Cabinet - Monday 22 September 2025, 4:00pm - Wandsworth Council Webcasting

Cabinet
Monday, 22nd September 2025 at 4:00pm 

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An agenda has not been published for this meeting.

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to this meeting of the cabinet on Monday, the
22nd of September, 4 p .m.
I am Councillor Kemi Akinola, Deputy Leader of Wandsworth Council, standing in for leader
of the Council Simon Hogg today.
Do we have any apologies?
No apologies.
No declarations of interest?
Are there any? No?
Right, great.
So these are the leaders' updates.
In terms of Summer of Fun, we have been doing a lot of work around London Borough of Culture,
which I'm really pleased to be leading on, actually.
Two weekends ago we had Urban Flow, which is a contemporary dance and flag event that took place in Brehampton.
I saw quite a few of you there.
and we also had Battersea Parking Concert over the summer.
16 ,000 attendees attended with over 1 ,250 using the access for all grants.
And this shows that it is the best Wandsworth has to offer available to all.
We had the Year for Everyone film in Piccadilly Circus,
which was fantastic in the lights,
which showcased the best of what we're doing in London
for London Borough of Culture, Access for All, Year of Play.
We put on events aimed at giving our children
an unforgettable summer and all of the family hubs
in Battersea Park and with lots of families
having and attending to play and have fun.
Residents have been able to get to all of these places
on Lime Bikes, which have now also been signed up
to Access for All, so that's offering free and discounted
transport for people eligible.
And Wontworth, Wontworth summer has never been so exciting.
I think we can agree, yeah?
Agreed.
Our back to school offer has also started.
We're expanding free school meals to all of our access for all eligible children.
So this will save our families about 500 pounds a year.
And also families will not be worried about their children not being able to
eat the next day, the day after.
And we also have half which operates during the holidays.
So children are able to eat 365 days a year.
Counsellor Gasser was at John Bosco earlier today.
With Marsha promoting our back to school office, so thank you for that.
Our partnership with Magic Breakfast is feeding over 5 ,000 primary school children
every single morning and we're expanding this to our high schools this year.
So I hope there'll be lots of take up.
We have the most generous uniform support scheme anywhere in the country and we've expanded this to all our access for all children entering school in reception or year 7.
Our partnership with Apple Schools has also expanded to another six schools plus more SEND support taking their investment in Wontworth to over 1 million which is quite an achievement.
Support extends beyond schools as well and this summer we announced a new partnership with Dolly Parton's charity,
giving every child under five a free book every month until their fifth birthday.
No jokes please, thank you.
We've had almost 5 ,000 sign -ups to the Dolly Parton scheme so far
and almost over 1 ,500 of them in the first 24 hours,
which was a UK record, so thank you to everyone who promoted that.
Wandsworth is already a fantastic, dynamic, exciting place to grow up
and every child should have the benefits of living here,
and that's what this is all about.
We also have some feedback from our listening council work.
The leader held his drop -in at Ravenstone Primary School
in Tootingbeck in South Ballum and John Bosco College for Battersea Park in St Mary's.
He has done almost every ward in the borough twice, met over 1 ,000 residents to hear face
to face what matters to them most. There is a web page that people can access to put forward their
questions which is submitted to us the cabinet and the email address for that is hello at
Wandsworth .gov .uk. Being a listening council is one of our top priorities and that is why
we introduced the Seven Rings, Seven Days Guarantee. And there are some stats on how
well we've been doing with that now. In July, we've answered around 88 % of calls and we've
removed 100 % of graffiti within seven days. We've replaced 96 % of broken street signs
that have been reported in seven days.
By the end of August, we removed 100 % of graffiti
reported in seven days, 100 % of broken street signs,
and 84 % of calls were answered within seven rings.
So that's a really good improvement
because now everything is in their 80s,
or 100%, which is fantastic.
This shows that we are a high performing council,
and we can achieve more when we listen
to our residents' priorities.
We've also had 14 ,000 free bulky waste collections booked.
That is possibly the most popular policy
that we have in our council.
