Overview & Scrutiny Committee - Tuesday 22 September 2026, 6:30pm

Overview & Scrutiny Committee
Tuesday, 22nd September 2026 at 6:30pm

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7 a) Strategic Plan 2026-2030 Adoption

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7 c) Continuous Improvement Quarterly Update

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8 a) Co-optee Recruitment Update

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Co-optee Recruitment update (1)

9 a) Overview & Scrutiny Work Programme 2026-27

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9 b) Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report 2025-26

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10 SCRUTINY LEADS UPDATES

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13 ANY OTHER UNRESTRICTED BUSINESS WHICH THE CHAIR CONSIDERS TO BE URGENT

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Let the Deputy Mayor sit with me.

Good evening everybody and welcome to the Ovary and Scrutiny Committee meeting.

My name is Councillor Halima Islam, Chair of Ovary and Scrutiny.

Can I remind everyone 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 remind members should only speak on my direction and ensure to speak clearly into

the microphones.

A polite reminder for members present that they have committed through the members pledge

to treat one another with dignity and respect, to give others the opportunity to speak, to

listen to different viewpoints and ensure that challenge is constructive and inclusive.

I look forward to seeing all attendees demonstrate this commitment through their conduct this

evening.

Tonight our main order of business includes reviewing the anti -poverty rapid needs assessment.

So that's going to be the first item.

We've moved agenda items around.

Then it will be the strategic plan 2026, 2030, and new key performance indicators.

And third will be the continuous improvement quarterly update.

In addition to our substantial items, we will also agree our new scrutiny co -opted members,

agree our work programme for 2026 -27 and note the OSC annual report for 2025 -2026.

Apologies for absence.

Can you advise if any apologies have been received from committee members or presenters?

No apologies received, Chair.

Thank you, Naseema.

Declarations.

Can members introduce themselves formally and declare whether they have any discloseable pecuniary interest

and indicate which aspect the interest relates?

state where their interest is of a personal and fiducial nature.

Anybody?

Chair, it's just a matter of noting on the anti -poverty, because I sit in the community

for Wapping Bannabasj, which provides support for elderly, so I just want to put it out

there.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

Thank you.

The minutes from our meeting on 27 July 2026 have been circulated.

Can the members who are present confirm these as a true and accurate record?

We then have the overview and scrutiny committee query and action log.

I understand that there was only one action log item.

We have received this and information on this is within the log in the agenda pack.

Can I remind committee members that if we require additional information which requires

more time for officer response, let's use the action log so that we can focus on the

agenda at hand and keep to time.

Moving on, we have the scrutiny spotlight on anti -poverty rapid needs assessment.

That is our first item for this evening.

This focuses on the anti -poverty rapid needs assessment, the first major piece of work

undertaken by the borough's anti -poverty task force.

We can see that this report makes clear that poverty remains one of the most significant challenges facing the borough,

with an estimated 117 ,000 to 130 ,000 residents living in poverty despite the borough's economic success.

I'd like to thank Councillor Talukdal and officers for flagging this work to members early.

We recognise there is much more work to be done before the Council completes and launches

its anti -poverty strategy and welcome the opportunity to feed into this evening with

future engagement points planned.

Members should test the robustness of the evidence and consider if the proposed outcomes

and priorities truly reflect the realities facing residents.

Think about any gaps, risks or further opportunities that should be considered before the strategy

It would be interesting to hear how the Council and its partners intend to tackle the structural

driver of poverty set out in the report, including housing costs, employment and income, financial

resilience and barriers to accessing support.

For this item, I now welcome Councillor Talukda, Deputy Mayor, Cabinet Lead for Tackling Inequality,

Cost of Living, Improving Customer Services and Voluntary Sector Engagement.

Amy Jackson, Director of Tackling Inequality and Engagement.

Sabina Khan, Project Officer.

Councillor Terta, would you like to start off, please?

Officers can add to your comments.

You will have 10 minutes to provide the update and then we can move to members' questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Good evening, committee members.

Poverty remains one of the biggest challenges facing in our borough.

Despite being home to significant economic growth and opportunities, far too many residents

continue to face hardship with the assessment estimating between 117 ,000 to 130 ,000 residents

are living in poverty.

The evidence presented within this needs assessment highlights the scale of the challenge facing

children, older residents, working families and many of our most vulnerable communities.

This rapid needs assessment is an important first step in developing a coordinated boroughwide

response.

It provides a robust evidence base, identifies key drivers of poverty, including housing

costs, low incomes and financial insecurity and helps us understand where we must focus

on our efforts.

The Anti -Poverty Task Force has been established to bring together the Council, residents,

voluntary organisations and our partners around a shared mission to tackle poverty and inequality.

Today's discussion is an opportunity for scripture to challenge the findings, identify

any gaps and help us shape the future of anti -poverty strategy before it is brought forward to next year.

This is the beginning of an engagement and there will be further opportunities for school to contribute as this strategy develops.

I welcome the committee's view and recommendation as we move forward

understanding the problems to delivering meaningful action that improves outcomes

for residents across the Hamlets. Thank you and I'll bring in officers if they want to contribute or go through the assessment.

Thank you.

have a look -at

I would like to

Thank you.

Thank you very much to the committee for

allowing us to come and present to you on the

rapid needs assessment.

So as the deputy mayor said, this is the kind

of foundational

stone of the work of the task force.

And it brings together all of the available

evidence and data that we could find on

poverty in Tower Hamlets.

And it is really

the beginning of the kind of roadblocks

the anti -poverty task force.

So as you can see, and you should all have a copy of the needs assessment sent to you,

the full needs assessment, it is a very long document and I would really encourage you

to have a look through it.

It's got some very, very helpful and interesting information about the borough.

I think that a lot of people know the kind of top lines about poverty in the borough,

but there's a lot more kind of detailed work in there about the different groups that are affected

and Sabina is going to take you through the top lines of that in a minute but I'd really encourage

people to have a look through because I think there'll be parts of it that you find particularly

of interest to your wards, to the people that you represent. But that is that this is the kind of

beginning of the work of the task force, obviously we want it to be evidence -led, we want it to be

data led and we want our work eventually to be very targeted based on that data.

So we're now in the engagement phase of the taskforce, so we are doing engagement work

with members such as this meeting obviously, we're doing work with officers, with residents

and also different organisations in the borough and we want to test our findings, see if there's

experience of residents and also hear from members about whether or not this

resonates with what your experiences are in the borough of what you hear back from residents.

After the engagement phase we'll do the logic modelling, so we'll be talking about the theory of change,

what are our short and medium term outcomes for the taskforce and mapping provision to need

based on the data that we've found and the engagement that we've completed.

After that we'll have the draught strategy and engagement and the strategy, the anti -covid strategies will underpin the work of the taskforce.

So that's going to be a really important document which of course we will be bringing back.

And then ultimately we will with that strategy establish the taskforce which will have focused work streams

where we can, using the data, look at new initiatives where the council and partners

can tackle poverty in a joined up way.

And just as one example of that, we're already doing that.

We're going to PEG on Friday where we've initiated some work with partners already on making

sure that this is a very much joined up piece of work from the very beginning.

So I'll hand over to Sabina.

Thanks Amy.

So as Amy mentioned, the needs assessment is a very lengthy document.

So I'm going to pull out the key highlights in terms of the evidence that we found.

So firstly, we have 40 % of residents here in the borough living in relative poverty,

and that's after housing costs.

A few, about six or seven years ago we had two neighbourhoods in England's most deprived,

most 10 % most deprived areas and that has now risen from two to 22. So that really shows

you how much things have declined. And then in terms of what benefits look like, so we

have 187 million pounds in unclaimed benefits in the borough every year.

So in terms of what's impacting this, so the key driver, there's many factors and many

drivers, but the key one is housing costs.

So for instance with child poverty, that sits at 26 .7 % before housing costs, but it almost

doubles to over 50 % after housing costs.

And then we have 84 % of households in poverty

that are working households.

So clearly there's an aspect of low income.

So even where people are working,

that does not necessarily take them out of poverty.

In terms of what deprivation looks like across the borough,

It's both concentrated in certain wards but also it's widespread across the whole

borough so even in places that you may think there are pockets of wealth like

Canary Wharf there's still people there experiencing poverty. And then another

key piece of data that's worth considering is the fact that there's a

Only 6 .4 % of residents are in need of debt advice in Tower Hamlets and we have the third

lowest level of financial fitness in London.

So in terms of which groups are most affected, so children and families, so one thing I forgot

to mention is we have one of the highest levels of child poverty.

So children, especially because of housing costs, older people, so we have 61 % of older

people who are income deprived, people with disabilities, women, particularly in terms

of employment or cases of lone parent households, ethnic minorities, mainly Bangladeshis, and

Then there is a point in the needs assessment that says highest vulnerability groups.

So that refers to groups that may be small in number but greatest at risk.

So that might be people who are like migrants with no recourse to public funds, care leavers,

those in temporary accommodation.

And then also working households on low income, as I mentioned earlier.

In terms of the drivers of poverty, it's a mix between the housing costs and housing insecurity.

Also employment insecurity, very low income, lack of claiming of benefits, the cost of essentials and the cost of living.

and then also structural barriers, so by that things like limited proficiency of English or digital exclusion,

so just the systematic aspect. And then in terms of what poverty actually feels like,

so this is just the beginning of what the lived experience is, but of course we are going to go into further engagement for this,

The main points that stick out consistently across all of our sources is that services feel disjointed,

the support system for poverty is too complex to navigate and also can be quite inaccessible for those who need it the most,

and then also this internal feeling of shame for being poor.

So those are the main highlights.

We've drafted some outcomes for this, but just to mention,

I don't know if you've had a look at the outcomes,

but we have already started the engagement, you know,

mainly with members so far, and the general consensus is

that these outcomes do need to change.

They are currently a little bit generic, so we are hoping

to make it a lot more targeted for poverty. Is there anything else?

Thanks, Sabina. I think I'd just like to ask members really, just on the outcomes, we obviously

very much want to hear your views on what you think the taskforce should be doing. What

should it be aiming to achieve with all of this information that we have, with the resources

and with the influence we are able to have,

I would like to hear from you

what you think we can achieve

with that.

As Sabina said,

the outcomes

, our worry is

that

while these are

very good outcomes

in terms of

what we should

aspire to

in Tower Hamlets,

unfortunately

they duplicate

a lot of what is

already in the strategic vision.

