This week in Lewisham:

• The Pension Board was scheduled to meet on Tuesday 24 September 2024 to discuss the performance of the London Borough of Lewisham Pension Fund.
• The Strategic Planning Committee considered a planning application for the development of a site at Bell Green Gas Works during its meeting on Tuesday 24 September 2024.
• The Public Accounts Select Committee met on Thursday 26 September 2024. The meeting was scheduled to include discussions about the financial health of the council, and updates on children’s social care, and adult social care.
• The Lewisham Central Assembly met on Thursday 26 September 2024. No video was provided.

Pension Board - Tuesday 24 September 2024

This meeting was about reviewing the activities and performance of the London Borough of Lewisham Pension Fund since the previous meeting. It included consideration of reports about training, accounts, risks, procurement, the Pension Regulator’s new General Code of Practice, and other general updates about the activities of the fund. A significant proportion of the meeting was also scheduled to be held in private.

General Update Part One

This was the most significant topic scheduled to be discussed during the meeting. It covered a variety of topics about the day-to-day operation of the Pension Fund.

Draft Pension Fund Annual Report

The report pack includes the draft Pension Fund accounts for 2023/24, which were published at the beginning of June 2024. The accounts were scheduled to be audited by the newly appointed auditors KPMG, with the main audit work taking place in September and October 2024. The draft accounts show that the total value of the Pension Fund increased by £180m in 2023/24 to £1.837bn. This is attributed to changes in global markets mainly caused by the lowering of inflation and better global trading forecasts.

The pack also included a draft of the Pension Fund Annual Report. This details the financial position of the Pension Fund, how its investments have performed and is intended to be a comprehensive summary of its activities, enabling the public to understand how the fund is managed. Both the Annual Report and the audited accounts were scheduled to be presented to the Pension Investment Committee on 20 November 2024.

Procurement of Actuarial, Governance and Advisory Services

The invitation to tender for these services was published on 20 August 2024 using the National LGPS framework. The closing date for submissions was 4 October 2024, with the new contract expected to start on 1 December 2024.

Risk Register

The Pension Investment Committee is responsible for reviewing the Pension Fund’s Risk Register every six months. However, the two most recent meetings of the committee were cancelled because of restrictions in place during the pre-election period. The Risk Register was reviewed by members of the Pension Investment Committee on 19 September 2024, with any comments made being recorded in the meeting minutes.

The report pack describes the purpose of the Risk Register as follows:

Its design is based on a template provided by the Pensions Regulator. Risk ratings fall into four categories: RISK NUMBER CATEGORY HOW THE RISK SHOULD BE MANAGED OF RISKS Red 0 (16-25) Immediate action required, senior management involved Amber/Red Senior management attention needed and 7 (10-15) management responsibility specified Amber/Green Manage by specific monitoring or response 21 procedures (5-9) 8 Green Manage by routine procedures, unlikely to need specific or significant application of resources (1-4)

The report pack also details a number of changes made to the risk ratings of individual risks within the Register. The risk score for Environmental Social and Governance risk was increased from 4 to 9. This is because:

by following investments that meet higher ESG criteria (protection of consumers, labour rights, diversity and inclusion policies, human rights, health and safety etc.) there is a risk that the pension fund will obtain lower investment returns.

The risk rating for Financial Risk was reduced from 9 to 4. This is because the fund has a new policy and procedures for reporting late payment of contributions to personal pension schemes, and the fact that Lewisham Homes transferred its staff to the Council in October 2023, meaning that:

[Lewisham Homes is] the biggest external employer in the fund... which has further reduced the risk of pension payment failures.

The risk rating for Fraud or Fraudulent Behaviour was also reduced from 6 to 3. This is because:

the recent internal and external audits have not required the management to make any changes to its current working practices and procedures therefore we have confidence that this is being monitored satisfactorily.

Annual Business Plan

The Annual Business Plan sets out the major milestones for the fund in 2024/25 and lists the policies and reports that will be presented to the Pension Investment Committee during the year. It also lists all of the fund’s policies with their review dates.