I've used it, it's very good.
I also want to give an update on the Fox House fire.
So massive thanks to all officers, counsellors,
and everybody who supported the families
through that night and continued support at the moment.
The response from the emergency services, the high school, the library, and many of
our own staff was everything that was expected from dedicated public servants as yourselves.
We're continuing to support the 37 affected households with accommodation and wider needs.
We have been issuing food vouchers and providing access to the council's leisure services,
and we will continue to do everything we can to get them through this very difficult time
whilst looking for long -term solutions to their living situation.
We are very thankful that despite everything, no lives were lost.
And that is indeed quite thankful.
So moving on to the meat and potatoes of the meeting.
We have access for all update from Paul.
Procurement of integrated services from Councillor Henderson.
the extension and variation of the Wandsworth borough wide public space,
safeguarding adults board, as well both papers are Councillor Henderson's,
medium long -term strategy from Councillor Ireland, general fund capital
programme, quarter one budget monitoring and budget variations from Councillor
Ireland who will bring us to the end of the meeting. So over to you Councillor White.
Thank you, Chair.
So Access for All has been very successful and been very, very central to the way this
council wants to address our public.
And it's the biggest and most generous concessionary offer in the country.
The scheme provides eligible residents with 50 to 100 % discounts on a range of council
services and partner offers centred around leisure, well -being and culture.
This is a key plank of our work to make ones with fairer and more equal and making sure
everybody is not excluded from the good life provided here.
The LGA have recognised this innovative piece of thought leadership and we presented at
the 2025 LGA conference with a lot of engagement from other LGAs.
We have had over 6 ,500 sign ups since the launch in April.
There has been a higher concentration of applicants from residents in Roehampton,
Falkenbrook, and Fersdown, and lower in Northco, Southfield,
and Llamendo, which seems to suggest we're reaching the right demographic.
The distribution is in line with expectations based on understanding of need across the
borough, suggesting Access for All is successfully reaching its intended audience.
Over 1 ,000 tickets were sold at the country on the common for just £3 each through Access
for All.
This is an approach that has been embedded across the London borough of Culture, which
you know yourself.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor White.
Does anyone get any questions?
Yes
Yeah, thanks councillor white and it's fantastic to hear about the success of this scheme
I think a lot of residents think that it only applies to council services, but as I'm council Acanola said of course it's great
That residents can get a 50 % discount on our rental
Ebikes that operate in the borough lime and forest if they're access for all eligible
Would we expect any more private sector partners to come on board with the scheme?
Yeah, you correctly identified that Lime and
E -bikes have become our first private sector partner.
And it's a huge step forward to engage people in modern ones with life.
We expect to see more private sector partners come on board in the future as they
realise the benefits of giving access to those who wouldn't otherwise use their services.
and how we are aiming to improve accessibility for all of our residents.
Moving on, Councillor Henderson.
Thank you, Chair.
It may seem strange to say that I am excited and out of procurement,
but I am genuinely in this particular case,
because it is a very important issue.
it actually involves a substantially different approach
towards ones that has been formally adopted.
It's based upon a collaborative approach,
a partnership approach,
using the most appropriate provider,
which is available.
This particular procurement follows
is the sexual health and reproductive strategy,
which in turn was based upon a needs assessment
we undertook some time ago.
We have been working on bringing
more collaborative commissioning methods
and bringing our expert partners together
to work on our services for the people.
In particular, we have worked across South -East London
All the different options for procuring these services
following a found procurement previously.
So, approval is sought from the cabinet for one,
so to the lead of the commissioning and procurement
of an integrated sexual health service
in partnership with Richmond, Merton and Sutton Councils.
The new contract is due to commence
on the first of October, 2026,
following the end to the, it's in contract
with an initial term of up to five and a half years
and an allowable extension of up to five years.
This procurement will deliver on the key priorities
laid out in the section and reproductive health strategy
launched earlier this year.
In particular, improved prevention of
and rapid targeted diagnosis and access
to treatment for STMs and HIV.
