Restructuring of the Sheffield First Partnership "Family"
CABINET REPORT
11th MAY 2005
RESTRUCTURING THE SHEFFIELD FIRST PARTNERSHIP “FAMILY”
1. PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
1.1 To seek Cabinet approval for changes resulting from the creation of a new structure for the Sheffield First Partnership “family”.
2. BACKGROUND
2.1 The Sheffield First Partnership board has identified the need for a revised “family” structure with the following key drivers for change:
- Align with its city strategy to reflect the priorities for change for the city, while reducing the number of partnerships;
- Allow Sheffield First Partnership board to manage performance across the City Strategy and through the partnerships;
- Incorporate Creative Sheffield as the primary economic board;
- Reflect the new emphasis on children and young people;
- Have a simpler arrangement for delivering neighbourhood renewal;
- Allow a single brand to be adopted for communication of the work of the entire partnership ‘family’.
2.2 Fundamentally, to be successful it must deliver a strong mechanism that will enable the partnership to take forward the programme of work contained within the next city strategy.
2.3 A proposal was developed and circulated widely for comment. There has been strong support for the proposals and considerable valuable debate generated by these proposals and it has resulted in some key points emerging. On the basis of this, the Sheffield First Partnership board has decided on the structure that it believes will best serve the needs of the city strategy, and seeks Cabinet support for this.
2.4 In particular, there are a number of changes that affect the legal relationship of the Council to certain boards that the Cabinet is asked to formally approve.
3. THE REVISED STRUCTURE
3.1 Annex I provides a diagram summarising the new structure. We intend to strengthen communications between boards and, as the diagram shows, the Sheffield First Partnership Board will have a pivotal role in this. However, we also intend to identify a range of ways of improving this aspect of the “family”.
3.2 We have developed a set of new remits that are provided in Annex II. A key purpose in preparing these remits is to make explicit the expected relationships between the different boards within the “family”. The full terms of reference for the boards are still being worked up, but will provide a consistent and clearer basis for each member to understand what is expected of them. The composition of the boards needs further discussion with chairs and the Sheffield First Partnership Director. There will be Member representation on all boards.
3.3 The Sheffield First Partnership Board will develop a more explicit process for boards reporting on their delivery and for reviewing progress against the targets set.
3.4 Sheffield First for Investment will continue to attract and support inward investment into the city until Creative Sheffield is fully operational and can determine how best to take forward this work as part of its wider marketing role for the city. Sheffield One will continue to manage the implementation of the City Centre Masterplan. This is currently under review and a handover will be agreed whereby Creative Sheffield takes over this as part of its role managing the physical economic infrastructure of the city and Sheffield One will be closed down.
3.5 There will be a number of sub-boards supporting the main boards and the arrangements for this will be developed subsequently, recognising that some reporting lines may need to change. The boards being sponsored by Creative Sheffield are explicitly mentioned in the structure diagram because this aspect is new and needs special emphasis. We expect a number of aspects of the partnership “family” to continue to evolve as thinking on things like Creative Sheffield becomes clearer.
3.6 The key implications of this for the Cabinet are that Sheffield First for Inclusion’s role as the Social Inclusion Board is transferred partly to the new Successful Neighbourhoods board and partly to the new Inclusive and Cosmopolitan board. In addition, the proposed Community Safety board continue the role of Sheffield First for Safety as Sheffield’s Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy.
4. CATEGORY OF REPORT
4.1 Open to public inspection.
5. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
5.1 Costs of new boards being proposed could be accommodated within the existing budget for running the various boards of the existing partnership family. Once the changes are completed, the changes will represent a stream-lining of the boards.
5.2 Currently board costs are provided by partner contributions, including those of Council and some central Government funds. The mix varies for each partnership. A number of the partnerships are supported by specific funding streams such as the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund that are time limited and will need to be reviewed when these come to an end. Some of the partnerships support teams provide a secretariat only while others incorporate delivery teams such as Sheffield One or the Community Safety Team.