The Pension Investment Committee is responsible for reviewing the Annual Business Plan each June, however, this year’s meeting was cancelled because of the pre-election period. The Annual Business Plan was instead reviewed by the members of the Pension Investment Committee on 19 September 2024.

The Annual Business Plan lists the following milestones for the 2024/25 financial year:

Milestone Date Review and Evaluation of the Business Plan September 2024 Administration Strategy November 2024 Data Improvement Plan November 2024 Engagement Policy September/November 2024 Draft Pension Fund Accounts presented November 2024 Approval of the Pension Fund Annual Report November 2024 Actuarial and advisory procurement contract Sept – Nov 2024

The plan also included a commitment to reporting on the performance of fund managers each quarter, reviewing the Net Zero Pathway Report and Climate Risk Report in September 2024, and holding training sessions for committee members. The business plan also lists the following targets for the administration of the Pension Investment Committee:

• Members to attend at least 75% of Pension Committee meetings each year. • Draft committee minutes to be issued within seven weeks of a meeting • Committee papers to be sent out at least five working days before a meeting. • To regularly review and agree changes to strategy/policy documents. All strategy/policy documents will be considered by Committee at least every three years, even if no changes are recommended.

The Pension Regulator’s General Code of Practice

This topic was the second most significant issue scheduled to be discussed during the meeting. It concerned a report about the Pension Regulator’s new General Code of Practice, which came into effect in March 2024. It described some of the new requirements contained in the Code, including:

New obligations include a requirement to establish an effective system of governance (ESOG) and, for schemes with 100 members or more, to complete their own risk assessment (ORA) to examine the effectiveness of the ESOG, note any risks and determine how these potential risks are mitigated.

It also described the steps officers had already taken to comply with the new requirements, including the use of a “GCOP tool checker”, purchased from Hymans Robertson. The tool had identified areas where the fund was fully compliant, but had also shown that further work is needed in other areas.

The Pension Board was scheduled to receive the GCOP tool checker in December, along with a report being presented to the Pension Investment Committee on 20 November 2024 setting out:

The GCOP Action Plan with associated timescales...

Training Log

This item concerned a report providing an update on the training log for members of the Pension Board between March 2022 and September 2024. The report pack included a list of training courses attended by the Chair of the Pension Board, Stephen Warren, the Employer Representatives Sherene Russell-Alexander and Mark Booker, and the Scheme Representatives Mark Adu-Brobbey and Gary Cummins. It also included a list of suggested training events and conferences, with details of dates, locations, cost and website links.

Actions Log

The report pack included a list of rolling actions to be taken by the Pension Board following previous meetings. It listed the actions, who was responsible for them, a description of any comments made about them, the expected completion date, and whether they had been completed.

Breaches Log

The report pack included a note that there were no breaches to report.

General Update Part Two

This part of the meeting was scheduled to be held in private. The report pack describes the grounds for excluding the press and public from this part of the meeting as follows:

It is recommended that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of Part 1 of Schedule 12(A) of the Act, as amended by the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) (Amendments) (England) Regulations 2006:- Item 11. General Update – Part Two s:\msb\word\teams\msb\newcttee\open\o&sbuspan\2019\18 june\item 7 exclusion of the press and public.doc

Work Programme

This concerned a report about the Pension Board’s Work Programme. It listed the operational and strategic tasks scheduled for the Board over the next four quarters. This included an update on the Pension Fund’s Statement of Accounts and Annual Report, monitoring investment performance, reviewing the arrangements for pooling the Fund’s assets, considering the Risk Register, reviewing the Data Improvement Plan, the Administration Strategy and the Annual Business Plan, reviewing the Terms of Reference and Membership of the Board, and receiving updates about the Pension Regulator’s Code of Practice.

Declarations of Interest

The report pack includes a reminder that members of the Pension Board are required to declare any personal interests they have in any item on the meeting agenda. There are three types of interest:

(1) Disclosable pecuniary interests (2) Other registerable interests (3) Non-registerable interests.

