The Policy and Oversight Board are scheduled to meet to discuss artificial intelligence, co-production with residents, and the work programmes of the council's Policy and Accountability Committees (PACs). The board will also look at its own work programme and note the dates of future meetings.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Governance and Adoption

The Policy and Oversight Board are scheduled to receive an update on Hammersmith and Fulham Council's governance and adoption of AI solutions. The report pack states that the council is in the early stages of exploring how service ambitions might translate into practical outcomes, and that current work is focused on experimentation and learning.

The report to be discussed notes that AI capability is evolving quickly, and that the council wants to ensure that its approach to adoption keeps it at the forefront of the public sector by driving innovation while maintaining standards of safety, transparency and ethical oversight.

The report pack states that Hammersmith and Fulham has shifted from isolated AI pilots and initiatives to strategic alignment and a business case driven approach to AI. Since November 2024, the council has sought to expand its AI use cases. Innovations in technology, not least AI and automation, present an opportunity to deliver efficiencies within high demand service areas and can help the council remain ruthlessly financially efficient.

The council has also embedded a comprehensive governance framework consisting of AI policies for staff, an enhanced AI Risk Assessment, a Generative AI Working Group and a newly established Ethics Board.

The report pack states that across UK local government, AI adoption continues to accelerate, though maturity remains uneven. The Local Government Association's (LGA) June 2025 report notes that more than 70% of councils are now trialling or deploying AI tools, particularly in adult social care and customer services, yet large-scale success is still limited.

The report pack also notes that effective transformation through AI depends on a solid foundation of user-centred service design, high quality and accessible data, scalable use cases, robust business cases, and the right skills and digital infrastructure. Ethical considerations, such as transparency, bias and accountability remain integral to sustainable adoption.

The council is scheduled to discuss a number of productivity tools:

• Microsoft Copilot: Licensed Microsoft Copilot is being deployed through a structured pilot of up to 50 licences across directorates. The aim of this initiative is to enhance productivity, accessibility and innovation in day-to-day operations while exploring how AI can transform business processes at scale.
• Microsoft Copilot Chat: Microsoft Copilot Chat, included within the council's existing Microsoft 365 suite, provides all staff with secure, AI-powered assistance through the Microsoft Edge browser and M365 Office environment.
• Copilot Studio Agents: These agents can autonomously initiate actions based on defined goals, adapt to changing conditions, and coordinate across multiple systems to complete complex, multi-step tasks. Two use cases are currently being scoped, a Planning Research Agent and Tech-enabled Care Agent for Social Care, alongside a live trial in the Housing Customer Service Centre to test operational value and governance readiness.
• Generative AI Note Taking Tools: Hammersmith and Fulham has undertaken structured pilots of AI-powered transcription and note-taking tools to ease administrative burden, enhance meeting quality and free up staff for more value-adding work.

The Policy and Oversight Board are also scheduled to discuss AI capabilities that are now being embedded across Hammersmith and Fulham through both new supplier partnerships and enhancements to existing line-of-business-systems (LOBs). These include:

• The Resident Experience and Access Programme (REAP Accelerate): Implementation of an AI enhanced contact centre to improve resident service and operational efficiency.
• Fraud, Error and Recovery Data hub (FRED): Detects and prevents fraud, automates manual processes and improves data accuracy and service delivery.
• VoiceScape: Deploys AI-driven analytics tools to assist in managing tenant rent payments and arrears.
• Housing Complaints AI Automation: An in-house prototype that categorises and analyses complaints using machine learning, with sentiment analysis and summarisation features.
• CCTV Network Upgrade: A £3.2 million investment over three years to upgrade the CCTV network with AI capabilities, including both live and retrospective facial recognition, object and behavioural analytics capabilities.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) Translation and EasyRead: This will reduce the time and cost of translating council documents, saving thousands on the costs of creating translations, and creating Easy read documents.
• SmartBox AI (Freedom of Information and Subject Access Requests): This tool will automate translation and simplify content creation, cutting costs and making council communications more inclusive and accessible.
• Tussell Procurement Analytics: Uses AI to analyse publicly available procurement data, enabling the council to identify easily which suppliers are on which frameworks, track local authority spending patterns and benchmark supplier performance and procurement trends.
• ANPR vehicle recognition and moving traffic enforcement: Deploys automated vehicle detection and verification systems to streamline enforcement of parking and traffic management with parking permit validation systems.

The council is also exploring:

• AI for legal Services
• Road Condition Monitoring
• Adult Social Care
• Smart City Monitoring

The report pack also identifies risks and implemented targeted mitigations, including:

• Data readiness
• Siloed Adoption
• Vendor-Driven AI Features
• Workforce Upskilling
• Return on investment (ROI) and effective cost control
• Reputational Damage
• Service Strategy Alignment

Co-production with Residents

The Policy and Oversight Board are scheduled to receive an update on the council's commitment to co-production with residents, particularly Disabled residents.

The report pack states that Hammersmith and Fulham Council's commitment to working in co-production with residents is driven by the aspiration to create a more inclusive, accessible, and equitable borough for all residents.

The council's commitment to co-production with residents came from the Disabled People's Commission (DPC) Nothing about Disabled people Without Disabled people report published in June 2021. The DPC's working definition of co-production was defined as 'Local Disabled residents are working together with decision makers to actively identify, design, and evaluate policy decisions and service delivery that affect our lives and remove the barriers we face'.

The report pack states that the council commitment to working in partnership with residents sits alongside other groundbreaking commitments including not charging for community care and support, a commitment to the Social Model of Disability that sees Disabled people as valued citizens and to work alongside Disabled people to remove social, physical and attitudinal barriers, and the work the council has done in co-production with Disabled residents to develop a Vision for Independent Living as a pioneering approach to service transformation.

