Overview & Scrutiny Committee - Monday 22 June 2026, 6:30pm - Tower Hamlets Council webcasts

Overview & Scrutiny Committee
Monday, 22nd June 2026 at 6:30pm 

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  1. Webcast Finished

Good evening everyone and welcome to this first meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny
Committee for this municipal year.
My name is Councillor Halima Islam and I will be chairing the committee this year.
As chair, I look forward to working with you all and engaging members, peers across the
party colours, our corporate directors, council officers and stakeholder partners ensuring
that our work makes a difference for our residents.
Can I start off with some housekeeping rules?
Can I remind everybody that this meeting is being filmed for the Council's website for public viewing.
Those participating in the meeting will be included in the footage.
If there are any technical issues, I will decide if and how the meeting should continue after taking advice from officers.
Can I also remind members they should only speak on my direction and ensure to speak
clearly into the microphones. Before we proceed with the formal business of the evening, I
would like to take a moment to extend our appreciation and thanks to my predecessor,
Councillor Abdul Wahid, for his stewardship in chairing and managing this committee.

1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Tonight, our Order of Business includes nominations for OSE Vice Chair.
We'll then consider and agree our OSE's Terms of Reference Report, Appendix 1, for
this municipal year, followed by nominations for a scrutiny subcommittee and leads.
As you may be aware, following the best value inspection, this Council has been undertaking
a series of transformation work to improve Council delivery in a number of areas.
To aid us and have a better understanding, we'll have a paper provided us with current
position and update on progress so far.
And then close the public element of the meeting and we'll move on to our second part, which
will be focusing on ways of working
and how Spruiting operates in London Borough of Tower
Hamlets, light introduction to the scrutiny improvement plan,
work programme planning, including what members need
to know ahead of the workshop on the 28th of July
and how to prepare, start to think about topics for OSC
and subcommittees, and introduction to key documents,
including the scrutiny toolkit and executive scrutiny
protocol.
Moving on to apologies for absence.
Naseema, can you advise if any apologies have been received?
We haven't received any apologies, Chair.
Thank you.
It's a declaration of deep, disclosable pecuniary interest and other interests.
Can members introduce themselves formally and declare whether they have any disclosable
pecuniary interests and indicate which aspect the interest relates to?
State whether the interest is of a personal producer nature
anybody
Thank you everyone, I'm comes like will I'm kibria choudhary popular word nothing to declare
Myland Ward, nothing to declare.
Councillor Abdulla, St Catharine's and Wapping, nothing to declare.
Councillor Mohammed Mahmoud, Myland Ward, nothing to declare.
Councillor Kamil Hussain, Whitechapel Ward, no DPI.

2 DECLARATIONS OF DISCLOSABLE PECUNIARY INTEREST AND OTHER INTERESTS

Thank you everybody.
So
Moving on to the election of vice -chair for the municipal year 2025 -2026.

3 ELECTION OF VICE CHAIR

Our first order of business is to appoint a vice -chair for overview and scrutiny committee.
Do we have any nominations for the vice -chair?
I'd like to nominate Councillor Kabir -Hussein.
So Kamil Houssein.
Are there any other nominations or are we all happy to agree?
Thank you.
Can Democratic Services please note that Campbell Hossain is appointed as Vice Chair.
Moving on to the minutes, unrestricted minutes.
The minutes from our meeting on the 23rd of March, 2026, have been circulated.
Can the members who were present confirm these as a true and accurate record?
Thank you Chair, only I have this opportunity. It is agreed.
We will now move on to review the terms of reference and confirm scrutiny lead appointments.
Can Matthew introduce the report, please?
Thank you, Chair.

