Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 12 July & 31 July 2012 and authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 12 July & 31 July 2012 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the chairman.

Oral Presentation by officers

At the request of the Committee, the Manager of Committee and Overview & Scrutiny Support provided an overview on the work of the Local Government Ombudsman.

The Committee was taken through the role of the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) and the various stages before a case usually gets to be reviewed by the Ombudsman service.

The Committee was informed that the LGO has jurisdiction over the following public services:

–        Local authorities

–        Greater London Authority

–        Police, fire and waste authorities

–        School admission and exclusion procedures

–        Environment Agency (flood protection issues)

–        Certain other public authorities (not relevant to Havering)

That the LGO role is to investigates complaints of “maladministration that has caused an injustice”

Ombudsman’s recommendations on finding maladministration

•         Must be reported to full Council

That in respect for Housing complaints:

1. Housing was managed by Homes in Havering, Council remained responsible in Ombudsman’s eyes
2. Localism Act 2011 transfers housing complaints to Housing Ombudsman
3. Transfer effective April 2013

Under new procedure, complaints about housing management can only be made by:

•         An MP

•         A Councillor

•         A “tenant panel”

•         The complainant – butonly once internal complaints procedures have been exhausted and at least eight weeks have passed since then

Housing Ombudsman’s findings are enforceable by court order

The presentation also detailed the total decisions on complaints from the council between 1 April 2011 – 31 March 2012. The decisions were laid out by service area involvement.

Report Attached

The Committee considered a report that set out the Council’s performance against the Living Ambition Goal - Value for Quarter 1 of 2012/13.

Cabinet had directed that all of the Council’s Corporate Performance Indicators would be reported to Value Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The report outlined the performance of the Council’s Corporate Performance Indicators for the first quarter (April-June 2012 against the five Living Ambition Goals of the Corporate Plan.

Following the abolition of the national performance framework at the end of 2010, and the requirement for local authorities to report on a statutory set of National Indicators, the Council had undertaken a comprehensive review of all indicators and, in consultation with Services, rationalised the number that would continue to be collected locally. 

The list of performance indicators was reviewed again for 2012/13 and the revised list was approved by CMT and Cabinet. The list included 68 Corporate Performance Indicators, 39 of which were measured quarterly and reported to CMT, Cabinet and the Value Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the remaining indicators are collected and reported on an annual or bi-annual basis only.

The report before the Committee identified where the Council was performing well in (Green) and not so well in (Amber and Red). The variance for the ‘RAG’ rating was:

• Red = more than 5% off the Quarter Target
• Amber = up to 5% off the Quarter Target
• Green = on or above the Quarter Target

Where performance is more than 5% off the Quarter Target and the RAG rating is ‘red’, a ‘Corrective Action’ box has been included in the report. This highlights what action the Council was taking to address poor performance where appropriate.

Also included for indicators measured quarterly was a Direction of Travel (DoT) column which compared performance in Quarter 1 2012/13 with performance in Quarter 1 2011/12. The green arrow symbol (é) signifies performance is better than Quarter 1 2011/12, the black arrow symbol (è) signifies performance is the same as Quarter 1 2011/12 and the red arrow symbol (ê) signified performance was worse than Quarter 1 2011/12.

The report detailed that of the 39 indicators measured quarterly, 37had been given a RAG status in Quarter 1. For one indicator a RAG status was not applicable and for the other indicator the information was not yet available.  In summary 26 indicators (70%) are rated as ‘green’ and 11 indicators (30%) are rated as ‘amber’ (1 indicator) or ‘red’ (10 indicators).

The Committee considered the Corporate Performance report for Quarter one. The following Head of Services, Adult Social Care, Head of Development & Building Control, Head of Service for Housing & Public Protection and Interim Head of Children & Young People Services were present and had the opportunity to outline the challenges that has led to their respective services missing their targets.

The Head of Development & Building Control explained that there was a rush of applications earlier in the year, seeking to be approved before the Mayor’s new CIL came  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

Update report on the Havering Strategic Partnership Annual Conference 2012 to the Committee

At the request of the Committee, Members received an annual update on the Havering Strategic Partnership. The report outlined the Havering Strategic Partnership (HSP) 7^th Annual Conference and the outcomes from the event.

The 2012 conference celebrated the work of the partnership over the last ten  years and the many successes that had been achieved by working together.

Following the conference, an evaluation was undertaken to determine the value of holding an annual conference.  Overall, feedback from partners was extremely positive.

The report informed the Committee that partners were also asked as part of the feedback if there were any topics that the partners would like to see at future Havering Strategic Partnership events. The feedback showed that they would like to see more local business involvement and business related topics, and more workshops on what partner organisations are doing.  Ensuring that partnership working was kept as a priority for the borough even after the demise of the Local Area Agreement was also an emerging theme.

The Committee noted the report.