Improved HIV prevention including the increased uptake
of pre -exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP,
amongst underserved groups.
And increased reproductive choice and prevention
of reproductive -related ill health.
During the strategic development,
once the residents rated the most important consideration
for accessing sexual health services
as of the speed of appointments,
and a service that is closer to home,
these considerations will be addressed
in the new service specification.
In particular, opportunities are being explored
with children's services about the use
of family health for spoke clinics,
as well as increased provision
of reproductive health services in primary care.
Also, a council owned site in Wonsworth town
has been secured for development into a new health clinic,
which should significantly reduce estate costs
and give the council greater control over the service.
Following the collaborative approach that I talked about,
we have decided to adopt what is called
the most suitable provider process
under the provider selection regime.
This is, as I said, something which is unusual
to Whatonsworth, but it does enable the councils,
without all councils, to enter into a contract
through a collaborative process,
which certainly most of the sector organisation
would have sort of described as co -determination.
But what we're actually proposing
actually goes a lot further than just co -determination.
It is very much a drawing on the expertise
of local Southwest London NHS providers
as part of the integrated neighbourhood agenda
which we are developing.
There certainly has been increased sort of mould
for sexual health services in particular,
and that is a challenge which is occurring
not just locally but also nationally.
We believe this new approach by bringing services
much closer to home, to local residents,
and working with our partners on a collaborative basis,
will certainly go a very long way to meeting those needs.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Henderson, for your paper.
Has anyone got any questions?
I think this is really important.
Could you go a bit further about the relationship between how we have a high proportion of young
renters who live in the borough, but the idea is that previously we were going to clinics
outside of the borough and weren't using local services.
Alongside this procurement contract, is there anything that we can be doing to sign posts,
to flag, are there any kind of preventative measures we could be doing to target that
younger demographic that are often coming through our borough but maybe don't access
borough services as much?
Yeah, entirely.
And there is considerably more.
I could, like I said about the strategy,
we have certainly identified that as a particular issue.
It's only getting to particularly younger people
within the borough.
I mean currently, 49 % of the current Wandsworth system
actually is used by Wandsworth residents.
These are open, what's called open access services.
So you can go to anywhere in technically in the country
but certainly within London
and get sexual reproductive health advice and support.
So you're not confined to local area.
That's one of the reasons why we're partnering
with other sort of local authorities.
This certainly is much more expensive if that actually happens
and it makes much more sense for us to try to develop
much more localised services, working with local partners
to ensure that we can actually get to very many people,
as you say, one that has a very young demographic.
And actually getting to them much more effectively
is certainly one of the principal objectives
of this strategy.
Thank you for that.
Do you have any more questions?
Okay, well, Cabinet, we're being asked to approve the procurement strategy for a new
integrated sexual health service.
Agreed?
Fantastic.
Thank you, everybody.
Another paper for Councillor Henderson.
Yes, thank you.
on a somewhat different theme,
but on the less extremely important one.
This concerns the extension and variation
of the ones with borough -wide
public space protection order known as a PSPO,
and the introduction of a new PSPO for dog control.
Perhaps the most significant part of this particular process
is that we have decided to separate the two elements.
On the full or essentially pragmatic or practical reasons,
the other on the basis of legal advice.
When we launched the Don't Control PSV,
that was by far the most contentious of the two orders
and attracted very considerable number of comments,
but also a wide disparity of comments.
So, certainly setting it up as a separate order certainly made sense in terms of consultation
and its application. But also, whereas you can actually extend the PSPA, which is what
we are proposing to do in relation to the main element, which is essentially anti -social
behaviour and psychoactive substances, which principally are nitrous oxide. So, whilst
we are intending to extend that for another three years.
That we will obviously vary it to take the dog control
element out of that equation.
Lawyers, that was the most sensible thing to do
because the dog control order will be extended
to four additional areas.
So the dog control order is different in character
to what it is currently.
