Lowestoft Rising’s Governance Framework

Lowestoft Rising formed in 2013 following the agreement of the Chief Executives of each partner organisation to form a Strategic Alliance to address some of the issues facing Lowestoft in a more holistic and partnership focused way. The Sponsor Group commissioned a review of partnership working arrangements in Lowestoft by an independent Local Government Associate review team; this helped to inform the way Lowestoft Rising would operate.

Lowestoft Rising is a Strategic Partnership formed between existing Public Sector and Voluntary Sector bodies. The partnership is made up of Suffolk County Council, Waveney District Council, Suffolk Constabulary, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, Health East CCG and Community Action Suffolk to represent the voluntary sector organisations.

The agreed partnership model is shown at the end of this framework document and consists of a Sponsoring Group made up of the Chief Executives of the partner organisations, a Support Group made up of senior operational members of each partner organisation together with additional representatives from Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) for mental health and Access Community Trust (ACT) to represent local voluntary sector organisations. A dedicated Changer manger post has been created and funded by the Partnership to co-ordinate the Lowestoft Rising Support Team function and deliver on the Sponsor Group’s ambitions and vision for Lowestoft Rising. WDC Communications lead will provide the communications and media support to the Partnership and sit on the Support Group.

The delivery pool of staff and resources for Lowestoft Rising is drawn from existing front line staff in the Partnership. This negates the need for a dedicated team seconded to the partnership and creates ownership by those involved in the day to day service delivery in Lowestoft.

Stakeholders’ engagement and external peer support provide guidance to the partnership on a needs basis. This included external reviews and takes account of the elected members input to the partnership. Indeed an elected member for Waveney District Council with cabinet responsibility for Lowestoft sits on the Support Group to provide this connection with elected members.

Vision and Principles.

In terms of our vision – this is about whole system approach and it is a long term commitment. It is about the public and voluntary sector in Lowestoft speaking with one voice.

The following outlines the ambitions partners have for the town and what they want to achieve through Lowestoft Rising:

  • A significantly improved quality of life for everybody growing up, living in, working in, investing in and visiting Lowestoft
  • A town where everyone fulfils their true potential
  • A public sector culture and environment for conversations, co-productions and capacity for innovation in services that will deliver real, long term and sustainable change for Lowestoft.
  • A new integrated and sustainable approach to service delivery, which:
  • ensures that services are delivered in the interests of place and local people first and foremost;
  • makes more effective use of existing capacity , projects and initiatives
  • works towards changing the demand for services, investing in services which ensure local people are less dependent on costly interventions and remain independent.
  • make more sense and cuts out duplication

Through this approach, we expect to see funding used in a different way – trade-offs and ‘deals’ between public sector agencies to achieve a shared objective, and, over time, more joint financial planning at a locality level under the leadership of a lead public service partner.

Principles of the Partnership: Partners will:-

  • Collectively make decisions about how services are delivered in Lowestoft which are in the best interests of Lowestoft and the local people;
  • Ensure at every level officers will be challenged to consider themselves as part of a whole system approach rather than operating within the confines of their individual organisations;
  • Be respectful of the constraints and responsibilities of their partners but will work together to establish better ways of delivering services which improve outcomes for the people of Lowestoft;
  • In considering how to work together in Lowestoft, be mindful of the implications on service delivery in other parts of Waveney, Waveney and Gt. Yarmouth or Suffolk and take a pragmatic approach;
  • Take every opportunity to reduce duplication and make best use of collective resources;
  • Accept that the financial benefit of working together will vary and that it is about collectively making best use of resources for Lowestoft.
  • Allow what makes sense to the ‘frontline’ to inform the evolution of a new delivery model for Lowestoft and be comfortable with the ambiguity of this at the outset.

Prioritiesfor the Partnership.

There is much to be done, but the Sponsoring Group has decided, based on the feedback from the Peer Review team and also local stakeholders, to focus on the following areas:

  • Re-design of drug and alcohol and mental health services in Lowestoft to ensure better outcomes for those requiring help
  • Building a collective energy around the challenge of raising educational attainment in Lowestoft as part of ‘Raising the Bar’ through raising aspirations in young people.
  • Ensuring that we get maximum benefit presented by the co-location opportunities in Lowestoft around Riverside, Marina Centre and Kirkley Mill. Building on the Health and Social Care Integration and Suffolk Family Focus projects already started in Lowestoft to explore greater opportunities for integration between services
  • Organisational Development – bringing together frontline officers and managers from across the Public sector and Voluntary Sector in Lowestoft to engage them in delivering the ambitions of Lowestoft Rising in a joined up way to create a whole system approach to service delivery.
  • Building on what makes Lowestoft great – working with local communities, business and media to promote and celebrate the positives of Lowestoft under the banner of “Pride in Lowestoft”.

