Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed attendees to the meeting.  Apologies for absence were received from Statutory Co-optees Simon Goulden.and Alicia Meniru,  and for lateness from Councillor Orhan and Councillor Brett

Members of the Council are invited to identify any disclosable pecuniary, other pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests relevant to items on the agenda.

No declarations of interest were received.

 To discuss the Local Studies and Museum Consultation.

Councillor Levy stated that he believed it was important that this Committee uses its time to gather information on how policies are determined as well as reacting to decisions made. He said it would be useful to better understand the rationale that informed the consultation process relating to the proposed operational changes to the Local Studies and Museum Services.

The Chair invited James Rolfe (Director of Finance, Resources & Customer Services)to explain the issues being considered by the service prior to the start of the consultation process.

James Rolfe said proposals followed on from the Council’s need to make savings and the desire to modernise and develop the service.  This included an aim to increase access to heritage resources through a programme of digitalising the borough’s artefacts.   He referred to a new resource for the Palmers Green library, of a large exhibit case which will provide an interactive experience, which should be particularly interesting for children.

The findings from the consultation exercise were considered, and after listening to comments changes have now been made to the proposals.  This operational decision had been made by James Rolfe as the responsible officer.

The original proposal to have an appointments system only for the Local Studies Centre has been amended. It will now be open to the public for three days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9am to 5pm..There will also be a planned access/ appointment system for those requiring professional support from the Local Studies Officer. The Local Studies Centre will be closed to the public on Mondays and Fridays to enable staff to increase the amount of stock which is available digitally

It was asked whether the museum exhibition space currently based on the ground floor would be moved to the first floor and James Rolfe stated that the decision had now been made to retain the exhibition space in its current location on both the ground and first floors of the Dugdale Centre. 

When asked why consideration had been given to moving the museum exhibition space from the ground floor to the first floor and what was the service hoping to achieve from this?   It was answered that it would have allowed the space to be used either for another council service or alternatively for an additional retail area.

A number of people had voiced their concerns about the proposed changes to the Museum and Local Studies services.  It was asked what was hoped to be achieved from the proposals and what had we discovered from the consultation process?.  Kate Robertson (Assistant Director Gateway Services) answered that it had never been intended to digitalise all objects and prohibit access to resources, which some people had thought.  She believed there had been a misunderstanding by some people and our aims could have been made clearer in the consultation. The digitalising of objects would allow for items to be viewed on line and staffing resources would be utilized to do this, some funding had already been provided  ...  view the full minutes text for item 263.

To discuss the Council’s relationship with the voluntary sector.

The Chair introduced Paula Jeffery (Chief Executive of Enfield Voluntary Action), to the meeting he stated that although the relationship with the voluntary sector had not been selected as a separate workstream theme, Members were concerned at how the voluntary sector is managing the current financial situation and how their expectations/ support is being met .

Shaun Rogan (Head of Policy, Partnerships, Engagement and Consultation) spoke of the diverse range of voluntary and community organisations that operate in the borough and spoke of the challenges they face.  He spoke of the need for us to be focused to look at subjects ‘in the round’ rather than having a ‘silo’ approach .  He said it was necessary to focus and prioritise carefully – with more accountability and evidence based needs covered, in what is, an increasingly competitive grants process. 

He stated that monitoring now includes the need to show accountability for every quarter before funding can be given.  Our role as primary donor is changing – organisations need to be more agile, modern and able to embrace new ways of working such as hot desking, and remote working .  It is necessary for organisations to develop to become more sustainable, our role is to help them evolve, to help them become more agile and to enable them to access funding opportunities.

Paula Jeffery referred to the VCS -Central information group hub - which has 651 organisations registered.  It provides information to voluntary groups and helps to keep them updated on various issues including grants. 

Paula explained that every organisation is different, some are large such as Age UK and others small. Each one has a different relationship with the Council, for example some may attend a partnership group, they may lobby Councillors or, as in the past, made use of the Enfield Residents Priority Fund.  Some relationships with LBE are better than others, however she stated that the relationship between LBE and VCS has generally been considered as a good one, both with this, and the previous Administration.   She referred to work that was currently been undertaken with the Health Housing and Adult Social Care team on the consultation process to look at supporting residents re resilience issues.

Councillor Levy suggested that the Health Scrutiny Standing Panel should consider an item on its 2016/17 Work programme relating to those VCS groups working specifically in liaison with the HHASC Department

                                                                 ACTION: Cllr Abdullahi/ Andy Ellis

Councillor Laban raised a concern that some issues being dealt with by Council services were not linking in properly with our voluntary organisations. Reference was made to the Public Realm department spoiling some planting work that had been carried out by Parks volunteers.  There was also a concern that the Enfield Residents Priority Fund had been used as a way to ‘top up’ funding for some organisations, as this funding has now come to an end, organisations would now need to look at more sustainable options.   Shaun Rogan agreed that communications needed to be improved with VCS.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 264.

Potential Call-Ins

Tuesday 22 December

The next business meeting of Overview & Scrutiny Committee will be Monday 14 December 2015.

Potential Call-Ins:

Tuesday 22 December 2015

The next business meeting of Overview & Scrutiny Committee will be Monday 14 December 2015.

To consider, if necessary, passing a resolution under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 excluding the press and public from the meeting for the item of business listed in Part 2 of the agenda on the grounds that it will involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in those paragraphs of Part 1 Schedule 12A to the Act (as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006), as are listed on the agenda (Please note there is no Part 2 agenda).