms of the counter-tax collection, is that's contractually guaranteed with capita. And I had understood that there was overperformance last year, and therefore the reduction is partly against that baseline. Yes, and I'll say that those sort of things are a priority. All I'll say, and if I'm – it's up, Peter, is that we are – our ambition, and I think we're well on the way, is to be a high-performing council. You can only do that by knowing what your performance is and using it. But I agree that these figures shouldn't – though they're backward-looking, it's like any statistic, it should raise a question of what you do about it. It's not an answer. A figure is not an answer. It opens up a question. That is my point. I've always been concerned that these particular style of reports are a concatenation of different bits of data that all the different directorates produce, and nobody actually sits and thinks what they mean and actually takes anything from them. We produce them. As I said, I don't actually know why we produce them. And I do think it's something we are going to have to think about. Well, as we are going on to that as part of the meeting, and the 15 minutes is up, but there are always things we can look at and things we can improve. But what I won't accept is that officers are wasting their time. I think officers work hard that we do expect targets. We do need to know within each department if they're retrieving their targets, if those targets are sensible. All I say is that I'd like to thank the officers because I think these reports are well-written, and I think you should be able to follow them, Peter. Perhaps we need to give some guidance on how to read these things. Sorry, Councillor Clarke. But these reports are not written for you and me. These reports are written for – because if they were, they would be completely different. These reports are written to tell the residents what's going on. And all I'm telling you is I don't believe they do in any useful way. I don't believe the officers don't work hard. Of course they work hard. All I'm saying is they've been given tasks which don't add value, and we need to stop that. We can raise some of these issues under the general discussion. Sorry, Councillor Clarke. I realise time is up, but I just thought it was worth making at one point, just when we're talking about the better contract. That income of $1.2 million, that income is guaranteed last year, and that was the income we raised. I'm very happy to accept that and very pleased to hear that. But it does then raise the question of what that information is about, because I think, therefore, what it means is that we're anxious that not enough people are using the facilities. And we'd like more people to use them, because it doesn't affect our income. So it's not that the facility is performing less well. It's that we haven't managed to get the people into the facility. But that – because where did the target of 401,138 come from? I mean, as I said, it's just mysterious. And that's – as I said, it's more about what the report's about than that these are not important things. But there's no context to understand how or why they are important. But I've exceeded my 15 minutes, so I'm very grateful to you. We will consider whether we should write a guidance for councillors how to read these reports. If we can move on to agenda item 10, which, as it so happens, is our plan for Barnett, delivery and outcome. Oh, sorry. Yes, I'll go through. There's no petitions, no deputations, no public questions, no matters referred to the executive. Consideration report from overview and scrutiny committee will obviously be feedback on the task and finish or separate item. The other feedback is the food waste recycling service, which we will consider as part of that discussion when we come to it. Right. Our plan for Barnett. This is a mixture of things. Obviously, it's been a couple of years since our plan for Barnett was first produced, so it's looking at where we got so far, where we got so far, what we're reprioritising. And obviously, financial sustainability has moved well up as, if you like, our primary responsibility. But it also shows what we have achieved over these two years, and there's a whole line of, a lot of achievements which we can comment on, mainly in most services. But it does provide some highlights under each of the pillars. Obviously, there's a lot of joint work going on. We have actually now got an environmental strategy. We're going to soon have an economic development strategy. We've become a borough of sanctuary. We are doing, we're moving towards net zero. There's a whole lot of things that have been going on that we're proud of our achievements. We're putting more into highways. We've got some, actually, some very good flood engineering work has gone on. That's often goes under the radar, but actually, it's very, very impressive. So, a lot of things are going up with the trade. There's still lots to do. I'm just looking at what we've got for the family-friendly area. So, it's really quite straightforward to understand as to what we've done. That we're part of the London Change Programme, the partnership for SEND. It's looking at how we've introduced the early years' expansion. And, of course, that will be followed by the breakfast clubs in due course, the childcare sufficiency, which we do every year, and the implementation of the Children and Young People's Plan, which went to the Children's Partnership Board. So, we're always looking as to what we've done, what we do in the future, how we rate what we've done, and what we need to either expand in line with, change a good idea as to how the service is progressing, and how they've had to alter and respond to different government initiatives, which we welcome, especially in terms of special needs. Thank you. Commissioner Conway. Yes, I just wanted to come back, actually, on the comments that were made about our plan in the previous section. I think whilst we have a very clear comms agenda with residents and explain certain things, this document, I think I speak for all of us, but I'm sure my colleagues will say things as well, is a very useful way of keeping an eye on things that are happening across all the different portfolios, that's progress, all risks and opportunities as well within that. And so, I think it reflects a much more hands-on council, just keeping an eye on where things are going, trying