Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

The Chair welcomed those present to the meeting, particularly the new Community Link Forum (CLF) representatives and the new Police Borough Commander, and noted that apologies had been received from the following:

Tracey Baldwin                      -Helen Brown substituted

Eugenia Cronin

Rachel Hughes                      -Lorne Horsford substituted

Michael Jones

Adam Jorge

Dr It O’Donovan

Sharon Shoesmith

Members of the HSP must declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests with respect to agenda items and must not take part in any decision required with respect to these items.

No declarations of interest were made.

The Chair will consider the admission of any items of urgent business. (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items of urgent business will be dealt with under Item 21 below).

No items of Urgent Business were received.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 8 April as a correct record.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 8^th April 2008 be confirmed as a correct record.

To appoint a Chair for the new Municipal Year.

RESOLVED:

That Councillor George Meehan be appointed as Chair for the ensuing Municipal Year.

To appoint a Vice-Chair for the new Municipal Year.

RESOLVED:

That Paul Head be appointed as Vice-Chair for the ensuing Municipal Year.

The Board received a report requesting that it confirm its Membership and Terms of Reference for the new Municipal Year.

It was noted that the Membership and Terms of Reference required amendment in order to recognise the appointment and role of the new CLF representatives.

The Board was advised that under agenda Item 16 further amendments were proposed the Terms of Reference. These were being considered separately as part of a wider review of Governance arrangements surrounding the Board.

RESOLVED:

1. That the Membership as proposed be confirmed for the new Municipal Year.

2. That the Terms of Reference be amended to include the new CLF representatives.

A presentation will be made by the Community Link Forum.

The Board was advised that presentations had been made to each of the Thematic Boards during the last cycle of meetings.

These had set out the relationship between the Partnership and the CLF, the process for the recent CLF election and the Forums objectives and work to date.

The new representatives had also had an induction session with the Chair of the Thematic Board that they sat on and Council officers prior to their first meeting.

Feedback was being sought by HAVCO to determine whether they felt the induction process had been adequate. This would feed into an evaluation of the work carried out by the CLF since its formation.

That Chair thanked Pamela Pemberton of the CLF for the update.

RESOLVED:

That the verbal update be noted.  

The Board received a presentation from the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board focussing on Changing Lives 2008/09.

The Board was provided with copies of the recently published Changing Lives 2008/09 document.

It was noted that the Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) set out how the objectives included within the Changing Lives initiative would be delivered. There was a statutory requirement upon the Council to carry out an Annual Performance Assessment (APA) of the actions included within the Plan.

The APA would form a significant part of the information used to assess performance around children under the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA).

The Board was advised that there were five key outcomes that the Plan would be assessed against:

• Being Healthy
• Staying Safe
• Enjoy and Achieve
• Making a Positive Contribution
• Achieving Economic Well Being

 An additional outcome had been included in relation to Vulnerable Children and performance against this would also be measured.

At present an evaluation of the Plan was being carried out and Partners would have a key role to play in this process. The Primary Care Trust (PCT) and other agencies would be asked to contribute to discussion around the delivery of the objectives contained within the Plan.

In terms of planning beyond the future of the current CYPP the Board was advised that consultation would commence in the autumn on the development of a plan for 2009/20. This would take a long term view of the needs of Children in the Borough and incorporate the requirements of the national Children’s Plan.

In response to a query, as to how the views of children and young people would be sought and fed into the Plan, the Board was advised that there were existing mechanisms in place to facilitate this. Schools and parents would also be consulted as part of the process.

It was suggested that the Multi Faith should be used as a forum for consultation with children and young people.

It was noted that the Plan should be cross cutting and take on board issues such as crime prevention and the affect of crime upon children. It was noted that there were also strong links to mental health issues and these should be ‘joined up’ in their approach in order to achieve long term success.

It was suggested that this should be discussed at a future meeting of the Board.

RESOLVED:

1. That the presentation be noted.

2. That there should be further discussion, at a future meeting, with regard to how crime prevention and mental health provision should be addressed within the CYPP 2009/20.

The Board received a report setting out how the draft Delivery Plan would take forward the Strategy over the next three years.

The Strategy had been adopted in February 2008 and as part of this it had been agreed that an Annual Delivery Plans should be provided. The Plan had been written in a succinct manner in order to ensure that it was accessible to as many people as possible. It did provide details of every project included within the Strategy and instead focussed on key flagship projects.

Within the Plan three key areas were focussed upon:

• People
• Places
• Prosperity

The Board was advised that the Delivery Plan would focus on projects taking place during the current year and a review of the previous years’ projects. It was intended that the Plan would enable partners to see the projects as a collective group and how they linked together to achieve wider goals.

In terms of performance monitoring, the Board was advised that in addition to the Council’s Cabinet, the Enterprise Partnership Board and the HSP would also received performance reports.

It was noted that there was no reference to the St Ann’s Hospital site within the document at present. The Board was advised that this would be included when the project came online later in the year. It was noted that the Strategy would be reviewed on a six monthly basis and if appropriate this would be picked up then.