So we think it would be more helpful

for the Council

to have a more

to have more targeted outcomes,

so clearer anti -poverty specifically objectives

rather than what one might ideally want

from an anti -poverty task force.

So yeah, I think we'd really like to use the time

that we have to hear from you

and just let us know what you think the council can do,

what should our priorities be, are there any gaps?

So have we missed anything from what residents tell you

and anything else you think would be helpful to this project.

Thank you, Councillor Talabdang and officers for your overview.

What we'll do, we take questions first and then you can respond to them and then we can come back to the outcomes.

I'll take two at a time.

I will start with the housing costs.

Two at a time.

I don't see who's hand is up first.

Shall we start from Councillor Mahmoud and Councillor Hilarion.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

The assessment repeatedly identifies the housing cost as the single biggest driver of poverty.

So with child poverty rising from 26 .7 % before housing cost to 50 .3 % after housing cost.

So if the housing is the dominant cause of poverty, why are housing interventions not

presented as the overriding priority of the emerging strategy?

will soon be.

As we go through

the public hearing, it will be

Can you indicate

what percentage

the reduction in Olive

Mean

percent is deduction in unclaimed benefit are you targeting?

Thank you.

potential for fun in the next few weeks.

J 190 por

We have no ability to control rents in the private rented sector, no ability to control

the cost of housing.

So I guess it's really trying to determine what is possible as well as what is the biggest

impact on people's lives from the task force's point of view.

And sorry, the claiming benefits.

We don't currently have a target for how much of the unclaimed benefits we want to try and

that work as it goes forward.

Thank you, Amy.

Councillor Hussain and Councillor Chaupich.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor, thank you, Amy and Savina, for your presentation and the work

you do.

Amy, you talked about the needs assessment.

On the needs assessment it shows 84 % of households are in poverty who are working class people.

So in my opinion just suggesting employment alone is not the solution for getting out

of the poverty.

So can you kindly elaborate a little bit more on what's the council's strategy to help the

working class people?

Thank you.

Thanks, and that is a really good question. It's probably in my view one of the most shocking

statistics in the needs assessment that 84 % of households in poverty are working households

and completely agree employment is not the only solution. I think there's a whole, I

mean just to say this is just the beginning, we don't have the strategy yet. We need to

work with members, residents, organisations, business to come up with the answers to this

problem. Why is that the issue for residents in Tower Hamlets and what can we all collectively

do about it? So while I can't answer that question in full now, it's quite clear that

work is not paying for people in Tower Hamlets in far too many places and I think it's really

and its role as a council, as an employer, as a convening authority and as an organisation

that gives out a lot of contracts, that we use all of those levers to really try and

drive that down but also our employment support work path into really identifying what are

the barriers to people in these households where you might have one person in work or

they may only be able to do part -time work, so you know families who have children with very high needs,

sometimes they or they have caring responsibilities for older people, they may not be able to work full -time,

which is a major barrier. So yeah I think it's really a very multifaceted thing that we need to

cover in a lot of detail in our in the strategy when we get there.

Thank you for your answer.

Can you kindly tell us how many of our suppliers pay London wages and also when we do procurement

and regeneration scheme, there is an element that says social benefits.

So when we do those kind of procurement and social regeneration scheme, can we be more

robust on the suppliers or the developer to pay proper pay for the workers?

Yeah, thanks.

I don't think I could tell you how many suppliers we have.

It must be a huge number with their supply chains as well.

But what I do think is that there's a lot more the council can do on the social value work.

In my limited experience of procurement, there is of course an element of social value that is taken into account for all procurement.

But I do think that sometimes it is not necessarily seen as something that is that important to

the company themselves, not always really delivered.

I think having seen the offers between different companies, the ones who take it very seriously

and those less so, there could be a real drive from the council to push those standards up,

make them more accountable.

And I know that there has been a social value review, which we've identified as a big part

of this.

this is a huge lever for the council to be bringing well -paid long -term jobs into the

borough. Councillor John.

Thank you, Chair. I'd like to follow up on my colleague's question about in -work employment

and poverty. Later on this evening we're going to discuss the strategic plan and the question

I was going to ask about that relates to in -work poverty because in a sense I

would really like to see how the issue of in -work poverty feeds into the strategic plan and how

There are areas of economic growth in our society in their areas where

industries are dying

Another thing we're going to talk about in the continuous improvement plan

We will talk about the metrics that are being measured now for me

there is an absence in all of those areas of a focus on what economic benefit decarbonising

Tower Hamlets can have to create well -paid good jobs for people in Tower Hamlets.

And the Council clearly, as you point out, has a huge amount of agency out there

in terms of training, in terms of the contracts, in terms of commissioning the work and ensuring

that people in Tower Hamlets can access those economic opportunities. And I guess it's a

question about whether the timing of this piece of work and the timing of the strategic

plan and whether those two things can go together so that you can actually start to actually

have the benefit of creating those well -paid jobs that will create a different life for

those people in Tarahumara living in poverty and earning very low incomes.

Chair, with your permission, can I just add something to that just for the benefit? I

When a counsellor is not reading from the script but is speaking from the heart, I will say this.

It's actually saddens that 20 years on we're talking about poverty in a sense of, I think you've really nailed it on the head,

which is the poverty strategy and the kind of the strategic plan.

If we go back 2012 when the Olympics was coming to London, Newham at that time had this thing which were the job creation in the Westfield.

I think it was 48 hours in advance, we were told to new residents.

We've got multiple schemes that are happening.

I think my colleague, Councillor Hussain, talked about regeneration programmes.

Where can we level up both the anti -poverty, as you said, and the strategic plan that our

council, I'm not sort of saying single out the administration, I'm talking about the

council as an entity, working to make sure that the jobs that we have are for our residents.

So workforce, I know we talked about workforce to reflect the community. I don't necessarily mean diversity

I meant the local people as entire homeless

So the future jobs the science parks in Canary Wharf and other things that when we do the planning when we do those

Big developments that we safeguard some of those jobs. So it becomes part of the strategy

So different departments in the council know that that's what we're working on

So because you've opened up this sort of question to us that what can we contribute?

I think that would be my thing to add to councillor rupert's to which is how do we as a body as an entity as a

Council authority working with developers working with retailers working with their new science technology parks that are happening in our backyard

That we safeguard those jobs for our residents and before you answer

I'm gonna say 20 years on we're still talking about you know

When we talked about bricks and mortars when canary wolfs book

It was being built the same thing was told to us then just workforces and skillful

So they have skills match.

I don't know if it was well before your time.

Now we've got work path.

So what are we doing now in our strategy

to make sure the future jobs that's

going to be created in the science and the tech industry

around the wharf, around the borough, that we're job ready?

I'll stop there.

I have another question, but I just wanted to ask you.

Thank you.

Do you want to answer that before I move on

to the next question, Amy?

Thank you.

Sorry, I keep forgetting the mic.

Thank you for your questions.

Very interesting.

I think that there is, I think I'm just trying to decide which way to answer this, but I

think that there definitely does need to be a, the anti -poverty task force is obviously

driving the particular strand of anti -poverty work and I think a key part of that is making

sure it is across the council in all of the work that it's doing.

I think that's one of the key objectives, is recognising that the council does loads of great anti -poverty work.

I think a lot of people here are driven by wanting to tackle poverty, recognising that it exists and wanting to do more about it.

But we don't always have that overarching strategic approach to this specific issue.

We have it for many other issues, so this is really to try and help with that.

but of course we already have other council, whole council plans in place.

So we are definitely working with John's team on the strategic plan, that is key, it has to be woven in.

The anti -poverty work has to be woven in.

We're also taking a socio -economic duty paper to cabinet in October,

where the socio -economic duty will hopefully be adopted by the council,

So it becomes another recognised part of the Equality Act that the council has to take the socio -economic impact of

a policy on the residents into account. It becomes our duty.

It's not just something we can choose to opt in and out of.

And also a lot of this work has actually already kind of come through for the strategic vision from the strategic vision work

that was done, which was a huge engagement kind of exercise.

So I think the good news is we're already starting from quite a positive place and that's

what we're going to build on.

But in terms of the work in the economy, there is some work beginning on the inclusive economy

from Auschwitz team and that is going to be something I think that has really got to work

completely in tandem with the anti -poverty task force.

good work, good jobs is the way out of poverty.

Everybody knows that, it's very clear.

But also the question is, and this is probably more for members than me,

but what kind of economy does Tower Hamlets want to have?

There's a lot of, we have a massive finance sector in the borough,

but the world is changing and it's that, I think it's really the direction

of politicians about where the borough should be in terms of that development and where

we go, but I couldn't agree more that a lot of this work has to focus on building and

safeguarding those good jobs, well paid jobs and secure jobs with long term prospects for

the people of Tower Hamlets and making that sustainable for them and there's many ways

in which you can do that, but I don't think we have got that really right now.

Thank you, Amy.

Councillor Kourou, have you got a question?

If you have got one, if you haven't, I can move on.

Thank you, Chair.

Good evening, everyone.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor and officers, for your informative presentation.

I am sure it will be beneficial to us.

Tower Hamlets has the highest child poverty

rate in England.

After housing cost, with over 28 ,000 children

affected and 71 % living in income deprived households.

If the strategy can only focus on a limited number

of actions. Why should not child property be the main focus of the

tax push work?

Number one, when I was reading the report I have to mention this when I saw

the figure 187 million has been unclaimed by eligible residents of

It really hurt actually.

So you mentioned earlier there's a lot of work being done with stakeholders and partners.

What's missing?

It's a lot of money, almost 200 million.

So the residents that are going to those welfare advisories or whatever scattered around the

borough that is funded by the council itself.

So yeah, if you could give us some insights.

Thank you, Chair.

I think that is a very important part of the

conversation.

I think that is a very important part of the

conversation.

I think that is a very important part of the

conversation.

Only by doing that can we help the children.

So for example it might be the children who are in a household where you have one or both parents in work

but it's very poorly paid, it's very insecure, it might be part time and they want to work full time.

Those parents might not have had training opportunities, they might not have had access to proper materials

to help them understand they could get more benefits.