to pick issues up quickly. On safety and participation, I just wanted, as I usually do in these sessions, to thank officers for the work that's been done to control the way a council runs, which maybe that's why it's a mystery to the opposition. Thank you. There's something also from the participation of learning by doing, and the regions are moving the skips over to the weekend, because that's better for what residents want and so on. I saw two, I saw councillor Snydermann, then councillor Houston, councillor Clarke, councillor Morber, go down that way. Yeah, thank you, Leader. I thought it was just briefly reiterating that, actually, I think this report is actually clearer than corporate plans have been in the past. And there are, if you go to those tables, lots of figures. There is a key highlight report that actually sets out, in a really clear way, key highlights under each of our areas, people, planet and places, and broken down clearly within that. So I think, actually, it is a very readable document. And, you know, councillor Zincon finds it a bit complicated. In the report, there's a sort of an even higher level summary of some of the more key areas there. And I think you mentioned some of them, but, you know, it talks about our community skip programme, the roads and pavements investment programme, all of the activities that are going on under the barnet, zero banner, more trees being planted, record number of EV charge points. And you also, as you mentioned, but what I've mentioned again, sustainable urban drainage scheme, which is, you know, more of them are coming forward following the really successful one in Halliwick Park. So I think, in seriousness, it is actually quite a nice summary of the breadth of activity across the council. I want to reiterate that. I think this is, by a long way, better and more approachable than the floor in terms of portability and readability and accessibility of the public. And I would, you know, I would question Mrs. Zincon to come up with it. And it's not completely blinding people with science. It's very, very clear, very, very user-friendly, natural, but accessible. Councillor Clarke. Thank you, Leader. I agree with what colleagues have said. There's so much information in here. I think it's absolutely brilliant. You can see things like events in libraries are up, and that's everything from life skills to, indeed, life drawing. They had a church and library, but there's a whole range of activities happening in our libraries that are put on by community groups and all sorts of people. And there's lots and lots available, and I think it reflects the increase of the number of events in total. I just wanted to clarify that with the visits to our better gyms, that data is monitoring the number of visits. So what that isn't is the number of members. So we have members who may not correlate with gym visits. So I think it's important to draw that distinction. It seems that Councillor Zincon was a little bit confused about that. But actually, the total number of visits is increasing, which is positive. The total number of people who have our fit and active VARNA cards has increased by over 100%, which is also very encouraging and good news. So it's a good news story all around, but I think it's just that we need to be mindful of. It's easy to pick out something and be infused about data, but actually, if you read the whole report, there's a lot in here, and there's a lot of good news in here as well. Thank you. And the whole point of this, which is not so much for the public, but it's to enable us to make good decisions by your monitor and so on. Councillor Moore. Yes, it enables us to make good decisions, but also to lay out a narrative that local people can read, and in a way that's digestible. And so Councillor Zincon talked about the data and about benchmarking. So I'll use the example of the public health indicators, which are, you know, they're there. They're set in context in the rest of the report. Indicators are always a prompt to ask a series of questions and dig down, and therefore they're very much around, for example, our quitting smoking stat, really important. Yes, we'd want to know why that number has gone down. And part of that is who is doing that work, and it's transferring to GPs, and it's making sure that in that transfer to GPs, we don't lose people in the drive around quitting smoking. I think it highlights the real importance of using insight and intelligence, because one of the things that those public health indicators, and it's in common with a number of indicators for Barnett, they give quite a positive picture across the whole of the borough and say we're on a par with other London boroughs. But what that masks is the health inequalities that we're very explicit about tackling within the report. So just to pick up a couple of other things that I just wanted to comment on, the report refers to a programme called Work Well, which is about getting people back into work, partly through adults who've got musculoskeletal issues, getting them back in and being economically productive. But also there's a grouping within that, and it refers to some of the comments that, or may support some of the comments, or work to answer some of the comments that Council Zinking was making. Actually, that part of the programme works with young people with mental health and anxiety issues who are not entering the world of work. That will overlap quite strongly with that group of young people who are homeless, and so there is absolutely work going on with that set of young people. I know there's a Damp and Mould project going on where using the data we've got, we're referring into GP surgeries in particular areas in the borough to try to be very clear about housing conditions contributing or not to a resident's respiratory issues. And finally, the issues around the Fit and Active Barnet, and I'll save most of my comments until that item, but actually a lot of what this is talking about is helping residents to take ownership of their health and their wellbeing. And so as a report bringing things into a whole piece where it illustrates the crossovers and the cross-relations between different parts of the council services, I think it's a really important report to lay before both council and local people. Can we go back? Yes, so I find this report is quite outstanding. I'd like to support that too, and I just want to, in