9 a) Establishment of Scrutiny Lead Members, Sub Committees and Appointment of Members 2026/27

So this is the normal report to note the terms of reference and relate information, membership
and the like of the overview committee itself and also to agree to establish subcommittees.
Now at the moment the proposal is to continue with the three subcommittees that we've had
for the last few years on health, housing and children's which have operated effectively
we think, and that's what we're recommending. It is obviously for this committee to determine
whether that's what you wish to do, whether you wish to change that. And I would also
know you don't have to make that final decision. If you decide today to keep what you've got,
you can always come back at a later date and review that should you wish. The proposal
is that the subcommittees would be seven members, so that would be five aspire, one label, one
on each of the subcommittees in line with proportionality.
We've had nominations from the groups for those positions
which the monetary officer can just accept as they fit with the proportionality.
We can read them out and the committee can note would they like to.
I think that's probably all there is to say specifically on the report
but I'm happy to take any questions that there might be.
Thank you, Matthew.
Any questions, anyone?
We will now need to appoint scrutiny leads and establish the subcommittees.
First, we will approve creation of six lead scrutiny member roles as set out in paragraph
3 .2 and their portfolios as set out in appendix 2.
Are members happy to approve this?
The scrutiny lead portfolios are set out in Appendix 2.
We will appoint the scrutiny leads one by one.
Do we have any nominations for the role of scrutiny, leave, health and adults?
I am co -hosting the name.
Is Abul Kashim Ahmad Halal.
Will anyone second this?
I will only second it.
Any other nominations?
Okay, votes are concluded. Can Masima please note?
Do we have any nominations for the role of scrutiny lead, children and education?
Yes, Chair, I would like to propose Councillor Kiberi Caudry for that road as the Chair.
Thank you.
Anyone second?
Any other nominations?
Naseema, please, can you note the appointment?
Do we have any nominations for the role of Scrutiny Lead, Housing and Regeneration?
Yes, Chair.
Councillor Asan Mahamud?
Thank you.
Will anyone second this?
I formally second it.
Any other nominations?
OK, votes are concluded.
Nusima, please make a note of the appointment.
Do we have any nominations for the role of scrutiny, finance and resources?
Yes, Chair.
him.
Does anyone have any
Will anyone second this?
Any other nominations?
any more confirm %
LAUGHTER
Any other nominations maintaining
Ske und
I will second that.
Any other nominations?
OK, votes are concluded.
Can you please make a note of the appointment?
Do we have any nominations for the role of
the lead for environment and community safety?
climate emergency.
Yes, proposed Councillor Robert George for that post.
Thank you.
Anyone seconded?
I second it.
Any other nominations?
Okay, votes are concluded.
Lissima, please make a note of the appointment.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We now have to agree the substitute members are set out in the report.
Are members happy to agree these?
Can we also formally note that...
Can we also formally note these co -optie roles?
We have Leo Conrad De Souza has been nominated for the HWTH rep that sits on health and adult
Can we also formally note Sheila Muna, Roman Catholic Church.
On the scrutiny structure, I want to draw your attention that the subcommittees are
set out in paragraph 3 .4 and we will have three subcommittees, health, housing and children.
I want to bring to your attention that we are currently exploring bringing a Finance
and Resources Task and Finish Group to be led by the Scrutiny Lead for Finance and Resources
to help our Committee look at the Budget earlier.
This is not another Committee at the moment, but the expectation is to hold some additional
meetings to give the focus on Budget scrutiny and consider this earlier on.
This is something new for us but will help us to strengthen our approach to budget scrutiny.
I look forward to picking up the discussion at our Scrutiny Work Programme Development
Session.
The Scrutiny Leads will be the Chair of each subcommittee.
Our members happy to agree to the establishment as set out in paragraph 3 .4 and agree to the
terms of reference as set out in Appendix 1.
Do you agree?
OSC procedure rules are set out in Appendix 6.
Can members agree to note these?
Does anyone have any comments?
No?
The calendar of meeting dates are set out at Appendix 7.
Can members agree to note these?
Does anyone have any comments on those?
Just one chair, thank you.
During Ramadan, if there is a possibility to move the meeting,
if there is any avenues you could sort of look into, thank you.
We can look into that.
Matthew, do you want to come in?
Yeah, thank you, Chair.
Yes, it's a fair point, and for all of our committees, the clerk's a bit near at the
time.
We'll talk to the committees and the committee chairs in particular to work out what is the
best time.
I would highlight that often there isn't a perfect time, given everyone's different needs
to do family commitments and things, but we will do what we can.
Usually, a scrutiny meeting is a bit more than a
meetings as well are tied to the dates of the cabinet meeting. So if you want to move
the date of the meeting that might mean you can't scrutinise that specific cabinet meeting
as much, although you might have other things on your agenda which means it doesn't matter
so much. But that's just something to bear in mind. But we'll talk to everyone there
at the time. Thank you Matthew. So that concludes our appointments and committee structure.
We'll now move on to the next order of the business, which is the Continuous Improvement
Plan.
For this item we have Jonathan Lloyd, Strategic Director Change Improvement, providing us
with an overview.
So welcome, Jonathan.
Jonathan, I'll allow you 10 minutes for a high -level introduction and overview.

