The Overview & Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the Council's budget outturn, its annual strategic delivery and performance report and progress against its Women's Safety Action Plan. The meeting also reviewed proposals for the next phase of the Council's corporate restructure and discussed a new draft work programme for Overview & Scrutiny.

Budget Outturn

The committee heard that the Council's general fund underspent by £300,000 in the 2023/24 financial year. This is a favourable movement from the forecast position of a £100,000 underspend that was reported in quarter 3. This positive outturn was delivered despite the Council spending £11.5 million over budget on homelessness, special educational needs and adult social care. This reflected national pressures on these service areas.

In the current climate for any authority [a £300,000 underspend] is a significant achievement

said Ms Julie Lorraine, the Council's Deputy Chief Executive and Corporate Director of Resources¹, adding that every other local authority, particularly [in] London, would be in a similar, if not slightly worse, overspending position.

There was a £2.7 million overspend in the Dedicated Schools Grant, with most of this relating to individual high needs arrangements for children with special needs, educational needs and disabilities . The Housing Revenue Account also overspent, by £5.2 million. This was mostly due to higher than anticipated expenditure on repairs and maintenance.

The Council's Strategic Delivery and Performance

The committee heard that the Council met 26 of its 51 strategic performance measures, with a further 5 meeting their target partially. The committee noted with disappointment that the Council had failed to meet 9 of its targets and discussed the reasons for this.

The most significant area of underperformance was in relation to KPI 004, the number of homeless people the Council supported into sustainable accommodation. Councillor Syed Ahmed, the Cabinet Member for Resources and Cost of Living, explained that this is a recurring problem for the Council, but that investment is being made to address it, including the purchase of new homes.

One of our manifesto pledge[s] was to develop and deliver adult care home[s] ourself, and we have already identified the land. A feasibility study is in process, and we've allocated somewhat 20 million pounds already to that scheme, and that will deliver 50 plus [homes].

said Councillor Ahmed.

The committee also heard that the Council had failed to meet its target of recycling 30% of household waste. Richard Williams, the Head of Operational Services, attributed this to a range of factors, including difficulties in encouraging people living in flats to recycle and recent changes to the law on waste disposal. He explained that a number of new initiatives are being implemented to improve recycling rates, including an innovative new scheme that will see the Council working with mosques in the borough to educate people about the importance of recycling.

Women's Safety Action Plan

The committee received an update on the progress of the Women's Safety Action Plan. Councillor Amina Ali raised concerns about the inclusion of self-defence classes for women in the action plan.

I am so deeply uncomfortable with the self defence thing. I just think it displays such a misunderstanding of the issues and putting the onus on women not to be victims instead of the onus on men not to be criminals.

said Councillor Ali.

Councillor Ali went on to question how the Council is holding the Metropolitan Police to account on their commitments to improving women's safety. Simon Smith, the Council's Head of Community Safety, explained that the police are ultimately accountable to their own internal processes and scrutiny functions. However, he noted that the Community Safety Partnership also has a role in overseeing the work of the police and other partners on women's safety.

Corporate Restructure

The committee discussed proposals for the next phase of the Council's Corporate restructure. Mr Stephen Halsey, the Chief Executive, explained that the restructure is necessary to address a number of key risks facing the Council, including issues with the HR function, procurement, and the performance of the Housing and Regeneration department.

The restructure will see a number of central functions, including HR, procurement, and legal services, moved into the Resources department under Ms Lorraine's leadership. It will also see the creation of two new Assistant Director roles and will involve the mainstreaming of functions from the Mayor's Office.

Councillor Ali questioned the rationale behind the creation of a new Assistant Chief Executive role in the CEO's Office, particularly in light of the significant savings that have been achieved through the Council's recent voluntary retirement and redundancy scheme. Mr Halsey explained that the new role is necessary to support him in managing the Council's five corporate directors and overseeing its communications and strategy functions.

Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme

The committee considered a draft work programme for 2024/25. The draft programme includes a number of items that have been identified as priorities by Members, including a review of the Council's Best Value Inspection report, which is expected to be published in July, and a spotlight review of the Council's recycling services. Councillor Ali expressed concern that the draft work programme was too ambitious and that the committee would not have sufficient time to properly scrutinise all of the items on it.

If you're going to nod things through and it's going to be a tick box exercise, I don't want to be part of that. It's either proper scrutiny, and you take this seriously, or you don't bring it on here as an agenda at all. So the choice is yours, Chair, and I needed that noted.

said Councillor Ali.

Councillor Ali also questioned whether the resources that are currently allocated to Overview and Scrutiny are sufficient to enable it to carry out its work effectively. In response, Mr Halsey reminded the committee that a new Scrutiny Improvement Plan was agreed at Cabinet in May and that this includes a commitment to providing additional resources to Overview and Scrutiny, including a new dedicated Scrutiny team.