Agenda item

[Report of the Assistant Director for Corporate Governance. To be introduced by the  Cabinet Member for Resources]

To appoint Members to serve on: a Cabinet subcommittee, Joint Committees, and a  statutory partnership body set out below for the new municipal year 2017/18 and to confirm the terms of reference of these Committees:

The Leader introduced this annual report, recommending the establishment of the Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee. It was also recommending appointment of Cabinet Members to the LHC Joint Committee, Shared ICT and Digital Joint Committee and the Community Safety Partnership.

RESOLVED

1. To establish the Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee, and that the terms of reference for this sub committee, attached at appendix A be noted;

2. To note the terms of reference for the LHC, Shared ICT and Digital Service Joint Committee and Community Safety Partnership attached at appendix B, C, and D.

3. To appoint the Members, indicated below, to serve on the Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee, and the LHC Joint Committee, Shared ICT and Digital Service Joint Committee and Community Safety Partnership

Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee

Chaired by the Cabinet Member for Children and Families –

Councillor Elin Weston

Cllr Anne Stennett,

                        Cllr Pat Berryman,

Cllr Shelia Peacock

Cllr Felicia Opoku

Cllr Bob Hare

Cllr Liz Morris

LHC

Cabinet Member for Housing Regeneration, and Planning

X1 Labour position - Cllr Bevan

Shared ICT and Digital Service Joint Committee.

Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources

Cabinet Member for Finance and Health

Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Culture [Substitute Member]

Community Safety Partnership

Cabinet Member for Communities

Cabinet Member for Children and Families

Opposition Councillor Cllr Newton

Reasons for decision

To keep an overview of the Councillors statutory role as a corporate parent to children in care and young people leaving care.

The Council currently uses LHC frameworks as an efficient way of procuring technically complex products and services for its building refurbishment and maintenance programmes. By becoming a Constituent Member of LHC the Council will benefit from:

• Influencing the future direction of LHC including the identification of new products and services which could be beneficial to the Council.
• Increased learning of procurement practices and technical know-how for use by the Council’s officers in carrying out its own procurement programmes.
• Share of the LHC annual surplus.

Participation and membership of the Shared ICT and Digital Service Joint Committee will provide the Council with democratic oversight of the strategic delivery of the shared service.

Appointments from Cabinet are required to the Community Safety Partnership to reflect statutory duties and enable high level, accountable, strategic, oversight of issues relating community safety.

Alternative options considered

The Constitution advises that all Advisory or Consultative Committees will continue in operation only until the first meeting of the Cabinet, in the next municipal year following their establishment, when they must be expressly renewed or they cease to exist. Therefore, the alternative option would be for the Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee to cease and this would mean that there is not a scheduled opportunity for members and officers to meet and discuss the wellbeing of children in care and to ensure that the Council is meeting its corporate parenting obligations. This Committee is different to the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel as it concentrates on Looked after Children and care leavers and reports directly to the Cabinet.

Haringey has been a member of the LHC, formerly the London Housing Consortium, for forty years. In February 2012 the Haringey Cabinet approved a recommendation to remain in the LHC Joint Committee and leaving this consortium would affect accessing some shared procurement expertise and support on compliance.

Not appointing Cabinet Members to the Shared ICT and Digital Service Joint was the only other option but this would not allow the Council to provide democratic oversight of key decisions affecting the joint service.

The Community Safety Partnership is a statutory partnership body and therefore not appointing Cabinet Members to this body is not an option.