Agenda, decisions and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 15 October 2018 as an accurate record.

The part A minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 15 October 2018 were received. The Leader of the Council signed the minutes as an accurate record.

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

There were none.

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

There were no items of urgent business.

Officer: Rachel Flowers

Key decision: No

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below.

RESOLVED to:

1. Note the information, the evidence provided and to agree and action all of the recommendations; and

2. Implement all the recommendations within the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report 2018.

The Leader proposed to change the order of the items taken at the meeting and it was agreed by Cabinet. The items were taken in the following order:

1. 94/18 – Community Safety Review - First Findings and Next Steps
2. 93/18 – Annual Report of the Director of Public Health 2018
3. 98/18 – Croydon Tram Incident - Summary of Croydon Council's response and learning
4. 95/18 - Children's Improvement Plan
5. 96/18 – Regional Adoption Agency
6. 97/18 – Croydon's Year of Business
7. 99/18 – Stage 1: Recommendations arising from Health & Social Care Scrutiny Sub-Committee and Streets, Environment & Homes Scrutiny Sub-Committee
8. 100/18 – Stage 2 Response to Recommendations arising from Scrutiny & Overview Committee 10 July 2018 and 4 September 2018
9. 101/18 – Investing in our Borough
10. 102/18 – Electricity and Gas Supplies Contracts

The Director of Public Health informed Members that an updated version of the report was available on the council’s website which included the foreword by the Leader. The report focussed on the first 1,000 days of a child’s life as it had been found that the early experiences of a person laid the foundation for the rest of their lives. It had been found that positive stimulating environments were important, and that while a small amount of stress had a positive effect; high levels were toxic.

As such, it had been found that if a person experienced more than four traumatic experiences before the age of four it had a serious impact upon that person and their future. In Croydon it had been found that 500 of the 6,000 children born each year would experience four or more adverse childhood experiences, 1,000 would be born into poverty, 2,000 would have been unplanned, 1,700 would have tooth decay by the age of five.

It was noted that there was good work taking place in Croydon with Gateway and Welfare services helping families to achieve financial stability and improved housing. It was further noted that Early Help would help vulnerable families; and that work to improve parks and recreation spaces would facilitate health improvements.

The Director of Public Health stated there were 34 recommendations within the report with the key messages being that issues such as housing, education and mothers’ health in the first 1,000 days impact the child’s experience and had a lifelong effect. Members were requested to ensure that health was considered in all policies and work continued to break the inequalities cycle.

Recommendations from the Director of Public Health included reviewing, revising and joining up maternal mental health pathways, 100% of midwives to be trained on recognising and supporting families at risk of multiple adverse childhood experiences, frontline staff to be trained on adverse childhood experiences, and an increased awareness about pre-pregnancy health. The Director of Public Health stated that the way forward was to ensure there was a whole system approach in ensuring that children’s first 1,000 days did not have a negative impact upon the rest of their life.

The Cabinet Member for Families, Health & Social Care noted  ...  view the full minutes text for item 93/18

Officer: Shifa Mustafa

Key decision: No

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to

1.     Agree the adoption of a public health approach to tackling serious violent crime as described at 3.6 and 3.7 of the report in accordance with the commitment in the Corporate Plan;

2.     Note improvements in violent crime figures set out at 3.2 of the report;

3.     Note the proposal for a work stream to create a Violence Reduction Unit as described in paragraph 3.5 of the report;

4.     Note the revised approach to the Safer Croydon Partnership and the positive results arising from this;

5.     Note the initial findings of an interim review into community safety appended at appendix 1 of the report and agree the proposed principles for community safety services as set out in 3.5 of the report and in 4.0 and 5.0 of appendix 1;

6.     Note that detailed proposals arising from the review be further taken forward in accordance with the work-streams proposed at 2.7 of the report; and

7.     The Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon and Communities in conjunction with the Executive Director of Place to lead all these work-streams and manage the newly configured Violence Reduction Unit initially comprising the services set out a 3.5 of the report during this ongoing review period.