relation to adult social care, just underline some really important points, really. In the context of, you know, the national situation, adult social care continues to be a huge challenge for local authorities' social care. It's amazing how well our officers have been able to perform, and that performance continues in Barnet. And I'd just like to, you know, just underline a couple of things which indicate that. So first of all, people using social care receive a direct payment. Direct payment means that they control their own care, they employ their own care assistants or care workers, and they're in total control of that, and it's very empowering for the people who need adult social care for support, to report their support since last year. We also have almost 94% of new clients are over the age of 65, and that would be in Barnet. And what's important about that is that those who are new clients are still at home 91 days after being discharged from hospital to direct care provide in terms of rehabilitation and re-ablement. My final statistic, really, and as we know, and I think we've probably said it before, and people with learning disabilities are an increasing challenge for Barnet. It's a particularly unique situation around London where the number of people is increasing. Having said that, you know, 85% of those people with learning disabilities are still living at home with this particular community because I think it's just important because often the hardware that goes on in adult social care gets unreported because other issues are found. Just a couple of points. I'm glad to see that the Shore Trust are beginning to take referrals, and this is to employment support for people with disabilities, not just get into work, but supporting them while in work, so it's a different one. And on Appendix C, where we got the benchmark, there are 19 items. Only in one are we worse than comparators. On the other 18, they're on a par or better than our comparators. So, as I say, I think there's a lot to be proud of. I agree. I think it's a well-written and easy-to-follow report and would like to thank the officers involved, Steph and Elaine, Deborah. The recommendation, if we can move to that, is simply that we note the contents of this plan. Are we happy to note the contents? Thank you. Item 11 is the company response for the youth homelessness task and finished group report. And I believe we've already heard from Councillor Dinkin, who's unfortunately left about item 1. and I don't know if we've got anything on the response. Well, I think that obviously this comes out of myself. As the leader said, I'm happy to take that theory in relation to some of the questions that are asked. But I think one of the issues now... On the call, we've got Karen Lucas, who may be able to look at this first question. Now, I would say that we are talking about appointments with housing officers whose expertise in housing. I don't know about trust condition falls within that purview and actually you're more likely to make mistakes. But, Karen, do you want to say the thinking behind this response? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, our initial interview we have with people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, we do ask a lot of very detailed questions. Obviously, as you've pointed out, our focus is around understanding somebody's housing need. But we do want to understand how that interacts with somebody's health, physical or mental. So, we do ask residents about their health. So, we ask people if they do have any current diagnoses. We ask them if they are registered with a local GP, if they're receiving treatment from any specialist units and where that might be. We ask them if they're engaging with any support. We ask them if they're engaged with a social worker. We talk to them about care and support they may receive. So, whether that's kind of informally from a family member or from a more formal organisation. So, I do think the questions we ask are fairly far-reaching. If we have any concerns, as you say, you know, we're housing officers, we're not medically trained. We do ask people to, if we're able to get information from their GP and we follow that up with our independent medical advisor who will give us advice and assistance. But in terms of the assessment, I think it is a very wide-ranging assessment and we ask people a lot of questions which helps us to understand somebody's wider needs. And if we have any concerns, we do make referrals to either adults or children's services where we think somebody is vulnerable and needs more support. And on top of that, obviously, the person ought to take up any help. On the other issues, I think they were all accepted, weren't they? There are some very practical reasons like that people use internet paper copies of guidance and become very out of date very quickly. And it's just, you know, they don't give me a challenge to that. So I think, I think basically that all of them, all the recommendations has been a real effort to take forward. quite a lot of the comments were joined up working and I think that's been a really useful learning. Do we accept that? Right. Can we go back to the the elective home education, which I believe that the Councillor Walkley will introduce I suppose it's normal. You've got up to three minutes. Yeah. Thank you. I first want to say thank you to the Cabinet member for considering our report and I'm glad that a lot of our recommendations were taken forward. And again, I want to thank Stella and everyone else as a task and finish group. One of the key recommendations we made was about the National Register and actually on the papers I think it's got a bit confused. It's talking in the papers about the reason our recommendation of writing from the London schools wasn't taken forward because of a bill. The bill that's referred to in the papers is a bill that didn't make it past the second stage. It was a private members bill that didn't go any further following the election last year. There is another bill that is going on that mentions the National Register but the point I want to make it doesn't really matter if the bill's named incorrectly on the papers is even though the government did mention in the King's speech they would like to do a National Register a lot of governments over time have said they would like to do a National Register and it tends to be at this stage where it drops