10 FORTHCOMING DECISIONS

I think it's important to recognise that we do have some new members here, so please
do factor this in.
We'll then move on to some questions from the members before concluding the item.
You may start, and I'll let you know when you're nearing your last minute.
Thank you.
Thank you, chair, and good evening, councillors, and good evening, especially to councillors
who are here for the first time, really looking forward to working with you.
Just to give you a bit of context, I work in the corporate centre as director of change
and improvement, so I play a key role in a really broad programme which we call the continuous
improvement programme, but it is about making the council be the best it can be for residents,
but is also a kind of direct response to some of the, in fact all of the best value failings
as part of the intervention, which I'm going to give you a bit of a context about how the
intervention has developed and how it's changed more recently before explaining the continuous
improvement programme as a kind of response to that and also perhaps highlight the many
opportunities for scrutiny to steer, challenge and guide the council in responding to the
intervention and also delivery of its programme overall.
So I'm going to run through the slides if you want to use them as a reference point
but you don't necessarily need to read them while you're doing them, it just might be
helpful.
But we're over a year actually since the best value statutory support package came into
place. Since then a lot of great work has been done but we've had some challenges around
both from envoys and external peers but also from scrutiny as well about prioritisation
and pace and really embracing some of the best value findings and we've really worked
hard over the last few months in particular to reflect upon that and that's also embedded
within the continuous improvement programme. But in March 17th, this year, the Secretary
of State escalated the intervention, so made a decision to implement a strengthened statutory
intervention. Now, that did recognise much of the work we've done, but it also challenged
pace and acceptance and some depth of the work that we've done, of which we've accepted
and we're responding to.
I'm going to highlight some of the foundations we've put
for improvement, but it's incredibly important now
that the council, officers, and politicians supporting
the work, really speak to and show that accelerated pace
and demonstrate impact over the next year in response

