Transcript

Good evening, I make it seven o'clock, so welcome to this meeting of the Cabinet. Welcome to those in the audience and those watching online. I am Councillor Shantanu-Radioat, Leader of the Council and Chair of this meeting, joined around the table by my colleagues on the Cabinet who take part in the decision-making process and they will introduce themselves as and when they speak. We're also joined with a standing invitation by the Leader of the Opposition, Councillor Thomson, who doesn't get a vote but does have the right to ask questions, as well as officers who don't take part in the decision-making process but are on hand for any technical expertise that may well be needed. Got quite a bit to get through on the agenda, but before we do that, can I take this opportunity to welcome you, Benita, as our new Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer. A very warm welcome back. Good to have you back in Hounslow. Look forward to working with you, as I'm sure the Cabinet does as well. Good. So we'll move on to this first item, which is apologies for absence. I think we're all here, apart from Councillor Raza. So apologies from Councillor Raza as Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Again, standing invite doesn't take part in the decision-making. Are there any declarations of interest from members? No. Any communications from members? No. Good. Can I remind members to take note of the Monitoring Officer's note on interests as well? Then move into the minutes of the meeting held on 11th February. Take that page by page, starting at page 7 of the agenda. So page 7, page 8, page 9, page 10, page 11, page 12, page 13, page 14, page 15, page 16, page 17, and then page 18. Thank you, Councillors. Is that agreed? Agreed. Thank you very much. Right. First substantive item on the agenda is the Children's Model of Care Programme update. Councillor Chowdhury. Thank you, Leader. Councillor Samir Chowdhury, Cabinet Member for Education, Children's Employment Skills. So Children's Model of Care Programme update. I think we have seen, yes, we have seen a few reports before in the Cabinet as well. This is the third one, as this is linked to our corporate priorities. So this report provides an update on the work completed under the Transito of Children's Model of Care Programme, which covered the start and the design phase of several projects, including new residential children's home for string sufficiency and supporting families, target operation model and the build and implementation of the family hubs and workforce development projects. Additionally, the SEND Children's Home and the short break reprovision and the West London residential projects are progressing steadily from concept of start phase. The progress achieved with these projects and their associated benefits continue to validate the programme's approved strategic business case. And you can see on page 21, the report where it says that children's and families feeling valued and empowered with increased opportunity to influence decisions and that affects their lives through, for example, implementation of a family group conference, introduction of family support coordinator and STEAM-Blind early health assessment. So reduced level of obesity amongst the reception, eight children. So this has been really good work happening. Recommendation for this report is on page 19 to 20, one to five. Now move the report. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'll formally second the report and reserve my right to speak. It's now open for questions and comments. Anyone? Councillor Thompson. At our recent Borough Council, I was at the end, quite rightly, taken to one side by Councillor Chowdhury, who criticised the fact that in all the excitement of council tax setting, I think you said not a word was actually said about this key and vital area of social care. And that's, I suppose, the reality of setting the Borough Council and all the politics that go with it. But just to say, obviously, the concept of Save to Invest is one we would fully endorse. And behind all the words and the numbers and the financial stuff, we are looking at a programme that would increasingly help children and help to transform their lives. So fully happy to endorse it and fully happy to recognise what a vital and perhaps not sufficiently discussed area, adult and children's social care is. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Thompson. Councillor Bath. Yeah, thank you. Absolutely right what Councillor Peter Thompson has said. It's an area that doesn't get a lot of attention. But I just wanted to, I welcome all the sort of improvements that have been made and all the work that has been done in the area. But I actually just wanted to pick out, actually, in terms of our family hubs, it's really good to see that we're getting the footfall, because I think that's going to be really important in terms of getting that help for families very early on. So it's really good to see that. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Councillor Traj, do you want to sum up? Thank you so much. Thank you, Councillor Thompson. I think the other day I just felt there would have been something about the children and young people. But thank you so much. No, thank you. I would like to say thank you to all the staff. We've been doing amazing work with these projects. It has been hard work for everyone, but they've been doing an amazing job. Thanks. Brilliant. Thank you. Completely endorse all of that. So the recommendations on this report are on page 19, over onto page 20, 125. Can I see all those in favour? That is unanimous. Thank you very much. Councillor Traj, we're back to you for the U-Skills and Employment Guarantee Programme transition. Thank you so much. I think this is another exciting one, which I think with the timeline, if you think about the timing, it's been really good that it's going to be back into the business as usual. The report seeks Cabinet approval to formally move the U-Skills Employment Guarantee to business as usual following the inclusion of the programme delivery. A lot of the good work we have done, this obviously started as our Council's Corporate Plan Ambitions for Hounslow for 2022 to 2026, for thriving Hounslow, demonstrating a real commitment to provide young people with the right start of life. So the work carried out across a series of projects supported and facilitated positive outcome for residents with key successes, including a successful launch event of the Council Youth Guarantee held in June 2023, attended by 130 people and featuring on web landing pages. So establish meant often opportunities and alliance to build relationship with local employers and degrade their voice into the Hounslow skills system. A launch of a new customer relation management system to expand access to external apprenticeships, opportunities, expansion of support and internship for young people in the Borough with Sun through Project Search. A finding future event for WorldSkills they held in partnership with Sky, the Marriott and Brentford FC, and I myself have attended a few of these events and spoken to the young people and have had a really, really positive feedback. So recommendations we've got to approve the move of the U-Skills Employment Guarantee Programme to business as usual and approve the return of 26K underspend in the programme budget to enhance your transformation reserve. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Chaudhry. Considering you started the project, Councillor Bath, do you want to second it? Thank you. Yes, I'd love to second it. And can I say a few words now? Yeah, I'm absolutely welcome the success of the project and the conclusion. And I think it's important to remember why we did it in the first place. So it was a manifesto pledge that we had because we recognised that the young people in our borough are not doing as well as their counterparts in other areas, in terms of getting into the right jobs at the right time and, you know, good quality jobs, really, getting into employment. So that's why we did it. And I'm really pleased. I mean, if you if you read the report, obviously, you can see lots of things have been established. We've been really helpful in terms of making sure we've got all the pathways, sort of strengthen them to support young people into getting into jobs. So, yeah, absolutely welcome this. But I think it's also important to recognise that this work will continue. And this was kind of like building a foundation for us to make sure that we don't forget that actually there are employment opportunities for young people in this borough. We just have to make sure that we connect them at the right time. So you absolutely welcome it. Thank you, Councillor Barth. So it's been moved in second. It's now open for discussion and questions. Anyone? I can't see anyone indicating. So, yeah, I echo both yours and Councillor Chowdhury's words. Absolutely a commitment made, commitment met as far as I'm concerned. But it wouldn't be wouldn't have been possible without the hard work of our team here, but also the alliance of employers that are so regularly around the table. And for me, whilst all of it is a great programme, the personal highlight is the graduations for the cohort coming through Project Search, actually seeing life chances for a cohort that because of learning disabilities felt that they had no opportunities. Actually seeing that transform has been absolutely amazing for me and seeing them in the house as well, which is really great. And having those conversations with them, you can see the confidence that they have and belief that they have better life chances than when they started. And that's why we do these things, isn't it? It's it's so, so important. So absolutely. And thank you both you, Councillor Barth and Councillor Chowdhury, for steering us through this. And you're absolutely right. The work doesn't stop. We will carry on monitoring it and carrying on expecting good results from it. So the recommendations are on page 39, one and two. Can I see all those in favour? That's unanimous. Thank you very much. Right. Agenda item five is from me, the quarterly performance reporting for quarter three. This is a report that cabinet will be aware of. It is important to track our performance against the corporate plan and make sure we are delivering. It's not a excuse to greenwash a report. It is a very honest assessment of where things are going well, where things need a bit of a nudge, and where there are reasons for things not going as well as they possibly could be, and trying to address those both within portfolio areas, but also across the cabinet. We all take ownership of this, and that's really important as well. So, as I