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Agenda, decisions and minutes

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Contact: Victoria Lower
020 8726 6000 x14773  Email: 
victoria.lower@croydon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

93/20

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:

There were none.

94/20

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:

The Director of Public Health announced that Covid cases recorded in Croydon had doubled in the past month, which had risen to 197.3 cases per 100,000, which had led to an increase in hospitalisation and deaths. The spike was apparent in all age groups. The council intended to increase testing capacity, however testing was only one aspect of prevention and residents needed to limit social interaction and follow restrictions. A new Tier 3 lockdown would commence from midnight on 15 December. The Director of Public Health stated that she would ensure staff and residents were updated as information filtered through from central sources.

 

The Leader thanked the Director of Public health for her messaging and welcomed further information as it became available. It was close to the Christmas period window of rules relaxations and she said everyone must consider carefully their behaviour during that time.

 

The Leader of the opposition thanked the Director of Public Health and council staff for their ongoing work and his thoughts were with those personally affected by the virus, families and businesses. He stated that everyone needed to take personal responsibility seriously during this time.

95/20

Croydon Renewal Improvement Plan update pdf icon PDF 267 KB

Cabinet Member: Leader of the Council, Councillor Hamida Ali

Officer: Interim Chief Executive, Katherine Kerswell

Key decision: no

Additional documents:

Decision:

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

 

RESOLVED: To

 

1.    Note the updates in relation to the Croydon Renewal Improvement Plan; and

 

2.    Note that the Chief Executive, in accordance with the delegation approved by Council on 28 November, will submit to MHCLG the proposal for a capitalisation direction on 15 December and provide an update to the Cabinet meeting as this progresses.

Minutes:

The Leader introduced the report which provided an update on the development of the submission to the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) in support of a capitalisation request and the Croydon Renewal Improvement Plan in relation to the financial challenges the council faced. The plan set out the council’s position, risk, principles, priorities and its savings plan. The improvement journey clearly set out the level of change necessary for financial recovery and the task of management to balance the council’s budget. On the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) there still remained a budgetary gap of £150 million. The council recognised the scale of improvement required with a total of 400 recommendations to honour. It was cultural change as well as structural changes required to support the renewal journey and overarching improvement and no focus on specific functions. To assure delivery there would be an Improvement and Assurance Board established which would be panelled by external advisors appointed by MHCLG and oversight from the Scrutiny and Overview Committee and the General Purposed and Audit Committee (GPAC).

 

The Interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) stated that the submission request was unchartered territory for the council and discussions with MHCLG throughout the past months had assisted the journey. The request to MHCLG was a detailed document and members would be updated with further details following the final submission.

 

The Director of Finance, Investment & Risk and Section 151 Officer stated that Table 4.7, Page 8 of the report, detailed the capitalisation requirement the council was requesting. Officers were working to ensure, investigate and justify the values listed. The request was for £150 million in total; cumulatively accounting for requirements of £70 million for 2020/21, £50 million for 2021/22, £25 million for 2022/23 and £5 million for 2023/24. The council was looking to deliver £80 million of savings in the MTFS, however there were still gaps remaining and they needed to produce more savings and less growth. Within this plan, they were contributing £5 million per annum to build the reserves towards a net goal of £57 million.

 

The Director of Policy and Partnership stated that the improvement plan detailed in the report built on Croydon Renewal Plan adopted, following agreement at Cabinet on 25 November 2020. There were circa 400 recommendations drawn together by internal and independent expert lead workstreams tied into a single plan. The plan drew best practice from the NHS, central government and other local authorities who had actioned similar improvement journeys. The report referenced the learning and best practice for the project delivery in Croydon. The planning stage was critical to the journey, which would continue during talks with MHCLG. Going forward, the council required a stronger management structure, clear accountability, more robust monitoring agents and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The discussion with MHCLG was so far successful and they had informed the council of milestones and outcomes they wanted to see.

 

The Cabinet Member for Croydon Renewal thanked officers for their extensive work on the report. He  ...  view the full minutes text for item 95/20

96/20

Quarter 2 Budget Monitoring pdf icon PDF 727 KB

Cabinet Member: Cabinet Member for Croydon Renewal, Councillor Stuart King and Cabinet Member for Resources and Financial Governance, Councillor Callton Young

Officer: Executive Director Resources, Jacqueline Harris Baker

Key decision: no

Decision:

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

 

RESOLVED: To note

 

1.     The net projected general fund financial overspend of £30.2m for the full year as at the end of month 6 quarter 2, September 2020 which includes all COVID-19 related expenditure and corporately held income of £38.0m received to date or anticipated from the government.

