Brent Connects Meetings in June and July

Cllr Dan Filson, Chair of Scrutiny, said he would be attending Brent Connects meetings to pick up the concerns of residents.  Here are details of the current round:

Filson sets out his credo for new Scrutiny Committee

Cllr Dan Filson set out the credo for the new Scrutiny Committee yesterday evening at its first meeting.  He said that its role was not just to hold the Cabinet to account but also to look beyond that at other institutions that impacted on the lives of Brent residents. The NHS was particularly important both because of the size of its budget and how it affected people, but institutions such as the police should also be considered.

The previous Committee had not looked closely enough at what the Council was doing and the new Committee needed to scrutinise issues well before decisions were made or even before they entered the Forward Plan of the Cabinet.

The Committee would investigate - not interrogate or castigate. Findings would speak for themselves. The Committee would not involve itself in whitewash.

All Brent councillors had been invited to submit items for considerations but finite items, rather than broad issues, would be most likely to be taken up.

Filson expressed some frustration that his efforts to secure contact details to  directly communicate with co-opted members to get their views had not been successful. He promised to attend the upcoming round of Brent Connects meetings to find out what concerned residents.

He anticipated setting up Task Groups which would involve the full array of backbenchers and members of the public with specialist knowledge. Cabinet members would NOT be members of Task Groups.  He said that the quality of input into Task Groups was more important than individual attendance records and that they must report on time.

Scrutiny would not just receive reports but make recommendations for implementation. It would also ensure that such actions were followed up.

Filson concluded by saying that the Committee had inherited forward plans from its predecessor and that it would only be at its August meeting that the agenda would reflect the new approach.

There was certainly more participation by Committee members yesterday with relevant questioning from members who had clearly read the documentation.

Brent Renters' Rights Event next week

Philip Grant's victory at Scrutiny Committee a positive sign for the future?

Brent's new Scrutiny Committee got off to a promising start yesterday evening when it approved an amendment to the minutes of the last Commiteee Meeting that has been requested by Philip Grant. Philip had been denied the opportunity to speak at that meeting, the last of the old Committee, because he would not agree to the condition that he should not mention the findings of the Employment Tribunal which found Brent Council and Cara Davani had racially discrimination against an employee, victimised her and constructively dismissed her.

Despite officer advice from Peter Goss that the amendment would unbalance the Minutes, being a paragraph long, the Committee voted to accept the amendment:

Minutes of Scrutiny Committee on 30 April 2015 – a proposed amendment to item 2.

a) The minute as it appears in the draft minutes published on the Brent Council website on 8 June 2015:-

2. Deputations (if any) Minutes:  The Chair advised that a request to speak had been received from Mr Grant with respect to the Equalities and HR Policies and Practices Review and draft Action Plan. The committee was informed that in line with advice provided by Brent’s Chief Legal Officer, it would not be appropriate to discuss an ongoing legal case. Mr Grant advised that he would not be able to make his deputation under these terms. The committee subsequently agreed not to receive the deputation. Councillor Allie expressed the view that the deputation should be heard.  RESOLVED: That permission to address the committee be not granted, in accordance with legal advice provided.

b) Amendment requested by Philip Grant, the Brent resident who had given valid notice to speak as Deputation at that meeting:- 

Delete the sentence:

‘Mr Grant advised that he would not be able to make his deputation under these terms.’ ... and replace it with: 

‘Mr Grant advised that he could not accept the restriction which the Chief Legal Officer wished to impose, and went on to explain why. He said that Cllr. Pavey’s review had been set up to learn the lessons from that Employment Tribunal case, and one of the points he wished to make in his deputation was that an important lesson from it had not been learned. Reference to the case was also necessary to explain what he wished to say about the draft Action Plan, which Scrutiny Committee was being asked to give its views on. The case was relevant to the committee’s consideration of item 9 on its agenda, and could not be ignored. The Council lawyer present advised that the case was not fully concluded, so should not be referred to. Mr Grant responded that he would only be referring to findings of fact in the Tribunal’s Judgment of September 2014, which was not under appeal. Those findings were final, so he could not see how any reference to them would prejudice the position of any party to the remaining “remedy” hearing.’

It is good to see the Committee acting independently as well as Philip Grant's persistence paying off.

Join the Green Bloc on End Austerity NOW! Demonstration June 20th

Saturday 20th June

Green Bloc Assemble: 11:30 am
St Paul's Cathedral (in front of the steps)
Tube: St Paul's
Green Party Stall: 11 am
Bank of England (Queen Victoria Street) 
Tube: Bank 

March to Parliament Square
Route map

Join the facebook event

Health and Childcare on Agenda for Brent Scrutiny Committee next week

The revamped Scrutiny Committee meets on Tuesday June 16th at the Brent Civic Centre.  As it takes quite a bit of navigation to find the agenda on the Brent Council website here are the main items:

Paediatric Services in Brent PDF 200 KB This joint report produced on behalf of Brent Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and London North West Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWHT) provides an overview and summary of Paediatric Services provided to Brent residents.  The report summarises current paediatric provision in Brent and sets out the potential impact on Northwick Park Hospital of the changes to paediatric services at Ealing Hospital taking place on 30 June 2016.