8 a) Continuous Improvement Plan

to the challenge and the strength of intervention.
Just to bring to life what that change in intervention meant.
In many ways it doesn't change the work that we had in plan and it doesn't change the understanding
of impact that we want to have for our residents.
But it does mean that the envoys who we work very closely with and have had great support
and wisdom from, it does mean that they, envoys, can be more instructive and specific and more
challenging to ensure the council is progressing at the necessary pace to meet its best value
duty.
So that includes, we had something called the Transformation Assurance Board, and that
was a useful kind of board that sat over us and guided us through a lot of our early work,
and we set that up voluntarily before the intervention, and it indeed had the envoys
and also experts in their fields, former chief executives of some of the names you might
know such as Carolyn Downs and Jenny who is now the interim chair of the LGA.
So lots of expertise and wisdom but we've since working with the Envoys to set up and
standing up the new improvement board and that had the first meeting of that in June
and indeed some of the papers and some of the reporting that will go to that you'll
also seen as well as part of your challenge and oversight of our improvement journey.
We were asked and were incredibly welcomed to continue to implement the continuous improvement
programme which I'll speak to in a moment and continue that but perhaps prioritise some
of the key areas that are very significant and most important to our improvement journey
overall. And of course, you know, reminded to kind of cooperate with the envoys to really
ensure that we're resourcing and delivering something called a deep dive project. Now,
deep dive project you may have seen, that's a new ministerial recommendation or requirement
rather, where we really want to deal with some of the long standing perceptions about
the council. For example, one of the deep dives for example is about recruitment and
patronage and how we recruit. Now there are perceptions around the council that we haven't
always done that over a really long period of time in the most kind of correct and ideal
way. Now whilst we've analysed it and we might not have evidence for that, we need to do
a much deeper dive project to understand how that perception occurs and is there anything
we can do to kind of improve around that.
So that's a really specific piece of work called the deep dives that run across key
areas of which we'll update you over time on that work, but incredibly important work
that really kind of goes alongside the many improvements that we want to make.
And last of all, the envoys do have a writer review, which means that any papers that go
through our governance from CMT all the way through to cabinet and full council,
the envoys could ask to see that paper at an early date and of course we welcome
that and really want to kind of ensure that we're getting steer and advice
whenever we can. Moving on, so that changed the intervention but in some
ways it hasn't necessarily changed our work but it might change how we
response to the work and how we work faster and more open.
So over the last few months, I'd say there has been,
and that's our view, there has been a sea change in terms
of some of the things that we've put in place and an ability
to go at a faster pace than we've done before,
which we're kind of excited about.
But again, welcome kind of challenge and oversight
of that as well.
So recognising we started with some real fractures in our best value response.
Over time we've delivered anything from staff surveys,
so ensuring that we're understanding what our staff experiences are,
through to the member pledge, of which many of you have signed,
all the way through to putting things in place that means we can deliver more work and faster
in terms of our improvements.
So where we are now June 2026 is we've made a significant step over the last few months
but a really, really long way to go.
And we acknowledge that with real soberness.
How are we identifying what next then to really ensure
that we're laser focused on the things that matter most?
Because the best value duty, if you know it,
covers a really big range of things.
So leadership, culture, governance, partnership
and engagement, use of resources,
continuous improvement.
So we're really ensuring that we're always reflecting
and embedding and not just ticking off interventions but making sure that the improvement is just
part of everything that we do as well as service delivery.
Service delivery is actually in many ways, it's the area where Tower Hamlets excels at
and has an incredible reputation within the sector.
So it doesn't necessarily mean that we're necessarily a lower standard in all of these
areas.
In fact, it's a much more of a mixed picture, but we want to really focus on the areas where
we can get to good as quick as possible.
And that's how we're starting to prioritise and starting to have conversations with ourselves
and with members and of course with the envoys about, well, we think this is the most important
thing and we think this will get us to the good standards that we need.
So the intervention ends over a period of time.
Last but not least, our continuous improvement programme is effectively how we put into place
all the work that is going to respond to those best value areas.
So that's the best value framework, those are the guidance that comes from government
and it really is at the heart of what every council should be able to do really, really
well.
And our programmes go across four areas because it's cross -cutting and indeed we just need
and we need to ensure that corporate directors
and the right council officers are working on those.
So I won't go into the details of the vision
of each one of those and the aims and objectives
because we'll bring that to life in many a meeting
over the next year.
