The Hackney Council Scrutiny Panel met on 6 October 2025 at Hackney Town Hall. The agenda included the Hackney Council Complaints and Member Enquiries Annual Report, Hackney Council's Performance Reporting New Dashboards, and the Scrutiny Panel Work Programme.

Hackney Council Complaints and Member Enquiries Annual Report 2024/2025

The Scrutiny Panel was scheduled to review the Hackney Council Complaints and Member Enquiries Annual Report 2024/2025. The report provided an overview of complaints and enquiries received by the council, and presented the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) Annual Review Letter 2024/25, and a self-assessment against the LGSCO Complaint Handling Code.

The report included an overview of complaint and enquiry volumes received in 2024/25:

The report noted that the number of stage 1 complaints increased slightly, and the volume of stage 2 complaints received in 2024/25 increased 57% compared to 2023/24. It also noted a 39% increase in the number of Housing Ombudsman investigations.

The report also included the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman Annual Review Letter 24-25, which stated that the LGSCO had written to the council for the last three years about delays in implementing recommendations. The letter stated:

Your Council agreed to, and implemented, the recommendations we made in 18 cases, but in ten of these cases, the recommendations were not completed within the agreed timescales. Seven of these cases involved a delay of over 15 days, most of which involved some area of policy review or service improvement.

The report also included the Member Enquiry and Mayor & Cabinet Enquiry Annual Report 2024/25. The report noted that almost three quarters (72%) of all Member Casework received by the Council in 2024/25 related to three areas: Environment & Climate Change (31.6%), Housing Services (26.4%) and Benefits & Homeless Prevention Service (16.1%).

Hackney Council's Performance Reporting New Dashboards

The Scrutiny Panel was scheduled to review the council's new performance dashboards. The council recognised that it needed to improve its corporate performance management and has brought in a new performance framework and started the journey to improve its performance reporting and accessibility of that data.

The report included the Organisational Health Performance Dashboard, which covers sixteen main performance areas that are critical performance drivers for the Council, in terms of impact and financial liability. These include:

• Complaints
• Members Casework
• Human Resources
• FOIs
• Finances
• Resident satisfaction rates
• Legal
• Electoral Registrations
• ICT
• Property
• Business Continuity Planning
• Parking
• Environmental cleanliness

The report also included the Business Critical Performance Dashboard, which covers four main performance areas that are current critical performance drivers for the Council, in terms of impact and financial stability:

• Adults Social Care
• Children's Social Care
• Homeless Prevention
• Housing Services

The report also included Hackney's Corporate Strategic Risk Register, which identifies a number of risks to the council, including:

• The Council's Financial Position / The Economy
• Cyber / Information Security
• Management of Capital Programmes / Schemes
• Impact of New Legislation
• Workforce & Skills
• Information Assets
• Management of Capital Programmes / Schemes
• Climate & Ecological Emergency
• Pressures on Temporary Accommodation
• SEND funding

The report also included the Strategic Plan Update Report 2024-25, which outlined the achievements made over 2024-25, highlighting the Council's progress in delivering on its key priorities and providing an overview of what the next year might look like for the borough.

Scrutiny Panel Work Programme 2025/2026

The Scrutiny Panel was asked to provide comments, amendments, or suggestions to the work programme. The work programme included the following proposed items:

• Hackney Council Complaints and Enquiries Annual Report 2024/2025
• Council's Performance Reporting - New Dashboards
• Quarterly Finance Update
• Chief Executive Question Time
• Mayor's Cabinet Question Time
• Digital and Data Management Strategies for Hackney Council