To appoint a Chairman and Vice Chairman for the 2018-19 municipal year.

Cllr Ilyas nominated himself for the role of Chairman. This was seconded by Cllr Mills and agreed by Members. Cllr Ilyas was therefore elected Chairman.

Cllr Majeed nominated himself for the role of Vice Chairman. This proposal was not seconded. Cllr Ilyas nominated Cllr Diment for the role of Vice Chairman. This was seconded by Cllr Mills and agreed by Members. Cllr Diment was therefore elected Vice Chairman.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllrs Diment, Lenton and Yong.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest received.

To approve the Part I minutes of the meeting held on May 17^th 2018.

The minutes of the meeting held on May 17^th 2018 were agreed as an accurate record, subject to a minor amendment to state that Members had requested that they be informed of any future complaints that had been referred to the LGO.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the order of business as detailed in the agenda be amended, so that item 6 be considered before item 5.

To consider the contents of the report.

The Director of Operations – Optalis introduced the item, explaining that a complaint had been made against the Council to the LGO and outlined the background of the case and the circumstances of Ms C’s situation. The Director of Operations – Optalis stated that in hindsight the Council’s approach did fall below standards and a different approach would be taken should similar circumstances occur again.

Members were informed that it had been difficult to engage with Ms C for a number of reasons, including her not being at a set address and due to her drug and alcohol dependency. She attended a number of multi-agency meetings and had received emotional and housing support from the DASH charity. She was also in receipt of clothing and food vouchers from RBWM Customer Services. She was housed for a period by voluntary groups; however due to repeated breaches of her residency she was asked to leave her accommodation.

The Director of Operations – Optalis informed Members that social workers had found it difficult to engage with Ms C because of her background, chaotic lifestyle and her immigration status, and stated that this had been an unusual case for Social Services to deal with. However it was acknowledged that enquiries regarding Ms C’s safeguarding should have been made from the outset of the case. It was also acknowledged that although the social worker had attended a number of multi-agency meetings regarding Ms C, there had been no clear strategy to co-ordinate them all. The Director of Operations – Optalis informed the Panel that a lessons learned process had been implemented to ensure that in future staff knew when to activate a safeguarding procedure and that recordings of meetings were carried out properly. It was noted that in some cases there were no formal recordings of the multi-agency meetings. The lessons learned process had also highlighted a need for the Council to better engage with groups in the voluntary sector who were better placed to help people who had issues with substance misuse.

Responding to a question from Cllr Majeed, The Director of Operations – Optalis stated that she did not known how Ms C had come to live in the Royal Borough and it was not known whether her child was still in local authority care in Birmingham, where she had been living previously. The Managing Director stated that it was her belief that it was likely the child would have been put up for adoption, and the local authority in Birmingham would have been unlikely to have looked to reunite the family. She added that the Council would try to bring families back together whether possible, but that in this case that had not been sought by Ms C. Members were informed that there was no communication between the Council and local authority in Birmingham regarding Ms C.

Cllr Majeed noted that a safeguarding referral was made on August 5^th 2016 but no assessment was carried out until August 26^th.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 95.

To consider the contents of the report.

The Deputy Director Strategy and Commissioning reminded Members that 25 performance indicators had been identified in order to help the Council measure achievement of its six strategic priorities. Of these, four related to Adult Services and all of them had been rated green as they had surpassed their targets for 2017-2018. In terms of projects, the report highlighted that the transfer of adult services into Optalis was one of the key milestones to have been met.

Cllr Mills suggested that a key should be provided for the performance indicators listed in the appendix. The Deputy Director Strategy and Commissioning said that this had already been actioned and a key would form part of the final report.

Regarding the two indicators that had been rated red as they had not met their targets, Members were informed that one related to the percentage of reviews that had been undertaken for children aged two to two and a half years. The Deputy Director Strategy and Commissioning informed Members that this indicator had fallen significantly below its target and an improvement programme had been implemented. The other indicator to have missed its target related to the percentage of phone calls to the Council answered within 60 seconds. There had been significant improvements on meeting this indicator since the first quarter of 2017-2018; however due to the poor performance in the first quarter it had not been possible for the indicator to achieve the annual target.

It was UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that Members noted the report and:

i) Noted the progress towards meeting the council’s strategic objectives.

ii) Endorsed the Annual Report 2017/18, appendix A, to be reviewed at a meeting of the Full Council.

iii) Requested the Managing Director and Executive Directors, in conjunction with Lead and Principal Members, to progress improvement actions for areas that were off target.

To review the ongoing Work Programme.

Cllr Majeed asked for an indication on when the presentation on A&E waiting times would be given. The Managing Director informed Members that she was meeting the new Chief Executive of the NHS Frimley Health Foundation Trust and would be asking him to attend the Panel along with his officers. Cllr Majeed said there had already been a request for data on waiting times to be circulated to Members. The Deputy Director Strategy and Commissioning confirmed that the data had been received and it was agreed that the clerk would distribute this to Members.

The Chairman reminded Members to contact the clerk if they had any additional items that they wanted to be considered at future meetings.