So a simple extension across the piece. So it was a combination of
pragmatism and
certainly the device
the important thing of
PSP is that it is a deterrent it tends to work as a
Deterrent it is certainly an additional weapon in the armoury potentially of council officials, but particularly of the police
We obviously consult extremely widely on this,
and I apologise for the fact that you've got
180 pages in your pack, which will also appear
before every council member before council.
This is because we are legally advised
that all the evidence necessary to justify a PSBO
should be made publicly available,
and certainly to those people, namely all councillors
are actually sort of making the decision on this.
But at the bottom of this,
we will continue to protect our residents
along with other supportive work we undertake
in relation to community safety
and in particular much of our new parks and public spaces.
Residents should feel free to enjoy their parks
and they should be able to enjoy our shared communal life
The report does show that we do take the issue of antisocial behaviour seriously.
And certainly we are very closely with the police in this endeavour.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Henderson.
Totally agree, because community safety is paramount to creating our livable, safe and
thriving neighbourhoods.
So do we have any questions about this paper?
Yes.
Yeah, thank you, Councillor Henderson.
I certainly welcome the extension of the existing community safety and controls through the
extension of the PSPO and the new PSPO for dog control.
I just wondered if you might say a bit more about how we're working with the police or
how we might work more closely with them in future to ensure that they do use the powers
to issue the warnings or the FPMs in relation to alcohol -related ASB or
the use and possession of novel psychoactive substances in public places.
Because we do get quite a few reports about nitrous oxide use, which sadly does seem to be increasing.
And I am aware of sometimes when the police have attended those incidents.
So as I say, I'm just wondering how we could work perhaps more with the police on the use of these powers.
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you. I mean we
Did obviously consult the police?
Over the extension. They're very supportive
Over the full extension. They do you obviously recognise there are issues in fact
statistically, you know the number of
Some say complaints about and certainly alcohol tend to be relatively few
I mean, it is essentially antisocial behaviour, of course.
And you're quite right, there are 14 amine hydrosoccyte capsules
found in specific parts of the borough.
It is, as some English say, quite a difficult area to tackle.
The police obviously have limited resources,
but we are certainly working with them
to try to ensure that there is effective enforcement.
I would actually say that our PSPOs,
I mean currently the maximum penalty is about 100 pounds,
reduced if it's paid early to about 70 pounds.
It isn't an enormous financial deterrent.
The government are bringing forward proposals
to increase that to 500 pounds.
Currently the PSPOs generally are using
essentially as a deterrent if people are found contravening them, then only initially given a warning
either by council officials or by the police. If however, you
ignore that warning, if for example they do not
disperse or they do not desist from whatever
activity they're engaged in, that is the point at which
a fixed penalty notice would be provided. But I do actually think this entire process
should take on consipnies have a greater impact
when the government does actually legislate
to substantially increase the penalties.
Thanks.
Thank you, Councillor Henderson.
Obviously it would be best of all if people
could just look after themselves and behave a bit better.
But we've been asked to approve the extension
of the existing PSPO and also to approve a new PSPO for dog control.
Agreed? Agreed. Thank you very much.
And one more paper for you, Councillor Henderson.
This one is just to note, however, so please give us an introduction.
And you are right, it is sort of just to note,
it is on a vitally important area,
which is safeguarding adults.
This is the Safeguarding Adults Board annual report.
And I think it's important to say
this is an anti -agency partnership,
so collaboratively, health, social care, police,
community partners, et cetera,
to ensure that safeguarding practises
across the whole borough, particularly the council,
are well coordinated, responsive,
and focus on achieving positive outcomes
for adults at risk.
And I'm very pleased to say that we have a very good record
here, and indeed the recent CQC assessment
of adult social care, which of course
recommend that the state, if we have a good system
of adult social care, recognise that we do actually
have very strong and effective safeguarding arrangements.
So it's good to have that external validation.
There is an independent chair of the Safeguarding Adults Board.
And the board does actually cover both Richmond and Wandsworth.
But the board has successfully finalised and approved
a new multi -agency framework for safeguarding
in the criminal justice pathway, which
I think is a very significant step forward for further collaborative work in the borough.