 

2.     A number of risks could materialise which would see the variance increase. These include dividends and interest receivable from Brick By Brick (both historic accrued and in-year expectations) of £31m, and pending external audit verification of assumptions around 2019/20 accounting treatment of MRP and Transformation funding that could impact by £5.8m. Should all these risks which total £36.8m materialise, the impact on the current forecast overspend of £30.2m is an increased overspend to £67m, with general fund reserves of just £7.4m.

 

3.     The above figures are predicated on forecasts from month six to the year end and therefore could be subject to change. Forecasts are made based on the best available information at the time of calculating.

 

4.     That due to the timing of this report and the reports that have been issued to Council Members as part of the recent S114 notice this report is a shorter report than the usual monitoring report as the information contained in the quarter 2 financial monitoring has already been reported.

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Croydon Renewal introduced the report, which set out the council’s current revenue budget projected outturn for month 6, Quarter 2, September 2020. The figures, which had featured in other reports relating to the council’s financial situation, demonstrated the challenging nature of the in-year position. The positon was clear that the council could not realistically balance the budget without a capitalisation direction. He stated there were two points on the paper to highlight as questions to the Director of Finance, Investment & Risk and Section 151 Officer, firstly, in relation to Item 4.5, Table 3 – Delivery of In-Year Savings Initiatives, he asked for an update on the progress of delivery, for clarification if those were correct assessments when originally identified and asked if there were any particular concerns. Secondly, he asked for a summary on how Quarter 3 was looking.

 

The Director of Finance, Investment & Risk and Section 151 Officer stated that the report represented Q2 budget monitoring until the end of September 2020.  As the council had moved in to the S114 notice and introduced Spending Control Panels (SCP) it was too early to comment on Q3, which would run until the end of December 2020, however they were able to confirm that the situation was not showing to worsen, nor massive improvements to be seen at this stage. Until purchase orders stopped being raised in arrears, it would be difficult to track the real time progress. The potential risks which were not forecasted in month 6 was London moving into Tier 3 lockdown.

 

In relation to Table 3 of the report, the Director of Finance, Investment & Risk and Section 151 Officer confirmed that most of the rates were moving in the right direction. This included the introduction of charging for bulky waste collection, work in children’s services to reduce costs and changes to SEN transport – under 5’s (all currently presented as Red on Table 3).  An increased rate of risk was identified in potential further lockdowns caused by a decrease in parking income for the council (currently presented as amber on Table 3). She stated that Health funding was on track with positive ongoing conversations and funding agreements (presented as Green on Table 3), Staff savings was ongoing (presented as amber on Table 3) and Non-essential expenditure was improving due to the SCP (presented as amber on Table 3).

 

The Cabinet Member for Economic Recovery & Skills stated that it was reassuring the numbers were becoming familiar across meetings, which pointed toward stability and the council moving in the right direction. She asked for more detail on the spending figures and implemented savings mechanisms for children’s services and adult social care.

 

In response, the Director of Finance, Investment & Risk and Section 151 Officer stated that there was a lot of challenges at the moment to those services. The council was working with the London Borough of Camden children’s services and the Local Government Association (LGA) to learn good practice for both children’s and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 96/20

97/20

Review of the Capital Programme (Postponed)

Cabinet Member: Cabinet Member for Croydon Renewal, Councillor Stuart King

Officer: Executive Director Resources, Jacqueline Harris Baker

Key decision: no

 

Please note this report will be taken to the January 2021 meetings of Cabinet and Council.

Decision:

The Leader of the Council informed Members that this report would be taken to the January 2021 Cabinet meeting.

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council informed Members that this report would be taken to the January 2021 Cabinet meeting.

98/20

Brexit - Planning for the future pdf icon PDF 494 KB

Cabinet Member: Leader of the Council, Councillor Hamida Ali

Officer: Interim Chief Executive, Katherine Kerswell

Key decision: no

Additional documents:

Decision:

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

 

RESOLVED: To

 

1.     Note the potential impact and responses to Brexit in Croydon, as set out in the report.

 

2.     Endorse the statement that ‘Croydon is open’ for business and that everyone in our diverse communities is welcome.

