Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes of the Scrutiny & Overview Committee meetings held on 10 and 25 February 2020 and the Health & Social Care Sub-Committee meeting held on 10 March 2020 as an accurate record.

The minutes of the Scrutiny & Overview Committee meetings held on 10 & 25 February 2020 and Health & Social Care Sub-Committee meeting held on 10 March 2020 were confirmed as a correct record subject to the following amendment to 25 February minutes:-

Item 4: Review of the Safer Croydon Partnership & Violence Reduction Network

Amendment to Recommendation 5 from

‘Consideration should be given to what quantifiable data on outcomes can be provided when the Safer Croydon Partnership is next reviewed by the Committee to allow a judgement to be made on the performance of the Partnership.’

To

‘Consideration should be given to what quantifiable data on outcomes can be provided when the Safer Croydon Partnership and other infrastructure organisations are reviewed by the Committee to allow a judgement to be made on their performance.’

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

There were no disclosures of interest made at the meeting.

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

There were no items of urgent business.

To scrutinise the response to the Covid-19 crisis. (documents to follow).

In order to gain an overview of the ongoing response to the covid-19 pandemic and the next steps as the response moved into the recovery phase the Committee was provided with a series of presentations from the Council and Health Care partners.

Presentation were provided at the meeting by the following:-

·         Councillor Tony Newman – Leader of the Council

·         Jo Negrini – Chief Executive

·         Guy Van Dichele – Executive Director for Health, Wellbeing & Adults

·         Shelley Davies – Director of Education & Youth Engagement

·         Rachel Flowers – Director of Public Health

·         Matthew Kershaw - Chief Executive of Croydon Health Service NHS Trust and Place Based Leader for Health

Copies of the presentations given at the meeting can be found on the following link:-

https://democracy.croydon.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=166&MId=2297&Ver=4

During the course of these presentations the following points were noted:

The Leader of the Council

·      Since the start of the crisis there had been almost 300 deaths in the borough that could be attributed to covid-19.

·      At the time of the meeting there was over 14,000 people in the borough included on the Government’s Shielding Programme, which identified vulnerable people who should be self-isolating and as such may require additional support. The Council had been working hard to provide support for these residents and thanks was given to all the community volunteers and partners organisations in helping to coordinate this response.

·      The Local Government Association had estimated that there would be a shortfall of £10b in local authority funding as a direct result of the pandemic. The Government had previously provided assurance that local authorities would have their costs reimbursed, but to date there had been no official confirmation on the exact amount of funding or when it would be allocated which was creating financial uncertainty.

·      As well as expenditure on the covid-19 response another financial repercussion of the crisis was the loss of income in areas such as parking which would have a significant impact on the Council’s budget. A Finance Review Panel had been established to review the Council’s budget in light of the covid-19 crisis. The emphasis of any savings plan arising from the work of the Panel would be to protect front line services and to continue to support to the most vulnerable in the borough.

Director of Public Health

·         There had been a reduction in the number of positive covid-19 tests in the borough with the current average being one to two positive tests each day.

·         In the same way as other areas with significant inequality, Croydon had been hit hard by the virus with the infection rate for the borough being the third highest in London.

·         There were three separate elements to the pandemic which were hospital cases, community cases and care home cases.

·         Since the start of the outbreak weeks 12 to19 had seen the most excess deaths in the borough, however in week 19 there was fewer deaths attributed to covid-19.

·         At this stage it was not possible to determine the exact impact of the virus upon  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24/20

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

This motion was not required.