So I think that while the child poverty is the most shocking and urgent problem that we have

in terms of what we need to do as a council and also with partners,

I think that actually they live in the same world as the rest of us and it's those problems

that impact on them eventually, the housing costs, all of the drivers that are in the needs assessment

or what if we can help to tackle some of those then we would help to alleviate

the poverty those children are living in. And then in terms of the unclaimed

benefits I think there's so many factors that that affect these the uptake of

benefits. I think a lot of people don't, they may be in poverty but they don't

consider themselves in poverty. They don't necessarily recognise that that is

a situation that they are in, they also don't necessarily see themselves as entitled to this money,

that this is for somebody else, it wouldn't be for them.

So it's very much a kind of communications issue, it's a trust issue.

If you're somebody who's had struggles with money, you may not want to go and tell somebody about that,

you may not necessarily trust the council to give you help with that,

You may owe the council money, that might be a barrier to you coming forward and seeking

that sort of support.

People don't necessarily have the time to be spending time looking at their own potential

benefits eligibility and then doing the forms and if anyone has done them, I'm sure people

will be familiar, they're very hard to fill in and they're hard to fill in properly to

reflect your true needs.

and also in terms of the services that provide this welfare advice, they don't have enough capacity.

The waiting lists for these organisations, like Citizens Advice, is eight weeks.

They are massively oversubscribed and also I think there isn't enough coordination at the moment

and that's what the Crisis and Resilience Fund is for, to boost that capacity and also to boost coordination

So that rather than lots of different organisations and the council working separately doing the

same thing, that we're joined up a lot more and we don't duplicate and we can target our

resources.

Yeah, so I think that's where the gaps are.

Thank you, Amy.

I'm going to take both your questions together.

Can you just keep it brief?

I've got five more minutes on just questioning.

Thank you, Chiu.

My question is in general, having met the envoys in our group meeting, we were told that the average, the whole council running is on track and is on track and is doing good and is improving and has improved.

and there's always space for improvement.

In terms of housing and especially housing and the anti -social behaviour,

this is what town homelessness is really concerned about.

So what is your plan to continuous improvement of these two sections?

I'm sorry, that's probably for the later report.

We've moved the agenda.

So I'm going to move on.

You can ask your question in the second item.

Councillor Oulda, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Once again, I did declare my interest earlier that I sit on a committee that does what your last point about helping,

without wanting to name the national organisation where you talked about eight weeks getting an appointment.

I think when you're desperate and I've been on the other end and listening to people

On a national charity that I sat on the board for 17 years, you know doing those callings when people are desperate

They don't want eight weeks to wait to fill out the form

digital isolation in a sense of you know, people don't have

Data to fill out the form of whether be on a smartphone or a laptop

I want to and as I said

I put my hand up in the chair and I live in an area where it shows on the map that it's not very low

or it's very low down on the list,

but I know from experience that the things

that you identified, white working class

or elderly white working who are less likely

to ask for help because that's how I lived,

you know, I'm used to it, or they are very less reliant

on statutory service.

I mean, that hundred odd million that you talked about,

I mean, God forbid for Raja, we're finding that out,

that people of Ta 'amdulillah are not claiming

who we're entitled to.

So can I please, I know you are discovering at the moment there's no strategy you're kind of building,

is that working with rather than large national agencies that we saw failed our residents in doing COVID,

it was, and you know I always say something nice about the Deputy Mayor,

it was him and few others I know working with grassroot organisation to provide the food, provide the support.

It was our organisation that I sit on that was doing the small forms that you know through phone,

helping people to fill up the forms that they needed.

So I would say rather than concentrate everything on the large national organisation our strength lies in our communities who know the community

Is to empower them to work more directly. So I just want to put that out in the record that more

Needs to be done with the smaller organisation than the larger ones who are more resourceful

But lose the people who fall behind the crack. That's my plea

Thank You councillor

active means they can put a lawmaker around

the table, so there's

I'm going to ask the last question and then we can, so if anyone has any thoughts on Amy's

questions around outcomes and where the task force should focus its activity, we can take

those suggestions this evening or feed in over the next week or so.

So my question, Amy, is the needs assessment provides a compelling diagnosis of poverty

in Tower Hamblers.

What is less clear is what will be done differently.

So if this committee invites you back in two years time, what measurable changes should residents expect to see

that would demonstrate that the Anti -Poverty Task Force had genuinely reduced poverty rather than simply improve our understanding of it?

Thank you.

Thanks. Oh, that's a hard question.

I think if the task force works as it should, which is in partnership with lots of other

organisations, I think if it stays accountable and listening to residents, and that's going

to be a key part of our engagement strategy, there won't just be this engagement and then

done.

This has to be ongoing.

I think it has to remain accountable and in touch with residents and the people who represent those residents.

That's really important. But I think if I could probably pick on three things.

I think for me the biggest priority is making some progress on reducing child poverty.

That's a terrible thing to be at the top of the national table on.

and to be able to reduce that I think would be a huge measure of success.

I know there's many, many factors behind it, but that was something I would hope.

I think the second thing would be reducing that statistic around in -work poverty

and trying to work as members have suggested more effectively with companies

I think it is important to think about

the economic strategy of the

borough to get in those well -paid jobs

and creating those meaningful

opportunities for residents.

I think I'm going to try and

probably cram two points into one here,

but building up our resilience services,

our financial security services, to the

point where far more people are

claiming what they're entitled to,

there is, you know, even if 25

per cent of that 187 million

was claimed, there is a

there would be far more money in the pockets of Tower Hamlets residents and already are and

Kind of related to that. I think a big piece of work

That I would really like to do successfully would be trying to drive down the number of residents in need of debt advice

Currently we have the highest need for debt advice in the country and that means that a resident is in two or more

core debts so council tax their utilities their

debt, credit card debt, all of those significant debts in one's life, over a quarter of Tower

Hamlet's residents are in that level of debt. So I think for me it would be that kind of

combination of debt advice and welfare advice being much more joined up, far more capacity

to really help residents be more financially secure in the long term.

Thank you, Amy. Members, do you want to come in about the outcomes? Any suggestions?

Thank you, Councillor Tarr -Ligdahl and officers for responding to the committee's questions.

We can see that today's discussion has reinforced the scale and complexity of the challenge -facing

particularly the impact of housing costs, child poverty, work poverty and financial

insecurity on many residents.

Our members welcome the evidence -led approach taken through the RAPIDS needs assessment

and the commitment set out to engage residents, communities and partners in shaping the borough's

future anti -poverty strategy.

Our view is that you continue to focus on measurable outcomes, partnership accountability

and that the voices and lived experience of residents most affected by poverty remain

at the heart of the process.

Our committee looks forward to further engagement and receiving the draught anti -poverty strategy

in due course and monitoring the impact of interventions designed to reduce poverty and

improve life chances across the borough.

Thank you and we'll now move on to our next item.

You're welcome to stay or you may leave.

Thank you.

Our second substantial item for this evening will be to consider the Council's draught strategic

plan 2026 -2030, which sets out the administration's vision, priorities and commitments for the

next four years.

7 a) Strategic Plan 2026-2030 Adoption

As the Council's principal corporate plan, it will shape policy, performance, resource

allocation and service delivery across the organisation.

Our role is to provide constructive challenge and assurance that the priorities are evidence -based,

deliverable, resident -focused and capable of improving outcomes for the people of Tower

Hamlet.

We will therefore examine whether the plan reflects the borough's key challenges and

opportunities, how success will be measured and whether there are any areas that require

further strengthening before adoption.

Can I welcome Jonathan Lloyd, Strategic Director for Change and Improvement, who will be speaking

to this item.

Can I also welcome our directors from their respective directors.

For the purpose of public transparency, can I ask you all to introduce yourself and your

role when you speak.

Can I ask Jonathan to provide an overview on the item?

We will have 10 minutes and then we will move to members' questions.

I will let you know when we are nearing the last minute so that we can stick to time.

Thank you, Jonathan.

You may start.

Thanks, Chair.

If it is all right, can I just briefly introduce the report?

Sure, no problem.

Thanks, Councillor.

Thank you.

And then I will hand it over to Jonathan.

So thank you, colleagues.

For those that aren't aware, and I'm sure you all are aware,

in May 2026 the Aspire Party won the majority in this council.

Mayor Lut For Rahman became the mayor again.

And as part of that process of delivering on the manifesto that he won on

and the party won on, the council needs to adopt a strategic plan.

So for those new members that have come in,

it is essentially the council's business plan to deliver

on what the residents of town have voted for.

And what you'll see here is a building of the foundations

of the last four years.

It's themed around eight priorities,

and I know John will probably go into some of them,

but it is very ambitious.

When it comes to local authority delivery,

we are trying to be ambitious.

I note the comments in the earlier session

around sharing of wealth, which is, I think, priority three,

and the stuff around social value.

There's a lot more within it and we're hoping to deliver on all the strategic objectives

with a corresponding delivery plan that will come afterwards.

So this is very high level as a document to put forward our ambition, our aspiration to live on the manifesto

but there will be a corresponding delivery plan that will be robustly monitored through the various different boards that we have within our governance structure

and with that being said I'll hand it over to John.

Thank you, Councillor.

The important framing would be we have made a commitment at previous committees to show

work at an early point.

So of course the experience and wisdom and challenge can help shape and refine the work

when it comes back as part of the cabinet process.

This is very much draught as you can see plastered all over it.

So great opportunity to get your reflections on it.

The second element is the way it might be different

to perhaps previous strategic plans

is a much more explicit understanding that like,

yes, it's got absolute commitments of delivery

set up by the administration and building on

previous ambitions in the council,

but also a big recognition how important

the kind of council's improvement journey is as part of that.

Making that link very explicit as well,

that actually the more we improve the running of the council,

the better we are at delivery,

the better we are at outcomes for residents,

all roads leading to the impact on residents.

I'd also just speak a little bit about

some of the references that the councillor

and some of the questions in the earlier session.

Anti -poverty has influenced this as well,

indeed actually some of the you can see some of the data in there and also you

can see the social economic duty and the the setting up of the task force as an

ambition within the strategic plan but just to quote some of

the ambitions within it support more residents into good quality jobs through

better skills training and employment support alongside encouraging more

employers to sign up to good work charters and living wage commitments and

And there is also a commitment to looking at growth clusters as well in there as well.

So stronger emphasis as the cabinet member said on inclusive growth and sharing that

wealth.

There is also a real emphasis on how we work and particularly telling staff storeys because

a great deal of the time it's staff and how they work that will be driving these ambitions

and we really want to celebrate but also show when staff are delivering for residents, we're

at our best.

When we're doing things differently, we're at our best.

And when we're learning and thinking about whether the status quo still applies, we're

at our best.

