Transcript

to our cabinet meeting. Let's start meeting. The usual drills about fire alarms and filming the meeting is the same as it applies. Okay. There are no questions from the public and move on to apologies. I know councillor Mayim Deutu Meir is around somewhere. It should be here. So, I think it will be coming down. So, no apologies from members. Any apologies from officers? None. Everyone's here? Good. Good, good, good. That tea looks very nice. Tala. Very good. Okay. Any declarations of interest from members? Anyone? No. No declarations. Great. Can we agree the minutes of the 26th of March, please? Anything burning there? You need to correct? You are happy with it? Yep. Okay. That's agreed. Steve, any announcements, please? Just two, Mayor. Thank you. Just to formally advise Cabinet that the progress with the Best Value Intervention continues at pace. We've had a very positive second formal feedback session with the envoys, myself and the Executive Mayor, where the envoys confirmed that we are making the progress that they would expect us to have made at this stage and that that will be reflected in their report to the Minister shortly. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Steve. Can I just, on that note, can I just say, we had a very, a lead member, Wahid, and officers, fantastic Women's Award yesterday. Very well attended, very well attended, very well organized. Thank you to officers and the lead member for that. And also the leadership conference, Steve, grateful. It was a full house. All the leaders, leading officers of the councils were there. And the way Andrea's, and the way Andrea's, you and the team had to put it on. It's very good. Thank you. Thank you for that. Great. Can we, there's no over and scrutiny questions. They're not here because there was some over and scrutiny yesterday. So if we can, no callings too. Let's move on to the first agenda, please. 6.1, Children, Adolescent Mental Health Services, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This report is a contract award for Children, Adolescent Mental Health Services. As you see in the report, there's a service that's been in place for a number of years. And the purpose of this report is to put a formal contract in place for these services. As you'd be aware, there's a significant CAMHS provision in the Borough by East London Foundation Trust. And that's around about £10 million worth. So our relatively small part of this is a contract of around about £700,000. It's been operating successfully for several years, but we're concerned that there wasn't a formal contract in place. So this report will put that contract in place for the next two years whilst we review the value for money and outcomes that are delivered. Well, the only thing I would add, Mr. Mayor, is that our recent Ofsted inspection, part of the feedback from the inspectors was how positive this specific service was in terms of support in our young people's mental health. Thank you. Thank you very much. Lead member, Deputy Mayor, is there anything you want to comment on the Children one? Thank you. Anyone else? Any comments? Please, Councillor Moustak, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As a cabinet member, I fully support this report and the proposed formalisation of our CAMHS in social care provision. This service, Mr. Mayor, has been essential in delivering timely specialist mental health support to some of our most vulnerable children young people, especially those with care experience. The integration with East London Foundation Trust ensures seamless access to wider NHS pathways, avoiding unnecessary delays and improving outcomes. Moving this service onto a formal contractual footing not only ensures continuity and accountability, but also strengthens our commitment to safeguarding the mental health and well-being of children across Tower Hamlets. I welcome the planned service review and redesign during this period, and I am reassured that the financial and legal frameworks are robust and compliant. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Councillor. Anyone else? Councillor Chaudhry, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Definitely, this is an innovative service providing support and treatment for children and young people experiencing moderate to severe mental health difficulties. Now we are recommending that to contact directly awarded to ELFT, if you want to know. The majority of the funding will provide from us and over nine menial. And I think nearly 700,000. Yes. Yes, 700,000. And this will be two years' contact, and it is essential to closely monitor its delivery and to ensure service continuity for children and young people. And most essentially, the financial risk management and arrangement are in place, because we are contributing over £9 million. Steve, is there anything you want to say on this? You're okay? Yep. Anyone else? Anyone else? This is a straightforward paper. That's something that we have to do, protect and continue to provide services to a very important member of our communities. So, okay, can we, if there's no other comments, can we agree with the recommendation? Page 22, please, yeah. Okay. Thank you. That's done. Okay. Can we now move on to another important work? The statutory outdoor hours noise service insourcing paper 6.2. Shafi, is there anything you want to say? No. It's yours, yeah. Sorry. Go on. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just to bring some context, this service is delivered by a third party with expansion of our town with enforcement officers and some further growth in CCTV and a few other areas within the Community Safety Directorate. We feel we can deliver service in-house. So, it's essentially looking at improving the service that we currently have for out-of-hours noise and to also use the extra and additional resources that yourself and this cabinet have invested in community safety. Do you want to say anything to Simon or any of the assignments? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think the charities cover that comprehensively, but I think it shows the level of commitment that we've already invested in in safe communities. We had the big event back in February in Naughty Valley Park, and I think this is the right move. I think it's a comprehensive report. We've done a lot of research into this, and it makes perfect sense to continue down this path of reviewing where we are and improving the services and the funding. Thank you. Servio Narsa. Thank you. Thank you. Any councillors? Please, Councillor Kobir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think it's really important for us to see the big picture of our community safety team and the levels of investment that's happened. And I suppose for residents, they want direct action. They want a single point of contact. So, when they have to call multiple numbers for different things and individuals come along and say, we deal with this and we don't deal with that, you know, that disrupts a resident's perception of this council. And the main thing is it doesn't deal with the issues at hand. And things get bounced around, and this department's not carried that out, so we can't do this. So, this essentially takes all of that away, all of the white noise one may say, and it streamlines the process. It's got a corporate director in charge of it. It's got a director in charge of it, and it's got operational staff who will go and address those issues and deliver what's needed for our residents in Tower Hamlets. Anyone else? Councillor Kampoog. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, lead member and officer. I'm really glad to see this great report. I totally support this. Resident who matters most to us. And I think we as a listening administration, we've realized that the current system is not working for our residents. And I think this is the way we can have more control, better service, and we have very good equipment, very good TOs. And implementing this service, bringing it back to in-house, I think with that way, we can provide much better service to our residents, and they can sleep in a better environment at night. Thank you. Thank you. Please, Saeed. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a very quick point to supplement my colleagues I've mentioned. During this process, as we bring the service in-house, I just want to make sure that we get the assurance that there's not going to be any hiccups, or the transition will be smooth, and there shouldn't be any sort of disruption felt by the residents at all. Yes, thank you, Councillor. I can assure you that we have a transition team on this. We have a project team right around it, well-experienced, and it will be seamless. If there's any help. Great. Thank you. Now I'm going to move on. I just want to make some general comments. We've invested a great deal of money in the CCTV system over £4 million, plus new personnel in TEOs over £2 million, plus 73 TEOs currently in operation. And I think we have the resources to deliver a coordinated, out-of-hours noise service that existed previously. And during my walkabouts in the borough, and especially leading up to the last election, people were discontent with that service. I think it's well overdue. We need to have a seamless service in the borough, according to service, though each department, whether it's housing, whether it's public room, whether it's community safety, that we're working as a team. I believe this will deliver this. So we fully support the services coming in-house. It's very important. But we do want a seamless service, please. Yes. So can we agree with the recommendation, please? Yes. Is that okay? Thank you. That's done. Can we move on to 6.3, please? It's an out-of-hours report on the market designation. Okay, Councillor Schaafi. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and a good afternoon all. In 2024, the Overview and Scrutinio Committee undertook a deep dive review of our markets. And as a critical friend, this included visiting the markets in our borough and also a market in Hackney, and meeting with local, regional and national experts. The recommendations were made. This report contains an action to meet those recommendations. The two recommendations which require additional funding are recommendation two, which is the market infrastructure and trader facilities, bringing the borough storage, toilets and facilities, toilets and storage facilities to markets. And recommendation six, attracting young traders, retaining current traders for communication through social media. Thank you. I'd like to hand over to Damien and Ashraf Ali to cover the report. Thank you. Please. Please. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Councillor. As the Councillor has already alluded, there's a number of recommendations in the report for market. And really, Mr. Mayor, the scrutiny, as the Councillor has mentioned last year, looking at a number of areas with officers to actually look at our markets and improve our markets at footfall. And these are the sort of six areas they've looked at to invest so that we could actually improve our markets, infrastructure, as well as the traders. And then we're looking at a number of ways to improve that. And as the Councillor has alluded, there's two of the areas that's looking for additional resources and funding. And we've identified with our colleagues in finance to look at that. The other areas of recommendation where resources isn't required is to be done within the existing resources within the markets team, looking at doing the surveys, which will not require any financial support, but it will require human resources within the existing resources. So we were looking at those, but it is a noted report to improve our markets across the borough. And I'm happy to take any questions in the report or the recommendations. Thank you. Any members want to speak? Councillor Waheed and Councillor Kobir. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to make a point in regards to what a lead member mentioned. Some events were organised in terms of how to get more young people involved in the market. Because I know some of the markets are in terms of there was lack of investment, etc. So how did that, in terms of, what was the positive outcomes from that? And how was the engagement with the young people in terms of getting them involved? So we've done a number of things. We, last year, were part of the National Young Traders Markets, which we've just started again this year. We've been running through April, May, maybe slightly to June. I can't remember when the last one is, but certainly April and May. We've, some of those traders have come from outside of the borough and experienced working in London for the first time. Some of them, a young girl came down from Lincolnshire. But a couple have converted into traders. But one thing that we, one of the recommendations and one of the gaps that we have is that we've not been able to promote our markets to the wider sphere. Because our social, we've got a fantastic comms