Agenda item

Alwen Williams (Interim CJC Chief Executive) and Iwan Evans (Monitoring Officer) to present the report.

1.     To accept the update on the progress made to prepare for the proposed transfer of the Growth Deal, its funding and the PMO into the CJC. 

2.     To support the suggested governance structure as a basis for discussion with partners pending a further report subject to adapting the elected membership of the proposed Economic Well-being Sub-committee to Council Leaders representation.

The report was submitted by Alwen Williams, Interim CJC Chief Executive, and Iwan Evans, Monitoring Officer.

RESOLVED:

1.     To accept the update on the progress made to prepare for the proposed transfer of the Growth Deal, its funding and the PMO to the CJC. 

2.     To support the suggested governance structure as a basis for discussion with partners pending a further report subject to revising the elected membership of the proposed Economic Well-being Sub-committee to Council Leaders representation.

DISCUSSION

David Hole, new Implementation Programme Manager for the Corporate Joint Committee was welcomed to the meeting. It was noted that the Joint Committee had the power rather than a duty to promote economic well-being in the region. He highlighted that the original in-principle decision had predicted that an Economic Ambition Board Sub-committee would be established, but since then the Corporate Joint Committee had adopted the North Wales Ambition brand. In light of this it was proposed to establish an Economic Well-being Sub-committee to support the Joint Committee's work and to carry out the functions of the Ambition Board.

It was noted that the key supporting arguments for adopting the structure were contained within the report, but briefly, developing the structure based on the proposed version would facilitate the Joint Committee's strategic role and would create the capacity to give the deserved attention and leadership to wider issues and opportunities than the Growth Deal through the Economic Well-being Sub-committee.

The Joint Committee was asked to accept the update on the progress made to establish the CJC, noting that this work included the transfer of the Growth Deal, the funding and the Portfolio Management Office to the CJC as an independent entity and to introduce the draft principles underpinning the proposed governance model for the CJC.

It was highlighted that the target date for transferring the Growth Deal which was a specific priority within the remit of the work to establish the CJC was 1^⁠ November. He reported that to achieve this was dependent on securing approval by the partners of the Ambition Board and the two Governments, as well as having a large number of operational matters in place.

He explained that the report also asked the Joint Committee to support the development of a proposed governance model that offered a first glimpse of the governance arrangements in order to facilitate discussions with partners on the Growth Deal. A revised version of the structure was presented, highlighting the main changes which were:

·       The leaders of the six authorities to sit on the Economic Well-being Sub-committee

·       The responsibilities of Monitoring Performance, delivery and risks and Approving Growth Deal FBC projects referred because of unusual risks to be placed on the Economic Well-being Sub-committee rather than the CJC. It was noted that these were functions associated with the CJC but could be referred down to the Economic Well-being Sub-committee.

The Monitoring Officer added that the aim was to garner support to the proposed model which would give confidence to partners that the fundamental model of the Economic Ambition Board will be kept on in the transfer to the CJC.  He noted that there was no legal or constitutional reason not to have a Sub-committee with Leaders as members on it.

He expressed that the Leaders were keen to keep in touch with all the work of the Economic Ambition Board and were therefore happy to be members of the Economic Well-being Sub-committee as they were all familiar with the work. He believed that the report simplified the arrangements by providing better clarity of responsibilities. He noted that further discussions were due, and that a further report would be presented.

Members gave thanks for the work, acknowledging that the issue of transferring the responsibilities of the Economic Ambition Board and establishing the CJC had been a complex process.