Leader's Announcements
To receive such announcements as may be made by the Leader.
Minutes:
The Leader of the Council congratulated the Mayor upon her election to the Mayoralty and Councillor Arthur Moran upon his appointment to the Deputy Mayoralty.
She then addressed Council and made a number of key points:-
1. She believed that the year would herald continued innovation and a focus on CE’s Residents First principles.
2. The commitment she had made just two months ago was undiminished, to serve the Council and to deliver transparency and fairness to its staff and residents and to work with business and deliver that vital partnership working across all areas of service be it Police, Health, Fire or the invaluable voluntary sector.
3. Seven years on the Council had revisited its Corporate Strategy and “Ambition for All” was the renewed concept of the Local Strategic Partnership. Partner Forums underpinned the key arenas of the Safer Cheshire East Partnership and the Health and Wellbeing Board. As the recently elected Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board, she particularly referenced its work in relation to the Better Care Fund, the responsible approach to joined up working and the patience and attention to detail of the lead officer, Caroline Baines. She was equally heartened by the manner in which it had embraced responsibility for the continuing improvement journey for the Children and Families Safeguarding Service. She referred to the positive Ofsted judgement of “requires improvement to be good” and the adoption service, which had been rightly recognised as good.
4. She referred to the number of Councillors who sat on Scrutiny Committees. Of the 82 Councillors, around 40 committed to this vital area of governance; a telling measure of the commitment made by Cheshire East Councillors, which she considered was reinforced by the recent Task and Finish reports received by Cabinet, in respect of, for example, section 106 agreements, apprentices or the rightful focus on appropriate funding of the award winning team who provided vital support to families who found themselves in a violent relationship. Under the leadership of Cllr Jos Saunders, Health Scrutiny had worked with the North West Ambulance Service, not least on the issue of response times in the rural borough. Recommendations had now been agreed and she hoped that a report in respect of this would be received by Cabinet in the fullness of time.
5. As she had announced in February, she believed that it was now the time to review the Council’s Scrutiny function, in order to free it up to deliver even more focussed Task and Finish forums. A group of Conservative members had shaped a potential model to come forward through the Council processes and ultimately for consideration by the Constitution Committee. She thanked Cllr Margaret Simon for her leadership and Cllr Gail Wait for her organisation in this matter.
6. With regard to the Cabinet membership, she asked officers to circulate the list of Portfolio Holder names and responsibilities. She had opted for a Cabinet of nine Members. She had, however, appointed an additional Deputy Cabinet Member. At this ... view the full minutes text for item 14