Access to Extended GP Services and Primary Care in Brent - Interim Report PDF 400 KB

This report provides interim feedback on the work of the Scrutiny Task Group focused on Access to Extended GP Services and Primary Care in Brent.  The report outlines the task group scope and methodology and provides an overview of emerging findings and recommendations. 

Public Health - priorities and progress PDF 171 KB

As a result of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, local authorities have new responsibilities for public health. This report outlines these responsibilities and how the Council is discharging these.

Access to affordable childcare PDF 1 MB This report looks at the challenge of providing access to affordable, quality childcare.

In a report LINK  to the June 22nd Cabinet Scrutiny Chair Dan Filson writes:

In May 2015 the Council selected five new members to serve on the Scrutiny Committee. Scrutiny training was arranged for committee members and this took place on 9 June, with two substitute members taking part. The first scheduled Scrutiny Committee was scheduled for 16 June. The Chair of the Committee can add an oral report on any issues arising. 

The Chair of the Committee has held initial meetings with officers to discuss the process for developing a 2015-16 programme of work and will meet with the full Scrutiny Committee over the coming days to develop further the forward plan. It is unlikely the Committee will map out fully how the forthcoming year will be used as the Committee will want to retain some flexibility as to its programme, not least so it can respond to issues as they may arise and to ensure room for issues that members of the wider public may suggest.

The Chair has invited all members of the Council, not just members of theCommittee, to make proposals for items for inclusion in the work programmeand these will be reviewed by the Committee, as will ideas submitted by the public. Scrutiny Committee will also review the Cabinet Forward Plan andconsider reports from such task groups as are created. The Committee will make greater use of time-limited task groups involving a small group of councillors and others, usually led by a member of Scrutiny Committee.

The 'Tale of Two Tory groups' continues at next Brent Council Meeting

The sllocation of opposition committee places is on the agenda for the next Full Council meeting on June 22nd.

In addition to the 8th Scrutiny Committee place the other positions are:

At the AGM the Council voted to recognise the Conservative Group (three Kenton Conservatiev councillors) as the principal opposition group. They now have to allocate committee places between that group and the Brent Conservative Group (recognised as the official opposition by Conservative HQ and consisting of three Brondesbury Park Conservative councillors).

The Liberal Democrats are not recognised as a group because that requotes two or more councillors and they have only one.

Clearly these 6 places can be divided equally between the two groups giving each councillor a role. It will be interesting to see the distribution of 'compliant' and 'awkward squad' places.

Brent revises process for dismissal of Chief Excutive & other senior officers

Cabinet will be asked to adopt new procedures and changes in standing orders at their meeting on June 22nd regarding the dismissal of senior staff, including the Chief Executive.  Other staff to whom it applies are the Chief Finance Officer and the Monitoring Officer.

In 2012 the then Brent Director of Finance, Chris Heaphy, was suspended over gross misconduct allegations( later withdrawn) shortly after Chief Executive, Gareth Daniel was ousted by Muhammed Butt. LINK

The proposal institutes a Dismissal Advisory Committee which includes'independent persons':

The Council will be required to invite independent persons to form part of a panel in the following priority order:

·      an independent person who has been appointed by the Council and who is registered as a local government elector in the borough of Brent;

·      any other independent person who has been appointed by the Council;

and

·      an independent person who has been appointed by another council or

other councils.

The Council has appointed one independent person to deal with Member Code of Conduct complaints but the 2015 Regulations explicitly allow theCouncil to utilise independent persons appointed by other councils.

This is why it is proposed that the Chief Operating Officer be authorised to explore the possibility of sharing independent persons appointed by other councils with a view to establishing a pool of 5 independent persons from which 3 can be selected to form a panel

Such a shared system may be a more cost effective and efficient use of a limited number of independent persons.

The Chief Operating Officer, who wrote the report, is Lorraine Langham, late of Ofsted and Tower Hamlets.

Apart from concerns that might arise from the above, there is an Alice in Wonderland feel about the flow chart.

In the top half of the chart you will see that action (or a decision not to act) is in the hands of the General Purposes Committee. The GPC consists of 7 Labour Cabinet Members and one Conservative opposition member.

In the bottom half you can see that the GPC notifies the Cabinet. In effect this is the 7 Cabinet members plus one Tory notifying 8 Cabinet members (Cllr Mashari is added to the 7).

They then have a kind of internal debate with themselves where they might object as Cabinet and reconsider as GPC, before the Dismissal Advisory Panel comes into play...

The Council will be asked to formally approve the appointment of Carolyn Downs as Chief Executive and Head of Paid Services with effect from September 7th 2015 LINK