So as I said, generally a very good record and we also intend to continue to ensure that
that is the case.
Thanks.
Thank you, Councillor Henderson.
As they say, safeguarding is everybody's business, absolutely, especially ours.
Does anyone have any questions on this document?
No?
So do we approve their approach?
Moving forward, agreed.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Councillor Henderson.
Moving on, it's your turn, Councillor Ireland.
You've got three papers about finances.
So the first one is the MTFS.
Yes, thank you, Chair.
That's the medium term financial strategy.
This paper demonstrates that sound financial management is at the heart of everything we do.
Wandsworth has some of the highest financial reserves and the lowest debt in London.
And this allows us to deliver the lowest council tax in the country and to invest in what matters most to our residents.
And that's things like cleaner streets, safer neighbourhoods and a stronger community.
Also, thanks to the funds that the council collects from property developers,
we continue to invest in our schools, transport networks, sporting, leisure and community facilities.
These improvements benefit growth and renewal across the borough without adding a penny to the council tax.
And through these strong partnerships, the council has delivered several transformative and innovative projects for local people.
And these include the Apple's Digital Creativity Programme, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library,
and also Springfield Park, which is London's largest new park in more than a decade.
Now, all of these have been achieved through these partnerships and provide excellent value
for money at no cost to our council taxpayers.
Now, this strategy demonstrates our commitment to sound financial management.
It also allows us to take stock of opportunities while noting potential changes in the national
context.
We're also focused on continuing to be a forward -looking innovative council to better
reflect the modern ways our residents live and work.
Now the transformation programme will support improved digitally enhanced services at a
low ongoing cost.
We are embracing new technology to equip us with the skills and tools to transform our
services into the 21st century.
Ones with residents are some of the most digitally literate, dynamic boroughs, dynamic, and the
council must provide services to reflect this.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Ireland.
We are being, as cabinet, we are, sorry, are there any questions?
Yes.
Yeah, thank you, Councillor Ireland.
I'm interested in the change programme, which was mentioned in paragraph 3 .19, so we've
been going through a period of about two years, I think, of developing some of our services
in a change programme, and I think it's important that we review and look at how well they've
gone and what we've learned and all of that.
We want to know the impact before we move on to the next stage.
I just wonder, have you got any examples of impact of the projects we've been working on in the last couple of years?
So that we can get some...
Well, environmental services, we had a new contract for ENABLE, which came with additional income,
and also a new contract for the places leisure.
Again, that was at a lower cost.
The change programme worked on procurement strategy and it helped officers to achieve this.
Also the waste programme, so we've increased the amount of recycling we've done and that's also saved us lots of money.
Also the investment that's been made in new technology will also put us in a better position to deal with any challenges going forward and will help support the transformation programme.
Any other questions?
I think it would be really interesting to get a report from officers of all 35 and have
a look at the impact before we move on to the next stage, if you wouldn't mind asking
your officers.
I'm sure they've done it already, but I just haven't seen it.
Any questions from anyone else?
No?
Thank you.
So we've been asked to approve the additions to the General Capital Fund programme.
Sorry, the General Fund Capital Programme.
Is it not?
Oh no, you're right.
It's a new right.
Got it.
Yes.
Correction.
We're being asked to approve the council's medium -term financial strategy and approve the allocation of 1 .9 million of the existing
financial resilience reserve to establish a new transformation programme
agreed
Agreed unanimously. Thank you. I preempted myself
Over to you for the capital fund programme
This paper outlines our ambitious programme and includes proposals for a committee capital
programme of $262 million and a development pool of $162 million. Now, as part of the
Decade of Renewal, this Council is committed to investing in our communities and the capital
programme reflects these initiatives and our aim is to make the borough a more attractive
place securing libraries and leisure facilities for many years to come. Over 50 % of the capital
programme is being funded by developers. So Wandsworth is a growing borough and when Wandsworth
grows everybody benefits. So, thank you.
I love that summary. Any questions? Yes.
My apologies. I'm sitting next to you, Councillor Ireland.
