Agenda, decisions and minutes

Resolved: that the minutes of the meeting held on 1 December be agreed as an accurate record.

1.1    Resolved: that the minutes of the meeting held on 1 December be agreed as an accurate record.

2.1    Councillor Susan Wise declared an interest as a Director of Lewisham Homes

2.2    Councillor John Paschoud declared an interest as a Trustee of London Rod Safety Council – alongside his role as a Council appointee to the same organisation.

There are none.

3.1    There were none.

Members discussed the option of making a recommendation to Mayor and Cabinet to delay or amend the proposals to reemphasise the importance of road safety over cost saving but noted that the agreement of the proposal would release the funding for further design and development work and thus resolved: that the report be noted.

4.1    Paul Boulton (Interim Director of Public Realm) introduced the report - providing an overview of the proposed changes to school crossing patrols and new road safety measures.

4.2    Paul Boulton and Jennifer Daothong (Executive Director for Housing Regeneration and Public Realm) responded to questions from the Committee as well as councillors attending under standing orders - the following key points were noted:

·         Schools entering a service level agreement with the Council to fund their own crossing patrols would do so in addition to the proposed new road safety measures.

·         The approximate cost of a school crossing patrol for a school under a service level agreement would be eight to ten thousand pounds.

·         Some assessment work had already been carried out - but further detailed design work would be required before the implementation of any changes.

·         Each site would be subject to further detailed design work (including consultation with local councillors and schools) which would assess the measures (and appropriate signage) needed, alongside an independent road safety audit.

·         The planned full year savings from the programme would be £140k.

·         The estimate for the capital costs of the mitigation works would be £500k.

·         Lewisham was one of the most progressive London Boroughs in terms of school streets. Every school in the borough where it was feasible would be offered a school street to ensure that walking and cycling to schools was as safe as possible.

·         None of the school crossing patrols would be removed until the mitigation works had been assessed by an independent safety audit.

·         The Council worked with the police across the borough to target speeding where there were safety concerns.

·         Data was collected to assess compliance to the 20mph speed limit.

·         Members could direct specific ward specific questions to Paul and his team following the meeting.

·         Officers agreed that the proposals would be better described as an investment in the improvement of long-term safety measures rather than a revenue saving.

4.3    Cllr de Ryk responded to a question about the implementation of the proposal noting that it had been in discussion for an extended period - and the priority was safety for children (as well as all residents).

4.4    Members discussed the option of making a recommendation to Mayor and Cabinet to delay or amend the proposals to re-emphasise the importance of road safety over cost saving but noted that the agreement of the proposal would release the funding for further design and development work and thus resolved: that the report be noted.

Resolved: that the report be noted.

5.1    Mayor Egan introduced the item - noting the ongoing challenge of finding cuts to Council budgets for each of the past twelve years - combined with the array of pressing national and international issues.

5.2    Mayor Egan responded to questions from members attending under standing orders - the following key points were noted:

·         The Council was using its reserves in a responsible and limited way.

·         The Council evaluated its level of reserves against other local authorities – and was not an outlier.

·         It was expected that in the coming years the requirement to utilise reserves to balance the budget would reduce.

·         Work was taking place in adult social care to improve services and reduce costs.

·         There were challenges in children’s social care with increased demand, increasing costs and a large cohort of young people taken into care who were becoming care leavers.

·         Eight in ten local authorities were struggling with the costs of children’s social care. Work was taking place to try to mitigate some of these costs.

5.3    Kim Wright (Chief Executive) was invited to address the Committee - noting successes in the way the organisation had responded to challenges and changes over a number of years.

5.4    Kim Wright, Pinaki Ghoshal (Executive Director for Children and Young People), and Kathy Freeman (Executive Director for Corporate Resources) responded to questions from the Committee as well as members attending under standing orders - the following key points were noted:

·         It was intended that the budget was a collaborative endeavour - with all departments putting up savings but, this year there was a view that some parts of the Council had been so ‘hollowed out’ that they should not have to make any further savings.

·         The approach taken to try to protect frontline service by hollowing out corporate services was the right one at the time - but there came a point when this was not sustainable.

·         As part of the work to rebuild corporate services there would be a renewed focus on performance monitoring and evidence led service design.

·         Before the restructure of the finance teams there were potential issues with ‘grip and accountability’ in some financial functions.

·         Consideration had been given to providing free school meals for all school children - at a cost of £11m - but a decision had been taken to deliver the household support fund through schools – so that they could identify and support families most in need.

·         The local government financial settlement had been slightly better than expected - and this had been used to support budgets in several areas (including increased energy costs).

·         The reduction in the costs to the general fund for children’s centres was being offset by additional grant funding for family hubs.

5.5    Kathy Freeman (Executive Director for Corporate Resources) introduced the report - providing an overview of the decision-making process, noting the key elements of the report and emphasising the challenging financial climate.

5.6    Kathy Freeman and David Austin (Director of Finance) responded to questions from the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Resolved: that the work programme for the next meeting be agreed.

6.1    Members discussed the work programme for its upcoming meeting, and it was agreed that there would be a whole meeting focus on Children’s Social Care (budget performance, outcomes, impact and value for money)

6.2    Resolved: that the work programme for the next meeting be agreed.