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Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Simon Trevaskis
0208 7266000  Email: simon.trevaskis@croydon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

81/21

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 291 KB

To approve the minutes of the meetings held on the following dates as an accurate record: -

 

-       15 June 2021

-       7 September 2021 (To follow)

-       20 September 2021 (To follow)

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the meetings held on 15 June, 7 September and 20 September were agreed as an accurate record.

 

Councillor Ward provided an update on the previous request made by the Committee to access to information about the redevelopment of Fairfield Halls. It was confirmed that most of the information requested had either been provided or confirmation given that it could not be located. There were three items still to be confirmed, which were correspondence between Mott MacDonald and Council about their leaving the project, a report from Mott MacDonald on the phased refurbishment of the venue and further information on the use of Coast to Capital funding. It was expected that these outstanding items would be resolved before the next meeting of the Committee on 7 December 2021.

 

82/21

Disclosure of Interests

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.

 

Minutes:

At the start of this item the Chair of the Committee reminded Members of the requirements as set out in the Code of Conduct adopted by the Council on 11 October 2021.

 

There were no disclosures of interest made at the meeting.

 

83/21

Urgent Business (if any)

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.

 

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business for consideration at the meeting.

 

84/21

Budget & Medium Term Financial Strategy - Risks pdf icon PDF 93 KB

The Scrutiny & Overview Committee is asked to review the information provided in the ‘Budget & MTFS Risks’ presentation to inform its scrutiny of the Council’s budget.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a presentation on the key risks in the Council’s budget and Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS). The presentation was delivered by the Interim Director of Finance, Matthew Davis. A copy of the presentation can be found at the following link: -

https://democracy.croydon.gov.uk/documents/s33002/Appendix%20A%20-%20Budget%20MTFS%20Risks%20Presentation.pdf

Prior to the presentation, the Leader of the Council, Councillor Hamida Ali, introduced the item by highlighting the progress made in the past year which had included a focus upon introducing a robust governance framework and putting the Council’s finances on a sustainable footing. The Council was still on track to deliver its budget for 2021-22, which included £44m of savings and an increase in the level of reserves held. In addition, a way forward for Brick by Brick had been found through a managed build out process that would provide further new homes. The progress made by the Council had been reflected in feedback received from the Government’s Improvement and Assurance Panel.

Although significant progress had been made, delivering a balanced budget for 2022-23 remained a considerable challenge. The Council needed to find an additional £38m of savings, in addition to the £25m savings identified in the MTFS. £25m had been requested through the capitalisation process, which if not agreed, would require even further savings. As such the process to set the Council’s budget was following a painstaking approach, undertaking a holistic review of the entire budget.

The decision taken by the Cabinet, at its meeting on the previous evening, about the future of Purley Leisure Centre, could be taken as evidence that the administration was prepared to make difficult decisions to ensure a balanced budget was delivered. At the same time, consultations about the future delivery of the Libraries Service and children’s centres indicated that the Council was listening to local people to inform its decision making. The immediate focus for the Administration was to deliver a balanced budget which would ensure the future of Croydon remained in its own hands.

Following the introduction and the presentation the Committee was given the opportunity to ask questions about the information provided. The first set of questions sought clarification on a number of areas, with confirmation given that earmarked reserves were funds allocated by the Council to mitigate against specific identified risks. The general fund reserves were held for more unexpected events such as the pandemic. In theory the Council could just have general fund reserves, however best accounting practice recommended having earmarked reserves for known risks.

The Council Tax base had grown on average by 1.5% per annum over the past five years. This increase was equivalent to an extra £3m per year, which given the potential risk that the Council Tax base may stagnant or decline, needed additional consideration over how best to mitigate against this eventuality.

At present the Council retained approximately £71m of the business rates raised in the borough. When a business premises became empty, the owner was entitled to business rate relief for the first three months the premises  ...  view the full minutes text for item 84/21

85/21

Annual Complaints Report pdf icon PDF 914 KB

The Scrutiny & Overview Committee is asked to: -

1.    Note the information provided in the Annual Complaints Report.

2.    Consider whether it is satisfied with the performance of the Council in regard of complaints and that there is both corporate and political ownership of the process.

3.    Consider whether it is satisfied that the Council is effectively using complaints received to inform service improvement.

4.    Consider whether the data provided highlights any areas of concern that should be consider for further investigation by Scrutiny.

Minutes:

The Committee considered the Annual Complaints Report which provided analysis of the complaint received by the Council. It was highlighted that due to a combination of factors, including the pandemic and the financial challenges of the Council, the report was delayed last year and as a result two years’ worth of information had been provided.

During the introduction to the report the importance of the organisation using complaints to identify areas for improvement and understand the concerns of residents was highlighted. It was also highlighted that as part of the reorganisation of the Council, the Complaints Team and other resident access services had been brought together under the Chief Digital Officer. One of the key drivers for this was to better harness user feedback in driving service redesign and culture change across the organisation. An explanation was also provided for the Committee on what actually constituted a complaint being made, rather than a more general enquiry.

Following the introduction, the Committee was given the opportunity to ask questions about the information provided. The first question concerned the information provided on the Council’s website about the complaints process and whether this needed to be reviewed. It was confirmed that the web page was being reviewed to make the difference between a service request and complaint clear for the public.

It was noted that the public may contact specific services directly to make a complaint and as such it was questioned whether these were being reliably recorded. It was advised that the standard of complaint recording varied from service to service, with some being very stringent in their reporting. Others were less so, but this could be for a variety of reasons, including the volume of contacts and whether an issue was resolved at the first point of contact.

It was highlighted that the Complaints team always tried to convey to other services that complaints should not be viewed as purely negative, instead they should be used to inform service improvement. It was an ongoing process to educate services on what a good complaints handling process looked like.

In response to a question about the reasons for changing the complaints handling software used by the Council, it was advised that the license cost for the previous system had been expensive and did not deliver the functionality expected. The new cost-effective solution was a low code system that could be maintained in-house. It was confirmed that although other local authorities used a range of software solutions, the new system chosen by the Council was used by others.

Given the significant issues reported within the Housing Service earlier in the year, it was questioned how the Committee could be reassured that there was an adequate system in place to raise a ‘red flag’ if a lot of complaints were received on a specific problem. It was advised that a lot of lessons had been learnt in the Housing Service, with a new system in place to log complaints. There was still work to do  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85/21

86/21

Scrutiny & Overview Work Programme 2021-22 pdf icon PDF 100 KB

The Scrutiny & Overview Committee is asked to:-

1.            Note the current position of its Work Programme for 2021-22,

2.            To consider whether there are any other items that should be added to the work programme.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered its work programme for the remainder of 2021-2022.

Resolved: That the Scrutiny and Overview Committee work programme be noted.

87/21

Exclusion of the Press and Public

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.”

 

 

Minutes:

This motion was not required.