The item was taken as the first substantive item of the meeting.

The Leader noted that the borough was in a relatively strong position; however it was felt that it was an opportunity to review how community safety was delivered.

The Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon & Communities informed Members that the review was in line with the manifesto commitment to take a public health approach to community safety. As part of the internal review representatives had visited Glasgow to review how they delivered community safety and what approaches could be implemented in Croydon.

The internal review had found that there were a number of strengths to the council’s response, the community safety strategy was considered sound with good governance, and a good staffing level. It had also been that the partnership mechanisms were working well.

In response to the review findings the Cabinet Member proposed that a public health approach which sought to tackle the root cause and take a preventative approach; being led by evidence and working with the community would see further improvements in community safety. A multi-agency approach was recommended with a Violence Reduction Unit incorporating a number of agencies being proposed.

The Cabinet Member recognised that there were a number of community groups involved in tackling serious youth violence and noted that coordinating the activities of the groups would be a challenge. A further challenge was recognised as being ensuring that work within the council did not take place in silos and that there was a managed response.

The Cabinet Member informed Members that in Croydon there had been a 20% reduction in knife crime with injury, which had reduced further by 26% in October 2018. Whilst there had been reductions in Croydon, the Cabinet Member did not want to ignore the issue that there had been a number of horrific incidents in London in recent months. As such, the Mayor of London had announced £1.2m for the Mayor’s Young Londoner’s Fund to tackle serious youth violence which many groups would be able to apply to.

The Cabinet Member stressed that further work would be undertaken and that she would be happy to discuss the review and proposals during her next session at the Scrutiny & Overview Committee in March 2019.

The Borough Commander welcomed the direction of travel and stated that the review and proposals built upon the work that had been undertaken by the Local Strategic Partnership which sought to put young people at the heart of the work.

Whilst improvements had been made the Borough Commander stated that all those involved in community safety were far from being complacent and the Police had been speaking with colleagues nationally and from the USA so as to benefit from best practice. It was felt that a multi-agency approach would achieve the ambition of a safer Croydon; and whilst it was recognised it would be challenging to achieve, it was felt to be the right approach.

The Leader thanked the Borough Commander and all Police Officers for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 94/18

Officer: Kerry Crichlow

Key decision: No

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to

1. Note that the Children’s Improvement Plan has been revised for 2018/19 with a sharpened focus on key areas of priority for improvement;

2. Endorse the Children’s Improvement Plan 2018/19, as approved by the Children’s Improvement Board; and

3. Note the feedback from the fourth Ofsted

The item was taken as the fourth substantive item of the meeting.

The Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Learning stated the report gave Members an update on the Improvement Plan following the Ofsted visit in October 2018. Work had taken place to streamline the Plan to further improve the outcomes for young people and families and the Cabinet Member thanked Edwina Grant, Chair of the Improvement Board, for her work in delivering the Plan.

The Chair of the Improvement Board stated that the streamlined Plan would assist in focussing on what was needed to be done and the challenge would be ensuring work continued to progress further improvements.

In response to Member questions the Cabinet Member stated the fourth visit by Ofsted had found that most children were in good and secure placements and that thresholds were being applied effectively; however, concerns remained regarding the pace of formal matching of children. The seven priorities in the Plan would be the focus of improvements and it was recognised that it was important to ensure that work happened at pace.

The Chair of the Improvement Board further noted that Ofsted visits to other authorities at the same point in the improvement journey often raised concerns in regard to pace and consistency, and that this was an area that would be focussed on.

