Venue: Ground Floor - Clockwork Building, 45 Beavor Lane, London W6 9AR - Clockworks Building. View directions
Contact: David Abbott Email: David.Abbott@lbhf.gov.uk
Link: Watch the meeting on YouTube
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Apologies for absence Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Nikos Souslous and Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler.
Apologies for lateness were received from Councillor Nicole Trehy.
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Declarations of Interests If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.
At meetings where members of the public are allowed to be in attendance and speak, any Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest may also make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter. The Councillor must then withdraw immediately from the meeting before the matter is discussed and any vote taken.
Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.
Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Standards Committee. Minutes: There were no declarations of interest.
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Minutes of the previous meeting To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as an accurate record and note any outstanding actions. Additional documents: Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 18 September 2024 were agreed as an accurate record. |
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Update on AI Adoption and Governance This paper provides an update on artificial intelligence (AI) adoption at H&F and on AI use cases in other Local Authorities, and shares H&F’s draft governance framework for AI. Minutes: Tina Akpogheneta (Chief Digital Officer) provided an update on artificial intelligence (AI) adoption at Hammersmith & Fulham covering the following points:
Sam Nutt (Researcher & Data Ethicist at the London Office of Technology and Innovation) gave a presentation covering how other London councils were using AI and the public attitude towards AI. A few key points for adopting AI responsibly were highlighted:
Councillor Natalia Perez enquired about what Hammersmith & Fulham was doing to nurture public trust in the Council’s use of AI and the role of co-production in the process. Tina Akpogheneta said the use cases were currently small scale, but the team would look at options to build public trust when they started to scale up to larger use cases. It was noted that co-production and training on ethics for decision-makers were important going forward. In the meantime, AI projects would go through the Digital Board, which was comprised of SLT members and others.
Councillor Jacolyn Daly was interested in how AI was being used in the Housing department. She applauded the slower move around using AI for any process that could penalise residents. She was interested in how AI could be used in budgeting, predicting demand, and making information more accessible to residents as well as the use of data for predictive analytics. Tina Akpogheneta said that at the moment, the use of AI in Housing was limited to Voicescape, a software which analysed tenancy behaviour, such as the likelihood of residents falling behind on rent. A human decision-maker was in place to make the final decision. She said that she would come back to Councillor Daly on this point.
ACTION: Tina Akpogheneta
Nicola Ellis (Director, Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Services) added that they were looking at using AI to make services more accessible as part of the Resident Experience and ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
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Update on Finance & Corporate Services Co-Production Activities This report briefly sets out the progress made to date on the Council’s commitment to co-production with residents within Finance and Corporate Services. Minutes: Nicola Ellis gave an update on co-production in relation to Finance & Corporate Services. Co-production was coordinated by the Corporate Co-Production Team and co-production had helped developed the Council’s services, as the following shows:
Councillor Helen Rowbottom asked if there had been reflection on the groups of people being reached and whether that mirrored everyone who was being provided for by the Council. The Chair added that there might be people who did not have time to come to meetings and enquired if the Council’s digital channels were used to reach a wider group of people. Nicola Ellis acknowledged that it was challenging for some residents to co-produce with the Council and so the issue would be taken to the team for them to investigate further.
ACTION: Nicola Ellis
Councillor Helen Rowbottom mentioned the difficulty of gathering information of the people they met on canvassing and wondered if a large language model would help with that and make co-production less onerous on residents.
Councillor Rowan Ree pointed out that some people might not wish to spend a lot of time interacting with the Council and REAP would be important in changing how people interacted with the Council, such as creating a one-stop shop for council services.
Councillor Rory Vaughan asked about the learnings from the pre-market engagement activities, particularly with engaging with local businesses. Joanna McCormick said that the team worked with Economic Development colleagues on engaging with small businesses and trying to understand what they knew and did not know about getting a contract with the Council, the contracts available to them, how they might get onto the supply chain, and what they would want to see in the design of specifications. The Council could not always procure at that scale but there were opportunities to ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Greening the Grey Workshop This report summarises the outcomes of the Greening the Grey workshop held on 5 September 2024. The workshop brought together Councillors, local residents, representatives of local community groups, national partners and Council officers to explore ideas on how ‘grey’ public spaces and green corridors could be improved in H&F to become greener, safer and more accessible for everyone. Additional documents: Minutes: Matthew Sales (Assistant Director, Programmes, Assurance and Analytics) introduced John Galsworthy (Director of Climate Change and Transport) and Sam Baldock (Policy Officer), who organised the Greening the Grey workshop and summarised the feedback received from the workshop held on 5 September 2024, covering the following areas:
It was noted that this was an important part of placemaking of Hammersmith & Fulham given that the borough had the second highest population of greenspaces in London and was the third most at-risk of flooding. How people wanted to use or interact with public spaces changed over the decades, for example there was a lot more active travel now than before. It was highlighted that the public realm would continue to be a key part of the Industrial Strategy and play an important role in enabling communities to interact. The future placemaking and transport vision included a focus on active travel and the infrastructure needed to achieve this, such as reallocating public realm spaces. As one resident put it, the key message which came out of the workshop was to “be bold” with related policies.
The Chair invited Cabinet Members to share their thoughts on the workshop and if there was anything that could be done better.
Councillor Sharon Holder (Cabinet Member for Public Realm) agreed that the event went very well and the people who attended understood what “greening the grey” was about. Residents were very grateful to have been invited, and they made great contributions towards the policy decisions around improving the infrastructure for the public realm.
Councillor Wesley Harcourt (Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Ecology) found the workshop very useful and highlighted that most people who attended were keen to move this agenda forward. It was interesting to see what their priorities were and how the work around climate change was impacting people, not just around carbon emission but also around topics of air pollution and flooding. It was important to consider how to bring residents along with the Council’s work and to overcome people’s resistance to changes in their local environment.
Councillor Jacolyn Daly noted that it was an inspiring workshop and a fantastic opportunity to meet residents with brave and bold ideas. The rambling society had great ideas about how to join up parks and greenspaces to create safe green routes for people to take. Reflecting on the varied feedback received from residents during consultation on school streets and rain gardens in her ward, she asked if there was anything that could be done to help residents with different opinions engage in conversations among themselves.
Councillor Helen Rowbottom welcomed this workshop and its findings and asked the following questions:
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Policy and Accountability Committees Update Report - November 2024 This report outlines the work programmes for each of the Council’s six Policy and Accountability Committees in November 2024 and the draft work programmes for January / February 2025. Minutes: As the Chair of the Children and Education Policy and Accountability Committee, Councillor Helen Rowbottom expressed that she looked forward to discussing the exemplary co-production of Children’s Services. The Chair noted that it would be useful for the committees to discuss co-production at some point in the future.
RESOLVED
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For the Board to discuss future items for inclusion in the work programme. Minutes: The Chair highlighted that the Board would be looking at the Council’s Budget and Corporate Performance Indicators in the February meeting. The May meeting would look at the drug strategy, which was being developed to combat drugs, crime and antisocial behaviour.
RESOLVED
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Dates of future meetings To note the following dates of future meetings: · 5 February 2025 · 6 May 2025 Minutes: The following dates of future meetings were noted:
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