But the four areas are visions, partnerships
and participation, governance, political culture,
decision making, culture and workforce
and one corporate team.
Now two examples of that would be one corporate team
is incredibly important because it involves
like how we manage compliance and how we call the control environment, so really ensuring
that all the cheques and balances and due process, anything from audit to risk is managed really
effectively and in the open.
And then the other side you have very external workstream, which is actually about how we
work with partners.
So we're working on shared problems together and really building like a trusting and open
relationship with our partners, which we feel we've come a long way on over the last 12
months.
Each best value workstream is really understood within those four.
So when we report, we report against those four areas, but always got a focus on the
best value elements of that.
Overall, each one of those is led by a corporate director, but there's a whole range of people
working around it.
and they all report to the improvement board, as I mentioned previously,
which is chaired by the lead envoy, Kim, as well.
And that has the other envoys present, as well as corporate directors
and the chief exec and the mayor.
So an incredibly important meeting, but equally important are the forums
like this, where we can show the work as it develops, where we're doing well,
where we feel that we've still got some challenges again for scrutiny
and steer and just give you a sense of the reporting.
Each quarter we will report a highlight report to full council on how we're doing across
those four areas and how that relates to best value and a more detailed report which is
actually a report to the envoys themselves which is a reflective report on how we think
we've delivered over the last six months of which the next one of those is going to full
council in July.
So we will get on top of the rhythm of those.
So you've got good sight of those.
But of course there's lots of different ways to get involved,
of which we're working on.
And I'd really like to share with those with you in the future.
And I'm sure that working with the envoys and sharing those with you will be important as well.
So I'll stop there. I feel the ten minutes is close.
And we'll really happy to take questions.
Thank you, Jonathan, for the overview. I'm going to be moving to members for questions,
but I'm going to ask the first questions, if I may. Thinking about governance, once
we understand that the new improvement board will hold accountability for delivery, what
How opportunities will Overview and Scrutiny Committee have to ensure robust assurance
of our Continuous Improvement Plan?
As most of us are new, it will be helpful to understand how this committee can support
this.
Absolutely.
So, I'll start with saying that we would be reporting to full Council on progress around
continuous improvement programme every quarter anyway and if that's the case then our plan
would be with obviously your fellow councillors' permission to ensure that we came and shared
that progress with you for scrutiny and challenge and any areas you might want to go further
into.
So there's a quarterly reporting framework already in place of which we would want to
We planned to just ensure that you had first sight of that before it went to full council.
I suppose in terms of kind of celebrating the openness to challenge, which is part of
continuous improvement programme, is if there are any areas from that that you felt that
were significant to kind of delve into or perhaps focus in on, then we're perfectly
able to respond.
Behind each one of these programmes sits an in -depth delivery plan and risk log with much
more granularity of which we can respond to and ensure that we get the right level of
scrutiny.
Sure, thank you Jonathan.
Can I move to members for questions?
I'll take two at a time and I will then ask Jonathan to respond.
I'm going to start from my right.
Any questions?
Anybody else?
Thank you,
Mr Chair, I will now turn to the
Councillor, first please.
Thank you, chair. Thank you, Jonathan, for your
report and the work you do. It's been quite a few months now
we've started this journey. Can you kindly elaborate a little
bit more on which area we have done a measurable improvement
and which area is still underperforming and what are you doing to mitigate this underperformance?
Thank you, Councillor. I would be careful about when we're doing the risk log, I always
say for reporting red, it's about honest reflection on where we are rather than often blaming
and wouldn't blame individuals, we would say
that we are not progressing as fast as we want
for these reasons, and some
of those reasons are often complex.
But if I was to describe the kind of trust,
the last 12 months, we've made significant progress in terms
of partnerships and participation.
All of these we've got a long way to go.
So that has included work such as develop,
co -producing a vision with our partners,
which is a really important test around kind of trust
and working together as well as a VCS strategy and a VCS compact.
And of course colleagues will speak better to me but also a new way of working around
long term voluntary sector leases.
So those are really examples that evidence and show a different way of working in partnerships.
And in our highlight report that we take to full council we'll acknowledge a long way
to go but we would assess that programme as green.
I won't list them all but I'll list one that is more challenging, which is one corporate
team.
And what we have there is we're reporting that at the moment, which is kind of always
a moment in time, as read because the scale of the challenges are really significant.
We might have come a long way but we've got a really long way to go.
And that includes the sort of work like going through our internal audit actions backlog.
that includes ensuring that we're responding to our external auditors'