off or opposition comes. So I would urge the cabinet member if we could still write from the London schools or as a council to write in support of the National Register because this isn't a done deal yet the government said they'd like to do it it doesn't mean it's definitely going to happen and when we were speaking to experts it came up with every expert we spoke to because from a safeguarding point of view you can't safeguard children you don't know exist you can't support children you don't know exist it was a really important recommendation throughout every single meeting we had so anything we can do as a task and finish group or as a council to try and push that forward I think regardless of what's happening in parliament until you know the bill is passed I think it's still worth trying to lobby where we can and then apart from that the other recommendation that wasn't taken forward was about exams that was quite a big issue that came up it's really hard to access exam centres not only is it expensive but there aren't actually many in Barnett and that was something that came up I know that there's quite significant budget constraints at the moment but maybe hopefully when the council is in a better financial position we can look at it again because that came up when we spoke to parents about the difficulty accessing exams but thank you for adopting the recommendations that you did and perhaps yeah we can look again at the support for the National Register thank you thank you Councillor Cuckerman yeah thank you for doing it all it was a job that was needed to be done and I think across all sorts of areas something about electric home education something that has been a worry across all political spectrums as to how it was monitored and how we can also improve things and we know there's a whole range of reasons some people electively home education from the get go some it's because of anxiety pulling children out of schools sometimes it's because of SEND if people think they're not getting the right provision I mean you know we've been through all this I think at the minute I am sort of pretty confident that the government is going to make this register come into force and I will certainly keep an eye on that to make sure that if there's any delay then we can revisit what we do about that but I think that will go through and especially in light of recent cases that have been in the national news I think it's made it more urgent for this to actually to happen definitely for a national register and to make sure that we actually actually it's from safeguarding as much as anything else to make sure we know where children are what's happening to them and how we can keep an eye on them as well I think on the exam centres obviously it's not for us to be able to have to say that we could pay what are the fees to pupils to see exams and we can tell parents where the exam centres are I think what you will find the reluctance if it's just a school that we have is that obviously anything of their results and their stats depends on their results and what they don't have with an electively home educated pupil is they have no idea of their possible achievements or where they're up to on the curriculum so I can understand their reservation even if it was paid for to go yes but hang on how is this going to affect our statistics but we certainly can guide people to exam centres and make sure that they've got that information I suppose they will also have the choice if they want to when their children come to that age that they could still have the access of choosing to go into education through those exam years but that is again going to be their choice I'm sure they will some will and some won't I think with the library cards you know that we say that they can still take out extra books and they can renew for longer periods online so that sort of sorts that one out obviously we're drafting the updates on the EHE policy so again we're just waiting confirmation of the schools bill but that's being kept a close eye on and that's something that we'll be continually to do you can see on the youth clubs that we'll provide to make sure there's the appropriate links between bells and the council sites so as you said we've gone through and we've accepted an awful lot and I think it's a credit that those that sat on that scrutiny with you have actually looked at young people their parents and carers and then to the other end how we can make sure we're offering but monitoring and especially looking at the safeguarding aspect as to what we can do to make sure that we always know where these pupils are we know we know what their home life is and we know that there's a regular check both in with the parents and the carers and the young people to make sure that everything comes fine but yeah thank you for the work it was a it was a really good piece of work thank you and I do just want to add and I didn't mention this before but it was really clear as we were going through this process how much work we were doing over the last few years to build up those relationships and it was really nice that a lot of the things the experts were telling us to do they'd already started to do those things and so it was really positive thank you I think also I mean I know that over at UNITAS there's a group of parents that have sort of toddlers and primary that actually meet up there they have a session at UNITAS on a regular basis so it's good that we have a situation where the parents and the children can meet up together and socialise and share ideas and make sure that again they've got the right contacts with the council to get the right advice whenever they need it so I think we're doing a good job in that respect but what is needed I think is the register and making sure we get the extra help there as and when needed thank you and if it helps council walkley I'm quite happy to talk to bells and if they think it's advisable to write to the government to push for the national register to come in as soon as possible there you go she's gone I just wanted to formally just wanted to formally say thank you to councillor Wakeley for chairing that group and to pass on all the good comments to the rest of the group thank you right and the do we agree to the proposed responses to each of the recommendations on this one on the elective and now we move to the it's an active barnet which councillor Clark will introduce