In response to a query, the Board was advised that the Community and Voluntary Sector was involved in the Strategy via both the Haringey Guarantee and the North London Pledge.

It was noted that at present there was no reference to how building work in regeneration areas would impact upon the local community particularly in terms of traffic. The Police representative requested that the Police were made fully aware of any likely impact upon traffic before building work commenced.

RESOLVED:

That the draft Delivery Plan for Haringey’s Regeneration Strategy be endorsed.

The Board received a report presenting the Local Area Agreement (LAA) 2007/08 End of Year Statement of Grant Usage.

It was noted that although the previous LAA had been superseded by the new style LAA, there was still an expectation that the requirements of the old LAA were fulfilled.

As the accountable body for the Partnership, the Council was required to produce an End of Year Statement of Grant Usage for the LAA. This outlined spend across the mandatory ring fenced pooled funding streams within the LAA grant for the previous financial year.

The Board was advised that the Performance Management Group (PMG) had agreed that the Chair of the Partnership should be delegated authority to approve the final report prior to submission to GOL and the HSP was asked to endorse this decision.

It was noted that approximately thirty per cent of the funding available had been allocated to Third Sector projects. However, this was not reflected in the allocations made across the Thematic Boards and it was queried how this would be addressed.

The Board was advised that the Performance Monitoring Framework attached to the new LAA meant that a new and more qualitative approach was being taken to projects and the delivery of outcomes. As part of this the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) was being carried out that would assess where the skills to deliver this lay.

It was noted that the Community and Voluntary Sector was keen to assist in identifying mechanisms to ensure that it was best placed to participate in the delivery of outcomes.

There was agreement that work was required to build the capacity of the Voluntary and Community Sector around the delivery of targets and the Chair requested that a report be brought to the PMG in relation to this, with a view to a more detailed report being considered at a future meeting of the HSP.

It was suggested that a sharp focus upon areas where targets were not being met was required and that the Partnership should consider what action was needed to take in order to address these areas. There was agreement that the PMG should receive a report setting out how the format of performance reports could be revised to address this point.

The Board discussed the review of projects receiving Area Based Grant (ABG) funding. It was noted that the HSP had previously been agreed that 2008/09 would be treated as a transitional year with a review of projects taking place in September after an initial six month period. Since this had been agreed the Commissioning Review Group had met and put together criteria for the review.

It was noted that recommendations would be made to the PMG once the review had taken place as to which projects should continue to receive funding.

RESOLVED:

1. That the report be noted.

2. To endorse the decision of the PMG that the Chair of the Partnership should be delegated authority to approve the final report prior to submission to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85.

The Board received a report that set out performance against Stretch Targets included within the current LAA.

An overview was given of performance and it was noted that the Stretch Targets would be incorporated within the new LAA as Local Indicators.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Board received a report setting out progress in relation to the new LAA.

It was noted that the new LAA had been submitted to GOL on 30 May and was due to be signed off my ministers by the end of June 2008. It was not envisaged that GOL would make any substantive changes to the LAA.

The Board was advised that there were a number of Indicators where targets had been deferred until 2009/10. Where this occurred the Thematic Boards would continue to manage performance manage these with proxy indicators.

In addition to the deferred indicators there were minor alterations to the thirty-five indicators originally selected and these had been agreed by the PMG on 28 May prior to submission.

Following the approval of the LAA there would be a national launch followed by a ‘London Reception’. Further details would be provided by GOL in due course.

Councillor Bevan noted that figures in relation to NI 154 were incorrect and officers agreed to check these before the document was finalised.

There was agreement that it would be useful if comparative information was sought from other London Boroughs to see how Haringey’s choice of Indicators compared.

RESOLVED:

1. That the report be noted.

2. That comparative information in relation to the choice if Indicators be sought and brought back to the Board for information.

The Board received a report detailing progress in relation to the Haringey Compact.

It was noted that since its launch the Compact had been recognised as a model of good practice and had received two commendations for Excellence from the Compact Commission.

A range of work had been undertaken including the adoption of the Council’s Grant Aid Standards which aimed to standardise the monitoring and implementation of the grant allocation process across the Council.

The Board was advised of work carried out by the Compact and it was noted that it would play a key role in forthcoming review of ABG funded projects. 

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Board received a report that set out proposals for the introduction of a Risk Management Strategy and Framework for the HSP.

The Board was advised that the Risk Management was seen as an increasingly important tool by various bodies responsible for external assessment. Under the new Comprehensive Area Assessment there was an increased focus upon partnership working and therefore the Partnership needed to be able to demonstrate that it had effective systems in place to deal with Risk Management.

In addition to this the Audit Commission had also indicated that Local Strategic Partnerships would need to demonstrate that Risk Management was properly embedded.

It was proposed that risk registers should be used by the Thematic Boards and the PMG and these would be monitored by the Council’s Internal Audit Service. The Service would also provide training on the completion of these via workshop sessions.

