The council first elected Councillor Alan Jarrett as Leader of the Council for a 4-year term at the Annual Council meeting on 27 May 2015.
Councillor Jarrett was re-elected as Leader of the Council for a further 4-year term at the Annual Council meeting on 22 May 2019.
At this meeting, the Leader appointed Councillor Howard Doe as Deputy Leader and 8 Cabinet Members, details of which are set out below.
Service area: Leader
Portfolio Holder: Alan Jarrett
Areas of responsibility:
- Strategic leadership of the Council
- Communications and marketing
- Finance.
Service area: Deputy Leader and Housing and Community Services
Portfolio Holder: Howard Doe
Areas of responsibility:
- Adult Learning
- All Housing Services (including HRA)
- Archives
- Armed Forces Covenant
- Climate Change
- Events and Festivals
- Greenspaces
- Heritage
- Homelessness and Housing Options
- Leisure Services
- Libraries and Community Hub
- Medway Development Company
- Sporting Legacy
- Theatres and Arts
- Tourism
- Voluntary Sector.
Service area: Adults' Services
Portfolio Holder: David Brake
Areas of responsibility:
- Adults' Mental Health and Disability Services (including Learning and Physical Disabilities)
- Adults' Partnership Commissioning (25+) and Better Care Fund
- Community Care
- Health and Health Partnerships
- Independent Safeguarding and Review Service
- Older people
- Public Health - Lead Member, including Health and Wellbeing Boards.
Service area: Business Management
Portfolio Holder: Gary Hackwell
Areas of responsibility:
- All Wardens
- Audit and Counter Fraud
- Bereavement Services
- Commissioning
- Community Centre
- Customer Contact
- Democracy and Governance
- Emergency Planning
- Management of Business
- New Joint Ventures
- Registration
- Revenue and Benefits
- Risk Management and Performance Monitoring.
Service area: Children's Services - Lead Member (statutory responsibility - see Note 1 below)
Portfolio Holder: Josie Iles
Areas of responsibility:
- Children's Partnership Commissioning (0-25)
- Children's Provider Services (including Adoption, Fostering, Supported Accommodation and Residential Care)
- Children's Social Care and Safeguarding Services including Safeguarding Board
- Early Help (including Medway Action for Families, Youth Offending Team (YOT) and Youth Services)
- External Inspections
- Inclusion
- SEND including mental health
- SEND transport.
Service area: Education and Schools
Portfolio Holder: Martin Potter
Areas of responsibility:
- Child Friendly Medway Champion (including Medway Youth Council)
- Early Years
- Education Safeguarding
- Further Education
- Liaison between Higher Education and Schools
- Mainstream Primary and Secondary Education
- Mainstream School Transport
- Newly Qualified Teachers
- School Organisation and Capital Projects
- School Services (including Admissions and Medway Test)
Service area: Front Line Services
Portfolio Holder: Phil Filmer
Areas of responsibility:
- Highways
- Medway Norse
- Parking
- Public Transport
- Street Cleaning and Waste Collection/Recycling/Waste Disposal
- Street Lighting
- Traffic Management
- Transport Strategy
- Travel Safety.
Service area: Inward Investment, Strategic Regeneration and Partnerships
Portfolio Holder: Rodney Chambers OBE
Areas of responsibility:
- External Funding/Income Generation
- Heritage Champion
- Inward Investment
- Medway the Place
- Strategic Partnerships
- Strategic Regeneration and Planning.
Service area: Planning, Economic Growth and Regulation (See Note 2 below)
Portfolio Holder: Jane Chitty
Areas of responsibility:
- Economic Development
- Employment
- High Streets
- Licensing (Executive Functions Only)
- Local Plan
- Markets
- Planning Policy
- Regulation – Environmental Health, Trading Standards and Enforcement (Executive Functions Only)
- Social Regeneration
- South Thames Gateway Building Control Partnership.
Service area: Resources (See Note 3 below)
Portfolio Holder: Adrian Gulvin
Areas of responsibility:
- Business and Administration Support Service
- Category Management / Procurement
- CCTV
- Community Safety Partnership
- Complaints Policy and Management
- Council Plan and Performance and Service Improvement
- HR
- ICT
- Legal
- Property
- Transformation and Digital services
- Travellers.
Note 1:
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
Note 2:
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. Cllr Chitty is appointed to sit on the South Thames Gateway Building Control Joint Committee.
Note 3:
The following services will fall within the remit of the Resources 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.