recommendations about how we manage risks and how we report risks.
Now we've made really good progress there but there are lots of
these some of these challenges have existed in this organisation for over a
decade and whilst we often make improvements we may find areas that
actually we need to improve that alongside that for it to embed. So the
The scale of the work has been bigger than we anticipated.
That said, I would be really optimistic over the next six months because we have put a
lot of things in place, such as £2 million worth of resource to turn it around and recruitment
of a new director of compliance.
So I can be optimistic, but I can say that that journey has been possibly the hardest
and will continue to be hard and continue to need scrutiny and oversight.
Thank you.
Can I now go to Councillor Bulam Chaudhary, please?
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Jonathan, for your presentation.
Could you clarify what is meant by the Deep Drive Project?
Is this review audit investigation or another type of initiative?
Yeah, and I can follow up some more information on the deep dive projects if that is helpful,
because I can give a shorter answer, but a longer explanation might help as well.
But what I would say is that, and working with the envoys and not to speak for the envoys,
but the envoys have articulated this really well as actually the council as an envoy they
receive any number of reflections, complaints, storeys or anything from the public or anything
from staff that really do reflect long -term perceptions about the council and they're
negative perceptions. So they may be a negative perception that the, how it happens for lots
of councils but Tower Hamlets is under intervention so it's a real challenge, a negative perception
of our housing, our housings are allocated for example. Now it's really, those perceptions
have existed a really long time for Tower Hamlets, like some of them for a decade, some
of them more recently. It's very difficult for the Council to get out of intervention
whilst also show that it is completely open and embracing challenge and scrutiny without
really starting to tackle some of those long established perceptions. So that means that
we want to be able to show the Secretary of State that is primarily responsible for the
intervention that we have looked at these perceptions in the eye and worked with the
envoys to develop to ensure that an independent expert has looked at the evidence, worked
with staff and can say, okay, there may be some areas of improvement but ultimately these
perceptions are untrue.
That is our aim.
If there are elements of the perception that is true, then we want to look that in the
But we haven't found the evidence to this date, but we want to, wherever possible, look
these perceptions in the eye and end them through an investigation that is independently
facilitated and the envoys will lead each one of those deep dive areas.
Deep dive areas are, as I've mentioned, how we manage recruitment through to grants and
and leases through to housing allocations and licencing and planning as well, just to
kind of name some of the examples.
So quite a broad area and an incredibly intensive piece of work that is happening now where
we would hope to start to really kind of test and get those findings by, well, through the
summer effectively, but we're very early in that piece of work.
It's very intense, but we believe it's going well and we're reporting that.
Thank you, Jonathan. Anyone else for a question?
Councillor Kahn. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you,
Chair. Just you mentioned the envoys have the right to review papers before they go
to cabinet and they go to full council. In the event the envoys disagree or have a concern
that that paper, what happens next?
So a risk of, I don't want to speak for the envoys, but our understanding of that is,
I mean in practise my experience, and I speak for my colleagues' relationship of working
with the envoys, is that actually it's much more informal and I'm interested in this paper,
we share that paper and we get advice and steer, but if there was an example where there
was a paper which was a decision or an area of which, let's use a decision as an example,
then the envoys could look at that paper and there is a process for them saying have you
thought about this, these are my words by the way, have you thought about this, we think
that this might not be, we think you should rethink that and these are the reasons why
and would have a discussion about that and listen and take their steer, they do have
reserve powers. So it's possible, although we've never experienced it or even come close
to that, of where the envoys could use reserve powers to challenge a decision that we were
making as it was going through the process, in theory. But the purpose of, in a way, the
purpose of the right review is to get the steer and view early so we can reflect and
work together with the envoys if that ever happens.
If I explain right.
Thank you Jonathan.
Councillor Oudalai, thank you.
Thank you, Chair.
Some of us have been around long enough to know when an office is doing a good job and
when sugarcoating certain things.
It's a public meeting so I'll keep it very broad.
but it is the fact that we are in this position for the last four years the perception and somewhat
Evidential but the administration hasn't functioned well for the which the government did intervene
You've outlined a very thorough process for which you know the the recent
Announcement just prior to the global elections that an additional resource additional power was given to the envoys and that they will be utilised in
Deep diving as you said to a maximum effect
I think I will go with the Councillor Khan's questions about how is that being put into
practise.
Just for the fact that if there are people watching, which I'm sure there are, could
you just outline if a resident or an officer in the council would be a low ranking or somebody