say, standard report. Very happy to take any questions on it or any comments on it. Councillor Bruce, you going to second it? Very happy to second, and we'll reserve my right to speak. Good. Okay, so we moved and seconded, and we will go to Councillor Thomson first, then Councillor Don. I think I've said before, it's always my job to focus on the red, but actually just to say, because I'm feeling quite charitable today, it does show that across many areas of the council, our officers are delivering well on areas and services that matter to people, so that's, again, that's worth celebrating and making public. I think last time this came forward, I raised the issue of the EV charging, and it says within the report that this will, the new contract and stuff, will be in place 100% by spring. Well, we're in spring, I think, so I'm just wondering what, depends how you measure it. In terms of the Met Office, we're in spring, so I'm just wondering where that one was. And then the other one, I'll just do two tonight, is to ask about the payment pledge. So obviously that was, generated lots of excitement, and ward councillors across the borough put their nominations forward, and all that stuff was collated a while ago. I don't quite understand the comment in the report, where it says work's likely to commence early 25 stroke 26. So it seems to imply that work will commence some time over a 18-month or a long period, which I suppose it has to in some ways, but just a bit of clarity on that one, please. Thank you. So, thank you, Councillor Thomson. Councillor Dunn, do you want to come in at this and respond to the EV one? Yeah. Thank you, Councillor Catherine Dunn, Cabinet Member for Climate, Environment and Transport. Yes, happy to address the EV points. I mean, I think I've said before, we're aware there have been delays on that programme, but I'm still very confident that it will be delivered. Obviously, this is the quarter three reporting, so what is being shown here is up until December. Since then, we, so two awards have been made, and we're not quite in a position to announce those yet, but I hope that we will be in the next few weeks for the fast and rapid charges, and there is one further procurement ongoing. So hopefully by the next time we have this report, there'll be much, much better news that we're able to actually put into the report, or at least I'll be able to update Cabinet members and other members and the public on. Yeah, I mean, my other point, the thing, as you know, I like to look at some of the positive stuff, as well as obviously addressing some where things have maybe slipped. On the positive side, today, I mean, I have spoken about it before, about the SUDs, the Sustainable Urban Drainage Schemes, and we're pushing ahead with those and have several more of those projects completed. And last week, I was lucky enough to go and visit Smallby Green Primary School, in my ward, where they have a SUD scheme that has been implemented, they have a rain garden. And I went along with colleagues from Thames 21, which is the organisation that we're working with to deliver some of these schemes, we're doing others with the Environment Agency. And we spoke to a year three class, year three conifers class, as they're known, and they were so knowledgeable. I mean, you know, we, Toby from Thames 21 asked a question, who knows what a rain garden is, and how it works. And this tiny child put up her hand and answered perfectly. So it just goes to show, because they've got that at their school, and they saw it being implemented, and they, you know, were able to have seen the plants growing, and they understand how it works. And they all had a great enthusiasm for it. And we did messy experiments filtering water through sand and soil and all kinds of things. And then they showed us both their rain garden and their pond, and also the many planters and water butts and things they have at the school. So it was it was really great to see. And obviously would recommend everyone gets out and about to actually see these things, because it brings it to life much more than reading about it in a report. And actually residents love them. They absolutely love them. Although playing with water and sand, and that sounds like a bit of an away day theme. Yeah, a bit of an icebreaker. Yeah, yeah, something I would want to do. Good. Is there anyone else that wishes to speak? So in summing up, I'll just respond to your second question, because my understanding of it, and I'm happy to get a further update is the final spec contract with Hazel Highways to deliver it is being finalized. So I think we're very, very close to actually starting the project. The reference to 2526 is you're absolutely right, it will need to be in a phased way. There are some longer roads, some shorter roads, stretches of pavement. And so it needs to be done in a phased way so that we absolutely deliver the program properly. And once basically. So yeah, if you need any more, by all means, drop me an email. Yeah, good. Okay, the recommendations on this are on page 48, 2.1 and 2.2. Can I see all those in favour? That is carried. Thank you very much. Right, we then move on to agenda item six, public space protection order, alcohol related antisocial behaviour. Councillor Sidhu. Thank you, Councillor Regwin. This is the lead member for public safety, regulatory services and enforcement. Implementation