You know, I mean, residents always ask us, you know, where is the money going? What's
it being spent on, et cetera? And obviously as Councillors we try to tell them and point
them in the right direction. But certainly in relation to this capital programme, what
your answer to that be? Thank you very much. There's several exciting projects going on at the moment.
This year we've had the Winstonley York Road Place Programme, the neighbourhood renewal
fund projects which are delivering improvements for our residents across the borough and is ongoing,
the company junction master plan and the Falcombe Road underpass. Now I think that these projects
reflect our residents priorities and
The far come road underpass for example, I mean residents have complained about that for years when I was a teenager in seven in the 70s
I avoided going under that bridge and it's great to see that we're doing work on improving that
That's an area of the bar. We feel has been neglected and we're trying to put that right
Any further questions, yes
I just want to highlight the good work of the clear relationship between important improvements
to our housing stock but the place making programme as well.
You've got the Alton and this, you've got York Road and Stanley.
It's how we use the General Fund capital programme to match and build on the work that the housing
revenue account is doing in building the new homes.
And I think that is genuinely a new innovation of this council is making that place function
much stronger so that there's crossover between our provision of new housing but also the
Places in the communities that are built out of that development work
So I think that's one of the strong themes of this paper is those working much much closer together and in a much more
I think smarter way
Thank you, and I'd like to congratulate you on broad mansions understand that's the largest number of properties we've brought online for decades
126 it's well done with that. Thank you. That's part of the thousand homes programme
That's great to hear any other questions
No, so we are being asked to approve the additions to the general capital fund programme, to recommend
the council adopt the capital programme, and to recommend the council approve the updated
use of capital receipts strategy.
Agreed?
Agreed.
Thank you very much.
Moving on to quarter one.
This is budget monitoring paper for quarter one which takes us from April to June 2025.
It reflects that there are budgetary pressures on the council.
This is in common with most councils in London and across the country.
We are still seeing increasing demand for our services and the cost of providing those
services continues to grow.
So innovative work is going on in the health particularly and
the housing departments to try to control these costs through procurement and the use of new technology.
Children's department, they are also facing similar national demand pressures,
managing to keep their budget within forecast,
their forecast within the budget, a break even position.
That's all I've got today really and we will continue to keep the budget under close
Monitoring. Thank you
Any questions?
Comment actually not a question. I just want to say well
Thank you very much to Children's Services officers because it is remarkable because we're going through incredible pressures, and we are still breaking even so
It's a good job, very well done, but I have visited a school today which has been telling me about the pressures there under.
The number of children with special needs and disabilities going up all the time and we need to support them.
And funding an absolute crisis, so watch this space.
We're looking forward to what the government's going to say.
Thank you.
We've been asked to note this paper, noted.
Moving on to final paper, budget variations.
Thank you very much, Chair.
This simply asked for approval of the changes referred to in one of the previous papers,
the capital programme review, £232 million this year.
Any questions?
Well, I think it's just worth stating that this is the correct financial decision.
I mean, if you're looking nationally at what other councils are facing, this is precisely
the right move.
you've got to spend money on infrastructure so that you're not plugging gaps later on
and it doesn't make sense to sit on reserves without improving the foundational infrastructure
of our borough. That's the kind of, we saw that problem for the last 14, 15 years of
not investing early on and using reserves in a smart way. So I think I commend this
paper and I think this shows what a council that is active and forward thinking and steps
in before things go wrong. Some of these things, like you say, the Falcon Road underpass, I
I grew up in this borough my entire life.
It seems to me crazy that I'm sitting here at 33 years old and we're finally getting done.
And that for me is what's wrapped up in this paper is there's lots and
lots of projects that are long overdue and will last for decades to come and improve the lives of our residents.
Couldn't agree more, yeah.
Thank you for that comment.
I agree. We want people to be proud of the place they live in.
And we're proud to live in Wandsworth.
And this will achieve that.
Thank you.
So with no other questions, cabinet, do we approve?
Agreed?
Fantastic.
So that brings us to the end of this meeting.
Have a good evening, everyone.
Good night.