So those three principles of how we work are also made very explicit within the strategic

plan, the draught strategic plan.

And last point to echo that, it is a high level document that sets out the focus and

priorities of the next four years.

But the granularity of understanding impacts is probably best expressed within the annual

delivery plans which will produce and of course come to scrutiny and that will have the more

detailed kind of milestones and impacts that we anticipate from the priorities that we'll

do in each year.

And then also I know we had a workshop for those that could attend about the development of the new strategic key performance indicators

Which will also show a kind of impact and learning and some of the challenges and opportunities

Of how we're delivering against that strategic plan of which will be developing over the next few months and again

Getting your kind of your your steer and and challenge on those will be fantastic

Last but not least, it is a draught that we are sharing early.

We are going to have lots more conversations with staff and partners over the next few

months but again, sharing early is really important because we can help refine, improve

for its eventual publication towards the end of the year.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Can I now open it to members for questions?

I'm going to start from this side now.

So, Councillor Sernak.

Thank you. I think I've got the right group now to ask that question I asked before.

Since, you know, I just wanted to mention that we had a meeting with EnVoyz

and it's really nice to know that things are improving

or has improved and it's really good to know

that especially I want to,

it's two particular things that I want to be clear with

because the housing issues are still amongst the highest,

whatever the most promised that he made,

those house, but we're still struggling.

So what's your future plan to minimise the house crisis?

As well as a similar question for the antisocial behaviour as well.

So if you can kindly just tell me the future of these two items.

Thank you.

I'm happy to address the question.

I think obviously priority number one in the strategic plan is that everyone has access

to a safe, secure and affordable home and I think we are clearly very active in this

space. So we have an existing programme with around 1 ,000 homes being built on site as

we speak and that includes some very large schemes like the nearby HAP regeneration scheme

in Stepney but also infill schemes across the borough. But we're looking and I think

as the strategic plan sets out we're looking to really scale that up with the Mayor's Accelerated

housing programme, we've got over 40 sites with the potential for more than 3 ,000 homes

and we're really trying to bring them forward at pace and a key issue around that is grants

that we're looking to secure from the Greater London Authority and we put a very substantial

bid in to government and the GLA to support that and hopefully support our objectives.

But alongside what we do as a council I think it's worth noting that we enable a lot of

other organisations as well to deliver homes. So for instance some of our large

registered providers like Pop The Harker who are building homes, we are

using our powers like our compulsory purchase powers, Rights of Light and so

on to help those organisations get on and deliver homes. And clearly also we

have some very ambitious policies in our local planner and getting developers to

towards affordable housing as well so developers like Barclay Homes for

instance, London Dock making sure that we get a good proportion of affordable

homes as part of those developments. But it isn't just about new build we're also

acquiring homes so we're acquiring X right to buy homes again using grant

that we've received from government and we're also acquiring homes for more

secure lease to codation in boroughs so we can bring people back from out to

borough and temporary accommodation back into Tower Hamlets and alongside that I

suppose the final thing to say is really trying to scale up investment in our

existing stocks it's also about improving the quality of existing homes

so the strategic plan references the plan to invest 609 million pound in

Tower Hamlets Council stock and you know that is a critical component of what

we're doing really trying to bring about upgrades and decent homes building

safety works and a whole host of other investments and the final thing we're

trying to do as well is enable knock -throughs and extensions within

existing homes as well there was a recent video involving our lead member

visiting a family where we've extended their current home so that they've moved

from a three to a four bed recognising that you know we need to do everything

we can with our current stock to relieve overcrowding and all of those things are

a massive priority for us. Thank you David does that answer your question

The second question was on decision behaviour, how you are looking ahead to minimise the

problem.

Clearly Ciaran as director of the community safety team is leading this work within the

communities directorate but there is a key interface with housing around anti -social

behaviour on estates and it comes up as a continual theme in terms of feedback we get

from residents that we need to do more. So there's all sorts of investment going in around

things like CCTV but also looking at how we use resident feedback to task our Tower Hamlets

enforcement officers around how we deploy them to help address antisocial

behaviour. We've obviously also invested in a new antisocial behaviour strategy

and the 24 -hour line that residents can report antisocial behaviour to and we're

trying to become much more responsive in terms of how we deploy that locally on

estates. So those are all things being led by Kieran and Darren in our

communities directorate but they do work very closely with Goulham -Hussain

particularly in our housing neighbourhoods team to address that because it comes up

as a key priority every time we do any resident engagement across our estates.

Clearly there's a much wider piece of work around social behaviour as well

because it doesn't just occur on council estates. We have issues across the

I know that we are working through the partnership with registered providers, with the Metropolitan

Police and other organisations to address it as well.

Quickly, I just want to add, I've got data that is showing the current improvement improved

from the last few years and the current and decision behaviour reports and the stuff that

I know there is a lot of data that is overseen through the partnership and I wonder whether

we can take an action and ask for Kewan to report back on the data that we hold.

Thank you.

Councillor O 'Lough, please.

Thank you, chair.

I appreciate the good work both officers do and obviously across

Departments, but can I just pick up on the last question that the good counsellor asked if you look at the article today?

The standard when the overall crime across London has fallen unfortunately year -on -year crime in town has gone up by

4 .3 % so while the council is asking for data I can help him with that

So this council under this administration last four years, you know

We saw the big photo opportunities and on

Partnership working with the met and and I think the current the lead member was then the former lead on community safety

Unfortunately, the crime has increased the fear of crime and no doubt with the winter coming people will feel very unsafe in this borough

But can I start off by saying the good work that has been done on the strategic plan?

I think last before the election. I think the the lead member was very

Right to point out the people in the borough have voted for the mayor back in again

So whatever the record whatever the achievement he can't really blame on anyone else it his own doing the six thousand property the livable

property that he was claiming to have built six thousand the waiting list has seems to have jumped from

28 ,000 to 30 ,000

It's so I'm thinking in terms of somebody in the council is not given the right figures whether it be the mayor elected members or

the council cons.

Obviously I'm looking at here on this

beautiful chart, the 6 ,000 property

livable or living rent, whichever the

terminology.

Is it affordable for

those we've got the worst

number one I think on in terms of low

income, number one, number two

nationally in terms of income

deprivation.

So when we then say

6 ,000 at rent, affordable rent, who are

we appealing to, who are we talking to?

I think people need to know that.

I think the language, the language

is very important in terms of aspiration,

and I'm not talking about the Aspire Party,

I'm talking about the aspirations

of the people in this borough.

When they are labelled as the poorest of the poor,

and then you've got a living rent,

which is beyond, unless you're a highly paid councillor

or a highly paid officer in this borough,

31 % of the council staff are locally employed,

it becomes unaffordable.

So I think we also have to be realist,

we also have to be, what do you call it, be genuine.

and I know this is not a lecture, but I'm just pointing out what I see as an opposition

when officers' good time being used to effectively, yes, the council has been won by a party with

a mandate, but it is up to the officers as well as the scrutiny and the oversight from

the envoys to make sure that it's not a blanket cheque.

Councillor Ula, can we get to the question?

Because obviously there's...

The question is this...

Councillor, straight to the question.

No, but it has to be said because officers' time are being used to wax lyrics about,

I think people also need to see

because the local media is very much

This opportunity is

my way of getting

information out there.

The microphone is on,

chair.

I will finish on this.

My question is this.

How, as officers working with the

envoys,

will you make sure that the information

that comes out of this council is of

accurate and of true value?

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor.

I think a good example would be the key performance indicators and development of those, absolute

aspiration and cheques and balances that are in place to make sure that that data is checked

and checked again and the integrity of it is sound, is a stronger process than I've

elsewhere and we continue to commit to doing that.

Thank you.

Councillor Boddle?

Thank you.

Thank you, chair.

Thank you, Councillor Tala, Chaudhry and the team.

My question has been asked already.

I'll just follow up on this.

My colleague here on my left, Saluk, about ASP.

So if you could give us some more insight and more clarity into it, whoever would like

to answer that.

A bit more into it.

how much of it fits into the plan for the future.

Thank you.

Thanks, Councillor, and apologies if we couldn't get to specifics earlier.

So, anti -social behaviour and the fear of it is obviously a top priority.

It constantly comes up in the annual resident survey, and you will know that in previous years

we've invested in a number of things that other local authorities are not doing.

So for example, the size of our enforcement team is probably the average size of another enforcement team in any other council is

Between 8 to 12 from our benchmarking

We've got more than 70 officers and they work very closely with the police as one of the councillors outlined before

in terms of our funded police teams

We fund a third of all London council police officers

31 other authorities fund two -thirds and we fund just a third so we have the biggest sort of council funded police team

To not dwell too much on what we've done over the last four years in terms of the ambition moving forward is to build on

that so first and foremost in this pressure of

You know finance in this sort of climate that we're in, you know people how having to look at savings. So

One thing I want to reassure residents when it comes to safety

the things that we have already invested in,

will continue to invest in.

So whether that's the enforcement officers,

whether it's the dog squad,

whether it's a particular drug squad,

whether it's all the CCTV, and really build on that.

In sort of the literature that we produce today,

we're looking at how we can build on the cameras,

the CCTV that we have,

what further technology is available out there.

We're looking at entry systems into buildings,

because we know that is a real concern for a lot of residents.

Within the strategic plan there's reference to drivers of antisocial behaviour.

So mental health is one particular driver.

So we're looking at maybe a service internally looking at mental health.

There's stuff around domestic violence.

We know sadly that it is a big issue in London, but also within our borough.

And we're looking at the service that we provide from within the council.

and what that looks like in partnership, that's something that's referenced in the report.

So there's quite a few stuff in there, but I think the delivery plan will help flesh

out some of this stuff and have a look to measure it.

But there are some references within priority 4, I think it is.

Thank you, Councillor.

Does that answer your question?

To add something.

I went to see the CCTV command centre.

So I was quite happy to hear from the officers.

A lot of the council, labouring councils are buying into the system that we use, so they

would like to hear.

Thank you.

Councillor Kipri and then Councillor George.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for your presentation.

This strategic plan makes strong commitment to children and young people.

What is the single biggest outcome

for children that you expect

to improve by 2030?

What will you do differently

if the progress slows down your target?

Number one.

Number two, how will you know

that the vulnerable children

rather than

just children overall are benefiting

from this strategic plan?

Do you want to ask your question?

I'd like to return to the theme I had earlier and I'm interested in the relationship between

the priority three and priority eight.