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to

1. Note that the Children’s Improvement Plan has been revised for 2018/19 with a sharpened focus on key areas of priority for improvement;

2. Endorse the Children’s Improvement Plan 2018/19, as approved by the Children’s Improvement Board; and

Note the feedback from the fourth Ofsted

Officer: Philip Segurola

Key decision: Yes

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to agree

1. That Croydon enter into regional adoption arrangements as part of Adopt London South;

2. That staff and funding (estimated at 8.5 FTE and a budget of £559k) are transferred to Southwark who will be hosting Adopt London South on behalf of ten South London boroughs;

3. That the statutory and legal functions relating to adoption services set out in Section 15(3) of the Education and Adoption Act 2016 be delegated to Southwark as host of the Regional Adoption Agency Adopt London South; and

4. That authority is given to the Director of Early Help and Children’s Social Care to finalise and agree the arrangements including signing off the Inter-Authority Agreement between Croydon and Southwark and any other legal and financial agreements in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Children, Families & Learning, Cabinet member for Finance and Resources, the Section 151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer.

The Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Learning noted that the overarching theme of a number of papers at the meeting had been on improving the outcomes for young people. It was stated that there was a real opportunity to make a difference to the young people in the borough.

Members were informed that all local authorities had been instructed to enter a regional adoption agency with the ambition that the number of children adopted and achieving permanency would increase. The report sought approval to join with neighbouring authorities to create a south London regional adoption agency with Southwark being the host borough for the agency.

In response to Member questions the Cabinet Member stated that the most important element to her was that children were in safe and secure provision as early as possible, as it was noted from the Director of Public Health’s presentation that the first 1,000 days of a child’s life were the most important for their long-term health. However, it was stated that it was important to ensure the model worked to achieve the goal and would be monitored. Members were assured that staff were being consulted on the proposals for the regional adoption agency.

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to agree

1. That Croydon enter into regional adoption arrangements as part of Adopt London South;

2. That staff and funding (estimated at 8.5 FTE and a budget of £559k) are transferred to Southwark who will be hosting Adopt London South on behalf of ten South London boroughs;

3. That the statutory and legal functions relating to adoption services set out in Section 15(3) of the Education and Adoption Act 2016 be delegated to Southwark as host of the Regional Adoption Agency Adopt London South; and

4. That authority is given to the Director of Early Help and Children’s Social Care to finalise and agree the arrangements including signing off the Inter-Authority Agreement between Croydon and Southwark and any other legal and financial agreements in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Children, Families & Learning, Cabinet member for Finance and Resources, the Section 151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer.

Officer: Emma Lindsell

Key decision: No

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report.

The Cabinet Member for Economy & Jobs informed Members that a number of activities had taken place during Croydon’s Year of Business which had sought to support businesses to access business opportunities. 158 events and workshops had been organised and a further 30 events were due to take place before the end of the year, with the Economic Summit due to take place on 22 November 2018.

The Cabinet Member highlighted a number of initiatives which had been successful including; Croydon Work which had placed more than 350 people into work, the Business Rate relief scheme which had created over 370 local jobs, and almost 50 businesses being recognised as Good Employers. The Cabinet was also provided with a number of testimonials from those who had experienced the Year of Business and the ongoing initiatives.

Looking to the future, the Cabinet Member stated that every year was a year of business and that Croydon would continue to engage with businesses and promote ‘Croydon is Open for Business’. Work would continue to support the BIDs, creating jobs, and ensuring the business community worked for all and not just the centre of Croydon.

In response to Member questions the Cabinet Member stated that the campaign for a Business Rate relief scheme had begun with the Small Business Commission as Business Rates were the main area of concerns for SMEs. The Cabinet Member welcomed that the government had listened to the campaign and that a relief scheme had been introduced.

With regard to measuring the success of the initiatives, the Cabinet Member noted that almost 50 employers were a part of the Good Employer scheme with a number more having been invited to participate. The Cabinet Member requested the support of all councillors for the scheme as it sought to support the local district centres and local communities. Furthermore, the Cabinet Member highlighted the work of Croydon Works which supported people into work and worked with the local economy to ensure people were trained in areas where there were skill shortages such as in social care and the hospitality sector. It was noted that Croydon was one of the first boroughs to have a campaign that sought to support the local economy in this way.