team, but they're very much local authority comms rather than business-focused comms. They've done some great work with us, and the improvement in the last year has been fantastic. But we want to go to that next step to encourage people from all over London to come and trade with us. Has that answered your question? I'm not sure if I went off point. Grateful. Kobir. Thank you, Mayor. Again, I just want to highlight the key role markets play in the identity of Tower Hamlets. And we all probably grew up going to various different markets, from the Sunday market to Whitechapel, Petticoat Lane, Columbia Road in my ward. I think recently the chief executive announced that we won two awards. One for the best large outdoor market. That was Whitechapel market. And one in my own ward for the small market award, a small outdoor market, which was Columbia Road market, the flower market. And that's quite a world-famous market. We get tourists from all over the world coming in. So investment in the markets and supporting the markets, I think, is a priority for us. And it's really important we continue to encourage our market traders, both young and old, in delivering for our residents. Thank you. You don't need to respond to that. It's praising you and the people of the borough. Okay, Councillor May. Thank you, Mr Mayor. I just want to echo my other colleagues. I think this is a very good report, thanks to the scrutiny members. This is not the first time that we've had reports from the scrutiny. I mean, it's very constructive, and that's how it should be. And thank you to the lead member and officers. I think this will give local traders access to storage and safer environment. And also, I'm looking forward to the strategy as well, and hopefully that will hopefully give us more good news through the strategy, especially with the infrastructure and so on. Thank you. Anyone else? No one else? Okay. Can I just, I want to thank the members of the Scrutiny Committee, like Deputy Mayor, for the report. I think it shows where Scrutiny and the executive can work together. You know, I think the recommendations and the actions are very fruitful, very constructive in making suggestions how we can improve our markets, improve the accessibility and connectivity with customers. It's very important. and support traders, present traders and future traders. It's a very good thing. So, we really much support this report. And I note on the Chief Finance Officer's comments, any money that's required to implement the actions will be from the exhausting resources. No additional money is required as such. Okay? I just want to make that clear. Other than that, if there's no other comments, can we agree to note the report? Is that okay? Yep. It's noted. Thank you. Can we move on to the next one, please? The introduction of dog control public spaces protection order. Shavi, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And once again, in July 2024, Cabinet approved a consultation on the introduction of a dog control public space protection order, known as the PSPO, following several high-profile dog attacks incidents. The Council held a comprehensive consultation, exercising listening to views of the whole community and a number of animal welfare experts on a range of control measures. The majority of those who responded and expressed support for these new measures. This report recommends that the Council introduces rules relating to dog fouling, dog on lead, by direction, excluding dogs from gated play parks and gated sports areas, keeping dogs on leads on roads, pavements and in communal areas on estates, and limiting the number of dogs one person can take out at each one time of four. In addition, in addition, the Council will introduce a professional dog walker's license. There will be no public... There will be no... And this is... I just want to... The next sentence that I was going to say. This is where we need to make sure that we and members of the community are here today, and I'd like to thank them for their input and their insight into this, because this was brought into full Council, and we agreed to sit with the... With dog members who are residents, and they met her to us, and we listened to them, and we ensured that we can deliver on something that we all agree on. And there is no scaremongering amongst anything that we are against dogs, or we are against the ownership of dogs. So, the introduction that we are doing, there will be no public park and open spaces where dogs would be allowed to be off-lead and run freely for exercise. The only spaces where we will exclude dogs from are gated children's play area and gated sports areas, or spaces. People with disabilities are not adversely affected by these measures because the PSPO exempts assistant dog users for these requirements. These recommendations seek to strike a fair balance, and bring us in line with many other London councils, including our neighbours Hackney and Newham, which have had such rules in place for many years. We hope that this will reassure residents who have expressed concerns about dangerous dogs, particularly about risk to young children, while also ensuring responsible dog owners to our community can fully enjoy our open spaces and allow their dogs to play off-lead freely. We know that the majority of dog owners in this borough are responsible and their dogs are beloved and much-loved family members and pose no risk of harm. We will work together with our communities of dog owners in Tower Hamlets over the next few months to ensure the successful implementation of the new measures. Our aim is to ensure everyone can enjoy our borough's beautiful parks and green spaces safely and comfortably. Thank you very much, Mr Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that statement. Do you, officers, do you want to add to what's been said, already said? No, Mr Mayor, nothing further to add. I'm going to move on the discussion, if that's okay. I think Councillor Shreve has made a very good, comprehensive statement, and I just want to reiterate that. You know, personally, I support this recommendation, support the paper. I have no issues with dogs, but I do have issues with dangerous dogs. It's about live and let live. You know, it's about protecting children, protecting the most vulnerable, protecting the people of the borough, and supporting our dog owners. You know, it's nothing improper in having dogs. I think it helps. I know we have a dog here in the chamber now. You're welcome. And thank you for working with the leading