The report pack explains each type of interest, the requirements for declaring them, and what impact declaring an interest has on a member’s ability to participate in the discussion and vote on a decision.

Strategic Planning Committee - Tuesday 24 September 2024

This meeting of the Strategic Planning Committee included the consideration of the minutes of the previous meeting and a planning application for the development of a site at Bell Green Gas Works.

Land at the Former Bell Green Gas Works, Bell Green, London, SE26

This application, submitted by Barratt London, requests permission to build 262 new homes in blocks of 6 to 14 storeys on the site of the former Bell Green Gas Works.

The application has been submitted with a large number of supporting documents, including reports about the potential impact of the development on the local environment and transport network.

The most significant topic discussed was the application's impact on the Grade II Listed Livesey Memorial Hall. The report pack includes the following concerns:

the height of Block E to the rear of the Livesey Memorial Hall creating a dominant overwhelming presence in the immediate setting of the listed building and its bowling green.

and:

the comparable height of blocks B&E creating a continuous built form which fails to respond to the layout of the Livesey site or allow appreciation of this element of its significance to be read.

The report pack also notes that the proposed brickwork for blocks B and E is a similar colour to the Livesey Memorial Hall, and as such is considered harmful.

The application attracted significant comment during the consultation period, particularly with respect to the height of the proposed buildings, and the level of affordable housing included in the scheme. Minutes from a meeting on 26 March 2024 between local residents, the applicant, and the council¹ are included in the report pack, and summarise the objections that were made to the proposals.

The report pack notes that only 30% of the habitable rooms² in the proposed development would be designated as affordable housing, and details a viability assessment justifying why the percentage of affordable housing would be lower than the council's 35% target.

TfL raised a number of objections to the application, and the report pack includes a number of their letters. In a letter dated 7 May 2024, TfL requested that the applicant conduct a night-time Healthy Streets Audit³ of the area, and provide a robust assessment of the distribution of bus trips.

The report pack includes a number of recommended conditions to be attached to the planning permission, including requirements to submit a full Construction Logistics Management Plan, and a Landscape Management and Maintenance Plan. The report pack also recommends the applicant be required to enter into a Section 106 Agreement with the council, including financial contributions towards a number of local initiatives including off-site play facilities and bus service enhancements. The applicant would also be required to ensure that all residents have access to a car club for 3 years.

The report pack recommends that planning permission be granted for the application, subject to the conditions and obligations listed in it.

Public Accounts Select Committee - Thursday 26 September 2024

The most significant item scheduled to be discussed during this meeting of the Public Accounts Select Committee was the financial health of the council. Also scheduled for discussion were children’s social care spending, an update on commissioning and contracting arrangements for adult social care, and the committee’s work programme for the year.

Financial Monitoring

The meeting was scheduled to receive a report on the council’s financial position. The document prepared for the committee noted that the council was reporting a forecast overspend on general fund activities of £27.4 million for the 2024-25 financial year.

The document noted that a budget gap of £20 million was identified as part of the council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy, and that it was proposed that £8 million of savings would need to be delivered across the general fund in 2024-25. The report broke the savings down by directorate, and included a red, amber, green (RAG) rating of the likelihood of their delivery, saying that:

At this early stage of the year, £6.8m of the savings are expected to be delivered and are on track, £1m require further work or verification of delivery and £0.2m are not expected to be achieved in 2024/25.

The report detailed how the overspend is broken down by directorate, and noted that £36 million of pressures funding had been added to the 2024-25 budget to address those overspends, but that as a result of continuing pressures:

the extended leadership team are working towards £31.5m of cost avoidance/reductions measures in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to address the General Fund pressure reported in this report, as well as £20m of savings measures from 2025/26 onwards to address the budget gap in the MTFS.

The document contained a breakdown of the cost avoidance measures proposed by the council’s leadership team, noting which of the proposals were included in the reported financial position for the meeting, and which were not yet included because they are still being developed.

