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ITEM EX12

EXECUTIVE – 14 JANUARY 2004

GOVERNANCE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE SUPPORTING PEOPLE PROGRAMME

Joint report by the Head of Planning & Partnership (Social & Health Care) and the Solicitor to the Council

 

Introduction

  1. The Executive has considered previous reports on the establishment of the Supporting People Commissioning Body, on 19 August and 1 October 2002 and 2 September 2003. Full background is contained in those reports. The Commissioning Body – on which the County Council is represented by the Executive Member for Community Care & Health - has been meeting throughout the last year and at its most recent meeting, on 8 December, agreed a "Memorandum of Understanding" to guide relations between it and the County Council as the Supporting People "Administering Authority". The Commissioning Body is recommending the Executive also to adopt the Memorandum, which is reproduced herewith.

    Memorandum (download as .rtf file)
    Annex 1 (download as .rtf file)
    Annex 2
    Annex 3

    2. Memorandum of Understanding

  2. The establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Commissioning Body and the Administering Authority is a requirement of the Supporting People (England) Directions 2003 made by the Deputy Prime Minister. Its function is to set out how Supporting People will be allocated and co-ordinated. In Oxfordshire, the main instrument for achieving this is the Supporting People Team, which reports to the Head of Planning & Partnership in Social & Health Care but is under the overall direction of the Core Strategy Group, comprising senior officers of the authorities and agencies which are represented on the Commissioning Body. The Memorandum has been drawn up jointly with officers of those authorities and agencies and with advice from Counsel.

  3. One particular aspect on which Counsel has advised is the status of the decisions of the Commissioning Body in the context of executive arrangements operated under the Local Government Act 2000. Under the 2003 Directions those decisions are limited to agreeing the framework under which the Supporting People grant monies are to be applied by the Administering Authority, by …

    • approval and periodic review of the Supporting People Strategy; and

    • approval each year of the Supporting People Annual Plan.

  1. In his advice, Counsel states that the participating organisations, through their representatives, legally participate fully in those decisions and should ensure that those representatives have sufficient delegated decision-making powers for the purpose of the successful operation of the Commissioning Body. This has been effected on the County Council’s part by the decisions of the Executive on 2 September 2003 (Minute 213/03) to authorise the Executive Member for Community Care & Health (or if unavailable the Executive Member for Children & Young People):

    • in his/her capacity as the County Council’s representative on the Commissioning Body, to agree the Supporting People Strategy and Annual Plan and any subsequent amendments or changes thereto; and

    • to take any decisions on the part of the County Council as Supporting People Administering Authority that might fall outside the relevant officers’ operational delegated powers.

  1. Counsel advises further that the participation of the individual local authority members in the decisions of the Commissioning Body constitutes the exercise by them of "executive functions" for the purposes of the Local Government Act 2000 and is therefore subject to the forward plan, scrutiny and call-in procedures of each authority. This will require special arrangements to be made with the district councils to ensure effective notification and communication procedures, although it is anticipated that such arrangements can be put in place within the respective authorities’ existing Constitutions.

    2. RECOMMENDATION

  2. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to approve and adopt the Memorandum of Understanding as a basis for the future working of the Supporting People Commissioning Body and Administering Authority.

NICK WELCH
Head of Planning & Partnership, Social & Health Care

PETER CLARK
Solicitor to the Council

Background Papers: Nil

Contact Officers:
Nick Welch, Head of Planning & Partnership, Tel 01865 815714
Howard Perkins, Chief Solicitor, Tel 01865 810250

January 2003

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