members and officers to frame a policy that supports every member of the community. You're important to us, and so are the other 322,000 people who live there. So, thank you very much. Can we agree the recommendation, please? It's set out in page 68. Is that okay? Thank you. Thank you, and thank you, lead member and officers, for your hard work. Thank you very much. Okay, great. Can we move on to 6.5, please? Okay, lead member, Councillor Mayim, thank you. Thank you, Mr Mayor. We have a video as well. So, this report outlines the outcome of the statutory representation period following the proposal of Amalgamate Club Primary School and Rachel Killing Nursery School to form an all-through-3211 primary school for September 2025. The consultation process has been thorough, transparent and inclusive, with the majority of respondents strongly in favour of the proposal. The amalgamation is supported by both governing bodies and is designed to improve sustainability, maximise resources and protect high-quality early years provision in the borough. The report recommends progressing with an amalgamation with Globe Primary, continuing as a legal entity and nursery provision to be delivered from the Rachel Killing site. So, the recommendation is Cabinet to ask to consider the consultation outcome and approve the proposal to formally amalgamate the two schools effective from 1st September 2025. And we also have a video for everyone, too. Yeah, please. Please, thank you. Please, I see that lovely face up there. Is that the video? Is she ready? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome to Rachel Killing. I received a letter and then I talked to a few parents and we had a form as well. Yeah, they were very open, Globe sent a school ping notification, I think it was on their newsletter through that and it was on their website as well. I was a bit curious so I stopped in at Rachel Killing and had a chat with Becky on the door because I didn't know what it was all about. So, it was good to actually talk to somebody. I have the text message and I talked to Becca. The teachers spoke about it with us, we received letters and also there was a form that told us about what was going on and we filled it out. They told us face to face at the school doors and they gave us a letter as well and a form to fill out. Like, I got a message in my mobile and I got in from face to face as well and the school gave me one form to fill out. So, I was informed by a text message and I was giving the opportunity to speak to the staff at Rachel Killing and they've had any questions about it. Next, we wanted to know how they felt about the proposed changes. Very positive. Actually, most, all of my children came to Rachel Killing from Hafidah many years ago to now. I think the school is brilliant and it's done a lot for my kids, especially with Umar and when Hafidah shared some learning, not learning difficulties, but she had difficulties with communicating. A lot of benefit from the school. So, I really want the school to stay open. It benefited my kids and I think it will benefit people and kids to come. So, if it means the school stays open, I'm completely for it. I think quite mixed, actually, because my daughter, who's now five and just started at reception at Globe, was at Rachel Killing and we were so happy there. She just had the best time ever. She developed beautifully and we just think that the space is gorgeous, the staff are gorgeous. So, I was a bit sad initially, but I can sort of understand that there'll be benefits to it as well. I'm really happy with Globe as well. Our son is actually just turned three and we wanted him to go to Rachel Killing and have exactly the same experience that Evie had. So, I think in that sense, we were a little bit sad and mixed, but I'm really hoping that it will just allow for continuation and that it will be positive for everybody. I feel it's good because we need more children and in this school, I have three kids. I love it so much. They look after the kids and all moms said, if they know this school, they said, I love this school. More care, more look after the kids and my kids, they're happy here. That's why I bring, this is my last kid. I'm sad, but I'm happy she's here and she loves it. She can't wait to come to the school. She said, I want to go next year. I want to go next year. She loves everyone here. Everyone is like family and I love it. It's really fun. I always have for the children thrive here. Obviously, it is sad what it's come to, but the fact that they're not going to close off or disappear and they will still thrive, they will still have that room to thrive, is what is the best thing about it. So, having them join and not having to suffer is what's best. And I'm happy. Yeah, I feel absolutely fine. I think they've explained everything and it'll be a smooth process. It'll still be, you know, I think pretty much similar in terms of the kids and the teaching. So, I'm happy with everything. I wish you didn't have to, but it'd be lovely to make sure that you're still around for the children who haven't got any schools in it. Yeah, yeah. I'm glad that you are going with Globe because we've put Kai's name down for Globe. I feel a little bit nervous, but I do understand why it's happening. We need more children to keep the school open. I think changes are always good, you know. For the children, you know, if there are more children here, so they can intimate more, they can play more, you know, they can introduce more. So, and I think that is good for them when there is much. So, my daughter used to come to Rachel Keelan from the age of three and she'd done really well here. I was, Rachel Keelan's staff are absolutely brilliant and my daughter does have additional needs. So, I was quite nervous about her moving from this school to Globe. So, the Rachel Keelan staff here and Globe worked really well together and I felt the transition was absolutely, you know, smooth. I was kept up to date with everything and because she had additional needs, I was quite nervous how, you know, what would be put in place for her at the new school. But I felt Rachel Keelan gave so much information about my daughter to make sure that everything was great and in place for her before she went. And I felt that the transition was really smooth and made me feel much more relaxed as a parent. Thank you for listening to some of the voices of our community. There were more, but so many people were camera shy and didn't want to be filmed. We hope this is useful in helping you make a