5.3 The restructuring will not create additional costs as boards will operate within existing budgetary limits.
5.4 The management of key regeneration funds that are currently handled by the Sheffield First for Inclusion will pass to the new Successful Neighbourhoods board, with the expectation that they will set up an equivalent to the current Technical Committee. Further to that, the blocks of the Sheffield First Agreement will be managed through the Successful Neighbourhoods, Safer Communities, Health and Well-Being and 0-19+ boards, with the Sheffield First Agreement board.
6. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
6.1 The terms of reference of the boards will make clear the relationship of decisions they make to decisions of the Council. As with current boards, they can make recommendations to partner organisations, including the Council, but these will always need to be confirmed by the respective organisations through their own processes.
7. HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLICATIONS
7.1 The creation of the new boards will not have any Human Rights implications.
8. EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES IMPLICATIONS
8.1 The creation of the new Inclusive and Cosmopolitan Board along with a clearer statement of our aspiration in this area will result in the identification of key initiatives that will strengthen the city’s progress towards being inclusive and actively celebrating its diversity. For this to have credibility, the City Council will need to continue to show leadership in this regard, looking to its own equal opportunities policy and practice.
9. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
9.1 The proposed revisions to the City Strategy (making our aim to make improvements sustainable and to make Environmental Excellence a key feature) and the clarification of the role of the Environment board in monitoring progress on these areas are intended to strengthen the city’s progress towards environmental sustainability. In practice, it will be the working of the boards that determines actual policy and practice in this area.
10. ECONOMIC IMPACT
10.1 The establishment, already agreed, of Creative Sheffield, with the boards that it sponsors will create a strong focus on the economic transformation of the city, and is intended to directly contribute to greater prosperity and higher levels of employment.
11. COMMUNITY SAFETY IMPLICATIONS
11.1 Sheffield First for Safety will largely stay as it is now, under the proposed title of the Sheffield First Partnership Community Safety board, with a remit as stated. Defining more clearly the relationship between this board and other boards, Area Panels and Local Partnership Teams will help improve the delivery of community safety initiatives.
12. HUMAN RESOURCES IMPLICATIONS
12.1 The creation of some new boards will result in additional support requirements and SCC is developing proposals for how responsibility for these is managed within the new Directorate structure. Annex III provides an overview of these arrangements, including champions, who will be the chairs of the boards and the lead senior adviser in each case.
13. PROPERTY IMPLICATIONS
13.1 These proposals have no property implications. The proposed new Neighbourhoods board will oversee and coordinate developments in neighbourhoods and Sheffield One will continue to manage the implementation of the city centre Masterplan until a hand-over point to Creative Sheffield.
14. AREA PANEL(S) AFFECTED
14.1 Area Panels will need to have an influence over and be able to work with all the boards. In particular, it will be valuable for the Neighbourhoods board to forge a strong partnership with the Area Panels, and the other boards recognise the role of and consult with Area Panels as they develop and implement their plans. We will develop proposals for arrangements to support this, and the use of the Neighbourhood Indicators for Cabinet to approve shortly.
15. RELEVANT SCRUTINY BOARD IF DECISION CALLED-IN
15.1 Corporate Planning.
16. PRESS RELEASE
16.1 Sheffield First Partnership will issue a press release to communicate the new board structure, once agreed.
17. RECOMMENDATION
17.1 That the revised structure for the Sheffield First Partnership is supported and the continuing work of the Social Inclusion Board and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership taken forward by the new Successful Neighbourhoods, Inclusion and Cosmopolitan and Community Safety boards.
17.2 That the power to finalise the terms of reference of the boards, the Lead Officers and to determine any other matters he may consider necessary or expedient to effect this restructuring and to protect the Council’s interests in relation to this be delegated to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Assistant Chief Executive, Legal and Governance.
Sir Robert Kerslake
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Downloads
This is a word document containing Annex 1 to the Sheffield First report and is 48KB. (47.5 KB)
This is a word document containing Annex II to the Sheffield First report and is 66KB. (66 KB)
This is a word document containing Annex III to the Sheffield First report and is 26KB. (26 KB)