So in terms of the distribution, fair distribution of the wealth in the borough and the greening

of the borough.

And as a point of note I'd like to point out that the green economy, the act of decarbonising

in our economy is a huge growth area in the economy.

And I guess the question I have is that to train someone

for some of the skilled manual work that's involved in that,

it's going to take some time.

So you're going to have to act very, very quickly in terms

of having that benefit of that income to those 84 %

of people living in poverty and town helmets who are in work.

And I just have a question about, do you think firstly,

is a two -part question, that priority eight,

that the level of decarbonization

that's described in those aims is sufficient to capitalise

on those economic opportunities for to power those residents.

And secondly, are you modelling the work

that's available through the programme

so that you can underpin that in terms of the training

provision, so you're making best possible use

of those opportunities for our residents.

Thank you.

Over to you.

So in question order, shall we do the carbon question and then?

I mean what we say obviously these are priorities and there's a great deal of work to do.

I think the recognition that something like, for example, the movement from gas boilers

to air pumps, for example, and the opportunity that might provide in terms of jobs for our

residents, that opportunity is huge.

Although it's somewhat dependent on the ambiguity of national policy becoming more concrete,

and it's an opportunity that certainly David and David's teams and my teams are aware of,

but we're not yet at the modelling stage for that.

Perhaps there's a tension that we are discussing whether we should start the modelling in anticipation

of clearer government policy, and that is an ongoing discussion of which we hope will

be reflected in the delivery plan which would be the next iteration of this.

But recognising the scale of the opportunity and some of the tensions of do you wait or

do you run is something we are actively discussing.

Chair, is it okay if I take the question about the west starting line?

Sure, go ahead, thank you.

Thank you, Councillor.

Excellent question.

I think a link to some of the issues discussed earlier around poverty, I think that when we start to see, as Amy said, more children coming out of poverty with their wider family,

I think within the strategic plan, the best starting life is an area in the investment around the best starting life and the developments around that.

the best starting life, what were children's centres or family hubs are now called the best starting life hubs.

The investment there I think will make a big difference.

Obviously these priorities don't sit in isolation so I think health and wellbeing, which is another part of the plan.

One of the measures where children don't fare so well into our hamlets is child obesity and healthy weight.

So if you're looking at a measure to see where we could improve significantly, I'd refer to that one.

And I think the other final one would be around achievement.

So we do really well comparatively around things on NEET, so we don't have huge numbers of children who are not in education, employment and training.

In our phase of education, we do well at key stage two and also in GCSE level.

and increasingly destinations for our children, a higher percentage of our children are going to the better universities,

but I think as we've seen recently with the A -levels, we all have ambition to be higher performing there,

but at the same time have an inclusive approach to education, but really push our aspiration as well.

So I think those are the sorts of measures I would want to see us change.

I wouldn't say for instance, I wouldn't put on that list children involved in crime because actually we're seeing a 50 % reduction in first time entrance to the criminal justice system.

We're down to 40 children a year through the work of the partnership around reducing children's involvement in crime which is really positive.

So there are other measures which, by far, are important.

Your question was, which are some other things that we really need to move on through the life of the strategic plan.

So I think those are the ones I covered. Thanks.

Has your question been answered?

the plan?

Is there anything else you would like to

The plan is really important.

Within the plan we talk about

a real focus on our children

with additional needs and

supporting children with SEND and their

families.

We have a significant demand, as you

know,

through your role in the children's

committee.

We do have a large amount of demand

but we do have a large amount of demand

But again, when you look at some of the key measures, so how do children with SEND compare to the general population in terms of examination outcomes,

the gap in talent is significantly narrower than other areas.

So actually there's and we have a really high percentage of children on education on the care plan in mainstream education.

So I think we've got evidence already that we are really supporting vulnerable children,

but there is certainly more to do there.

In terms of our social care services, as we know it refers to in the report,

that they are outstanding and we will focus on maintaining outstanding children's social care services.

We have a comparatively low number of children in our care.

Our teams and our community and our families work really hard to reduce the number of children in our care

So that's that's really positive

but I think we all accept there is there is more to do and we had the send strategy to send an inspection outcome and then

We've now got the same reform plan and all that needs to be implemented as well

Did you want to come in

Can I move on to Councillor Kamalu Hussain?

Have you got a question, Councillor?

You have?

Okay, so you can ask yours first and then Councillor Héla.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councillor Chaudhry and the senior leadership team to be here.

Also, I would like to welcome Tina, our new Corporate Director for Finances.

It is an ambitious plan, a strategic plan.

My question is, if our financial position detroits over the next four years, so which

priorities will be protected and which priorities will be at most risk?

Very good question.

I'll go first and then if colleagues want to jump in.

Shall we take the other one?

My question is, the strategy plan belongs to the whole Council, but who will be personally

accountable for delivery of each priority and how will performance be reported to scrutiny?

Okay, there's a question?

Yeah, got it. Thank you very much colleagues for those questions.

So I'll start with Councillor Helard's response first.

So in terms of who is ultimately responsible, so I think the strategic plan reporting goes

to cabinet every quarter.

So we'll be reporting every quarter, right?

But also within the report there's reference to other programmes.

And in my introduction, sorry, other boards and groups that we have.

And within my introduction I spoke about some of these boards within our governance process.

I'm talking about stuff like the budget challenge sessions, the AODs, even cabinet members are

are responsible for managing the performance

within their areas.

So there's quite a few different areas

where all of this will be monitored,

scrutinised and challenged.

But I think that the formal process of it coming

to cabinet every quarter in terms of our performance

against a delivery plan and scrutiny is opportunity

to then look into it before it goes to cabinet

is probably the opportunity unless you advise otherwise.

But I'm sure members and also officers will be more than happy to brief individual members

on particular areas of concern you may have.

So feel free to reach out at any point.

In terms of the first question from Councillor Hussain, we're going through the budget process

now.

So this document doesn't sit in isolation.

It has to form a key consideration of our MTFS.

So all the things that will be fleshed out from the strategic plan into our delivery plan, we have to cost them.

Some of the stuff we haven't even cost yet. We're currently going through that process.

As it stands now, I want to say that we will be funding everything within here.

And we don't want to be ranking things in particular orders.

And to an extent that has been considered in developing this.

But as we go through that process of you know setting the budget in the coming weeks and months. We'll be looking to

build on

our MTFS which has already

Factored in the next year and the following year and the year after so it's really thinking about that fourth year

and then all these extra investment and

ideally not looking to

Disinvest in a particular area, but that will will manifest itself and we'll consider all these things as part of the

budget setting process.

And can I just add one point which is that I think you know obviously none of us can predict the future and

what is going to happen, but we are in an uncertain time, but one of the things which I think is important is that

continuing to invest in for instance building new council homes

becomes even more important because actually it does deliver a financial return to the council as well

I think the national government has recognised this with some of the recent announcements

as well in that the more council housing we build we take people out of temporary accommodation

which is a far more expensive and unsustainable way of housing the population.

So I suppose I'm just making the point that even in a world of constrained resources I

think there's a lot of priorities in here that we would still want to continue to focus

on and obviously ultimately that's all a choice for the council and our politicians

but I think it doesn't necessarily follow that in a world of less resources we would stop doing some of the priorities.

Can I just, if I could also just add to that, I think the beauty of the strategic plan is it has priorities in areas that already form part of our core business

and actually what it's doing is being ambitious to say let's go further and actually let's start to do that work corporately.

So for instance, if I give an example of priority four, which is our communities of safe health

and together, that is describing public health and some of the work we do in health and adult

social care.

But instead of the expectation being just that public health will deliver this, there's

now an expectation in terms of corporately, how do we all come together to ensure that

that happens in every single one of our directorates as well.

And also bearing in mind that, yes, while money is a constraint, some of this will be

incredibly helpful in terms of investment

and ensuring that we don't continue to overspend.

So for instance, if we make sure that we have,

children have the best possible start in life,

our communities are safe and healthy together,

affordable homes, it will mean that in terms of

some of the demand, for instance, that I'm seeing

in health and adult social care,

some of this will be able to stem some of that demand

in terms of supporting people to remain

a bit more independent.

Thank you.

Councillor Mabaraj, do you have a question?

Okay.

I'll get you to ask yours and then I have a couple of questions just to end.

Thank you, Chair.

So my question is on the delivery of the housing.

So which housing commencements present the greatest risk delivery risks and why?

Thank you.

I think right now the thing that I would say is of greatest risk is actually schemes being

led by the private sector where they are relying on market sale housing to cross subsidise

the affordable housing delivery.

So traditionally we've got a lot of housing through the planning system from large developers

in the borough who have then delivered affordable housing as part of their section 106 agreements.

I think that model looking forward is looking shaky because of the fact there is vastly

reduced demand for private market units. But having said that, a lot of our developers

are trying to look at different models like the private rented sector for instance to

continue to deliver schemes we are also stepping in as a council to help so for

instance we're acquiring homes from developers as social rented homes which

also helps kickstart delivery of the schemes but we can't do all as a council

you know we won't be able to deliver everything ourselves that's clear but I

think where I'm more worried at the moment is is about that kind of the

general state of the market that's not a Tower Hamlet specific issue but it's

something that we are watching carefully.

Thank you David.

I'm going to ask the last question.

Did you want to?

Okay, be brief please.

Yeah, I think it's going to be brief.

Just for clarification as well,

the recent central government reforms the planning system,

which is giving more part to the offices

or something vice versa.

What's the role of the central government

Is there any likelihood of having an impact on giving priority to the local social housing

with that impact?

Is it something worse or better or is it something that remains the same?

Thank you chair and thank you for the question.

So the changes to the national scheme of delegation that the government has announced will reduce

the number of planning applications that automatically go to committee in Tarham, but in a lot of

other places in the country as well.

But there will still be a meeting that happens between the chief planning officer and the

chair of planning committee which could lead to further applications being referred to

committee.

and I would expect that to happen.

So it is not necessarily the case that we'll see lesser numbers at committee.

Regardless whether the decision has been made by officers or members, the judgement calls

are still the same in terms of issues like are affordable housing policies being complied

with.

So it shouldn't lead to a differential outcome.

And the other thing I would say is most schemes that are going to provide affordable housing

will automatically go to committee under this national scheme of delegation.

It's more of the smaller applications where currently if there's a large number of objections

they may go to committee in the new system it's less likely and that can be anything

from a shopfront to you know a residential extension.