of public space protection order, alcohol related antisocial behaviour. The report is on page number 71 to 111. Recommendations and summaries on page number 72. As we all know that Councillor is a very low crime borough compared to the other boroughs in London, we are below average. Our ambition for the borough is to continue being a low crime borough, improving feeling of safety and to make sure consul is safe place to live, work, play, study and visit. Our corporate plan and safer community strategy set out how we are delivering our ambition. This includes how we use our pass to give it to the council to tackle alcohol related antisocial behaviour in public spaces, such as our town centres, parks. We know these causing alcohol related antisocial behaviour can negatively impact on enjoyment of our public spaces and can lead to more serious crimes. One tool we have since 2017 to address these issues is to public space protection order. This report details how the current public space protection order which expires on 8th of April 2025 and the recommendation is to agree another three years from 9th of April 2025. The public space protection order means that if public cause antisocial behaviour while consuming alcohol, there will be breach of order and they can be issued fixed penalty notices. I would like to make it clear that drinking in public will not get a fixed penalty notice only if they do antisocial behaviour then there will be breach of this order. The public consultation and engagement with professional bodies including police who are over volume supportive. If we do not continue with this order, there is risk of co-related antisocial behaviour in the borough and which may increase. I would like to end by saying that order will help the council and our partners, including police, and will keep Hanslow's safe place to work, study and visit. So, aye recommendation. Thank you, Councillor Sidhu. I will fully second it and reserve my right to speak. It's now open for discussion and debate. Anyone? Councillor Bath. Yeah, I just realised I didn't introduce myself before. Councillor Lily Barth, a Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Public Health and Health Integration. So, obviously I've got public health in my Cabinet responsibilities, so I do welcome this for a number of reasons actually because we forget not just the antisocial behaviour but the littering that you get from street drinking and also here, I think you've mentioned in the report, but I know that we have lots of services that we have for residents in order to sort of try and reduce the level of alcohol in the borough and alcohol-related health issues. So, for that reason, I absolutely do support it and we do get a lot of complaints and I just, if you look at the report, it's actually gone up quite significantly, hasn't it, over the last few years? And obviously, most, I mean, I can't remember what it is the numbers are, but you've got an overwhelming majority of people in favour of it for, yeah. So, for a lot of reasons, absolutely do support this. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Bath, anyone else wish to speak? Oh, Councillor Thompson, sorry. Sorry, yeah, again, happy to support the principle and the concept, but I do know that actually the number of sort of incidents is increasing and I suppose that's a good story, isn't it? Is that good? Because that means we're cracking down more, but obviously, it's still a big issue, isn't it? So, hopefully, with the sort of continuation of this policy, we could actually, I suppose, see more or ideally see less, you know, ASB incidents because we actually want people to stop and there to be a cultural change. So, yeah, fully endorse the work of the department in this area. Yeah. Thank you, Councillor Thompson. Councillor, did you want to sum up? Yes, thank you. The OPCA will be issuing the tickets, fixed penalty notices and there were, it, 108 responses came in and 92% people were in favour of this, which with over a majority. So, thank you. I ask for recommendation to be approved. Okay. Recommendations on this are on page 72, 1.1, 1.2. Can I see all those in favour? That is unanimous. Thank you very much. Right. Agenda item seven is the initiation of the corporate services contract review project, which is one of my reports. So, Cabinet will be aware that we have a corporate services contract with Liberata, which is soon going to be coming to an end. It's a good opportunity, opportunity as that happens, to look at the whole service and see what's good, see what's not worked so well, and try and think about solutions. So, this report is not that bit of work. This is just the authority to start the work and allocate some money from the one-hands-a-transformation reserve to enable project mobilisation, and then that will lead to an outline business case, which will come back to Cabinet. So, a fairly straightforward report, which I formally move. Yes, and I'm happy to second and reserve my right to speak. Good. So, open for discussion debate. Councillor Thompson. It is, as you say, a very straightforward report. We are, you're asking to draw down just under half a million pounds to look into a service that costs eight million, and as the report says, it's not possible to, with any certainty, to say what possible benefits. I suppose I'm just trying to fish slightly, and I'm rather