decision about the consultation. Thank you. Is there anything you want to add? Please, yeah. I just wanted to add that 94% of the respondents agreed to the proposal and 6% kind of disagreed. So, that's in the report. So, if there's any questions, I'm happy to take. Thank you. It's always nice to hear children and see children, hear children in the background, see children. And we have a better and improved offer for children. I think it's very good. Children are the future. Anyone else? Any comments from anyone? Please, any members? I think it's a good thing, the thing that we support. And we've been told it's going to be an improvement to what exists now. So, okay. Can we note the recommendations, please? Yeah. Thank you. Grateful to. Okay. Thank you. Can we now move on to substance misuse treatment and recovery system redesign? Okay. Is it Kibiribai? Or, yeah. Tala. Tala. Or both of you. One of you. Both of you can. Tala, please. So, if Allah... I mean, I did it indirectly. Last on the school's amalgamation. Can we agree the amalgamation, please? Yeah. In principle. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This paper says out how we will deliver a borough-wide world-class substance misuse treatment system as specified in the Combating Drug Partnership Substance Misuse Strategy 2024-2027. This paper says out our redesigned proposal for a refresh model when existing contact come to end in late 2025. This report seeks agreement for a fully integrated consortium contact model with a focus on satellite provision across the borough and an embedded criminal justice service able to deliver specified features. It makes a case for continued investment in substance misuse engagement, harm reduction, treatment and recovery service, and details of timeline for implementation of this model through competitive procurement exercise. Thank you. Yes, do you want to hear anything? Yeah. And can I request to members, there was an exempt paper, please? Just be careful what you say, yeah? Okay? Thank you, Councillor, and thank you, Mayor. This paper is really important as part of our substance misuse strategy. We know there's some enforcement work that the police and council teams do, but this is equally really important to make sure that people get a world-class treatment offer. And I do remember when I first took on the portfolio, we had an away day, Mr Mayor, you may remember, and we looked at the different pathways into treatment, and that spider web was really difficult for me to understand at that point. And I think we looked at a different paper today in terms of improving the noise service that we have, and this is another area where we feel some of the proposals in this programme by having a mixed economy, embedding the internal criminal justice team that we have, and some of the further improvements, is another example of improving some of our services. We spend, you know, a considerable amount of money on this service, and there's a lot of hard work dedication from officers in, you know, managing, but also developing these proposals. I fully support the recommended and preferred option, and it's with that that I'd recommend other colleagues to do so, too. Thank you. Please, George, or Shumon, or any of our officers who want to come in, please, yeah? Thanks. Yeah, I don't have much to add that's already been said. And just to reiterate the aims of the new service to improve access and outcomes by increasing access points into the system and improving integration, which is why we set out a model that enables multiple providers for non-clinical treatment and recovery service. So, that's a real development based on the kind of reviews and the needs assessments that we've done on the service. And just to reiterate that, you know, in London, compared to the rest of London, we have the highest numbers of people in treatment. So, we do spend more than other local authority areas, but actually our unit costs are pretty similar. But it's clearly a really significant issue in the borough, and we are faced with quite significant threats from synthetic opioids, which pose particular risks around overdose and drug death. So, it's a really, really important issue for the borough. Thank you. Please, Corby. Thank you, Mr Mayor. So, I mean, it's been highlighted the level of spend we have and the treatment population we have. And I think what I'm going to request is from officers to give us those assurances around sort of clear management structures and responsibility and accountability in terms of how we contract manage and performance manage any service provider, including our own in-house council service providers. We're going to need sort of clear directions in terms of KPIs. I think currently the KPIs that are set aren't challenging enough. They need to be more challenging. And the control we will put in place in relation to those target setting. One thing I see that's not included in the paper, and I would request for it to be included, is community detoxes, ambulatory detoxes around the alcohol. That's not in the sort of, if you go to page 263. And potentially, I've also worked in services where we've done sort of focusing on recovery and opiate detoxes as well in terms of running programs in order to reduce people off the medication itself. So there are opportunities we can apply. But definitely, community detoxes is bread and butter of any recovery service. And I think that needs to go into this, particularly around the alcohol. The current service I'm working at, we, at one time, over a year's period, we had, I think, about five detoxes over the year. Currently, we're running monthly detoxes. Between two and six people every month are detoxing off alcohol. So, again, that level of design needs to be incorporated into whoever the service providers are. Any of our colleagues? So, thank you. With regard to the community detoxes, it's implicit in the service design, as you've outlined. And we'll pick it up when we move to the specification development. There are some targets within the current provider. And mainly, those are around inpatient targets at the moment. So, we take that as an area that we will pick up in the specifications. The other one was around the KPIs. So, the KPIs are nationally set, as you know, to some extent. And we have, over the last 12 months, seen a significant increase, particularly in access numbers. So, the number of people accessing our treatment system over the last 12 months has increased 50, at least 50%, in our recovery services, in the region of 100%. But