in middle ranking knows of something that's inappropriate, what is the best way to either
get in touch with yourself or the envoys, just for information, please?
are great and we need to improve that and we should
hope that in the middle of with the
Medicalauer we will definitely run intoression
run into something. That is
There is public information on how to contact the envoys of which are completely available
to our staff and indeed ideas and thoughts are shared with them on a regular basis.
So we do promote that information and that's also externally available as well.
But it is very important that due process is followed because it's not a shadow governance
process in many ways.
Some of the things that we're doing at the moment though just for your information, I
hope it's of interest is, for example, we're trying to ensure that the envoys are spending
more time with staff and partners, of which they do a lot already, but just we've done
a question and answer with over 180 staff, for example, with the envoys and we'll do
some specific conversations with the envoys and staff, for example, around the continuous
improvement programme areas as well so it's a bit more focused and we can spend time on
specific things. So the conversations are really important but there is a, the envoys
have an email that's completely, is readily available and is well known to staff and to
many of our partners and we're absolutely happy to promote it.
I'm going to ask the question.
Is that fine?
Thank you, Jonathan.
Councillor Khan?
I've got two questions, if I just add it in.
That's fine.
Just the follow -up to the reserved powers of the YOM invoice.
If you could just clarify what those reserved powers are.
Just because we might not know, people in the public might not know, there's this perception that they've got this enormous power.
So that would be helpful.
Secondly, you mentioned that you would be reporting quarterly for Council and then you
also mentioned there would be a detailed report that would go to the end for us.
The chair did right at the start ask how you would be working with the UNS committee.
Will that detailed report come to this committee?
Yeah, so answer the latter question because it's quite quick.
Yes, obviously it's a bit of a timing issue in that the detailed report will go, the six -monthly one will go to full council in July.
So the stars and the moon might not have aligned this time, but in future, absolutely.
And the quarterly ones will as well. But that doesn't mean that there aren't other ways as well for scrutiny on that.
Now, they are actually, I think they are best framed as powers in reserve.
And if I try and list them, I will do a disservice because it is quite legalistic.
But effectively they are the same powers that a commissioner might have in an intervention.
And I know that is still quite technical.
But it is a power, you know, they involve things like being able to have power on terms of who a council recruits.
recruits or they have power to change a decision, for example.
Now we can send some clarity FAQ questions on those powers after this meeting if that
is more helpful.
But I would stress one point and that is as part of the correspondence from the intervention
is they are never meant to be used and that's very specific and clear whilst it is an escalation
It is not the Commissioner model, it is their powers that should never be used and our intent
is that they never are, because we want to continue our improvement journey in the way
that we are doing so now.
You said should not be used, so I'm still unclear why should they not be used and when
they should or should not be used. Who makes that decision?
I mean my phrasing would be it's almost a deterrent. They're there as a midway between
the Envoy model of which they weren't necessarily explicit as the powers in reverse that could
be used quite quickly and then there's the Commissioner model where those powers are
there and they're up front and they can be used and they're not held in reserve.
So the intent is that the intent is as a challenge and a reminder that actually there is an escalation.
We don't want to use these powers.
This is how we're interpreting it and this is how it's explained to us.
We don't want to use those powers.
But they are there if the council doesn't continue its improvement journey and doesn't
response to the best value duty.
Thank you, Jonathan.
Any other questions?
OK.
In that case, I'd like to conclude this item now, but before doing so, I want our
committee to keep a watchful eye on the corporate improvement plan, as this is a key strategic
objective for the Council.
So it would be helpful if we can be updated on the progress of this, Jonathan.
Thank you.
Jonathan, you're welcome to stay or go.
So we're going to move on to the next item.
Thank you.
So moving on to the next item, we have pre -decision scrutiny and forthcoming decisions.
I understand that there aren't any pre -decision scrutiny questions as Cabinet is on the 15th
of July, but the forthcoming decisions have been published.
Do members wish to comment on this?
No?
Okay.
Finally, on to any other business.
Is there any other urgent business to discuss?
Our next regular overview and scrutiny committee meeting will be on the 27th of July, so I
look forward to seeing you all.
I also want to bring to your attention that our meeting on the 21st of September will
be moved to the 22nd of September to accommodate the Mayor's key spotlight.
I also want to bring to your attention that we have a scheduled members' workshop, sorry,
members' work programme development day on Tuesday the 28th of July from 6 to 8 pm.
Can I encourage all OSE members to make time to attend this workshop?
It's important that we utilise this to ensure that we've set an outline of work programme
for the year.
I look forward to seeing you all there.
So with no other business to discuss, I'm happy to close the first part of this meeting
and move on to the non -public broadcasted part of the meeting.
Thank you.