Agenda and minutes

The Chief Executive shall invite nominations and conduct the vote for the position 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 2019/20 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 meeting held on 27 February 2019 were confirmed as correct.

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:

·  London Markets - The recent announcement by the City of London Corporation that the Borough had been selected as the preferred option for the relocation of Smithfield, New Spitalfields and Billingsgate Markets;

·  Youth Zone - His Royal Highness The Duke of Sussex officially opened the Future Youth Zone in Parsloes Park on 19 April 2019 and young people will begin to use the state-of-the-art facilities from 18 May;

·  Home and Money Advice Hub – The Council’s second Home and Money Advice Hub opened at the Dagenham Library, Heathway, on 13 May 2019;

·  Wall of Shame - The Council’s Wall of Shame webpage, which encouraged the local community to report flytippers and others engaging in illegal and anti-social behaviour, had now received almost 100,000 hits;

·  Faith and Inclusion Charter - Alongside the Barking and Dagenham Faith and Belief Forum, the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Community Leadership and Engagement, Councillor Ashraf, had recently signed up to the Charter for Faith and Belief Inclusion on behalf of the Council;

·  Barking Folk Festival - The first event in the Council’s Summer of Festivals programme, the Barking Folk Festival, would be taking place over the weekend of 8^th and 9^th June 2019 on Abbey Green; and.

·  Good Neighbour Guide - The Council’s Good Neighbour Guide for 2019 would be published shortly.

The Director of Law and Governance introduced a report on the annual process of appointments to the various elements of the political structure and other internal and external bodies for the 2019/20 municipal year.

The Director drew Members’ attention to the schedule appended to the report and referred to amendments / updates since the papers had been published which related to:

·  Members’ Corporate Parenting Group – The schedule should have listed Councillor Ingrid Robinson and not Councillor Paul Robinson;

·  Registered Provider Forum – The vacancy would be filled by Councillor Bankole;

·  Admissions Forum – The Council representation was to be increased by three, to be filled by Councillors Freeborn, Paddle and Turner.

The Assembly resolved to:

(i)  Approve the appointments to various Council committees and other internal and outside bodies, as set out in the document attached at Appendix 1; and

(ii)  Note the other appointments not requiring Assembly approval also included in Appendix 1.

Further to Minute 56 (28 February 2018) and Minute 8 (23 May 2018), the Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services introduced a report on the outcome of a review of the new committee structure and governance arrangements that took effect from the start of the 2018/19 municipal year.

The Cabinet Member commented that the new arrangements appeared to be working very well, although the review process had highlighted some aspects that need refinement, such as:

·  A “tidying up exercise” of the terms of reference of the Audit and Standards Committee, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Health Scrutiny Committee, to properly reflect the committees’ areas of responsibility;

·  Adding a July meeting to the Assembly programme, taking the Assembly back to a six-meeting schedule;

·  Increasing the number of Health Scrutiny Committee meetings to six each year, as it became apparent during the first year that the quarterly meeting cycle was not sufficient for the Committee’s work programme; and

·  Reinstating the provision in the Public Participation rules to give the Chair of a meeting some further discretion regarding public speaking at meetings.

The Cabinet Member also referred to the full schedule of changes, attached at Appendix 5 to the report, which included other changes to the Constitution which had been agreed by the Monitoring Officer in line with the review / revision provisions of the Constitution.

The Assembly resolved to:

(i)  Agree the revised Articles of the Audit and Standards Committee, as set out at Appendix 1 to the report;

(ii)  Agree the revised Articles of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, as set out at Appendix 2 to the report;

(iii)  Agree the revised Articles of the Health Scrutiny Committee, including an increase to the meeting frequency to six meetings each municipal year, as set out at Appendix 3 to the report;

(iv)  Agree the increase to the meeting frequency of the Assembly to six meetings each municipal year;

(v)  Agree the revised ‘Meeting Rules - General’ Article, as set out at Appendix 4 to the report;

(vi)  Note the full schedule of amendments to the Constitution as set out at Appendix 5 to the report; and

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

The Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer presented a report on the Members’ Allowances Scheme 2019/20.

It was noted that, following the detailed review of allowances last year, it was proposed that all basic and special responsibility allowances should remain at the levels agreed by the Assembly on 18 July 2018. 

The Assembly resolved to:

(i)  Agree that no increase be applied to Members’ basic and special responsibility allowances for the 2019/20 municipal year; and

(ii)  Adopt the Members’ Allowances Scheme 2019/20 at Appendix A to the report, to be effective from 16 May 2019.

The Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration presented a report on the outcome of a complaint that had been determined by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) regarding the way that the Council handled payments for residential care.

The Cabinet Member explained that the matter principally concerned the practice of the Council making payments to the residential care home for only the Council’s contribution and expecting the care home to pursue the service user contribution directly.  There were also related issues regarding the Council’s approach when third parties contributed to the cost of an individual’s care and some deficiencies in the care planning process in the case in question.  As a consequence, the LGO had determined that the Council’s approach was contrary to statutory guidance under the Care Act 2014 and had caused injustice to the complainant.  As a number of other Councils were operating similar processes, the LGO had chosen to issue a report in the public interest detailing the outcome of the complaint.

The Cabinet Member acknowledged the fault by the Council and referred to the action plan that had been developed, as set out in section 3 of the report, to ensure that the Council was fully complaint in the future.  It was also noted that the Council had agreed to pay appropriate compensation to the complainant.

The Assembly resolved to:

(i)  Note the report issued by the Local Government Ombudsman and published on 17 April 2019, as set out at Appendix 1 to the report, and that the required notice had been published by the Council on 24 April 2019;

(ii)  Note the remedies that had been offered to the complainant;

(iii)  Note the system improvements that were being worked on to prevent further recurrence; and

(iv)  Request the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to review progress against the action plan in six months’ time, in order to provide reassurance that the system changes had being applied and further such incidents would not reoccur.

The Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer introduced a report regarding the appointment of Independent Persons (IPs) who supported the Members’ complaints and Chief Officer disciplinary processes. 

The Director advised that officers had carried out a review of the current arrangements in view of the length of service of the current IPs.  The review had shown that there had been a very low level of complaints lodged against Members that necessitated the involvement of IPs and there had been no Chief Officer disciplinaries since the Localism Act 2011 came into effect.  Therefore, in view of the knowledge that the three IPs had gained and the costs associated with a fresh recruitment and training programme it was proposed that the IP appointments be extended for the full term of the current Council (beyond May 2022). 

The Assembly resolved to agree the extension of the appointment of Mr Michael Carpenter, Dr Gurpreet Singh Bhatia and Pastor Thomas Adeyemi Aderounmu as Independent Persons, under the Localism Act 2011, until the next Assembly meeting following the Annual Assembly in 2022.

There were none.

There were none.