The council started to embed its commitment to working in co-production by focusing first on Disabled residents, as the Disabled People's Commission (DPC) found that Disabled people, when considering multiple intersectional barriers, were the furthest away from decision-making. However, the DPC were very clear in their report that whilst the work on co-production should start with Disabled residents, the commitment to 'doing things with residents not to them' through co-production should be about all Hammersmith and Fulham residents.

The council's commitment to work in co-production with residents is led by a small team which is headed up by Tara Flood, Head of Co-production, and is supported by the Co-production officer. Councillor Alex Sanderson is the Cabinet lead for co-production, adding to her existing role as Deputy Leader (with responsibility for Children and Education) and Lead Member for Inclusive Community Engagement.

The Hammersmith and Fulham Co-production Implementation Group (HFCIG) set up in 2019 has recently been refreshed and renamed Co-production Matters H&F . Its membership now includes – representatives from each of the seven issue focused co-production groups, Councillors, Council officers, representatives from Disabled people's and other community organisations including Action on Disability, Safety Net People First and SOBUS. Co-production Matters H&F plays a crucial role in overseeing and guiding the implementation of coproduction principles across the borough. Co-production Matters H&F is co-chaired by Councillor Sanderson and Donna Fenner, a Disabled resident.

To reflect the need for a shift in culture and practise a corporate disability equity and co-production training programme for council officers has been developed together with the Head of Co-production and People & Talent and is being delivered by Inclusion London.

The co-production team has also been working with People & Talent on a Resident Co-production Re-imbursement (expenses) policy that sets out a process, that is HMRC compliant, to pay residents involved in co-production activities in recognition of their time and expertise.

The report pack lists a number of key successes to date, including:

• The Civic Campus development
• The design and delivery of four Family Hubs
• A Youth Voice strategy
• A Dementia Strategy
• A Disabled People's Housing strategy
• A Digital Inclusion strategy
• A pioneering Vision for Independent Living based on Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People.

The report pack also includes five short case study summaries that give more detail in terms of what has been achieved in several service areas. Two of the case studies are focused specifically on Disabled residents and the remaining three are inclusive of a wider group of residents.

The report pack states that the modelling co-production good practice is leading to a shift in the way the council does things. The development of co-production resources has increased officer awareness of this new way of working with residents and is encouraging officers to get involved in coproduction. Increased recruitment to resident led co-production groups has led to an expansion of co-production across departments. The community led co-production capacity building / training has resulted in more residents getting involved in co-production opportunities.

The council's work on co-production has also had an impact at a European level. In April 2024 Hammersmith and Fulham Council were identified as best practice model on co-production and Independent Living in the European Network on Independent Living proposal for a Framework of Excellence in Social Services in Europe (April 2024).

Nationally the council position on not charging for homecare was highlighted as a best practice model in the Disability Law Service research report on the impact of charging on Disabled people (June 2024).

In the last couple of years, the council has successfully secured almost £2m of external funding for initiatives where co-production is part of the delivery approach.

Lastly in May 2024 the 10 members of the Disabled People's Commission were awarded Freedom of the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham for the pioneering work they have done to set in motion a new way of working with residents and the wider community.

Four department reports have been submitted to their relevant Policy and Accountability Committee (PAC) covering Finance & Corporate Services, Children's Services, Adult Social Care, and the Inclusive Environment Disabled Residents Team (Place directorate).

The report pack identifies a number of good co-production indicators, including:

• Resident Co-chairs
• Real Decision-Making Power
• Multi-Year partnership
• Budget Influence
• Partner Evaluation Reports
• Mutual Training

The report pack also identifies a number of things that help, and barriers to, co-production.

Policy and Accountability Committees' Work Programmes

The Policy and Oversight Board are scheduled to discuss the work programmes of the council's six Policy and Accountability Committees (PACs).

The scheduled topics for discussion at each of the committees are:

• Children and Education Policy and Accountability Committee
  • Hammersmith and Fulham Local Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2024-25
  • Update on the National Children's Social Care Reforms and Transformation Agenda
  • Local Offer Annual Report 2024-25
  • Summer in the city 2025
• Climate Change and Ecology Policy and Accountability Committee
  • Public Realm Works Procurement
  • Hammersmith and Fulham Clean Energy Transition
• Health and Adult Social Care Policy and Accountability Committee
  • Hammersmith and Fulham Health and Care Partnership Update
  • Hammersmith and Fulham Safeguarding Adults Board Report 2024/25
  • Charing Cross Hospital Co-Production
  • Drug Strategy
• Housing and Homelessness Policy and Accountability Committee
  • Tenant Satisfaction Measures
  • Family Housing Strategy
  • Anti-Social Behaviour in Neighbourhoods
• Social Inclusion and Community Safety Policy and Accountability Committee
  • Update report on Policing in Hammersmith and Fulham
  • Briefing note on co-production in VAWG commissioning and designing of projects
• The Economy, Arts, Sports, and Public Realm Policy and Accountability Committee
  • Active Wellbeing Strategy
  • Play Transformation Programme 2025-28

Policy and Oversight Board Work Programme

The Policy and Oversight Board are scheduled to discuss their work programme for 2025/26. The draft work programme includes:

• Update on AI Governance and Adoption
• Embedding the LBHF commitment to co-production with residents
• PAC work programmes
• Revenue Budget and MTFS¹
• PAC updates and work programmes
• Monitoring of the Finance Peer Challenge recommendations
• Strategy monitoring
• Transformation programme deep dives
• Corporate Performance