Newham Council Education, Children & Young People's Scrutiny Commission

 

My first such Scrutiny tonight in East Ham Town Hall. Chaired by Cllr Elizabeth Booker. Our current Ofsted inspection was obviously a key issue. 

Check out agenda https://mgov.newham.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=1510&MId=13985&Ver=4. Will try and find youtube link.

My Week 20.6.22-25.6.22

 

A really busy but interesting week. It was my first day back at work after almost 2 weeks holiday (Malta then UNISON conference in Brighton) so lots of tenancy and trade union issues to try and sort out (not helped by major IT/server problems). 

Monday evening was the full council meeting at the Old Town Hall in Stratford.  I spoke in favour of the Climate emergency update and gave what I thought was a gentile dig at the two new Green Councillors for opposing it. While their job is to be the opposition to the majority group at Newham Council, they should not in my view just oppose everything for the sake of opposition. I was pleased that they abstained at the actual vote and did not "oppose" the update. 

I was also really pleased that former long serving Councillor, Pat Holland, was awarded as an "Alder Person" for the Borough in recognition of her work for residents. 

Tuesday evening was another meeting at the Old Town Hall. This time the local Housing Forum, which was really positive. It was great that senior Housing managers met up with residents, face to face, to listen and respond to their concerns (similar to speed dating!). 

On Wednesday evening I attended virtually my UNISON branch General Purposes & Finance Committee meeting. 

Thursday evening we had a virtual induction for my new role as a member of Education, Children & Young People Scrutiny.  Which I am really looking forward to being a member of this so important committee. 

Friday evening I met up with former housing colleagues from Tower Hamlets UNISON for a birthday beer and curry. 

Saturday morning I covered the Councillor surgery for my colleague Cllr Whitworth at Stratford Library, who is away on leave. I had what I thought was a constructive meeting with local residents about very serious and multiple ASB issues. But also was able to look at the various historical pamphlets and documents in the library (see picture of Queen in 1953 and Vicarage Lane E15 in 1960's)

Sunday, I had a lovely recovery walk in Chilterns which I will post upon separately. 

Newham Cabinet Meeting Monday 5 June 2018 - Free Schools & Scrutiny

This was the first cabinet meeting of the new administration which I thought went really well. Making actual executive decisions is a very different experience to being a backbencher Councillor.  It is a more than a little strange how quickly you get use to change.  I also like the fact that four of us took a bus to this meeting from Newham Dockside.

See what the Newham Recorder thought about some of the key issues below:-

”Newham Council to rethink £660,000 rugby pitch plan in West Ham

At Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, members rescinded the cash earmarked to build the pitch at the Memorial Recreation Ground in West Ham.

The plans were passed under the borough’s former mayor Sir Robin Wales weeks before May’s election.

However the plan was called in by the scrutiny committee when councillors suggested the huge sum could be “better spent” elsewhere.

Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz, who was a member of scrutiny under the last administration, approved the recommendations and said the council will be looking at alternatives ways of spending the money.

Cllr John Gray, cabinet member for housing, said this was the first time the scrutiny committee had been successful in stopping something in its 12-year history.

He added that it was good to see the committee “have some teeth”.

(JG It was made clear that the Rugby club may still get the money pending a new review of Parks and Leisure. The monitoring officer said that Scrutiny structure had been in place for 17 years!)

New free school in Royal Wharf development ‘reluctantly’ approved by Newham Council

"Newham Council has “reluctantly” passed plans to build a free primary school to serve one of the borough’s largest new developments.

The new free school at Royal Wharf was given the green light by mayor Rokhsana Fiaz on Tuesday night.

The school will serve the Royal Wharf development, which will have more than 3,300 homes when finished.

The Britannia Education Trust, a charity which also set up the Britannia Village Primary School in Silvertown, has signed on to run the facility.

Free schools are a type of academy set up by parents, teachers, charities or businesses and funded directly by central government but independent of local council control.