thank you anyway I'll start just by thanking officers involved particularly Courtney and Don for their time on this strategy across Barnet we're taking an integrated approach to promoting physical health and well-being opportunities and we want to give all residents the motivation to try different activities across the borough usage data tells us that more residents are taking up the fab card which gives them discounts in fact usage of the fab card is up by over 100% so that means more residents are signing up for that card and we can all see how busy all of our parks and open spaces are seemingly at all times we can be very proud of the work we've done to make physical activity open to all across the borough opening of that I know has inspired other such projects across the country we've also invested 1.2 million pounds in partnership with the Long Tennis particularly enjoyed playing tennis I'm not going to mention who's the better tennis player by the way but just to say on a serious note the strategy does seek to build on the good work that we're doing while also recognizing the limited I'll open up the discussion I would say it's a very full report and gives a clue as to what Fit and Active is about it's not just about what happens in the leisure centre or what happens in the sports club and the health one and it's the same that my offer to be the poster boy for Fit and Active Barnet has been turned down but I'll open it up now for any questions or comments from other cabinet members Councillor Moore it would be surprising if I didn't comment positively about this I think it's I think you lay out in your introductory page actually some of the big challenges that we have both in terms of cardiovascular disease and the prevalence of that and the disparity between the most deprived and the least deprived wards in the borough you highlight the levels of obesity both in children and adults across the borough and the life expectancy and indeed actually healthy life expectancy figures that differ across some of our wards within Barnet and so if we're really tackling health inequalities this is one of a number of strands through which we can do that and it's one in which we can have fun so I think it's a really important set of proposals and activities across the borough I think it recognises the role of informal as well as formal opportunities for staying fit and active so encouraging active travel and walking and cycling and running but it's also all the way down to the work around social prescribers some of the health linked programmes that are going on the work with partners you mentioned your work around dance and disabilities and if anybody wants an expression of joy and fun in Barnet I think watching the disability dance event Dance Barnet was absolutely the epitome of that so I just want to say thank you to the officers and cabinet members for producing this it locks in really tightly with the work of public health and obviously we make a contribution through the public health grant to the funding but a really important part of enabling people to take ownership of their own health and well-being to start throughout their life course to tackle some of the reasons for ill health and to start to eat away at that 20 years that so many of us spend towards the end of our lives in poor health and actually to live longer, healthier happier lives no matter where you come from in the borough and I think Fit and Active Barnet is a really good platform and one wish to start to move forward on that thank you Councillor I can't claim to have made a major contribution towards that but I've locked on lots of doors recently so there are I mean I think it's just a couple of stats that do stand out with over 7 million visits to our leisure centres cycle run and do loads of physical activities so it'd be nice assuming the plan gets adopted tomorrow that we eventually do take that I wanted to echo all of that and also to say just how lovely some of these events are I mean I know we've all been doing different things some of us dancing more than others and just as some have been in thankfully I think there are videos but we're certainly not showing them tonight I think you picked up Councillor Moore about different areas of the and the events in Burnt Hope that I've been to have been incredibly special for Women's Day so the walking group that I'm going to make a note to go out with again and I think that these obviously in itself it's really important to be fitting that out with all different generations etc there's a lot that this does sort of really gently without even thinking about it in terms of connection resilience cohesion is that I think is really really important and I particularly welcome the idea of ambassadors I think we probably all have in our ward exactly those people already I know that sometimes I speak to some people who I then refer to others to go with to Tai Chi for full prevention and that sort of thing so I think much has been achieved already thank you thank you I think this is an excellent plan and the action plan is very good and I don't with learning difficulties often have less physical exercise than anybody else so focusing some of the work on that would be a very useful thing anyway which is I suppose Courtney and Kathy mainly but also Dawn for the work on this I did notice when I talked about being a poster boy nobody said no no please please but if that's where we are that's where we are I'll have to accept that so can we agree the recommendations to accept the strategy and the action plan can we agree right the next item is item 14 the food waste recycling service and just on that because it was brought up earlier I think we need to thank Councillor Sinking for spending an hour entertaining officers about food waste but yes Councillor Snyder and I'm sure Craig's happy to arrange an extra exhibition if I know you think some members have been saying they were upset having missed the original demonstration of potential waste containers for the new service well just worth saying so it's great that work is well underway for restarting food waste collections which is both in line with our manifesto commitment and also the environment act requirement so the report following the options appraisal that was done this is one of the various pieces of work that needs to be done to bring back the food collection service and this particularly covers the collection