The Finance Overview and Scrutiny Committee are scheduled to meet to discuss customer service, treasury investments, demand pressures, and their work programme. The committee will also receive reports on annual corporate complaints and key performance indicators.

Here is what is scheduled to be discussed:

Managing Demand Pressures

The Finance Overview and Scrutiny Committee are scheduled to discuss a report on managing demand pressures within key council services. The report states that local government finances are in an acute position nationally, with demand and cost pressures affecting all authorities, especially in London. Wandsworth is said to be in a strong position to tackle these pressures due to its high levels of financial reserves.

The report identifies adult social care and homelessness as the main drivers of financial pressures. It notes that homelessness costs are rising sharply due to increased demand, while adult social care faces higher needs and inflationary pressures.

The report pack includes data from London Councils showing increased spending across London boroughs for adult social care (19%), children's social care (22%), and housing temporary accommodation (77%). It notes that the primary reason for overspending across London is the high cost of temporary accommodation for homelessness.

The report states that Wandsworth has the second highest rate of statutory homelessness in London, with annual spending forecast at £37.5m in 2025/26. Numbers accommodated in temporary accommodation are currently 4,618 compared to a start of year position of 4,147.

Mitigations to be discussed include:

• reletting council voids
• maximising the impact of the prevention fund
• expanding the private sector scheme
• stabilising temporary accommodation nightly paid rates
• inspections of nightly paid temporary accommodation

The report also outlines mitigations for adult social care, including reviewing financial assessments, applying charging policies for care after a hospital stay, joint funding with health, maximising use of block contracts, and reviewing the Learning Disabilities service.

The report pack also lists four key lines of enquiry for the committee:

• Are pressures being identified early and are we managing them proactively?
• What is driving cost increases?
• How effectively are services working across directorates to prevent demand escalation?
• How effectively is the council working with other local authorities to manage costs?

The report pack benchmarks Wandsworth against its peers, indicating that the council is effectively controlling and mitigating pressures from demand-led services.

Treasury Investments and Borrowing

The Finance Overview and Scrutiny Committee are scheduled to discuss a report on treasury investments and borrowing. The report provides an overview of the council's approach to treasury management, including investments, borrowing, and risk control.

The report notes that there have been some high profile investment/borrowing decisions in the sector that have generated significant concerns and have caused those councils involved significant financial distress, such as Thurrock, Croydon, and Woking. It says that lessons learned from such sector failures have identified common themes of overconfidence and weak governance, poor risk identification and monitoring, insufficient financial resilience, and transparency failures.

The report states that Wandsworth has a clear governance process in relation to treasury management, including monthly internal treasury management meetings, a specialist external treasury management review, and regular audits of internal controls.

The report pack lists key lines of enquiry for the committee:

Investments

1. Do we have the correct balance between risk and reward for our investments? What is the Member oversight of Council investments and associated risks?
2. How do we ensure our treasury investments are invested ethically?

Borrowing

1. What are our future borrowing plans and are they affordable?
2. What financial or other benefits do the Council and residents receive in return for planned borrowing? What is the risk of inaction?

The report states that with the exception of investment in commercial property and the Pension Fund, all of the council's investment activity relates to its treasury management function. Treasury management covers cash flow, investments, borrowing, and risk control.

The report notes that the council currently has no external borrowing, which it says is unusual, as borrowing is considered an appropriate way to fund activity in the sector. It says that councils routinely borrow to fund investment in their communities, recognising that borrowing enables the delivery of improvements and long-term benefits for residents.

The report states that the council continues to pursue external investment to help fund its capital investment plans, including maximising grants received and continuing to maximise contributions from external sources including under its make developers pay policy.

The report also outlines the benefits of borrowing to fund investment, including assets outlasting debt, income streams covering costs, social impact, economic growth, and environmental gains.

Customer Service

The Finance Overview and Scrutiny Committee are scheduled to discuss a report on customer service. The report pack includes a presentation that outlines what the council has done to improve customer service, including launching the '7 Rings' initiative to address long phone wait times, launching Hello@, a customer service query service for residents via email, and introducing a four-tier customer service model.

The presentation states that analysis of 2024/25 complaints alongside contact centre data has provided actionable insights, with common pain points being long wait times and unclear processes.

The presentation also highlights the Housing Contact Centre Pilot, which brought together critical services into one unified contact point. It says that the pilot set bold targets, with 80% of calls answered within seven rings, aiming for a 22-second average wait.

The presentation states that website pages have been redesigned for easier self-service, with FAQs and help guides updated based on frequent questions. It says that this has resulted in fewer calls and improved accessibility for online users.

The presentation highlights that the '7 Rings' call target consistency increased over time.

The presentation also outlines what's next, including a single digital front door, unified access point, and personalised journeys. It says that the move to Netcall Liberty Converse CX¹ is a cornerstone of this strategy, with omnichannel engagement, AI-driven automation, and scalability.

Annual Corporate Complaints

The Finance Overview and Scrutiny Committee will receive a report on the council's complaints performance in 2024/25. The report states that a key part of an effective complaints system is to highlight areas for learning that can inform ongoing improvement of services.

The report provides statistics and context to the complaints received and closed by Wandsworth Council for all services during the year 2024/25. It notes that complaints are counted in the year in which they were closed.

The report states that Wandsworth Council applies three complaints' procedures: the corporate complaints procedure, the adult social care complaints procedure, and the children's social care complaints procedure.

The report notes that all councils in England and Wales are required to provide a complaints procedure for people who are in receipt of council services.

The report states that the Monitoring Officer maintains an oversight of decisions of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) and Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) where the complaint is upheld.

The report includes a glossary of terms, including LGSCO (Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman) and HOS (Housing Ombudsman Service).

The report states that the cost of dealing with all complaints is met from within existing approved resources.

The report pack includes appendices with the full annual complaints report, complaints data, examples of LGSCO upheld decisions, the LGSCO annual review letter, examples of HOS closed cases, the HOS landlord report, and examples of learning from stage 2 complaints across all directorates.

Key Performance Indicators

The Finance Overview and Scrutiny Committee will receive a report providing a mid-year (Q2) progress update on the results for the agreed Wandsworth Corporate Plan (WCP) key performance indicators (KPI) relating to this committee's functions.

The Wandsworth Corporate Plan was developed to ensure delivery of the priorities for the council. It sets out how Wandsworth Council will deliver a fairer, compassionate, and more sustainable Wandsworth. The Plan comprises of key performance indicators (KPIs) that are directional and benchmarkable in order to monitor the impact of the actions delivered.

Finance OSC Work Programme

The Finance Overview and Scrutiny Committee are scheduled to discuss their work programme. The report pack states that effective work programming is essential for the success of the Wandsworth Overview and Scrutiny Committees.

The report states that informal closed work programming sessions will be held with OSC members, officers and lead members to help develop the work programmes.

The report notes that one of the methods the OSC may want to consider as part of the work programme to deep dive into issues is through the establishment of a Task and Finish Group.

The report pack lists sources of information for the scrutiny committees, including performance information, finance and risk information, corporate complaints information, the forward plan of key decisions, and reports from ombudsmen.

The report pack also lists objectives for the committees, including improving services, policy endorsement, pre-decision scrutiny of cabinet decisions, gaining insights, and horizon scanning.

The report pack includes a table of the Finance Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme, which lists the agenda items for the 3rd December 2025 meeting, as well as planned agenda items for future meetings.

The report pack also includes cabinet responses to previously submitted recommendations.