Agenda and minutes

Councillor Levy, welcomed all attendees to the meeting and extended a special welcome to the Enfield Youth Parliament attendees.

Apologies for lateness had been received from Councillor Abdullahi.  

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

There were no declarations of interest.

This is a discussion item.

The Chair introduced this item and welcomed Ian Davis as Chief Executive.  He asked Ian to give a brief overview of what he considers to be the Council’s key priorities for the future and asked whether his views on this had changed since his appointment, last June.

Ian Davis had met with the Leader and Members of the two main political parties, feedback from both parties was consistent.

Key priorities include:

·         Safeguarding, including a greater emphasis on safeguarding of children

·         Customer Experience

·         Public Health and inequalities in relation to this

·         Regeneration and Housing including the changing nature of the world we live in.

To deliver these priorities the organisation must be structured to ensure we have the right behaviours.  Firstly, the authority’s finances must be kept under control with a more strategic and earlier focus on the budget during the year. This will include more regular meetings and more involvement with Members.

Secondly, the culture of the organisation needs to be effective by having an open and honest approach which residents expect. 

Recruitment of the right staff is key, with a move towards the employment of long term staff and a reduction in the number of interim managers. 

A reorganisation is currently underway which will reduce the number of managers in the management team.  Following on from this there will be a review of the next tier of management at service head level, with a move away from the AD manager level. The intention is to make it clearer to see who has responsibility for each area. It should also provide budget savings.

The following questions/ issues were raised:

• In answer to a question about whether there may be conflicts/ issues resulting from a reduction in the number of departments, Ian Davis answered that whenever you create a structure that creates a ‘silo’ it is important the ‘silos’ work together to provide the correct outcomes.  It is useful to work together on shared responsibility ‘themes’ for example on the subject of ‘modern slavery’.
• An Enfield Youth Parliament (EYP) representative referred to responsibility for a key area such as housing and asked if it meant that responsibility mainly lies with just one person.  Ian Davis spoke of the empowering of staff and how the structure of departments should enable staff at all levels to have an input, an example of this is when looking at the Corporate Plan.
• A Customer Experience Strategy is to be put in place for the first time.
• Councillor Smith said he thought it was difficult for ‘behaviours’ to change, it is important that people are accountable for their actions and  that there are clear lines of responsibility.  It was thought better that people are open and clear if any mistakes are made to ensure issues are resolved, and not to have a ‘blame’ culture.
• Concerns were raised that in previous reorganisations some very capable people had left the organisation, we needed to ensure that those officers who ’go the extra mile’ do not leave the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 528.

To receive a report from Anne Stoker, Assistant Director Children’s Social Care

Anne Stoker (AD Children’s Social Care) introduced a report on the London Regionalisation Adoption Agency Business Case which updated the Committee on the progress in developing a London Regional Adoption Agency (LRAA). 

The following was highlighted:

• It is a requirement that all local authorities join a regional agency by 2020. As part of this the LRAA has been developed to meet the needs of London Boroughs. 
• The London model consists of a central hub and four spokes.  Enfield is to join along with our colleagues from Camden, Islington, Barnet Hackney and Haringey as part of the North London RAA..   Project managers are to be appointed for each spoke and the local North London project manager has been appointed starting March 2018.
• Progress has been slow up to now but it is anticipated that with the appointment of the project managers this will improve. The six Assistant Directors from each Authority are meeting regularly, and there is now momentum in going forward.
•  A business case is expected to be ready, to be shared and agreed locally with Members by the end of 2018. Anne will bring a brief update to OSC on this matter in September.

The following issues were raised:

• Anne confirmed that work has been done on the business case. A number of workshops have been held to discuss how things will work in future. They were looking to bring in a specialist legal manager and, issues for them to also consider include HR, and IT matters. She confirmed that there was still a lot to be done.

• It was noted that Islington were the host authority for the spoke for North RAA.
• Members asked if we had looked at other options instead of the North London arrangement, for example with Hertfordshire and whether other ‘spokes’ are further forward than ours.  Anne answered that we already know our partners and how they work and this will be helpful for the future. Other spokes are at the same stage as us.
• Councillor Smith said it would appear that there had been a lack of urgency and asked if the model is credible and whether it would improve the current arrangements for adoption?  Anne said she was happy if the existing model had remained.  Now that there is a new project manager in place she is pleased that we are moving forward. The aim of the proposals are to speed up the adoption process.  She mentioned that other procedures were now being used such as special guardianship orders.
• Councillor Levy said members were all in agreement that what was wanted from the proposals was better outcomes for all

NOTED

Anne Stoker was thanked for the report. It was noted that a full business case would be tabled later in the year.

To receive a report from Kate Kelly, Change & Challenge Manager.

Kate Kelly and Ricky Williams (Change and Challenge Managers) updated Members on the Change and Challenge Troubled Families Programme.  

The following was highlighted:

• The programme was launched in 2015. The focus has been the transformation of local services to secure sustainable high quality services for families and to ensure this continues after the programme ends in 2020. The Troubled Families Grant currently funds a number of posts (34 posts). We are now in Phase 2 of the project.
• Funding comes from 3 streams – Attachment Fees, Payment by Results and Service Transformation Grant.
• Attachment Fees - There is a target for us to attach 2230 families by the end of 2017/18 –for them to receive an intervention. We have met this target. A graph indicated the ward of residence for those receiving an intervention which showed that the largest numbers were for wards on the eastern side of the borough.  A graph also indicated the percentage of people who met the different numbers of criteria under the programme e.g for worklessness, crime, health etc.
• Payment by results – Success is measured by a) showing if a family has managed to achieve significant and sustained progress or b) an adult in the family has moved off benefits and into continuous employment. So far claims have been made for approximately 20% of the target number of families (2970) to identify and turn round by 2020. Of those we have claimed for, approximately 85% were for ‘continuous employment’ with 15% for significant and sustained progress’ Enfield has achieved good results from getting people back to work
• Service Transformation Grant  - self assessment carried out and a Service Transformation Action Plan developed.  It is a borough wide ‘all family’ approach where interventions are put in place
• Some boroughs may move to a ‘payments by results’ but with a new ‘earned autonomy’ option, however Enfield has chosen not to do this.
• The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which aims to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals will become enforceable by 25 May 2018, officers are confident that our systems are in line with this.

The following issues were raised

• Confirmed that under Phase 1 approximately 700 families were identified, criteria of Education, Employment and Crime.   Phase 2 of the programme asked us to identify more complex families and also to link whole families under the key principles.  Enfield met requirements under Phase 1 and are now working on Phase 2
• Officers were asked if this initiative to get people out of a trap and back into work had been a cost benefit to Enfield and asked if this information could be reported back to OSC.
• It was confirmed that when a person goes back to work, the team does not stop working with the family. New skills may be needed for people to gain confidence.
• Serco had provided a number of placements in the local area.
• It was questioned whether the phrase ‘troubled families’ was appropriate, and when one group of families  ...  view the full minutes text for item 530.

To note the work programme for 2017/18.

The work programme for 2017/18 was NOTED. The meeting to consider the Work Programme for 2018/19 would be held in the new Municipal Year.

Provisional Call-In Dates:

· 29 March 2018

· 5 April 2018

· 19 April 2018

The date of the next business meeting is Wednesday 11^th April 2018.

Provisional Call-In Dates:

29 March 2018

 5 April 2018 and

19 April 2018

The date of the next business meeting is Wednesday 11 April 2018.

Councillor Levy thanked everyone for attending the meeting.