In response to questions the Cabinet Member confirmed she would share the up-to-date figures relating to the number of children living in families affected by income deprivation with the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Learning. The Cabinet Member further confirmed that a priority for the council was to support care leavers into employment; as well as those who were homeless and those with disabilities; by ensuring they had the right skills.

The Leader noted that the amount of investment in the borough and companies joining Croydon showed that progress had been made, and that Croydon’s Year of Business had been a success. The Cabinet Member further welcomed Member attendance to the events; including the Economic Summit; to support the local economy.

The Leader of the Council delegated to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 97/18

Officer: Kelly Jack

Key decision: No

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to

1. Note the Croydon Tram Incident - Croydon Council Summary of Response & Learning report and agree to the progression of the recommendations within it; and

2. Request a further Cabinet report in early 2019 which provides a comprehensive overview of the resilience team, their work to date, and projects being implemented throughout 2019.

The item was taken as the third substantive item of the meeting.

The Leader noted that it had been only ten days since the two year anniversary of the Tram incident, and that many Members had attended the commemoration events in New Addington.

The Leader stated that the work of the blue light services in responding to the horrendous incident had been amazing. In addition the work of the Resilience team was noted as having been incredibly important and the Leader thanked officers for their work.

The Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon & Communities noted there had been over 100 members of staff from the council who took part in the response and thanked all those who had been involved in the response. It was stated that the report was a matter of course to review the work undertaken during the response and it was good practice to undertake a review following a major incident. The council sought to work toward continuous improvement to ensure the council was able to respond if there was an incident in future.

The Cabinet Member informed Cabinet that a report on the wider working of the resilience team would be taken to Cabinet in the new year.

The Resilience Manager reiterated that it was good practice to review the work undertaken during an emergency and was normal practice by all emergency response teams. The report identified areas of improvement and reviewed areas of good practice.

Members stated it had been a horrendous incident, but thanked those involved for their hard work in response and expressed hope that nothing like the Tram incident happened again.

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to

1. Note the Croydon Tram Incident - Croydon Council Summary of Response & Learning report and agree to the progression of the recommendations within it; and

Request a further Cabinet report in early 2019 which provides a comprehensive overview of the resilience team, their work to date, and projects being implemented throughout 2019.

Officer: Richard Simpson

Key decision: No

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below.

RESOLVED to receive the recommendations arising from the Health & Social Care Scrutiny Sub-Committee (25 September 2018) and from the Streets, Environment & Homes Scrutiny Sub-Committee (9 October 2018) to provide a substantive response within two months (i.e. at the next available Cabinet meeting on 21 January 2019).

The Chair of Overview & Scrutiny Sub-Committee stated the scrutiny work programme would be reviewed to assess whether the Community Safety review could be considered before March 2019.

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below.

RESOLVED to receive the recommendations arising from the Health & Social Care Scrutiny Sub-Committee (25 September 2018) and from the Streets, Environment & Homes Scrutiny Sub-Committee (9 October 2018) to provide a substantive response within two months (i.e. at the next available Cabinet meeting on 21 January 2019).

Officer: Jo Negrini

Key decision: No

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below.

RESOLVED to approve the response and action plans attached to this report at Appendix A and that these be reported to the Scrutiny and Overview Committee or relevant Sub-Committees.

The Chair of Scrutiny & Overview Committee informed Cabinet that there would be a change to scrutiny reports as it was intended that the implementation of accepted recommendations and responses would be more closely tracked.

Members of the Opposition suggested there had not been sufficient notice of the intention to purchase the Colonnades and challenged the transparency of the decision. The Leader stated the Opposition Member had been given more than 24 hours notice and the asset strategy had been formed to protect frontline services by supporting the revenue budget.

The Chair of Overview & Scrutiny stated that there had been a full discussion of the Asset Management Strategy at scrutiny with cross party examination with cross party support of the strategy and the called-in decision as it was considered a sensible use of taxpayer’s money. It was further noted that the meeting had taken place in public, and had been webcasted, and so had been transparent. The Cabinet Member for Finance & Resources further stated the Strategy, under which the Colonnades acquisition had been made, had been amended following scrutiny recommendations and had been agreed by Council in October 2018.

