Terms of Reference
Homelessness in Warrington – strategic steering group

(Warrington Partnership Board – Priority Action Group)

Key responsibilities

To govern and lead the delivery of the following vision and all future homelessness work in Warrington:
“There is no room for homelessness in Warrington. This vision will be a reality by 2018, through a focus on prevention and strong integrated working”.

  • Produce a partnership borough wide strategy to prevent homelessness in Warrington based upon the recommendations of the Warrington Homelessness Commission.
  • Undertake strategic responsibility for sections 1-3 of the Homelessness Strategy
  • Provide oversight of the delivery of the Homelessness Strategy through a medium term (3-5 years) delivery plan.
  • Provide strategic direction and oversight to the Operational Delivery Group, taking overall responsibility for the ongoing delivery of the Homelessness Commission recommendations and associated actions.
  • Provide strategic direction and oversight to the Warrington Homelessness Forum
  • Determine membership of Operational Delivery Group and Homelessness Forum
  • Work in partnership to address any identified barriers to delivery at strategic level
  • Consider and make decisions on the resourcing of the delivery of Homelessness Commission recommendations and related actions

Governance/Accountability

  • Accountable to the Warrington Partnership Board.
  • The Chair of the steering group will submit bi-annual progress updates to the Partnership Board.
  • Both the operational delivery group and the homelessness forum will be accountable to the steering group for implementation and delivery of their respective actions.

Governance Structure

Membership

The Warrington Partnership Board agreed the Homelessness Steering Group would include senior representatives from;

  • Children & Young People Services *
  • Adult Social Care Services *
  • Housing Association *
  • Local Authority Housing Services
  • Health
  • Public Health
  • Voluntary/ Faith Sector
  • Elected member(s)

* note that reps of these sectors are statutory requirements in development of the

homelessness strategy

The Partnership Board agreed that Nick Atkin (Chair of the Warrington Homelessness Commission, Chief Executive of Halton Housing Trust) be Chair of the steering group and seek membership based on the above composition.

  • Chair
/ Nick Atkin , Chief Executive, Halton Housing Trust
  • Children & Young People Services *
/ Fiona Waddington, Assistant Director, Families and Wellbeing Directorate
  • Adult Social Care Services *
/ Steve Reddy, Executive Director, Families and Wellbeing Directorate
  • Housing Association *
/ Peter Fitzhenry, Director of Housing Management
  • Local Authority Housing Services
/ Dave Cowley, Service Manager
  • Health
/ Warrington CCG representative – Simon Kenton, Assistant Director, Warrington CCG/Warrington Borough Council
  • Public Health
/ Dr Rita Robertson, Director of Public Health, Warrington Borough Council
  • Voluntary/ Faith Sector
/ Steve Cullen, Chief Executive, Warrington CAB
Stephen Kingsnorth, faith advisor to Warrington Borough Council
  • Elected member(s)
/ Exec Member – Environment & Public Protection
Exec member – Health & Wellbeing & Adult Services
  • Other
/ Police/ Community Safety rep – Sarah Boycott, Chief Superintendent, Cheshire Police
Strategic Commissioning rep - Simon Kenton, Assistant Director, Warrington CCG/Warrington Borough Council
Business sector rep – Jan Souness, Managing Director, LiveWire and Culture Warrington
Neil Morland, specialist advisor
  • Membership will be reviewed on an annual basis
  • Attendees at steering group meetings will normally be the above named group members
  • Guests with specialist knowledge of a specific area may be invited to attend on an ad-hoc basis, or even to become temporary members of the steering group, depending on emerging priorities

Meetings

  • The steering group will meet in May, September, December 2014, and thereafter on a quarterly basis
  • Secretariat support for steering group meetings will be provided by Partnerships and Performance
  • Meeting papers will be circulated not less than 5 days prior to the date of the meeting
  • Steering group members should alert both the chair of the group and the secretariat if there are any items they wish to include on the following meeting’s agenda. A work plan will be developed which will be reviewed as a standing item at each meeting in order to facilitate this

Ways of working

  • Meeting format will be flexible, depending on the issues to be discussed
  • Reports are limited to no longer that two pages in length
  • Action notes will be produced in the place of full meeting minutes
  • There will be a formal business element to each meeting where core business items are considered such as; progress updates from the operational group and homelessness forum, the review of overall progress against the Homelessness Commission recommendations ,or any additional recommendations that develop as part of the implementation of these

Review

  • Terms of reference and the role of the group will be reviewed on an annual basis