fleet and the recommendation is for financially and to give us the best flexibility and mitigate the risk of any disruption is to go for a dedicated separate food waste collection fleet and the report also proposes going out to procure the kitchen caddies and curbside bins that we've been talking about and one of the key criteria there is make sure that anything on the street is fox proof because we don't want foxes knocking over or getting into the bins as far as possible though I understand they are highly intelligent and very adept at doing their best to access the bins but that is key consideration in the procurement alongside that another recommendation is about revising recycling and waste policy and this relates to what councillor Zinke said and there are other policies that need to be taken into account and work that needs to be done particularly in relation to flats and that will be covered in the new policy and that will come back to future meeting of Cabinet and importantly the reintroduction of the food waste service will increase our recycling rate and it's estimated that it will add about 4% potentially to our recycling rate and encouragingly one of the surveys that was done said that 59% of people took part in that said they would use the service so we are expecting good take up just turning to the scrutiny report I think we had a good and constructive session at scrutiny and it was following that scrutiny session that the exhibition of containers was arranged and also that this report was also shared in advance with scrutiny members but also all the issues that came up at scrutiny are being taken forward either in this report or in the future report and particularly in relation to flats as I mentioned earlier and learning the lessons from the flat trial of recycling from flats that we did last year I think that's probably it I'll leave unless officers want to add anything are there any questions but just worth thanking Craig Andy and Vishal for all their work on putting this together we're knocking on doorsteps quite a lot at the moment and generally and food waste collections is still one of the key issues that come back residents are very keen to see this service and this report is one of the steps along that path to reintroducing the service thank you I think it was a manifesto promise but it's something that should be done and anything here or anything else we can do to improve recycling rates I think I'll find opening up Councillor Moore I absolutely hear the comments about recycling rates but I'm going to just throw a slightly different perspective into it and just ask whether you've considered it this is a very technical paper but I wanted to comment on the possibility that there is added value in the context of the food plan that sits underneath the joint health and well-being strategy and that talks about the amount of food we waste and so I wonder whether separating out food waste would allow individuals and households to focus more on the amount of food they waste from an economic and an environmental perspective and so I wondered if you had considered those softer benefits in your cost-benefit analysis and arguments around that enabling households to think about the amount of food waste from an environmental as well as an economic perspective waste and so I think you make a good point and I know from I'll let Mr. Miller come in a minute but I know from my time North London Waste Authority and they have analysed what's in dustbins and it is amazing or actually a bit shocking the amount of food that is actually wasted so I totally agree having a bringing back a separate collection does enable people to focus on that and hopefully would reduce that more but for the technical response yes thank you and through you chair Councillor Moore you raise a really good point yes it has been considered what will come as part of the future package to cabinet along with the review of the policy will be our approach to communication around this and this will be essential for this service but there will absolutely be opportunities to look at this through different lenses not just the waste element but the opportunity to look at the financial impact so I think there are figures on average around £1,000 a year that a household throws out of waste food so we'll certainly be able to look at that and how this can benefit households in that regard I think there are also opportunities to look at the health benefits and diet choices that go alongside that as it's an absolutely good point yes we've considered it it's worked well no I mean I agree we're trying to push up recycling so the more people separate their food and recycle that alongside their other recycling then yes we want less waste to be going into their black general refuse bin and there's a financial saving for the council as well through increase well through the cheaper rates of recycling food waste and also through the extended producer responsibility payments that the government is now giving to the council where we're incentivised to increase our recycling rate yes thank you Jen and just to add to what councillor Schneiderman has said so we believe there's about 30 to 40% of food or potential material in the ref based on composition analysis and council Schneiderman is right if we are able to divert that out into the right processing stream there should be financial benefits for the council as well because the price of disposing of food waste is cheaper than disposing of refuse and there are those benefits when we collect it so if a household wants to use the container they've got as long as it's I think they will be similar to the ones that are being rolled out or we're considering purchasing subject to decisions this evening if a household wants to and they're still in good condition then there's no reason why we can't do that in terms of end destination how it's processed so the food waste will go off to anaerobic digestion basically it goes into a big vat with lots of microorganisms that digests the food waste produces gas that then is fired through turbines to make energy and also there's any other questions I'll just say it is frightening the amount of food waste somebody whose mum was a school didn't like I wasn't allowed to waste food so surprised so much was done there's quite a lot to note in the recommendations so I will go through them it's noting the different models detailed in the report