Care, Health and Independence Terms of Reference
The Care, Health and Independence Delivery Partnership (CHI DP) provides a forum for partners to discuss and take action on issues related to care, health, and independent living across Suffolk. CHI DP has responsibility for overseeing the delivery of relevant Local Area Agreement Targets, and working towards the wider outcomes in Transforming Suffolk, and the 2008/11 Adults Plan. CHI DP also has responsibility for making links with other delivery partnerships in order to achieve targets that cut across themes.
Specific Functions
Members of the CHI DP board will have the following responsibilities:
1. Monitoring progress towards the Local Area Agreement Targets
2. Monitoring progress in meeting the objectives in the Adults Plan 2008-2011
3. Monitoring progress towards National Indicators that link to care, health and independent living issues
4. Working towards a ‘shared agenda’ for care, health and independence across Suffolk – ensuring that priorities and cross cutting areas of work are discussed, and can be related back to the work of individual organisations.
5. Coming away from the meetings with clear actions to be put into place within their respective organisations.
6. Coming to the meetings to share new and emerging areas of work that other partners should know about/could help contribute to, and discussing how they could be added to outcomes to be monitored.
7. Continuing to share information and forge networks.
8. To ensure that the views of service users and family carers and the wider community are taken into account in the work of the partnership.
Membership and Chairman
CHI DP consists of two elements - a board and an executive group.
The Board is made up of representatives from local government, the health system, the voluntary and community sector and chairs of six service user and family carer partnership boards.
Board members work alongside the Executive Group with a focus on the delivery of agreed actions in order to promote change and improved outcomes for adults. Board members should be those within their organisation, partnership or interest group who can make work together to act as a think tank for creativity around the adults independence, care and health agenda.
Individuals should be nominated to the CHI DP board by the organisations listed in the table at appendix 1.
If a DP member cannot attend then they must nominate a sufficiently senior person to take their place. This is to be agreed with the Nominated Chairman. If members miss four consecutive meetings then the Delivery Partnership may consider requesting that the organisation or partnership provide another representative.
An individual may stand down from the DP at any time but their respective organisation must nominate a replacement with the agreement of the DP.
For consistency, members are asked to nominate a substitute to attend meetings when they are unable to attend themselves. Substitutes take on the voting rights of the members they are sent to represent.
Supporting officers are also welcome to attend meetings with members, but do not have voting rights.
The Chairman and Vice-Chairman are nominated and elected by the Board members.
The Chairman should be Chairman for a period of three years.
The Executive Group works with the Board to deliver the priorities in Transforming Suffolk, the Adults Plan including the LAA. In particular they have a particular focus on achieving joint commissioning and joint working across the health and care systems.
The Executive Group works with the Partnership Board to set strategic direction, and identify areas of priority. Members of the Executive Group should be senior officers from the organisations listed at appendix 2
Governance Arrangements
The DP meetings will be quorate when 50% of the membership is in attendance. Decisions of the DP when quorate will be binding. Should decisions be made when the DP is not quorate then the decisions will be agreed in principle only.
The Chairman reserves the right to call exceptional meetings should the circumstances arise.
The Chairman shall be responsible for the operation of the meetings and in conducting any voting. Decisions will generally be taken on the basis of consensus and agreement, however failing that a simple majority vote will be used should issues require it.
Ordinarily the Chairman will not have a vote unless a casting vote is required.
Minutes and papers from all DP meetings will be made available to the public. However in exceptional circumstances some elements of the papers may be withheld and would be decided by the Board members.
Pre-meetings will be held at the request of members to discuss the agenda and papers prior to the meeting.
Organisation of Meetings
The Delivery Partnership Board will meet four times per year.
There will be a forward work programme agreed by the Delivery Partnership. The agenda will be prepared by the Chairman of the DP in conjunction with the Chairman of the Executive Group.
Tabling of items will be limited and agreed by the Chairman or Vice Chairman in advance of the meeting.
Service User and Family Carer Partnership Boards will be invited to submit information prior to Board meetings to alert the Board to issues of concern or interest to their customer group.