moving into the redesign, we'll expect to see that grow. And we are moving over the next 12 months to looking at outcomes in treatment, really, and making sure that those numbers that go into treatment are successful in their recovery journey. Can I just add on to that, please? Can we have a look, I and the lead members, the draft tender document and the specifications once they're drafted, please, before they go out? Is that okay? So, we can work with you and have our, you can have our loop into that. Is that okay? Councillor Combrough. Thanks, Kobe. Kobe. Thank you, Mayor. I think it's a great report. In the past, this service had been performing poorly, with residents not receiving the effective treatment they deserve. The new service plan aims to deliver tailored care for each individual undergoing treatment. This model is very much person-centric, ranging from trauma care and psychological care. Very importantly, the service will be targeting specialised quality care for women, especially for BAME, and most vulnerable residents. I believe the new model will bring amazing life-changing results to our residents. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Anyone else? Anyone else? Councillor Wahid. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a comment. On page 253, our recommendation future model will achieve improvements for the service users. In terms of what process, in terms of how are you going to work and to collate those data in terms of how to provide a better, more culturally, obviously, sensitive service to residents? So, what is in process to collate those data in terms of making sure that the right services and... So, as I said earlier, much of the KPI information is set nationally, so where there are nationally mandated targets that we have to meet. Those are quite detailed and are linked to the additional supplementary grant that we have. But within the individual specifications, we will also develop local data, and that will be outlined within the specifications, the service specifications. So, we'll be looking at, as well as numbers into treatment, how successful those are. We'll be looking at the various diversity strands and protected characteristics to make sure that we see reflected in the service and the outcomes what we would expect for the community profile that we have. And that will be monitored really closely on a quarterly basis, is how we look at it currently. And I think, just to add to that, there is a service, you've shaped the services going forward. That's the other element of it. We have very well-defined targets that we have to meet for the Office of Department of Health and Social Care, as well. So, those go in on a monthly basis that we have to look at, supplementary grant. Okay, please, Tala. Thank you. Just to further add to what Carrie and Sharmin have said, in terms of the governance, we have a system sort of improvement group that officers and the relevant people sort of meet together, and they sort of monitor the data, as you were talking about, councillor. That group feed into the Combating Drugs Partnership Board, which myself, Sharmin, and other colleagues here are part of. So, there is a clear governance structure on performance monitoring, and it's something that members, officers, wider stakeholders, the third-party providers, it's quite a mixed stakeholder group where we monitor the performance. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? No-one else? Can I just thank the work that you all put in, and also working with us, Alibor, I, and for the briefing, grateful to you. It's a very good paper. We want to see a model that supports, you know, our very vulnerable members of our community. Enforcement is important, but treatment prevention is very important. So, I'm glad, you know, this new model will go a long way in representing that. So, reinforcing that's very important to us. Page 260, I just want to make sure, I know, I'm paying for the graph where you were explaining the consortium and how it's going to be embedded in the criminal justice service. The percentages mean, just for clarification, minute thing, percentage means the percentage of money. It's the money that's going to be allocated. It's going to be shared within the model. That's what it means. I just want to make sure that's for the record. It doesn't mean tell us something else, yeah? Okay? Afterwards, yeah? Okay. Other than that, we very much support the accommodation and the work, the lead members and Georgia. Is there anything you want to say? You're happy with it? Yeah? Good. We're very happy to move forward. So, once you've drafted the tender document and the specifications, if you can have a look, please, yeah? Okay. Thank you for your hard work. Yeah, we agree the accommodation. So, individually, one, we approve. Two, we approve. Three, we authorize. Four, we approve. And five, we note. Okay? For the record. Thank you. I'm glad you made me do that. Great. Gosh. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, thank you. The next one, two point – last one, two point, six point seven, agency worker contract, two year contract award through MATRIX. Appendix is all – yeah, accept it. Please, yeah, accept it. Absolutely. Is that done? Yeah. it. Absolutely. Is that done? Yeah? Okay. All agreed. Okay. So, Syed and Madame Julie. Thank you, Mayor. So, this is to appoint our agency contract, which was of the cost-effective framework, and this is to award our existing provider, who was providing for our agency staff the last four years, to extend it for another two years, and this is, in fact, something that we'll monitor going forward in terms of the savings. For the first time, we have allocated a good amount of savings of just under £900,000 for the year, and at the same time, we will also look at the seamless continuation of the service once we roll out the transformation plans in terms of using agency staff going forward. But the main thing is that we will track the savings that we put in place for the first time, and we should reasonably expect to receive this once we go through the process of reducing the usage of staff going forward. That's all from me. If you want to add anything, Julie? Sorry, can I just say, it's an urgent paper. The reason for the urgency is set out on page 318. Please, Julie. I don't have anything to add, Mayor. The officers have worked really hard on this, and I know reducing agency costs is a matter of priority for yourself and your Cabinet, and this is working towards the additional saving built into RMTFS