Agenda item

Joint report of Assistant Chief Executive, Director of One Nottingham, Director of Commissioning, Policy and Insight.

Elaine Fox, Policy Officer, presented the report and highlighted the following points:

(a)  the partnerships selected for verification on this cycle where;

(i)  Children’s Partnership Board;

(ii)  Green Nottingham Partnership;

(iii)N2 Skills and Employment Board;

(b)  no significant concerns have been raised about any of the partnerships but recommendations had been made with regard to keeping information up-to-date.  All three partnerships have accepted these recommendations;

(c)  with regard to the Green Nottingham Partnership Board, they were unable to retrieve some of the requested documents, and the terms of reference had not been refreshed in four years. Significant improvements are expected now that a new Head of Energy and Sustainability is in post. It is noted that this partnership does not receive any City Council funding or formal administrative support, but alternative resources are being sought to support the partnership. There was a minor reputational risk concern if the Local Authority were to completely withdraw from the partnership. It is proposed that the partnership will be re-verified in November 2016 and then again in two years’ time;

(d)  the Corporate Policy Team will provide a document checklist to enable organisations to appreciate what is required by City Council;

(e)  partnerships undertake a self-assessment annually with three selected each year for verification of documents on a rolling programme; each partnership will be verified at least every four years.

Members commented as follows:

(f)  reputational risk to the City Council should be taken into consideration when verifying partnerships; It is requested that the membership of  Green Nottingham Partnership is circulated to Committee members;

(g)  it’s not clear why some of the more affluent organisations within the  Green Nottingham Partnership were not contributing to its administration;

(h)  the objectives of the Partnership, available on their website, appeared to be confused as they do not purely focus on the green agenda and do not mention air quality which is currently an issue of concern;

(i)  the Green Nottingham Partnership would benefit from member involvement, if it does not already have this, to ensure that the work of the Partnership does not duplicate that of the City Council;

(j)  all partnerships need a forward plan with proper consideration to objectives and methods of measuring the extent to which those objectives have been achieved;

(k)  whilst finance is important, value for money and effectiveness of all partnerships should also be considered;

(l)  all partnerships could be advised on methods to help them ‘work smarter’.

RESOLVED

(1)  to note is the key findings from the verification of the health checks of three partnerships on the register of significant partnerships;

(2)  for the concerns raised by Committee members regarding partnerships’ objectives and potential associated reputational risk, to be referred to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for consideration as part of their work programme;

(3)  in addition to the verification, for further in-depth committee consideration of individual partnerships to take place on annual basis with leading officers of those organisations invited to the meeting to respond to the committee’s questions which should include seeking assurance that:

(i)  value for money is achieved for Council officer time and resources spent on the partnership;

(ii)  the City Council’s reputation will not be damaged by participating in the partnership.