Agenda and minutes

The Chief Executive shall invite nominations and conduct the vote for the positions of Chair and Deputy Chair of the Assembly.

The Chief Executive opened the meeting and invited nominations for the positions of Chair and Deputy Chair of the Assembly for the 2018/19 municipal year.

The Assembly resolved to appoint Councillors Kangethe and Choudhury as the Chair and Deputy Chair respectively.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meetings held on 28 February 2018 and 26 March 2018 were confirmed as correct.

The Chief Executive will announce the formation of political groups for the purposes of the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990.

The Chief Executive announced the formation of the Labour Group, made up of 50 members of the Council, for the purposes of the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990.

The Chair shall invite nominations for the Leader of the Council.

The Chair invited and received nominations for the appointment of Leader of the Council.

The nomination was unopposed, and the Assembly resolved to appoint Councillor Darren Rodwell as the Leader of the Council for a four year term.

The Leader will present his statement.

The Leader of the Council presented a verbal statement updating the Assembly on a range of matters since the last meeting including:

-  A reflection on the local elections held on 3^rd May 2018;

-  Welcoming the new Cabinet, six out of 10 of whom were women;

-  The new Governance Structure, on which an update would be presented later in the meeting by the Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services;

-  The ‘green shoots of growth’ housing developments in the Borough, including Barking 360 in Barking and Trinity Place in Dagenham;

-  The development of the Youth Zone in Parsloes Park and the hoardings surrounding the site which were designed by local young people;

-  Congratulations to the newly elected Young Mayor, Wesley Oparugo; and

-  The excellent work being undertaken to ensure that 95% of parents in the borough received their first preference of primary school place for their children this year.

The Leader also placed on record the Council’s appreciation to Anne Bristow, Strategic Director for Service Development and Integration and Deputy Chief Executive, who was attending her last meeting of the Assembly before retiring from the Council in June.

The Leader of the Council will announce the appointment of the Cabinet.

The Leader of the Council announced the following Cabinet appointments:

Councillor Dominic Twomey: Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services;

Councillor Saima Ashraf: Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Community Leadership & Engagement;

Councillor Sade Bright: Cabinet Member for Employment, Skills and Aspiration;

Councillor Evelyn Carpenter: Cabinet Member for Educational Attainment and School Improvement;

Councillor Cameron Geddes: Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Social Housing;

Councillor Syed Ghani: Cabinet Member for Public Realm;

Councillor Margaret Mullane: Cabinet Member for Enforcement and Community Safety;

Councillor Lynda Rice: Cabinet Member for Equalities and Diversity; and

Councillor Maureen Worby: Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration.

The Assembly noted the appointments.

Further to minute 56 (Assembly held on 28.2.2018), the Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance & Core Services presented an update report on the Council’s governance arrangements and proposed revisions to the Council Constitution to reflect the new arrangements and other aspects that had been progressed since the last Assembly meeting.

Specifically, the update report referred to the following proposed revisions to the Constitution:

-   The roles and responsibilities of Be First and other Council owned entities, as well as the internal governance arrangements relating to the Shareholder Panel and the Investment Panel;

-   The re-establishment of a separate Health Scrutiny Committee; and

-   Public participation arrangements in Council meetings.

The Assembly resolved to:

(i)  Note the amendments to relevant chapters of the Constitution as detailed in Appendices A1 to A7 to the report, which implement the decisions of the Cabinet in respect of the establishment of Be First and other Council-owned entities, as well as the internal governance arrangements relating to the Shareholder Panel, the Investment Panel and the delegations to officers;

(ii)  Agree to re-establish a separate Health Scrutiny Committee for the 2018/19 municipal year and to approve the Committee’s Articles, as set out in Appendix B3 to the report;

(iii)  Note the consequential amendments to the articles relating to the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, as shown in Appendices B1 and B2 respectively;

(iv)  Adopt the new public participation arrangements for Council meetings, as set out in Appendix C to the report; and

(v)  Note that the new Council Constitution shall be published on the Council’s website once all the agreed changes have been made.

The Chief Executive introduced a report on appointments to the Political Structure and Other Bodies for the 2018/19 municipal year.

The nominations schedule had been tabled at the meeting and Members noted the addendum to the report, advising that the ungrouped Councillor had been offered and had accepted a seat on the Pensions Committee.

The Assembly resolved to approve the appointments and membership of committees and outside bodies as detailed in the schedule attached at Appendix 1 to these minutes.

The Monitoring Officer presented a report on the Members’ Allowances Scheme 2018/19. 

The report proposed that the majority of Members’ allowances should again remain unchanged – which included the Basic Allowance paid to all 51 councillors and the Special Responsibility Allowances (SRAs) for the Leader, Deputy Leaders, Cabinet Members and the Chairs and Deputy Chairs of the committees that had been largely unaffected by the governance changes.  There were proposed increases to the SRAs for the Chairs and Deputy Chairs of the new Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the refined Planning Committee, while the new Member Champion roles and the Chairs and Deputy Chairs of the Pensions Committee and the Policy Task Group were included in the allowances schedule for the first time.

Councillor Lynda Rice moved an amendment, seconded by Councillor Sade Bright, that the Dependants’ Carers’ Allowance be increased to £10.20 an hour from £6.82 per hour to bring it in line with the London Living Wage.

The Assembly resolved to:

(i)  Adopt the Members’ Allowances Scheme 2018/19 as attached at Appendix A to the report, to come into effect from 24 May 2018 subject to the Dependants’ Carers’ Allowance being increased to £10.20 an hour; and

(ii)  Note that a review will be carried out during the year to assess the impact of the new governance arrangements, Members’ new responsibilities under those arrangements and the appropriate level of allowances under the Members’ Allowances Scheme.

The Assembly received and noted the minutes of the Joint JNC Salaries & Conditions and Appointments Panel held on 26 April 2018.

 No motions were received.

There were none.

There were none.

During his earlier statement the Leader announced that Anne Bristow, Strategic Director for Service Development and Integration and Deputy Chief Executive, was due to retire from the Council in June and was attending her last meeting of the Assembly.

The Leader spoke of his gratitude to Anne for her professionalism and support throughout her tenure at the Council and paid tribute to Anne’s tireless commitment to her role at the Council.

The Chief Executive, speaking on behalf of officers, thanked Anne, for her dedication to public services and her huge contribution to the Council through supporting colleagues to helping vulnerable adults and children in the Borough.

Members of the Council took the opportunity to express their thanks to Anne for her hard work and support.

In response, Anne thanked Members and officers for their comments.