of reducing costs of third-party spend, and it achieves both of those. So, I'll leave it to the officers to add any comments. Please. Please, Andy and our colleague there. Thank you, Mr Mayor, Cabinet. Good evening. So, as the Councillor mentioned, this is a two-year continuation of the arrangement with Matrix to allow us to continue without any bumps in the road whilst we start to really knuckle down and enforce that reduction in agency spend. On top of that, unusually, because it was a framework award, we managed to negotiate slightly outside of it some savings by being a bit more creative with the way they appoint people. So, currently, they pretty much appoint most people via a third-party agency. They do have their own clients' direct agency, which we are actively pushing on a monthly basis, and there is a schedule, whereby we will take people off of those third-party contracts with 10% to 15% agency costs and put them onto CDL with a 1.5% cost. And that's where the savings will come from. The reduction in the actual use of agency staff, I'll let Stuart speak to, but it does enable us to continue, as I say, without any bumps in the road while we knuckle down and do the other stuff. Yes, thank you. So, in terms of sort of proactively further driving down cost and usage, we've probably got a lot of sort of legacy long-term, well, not probably, we have a lot of long-term legacy agency workers and interims, and we've inherited some potentially high rates that the third-party agencies charge us. So, what we're able to do is potentially transfer those workers, as Andy talked about, over to Metrix's own payroll. We only then pay a payroll administration fee, which is approximately 1.5%. So, it obviously drives down some of that cost. significantly. In terms of being proactive, at the moment, we kind of default, go to the third-party agencies to fill, especially interim roles. What we're able to do with the right tools and people with the skills in HR is actually go out and search for those individuals ourselves rather than using third parties. And then, again, we're then able to bring those people through the CDL, which is the matrix payroll option, and only pay a 1.5% on cost, as opposed to anything between 10% and 16%, which Andy talked about. So, that could drive down some quite significant costs in the future. Also, what's really important is we have a large number of agency workers and interims. They sort of roll on, but there's probably a good chance that we haven't actually tried to fill those jobs recently. We may have tried the first time around, not advertised, not filled it, defaulted to go to agency or fill it on an interim basis, whereas we should actually go out again and practically try and fill those roles through advertising, through social media, through headhunting, etc. And, again, we can actually fill those roles ourselves, maybe on a fixed-term contract basis or permanent basis, and this obviously take away the reliance on the third parties. So, again, that can drive down the cost and certainly the usage. A big proportion of current workers have been with us for over two years, and because they've been through an agency for two years, it makes it easier for us to have conversations with those agencies about potentially transferring people across to us, and, again, maybe through that third party – sorry, the payroll option of Matrix, which, again, will be significantly cheaper. Just one point to add. Obviously, over the last couple of years, the council has been through some fairly significant insourcing down through that period, which I know was a concern previously. Thank you, grateful. Again, members, just be mindful there is a confidential element attached to this exam paper. So, we'll talk about figures, just be careful, yeah? It's okay. Thank you, thank you for the paper, and I'm grateful to Julie and Michelle Ablak for giving me an opportunity to understand this. Can I just – just to – in support, can I just say, I mean, this gives an opportunity for us an opportunity for us to explore our options going forward, and whether – and in-house move forward. So, any options that comes to us, can we explore that, please, yeah? And also, I mean, you – thank you for negotiating a good deal for us over the next two years in the region of just under £900,000, which is very good. I know we have a commitment as administration, and so does the office, and Julie's work very hard to – and matrix just, you know, get in a cut. However, we must say this, you know, numbers would have been far better than what it is now, but we have insourced a number of high-profile services since we've been here, and insourced in other services. Today, we decided to insource the noise nuisance, you know, out of the noise nuisance team. Insourced leisure, insourced, timeless homes, you know, the Veolia, former Veolia, the Waste Management Service, a number of agency staff that were there when we came in. It's unbelievable that the way you've given them an opportunity to become our staff, that's to be congratulated. So, we're on the right track, but we are a bigger and a better council than we were, you know, pre-2022, and growth has been introduced. You know, more people are working for us than they did pre-2022, so that's a good thing. Can I just ask, Julie, we've made certain assumptions in the MTFS, and just want to understand where we are and how are the departments performing in terms of meeting the targets, please, in this area? So, we have made assumptions, Mayor. It's the last day of the first month of our new financial year. So, even with the best will in the world, I know my colleagues are fast on the starting block, but if you recall, we made three commitments. One was around reduction of agency costs. It is the last day of the first month, and before this contract expires, you'll see that happen. The second one was a recruitment drag factor, and I believe you've all seen power be eye to day, so you can understand how in real time we now have oversight of recruitment arrangements and placement of agency staff. All corporate directors have made a commitment to deliver those. We have, of course, exempted some posts because it's critical for some services that we do. And then the third area is the reduction of the use of agency staff, and there are a number of strands to that. Some of it's around making staff permanent. You already did a significant piece of that last year with waste services. Some of it is around reducing sickness, and that's part of our HR transformation, which I know you'll hear more about. But I've no reason, and I've had assurance from all corporate directors, they're all familiar with what the recruitment drag factor is, what it concerns, unless they wish to do so now. Thank you. Grateful to you. Grateful to you. Okay, anyone? Any members? Anyone else? Any comments? Anyone? Councillor Kipria. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, we are relying on a lot of agency workers. But what we are doing, due to not relying on expensive agencies? We're not, we're not. It's only rarely, in exceptional circumstances, when there are interims. Interims we go for senior people, but that's not an interim. On the whole, it's more frontline officers, people who need to be agency staff. But even then, you know, our commitment, to drive it down, is there, for the record. Okay, thank you. Julie? Julie? I was just going to add to that, to give some further assurance. I think it was mentioned, a lot of agency contracts are long-term contracts. You inherited those contracts. And the fee, the high-cost agency staff we have, fit into that category. What this does is allow us to transfer those. It doesn't affect the pay the staff get. The staff often aren't highly paid. It's the margin that the third-party agency charges. And that's what this seeks to target. So it's really important. It's not going to affect individual pay of people who are doing a good job for us. But it is going to affect the additional premium cost associated with agency staff. The work that went into this paper, the work that went into the MTFS, the lead member, Julie, and the finance team, is to be congratulated. Thank you. Especially the drag factor. It's very good. We saw how the safety comes with drag factor. Councillor Cobbri, then, Mayun, please. I'll be very brief. For me, this is a win-win. We're utilizing expertise in how we articulate our contracts with service providers, who are those who operate agency companies, essentially. And by re-addressing that imbalance, it's giving us a saving of nearly a million pounds. So, you know, this is smart accounting. And well done to officers for sort of getting us streamlined in relation to this. Sure. Thank you. Mayun? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I welcome this report and the recommendation. But I just wanted to comment about social value, Mr. Mayor. I mean, I just wanted to know, do we know roughly the value of the social value? I know on 4.8, it says that actively supporting Tahaambas with social value activities. So, I wanted to know what activities previously was done. And also, you're working with WorkPath and various other organizations. Because, to me, it's not visible. I haven't seen anything like Matrix are doing. I mean, that's a constructive comment. I don't want to be too negative about it. But I think that it would be good to... You're getting the benefit of £900,000. That's the benefit squeeze you're getting from this two-year extension. Let Andy come in. He wants to come in and add anything further. Go on, Andy. It's absolutely right, Mr. Mayor. It's the additional, I would say, £900,000 to that which has already been achieved by using the framework which was then used by the London Collaboration, which is a collaboration of, I think, about 10 London local authorities, that then squeezed that price even further. So, it's almost we've had two quite nice bites at cherry. Yeah, I think the Deputy Mayor makes a really valid point about social value. And I know it's something that's really important to the Mayor and elected members. What 4.6 talks about and 4.8 is that matrix social value will be reported quarterly. And I think that it's important that members are cited on the social value returns that we get. And that should feed into... I know Abdul Razak, Kasim, is working on a social value report for you. But it would be good for you to see, line by line, what's it delivered in terms of outcomes? What have we been able to do with this? And I think that would be really helpful for you all. Thank you. Can I just say... No, just to support you, Mayum, and thank you, Julie, for picking that up. You know, because 99.9% of the contracts, we've got social value, minimum 10%. But it'd be good. Then we leave it to your goodwill and your professionalism and the departments, the corporate directors, to pick it up. With the planning game, we see it in numbers, we see it in figures. Our son, your team, brings it to our attention on a quarterly basis, we see it. Social value, I think we need to have... I'm glad we need to have... Say it, this is important, a quarterly report. So we see it in figures, what it means. We see it. What it is, where it's going, how it's brought in, etc. Please, and in the past, we haven't really had a coordinated approach when it comes to social value. And it's 10% of our contract. It's quite a lot. If it means jobs and opportunities, we want to see them, what it means in terms of personal. If it means financial contribution, we need to see it. Is that okay? So, yes, that's most overcome. But we need to keep a track on that paper. Go on, let's bring Mayum in. I'll bring you... Thank you. That's very useful information. But I think the angle I was coming through was about corporate stuff that we do as a council. For example, education awards, you know, the disability awards and the events we're doing. I think things like that, we can get support for that. I mean, that would be... Yeah. We'll be coming to you with requests for sponsorships. Thank you, Mayor. Just this morning, I had a meeting with the other team about KPIs and the target setting that we have. And we discussed exactly that to calculate social value and see how we can actually measure that. And I think the discussion's been going around for a while with various teams. I think we need to put into it an ownership and someone to drive it through, may that be with Andy or with SIT. But we need to sort of put it into KPIs and really measure it going forward. So that was discussed, and hopefully we should bring you some substance very soon. Anyone else? Anyone else? No one else? Can we agree with the recommendations, please, on page 319, two recommendations, authorised, authorised? We do authorised, yeah? OK. Thank you to Andy and our colleague there. OK. I think we've been to the end of our Cabinet meeting. There's no other business. Can we close it, please, yeah? Can the Cabinet members please stay behind? Cabinet members, can you just stay behind, please, yeah? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.