hoping that any benefits we get from this process will be costing us less than half a million. It also mentions in the report this would involve using outside consultants. I say, at this stage, do you have any sense of how much of that half a million would be going in that area? Again, you know, my history, I've got no problem in principle with the use of outside consultants, but, you know, times are tough, and it's like to know where we're spending it. It is good that we are using, obviously, as the report says, in-house expertise and skill, but it's not a small amount of money, and it's not compared to what the council does. It's not actually a massive budget area, is it? Eight million. So, half a million to review, and eight million. I think we have to have a real sense that there are going to be some real savings, and, I suppose, more importantly, improvements to the service for residents again. So, yeah, you're absolutely right. Obviously, this will need to deliver efficiencies and a better service. You're absolutely right. Obviously, if we don't use the whole budget that we're allocating, it will go back and the YSEG transition report put some money back in, which is good. I'll be honest with you, Castle Thompson, I don't know how much of that will go towards the consultancy, but we can write to you separately about that. But what I will say is, the work that they do will have a very clear set of parameters and deliverables around what they want to do, and you'll see some of that come out in the outline business case, which will need further scrutiny anyway. So, you know, it's early days at this point. Good. The recommendations on one, one, three, one, two, and three. Can I see all those in favour? That's unanimous. Thank you very much. Right, agenda item eight, child care sufficiency annual report 23-24. Councillor Chowdhury. Thank you. Child care sufficiency annual report. We are required to produce a survey every year. This is about the sufficiency of child care places across the different type of child care provision, including day nurseries, school nurseries, classes, preschools, and child minders. So this report is for 23-24. We've got some key challenges for the local authority and child care providers highlighted here. But with that, we've got some other findings as well, which you can see on page 125, that all primary and infant schools were judged to be good outstanding, with 10 schools judged as outstanding. So 91% of day nurseries and preschools were graded as good or outstanding, with 14 judged to be outstanding, and 88% of registered child minders were graded as good or outstanding, with 7% judged to be outstanding. 10% were waiting their inspection at that time. But overall, if you see, this is a really good report. I think we all understand the challenges, but there has been very good work happening as well, and with the child care places for not to. For two years, we have been highlighting things via the communication channels as well, we've been tweeting it out. So parents do take up the opportunities for that child care offers. So with this, the recommendation is to approve the 23-24 Child Care Sefficiency Annual Report for publication on the council website. Please, thank you. Thank you, Councillor Chaudry. Councillor Chris, do you want to second it? Very happy to second. Reserve my right to speak. Okay, it's open for discussion and debate. Any questions? Councillor Thomson? Just to pick up some of this, obviously you say it is a challenging area, and I think we all recognise this is a national problem, but obviously there is a collapse in number of child minders. We are below the national average, so for some reason that's not appealing. Might have to have a ponder about that, one. And again, obviously, as you know, all the providers in this sector are suffering problems with recruiting, problems with increased costs, energy, gas, national insurance, and the list goes on. And a fair chunk of them say they might actually be closing down or really having a serious think about it. So I know there's mention in the report that we're hoping that central government will review, because it needs to be done. It's not a Hounslow problem, it's a national problem. I'm just wondering in Hounslow, and obviously there's also the issue, we need more of those wrap-around places in schools and so on, don't we? So I'm just wondering, other than, say, government has to get itself organised, just in terms of the child minders and the, you know, yeah, maybe just in terms of the child minders, what can we do? What are we doing as a council? Thank you. Is there anyone else? In which case, would you like to sum up? Thank you very much. As we, I think, as you have said that this is a national problem, I have been speaking to other LEAD members as well, across other boroughs as well. But for us, we have been talking about recruitment and about the child mind, for the child minders as well. But then, when it comes to kind of communicating out, we've been doing the good work, you might have seen our leaflet going out about the child minding and the children's places as well. So we're trying our level best and we'll carry on doing and meeting the requirements. Thank you. Okay, the recommendations on this report are on page 121, one, two and three. Can I see all those in favour? That is carried unanimously. Thank you. And last but