 

3.     Ensure businesses are aware of the EU citizens’ rights to residency and employment as they are confirmed and support businesses’ access to advice and guidance.

 

4.     Agree that regular updates be provided to all councillors and relevant stakeholders for each of the key categories outlined in the report.

 

5.     Continue to support the Mayor of London’s #LondonIsOpen campaign.

 

Minutes:

The Leader introduced the report, which outlined the implications of Brexit for the borough, including a ‘No-deal’ scenario. The council was acting to identify and seek to limit the risks and effects of Brexit to the organisation and communities in Croydon. As detailed in the report, Brexit would potentially cause negative effects, including: increases to interest rates, inflation to tariffs and the level of uncertainty of how the local economy would react. Cabinet Members had heard directly from EU nationals in the community who contributed to a past Cabinet meeting and this paper additionally highlighted staff members in that category, about the impacts on their families. Appendix A of the report summarised the range of activity the council was engaged in responding to the implications of Brexit in terms of the local economy, employment and workforce arrangements, council finance and procurement and community safety and cohesion.

 

The Brexit Working Group was an internal body to the council which sought to cover policy areas and worked to identify risks, actions and monitor functions – ensuring they were a part of the council’s corporate risk register. The report detailed implications for sectors who were also adversely affected by the pandemic, for example hospitality, construction and the operation of the care sector. There were implications for existing loans, investments in relation to the pension fund, the potential risk of reducing business rates, the impact of increased demand across communities due to rising unemployment, a potential increase in poverty and uncertain community safety and cohesion. In the wake of the referendum, there was a rise in the level hate crime which had reduced to pre-referendum levels.

 

The Executive Director of Place stated that the report set out clearly the implications for the four main areas, as set out in Appendix A, in a local and national context. Additionally, there was the uncertainty around further impact of Covid in a changing situation. She drew attention to Item 5.2 of the report, Table A: Percentage of jobs filled by non-UK EEA nationals, and stated that the six sectors accounted for 68,000 jobs in Croydon. If the London-wide proportionality was applied, 11,500 non-UK EEA nationals were employed in these sectors across Croydon. As well as the more generalised risk mentioned, there were also more specific risks for Croydon including borrowed money from European Banks and pension investments in European markets. In terms of the community, there had been approximately a 16% increase in hate crime in the borough following the referendum. These were all factors which the Brexit Working Group had been considering when compiling the risk register and action plan.

 

The Cabinet Member for Economic Recovery & Skills listed the impacts of Brexit on business, employment and economy in Croydon. In February 2020, the council organised a conference at Fairfield Halls with over 200 businesses in attendance, representatives from the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), London Business Hub and the Federation of Small Businesses. Many views and concerns of businesses were captured at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 98/20

99/20

Croydon Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 237 KB

Cabinet Member: Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Learning, Councillor Alisa Flemming

Officer: Interim Executive Director of Children, Families & Education, Debbie Jones

Key decision: no

Additional documents:

Decision:

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

 

RESOLVED: To note the Croydon Safeguarding Children Partnership (CSCP) Annual Report for 2019/20 which sets out:

·         The transition achieved to the new multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.

·         The CSCP contribution to the improvement journey of Children’s Social Care.

·         The Good Ofsted inspection outcome for Children’s Social Care

·         The progress relating to the priorities of the CSCP

·         The assessment and scrutiny of safeguarding arrangements against the six safeguarding standards

·         Summary of safeguarding issues across the CSCP

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Families, Children and Education introduced the report. She commended the work the partnership had contributed to children with disabilities, vulnerable young adolescents and neglect. The partnership also notably helped the council’s improvement journey and the ‘Good’ rating awarded by Ofsted.  The report detailed the transitional process to the new multi-agency arrangements.

 

Di Smith, Croydon Safeguarding Children partnership (CSCP) Independent Chair & Scrutineer, gave the presentation outlining the first annual report of the partnership and its work.

