Agenda and minutes

Members are invited to disclose any interest in any of the items on the agenda at this point of the meeting.

Members may still disclose any interest in an item at any time prior to the consideration of the matter.

There were no disclosures of interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 8 January 2019 and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the Board meeting held on 8 January 2019 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The report before Members set out the quarter 3 performance information that had previously been reported to Cabinet and the Overview & Scrutiny Sub-Committees.

Members noted that there were 7 indicators that were rated as Red. These included:

·       % of stage 1 complaints closed in 15 days

·       % of stage 2 complaints closed in 20 days

·       % of housing repairs completed within the target timescale

·       % of “I” calls responded to within target by the police

·       % of “S” calls responded to within target by the police

·       Number of obese children (4-5 years)

·       Number of in-house foster carers

Members were advised that new complaint handling process was still a challenge hence the reason for the delay in the stage 1 and 2 complaint delays. The majority of the complaints were from Housing Service. The report highlighted the corrective action that was being taken to address the issues.

The Chairman of the Crime & Disorder Sub-Committee advised that the Sub-Committee had recently met with Havering BCU Commander Superintendent John Ross who had advised that the police were looking to improve response times and that extra officers had been deployed in the Upminster area.

Members noted the corrective action being taken to prevent obesity and were advised that a programme of educating children on healthy eating was in place.

Members advised that it may prove useful going forward if data trends were shown on a month to month basis.

In relation to the data provided the data particularly for Children’s, Adults and Housing were statutory as part of service inspections.

Members were also presented with a brief overview of the Corporate Plan for 2019/20.

Members noted that there were four themes these were:

·       Communities

·       Place

·       Opportunities

·       Connections

Members were advised that senior officers were meeting with Cabinet members on a weekly basis to shape and deliver the programme.

The Board noted the review performance and the corrective action that was being taken to improve this where necessary and also noted the overview of the Corporate Plan.

The report before Members summarised the recent work conducted by each Overview & Scrutiny Sub-Committee.

During the debate Members expressed concerns regarding to the effectiveness of the tri-borough policing arrangements in particular to response times, knife crime and modern day slavery. It was agreed that the Crime & Disorder Sub-Committee would forward Member’s concerns and continue to monitor the situation.

Members also expressed a concern as to whether the borough’s “Living” magazine adhered to the Code of Practice for Communications as there now appeared to be an “over emphasis” on the work of the Cabinet and little else.

The Board noted the summary.