The Executive Group will meet regularly 8 times per year.
Dispute Resolution
Conflict is a natural and healthy consequence of partnership working, which can lead to more creative thinking. However, partnership members should avoid allowing differences to escalate into a confrontation or breakdown of trust, as this will ultimately discredit the partnership as a whole.
Where harmful conflict is unavoidable, Delivery Partnership members are expected to respect each others' views and seek to identify and deal with the issues of concern.
The Delivery Partnership Chair should be informed on any disputes and, if possible, will identify a mutually acceptable person/small group, or process, to guide the relevant partners to consensus.
Disputes between individual board members/organisations should only be brought before the Delivery Partnership Board for consideration if it concerns a fundamental partnership issue, and/or every effort has been exhausted.
In extreme cases the Suffolk Strategic Partnership Board and/or the Government Office may become involved, if such disputes may affect the delivery of action plans/targets or the reputation of the partnership.
Complaints Resolution
The Delivery Partnership Co-ordinator should be made aware of any complaints from the public. In the first instance the co-ordinator will seek to identify an appropriate member of the Delivery Partnership to respond to the complainant (i.e. if the compliant is in relation to a specific partner/action delivered by a partner/is the remit of one partner).
If the complainant is not satisfied with the response provided the compliant should be escalated through relevant organisation.
If the complaint is about the Delivery Partnership in general the Chair will be asked to respond on behalf of the partnership. If the complainant is not satisfied with the response provided, their complaint will be referred to Suffolk County Council, as the accountable body, and the county council’s complaints procedure will be followed.
Receipt of the complaint should be acknowledged with the complainant within 5 working days and a response should be provided in 20 working days. The Partnerships Administrator should also be made aware of the compliant as soon as it arises and should be kept informed of progress.
Equality and Diversity
The Care, Health and Independence Delivery Partnership and any group established under its auspices will strive to deliver all of its strategic aims and objectives with equality and without discrimination, recognising the diversity of the county and within national legislation. This will include following the legal duties as set out in the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, the Equality Act 2006, the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 and any other relevant emerging legislation.
We value all of the different people within Suffolk and we are committed to tackling inequality and exclusion. We recognise that some people can be disadvantaged and discriminated against and we will promote action to eliminate inequalities. The partnership will promote fair and equitable services and opportunities for the people of Suffolk irrespective of their age, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion or disability.
The Partnership supports the following definition from the national Equalities Review in 2007: “An equal society protects and promotes equal, real freedom and substantive opportunity to live in the ways people value and would choose, so that everyone can flourish. An equal society recognises people’s different needs, situations and goals, and removes the barriers that limit what people can do and can be”.
Amendments to the Terms of Reference
These terms of reference may be amended by the members by consensus or by simple majority. These terms of reference will remain in effect until March 2011 when they will be replaced by new terms of reference to take into account any necessary changes.
Terms of Reference last amended 22nd May 2009
Appendix 1 Membership of CHI DP Board
Suffolk County Council
Babergh District Council
Forest Heath District Council
Ipswich Borough Council
Mid Suffolk District Council
St Edmundsbury District Council
Suffolk Coastal District Council
Waveney District Council
Family Carers Partnership Board
Learning Disabilities Partnership Board
Marginalised Adults Partnership Board
Mental Health Partnership Board
Older Persons Partnership Board
Physical and Sensory Disabilities Partnership Board
Supporting People Commissioning Body
Suffolk Constabulary
Suffolk Mental Health Partnership Board
Norfolk Mental Health Partnership Board
Ipswich Hospital Trust
West Suffolk Hospital Trust Board
James Paget Hospital Trust Board
NHS Suffolk
NHS Gt Yarmouth and Waveney
Association of Independent Care Providers
Suffolk Community Health Care
Healthy Ambitions Suffolk
Suffolk Housing Officers Group
Voluntary and Community Sector
Appendix 2 Membership of CHI DP Executive
NHS Suffolk
NHS Gt Yarmouth and Waveney
Suffolk County Council
District Council
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