Earlier this month Ms Fiaz said she had “significant concerns about the government’s policy of academisation and the lack of accountability this type of school structure creates for local communities”.

However, the cabinet said it was “urgent” the school was set up to take its first intake of pupils by September 2019 and the free model was the only way of achieving this.

Councillor Julianne Marriott, cabinet member for education and children, said: “This development already has around 2,000 people living on it and will have roughly 8,000 people by the time it is finished.

“We have no choice to agree this proposal to ensure our children can attend a school near their home and we fulfil our duties as an education authority. But it is a travesty that the only way we can have new schools in the borough is through free schools.”

Ms Fiaz added: “We will be bringing forward the full council motion on academies to the July cabinet.

“We will be asking government to enable us to build our own schools where demand determines it, give local authorities more powers to take over failing academies and to enable schools to return to local authority control.

Why Local Authorities need "honest serving" men and women with the tools to ensure effective scrutiny

I have just been re-reading an excellent hard hitting report published earlier this month by the Select Committee on Communities and Local Government.

The Select Committee examined the grossly inadequate scrutiny arrangements in many Local Authorities. The deaths in Mid Staffordshire hospital and child sex abuse in Rotherham Council were given as examples of failures in scrutiny.

"Clive Betts, Chair of the Communities and Local Government Committee, said:

Scrutiny is marginalised at too many local authorities, which in extreme cases can contribute to severe service failures, letting down council taxpayers and those that rely on services.

Scrutiny of those in power is a vital part of any democratic system and has huge benefits for all. We are calling on the Government to strengthen guidance to make overview and scrutiny committees truly independent of those they are charged with holding to account and to make sure the process is properly funded and respected.

Only by rebalancing the system and ensuring scrutiny is held in high esteem will we see better decisions and the outcomes that residents who pay for council services deserve."

Clive calls for a much needed change in culture which is welcome but to be honest this will need Government action since many Councils (not all) dominated by strong Executive models do not believe in Scrutiny and deliberately block it.   While there are many "honest serving" Councillors from all political parties up and down the Country trying to properly scrutinise their Executive this report reflects their frustration. 

I think that there are many lessons to be learnt from this report for my own Council, Newham. However we are not the only one with inadequate scrutiny arrangements. 

Report recommendations 

1.That overview and scrutiny committees should report to an authority’s Full Council meeting rather than to the executive, mirroring the relationship between Select Committees and Parliament. 

Agreed. Reports are sent in Newham Council to the Executive or "via the Executive". 

2.That scrutiny committees and the executive must be distinct and that executive councillors should not participate in scrutiny other than as witnesses, even if external partners are being scrutinised. 

Agreed. In Newham executive members are allowed to vote for Scrutiny Chairs. Also, Executive members take part in Audit Committee and the Investment & Accounts Committee (and even chair both Committees!). 

3.That councillors working on scrutiny committees should have access to financial and performance data held by an authority, and that this access should not be restricted for reasons of commercial sensitivity. 

Agreed. Even Scrutiny Chairs are blocked from receiving "sensitive" financial information (for example, the report on £52 million loss on the London Stadium deal.) The Executive decides if and when information is realised. 

4.That scrutiny committees should be supported by officers that are able to operate with independence and offer impartial advice to committees. There should be a greater parity of esteem between scrutiny and the executive, and committees should have the same access to the expertise and time of senior officers and the chief executive as their cabinet counterparts. 

Agreed. This doesn't happen in Newham and many other Councils. Executive members have refused to attend Scrutiny meetings in the past and requests for Officers to attend have to be made via the Executive. 

5.That members of the public and service users have a fundamental role in the scrutiny process and that their participation should be encouraged and facilitated by councils.

Agreed. Recently the public (and media) were banned from attending (never mind participating) in the Newham Council Fire Safety in Tower Blocks scrutiny. 

6.That overview and scrutiny committees should be given full access to all financial and performance information, and have the right to call witnesses, not just from their local authorities, but from other public bodies and private council contractors. They should be able to follow and investigate the spending of the public pound. 