Those kind of applications will be less likely to go to committee but they could still be

referred to committee.

which is not exactly clear.

The government has chosen to propose this approach, I think probably with other areas

in mind where they say a lot of resistance to development, which is not typical in Tower

Hamlets, but it does mean that we will have to amend our scheme of delegation accordingly.

Thank you David.

Just want to be clear, in terms of getting social housing running, there's going to be

no impact in Europe?

I don't believe that issue should be impacted by the change to the national scheme of delegation

because most schemes which include affordable housing will automatically go to committee

because they are the larger schemes.

So I'm not worried about that.

But in any event, obviously, I think officers are just as keen to deliver affordable housing

as members.

So I think there'd be a commonality of view about that.

But yes, I don't think that's a concern.

I think it will be smaller scale issues that could be caught by this change of rules.

Thank you David.

Members please do go through me.

I'm going to ask two questions.

I haven't got long.

My first one is the strategic plan is ambitious.

Looking back at our track record over the last four years, what evidence gives you confidence

that the Council has the capacity, capability and financial resilience to deliver these

commitments over the next four years.

And the second question, I guess it's to everyone.

Looking across your directorate, which commitment in the strategic plan will be the hardest

to deliver?

And in your opinion, what are the barriers and what support will you need from members,

partners and residents to make it happen?

Thank you.

Can I start and colleagues may come in.

There are some real flagship ambitions that speak to the change that can be achieved.

Some of them I would go back and say there are hundreds and hundreds of people that have

never walked through a leisure centre four years ago that felt that leisure centres weren't

for them that are accessing free swimming and that is an example of an intervention

that can be tracked.

Councillor, come on, this was my question, can you allow the officers to answer please,

thank you.

It's an example of an intervention that leads, it's Captain's Treaty Plan that leads to trackable

outcomes for residents.

On a kind of broader scale in terms of I would say kind of house building over the last four

years has shown that that current trajectory can be maintained.

Hopefully not too many international, national shocks coming down the line, but there's every

evidence to suggest that that can be achieved.

What I think is important to kind of bleed into the second question is that we do need

to be ready for those shocks.

So over the last four years, a 25 % increase in building supplies, for example.

We need to ensure that the way that we track and the way that we understand risk of the

delivery is really well reported and we're on top of it and that will be part of the

annual delivery plan but also part of how we track KPIs and we need to be on top of

those and articulate those risks and articulate those changes if they do happen.

And the final part of financial resilience, financial sustainability, is a really explicit

commitments within the priorities around financial sustainability, that's at the heart of this

plan.

That means that when things happen well beyond the control of Tower Hamlets and officers

and members, we articulate that we do not compromise financial sustainability and we

show the choices that we're making.

And that's explicit within the plan.

Does anyone want to comment?

I suppose, I mean it's a difficult question to answer but I would say the biggest challenge

which is hard to address in full is severe overcrowding.

You know I think one of the councillors has referred to, we've got 31 ,000 families on

the waiting list and you know I think there are something like 12 ,000 families who are

overcrowded and about 7 ,000 families here are severely overcrowded and as

much as I can see light on the horizon with new home building coming down the

track we will not build enough four and five bedroom homes to meet that kind of

need so there's a lot of things we have to do to think laterally and differently

about how we tackle overcrowding and I think it is back to George's thing about

it is a whole council solution as well. When I visit overcrowded families and I speak to

grown up children who are studying next to their mum and dad's bed in the living room

because that's the circumstances of the household they live in, you then need to think about

what can we do to support that young person to study in different environments because

it's going to be very challenging in their own home. So I think yes, building family

sized homes, yes, looking at how we drive our allocations policy to support people in

over credit households and all of those things but I think it's also about all this different

investment in services to support people in that situation because clearly that is going

to impact your life in a lot of different ways if you're living in that situation.

I'll just jump in as well, actually I was going to point out to priority one from a

HESC perspective, we always say in adult social care that the decisions that we make are decisions

about housing. So when we are talking about people requiring support, when you

strip everything away, it's really about housing. It's about where people live,

whether they continue to live where they are, whether they need to go somewhere

else, and what that place might look like, whether it's accessible, it's safe, and so

forth and so forth. So I think this is the one that's probably most

challenging, even for us in terms of HASC, even if I took away David's area, just

looking at the sort of housing that we provide in adult social care in terms of extra care

sheltered supported housing, it's making sure that that's available and it's of a good quality

standard that it actually allows people to live normal lives like everybody else and

also to be able to live independent lives and sometimes that sounds quite simple but

can be quite challenging.

Thank you.

Stuart?

Yeah, Chair, I think your first point about sort of progress

you're asking about, and I think what's the evidence of that?

When we look at the inspections just in the last three years,

Children's Outstanding, a much improved SEND inspection,

we had a recent joint targeted area inspection in Child Safeguarding,

our adults, colleagues, had a really good inspection.

all that sort of external validation of the progress, but similar to John's point, when you think about the young people who have benefited from an EMA and a university bursary,

or they and their family have benefited from a preschool meal, free uniform, young people who can now go to a youth provision, that's a huge impact.

And I guess back to the challenge it's really about, it's working across the whole council

around families and making sure young people do get the best starting life because they're

in a decent house, they go to a great school, there's lots of opportunities for them and

they feel supported and I think that would be, you know, making sure that family life

and home life is supporting them is key.

the committee.

Sorry, Chair, just very quickly to reassure the committee, we operate on a no surprises

policy when it comes to financial sustainability.

You spoke about financial sustainability and for us, we are practically having finance

related meetings every single day.

So for us to be surprised by inflation costing something or care provider costs going up

or something else going up shouldn't be the case.

whether it's budget challenge sessions, as I said,

whether it's the expenditure control panels,

whether it's the service panels,

there's so many different committees

that we have to sit in every single day

scrutinising the spend, which makes me,

and hopefully everyone here, quite comfortable

that there will be no surprises.

Things that do come up, because naturally

we can't control external factors, we will plan for.

So hopefully, I just wanted to reassure colleagues here

of that financial sustainability robustness.

Thank you, everyone.

I'm going to move on.

There's no more questions.

So OSCE welcomes the ambition set out within the strategic

plan 2026, 2030, and recognises its importance

of the council's overarching corporate plan,

providing the framework for priorities, performance,

and service delivery over the next four years.

A discussion has outlined broad support

for the plan's focus on tackling poverty and inequality, delivering affordable and good

quality housing, improving outcomes for children and young people, strengthening community

safety, protecting the environment and ensuring the Council continues its improvement journey.

OSE particularly recognised and welcomes the commitment to equality, inclusion and resident -focused

services running throughout the plan.

Equally, the Committee has tonight focused the importance of ensuring that the ambitions

within the plan are supported by clear delivery arrangements, measurable outcomes and a robust

performance indicator, which the Committee has received a briefing on.

Our members want assurance that progress against the eight priorities will be transparently

monitored, that resources and budgets are aligned to delivery and that residents will

be able to see the tangible impact of the commitments being made.

Overall, OSCE welcomes a strategic plan as a clear statement of the Council's ambitions

for tower handlers and looks forward to receiving the accompanying annual delivery plans in

due course.

Thank you, officers, for your support this evening, and we will move on to our next items.

Thank you.

John, you're going to take the next item.

Do you want the officers to stay or can I let them go?

It's up to you.

Thank you everyone.

Okay, our next substantive item is the Council's Continuous Improvement Plan Quarterly Update,

which remains a key element of the Authority's response to the ministerial directions and

its commitment to delivering continuous improvement across governance, leadership, culture, workforce

and service delivery.

OSCE welcomes the progress made so far, but the report outlines that the next challenge

is not simply about delivering activity, but places greater emphasis on demonstrating measurable

and sustainable impact.

7 c) Continuous Improvement Quarterly Update

Members therefore might wish to explore how the Council is evidencing improvement, the

reasons why parts of the programme remain rated as off track but recoverable.

The risks around organisational capacity and workforce stability and its benefits to residents.

For this item, can I welcome back Jonathan Lloyd, Strategic Director for Change and Improvement,

who will speak to the item.

Jonathan, I'll allow you five to six minutes for the overview, and then we'll move to members'

discussion.

Can you perhaps just highlight the key areas that would be pertinent for the Committee's

awareness and also take the paper has been read?

Thank you.

Thank you, Chan.

Sorry, you have my dulcet tones for a few more minutes.

Just to flag where this is reported and the frequency of this reporting.

So the highlight reports go to full council every quarter and then there is a much more

in -depth kind of self appraisal and analysis of where we are, which will come to full council

in December, which will obviously also come to overview as well.

So this is the kind of smaller highlight report but we commit to reporting regularly every

quarter to answer questions, any lines of inquiry that you might follow up on.

And then one more bit of context to kind of help the committee is currently the envoys

are writing their report to the Secretary of State which it may have been briefed on

as well.

And obviously we share these highlight reports at the improvement board every month and that's

that part of that kind of regular reporting.

So that compositions where they are.

One final bit of context around these is these are programmes of work.

So they are four programmes of work that represent the continuous improvement programme.

And of course they contain the full response to the best value failings for one of the

of a better phrase and any observations and steer that we've had from our improvement

journey of working with the envoys.

But in many ways they go much further beyond the more fundamental issues contained within

Best Value because they are bigger programmes of work and they have longer ambitions than

we would anticipate what the envoys or the intervention are locking on.

So when we're saying things like AMBER, the programme is AMBER and that is something for

to kind of absolutely look at but these are big programmes of work that are effectively

transformational programmes of work. But I'm going to just give you a sense of a kind of

cautious but confident appraisal of where we are. We are careful not to be over optimistic

in terms of where we are and we want to really see a bedding in of improvements and as you

said Cher really demonstrating impact of much of the foundational work that's being put in place.

So I'll just highlight just a few of the things that the highlight reports kind of demonstrate

that have been put in place but we wanted to see more impact on.

So some really positive engagement around member development activity and the member

pledge is a really important part of that political culture element.

We've seen really strong staff participation in forums and staff surveys and feedback and

the council acting on that feedback.

progress around historic audit recommendations, which was a kind of Achilles heel of some of our kind of compliance work within one corporate team.

A much more thorough and in -depth and open appraisal of our annual government statements, which is in draught form at the moment,

but we anticipate that the external auditors will remove that as a significant weakness, but it's draught, so kind of we're watching this space.

and then a stronger working with partnerships

around some of those outcomes,

whether it's anti -poverty work, for example,

that we saw today.

