Agenda item

To receive reports from the Chairs of the Council’s Scrutiny Committees in accordance with Standing Order 36. The reports have been attached as follows:

11.1    Resources & Public Realm Scrutiny Committee

11.2    Community & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee

(Agenda republished to include the update from the Resources & Public Realm Scrutiny Committee on 17 November 2023)

NOTED the update reports provided by the Chair of the Resources & Public Realm and Chair of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committees.

During the open question time session Councillor Lorber took the opportunity to highlight the concerns previously raised at what he felt had been the limited scope of the discussion permitted in response to the call-in on the decision to approve the Barham Park Trust Accounts at the Resources & Public Realm Scrutiny Committee call-in meeting held to deal with the matter.

Eligible for Call-In: No

Before being presented with the updates from each Scrutiny Committee, the Mayor reminded members the time set aside for this item was 12 minutes, with each Chair having up to three minutes in which to highlight any significant issues arising from the work of their Committees.  Once these updates had been provided, the remaining time available would then be opened up for any other non-Cabinet members to question (without the need for advance notice) the Scrutiny Committee Chairs on matters relating to the work of their Committee.

Councillor Conneely was then invited to introduce the update report on the work being undertaken by the Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee, with the following issues highlighted:

·             Referring to the Committee’s ongoing focus and work in relation to development and delivery of the Council’s Climate Emergency Strategy, members were advised that this would be subject to further review early in 2024 with the contribution made by Action for the Climate Emergency in Brent as part of their earlier deputation also welcomed.

·             The Committee had met twice since the previous update with one of those meetings having been to consider a call-in relating to the decision made by the Barham Park Trust Committee to approve their accounts for 2022-23.  Having consider the concerns raised under the call-in in relation to accuracy of the accounts and noted that the Chief Executive had also (independently of the call-in) commissioned a separate high-level consultancy based review on the concerns raised the Committee had agreed, as an outcome of the call-in, to refer the original decision made on the Accounts back to the Trust Committee for reconsideration.

·             The Committee had also continued to actively monitor the Council’s financial forecast position and medium-term financial outlook along with the risks and uncertainties regarding the budget setting position for 2024 – 25.  Having noted the current £13m overspend forecast and unprecedented nature of demand driving these pressures in relation to the rise in homelessness and reduction in the supply of suitable accommodation, the Committee had welcomed the actions being taken in response to mitigate against and seek to address the pressures identified.  Whilst recognising the efforts being made to maintain a financially resilient, balanced and sustainable budget position the Committee had recognised how difficult this had become given the ongoing reductions in core funding received by central government and overall level of savings which had needed to be made as a result since austerity had been introduced in 2010.  The position would continue to be kept under review by the Committee with the issues highlighted also due to be considered by the Scrutiny Budget Task Group which members were advised had recently commenced its review as part of the budget consultation process for 2024-25.

The Mayor thanked Councillor Conneely for her update and then invited Councillor Ketan Sheth as chair of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee to introduce the update report on the work being undertaken by that Committee.  The following issues were highlight as part of the update:

·             The broad and dynamic nature of the Committee’s work programme being delivered during 2023-24 with the Chair taking the opportunity to thank Helen Coombes (as Interim Corporate Director Care, Health & Wellbeing) and Zahur Khan (as Corporate Director Communities & Regeneration) for the support they had provided during their time at Brent and also to welcome Rachel Crossley as newly appointed Corporate Director Care, Health and Wellbeing and Alice Lester as newly appointed Interim Corporate Director Communities & Regeneration.

·             Key issues considered since the previous report had included an update on the outcome of Ofsted’s inspection of Local Authority Children Services with the Committee having welcomed the overall rating of “good” which had been received across all areas.  As was usual practice, the inspection had identified a number of areas for improvement on which the Committee would continue to monitor progress as part of the action plan being developed in response.  The Committee had also reviewed progress on implementation of the SEND Strategy as well as the work being undertaken between the Council and a cluster of schools in Harlesden on the Delivering Better Value programme, aligned to work being delivered through Brent Health Matters, Family Wellbeing Centres and the Intervention First Teaching Programme focussed on the way localities worked together to support children.

·             Upcoming areas for focus at the Committee’s next meeting included Brent Housing Management, including an update on tenant satisfaction measures and responsive repairs performance, the outcomes being achieved through the New Single Homeless Prevention Service and a focus on the impact of the new pilot introduced as part of the Landlord Selective Licensing scheme.

·             The ongoing and active engagement of the Committee in the work of the North West London Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee Brent, which Councillor Ketan Sheth continued to Chair.

·             As a final issue the Chair also took the opportunity to congratulate Brent Health Matters and the volunteer team at the Central Mosque of Brent for the awards received at the recent North West London Health Equalities summit.  This had been the first held in the area with the aim of reflecting on progress being made in addressing health inequalities and encouraging the development of wider community led engagement and inclusion across the region.

The Mayor thanked Councillors Ketan Sheth and Conneely for presenting their updates and it was RESOLVED that the contents of both reports be noted.

Following the updates provided, the Mayor advised that the remainder of time available would be open for questions from non-cabinet members to the Scrutiny ChairsThe Mayor reminded members of the need to ensure that questions raised were focused on the updates provided or the work being undertaken by the relevant Committee.

As a result, Councillor Lorber took the opportunity to once again highlight the concerns raised at what he felt had been the limited scope of the discussion permitted in response to the call-in on the decision to approve the Barham Park Trust Accounts at the Resources & Public Realm Scrutiny Committee call-in meeting held to deal with the matter.

The Mayor advised that as no specific question had been raised for the Chair of either Scrutiny Committee to respond on, she would move to the next item and thanked all members for their contribution.