and considered by overview and scrutiny it approves the award of a procurement of the food waste collection vehicle contract to riverside track rental limited amusement procurement partnership limited framework or three and that this contract will be for a period of five years with a total value of 2.8 million that they will also approve the award of a contract to riverside track rental limited in respect to vehicle maintenance and other associated costs using the TPPL which is the procurement partnership limited framework contract will be for a period up to six years with a total contract value of three quarters of million that we delegate authority to the executive director environment in consultation with the executive director resources and the cabinet member for environment and climate training to enter into the contract to procure the food waste containers included kitchen caddies for the executive director of environment reviews drafts and consult on the proposed amendments to the council's household recycling and waste policy to reflect the changes of the waste management requirement of the environment act 2021 and present the draft revised policy to overview and scrutiny committee prior to submission to cabinet scheme for houses this has been a kind of journey for the council really bringing in more regulation obviously we had a scheme before but vision to bring in selective licensing for private rented landlords in three wards but part of the process works in Barnett it's true to say if the report does cover there were some teasing problems with IDOX to slight delay in some of the targets having said that if you look at paragraph 1.11 you'll see that there was an audit carried out in January this year which was very positive IDOX is now up and running and we're now working well and we're now in a position where it's standard of the landlords members will be aware that we had a very successful prosecution recently which got out of the BBC and that sort of work taking out Mr. Rackman was the name that used to be used but the Rackmans of this world still exist to court is a very time consuming process and a costly process but we've done very positive the press for the right reasons for the right reasons bearing down on really appalling landlords as somebody who got several emails and had several conversations with the neighbours and remember that around it people do suffer badly thank you yeah following on from that I mean that you know it's great to be able to prosecute that particular landlord but I think we all as members get lots of cases and reports of unlicensed HMOs and I just wonder is there and I read you know about the enforcement in targets etc but is there more that we can do to try and feed up the enforcement of HMOs and I think it says do we have to give them six months after the first contact in order to apply for a licence can they not is it not possible for them to comply quicker than that because we often got you know residents who are living really poor conditions in unlicensed HMOs she will come in but paragraph 4.17 actually does they show having the technology is going to increase the Belinda for an answer but yeah so yes we do obviously look for landlords for action and we do that depending on obviously we have some where we have a lot of complaints about them and they're causing a lot of problems to the local community so quite often a lot of resource goes into management of the case because of that impact on the local community so that one case can drain an officer's time solely for six months and HMOs then obviously that's going to be a kind of swathe of cases going through so we are taking targeted enforcement action we do have a pipeline of cases going through and seeing with those that are impacting our communities I mean in all cases are they given the opportunity to apply to be licensed if they're unlicensed and do we do they have to be given as much as six months in order to be able to apply for that license no everybody has the opportunity to apply but if you're not licensed then the appropriate enforcement action will be taken in tandem with potentially putting an application in as well quite often people don't apply but if they do that doesn't what it would do is obviously it's a mitigation in relation to enforcement action being taken it wouldn't stop us taking enforcement action and we do take enforcement Thank you it was just a quick point or two quick points one was to say thank you for the recent proactive around some things that had happened in burnt toke as part of wider operations that are going on and that also sort of reminded me it was a few years ago now but there was the slavery have a look at that thank you so do you think there's going to be any impact with the this year do you think there's any impact on the licensing with the renters bill coming in first say first say that we definitely welcome the changes that are coming in and what the regulations will say the impact will be significant for our private rented sector and on the team expands our enforcement capability it expands what action can be taken in relation to what circumstances so we've already set up a group in the council to kind of look at what we think is coming and how that's going to happen yeah I think I mean I think we'd all around the table be able to come up with a series of cases that we've had over the years the dreadful cases around quite egregious behaviour on the part of landlords but in the wider context and you do reference it in your in the addendum clear evidence of the impact of poor housing on both health and mental health and that real sense of powerlessness that people in poor housing conditions often feel so I just wanted to thank you for this and look forward to it progressing and rolling out because I think there are a lot of people if we are able to tackle some of those poor and so I don't it'll be I'm sure it won't be an easy path but I think the dividends both in practical terms but in health terms and obviously hopefully we are heading in the right direction thank you I mean I if I might just say you know I commented at an earlier cabinet meeting I was a student seeing some when I was a student seeing some really poor properties and ratman's been commented there were a lot of landlords like that around it is really painful for all of us now go to the Brent cross update report that is a regular item but please note there