Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Matthew Bell, Deputy the Rev. Stephen Haines, Graeme Harrower, Deputy Henry Jones, Deputy Joyce Nash, Jason Pritchard, Mark Wheatley, Laura Jorgenen and Matt Piper.

The Chairman welcomed Natasha Lloyd-Owen to her first meeting as a member of the Committee.

Susan Pearson declared a pecuniary interest in respect of agenda item 17 (Installation of Sprinklers in Social Housing Tower Blocks – Options Appraisal – Gateway 4) as she was a resident of the Golden Lane Estate. She took no part in the discussion or voting thereon.

To approve the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 12 October 2018.

RESOLVED:- That the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 12 October 2018 be approved, subject to:

·         noting that Alderman David Graves also declared a pecuniary interest in respect of agenda item 4 (Housing Governance) as he was a resident of the Barbican Estate; and

·         the amendment of the first line of paragraph 3 of minute no. 4 (Review of Housing Governance) by substituting “his” for “the Chairman’s” so that it reads – “The Deputy Chairman read a statement setting out the Chairman’s views …”.

(Amendments incorporated).

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services which provided an update on the Artizan Street Library opening hours following customer consultation. The consultation had shown a clear preference for longer hours of opening and, since 14 May 2018, longer week-day hours and Saturday morning opening had been trialled. Following the trial period and after analysing the results, the longer week-day opening hours were to be maintained and Saturday opening discontinued.

The Chairman was pleased that the views of customers had been listened to and the revised opening hours well received.

RESOLVED:- That the report be noted.

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services. 

The Chairman proposed that the item be deferred and submitted to the next meeting of the Committee to allow for further discussions to take place with officers from the Planning Department over what options might be open for providing community space at the library.

RESOLVED:- That consideration of the item be deferred.

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

Please note that the Appendix to this report is a large document and has been provided electronically to Members.  It is also available on the City Corporation’s Internet Page for this Committee. 

Members received a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services which provided the annual report of the City and Hackney Safeguarding Adults Board.

Dr Adi Cooper was present at the meeting as the Independent Chair of the Board and the Chairman invited her to present the report. She explained that it was a statutory requirement to produce an annual report. As the report showed, the Board had completed a number of achievements over the year. It had focussed on raising awareness of financial abuse and working with people who are socially isolated. A successful ‘Rough Sleeping’ event had been held and the work of the Safeguarding Adults Reviews sub-group had helped identify key themes.

As Chair of the City of London Adult Safeguarding Sub-Committee, Dr Cooper explained that a lot of work was being undertaken to establish how best to engage with local residents and, in answer to a question on this, she explained that it was a challenge to get some residents to come forward. Working with faith groups had been shown to be effective and a second session with representatives of different faith groups was being arranged. The City of London was well represented on the Board and there was a good level of communication on its work.

Dr Cooper was asked what means of communication took place, bearing in mind that, for some vulnerable people, reliance on web sites was not always effective. She accepted this and posters and leaflets were also produced but it was personal contact that was most effective. It was, therefore, the intention to develop a programme designed for people from different communities to be trained as ambassadors, which would allow them to raise awareness within their own communities. Work with the Faith Forum in Hackney had helped establish communication with

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

Members received a report from the Director of Community and Children’s Services on a summary of the current activity, issues and priorities around commissioning and procurement.

In answer to questions about the level of engagement with young people in the development of services, Members noted that their input into the development of a new community centre had been sought, and that access to facilities at the St George’s Leisure Centre for young people, and work with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets during the summer, were strong examples of engagement with young people.

RESOLVED:- That the report be noted.

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

Please note that Appendix 1 to this report is a large document and has been provided electronically to Members.  It is also available on the City Corporation’s Internet Page for this Committee. 

Members considered a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services which provided a Self-Assessment of Adult Social Care and attached an Action Plan.

Members were informed that an interim Senior Communications and Engagement Manager had been engaged to commence work on Actions 1.1 and 3.11. A Senior Performance Analyst had also been recruited to start work on 9 November, which would allow Action 9.2 to be taken forward.

RESOLVED:- That the report be noted.

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

Members received a report on the lessons learnt from the introduction of a new electronic social care recording system. In answer to a question, Members were informed that the new system was required to produce certain reports to meet statutory obligations but that there were also several bespoke elements to it which were identified during the course of implementing the new system.

