To receive questions from members of the public who may wish to ask a general question of the Mayor, Cabinet Member or the Chairman of a Committee in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 12.
Minutes:
Mr. D. Smith stated that he understood that the portfolio for Neighbourhoods had been given to the Deputy Leader and asked could he be told what his remit was and what did the Deputy Leader hope to achieve?
The Leader confirmed the Deputy Leader had taken responsibility for neighbourhood working and would be responsible for the new Neighbourhood Working Model about how Councillors engaged in their local communities taking over the good work that had commenced by Councillor Yasseen.
This work would focus on enabling Councillors to be effective champions in their communities and Wards and deliver and release benefits to facilitate community activity.
In a supplementary question Mr. Smith asked when Councillor Yasseen had neighbourhood working in her portfolio she chaired the Town and Parish Council Liaison Committee. Councillor Watson had delegated this to someone else. Councillor Yasseen also set out to meet the Town and Parish Councils in the Rotherham area by attending their council meetings. Would Councillor Watson carry this on or had this been delegated too.
The Leader confirmed he himself determined the Cabinet Member portfolios so Councillor Watson had not delegated responsibility to anyone else. The responsibility for Town and Parish Councils liaisons would sit in the new portfolio taken on by Councillor Allen. The Leader had discussed with her about engagement and Councillor Allen would chair the Town and Parish Council Liaison Committee. The Leader was sure that if Parish Councillors had any specific requests in her capacity Councillor Allen would be more than happy to consider those in the course of her work.
(2) Mr. Harron referred to a previous question he had submitted to Council on the 26th January, 2018 and the correspondence by email he had had with the Leader which had still not resolved the matter. He referred back to what he had previously said about Ian Thomas’ Deputy, Jean Imray, who had sat in this Chamber in September and presented a report. Councillors were aware that Jean Imray claimed that a so called independent expert gave her reasons for Rotherham returning 1,400 copies of the publication “Voices of Despair, Voices of Hope” 3 years ago and he asked again would the Leader please provide all Councillors and himself with the name and position of the so called independent expert who allegedly gave the reasons to Jean Imray and Ian Thomas.
The Leader confirmed again, as he had in the email reply, that he did not know the identity of that person so was unable to share this information with Councillors or Mr. Harron.
In a supplementary question Mr. Harron referred back to the response on the 26th January, 2018 where the Leader had indicated the information did not exist. Mr. Harron had sent the Leader an email with the name redacted and he believed the Chief Executive knew the name of the person as he had tried to write to them. He, therefore, asked now Ian Thomas had left, this provided an important opportunity for Rotherham to change direction because the direction taken in September, 2015 was futile and had any thought been given to a restructure given that there was a vacancy to separate out the care with dedicated officers of adult survivors of CSE in Rotherham given their mental health and counselling from Children’s Services and Adult Services.
The Leader confirmed it had not. He did not fully understand the premise of Mr. Harron’s question; the Council did commission long term support survivors of child sexual exploitation in the usual way in consultation with officers in both adult and children’s services.
The Council would be looking at the contract as to whether the right services were commissioned over the coming year. The Leader did not accept the premise that by creating another internal highly paid role a better service would be offered to those people that needed it. As part of the contract review process it was important that survivors would wish to have their views, comments and experiences heard and this would be taken on board and considered.