The Leader of the Council delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below.

RESOLVED to approve the response and action plans attached to this report at Appendix A and that these be reported to the Scrutiny and Overview Committee or relevant Sub-Committees.

Officer: Sarah Warman

Key decision: No

The Leader of the Council has delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to approve:

The procurement strategy which will result in a contract award for the supply of Gas and Electricity for the Council and Schools & Academies for a period of eighteen months as set out at agenda items 13a.

RESOLVED to recommend:

To the Leader of the Council that the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources in consultation with the Leader, continues to be authorised to agree the award of contracts related to the Good to Great ICT transformation programme for reasons set out in paragraph 4.2.3 and 4.2.4. These awards will be in line with the strategy approved by Cabinet on 20th November 2017 (reference: 91/17 Investing in our Borough. ICT sourcing strategy) and any awards made under this delegation will be notified in the standard contracts report at future Cabinet meeting

RESOLVED to note:

1.     The list of delegated award decisions made by the Director of Commissioning and Procurement, between 14/09/2018 – 12/10/2018.

2.     Property acquisitions and disposals agreed by the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources in consultation with the Leader since the last meeting of Cabinet.

3.     The list of delegated award decisions made by the Nominated Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources for the Good to Great ICT transformation programme.

Details of decision:

The Leader of the Council has delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to approve:

The procurement strategy which will result in a contract award for the supply of Gas and Electricity for the Council and Schools & Academies for a period of eighteen months as set out at agenda items 13a.

RESOLVED to recommend:

To the Leader of the Council that the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources in consultation with the Leader, continues to be authorised to agree the award of contracts related to the Good to Great ICT transformation programme for reasons set out in paragraph 4.2.3 and 4.2.4. These awards will be in line with the strategy approved by Cabinet on 20th November 2017 (reference: 91/17 Investing in our Borough. ICT sourcing strategy) and any awards made under this delegation will be notified in the standard contracts report at future Cabinet meeting

RESOLVED to note:

1.    The list of delegated award decisions made by the Director of Commissioning and Procurement, between 14/09/2018 – 12/10/2018.

2.    Property acquisitions and disposals agreed by the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources in consultation with the Leader since the last meeting of Cabinet.

3.    The list of delegated award decisions made by the Nominated Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources for the Good to Great ICT transformation programme.

Officer: Mark Norrell

Key decision: No

The Leader of the Council has delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to

1.    approve the strategy identified within this report to procure suppliers to be appointed to provide Electricity and Gas Supplies for a term of 18 months from 1^st April 2019 to the Council and to such schools and academies as shall elect to access the arrangements for a total estimated contract value of £10,500,000; and

2.    note that it is proposed to depart from the standard evaluation split of 60:40 (cost/quality) required under Regulation 21 to allow a weighting of 80:20 (cost/quality); and

3.    authorise the use of the Council’s energy broker ‘Kinect Energy’ to run an OJEU compliant procurement exercise on the Council’s behalf using their own e-tendering system to select suppliers for recommendation to the Council for appointment to the Council’s new energy suppliers

The Leader of the Council has delegated to the Cabinet the power to make the decisions set out below

RESOLVED to

1.    approve the strategy identified within this report to procure suppliers to be appointed to provide Electricity and Gas Supplies for a term of 18 months from 1^st April 2019 to the Council and to such schools and academies as shall elect to access the arrangements for a total estimated contract value of £10,500,000; and

2.    note that it is proposed to depart from the standard evaluation split of 60:40 (cost/quality) required under Regulation 21 to allow a weighting of 80:20 (cost/quality); and

3.    authorise the use of the Council’s energy broker ‘Kinect Energy’ to run an OJEU compliant procurement exercise on the Council’s behalf using their own e-tendering system to select suppliers for recommendation to the Council for appointment to the Council’s new energy suppliers

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

The item was not required.

The item was not required.