 

The Interim Executive Director of Children, Families & Education stated that she would be speaking from her current council role and as a former national multi-agency facilitator for local authority arrangements. She stated that the improvement in partnership arrangements would have contributed to the recognition Ofsted gave to Croydon’s overall improvement, which was reflected in the report. As this was the first report of the CSCP, naturally there would be transitional changes to come and challenge had been reflected in the discussion seen at the Scrutiny Children & Young People Sub-Committee. Members of that meeting asked the CSCP to provide assurance in relation to antenatal and development checks and more information regarding the partially met aspects of the neglect priority group. The report detailed the work planned for the ‘Neglect’ priority group during 2020, however the work had experienced delay due to pandemic.

 

In common with other partnerships, Croydon developed a neglect screening tool to enable greater awareness, which was a crucial instrument in identifying child neglect, early health and prevention. Other elements included the graded care profile, the development of locality arrangements and community of practice approach. In the end the impact of the newer safeguarding arrangements could only be judged by the difference in outcomes and impact on young people and the extent to which the work that was being pursued by all partners to ensure timely and early intervention to support children and families. Those monitors were appropriately requested by Members of the Children & Young People Scrutiny Sub-Committee.

 

The Cabinet Member for Families, Children and Education thanked Di Smith, CSCP Independent Chair & Scrutineer, Elaine Clancy, Joint Chief Nurse for Croydon Health Service NHS Trust and NHS Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group, Neil Cochlin, Detective Superintendent & Business Change Manager at Metropolitan Police- Head of Safeguarding, Croydon Bromley and Sutton and the Interim Executive Director of Children, Families & Education for their roles in the CSCP work. They had seen a dramatic and reinvigorated change in how the partners worked together. It was also important to highlight the work of the local authority into partnership, although it was not named as a lead partner in statue.

 

The report detailed the partnership’s work earlier in the year on the Black Lives Matter (BLM) agenda, which was a powerful message to the community. A wider nationwide piece of work that the partnership contributed to was looking into school exclusions of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) pupils. Some of the key commitments in the report was work around the youth offending service, supporting the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 99/20

100/20

Croydon Safeguarding Adult Board Annual Report 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 246 KB

Cabinet Member: Cabinet Member for Families, Health & Social Care, Councillor Janet Campbell

Officer: Executive Director of Health, Wellbeing & Adults, Guy Van Dichele

Key decision: no

Additional documents:

Decision:

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

 

RESOLVED: To note the Annual Report of the Croydon Safeguarding Adult Board and to receive the recommendations arising from the Scrutiny & Overview Committee held on the 10th November 2020.

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Families, Health & Social Care introduced the report. She stated the report contained significant learning for the statutory partners and thanked scrutiny for identifying training needs and the requirement for more engagement with the BAME community. She thanked multi-agency colleagues of Board for their hard work and stated that Opposition Members, Councillors Yvette Hopley and Margaret Bird, had also been welcomed to join the teams work.

 

Annie Callanan, Independent Croydon Safeguarding Adult Board (CSAB) Chair, gave the presentation which outlined the governance and accountability arrangements, report findings, future plans and detailed achievements in prevention, commissioning, personalising safeguarding, promoting the voice of the Croydon resident and communication and engagement.

 

The Executive Director for Health, Wellbeing and Adults praised the collaborative work across the teams, particularly during pandemic conditions, and the CSAB keeping the local authority to account. The number of beds in Croydon meant that the safeguarding responsibility was higher than some other London boroughs. In terms of changes to the council and its current financial position, Croydon would continue to ensure safeguarding as its statutory responsibilities were a priority.

 

Annie Callanan, Independent Croydon Safeguarding Adult Board (CSAB) Chair, stated that the collaboration she had witnessed at Croydon, also reflecting particularly on times during the pandemic, was impressive and clearly had built to a strong standard over a number of years.

 

The Lead Member for Scrutiny and the Chair of the Scrutiny & Overview Committee told Cabinet that it was the scrutiny functions statutory responsibility to monitor whether safeguarding arrangements were effective, which could be found in this case on the pre-decision scrutiny section, on Pages 84-85 of the agenda. During the Health & Social Care Scrutiny Sub-Committee meeting on 10 November 2020, the Board provided honest and open answers to member questioning and detailed strengths and weaknesses of the partnership. He highlighted the importance of scrutiny report recommendations and responses and welcomed the Board’s engagements to those. It was clear the Board had built firm foundations and showed strong potential to continue improving. He thanked colleagues for their work over the years.

