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.

Presentation attached

Members received a presentation on the Covid-19 Outbreak Management Plan.

The presentation outlined the number of current cases of Covid-19 in the borough. At present the number of positive tests in the borough ranged between 7 and 14. The current rate was approximately 5 positive tests per 100,000 residents. These figures were from people testing positive in the borough and not from BHRT hospital admission numbers.

Officers advised that the Coronavirus had not disappeared and there were still low levels of transmission as the lockdown was easing.

Lockdown had controlled the first wave of the disease but had itself caused economic and health harm.

Relaxation of social distancing was underway and there was no sign, so far, that new cases were increasing but the risk of further waves remained, which in turn would cause more deaths and significant ongoing health problems.

NHS test and trace had also been launched as additional control measure

The aim of the outbreak control planwas to minimise further harm to local residents and prevent local outbreaks by maintaining public support and compliance with social distancing and the NHS Test &Trace system. This wouldensure the borough was Covid secure and that an effective response to bring local outbreaks under control could be mobilised when required.

The current communications encouraged residents to “Keep Havering Safe” by carrying out hand washing and maintaining social distancing.

The Council was assisting with ensuring settings across the borough were compliant with relevant guidance, prioritising higher risk settings and providing support to encourage compliance with enforcement where this was necessary.

The report also highlighted the outbreak management plan process and the governance arrangements for the outbreak plan.

In relation to care homesresidents were highly vulnerable as had been evidenced across the country and worldwide. The next step would be to focus on the use of mass testing to minimise risk posed by asymptomatic carriage and to do more to prevent entry of Covid into the homes. The very elderly also sometimes developed different symptoms aside from the usual high temperature, continuous cough and changes in taste and smell. There were also plans in place to minimise the amount of different homes that agency staff visited to keep the virus controlled.

With regards to schools the priority was to minimise harm to children in  schools as closures harmed children and the economy. DfE guidance regarding social distancing and the physical redesign of classrooms to accommodate children of essential workers by the use of extended bubbles had enabled the return of Years Reception, 1 and 6. Schools were also considering staggering start and finish times for children. Transport to and from schools could prove to be a problem for many families and there was also likely to be an increase in private vehicle use as the use of public transport was currently discouraged.

In response to a question relating to businesses keeping open books of visitors which could lead to GDPR breaches and could encourage people to leave false details  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

Presentation attached

The presentation detailed what measures the Council had taken pre Covid-19 to help introduce smarter working including the roll out of IT equipment and the rationalisation of office space which enabled staff to work from home.

The presentation also highlighted which Council services had received Windows 10 enabled devices.

Officers were currently using Zoom for meetings but it was planned to migrate over to Microsoft Teams in the future.

Members were advised that staff completed e-learning followed by a checklist e-form and condensed DSE assessment (special requirements),which were then processed by the Health and Safety team before items were collected

The Council had introduced an Innovative drive through collection process which was now considered gold standard and being adopted across London. To date Over 700 requests for office equipment had been received.

The presentation also highlighted the S4 project which had started with the discovery phase. The project would consider how the Council could streamline and reduce the use of paper. As the majority of staff were working from home, the enforced break from using printers regularly was also an opportunity for the S4 project to rationalise printers.

In response to a question officers confirmed that they would ensure staff were reminded about GDPR and customer confidentiality.

Officers also confirmed that plans were in place to allow some members of staff to work in the workplace if they were unable to work from home.

The Board noted the presentation.

Report attached

The report before Members gave an update on the future of the Finance service provision to LB Havering following the decision taken at the 26 June 2020 oneSource Joint Committee meeting to vary the  current Agreement.

The oneSource Joint Committee had agreed to the request of LB Newham and LB Bexley to make the following changes to the shared arrangement:-

·        Bexley to withdraw all services from oneSource.

·        Newham  to withdraw from all Finance Services except for the Finance services provided currently by the Transactional Team, Treasury and Pensions and the Oracle Systems Support Team (the latter initially for one year only).

These changes would create additional costs for Havering which would lose some of the economies of scale that had been achieved by sharing services. Under the Partnership Agreement between the three boroughs, the two boroughs requesting the withdrawal of services had to compensate Havering for the additional costs this change created

In light of the decision made by the oneSource Joint Committee there was a need to review the finance service for Havering.

Other possibilities included sharing services with another provider and there was also the introduction of the new Fusion system with should provide efficiencies.

The annual compensation figure was in the region of £346,000.and would cover the loss of revenue from the shared agreement. This however was only payable for 30 months.

The Board considered the report and made the following recommendations.

·        That Cabinet reports on these issues should  be more detailed

·        That the Board have sight of the papers that went to the Joint-Committee.

·        That the Board be advised how the compensation figures were calculated.

Report attached

Members carried out pre-decision scrutiny of a report which sought authorisation to award a contract up to the value of £5,050,000 contained within the overall budget of £5,500,000 that had previously been agreed by Cabinet as part of the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy.

Land of 5.5 hectares was identified adjacent to the existing cemetery, sufficient to provide burial space for approximately 30 years at that time. To date only phase 1 of this land had been developed.  A report had previously been agreed by Cabinet which agreed to the further extension of Upminster Cemetery (Phases 2 & 3).

Officers confirmed there had been an increase in burials without the pandemic factored in and that Havering currently carried out approximately 300 burials a year.

Members asked if the access road could be extended at the entrance as at present it was a very tight entrance.

The Board considered the report and made the following recommendations.to the Executive;

·        That the section of the report re procurement and the Council’s preferred way of doing this be strengthened.

·        That the possibility of extending the entrance or access road be explored.