Those are some examples that are both foundational

and moving into that impact.

There you see, in terms of some of the risks,

we are making progress into recruitment to key roles,

we are building capacity in HR, for example,

which is historically a service that kind of needs

to develop in the three million pound investment

in that area is important, but we obviously need to see that embedded in and start to

see the kind of impact of that over time.

What is really helping the improvement journey, and I'll sum up on this, is work that we've

done with the envoys and that the envoys have helped challenge us and we've responded to

in them setting, rather than perhaps the kind of the big scope of the continuous improvement

programme, which is important, we've highlighted like the really important things that are

at the core of the intervention and the best value assessment.

We call that the what's good framework.

And we've translated that into 12 priorities,

of which we'll start to articulate and show

impact progress against in a much more granular way

over the coming months.

But those 12 priorities, many of them

are very rooted in the corporate core,

anything from compliance to filling key roles.

but they also involve culture and workforce

of the organisation as well.

But that focus and that ability to have a shared

understanding of impact is really the kind of

the path ahead from now on.

But as you say, the assessment is rooted

in really strong foundational work,

but moving the conversation from what we have done

and kind of cautious confidence in what we have done,

but really setting ourself the ambition

of showing what the difference is making.

And that's where we're having a much more

complicit conversation about impact,

and hope to have, increasingly so, with yourselves,

and obviously with envoys and staff and colleagues.

Thanks Jonathan for the overview.

I'm now going to open the floor up to members for questions.

Please be very specific and straight to the point.

Thank you.

Thank you for the report.

I know you highlighted

and it is good to see the

improvement relationship

and the openness of the envoys.

If I was to put you on the spot

and say,

we are in September,

the report

going to

Angela Rayner's office,

what would be

your most concerning

as an officer

given the work you have done

and the conversations you have had

with the envoys?

What would you say

is probably, like we said earlier,

a good way to do that

good thing, bad thing, what would be the area that you've seen very uncomfortable or unsure

or you think is not in par with some of the good work that's happened in the council?

Obviously I can't speak for the envoys or indeed what their report will write in, but

I can speak to the kind of risk assessments. I mean I would say that some of these, I'm

some of these challenges are incredibly historic and stability in leadership in

that area has been a challenge and it's really encouraging to have a

permanent director of HR as a colleague making kind of really tangible progress

and recruiting the kind of senior leadership team that is going to drive

the improvement. But I mean I would say that the challenge is less about concern

it's about six years of underinvestment, perhaps even longer in that area requires a kind of

significant turnaround in terms of skills and capacity of which I'm confident we can

do.

But of course, over a three, four month period that is challenging.

Thank you.

Chair?

If I may, just the Councillor's question there sort of good and challenging.

I think that the work around member behaviour and all members signing the pledge and all

members, particularly new members engaging with induction and training and development

and the political discourse we see in meetings, I think all members should take a lot of the credit for that.

Under the same area of work though, we would also accept that in terms of our response times to members' inquiries,

for instance, and making sure we improve that, is still an area that we need to work on.

Thank you Steve. I've got Councillor Kiberia and then Councillor Islan.

I'm really sorry, apologies. Sorry, I'm Islam. Apologies.

Thank you chair. Thank you Jonathan. Focus is one thing and measurable change is one thing.

What we acknowledge is that

improvement is a continuous process, of

course.

But what measurable changes are we

seeing at present in governance,

workforce and partnership working?

Thank you.

I will try and be really

practical because that's the

challenge, right?

The impact and

giving examples.

So at the PEG

Friday the deputy mayor and partners will be talking about anti -poverty but

they'll also be it won't be us talking to our partners about anti -poverty in

fact they've already done some pre -work and people from colleagues and partners

from the NHS and from the voluntary sector are working together and

presenting a shared sense of what that kind of task force might be. Now I know

that might seem like a small thing but moving from kind of polite kind of

sharing information to working in a shared challenge in really complicated

areas like that it's just an everyday example of the really important changes

that we want to make in partnerships. And your second question was around

governance and I'm going to highlight a change that we've made to

there's a whole obviously there's over 200 boards committees and panels within

the council of which we're reducing over time because it is it's too many and

it's better to spend time on on the work. Obviously this is an important one but

there are others that are quite historic but we are making improvements to

something called as a senior officer the strategy officer meeting and that is

where the chief exec and the monitoring officer and the corporate director of

finance section 151 you know meet and keep an overview and appraise how kind

the governance and the statutory responsibilities of the council are happening.

So it should be like an early warning system of things that they may want to fix.

Now historically we're supporting that through making sure that there's a better panel below

it where we're actually looking at the issues and getting a really kind of early warning

system I suppose.

We call them bellwether measures.

So where health and safety issues are increasing, where sickness is increasing, where internal

audit actions might not be being acted upon as quick as possible, we're getting an early

sight of those and then we're passing the problems to a more focused meeting for the

chief exec and the monitoring officer and the corporate director of finance.

So that means creating an organisational health dashboard where we're seeing all these things

happen a lot earlier and also ensuring that that SOMS meeting doesn't just get swamped

with a huge range of agenda can really focus on the big ticket items and we can start to

solve challenges and problems before they get a bit bigger.

Thank you Jonathan.

Councillor Ose.

Thank you chair.

Thank you Jonathan and the team.

So we have elected to be the advocate for our resident and the most general way to do

that is raise member inquiry.

Although we sometimes go directly to a director, corporate director for some of the urgent matter,

but the first way to do that is Member Inquiry. Although he has been improved the response time,

but to be honest, me personally, I don't see he has been improved drastically because I,

My personal experience, sometimes when I raise a ME, after one month the timeline has passed

away, then I've emailed the assigned officer, no response, then I had to write to the director

to get a response.

So this is why maybe other members will agree with me.

So this is just an observation and just a request to you.

I think this is under your department, if I'm right.

Councillor, is that a question?

It is a question.

Kind of a request.

If it's a request, can we ask Jennifer?

So look into this.

To improve the member inquiry response time.

It's part of the culture change.

Did I make myself clear or did you understand my question?

I fully understood it.

It is a question, Chair, and it's a very important question.

No problem. I just want everyone to be specific. I've got to be fair here. I'm just doing my

job here. So please allow me. Thank you.

The simplest way to answer that is it is one of the what good looks like priorities of

the continuous improvement programme. And we recognise that performance, even though

demand is really, really high and relatively high to other councils, we recognise that

performance has not been what it should be.

It's stabilised at the moment, but we recognise we've got a long way to go on that

and we'll be reporting our progress in future as part of this piece of work.

I was just going to say that there has been improved reporting of performance in Terni

and every week now we get a summary to each corporate director about how many has gone

to their directorate, what the response time is.

but Councillors, exactly as you described, every time you have to chase that or email someone else,

then that's creating more demand, isn't it?

And what we need to do is respond to it within time, properly, the first time.

But as John said, when we look at what happens in other councils,

we do need to look at what things generate a Member's Inquiry and look at our systems

and see if there's other ways that we could make information available that you would think,

I can find that there or even the resident can and then you don't even have to put the inquiry in so

But certainly we're now by the chief exec. We're certainly held to account for our performance and today just today

We were looking at sort of IT system that makes this all available really quickly and clearly which is a good development. Thanks

And sorry just very quickly in the last budget report the PT monitoring report to address that we identified an extra two hundred thousand pounds

to look at the backlog of inquiries that have come through and funded the information governance

department.

But where there's resources that need to be identified from a financial lens, we'll obviously

look at that as part of the budget setting process moving forward.

Councillor George has a follow up.

Yeah, I just wonder if you're tracking how often, thank you, Chair, if you're tracking

how often members have to go back and ask for the information again, because they're

not actually given the information on the first request because it feels to me this

is a consistent issue where I request something and I often get a response that's sort of

the form, yes it exists, it's kind of like this and actually what I want is a document

that lays out how something is allocated or what the policy is.

So something that surely should be open to scrutiny by members but I'm not actually sent

that, I'm just sent an assertion that it exists.

I just wonder if that's something that other members experience where your response to

an ME is clearly not responding to the question, it's answering a different question, not really

answering the question at all and whether you're tracking that. Because I feel in a

way that's very much about openness and accountability and also a sense of trust between officers

and members that maybe that inquiry comes from a good place and it's not someone who's

just simply trying to find a hole. Thank you.

May I just add to that as well? So yeah, you're right, I've experienced it. Most often you'd

find that when it's a complex case, we're not getting to the point, it's just going

back and forth. So the resident will get that response and then it will come back that they've

not got the answer and when I have a look at it, it's true.

And there is a case that I've gone back and forth four times now and I'm still waiting

on the fifth response.

So it is quite frustrating and I do agree with officers, we need to really look at that.

Thanks, Chair.

Thanks, Councillor.

With the present system it is difficult for us to track repeat because sometimes the title

is different etc.

But what we did do to try and understand the problem for the next phase of work is we looked

at a sample of 100 members inquiries, a random sample and exactly what you're saying, you

could see the repeat when you start opening them and you look at the kind of trail of

them, you did see the repeat elements of it.

And you also saw that often they followed a resident having

the same experience.

And that's why we're stabilising and we're improving

and we're learning.

But there is a bigger piece of work to do.

And as expressed within the strategic plan,

of a resident experience transformation programme

to deal with some of the root causes.

There's in -depth work to do on that and more sampling.

but we acknowledge and understand that experience.

Thank you Jonathan.

Are you both happy?

Any questions?

Councillor?

No more questions?

Thank you.

Thanks Jonathan for the overview.

Thanks Councillor.

Thanks Steve.

Overall it is fair to say that committee welcomes a positive progress reported across a number

of areas, including strengthened governance arrangements, improved member development,

progress on workforce transformation, increased partnership working and improvements to insurance

and audit activity.

It's also important to note that several programmes remain assessed as off -track and recoverable,

and that capacity, recruitment data quality and embedding change continues to present

risks.

Can I ask Jonathan and his team that for future updates we want to not only deliver your actions,

but that there is evidence that improvements are actually embedded, sustainable and leading

to a better governance and accountability for residents.

Thank you for your time and we can move on to our next item.

Thanks.

Thanks, Councillor.

8 a) Co-optee Recruitment Update

Our next item this evening is a short report providing an update on the scrutiny co -opty

recruitment update which is on the agenda pack.

