Agenda and minutes

The Chair, Councillor Levy welcomed all attendees to the meeting.

An apology for lateness was received from Councillor Huseyin Akpinar.

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

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive a report from Sharon Burgess, Head of Safeguarding Adults.

RECEIVED a report from Sharon Burgess, Head of Safeguarding Adults highlighting the following:

i)             The report provided an update on the recommendations from the Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery Scrutiny Workstream report and had been completed to provide an overview of what the Safeguarding Adults Team has been working on since the Modern Slavery Act 2015 came into force.

ii)            Since the arrival of the Modern Slavery lead officer on 13^th August 2018, a draft Adult Social care Modern Slavery Policy and Procedure has been compiled and sent to relevant teams for consultation.

iii)           Modern Slavery awareness sessions were held for council staff in March 2018 and over 100 staff had attended. More in-depth training has been provided in relation to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) to our designated Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs).

iv)           A corporate strategy has been developed with the support from the Strategy and Policy Hub which is currently undergoing internal consultation. It is hoped that this will be made available for public consultation in the summer.

v)            The Charter Against Modern Slavery was signed by Cllr Mary Maguire on 18^th October 2018 which shows how Enfield Council is working to ensure that supply chains are ethically sourced.

vi)           The recommendations that were agreed in April 2018 were listed in the report (see Agenda Pack) and an update was provided on each one.

vii)          There had been challenges in ensuring good partnership engagement and in raising community awareness. There may also be potential funding issues going forward due to the anticipated increase in referrals

viii)        The report recommended that it is necessary for the online training on I.Learn to become compulsory training for Enfield council staff.

ix)           Next steps included the development of a complex case modern day slavery panel that can deliver a timely and multi-discipline approach, to support with the management of high-risk cases. Timescales for this were not yet known but it would be discussed at the next steering group meeting to seek ideas and suggestions on how it will be implemented and managed.

x)            The online consultation for the Modern Day Slavery Strategy and Action Plan will undergo a robust consultation, which will include external and internal partners, residents and business in Enfield and will be available online from February 2019, before being presented to Cabinet in the Summer of 2019.

The following questions and comments were made:

·         Further information was provided on the types of training that has taken place and the departments and teams that it had been delivered to.

·         Members felt that it was important for them to receive training as soon as possible as they are often the first point of contact for the public and well placed to identify and report areas of concern within their wards. Sharon said that if this training had not yet been completed it would be arranged as soon as possible.  In the meantime Members were encouraged to access the online training module via I.Learn or by contacting the Learning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1057.

To receive the report of Paul White, Project Manager, Environment.

RECEIVED the report of Paul White, Project Manager, Environment.

Joanne Drew, Director of Housing & Regeneration introduced the report and said that its purpose was to highlight lessons learnt from the issues experienced in the Enfield Small Sites 1 Project and to make recommendations for the future small sites programme so that the same issues may be avoided and to make delivery more successful.

The following points and comments were highlighted:

·         The original strategy for the Small Sites 1 Project was a worthy one but the Council took on risk when signing up to the Development Agreement.

·         Small sites have many extra challenges and are less attractive to larger developers. Economies can be achieved by packaging sites together, but decisions must be made on how this is done and how risk is managed.

·         An Action Plan (See Agenda Pack) has been produced and takes the lessons learnt and recommendations from the report and illustrates how these will be addressed in the future strategy of developing small sites in future.

·         Enfield Council will work with smaller building firms on its future housing schemes in a bid to avoid setbacks that have dogged a recent project.

·         Small and medium-sized (SME) firms are thought to be a better bet than big contractors when it comes to building homes on smaller sites.

·         The council will also look to simplify the design and construction and tighten up its negotiating stance in a bid to reduce the risks it faces from construction projects.

·         The measures are outlined in the report on the first phase of the small sites project.

·         The scheme was designed to provide 94 homes on seven sites across the borough and construction began in 2014. However, the original project soon ran into difficulty when one of the contractors went into liquidation the following year. The report states that the collapse of the Contractor was due to a sudden, unexpected change in central government policy following the 2015 general election. This led to the loss of key members of staff, which meant designs were left undeveloped or information lost.

·         This led to delays and cost overruns as the Council was forced to find a new contractor. Some half-built homes also had to be pulled down due to weather damage.

·         Enfield Council has reviewed the project and plans to change its approach to future housing schemes to stop the problems from recurring.

