Agenda and minutes

Venue: York House, Twickenham

Contact: Shilpa Manek  01628 796310

Items
No. Item

10.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence and attendance of alternate members.

 

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor David Evans.

11.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST pdf icon PDF 217 KB

Members are invited to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests and

any other non-pecuniary interests (personal interests) relevant to items on

this agenda.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were received.

12.

MINUTES FROM THE LAST MEETING pdf icon PDF 62 KB

To consider and approve the minutes of the meeting held on 11th July 2018.

 

Minutes:

The minutes from the meeting on 11 July 2018 were Unanimously agreed and signed as a true and accurate record.

13.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Members of the public may ask questions or make representations.

Notice of questions or representations to be submitted must be received

by 12 noon on 13 November 2018. Please email shilpa.manek@rbwm.gov.uk

 

Minutes:

No questions received.

14.

GOVERNANCE REVIEW AND LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Governance Review

 

After discussing the report in detail, the Joint Committee Unanimously Agreed all the recommendations in the report.  Specifically, an ownership board to set the strategic direction and priorities of the company and to inform the strategic commissioning of services across the three local authorities would be established. The board would meet four times a year, one month prior to the Joint Committee (rather than immediately prior). 

 

A programme of relationship meetings between the Chair of the Board of Directors and the key stakeholders in the Councils to develop effective joint working and decision making on the development of the company would be established. Councils would revise the secondment agreement for the Richmond and Kingston Director(s) of Children Services to clearly set out the corporate responsibilities of the role.  Additionally, the strategic commissioning board would be removed from the AfC governance structure and responsibilities transferred to the ownership board.

 

The Joint Committee agreed to take legal advice on how to satisfactorily resolve issues relating to ownership as detailed in paragraph 6.1 of the report, namely share of guarantee.  The limitation on sharing legal advice were discussed. Windsor and Maidenhead would seek independent legal advice and Richmond and Kingston would instruct joint legal advice. 

 

After discussing the scrutiny aspect, the Joint Committee Unanimously Agreed to that AfC Governance should be included within existing scrutiny structures within each Council but would have to discuss further to agree how.  The existing Leader and Committee system was noted in Kingston. This was deferred to the next Joint Committee.

 

Leadership Structure

 

The Joint Committee were happy to accept the recommendations in the report. The Joint Committee agreed the posts of AfC Chief Operating Officer and AfC Chief Executive  would be deleted and one new post would be created, that post would be titled as ”Managing Director”. Professional HR advice was to be sought about ring-fencing the post.  The Joint Committee noted the proposal to appoint two interim DCS, one in Richmond and another in Kingston.

15.

TRADING UPDATE pdf icon PDF 70 KB

Ian Dodds, Interim Chief Executive, to update the Joint Committee on the income generated from business development since 1 April 2018 and sets out the funding that has been identified from grant funders or business opportunities, as well as pipeline opportunities.

 

Minutes:

The Joint Committee noted the information in the report and the income generated by Achieving for Children though its business development activities, and the potential opportunities to generate further income in 2018/19 and 2019/20.

 

Councillor Diane White requested further detail on the Coop Foundation - The Loneliness Fund that was used for outreach work with vulnerable children at the Cambridge Estate in Kingston.

 

The Joint Committee Unanimously Agreed to issue a Joint universal, not political, Statement about further funding requirement from central government.

 

16.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS AND DATE OF NEXT MEETING

The Joint Committee to note the dates of future meetings:

 

Wednesday 13 March 2019, Kingston

Minutes:

ACTION: Clerk to trawl for next three meeting dates.

 

ACTION: Circulate Governance Chart.

 

ACTION: Implement recommendations as agreed within the governance review