is an exempt report and if you intend to refer to anything in the exempt report let us know beforehand so we can go into private session yeah I was just say leader it's a regular item but it is an area where there's a little and I think that's a part of the reason for that is down to the successful partnership with the council thank you deputy leader I don't think I have anything to add to that it wouldn't be a Brent cross report if I didn't say anything so thank you but just to say a special thing I think to both the trustees of the Millennium Green and all the staff who have been working very hard on the improvements of the Millennium Green we've ended up in something of an unprecedented but that additional work I think urgent related council and the trustees have taken on and it's going really well I've been in officers and it's all heading in the right direction because obviously as we were talking about earlier with Fit and Active Barnet green spaces are just more important than ever and that's a very good news also just to comment on the Clitterhouse farm buildings obviously as long as I've lived in the area but certainly the last 10 years the question marks over the future of the farm have always been there so it's really positive to see not just a year and year lease but the three year break clause which gives that medium dirty so at least that question mark is not hovering on everyone's head but also the community impact framework I think about the way in which community engagement with Brent Cross has changed of this document because it's really important to get that partnership right and I think it doesn't just signal to residents that it's important but it actually sets out what that expectation is and I would just note that I think when we do have big regenerations like this I would put that framework in place at the beginning of the regeneration even though it's welcome now I think it's such an important piece of work so just to highlight those three areas thank you you can't have one cricket without the other one Councillor Schneiderman just very quick and as Councillor Houston was so complimentary I think one of the advantages and why I probably don't have a lot of questions because we do have regular meetings with Luke and Councillor Clark and Councillor Houston so we are fully up to date on the issues that are covered here so I think but it's particularly welcome to see first people moving from the high rise into their new flats and I hope that goes really well and the residents are happy in their new accommodation and just to say with regards to the community space it's good that that's coming forward and we look forward to an operator for that site that is in line with what the existing residents in that community are seeking as well as the future residents are moving in over the next few years I'm not a betting man so Sheffield Helen will be September 2026 I would be extremely disappointed if we still having conversations of network rail at that point and we're looking for the next small number of months to draw a line under the network rail commercial thanks thank you chair there's three things I wanted to comment on the first I think was the was the section on employment skills and the range of projects that you have you lay out in terms of young people and students being involved with a range of projects I've been around a long time and a range of big building projects and regeneration projects have promised quite a lot at the outset in terms of skills and jobs not all have materialised to the benefit of local people in the way clearly there's a lot laying out here and I would be really interested in the next set of updates just to get a flavour of the numbers of the objects particularly excited about the project with Whitefield School because obviously it's got the project right on its doorstep and I was talking to a young person over the weekend actually who's a sixth former and who's very excited about the things that were going on and good to see that you're also working with North States University because we will be a two university borough which will be very exciting. The second is around the benefits realisation plan and I guess that harks back to that same thinking that promise a lot at the beginning of projects being able to lay that out and have that baseline and then developing and being able to talk about tangible benefits that have been delivered to the bricks and mortar is really important and finally I'm commenting on the flourishing index which I'll hope to find out more in the future that specifically is around measuring the health and wellbeing impacts and in the light of the work that we're doing around the support for the Barnet plan around health and wellbeing impacts and the guidance there it would be interesting to see that as one of those examples of how a larger project can actually lay out those health and wellbeing impacts and the positive impacts you have rather than just mitigating the negative impacts. if there's any comments that go alongside that I'd be really interested to hear them but look forward to further updates particularly as the numbers of people involved in those projects increases. Thank you very much Councillor Portes. Sorry. So yeah I think there's a few questions there. I think broadly there's an awful lot happening in the skills and employment across the site and it's all about making sure that people can particularly young people better than people from all backgrounds can benefit from the construction jobs and the associated kind of on-site jobs it's not always construction. A couple of specifics. So you talked about numbers and actually the focus on understanding the insight actually what impact is this happening alongside the kind of objectives that we have in terms in the reports. The Joint Ventures recently recruited a full-time Brent Cross recruits officer to kind of really meet that support meets that requirement working particularly a boost on the council side and the skill center I think they're currently based in Edgeware and will be setting up a base at Brent Cross too. So there's expiring those young people to think about courses and come back to the sector later on. It may not be about immediate jobs, so that's really important. Recommendation on page 204 but also note the Exempt Report. Happy to do that? And note the Cabinet Forward Plan. And if that's all done, can we can we can we