The report also considered the dedicated schools grant (DSG) budget, which is ringfenced for spending on schools. It noted an overspend of £2.4 million against the high needs block, driven by the “place led element in respect of those placements made in other LA’s by Lewisham and vice versa (known as import/export adjustment) and also for those schools that have academised and will now be funded directly by the Education and Skills Funding Agency in respect of the place funding element”.

The financial position of the Housing Revenue Account was also scheduled to be considered during the meeting. The report noted a forecast overspend of £6.5 million “due to the volume and value of repairs and maintenance works exceeding the budgeted level”. The report suggested a number of ways that this overspend could be addressed, including seeking a contribution from the council’s general fund, or by reducing the HRA’s contributions to the capital programme. The report stated that:

EMT and the Housing Transformation governance are continuing to manage this closely and will be engaging with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure that they are appraised of the financial position of the HRA.

The document also contained an update on the delivery of the council’s capital programme, which is the money the council invests on long term projects, like building new schools and homes. It noted that for the 2024-25 financial year there was an allocation of £211.8 million split into £110.1 million for the general fund and £101.8 million for the HRA.

The report noted that the collection rate for council tax was below the level needed to achieve the budgeted level of income for the year, but that the collection rate for business rates was above the required level.

The final section of the report looked at the council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy, which looks at the council's finances over a four year period. The report noted that the strategy had identified £20 million of savings that need to be made over that period, and that work was already underway to identify and implement them.

Children’s Social Care and Budget Pressures

The committee was scheduled to consider a report on the budget for Children’s Social Care services. The document prepared for the meeting noted the “exceptional pressure on budgets” caused by a combination of factors including the cost of living crisis, inflationary pressures, and “considerable increases in the cost of externally commissioned placements”.

The document highlighted the increase in the number of children needing support from children’s social care, noting that:

In the national context, with rising demand for support and protection services locally, Lewisham has managed the impact through the CSC improvement programme.

The report detailed how the council has worked to improve the service and reduce the need for children to be taken into care. In particular, it highlighted the impact of the council’s decision to “in-house” the services previously provided by the Meliot Family Centre, and how the expansion of that service has:

Successfully reduced reliance on more expensive agency staff with permanent staffing rising from 64% in 2018 to 80% in 2024.

The report included a table showing how the cost of different types of placement has changed in recent years, highlighting the increased costs of residential care in particular. The report noted that:

At present Lewisham has no local council run children’s homes and a relatively small pool of in-house Foster Carers, so internal placement sufficiency is limited.

The document outlined a series of steps the council is taking to address these challenges, including joining a pilot scheme to explore how delays in the family court can be reduced. It noted that:

As part of this pilot combined with the DfE Family First Pathfinder programme, we are introducing a Court Progression Officer post to contribute to moving CYP through court proceedings without delay.

The report also noted that the council is considering a number of options to reduce reliance on externally commissioned placements, including building its own children's homes, and that:

In September a proposal is being put to Mayor and Cabinet to re-purpose current buildings in the CYP Directorate asset register, to create and manage a series of council run small children’s residential homes in Lewisham.

Commissioning and Contracting in Adult Social Care

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on commissioning and contracting arrangements for adult social care. The document prepared for the meeting noted the financial pressures facing the adult social care sector, and the challenges of providing high quality care to an ageing population.

The report contained a summary of the key duties of local authorities under the Care Act 2014, including the duty to assess people’s needs and decide how to meet them. It noted that:

After the assessment, the local authority must determine using the national minimum threshold (which is set out in regulation) whether the Client is eligible for care and support. If deemed eligible, the Local Authority must meet these needs, regardless of resources available.

The report explained that the council has taken a number of steps to reduce the costs of providing adult social care, including working with providers to deliver services in a more cost-effective way. In particular, it noted the impact of the council’s decision to “cap” the budget for the Maximising Wellbeing at Home service, saying that:

The capitated budget fixes the Fair Cost of Care rate for the five years of the contract. Quality is enhanced through access of staff to Solution Focused coaching which enables Wellbeing Workers to develop innovative solutions to enable Clients to maximise their wellbeing as well as improving their terms and conditions by being fully compliant with the UNISON Ethical Care Charter.