 

The Shadow Cabinet Member for Families, Health & Social Care thanked colleagues for the detailed report and the Cabinet Member for Families, Health & Social for inviting her to join the Board. She looked forward to working with the partnership to achieve better outcomes for vulnerable residents. During the past year in the midst of Covid, it was clear that the department had served residents. The report identified monitoring and performance management and prevention, which was key to the service. Many numbers in the report were positive, in comparison to the previous years. One concern raised from the paper was that many incidents for vulnerable adults were caused by someone they personally knew, which should be further investigated by the Board. She added her interest in learning more about Operation Nogi, which involved Response officers in South Area BCU carrying out visits to vulnerable elderly people following referrals from Adult Social Care and Trading standards, and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 100/20

101/20

Stage 1: Recommendations arising from Scrutiny pdf icon PDF 100 KB

Lead Member: Chair of Scrutiny & Overview Committee, Councillor Sean Fitzsimons

Officer: Executive Director of Resources, Jacqueline Harris Baker

Key decision: no

Additional documents:

Decision:

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

 

RESOLVED: To receive the recommendations arising from meetings of the Children & Young People Sub-Committee held on 3 November 2020, Health & Social Care Sub-Committee held on 10 November 2020 and Scrutiny & Overview Committee held on 17 November 2020, and to provide a substantive response within two months (i.e. at the next available Cabinet meeting on 22 February 2021.

Minutes:

The Chair of Scrutiny & Overview Committee advised Cabinet that the three sub-committees had set recommendations for the children’s and adult’s safeguarding partnerships, as discussed in the meeting from the CSCP and CBAB, and the Croydon Renewal Plan.

 

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

 

RESOLVED: To receive the recommendations arising from meetings of the Children & Young People Sub-Committee held on 3 November 2020, Health & Social Care Sub-Committee held on 10 November 2020 and Scrutiny & Overview Committee held on 17 November 2020, and to provide a substantive response within two months (i.e. at the next available Cabinet meeting on 22 February 2021.

102/20

Stage 2 Response to Recommendations arising from Children & Young People Sub-Committee on 15 September 2020 pdf icon PDF 212 KB

Cabinet Member: All Cabinet Members

Officer: Executive Director of Resources, Jacqueline Harris Baker

Key decision: no

Additional documents:

Decision:

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

 

RESOLVED: To approve the response and action plans attached to this report at Appendix A and that these be reported to the Scrutiny and Overview Committee or relevant Sub-Committees.

Minutes:

The Chair of Scrutiny & Overview Committee advised Cabinet that in regard to the second recommendation from Children & Young People Scrutiny Sub-Committee, all Members now had access to the Local Government Inform. This allowed councillors to access and analyse comparative local authority performance data.

 

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

 

RESOLVED: To approve the response and action plans attached to this report at Appendix A and that these be reported to the Scrutiny and Overview Committee or relevant Sub-Committees.

103/20

Investing in our Borough pdf icon PDF 147 KB

Cabinet Member: Cabinet Member for Resources & Financial Governance, Councillor Callton Young

Officer: Executive Director of Resources, Jacqueline Harris Baker

Key decision: no

Additional documents:

Decision:

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

 

RESOLVED: To note

 

1.    The update on emergency orders approved under Regulation 19.3 of the Council’s Tenders and Contracts Regulations at a value between £500,000 and £5,000,000 by the nominated Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources (at the time of the decision), in consultation with the Leader, as set out in section 4.1.1 of the report.

 

2.    The list of delegated award decisions made by the Director of Commissioning and Procurement, between 20/10/2020 – 24/11/2020, as set out in section 4.1.2 of the report.

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

 

RESOLVED: To note

 

1.    The update on emergency orders approved under Regulation 19.3 of the Council’s Tenders and Contracts Regulations at a value between £500,000 and £5,000,000 by the nominated Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources (at the time of the decision), in consultation with the Leader, as set out in section 4.1.1 of the report.

 

2.    The list of delegated award decisions made by the Director of Commissioning and Procurement, between 20/10/2020 – 24/11/2020, as set out in section 4.1.2 of the report.

104/20

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:

The following motion was moved by Councillor XXX and seconded by Councillor XXX to exclude the press and public:

 

“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.”

 

The motion was put and it was agreed by the Committee to exclude the press and public for the remainder of the meeting.