Councillor Vince Maple was elected as the new Leader of Medway Council at the Annual Council meeting on Wednesday 24 May 2023.
Service area: Leader
Portfolio Holder: Vince Maple
Areas of responsibility:
- Strategic overview of Medway including Council Plan, risk management and performance monitoring
- Armed Forces Covenant (in conjunction with Armed Forces Champion)
- Communications and marketing
- Democracy and Governance
- Finance.
Service area: Deputy Leader
Portfolio Holder: Teresa Murray
Areas of responsibility:
- Adults' Mental Health and Disability Services (including learning and physical disabilities)
- Adults' Partnership Commissioning (25+) and Better Care Fund
- Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP)
- Carers
- Community Care
- External inspections
- Financial assessments, adult social care income and debt
- Health and health partnerships
- Kyndi
- Older people
- Public Health - Lead Member, including Health and Wellbeing Board
- Residential care
- Shared Lives
- Voluntary Sector.
Service area: Business Management
Portfolio Holder: Zoe Van Dyke
Areas of responsibility:
- Benefits and Financial Welfare Services
- Bereavement and Registration Services
- Category Management and Procurement
- Complaints policy and management
- Council Tax and business rates administration and recovery
- Customer and Business Support (CABS)
- Human resources (HR)
- Internal Audit and Counter Fraud
- Legal.
Service area: Children's Services (including statutory responsibility - see Note 1)
Portfolio Holder: Adam Price
Areas of responsibility:
- Alternative Provision
- Care Leavers
- Child-friendly Medway Champion (including Medway Youth Council and Medway Youth Mayor)
- Children in care (including care arrangements)
- Children's Partnership Commissioning
- Children's Provider Services (including adoption and fostering)
- Children's Social Care (including children’s social work and 0-25)
- Corporate Parenting
- Early Help and Targeted Support
- External inspections
- Inclusion
- Medway Virtual School
- Quality assurance, including Independent Reviewing Officer Service
- Safeguarding including Children’s Safeguarding Partnership
- Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), including SEND transport
- Youth Offending Team (YOT)
- Youth Service.
Service area: Climate Change and Strategic Regeneration
Portfolio Holder: Simon Curry
Areas of responsibility:
- Climate Change
- Emergency Planning
- Flooding
- Greenspaces
- Highways
- Local Plan
- Medway Norse
- Parking Strategy
- Public Rights of Way
- Public transport
- River Strategy
- Road Safety
- Strategic Regeneration and Planning policy
- Street cleaning, recycling, waste collection, and waste disposal
- Traffic Management
- Transport Strategy.
Service area: Community Safety and Enforcement (See Note 2)
Portfolio Holder: Tristan Osborne
Areas of responsibility:
- All wardens
- CCTV
- Community Safety Partnership
- Digital Services (including Medway 2.0)
- Enforcement Hubs
- Licensing (executive functions only)
- Parking Enforcement
- Regulation – Environmental Health, Trading Standards and Enforcement (executive functions only)
- Street lighting.
Service area: Economic and Social Regeneration and Inward Investment
Portfolio Holder: Lauren Edwards
Areas of responsibility:
- Economic Regeneration
- Employment
- Inward investment
- Labour market planning and strategic skills development
- Markets
- Small Business
- Town centres.
Service area: Education
Portfolio Holder: Tracy Coombs
Areas of responsibility:
- Adult learning and skills
- Attendance
- Children missing education
- Early Careers Teachers
- Early Years
- Education Safeguarding
- Elective Home Education
- Further Education
- Liaison between higher education and schools
- Mainstream School Sufficiency
- Mainstream School Transport
- Post 16 participation (including children not in education, employment and training)
- Quality of Education: Mainstream primary and secondary education
- School Organisation and Capital Projects
- School Services (including admissions and Medway Test).
Service area: Heritage, Culture and Leisure
Portfolio Holder: Harinder Mahil
Areas of responsibility:
- Archives
- Community Centres
- Events and Festivals
- Heritage
- Leisure and Sport Services
- Libraries and Community Hubs
- Theatres and Arts
- Tourism.
Service area: Housing and Property (See Note 3)
Portfolio Holder: Naushabah Khan
Areas of responsibility:
- All Housing Services, including Housing Revenue Account (HRA)
- Homelessness and Housing Options
- Medway Development Company
- Private Sector Housing
- Property
- South Thames Gateway Building Control Partnership
- Travellers.
The roles and responsibilities of the Portfolio Holder for Children's Services are set out in statutory guidance. “The roles and responsibilities of the Lead Member for Children’s Services and the Director of Children’s Services, under sections 18(7) (Director of Children’s Services) and 19(2) (Lead Member for Children’s Services) of the Children Act 2004
The following services will fall within the remit of the Community Safety and Enforcement Portfolio, in relation to the Community Safety Partnership:
- Tobacco control, excluding smoking cessation services
- Community safety aspects of alcohol and drug misuse
- Public health aspects of promotion of community safety, violence prevention and response.
The Leader and Full Council have delegated the council's building control functions to the South Thames Gateway Building Control Joint Committee. The terms of reference of the committee are set out within the council's Constitution and include executive and non-executive functions. Councillor Khan is appointed to sit on the South Thames Gateway Building Control Joint Committee.