Tag: People Overview and Scrutiny committee

Havering’s People Overview and Scrutiny Committee, 5th March 2024 (part one)

This committee is a tragic commentary on the failure of three unnamed councillors to fulfil their obligations. There are three vacancies on this committee, two years after the 2022 election.1

The People committee should have 12 members. It has nine. Two HRA and an East Havering RA councillor have let the side down. This damages the committee’s ability to do its statutory duty. Topic groups can’t be formed because there are too few councillors to fill places.

Six HRA councillors aren’t on any of the three Overview and Scrutiny Committees. They are: Councillors Edwards, Glass, Godwin, Misir,2 Williams and Wood. In the six months from 19th September 2023, five councillors had a maximum commitment of five meetings.3 John Wood’s commitment was three meetings.

Remembering that councillors are paid £200 a week, this ‘workload’ isn’t onerous. The vacancies on the People committee could be filled without inconveniencing anyone. Meanwhile, Darren Wise, East Havering RA, hasn’t got a place on any Overview and Scrutiny committee. He will fit in beautifully on the People committee to make up the numbers.

Overview and Scrutiny is central to local democracy. It is outrageous that this committee isn’t at full strength. Havering is being sold short.

Addendum: Attendance

Ray Morgon and Gillian Ford should get a grip. Two HRA members* were absent without substitutions. Given HRA’s two vacancies they were actually minus four councillors.

*Jacqueline McArdle and Julie Wilkes

Notes

1 Agenda for People Overview & Scrutiny Sub Committee on Tuesday, 5th March, 2024, 7.00 pm | The London Borough Of Havering

2 Robby Misir has just joined HRA and so the sympathetic figure should be five.

3 Councillors attendance summary, 19 September 2023 – 13 March 2024 | The London Borough Of Havering

Havering’s People Overview and Scrutiny Committee, 5th December 2023

Jason Frost1 made a convincing speech in December’s council meeting when requesting that his committee be sub-divided because of its overwhelming responsibilities. He was brushed off by Ray Morgon. This 27 minutes meeting2 proved Ray correct. Jason’s absence added further substance to Ray’s opinion.3

Frankie Walker chaired the meeting with aplomb.

There was an excellent discussion about the ‘hub’ for autistic adults. It’s in Romford Mall, the lease of which is very expensive and consumes most of its grant. Bryan Vincent (@17)2 said only 3.1% of adult autism sufferers use the facility, which means it fails 96.9%. Officers said this challenge will be met by the hub becoming ‘mobile’, using council facilities. Matt Stanton (@22)4 made the critical point that autism sufferers had an unemployment rate of 78%. He speculated this was due to poor support from DWP and the council. His insight was confirmed by the director who said that strategies were in place to correct this systemic failure. Matt built on a comment by Darren Wise (@15) about financing and forward visibility so proper planning could take place. The director supported them, describing multi-year contracts.

Gillian Ford (@9) attended the meeting. Neither she nor the chair understood her constitutional role. She entered the scrutiny debate, which is inappropriate. Cabinet members can only answer policy questions at scrutiny committees. The best mechanism for this is an unambiguous Q&A session. There haven’t been Q&A sessions in any Overview and Scrutiny committee and they ought to be introduced.

Notes

1 Annotator Player (sonicfoundry.com) Jason Frost (1:40) Time refers to the webcast See Havering Council Meeting, 22nd November, 2023 (part two) – Politics in Havering

2 Agenda for People Overview & Scrutiny Sub Committee on Tuesday, 5th December, 2023, 7.00 pm | The London Borough Of Havering Times refer to the YouTube webcast available here

3 Along with cllrs Benham and Wilks.

4 Cllr Stanton isn’t on the committee but attended for the scrutiny discussion

Havering People Overview and Scrutiny Committee, 6th December, 2022

This meeting was ‘technical’ and gave an interesting insight into the new Overview and Scrutiny committee structure. Committees have always had the ability to create Topic groups but usually didn’t. These are important issues and the committee has formed working parties. These will scrutinize the principal issues and produce a report for the committee. If additional resources are needed the Overview and Scrutiny Board will vet the proposition before transferring it to Council.

Darren Wise, lead member, will investigate social care for adults (see Addendum One). A much bigger topic than he was unaware of and he massively underestimated the time implications. He believed the Topic could be done in about three meetings. Jason Frost, the chair, (8 minutes) hinted this might be inadequate. Darren will be on a sharp learning curve.

The second topic (see Addendum Two) is investigating school readiness. Frankie Walker, lead member, gave an impassioned introduction (14 minutes) complete with a blizzard of statistics. Frankie is principally concerned with the impact of poverty. The key indicator is Free School Meals but there are other elements. She’s driven by the notion that current resources might not be used effectively. Jason was helpful pointing out there are both very poor wards and wards with significant pockets of poverty (26 minutes). Frankie insisted that the first point of call would be very poor wards so that best practice could be developed.

At last, ‘backbenchers,’ are taken seriously.

 

Addendum One: Social care for adults

  • To understand the current SEND and social care provisions for adults to assess their strengths and weaknesses · Regulate and create a local authority quality assurance process and written framework for current and future SEND adult provisions to meet · Signposting for current 16-25 provisions and employment opportunities · Investigate current provisions for 25+ and explore the areas to improve employability opportunities · Scrutinise Havering borough’s own delivery to modernise/update the current service model in place.

Source (Public Pack)Agenda Document for People Overview & Scrutiny Sub Committee, 06/12/2022 19:00 (havering.gov.uk) p11

Addendum Two: School Readiness

  • Defining what school readiness is in accordance to the Government guidelines and Havering’s framework · To understand and explore the inequalities within Early Years children’s school readiness and the effect of this on individual’s long-term development · Reviewing how non-English speaking, ethnic minority parents access Havering’s resources

Source (Public Pack)Supplementary Agenda Agenda Supplement for People Overview & Scrutiny Sub Committee, 06/12/2022 19:00 (havering.gov.uk) p1

Note

1 Annotator Player (sonicfoundry.com)