General responsibility
- Being politically accountable for ensuring the Local Authority fulfils its legal responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.
- Having a strategic political role as a member of the Council in respect of decisions on Local Authority Children’s Services.
Note:
Only one person can be the statutory Lead Member for Children and Families, but the role and responsibilities are broad. The Lead Member may therefore need to be supported by one or more other selected Members. The remit of the support roles can be as wide as the Local Authority wishes, as long as the Lead Member maintains an effective overview of all services for children and retains overall political accountability.
Children and Young People
To take the lead responsibility for the Council’s statutory responsibilities, functions and accountabilities in respect of children and young people, to include:
- Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people including the Local Children’s Safeguarding Board (participant observer).
- Promoting outcomes for Looked After Children (LA), protecting the interests of those children and young people and chairing the Corporate Parenting Board.
- Being the Lead Member for the Portsmouth Children’s Trust and the development and implementation of the Children’s Trust Plan.
- Ensuring that children and young people, parents and carers are able to make a contribution to the development of services.
- Ensuring effective governance and monitoring frameworks are in place within the Local Authority and key partnerships.
- Championing effective integration in Children’s Services, working in partnership with the Children’s Trust.
- Promoting better outcomes for children and young people via grants and loans to appropriate voluntary organisations.
- Responsibility for aligning with the Portfolio holders for Health and Social Care, Community Safety and Housing in respect of the delivery of those services and how children and young people are impacted upon by those services.
- Children’s Centres.
- Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC).
- Early Help
- Children’s Social Care services for children and families.
- Youth Services (in conjunction with Culture, Leisure & Economic Development portfolio).
To take lead responsibility for the Council’s corporate priority to achieve improved education standards and first class learning opportunities.
The Council’s functions in respect of education, includes (but is not limited to):
- Allocation of resources and commissioning of services
- Attendance on the Schools Forum
- School governance
- School improvement and intervention (chairing the Education Advisory Board)
- Admissions
- Pupil Place Planning
- School Attendance, Exclusions and Reintegration Education Welfare Service
- Special Education Needs and behavioural issues
- Education Psychology, Portage, Sensory Impairment and Specialist Teacher Advisor Services
- Music Service
- Early Years
- Early help
- Adult education and PCMI.
- Elected home education.
Overall:
- To be responsible for the overall performance of the Directorate for Children’s Services in respect of these functions.
- To be responsible for holding the Director of Children’s Services to account in respect of these functions.