Agreed. See 3 above. Council special purpose vehicles (Local authority trading companies etc) provide services and control £ billions of assets and need to be fully scrutinised.

7.That the DCLG works with the Local Government Association and the Centre for Public Scrutiny to identify councils to take part in a pilot scheme where the impact of elected chairs on scrutiny’s effectiveness can be monitored and its merits considered. 

Agreed. As long as this doesn't mean things are kicked into long grass. 

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/communities-and-local-government-committee/news-parliament-2017/scrutiny-committee-report-17-19/

I have other concerns as well such as how committee members of Scrutiny are appointed in the first place and scrutiny arrangements being subject to political whips. I will be sending this article and links to the Chair of Newham Overview & Scrutiny and ask to meet the Committee to discuss the report and its recommendations.  

"Newham councillor resigns from fire safety committee after public and press are barred from meetings"

Hat tip Newham Recorder. So banning tenants, residents and media from these post Grenfell fire safety meetings means they are not being held in "secret"? I have just googled "secret meeting" and found this definition

"If you do something in secret, you do it without anyone else knowing.
...Synonyms: secretly, surreptitiously, slyly, behind closed doors"

"A councillor has quit a scrutiny panel examining fire safety in tower blocks because its meetings were being held in secret.

Cllr John Gray says it is “completely unacceptable” that the Newham Council-run Fire Safety in Tower Blocks Scrutiny Commission intends to bar members of the public and press from sessions following the Grenfell fire disaster.

He resigned from his post at the second meeting on Tuesday after his objections were ignored, calling the decision by Overview and Scrutiny Committee chair Anthony McAlmont “a huge error of judgement” .

Cllr Gray said: “Residents are going to think we have something to hide. I don’t think we are but this is what people are going to think.

“We need transparency and openness when dealing with really huge matters.”

The scrutiny inquiry was set up to investigate fire safety in three Newham tower blocks following the deadly Grenfell Tower blaze in June, which has so far officially claimed the lives of 67 people.

In the same month, the local authority announced cladding was to be removed from Ferrier Point, Nicholls Point and Tanner Point buildings after it failed expert safety tests.

At the time, a spokesperson said: “There is no immediate risk to the safety of any of them [the blocks] that would lead to residents having to leave their homes.”

A decision to set up the commission, attended by fire and police officials, followed with the first meeting taking place on October 17.

Members will “consider the council’s programme for de-cladding and recladding” plus its “future needs for ensuring fire safety in residential tall blocks in Newham” among their objectives.

Cllr Gray, who was rebuked for sending tweets about the initial meeting, said the seven councillors on the panel (formerly including him) did not have the “inside knowledge” of residents.

He said: “They are the ones who should be asking the questions. It shouldn’t just be a handful of anonymous councillors.”

Cllr McAlmont said he was disappointed at Cllr Gray’s resignation but denied the meetings were secret

He said: “It is a Task and Finish group which meets informally to enable information to be gathered and to enable those presenting evidence to be more open in what they say to the commission.

“It also enables specific items of work to be completed quickly. A report will be produced once the commission is complete and this will be brought to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting in January which is held in public and will be attended by Councillor Terry Paul [lead member for housing].”

Resigning from Newham Council Fire Safety Scrutiny in Residential High Rise Tower Blocks

I have just resigned tonight from being a member of Newham Council "Fire Safety Scrutiny in Residential High Rise Tower Blocks" because the evidence meetings are being held in secret. I did try to get this decision changed informally but was not successful.

This secrecy is in my view completely unacceptable after #Grenfell Fire. We need complete openness and transparency to make sure such things never happen again.

As an IOSH practitioner and experienced manager of Tower Blocks I will investigate fire safety on behalf of my constituents and all Newham Residents by making site visits & member enquiries and will publish my inspections, questions and any answers - publicly.

(photo of London Borough of Newham skyline including 2 Tower Blocks in my ward West Ham)