Agenda item

[Report of the Head of Legal and Governance (Monitoring Officer). To be introduced by the Leader of the Council]

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

The Leader of the Council 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.

The report also asked Cabinet to note the membership and terms of reference of the LHC, which is a Joint Committee of the Cabinet.

Cabinet was also asked to confirm the terms of reference of the Community Safety Partnership and appoint members to this statutory partnership body.

RESOLVED

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

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

3. To note the LHC Constitution, set out in Appendix C.

4. To agree the membership of the LHC (Councillor Bevan – Executive Member and Councillor Bull – Non-executive Member). These appointments shall be for the remainder of the 4-year term, which started from 2018/19 in accordance with the LHC constitution.

5. 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 Early Years, Children and Families

Cllr Weston

Cllr Opoku

Cllr James

Cllr Ogiehor

Cllr Chenot

Community Safety Partnership

Leader of the Council

Cabinet Member for Early Years, Children 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 shall 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’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.

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