The report contained a section on “Risk Implications”, setting out the key risks facing the service and how the council is working to address them. This included the risks of rising costs, increasing demand, workforce shortages, and maintaining the quality of provision.

Select Committee Work Programme Report

The committee was scheduled to consider a report on its work programme for the year. The document provided for the meeting contained the committee’s terms of reference, which detail the areas the committee is responsible for scrutinising. It also included a list of the items the committee had already decided to look at during the year, and a forward plan of key decisions that the council is expected to take over the next four months. The report recommended that the committee:

Look at the forward plan of key decisions at Appendix E to consider whether there are any items for further scrutiny.

It also recommended that the committee:

Consider the items for the next meeting and specify what evidence is required, including being clear about the information the committee wishes to be included in officer reports.

The next meeting of the committee was scheduled to take place on 28 November 2024. The report noted that:

The following items are scheduled for the next meeting. For each item, the Committee should clearly define the information and analysis it wishes to see in officer reports. If the Committee has designated one of its members as a climate change champion, that member should work with the Chair to ensure that officers are given appropriate steers in relation to the reports, to ensure they include relevant climate change considerations.

The Committee should also consider whether to invite any expert witnesses to provide evidence, and whether site visits or engagement would assist the effective scrutiny of the item.

Agenda Item Review type

Budget cuts Standard item

Financial monitoring Performance monitoring

HR budget Standard item

Lewisham Central Assembly - Thursday 26 September 2024

No video was provided for this meeting.

Appointments Committee - Thursday 26 September 2024

This meeting was cancelled.

Standing Advisory Council of Religious Education (SACRE) - Thursday 26 September 2024

The meeting of Lewisham SACRE on 26 September 2024 included for discussion a range of matters arising from the previous meeting and an update from a public health consultant about reducing health inequalities. It concluded with the first part of a self-evaluation of the work of the SACRE.

Jewish Life Exhibition

The meeting was to include a discussion of the Jewish Life Exhibition, due to be hosted by the Catford Synagogue¹ in November 2024. Information packs and booking details have already been circulated to all schools in the borough.

Vicki Ashmore, an ex-headteacher and a member of the Bromley SACRE, was scheduled to attend the meeting to answer questions about the exhibition. She was involved in the exhibition when it was hosted by Bromley Synagogue and reported that 650 people visited over the two weeks it was open.

Review of the Lewisham Agreed Syllabus

The meeting was to include the first discussion of the review of the Lewisham Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education². The Agreed Syllabus is used by schools to teach Religious Education. All members were asked to re-read the current syllabus and consider if it was still an appropriate representation of their faith group. The review, which will be scoped and costed, will formally begin in the Autumn term. Once it is complete, a formal request will be made to Lewisham Council to establish an Agreed Syllabus Conference.

Standards in schools – exam results initial overview

The meeting was also scheduled include an initial overview of this year's exam results from Anthony Doudle.

Reducing health inequalities through working with faith groups

The meeting was to include a presentation about reducing health inequalities through working with faith groups. This was due to be delivered by Lisa Fannon, Senior Project Manager at BLACHIR ³ and Kerry Lonergan, Public Health Consultant at Lewisham Council.

Matters arising

A number of matters arising from the previous meeting, which took place at the London Sivan Kovil⁴ in July, were scheduled to be discussed. These included:

• An update on the arrangements for Holocaust Memorial Day, and whether the SACRE will be represented on the organising group;
• Confirmation that a meeting of secondary RE leads will take place in the next term;
• Feedback from Cllrs Johnston-Franklin and Tam, who attended the NASACRE⁵ Annual Conference and AGM; and
• A report on the response the Chair received from candidates in the recent General Election to his ‘Manifesto for RE and SACREs’.