Agenda item

[ Report of the Assistant Director for Corporate Governance. To be introduced by the Leader of the Council.] – Non Key

Cabinet is asked to agree the establishment of the Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee and agree Cabinet Member appointments to the Community Safety Partnership.

The Leader introduced the report which sought approval to:

·         Re-establish the Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee, confirm its terms of reference and appoint Members to serve on this advisory Cabinet sub-committee.

·         To note the membership and terms of reference of the LHC which is a Joint Committee of the Cabinet.

·         To confirm the terms of reference of the Community Safety Partnership and appoint members to this statutory partnership body.

RESOLVED

1. To agree to re-establish the Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee, and that the terms of reference for this advisory subcommittee, attached at appendix A of the report be noted;

2. To note the Community Safety Partnership membership and terms of reference attached at Appendix B of the report;

3. To note the LHC Constitution, set out in Appendix C of the report; noting the membership of the LHC agreed at Cabinet in June 2019 .[Cllr Bull  - Cabinet Member for Local Investment and Economic Growth and one non-Cabinet Member [Cllr John Bevan]. These appointments were for a term of 4

years, which started from 2018/19 in accordance with the LHC constitution]

4. To appoint the Members, indicated below, to serve on the Corporate Parenting

Advisory Committee and Community Safety Partnership

Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee

Chair - Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Families

Cllr Mitchell

Cllr Dogan

Cllr Culverwell

Cllr Demir

Cllr Chenot

Cllr Palmer

Community Safety Partnership

Cabinet Member for Communities and Equalities

Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Families

Councillor Ogiehor

Reasons for decision

Establishing a Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee ensures that there is an overview of the Councillors statutory role as a corporate parent, assisting the

Council to deliver its duties 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.

Continuing as 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, and share of the LHC annual surplus.

The LHC Committee agreed, in June 2016, to amend their constitution to allow members to nominate for a term of office of four years duration, from 2018, to coincide with the local Council elections. They agreed that the Joint Committee shall comprise two members from each of the Authorities. Each Authority’s representatives on the Joint Committee shall be appointed by the Authority’s executive, a member of the executive or a committee of the executive, as appropriate and be appointed to serve for a term of four years.

The LHC agreed that the Joint Committee should elect a chairperson of the Joint

Committee and a Vice Chairperson of the Joint Committee from among the members of the Joint Committee to serve for a term of four years.

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 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 is 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.

The Community Safety Partnership is a statutory partnership body and

Therefore, not appointing Cabinet Members to this body is not an option.