In response to a query as to whether the registers would focus solely on financial issues, the Board was advised that there would be many elements that would be captured and there would not be a specific focus on financial issues.

RESOLVED:

1. That the Risk Management Strategy and proposed actions be approved.

2. That the risk registers as set out be implemented across the Thematic Boards and PMG.

The Board received a report that set out options in relation to the adoption of a new Code of Corporate Governance for the HSP.

It was noted that the CAA Key Lines of Enquiry, published earlier in the year had set out the need for a Code of Corporate Governance as part of the Partnerships overall governance framework. In addition to this it was also recognised as being good practice to have such a Code in place.

A draft Action Plan setting out proposals in relation to the Code was included within the report and the Board was invited to comment on this.

There was a general consensus that the introduction of a Register of Interests was a positive step.

The Board discussed the new CAA and there was agreement that it would be useful if further information could be circulated once received. It was also requested that information in relation to the CPA and should also be circulated to Board members.

It was suggested that once further guidance was received in relation to the CAA a report should be received by the HSP setting out the implications of the Assessment and the work that needed to be carried out in order to address this.

The Chair was in agreement that a report as set out above should be received by the Board.

RESOLVED:

1. That the Code of Corporate Governance be approved.

2. That the measures set out to publicise the Code after its adoption be approved.

3. That the Action Plan be approved and that this should form the Annual Governance Statement for the Partnership.

4. That the Terms of Reference for the HSP, the Thematic Boards and PMG should be reviewed in order to ensure compliance and consistency with the Code of Governance.

5. That each partner agency should identify a lead officer from within their organisation to be the lead contact on HSP Governance issues. 

6. That, once further guidance was received in relation to the CAA, a report should be submitted to the HSP setting out the implications for the Partnership and the work required to address this.

The Board received a report setting out a proposed Complaints Handling Protocol for the HSP.

It was noted that the Local Ombudsman had published a report that had identified problems attached to the handling of complaints where there was a partnership of responsible bodies. In order to address this, the Ombudsman had recommended that Local Strategic Partnerships, amongst others, should establish Complaints Protocols.

In response to a suggestion that the Haringey Compact should be used as a model of best practice and that the Complaints Protocol should reflect this, the Board was advised that there were certain statutory requirements that the Protocol had to fulfil. However, the arrangements in place under the Haringey Protocol could be reviewed to determine whether there were any aspects that could be incorporated.

RESOLVED:

1. That the Complaints Protocol be approved.

2. That all Partners should ensure that arrangements were put in place to facilitate the effective implementation of the Protocol.

3. That the appropriate publicity be provided for Services Users and staff (as set out in paragraph five of the report).

4. That the operation of the Protocol be formally reviewed after the initial twelve months of operation and thereafter as required, or if one or more partners consider that modification is necessary.

The Board considered a report that set out initial proposals in relation to the establishment of a Communications Protocol for the HSP.

It was noted an HSP Communication Network had been established in order to drive forward the Strategy.

The Board was advised that three types of communication had been identified:

Corporate Communications –this included internal communications, senior stakeholders such as Government departments, regulators and local community leaders.

Service Communications –this would focus on service users and promoting access to services and improving awareness of the outcomes achieved by the Partnership.

Social Marketing –communication in this area would be based around achieving behavioural change that would support targets included within the LAA.

It was noted that there was a focus upon perception based indicators within the new LA. Therefore ensuring that the Partnership had a robust Communication Protocol in place was vital.

The Board discussed the proposals set out and it was noted that there was nothing included within the report that indicated whether the HSP should have a corporate identity. There was agreement that the HSP should not be given a high profile corporate identity as this would cause confusion and detract from its objectives.

RESOLVED:

1. That the HSP Communications Network should develop a Communications and Consultation Strategy and that there should be discussion with individual Thematic Board Chairs in relation to this.

2. That the Strategy should be brought back to a future meeting of the Board for approval.

3. That the Strategy should include reference to any additional resources required to deliver it.

This item is for information.

The Board received the information report.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Board received a report that provided a summary of the work streams, activities and recent decisions undertaken by each of the Thematic Boards.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

To consider any items of urgent business admitted under Item 3 above.

No new items of urgent business were received.

To receive any item of AOB.

The Chair advised the Board that the Council had recently received three months notice that Liveability, the organisation that supported the Wood Lane Nursery scheme, intended to end its funding.

In order to allow the scheme time to identify alternative funding, the Council had agreed to provide funding for an initial three month period. However, there was no guarantee that the Council would be able to maintain this arrangement and the Chair called on Partners to consider whether they were able to assist.

It was agreed that further details should be circulated to Partners.

The following dates for the HSP have now been formally agreed by Council:

• 4 November 2008
• 26 February 2009
• 27 April 2009

The Board was asked to note the following dates of future meetings:

• 4 November 2008
• 26 February 2009
• 27 April 2009