Meeting documents

To consider report.

The Executive Lead Member for Local Government, Cllr Val Keitch introduced the item.

The Committee received a PowerPoint presentation and considered a report from Jan Stafford, the Council’s Interim Head of Customer and Transformation and Sara Skirton, Head of Corporate Services, Mendip District Council, on the proposed governance arrangements for the Local Community Networks (LCNs) and included the following – the LCN Full Terms of Reference (set out at Appendix 1), and the LCN simplified Terms of Reference (ToR) for the LCNs to use (set out at Appendix 2) and a map and details of the proposed LCN areas.

They explained that the draft Terms of Reference were presented to and supported by the Executive on 18 January 2023, recognising that they represented a starting point for LCN governance arrangements, that would be tested, reviewed and revised as appropriate over time. The pilot areas also reviewed the draft Terms of Reference.

The establishment of Local Community Networks (LCNs) was a commitment in the ‘One Somerset: Business case for a new single unitary council for Somerset’ and LCNs would both influence and work within the corporate priorities and policy framework for the New Council. 

During the debate the following points were highlighted: -

·         LCN boundary query and whether there was any flexibility in the boundaries – Cllr Keitch said that the anomaly with Ilminster area had been picked up and may well be moved and asked that any other concerns be sent through for consideration

·         The terms of reference and many questions about (core) membership, appointments, representation and voting (paragraphs 5.1 and 5.2) – each LCN would comprise of the elected unitary councillor(s) for the local division(s), as well as city, town or parish councillors, representatives from the NHS, Police and Fire Services, and members of local churches, businesses or trade groups and voluntary organisations. It was recognised there was work to do around core membership for each LCN. The first quarter would be a ‘convening’ period / development period and the LCNs would go live around July.

LCNs would meet at least six times a year and would be able to share ideas on how to deliver services, collaborate to agree local priorities for funding, draw up plans for how services may be delivered in the future, and escalate requests to the Council's Executive.

·         Queried the budget for LCNs – explained that £300,000 had been budgeted to cover the administrative costs of running the 18 LCNs in the first year – less than originally envisaged. This covered 9 LCN officers, 2 managers, technical / administrative support, democratic support and there would be a director level champion for each LCN. There was no other funding at this stage for LCNs and there would be future LCN development.  The Exmoor pilot did have ringfenced funding.

·         Huge piece of work and good foundation – supported structure very important and needed dedicated officer support to work.

LCNs would need a pool of money for grants etc; to be successful it required a culture change by officers as well; membership to be more flexible – there was a lot of community activity happening and had re-purposed / redesigned that funding to plug the gap.

·         Some LCNs would have a significant number of ‘core’ members and an issue around venue sizes possibly; for the smaller LCN’s outside people would possibly have a greater level of influence – were exploring hybrid meeting options.

·         Suggestion that the Monitoring Officer could set the date of the first meetings and thereafter LCN’s would set them.

·         Welcomed that there were 18 LCN’s rather than 10 as it would give a stronger identification and a good framework to start with.

·         Clarity on membership would be needed at earliest opportunity; queried about where LCNs sat in the decision-making of the Council – clarified that LCN reported to the Executive and there was accountability ‘both ways’.

·         Referred to section 5.1 and queried about parish councillor core membership and parish councillors and whether co-opted members would be eligible -agreed that this wording would be revisited.

·         amended along the following lines, as follows:

"……Each Local Community Network should comprise the following core membership:"

2) be changed as follows "….is a member representative from each City, Town or Parish Council within the area covered by the LCN…."

3) be changed as follows "In addition, representatives from other groups or organisations should be considered for local determination as core members……."

Add new (g) – "(g) others as may be considered locally important…."

·         How LCNs would work; helpful to have flow charts to show how they would work and how their influence was ‘fed up’ (paragraph 3.1) – each LCN would have an annual general meeting and could also re-articulate that

·         Process for electing Chair and what ‘suitably qualified’ meant (paragraph 10.10) – this was around training and support provided and would be discussed further with the Monitoring Officer

In summary the Chair read out a number of suggested wording to give effect to the following changes and to cover the constitutional issues raised by the Committee at the meeting:-

-      to provide a system of clearly defining who was a member – to be signed off by the lead member in consultation

-       with regard to 5.1. 3 (a) –(f), these could be altered on a LCN to LCN basis, to be signed off by the lead member in consultation

-      alternative wording for the ‘city, town, parish issue to be clear that meant a member of that Council not an officer of that Council

-      to put in place an acknowledgment that it was for the Monitoring Officer to set the date of the first meeting

The Committee AGREED:

(1) Recommended to Full Council that the proposed LCN governance arrangements and Terms of Reference as amended be included in the Constitution of the new Somerset Council.

(2) That the Monitoring Officer scheduled the dates for the initial meetings for the LCN’s

(3) To note that:-

(a) The terms of reference had been developed to reflect the proposed roles and responsibilities of LCNs in their initial stages, appropriate and proportionate to their function.

(b) Each LCN would adopt the model terms of reference to enable a level of consistency, noting that there would be scope to consider local flexibility where appropriate.

(c) The terms of reference would be reviewed during year one of the LCNs.