New Chairs and Vice Chairs for 2011/12

I have just come hot foot from the Council’s Annual General Meeting where the new overview and scrutiny chairs have been elected for the next 12 months.   

The chairs and vice chairs for 2011/12 are:

Overview & Scrutiny Boards 

Child & Family Services – Chair: Cllr Paxton Hood-Williams Vice Chair:  Cllr Christine Richards   

Children, Young People & Learning – Chair:  Cllr Will Evans Vice Chair: Cllr Viv Abbott

 Environment & Communities – Chair: Cllr June Evans   Vice Chair: Cllr Rob Stewart

Health, Social Care & Wellbeing – Chair:  Cllr Alan Lloyd  Vice Chair: Cllr Jeff Jones

Performance & Finance – Chair: Cllr Darren Price  Vice Chair: Cllr June Burtonshaw

Overview & Scrutiny Committees

Partnership – Chair:  Cllr John Newbury  Vice Chair: Cllr Keith Marsh

Business – Chair:  Cllr Rob Speht   Vice Chair:  Cllr John Newbury

When I blogged the new chairs and vice chairs at this time last year I said a little bit about what their roles were.  Here is what I said:

…. both the chairs and vice chairs have role descriptions which are part of the council’s rule book (a.k.a. the constitution). Here is the short version:

Chairs

• Provide leadership and direction – They promote a team approach, promote O&S more generally, develop the work programme and ensure that their board / committee base their conclusions and recommendations on sound evidence
• Manage the work programme – They ensure that the work programme is delivered and report to Council and other meetings as required
• Effectively manage meetings– Set agendas, prepare for meetings and manage business during meetings
• Provide community leadership – Liaise with community groups and other agencies, identify community based issues and involve as wide a range of people as possible in the overview and scrutiny process
• Involve and develop board / committee members – To encourage high performance and lead training and development where needed

Vice Chairs

• Support the leadership role of the chair – They work in partnership with the chair and provide ongoing support and advice on all aspects of the work of the board / committee
• Cover the role of the chair in the chair’s absence – If the chair is away or unavailable the vice chair has to be able to do all of the things that the chair does
• Lead specific activities – This can include leading a specific review or chairing task and finish groups and reporting back to the board

If you have anything you want to feed into the work of a particular board / committee or if you have any ideas about issues they should be looking at, you can contact the chairs and let them know.

If you want to contact a chair or vice chair we will be updating thedetails on our web pages shortly.  In the meantime you can email scrutiny@swansea.gov.uk.