·         The Government has announced funding to develop SME builders’ capacity and as a Council the aim is to nurture local SME developers and help them by making their job very simple. They need to have a clear brief about the house they are building and be able to get on with the job in hand.

·         Paul White, Project Manager Environment advised that the Council ‘packaged up’ houses on the small sites scheme to suit bigger contractors. However, this led to problems for the firms, including difficulties coordinating transport between different sites.

·         Joanne added that the Council were aware that the project came with a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1058.

A verbal update to be provided by the Chair of the Crime Scrutiny Panel Cllr David-Sanders and the Chair of the Health Scrutiny Panel Cllr Akpinar.

RECEIVED an update from Councillor Lee David-Sanders Chair, Crime Scrutiny Panel.

NOTED:

i)             It had been a productive year for the panel with a busy work programme.

ii)            It had been a tough year for crime in the borough with Serious Youth Violence, Knife Crime and Burglary having all increased year on year.

iii)           Enfield had started the year at number three in London for Serious Youth Violence, moved up to number one in January 2019 and has finished the year at number four as at March 2019.

iv)           There had been three meetings of the panel in the last municipal year with regular standing items on each agenda.

v)            Public attendance has gone from strength to strength at each meeting with between 15 and 30 people in regular attendance. This, along with lots of interesting debate and questions had resulted in good quality meetings.

vi)           The merger of Enfield and Haringey Police to the North Area Basic Command Unit went live on the 9^th January 2019. As a result of this the panel had not been updated on Police numbers since the September 2018 meeting and this was somewhat disappointing.

vii)          The September agenda included an update on the Extra Summer Youth Diversionary Activities and an overview was provided on how the extra funding agreed by the Leader of the Council had been spent. A burglary report was also delivered at this meeting and an analysis provided of burglaries in the borough compared to the rest of the London boroughs. Information was also provided on the MetTrace Programme.

viii)        The Serious Youth Violence Action Plan was delivered at the January 2019 meeting and this had been one of the best attended meetings. The panel were updated on partnership working, funding available and the wider picture in London. A report was also presented at this meeting on Tackling Illegal Drugs which included information on the national and local approach, including partnership working.

ix)           At the recent meeting in March 2019 a report had been presented on Street Prostitution and Brothels in Enfield. Again, this had been an interesting and informative report and it was encouraging to hear what the Police and Community Safety were doing to combat this issue. An update was also provided on the North Area Basic Command Unit which included information on the new structure, the benefits for the borough as well as a stand still picture of how this has impacted on Enfield.

x)            Although some of the public attendance at meetings had been driven by concern it was felt that residents had gained confidence from the discussions that had taken place and the ongoing support of Police and Council Officers. Adequate time was allowed at each meeting for audience participation and this had made for repeated attendance during the year.

xi)           Councillor attendance had been a bit ‘hit and miss ‘at several of the meetings often with apologies not being given prior to the meeting. This was a general but important ‘housekeeping’ observation as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1059.

To agree the minutes of the meetings held on the 28 February 2019 and

11 March 2019.

AGREED as follows:

1)            The minutes of the meeting held on 28 February 2019;

2)            The minutes of the meeting held on 11 March 2019 subject to the following amendments:

Minute No: 1015 – point 6

(i)            Councillor Aramaz asked if the investment of £500k per year into Street Cleaning Services was dependent on whether the proposed savings of £2.8m are met?

(ii)          Councillor Aramaz referred to the Financial Implications page 28 of the report, which stated that the £2.8m of savings would be made in year three of the business plan. He questioned how this proposal fits with the current budget.

(iii)         The comment of Councillor Aramaz that he chose to abstain from voting on this decision as he would like to see the results of the Government Consultation on the UK’s Waste System and Michael Gove’s recommendations in a future report to OSC. 

To note the work programme for 2018/19.

NOTED and agreed the Work Programme 2018/19.

To note the dates of future meetings as follows:

Provisional Call-Ins

· Thursday 11 April 2019

Future meeting dates will be confirmed at Annual Council in May.

NOTED the dates of future meetings as follows:

Provisional Call-Ins

·         Thursday 11 April 2019

The Chair advised that should any further Call-Ins be received, every effort would be made to try and accommodate as many together to take account of the Easter break,

Councillor Tolga Aramaz advised that should there be any further OSC meetings before early May 2019 he would be in a position to provide an update on the ‘Improving Enfield Shopping Areas/Empty Shops’ Workstream which he chaired.

Councillor Susan Erbil advised that she would be away from the 16^th – 24^th April so unavailable for meetings.