RESOLVED:- That the lessons learnt from implementation of the new electronic Social Care Recording System be taken into consideration for future IT contracts.

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services, which provided an update on Universal Youth Services, its statutory duties and responsibilities.

Members were pleased to see the positive direction of travel the provision of youth services was going in and asked that a meeting with officers be arranged to discuss how opportunities for improved communications with residents could be maximised and the development of a Youth Parliament could be taken forward.

Members were informed that the lack of access to gyms for those aged under 16 was due to issues with insurance cover. The provision of a boxing club had not progressed due to the lack of a qualified coach. Dance classes had been popular, and this would inform future provision. Provision for children under 13 had been identified as another priority group and officers undertook to provide Members of the Committee with statistics covering this group. It was noted that targets were based on increasing uptake from one quarter to another and there were no overarching targets.

RESOLVED:- That the report be noted.

Report of the Town Clerk.

Members received a report on action taken by the Town Clerk in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman regarding Middlesex Street Communal Heating, Hot Water and Ventilation Works.

RESOLVED:- That the report be noted.

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

A non-public appendix will be tabled for Members at agenda item 18.

 The Chairman proposed that this item be taken in the public part of the meeting.

Members considered a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services concerning the retro-fitting of automatic water fire suppression systems (sprinklers) in the five social housing high-rise tower blocks in the Corporation’s housing portfolio.

Members were informed that the scheme would have to follow an open tender process and that the City Procurement team would be engaging with experts in the field to encourage them to bid for the work.

Members sought clarification that the sprinklers would be fitted within flats as well the common areas. This was confirmed that there would be some element of disruption,  however, the benefits to tenants would far outweigh this and any damage would be made good. The operation of the system would rely on heat sensors and the sprinklers would be activated on a localised basis.

RESOLVED:- That –

1)         the report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services headed Installation of Sprinklers in Social Housing Tower Blocks be taken in public;

2)         the report, including the total estimated project cost of £3,200,000 (including staff costs of £40,000) be noted;

3)         the following option 1 be approved:

a)         to undertake a compliant procurement exercise for the installation of sprinklers in the Corporation’s five social housing high-rise tower blocks, and

b)         to seek Committee approval at Gateway 5 for a contractor to be appointed to carry out the installation of sprinklers in the Corporation’s five social high-rise tower blocks.

There were none.

The Chairman has agreed to admit the following item of urgent business in respect of the City Corporation’s Modern Slavery Statement.

With the Chairman’s consent, the following items of urgent business were considered.

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14.1        Celebrating our People Awards

On behalf of the Committee, the Chairman congratulated the winners of the 2018 Celebrating out People Awards within the Community and Children’s Services Department in the following award categories:

-        Excellence in Customer Service

-       Inspiring Leader

-       Equality and Inclusion Champion

He also congratulated staff who were Highly Commended in the following award categories:

-       Rising star

-       Exceptional Colleague

-       Improved New Ways of Working,

and Shoe Lane Library staff for winning the Town Clerk’s Award.

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14.2        City Corporation Modern Slavery Statement

Members received a report of The Chamberlain which presented the proposed City of London Corporation ‘Modern Slavery Statement’ in response to the Modern Slavery Act 2015. This had arisen out of work undertaken by an inter-departmental working group on modern slavery.

RESOLVED:- That –

1)         the publication of a voluntary Modern Slavery Statement by the City Corporation be approved.

2)         the version submitted, including the ‘Modern Slavery Policy’ be approved.

3)         that the ‘continuous improvement’ sections detailed throughout the Statement which will form the basis of the action plan used to drive progress amongst all relevant departments over the next year be noted and approved.

MOTION - That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

RESOLVED:- That under Section 100(a) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1, Schedule 12 A of the Local Government Act:

Item nos                      Para no

15,16,18 & 19             3

To approve the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 12 October 2018.

RESOLVED:- That the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 12 October 2018 be approved.

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services

Members considered and approved a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

A non-public appendix will be tabled for Members in respect of agenda item 12.

Member received an extract from the City Corporation’s Projects Procedure Corporate Risk Register relating to the project.

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

Members received a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services regarding the Holloway (IAF) site.

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

Members received and approved a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services concerning the Erasmus Project and a non-compliant procurement breach.

There were none.

Members noted that the date of the next meeting would be given over to a workshop for Members.