certainly not least, Recycle Fleet Refresh, Councillor Garawan. Thank you, Chair. Councillor Shivraj Garawan, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Recycling, and this report is about recycling fleet refresh. The Council's recycling collection vehicles are critical for the delivery of the waste services. Without these vehicles, we cannot collect food, household or garden waste from our residents. The eight-year-old fleet is now overdue for replacement. The age condition of the fleet is now leading to an increased vehicle breakdown, which means an increase in miscollections for our residents and in the level of dissatisfaction with the services. The report presents the case for a significant investment of $9 million to replace the recycle fleet over a couple of years, as well delegate authority to the Director of Infrastructure and Recycling due to the condition of some vehicles and a long lead time for order to deliver, which is over a 12-month period. As part of this investment, the proposal includes some quality pre-owned vehicles, which are more readily available at the moment. The report also proposes a move away from the fleet for diesel to biofuel, which is hydro-treated vegetable oil, which is called HVO, which will reduce emissions compared to the diesel alternative, getting us closer to our net zero target. This place in the fleet at this time will ensure that Council can continue to deliver a quality service and timely collection service for all our Hansel residents, and so I request the Cabinet to approve this report. Thank you, Hans. Very well. Can you second it? Yes, I will second the report. I think it's a really good and timely report, both in terms of replacing the vehicles that need replacing, but also that commitment to using HVO biofuel in the vehicles, which has the advantage of up to a 90% reduction in carbon emissions compared with using diesel. So that's a huge reduction that's really going to help us towards our plans for reducing carbon emissions and getting towards net zero. It doesn't mean that we won't eventually perhaps make the transition to electric vehicles, but at this stage that's not something we're able to do. And as I said, with that 90% reduction in carbon emissions by making the transition to HVO biofuel, I think this is a really, really good move. Thank you, Councillor Dunwright. It's been moved and seconded. Councillor Shaheen. Thank you very much, Councillor Gharrell, for bringing this forward. I think our waste and recycling service is excellent, and I think it provides a very good service. I think the rate of collection is brilliant as well, and only very occasionally does mispin casework, misrecycling casework come across my door, and the service responds very quickly when I do flag that up. But when it has been the case that this happened, it often is due to vehicular faults. So I think that this is absolutely the right step to address that issue. Thank you, Councillor Sheen. Councillor Thompson. Again, no problem. Obviously, this is a far better system than what we have at the moment, and I fully take on board the fact that the vehicles we have are, again, towards the end of their shelf life, so they need to be replaced. I did a bit of research, but I like to, and didn't know much about how to treat vegetable oil, but a little bit more now. And there is a slight concern that sometimes it comes from palm oil, which is linked to deforestation and loss of wildlife habitats in other parts of the world. So my personal question is, it'd be nice if whatever oil we're using was sustainable and wasn't using palm oil, and I don't know if that's not an answer we can give now. Maybe we still have to go and look at, get the vehicles first before we work out who's supplying the oil. But I take on board Councillor Dunn's comment that maybe this is a transitional step. If we have to do this every seven or eight years anyway, maybe it's time to look into the future and actually make sure that in the future, we can actually have those electric or the hydrogen vehicles. As it says in the report, at present, that would be very expensive. We don't have the infrastructure, but maybe long term, you know, maybe some of us will still be here in seven or eight years time. It'd be nice if we, next time this report comes forward, it was to move to a fully electric system. Or whatever the alternative to electric is. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, on your point, I don't think I can respond to the HVO point. But I know that there have been a number of, a lot of research done into that particular type of fuel. So I would imagine that that would have been part of the consideration. Okay, no one else on this? Councilor Karawad, do you want to sum up? Yes, Chair and Councillor Thompson, your comments have been noted. And I think that this is the right time. And this is what we what is available at the moment. And I say that this will be approved. And we have the vehicles in time. Thank you. Okay, the recommendations on this are on page 172, 1.1 to 1.3. Can I see all those in favour? That is unanimous. Thank you very much. Right. I have not had any referrals from any other council committees. And I've not had any urgent business. The date of our next meeting is Tuesday the 15th of April. Same time, same place. Thank you all very much. Thank you for coming online. Have a very good evening.