Meeting Structure and Decision Making Process.

The Sponsor Group consists of the Chief Executive or Senior equivalent Officer of each of the six partner organisations sitting as a board to make decisions and steer the work of Lowestoft Rising. The Sponsor Group will elect a Chair and Deputy Chair (Currently Stephen Baker Chief Executive of WDC as Chair and Deborah Cadman Chief Executive of SCC as deputy). The Sponsor Group will meet every six to eight weeks as a full board using existing partnership buildings with in Lowestoft. Agenda, minutes and decisions will be prepared by the Change Manager and circulated to all members of the Sponsor Group and Support Group. Members of the Support Group will attend the Sponsor Group to update on their work- stream activity.

The Support Group is made up of members of each partner organisation at a senior operational level and includes additional mental health and voluntary sector officers. The Support Group oversee the implementation of the work strands agreed and allocated by the Sponsor Group. Support Group members attend the Sponsor Group but do not holding voting rights unless deputising for their Chief Executive Officer or equivalent.

Financial Decisions of the Sponsor Group will be made on a unanimous basis of all the 6 voting members present at the meeting and all other decisions made on a majority basis with the Chair holding the casting vote.In the event a Sponsor cannot attend a meeting they will ensure a deputy attends on their behalf and holds their voting rights for any financial decisions.

In respect of urgent non-financial decisions being needed outside the meeting process the Chair of the group will have delegated powers to make those decisions and will bring those decisions, for ratification, at the next Sponsor Group meeting. These include decisions around such things as meeting cancellation, bids, letters of support, and other decisions where a quick response is required to allow the effective functioning of Lowestoft Rising.

In respect of urgent financial decisions being needed outside the meeting process the Chair of the Sponsor group will have delegated powers to make those decisions up to a maximum commitment of £2,000.00 and above that threshold all decisions will be made through the full meeting process or by circulation of an email to each Sponsor Board member seeking agreement of all 6 voting members to sign off on the proposed spend.

The Support group will meet 2 weeks before each Sponsor Group to plan agenda and prepare reports and updates as required. The Support Group meeting will be chaired by the Change Manager.

The Change manager will hold a master Action Plan set against the agreed work streams and produce regular update reports that will be shared both with the Sponsor and Support Groups but also shared more widely across the partner organisations to keep everyone up to date on activity. In addition the Update Reports will be available on the Lowestoft Rising website for wider audience information.

Financial Governance.

The Sponsor Group have agreed that all financial transactions and management conducted under Lowestoft Rising will be managed through Waveney District Council(WDC) Finance team and a dedicated finance lead will be appointed by WDC.

All finances will be held by Waveney District Council in a separate Lowestoft Rising account. Lowestoft Rising will, for this reason, adopt the Financial Constitution of Waveney District Council as laid out in its main Council Constitution.

The funds that will come into the Lowestoft Rising accounts will come from a variety of sources including grant allocations e.g. DCLG and Cabinet Office, from Partner organisations to create a Pooled Budget and from other organisations and departments for specific projects e.g. ESP and Public Health (Education and Golden Mile).

The Change Manager will work with the finance lead to ensure compliance with the Constitution and will provide reports to each Sponsor Board meetings of the financial position of the partnership.

All Lowestoft Risings funding will be held under a Lowestoft Rising account within Waveney District council and sub accounts created for the various funded work streams e.g. Commissioning Academy, Pooled Budget and Education Budget.

Decisions on spending money held under Lowestoft Rising will be made through the Sponsor Group Decision making process as outlined above in Decision Making Process section

The Change Manager will be responsible for ensuring the spend decisions made by the Sponsor Group are communicated to the finance lead and managed in accordance with those instructions. The Change Manager will also be responsible for ensuring the Sponsor Group is sighted on any limitations on spending from Grants from outside bodies.

Equality and Inclusion

Whilst each partner organisation will have its own diversity and equality policy to work to, the partnership recognised the need to operate and actively value the benefits of diversity and ensure fair treatment and equality of opportunity. The Partnership will ensure that staff operates within their own organisations diversity and equality policy and that any new joint working arrangements are assessed under the existing Diversity Impact Assessments for the lead organisation. The Partnership fully supports Equality and Inclusion in all its work.

Review of Governance arrangements

The governance arrangements detailed in this framework will be reviewed at least annually by the Sponsor Group to take account of changing partnership arrangements and other external factors that may affect the governance of the partnership e.g. Devolution discussions are moving at a pace and may necessitate a change in governance arrangements before a 12 month review date. Any partner seeking to leave the partnership will be required to give notice in writing to the partnership Sponsor Board with 3 months’ notice to allow financial and organisational planning to be considered.