The Overview and Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the council's transformation progress, organisational performance against the Building a Fairer Newham strategy, and grants funding, and to review the annual scrutiny work programme. The committee approved the 2025/26 Annual Scrutiny Work Programme and agreed to review items for the October meeting.

Transformation Progress

The committee reviewed the transformation progress since May 2025, receiving an update on the Transforming Newham for the Future programme from Ravi Dhindsa, Director of Transformation. The programme focuses on:

• Making more services available online
• Joining up services to better support residents
• Being a lean and efficient council

A total of 23 projects are in scope of the programme, with 13 in the delivery stage. New contact channels, such as Chatbot and Live Chat, have been introduced to improve resident experience and reduce telephone demand. The committee heard that new digital journeys are being launched to make more services available online 24/7, including housing register medical assessments and registrar booking forms.

The committee also heard about the piloting of new tools to cut administration and paperwork for frontline staff, such as Magic Notes, which enables meetings to be recorded and generates a transcript in a structured summary.

The report also addressed safeguarding against optimism bias and risk management through baselining, benchmarking and validation. The original savings target of the Transforming Newham for the Future programme, based on work commissioned from PwC¹, was £23 million. However, the current forecast for three-year savings stands at approximately £18 million due to issues with the accuracy and completeness of the data supplied.

Building a Fairer Newham - Organisational Performance

The committee examined how Newham Council performs and delivers the Corporate Strategy, Building a Fairer Newham. The Building a Fairer Newham Integrated Performance Report 2024 – 2025 sets out the re-prioritised Building a Fairer Newham as approved by the Mayor and Cabinet in February 2025, and the council's Transforming Newham for the Future Plan as approved by the Mayor and Cabinet in August 2024.

The report highlighted progress and challenges in several key areas, including:

• Educational achievements
• The Eat for Free programme
• Employment through Our Newham Work
• Housing Service
• Knife crime

The report also provided an update on the Transforming Newham for the Future programme, which is central to addressing these performance challenges. The programme has been restructured, streamlining from eight to three focused programmes that directly support improved service delivery.

Grants Funding

The committee reviewed how grants funding is maximised, examining Newham Council's strategic positioning to attract grants, grant-seeking strategies, mapping of external funding opportunities against corporate priorities and capacity.

Work Programme

The committee considered the draft Annual Scrutiny Work Programme for 2025/26 and agreed to review items for the October meeting. The OSC Cover Report Scrutiny Work Programme 2025/2026 noted that effective scrutiny should have a defined impact, with the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the subsidiary commissions making recommendations that will result in a tangible difference to the work of the authority.

Appointments

The committee considered the appointment of members of Scrutiny Commissions, Scrutiny Inquiry Working Parties and membership of external bodies for each agreed priority topic agreed from the Scrutiny Work Programme.

Forward Plan of Key Decisions

The committee reviewed the Forward Plan of Key Decisions and noted the forthcoming Cabinet business.

Scrutiny Chairs' Updates

The committee received oral updates from the Chairs of LB Newham's Scrutiny Commissions.