For this item, can I welcome Naseema to introduce the report?

This report provides an update on the recruitment process of Co -Opted members and seeks approval

for the recommended appointments to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Subcommittees

for the term of 2026 -30 as set out under paragraph 3 .9 of the report. Thank you.

Thank you, Naseema. Can I ask members if they wish to comment further? No?

Can I also take the opportunity to thank both the officers and the scrutiny leads to turn

this around in short space of time.

Thank you.

Thanks, Naseema.

Do members have any comments?

Okay, our next item is yes

Hopefully there will be no confusion.

Today's confusion was my surname.

So we're going to move on to our next item, which is the ONS Work Programme for 2026 -2027,

which I'm happy to introduce.

So you'll all recall that we held a members workshop for the work programme and

we invited our cabinet peers to provide their priorities and where they see scrutiny could add best value.

9 a) Overview & Scrutiny Work Programme 2026-27

We also had our scrutiny officers gathering evidence from a range of sources and

developing a briefing paper for each of our chairs and leads.

I'm also pleased that scrutiny officers have gone out to community and engaged a number

of voluntary services that our residents use and engaged them to understand what the key

issues are for them and incorporating some of this work within the work programme.

Enabling the work programme to become more robust and reflective of community needs.

Do members wish to comment or give any feedback?

Okay.

Are members happy to agree the ONS work programme for 2026 -2027?

Isima, can you make note for minute purposes that subject to a few tweaks, OSC is happy

to agree to the work programme.

Officers will also be sharing the Agreed Work Programme with the Directorates, Cabinet and

Mayor's Office so that it's factored into the Forward Plans.

We can move on to the next item, which is ONS Annual Report for 2025, which sets out

9 b) Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report 2025-26

the work that ONS has done last year and will also be presented at full Council.

Do members have any comments or can we agree the report?

Can you take notes for the minutes that the committee has agreed the ONS annual report

for 2025 -26.

On to the scrutiny lead updates.

As part of open and transparency, it's imperative that we as members, particularly scrutiny,

demonstrate how we are using our time for this particular role.

We can demonstrate this by each scrutiny lead providing an update on what they have been up to outside of the meeting as scrutiny lead for their area.

So with this, does any of the leads wish to update the rest of the committee on any scrutiny activity they've done?

I'm happy for you to say otherwise I will have to pick on you.

Okay, I'm going to start from here.

Councillor.

Thank you, Chair.

I'm really pleased to provide you with some updates.

I have attended a meeting with the former corporate director, Richard Annis, for resources.

10 SCRUTINY LEADS UPDATES

Also I have had meetings with Chris, the Director of Finances, as I lead on finances a couple of times.

I have regularly meeting with scrutiny officers to shape the finance scrutiny task and finish group.

I have chaired the first session yesterday focusing on adult social care.

We are still evaluating some of the information we've discussed yesterday and have also requested

some more information and once we receive all the information we'll formally submit

our recommendation here on OSC to decide further.

Our next session will be on 26 October and we will be focusing on housing and resources

directorate and in November, children's services.

I'm also looking to table findings report with recommendation in December.

I have also attended the new corporate performance framework briefing and it was very helpful.

I also have some site visits arranged for my portfolio including customer service on

Wednesday, coming Wednesday, and next month I will focus on benefits and in November on

compliance.

That's for now.

Thank you, Chair.

I would like to report that since the last OAC meeting I have met with the cabinet member

for a clean and green borough and the director of the public realm. We had a conversation

about some of the water shortages that has happened across the borough particularly affecting

people in social housing and I wondered whether this committee would be interested in having

a session perhaps with Thames Water at Ofwok so that we could have a spotlight and ask

them some searching questions about why that's affected so many residents during this summer's

heat, whether that's something we could try and arrange. The other thing which I perhaps

should have mentioned earlier and it's my fault being a new member of OSC is that I'm

I'm very interested, and I've talked to colleagues about doing some in -depth scrutiny around

the potential funding for retrofit in terms of insulating the borough's homes, given that

the number of homes that the council own is a very large number, and we also have the

problem of leaseholders within those social housing states to address as well.

And whether I could work with colleagues to look for potential funding and look at how

Council's seeking to fund that see if we could do his in -depth work on that

scrutiny and I would like to see if this committee would approve that it would

involve quite a lot of cross -cutting work because it would involve resources

and housing but it would also involve health because obviously whether

someone's home is warm really does affect someone's health as well and all

sorts of outcomes that the council wants to see happen. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor.

Councillor Kipriya, I will come to you next.

Thank you, Chair.

Since our Women's Scootaloo Committee last met, I have chaired the Children and Education

Scootaloo Subcommittee meeting which examined SANE report and targeted safeguarding children

partnership annual report 2025 to 2026, providing challenge and assurance around performance

outcomes and experiences of children and young people.

Representatives from Youth Council and our time sent from contributed to both agenda

items providing valuable lived experience perspective while questioning the officers

and cabinet members.

I will be attending the member induction to children's services every day on Thursday

which will help inform the US service.

Thank you.

Just going back on to your point, Councillor Rupert George, it's within the work programme,

so we'll be looking at it.

Over to you, Councillor.

I can report that the health and adult community meet on 7 September and receive update on

the Council's response to the CQC inspection finding and an update on NHS winter planning.

The committee noted the updates and the good CQC rating and asked to monitor CQC improvement

plan.

The committee discussed the work programme which include a challenging session on heat, health

and some site visit.

The next meeting is on 2 November and will include spotlights on GP access, the health

and wellbeing strategy and neighbourhood health teams.

That is the end of my update, Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor.

Councillor Poyo.

Thank you, Chair.

Just after that last meeting we had, I have continued to support and developed a forthcoming

anti -social behaviour, especially on the stock we have, the town council state, including

pros and the scooping documents and identifying key lines of inquiries.

As I said earlier, I took a visit to the CCTV room to sort of see how things are done.

It's nice to see with your own physically be part of that.

Crime prevention, enforcement and resident safety, how the system works.

It's really nice.

I wish I could take a lot of people with me to see how things are done.

Met with obviously the officers, took me around and I had a quick visit to the Environmental

Health Office which is based in the same building and I will be going around with

the COs on as I said earlier that 200 states there's a lot of issues the ASP

related incidents high volume of complaints that's it really and I will

obviously come back to with further info later and I would be nice to have you

guys on board if there is possibilities you can take time off when I do those

side visits. Thank you.

Thank you to all the members. Can I request as chair that you continue to do this and

provide updates at each ONS meeting? Thank you. We'll move to our next item, which is

the pre -decision, scrutiny and forthcoming decision questions. Can I cheque with Naseema?

Do we have any questions?

Any members want to use this time to provide any pre -decision?

Any questions?

Quick clarification.

My name is on the thing.

It says Sulukmiyya.

I don't know where they get the name from.

So unless somebody names it.

Where?

It's only minutes of last.

So can that be corrected please?

Correction of the surname.

Nassim.

Yes, I'll correct it in Irish.

And let's keep you away. Name it.

Okay, Nassim has noted that.

Do you have an update?

From your subcommittee?

You can give a verbal update, what have you been doing in your committee.

Just be very brief.

I have some visits at the end of this month.

I can update you on that.

Thank you.

Finally, and you will be pleased to know, we are coming to an end.

Is there any other urgent business to discuss?

I have a few bits and pieces to raise, if I may.

Does anyone have any AOB?

As chair, will you be attending cabinet? Do you have any questions yourself that you'll

be asking? Obviously you've asked members, but I'm asking as chair, do you have any particular

items that you want to pick on? To take back to cabinet? I do a reporting

back to cabinet. Is there anything you want me to take back to cabinet?

So, going forward, if you wish for me to take anything back to cabinet, please do provide

them to us in writing just by midday.

12 o 'clock.

Okay, thank you.

So I'm going to move on quickly so we can end.

I've asked officers to schedule in a date for this committee for us to review some of

work that needs to be done, particularly around pre -decision scrutiny questions and pre -meets.

Can I encourage all members of this committee to attend on 30 September from 6pm to discuss?

Can I also remind members and the subcommittee members that pre -meets are compulsory and

my expectation as OSE chair is that we attend these and are on time.

Please, everybody, I've been here from 5 .30.

This is needed for us to plan prior to the meeting and help us as a committee to be more

effective.

If members do have a particular challenge with this, then do speak to your scrutiny

chairs or leads in the first instance.

13 ANY OTHER UNRESTRICTED BUSINESS WHICH THE CHAIR CONSIDERS TO BE URGENT

We have our revised site visit to the Be Well leisure centres across the borough, taking

place on the 5th of October.

I understand that the service will be providing transport and that we have to be at the Town

Hall reception for 9am.

So please can all members consider attending.

Invites have been sent out, so please reply to that if you're attending.

The visit will also feature as evidence gathering as we have an OSC spotlight on Be Well on

the 19th of October meeting.

I think it's booked in for a couple of hours.

As the Council looks to develop its Community Grants Programme, we have another online briefing

session taking place on...

I don't have a date.

Okay, we'll confirm the date.

So can I encourage you all to be in attendance?

Finally, we have our corporate improvement workshop on the 27th of October from 6pm to

8 .30pm.

This is an important piece of best value work that we all attend as it will set out our

next phase of improvement journey and what's needed.

So the community grants programme workshop is on the 13th of October, so please everybody,

I request you attend.

And we've no other business to discuss.

I suggest it's mandatory.

I want everybody to be here for six o 'clock because I'm not having a repeat of

There's an order of an agenda here

So we have to go in that order and if you're not here for six o 'clock

You will miss what that the important business that we need to discuss before the public meeting if there's any difficulties

Which I understand there might be traffic or you're running late from work. I appreciate you send us a message, but I'm gonna make it compulsory

So, with no other business to discuss, I close this meeting.

Thank you, Members, for your contribution tonight and good evening all.

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Overview & Scrutiny CommitteeTuesday, 22nd September 2026 at 6:30pm

7 a) Strategic Plan 2026-2030 Adoption

7 c) Continuous Improvement Quarterly Update

8 a) Co-optee Recruitment Update

9 a) Overview & Scrutiny Work Programme 2026-27

9 b) Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report 2025-26

10 SCRUTINY LEADS UPDATES

13 ANY OTHER UNRESTRICTED BUSINESS WHICH THE CHAIR CONSIDERS TO BE URGENT

Overview & Scrutiny Committee
Tuesday, 22nd September 2026 at 6:30pm