Agenda item

(B) Management of the City Educational Trust Fund and the City of London Corporation Combined Education Charity – concerning the arrangements for oversight of the two charitable funds and proposing amendments to the Terms of Reference of the Community & Children’s Services Committee and the Education Board.

For Decision

19 May 2016

(B) Management of the City Educational Trust Fund and the City of London Corporation Combined Education Charity

The Court proceeded to consider a report of the Education Board proposing that the Education Board be appointed as the Grand Committee responsible for management of the City Educational Trust Fund and the City of London Corporation Combined Education Charity, and that it appoint an Education Charity Sub (Education Board) Committee to oversee the application of funds from those charities. The Community and Children’s Services Committee would then be responsible for making recommendations to the Education Board on any policy adopted for the application of those funds and for appointing some of its membership to serve on the Education Charity Sub (Education Board) Committee. The report also proposed some minor clarifications to the existing terms of reference to facilitate this.

Members were therefore recommended to approve the proposed amendments to the terms of reference of both the Education Board and Community and Children’s Services Committee, as set out in the report.

The Revd. Dr Martin Dudley expressed the view that management of the two charities might sit better with the Community & Children’s Services Committee, given that it was a Ward Committee with a broader membership; as a minimum, he suggested that it would be appropriate for the proposed terms of reference to be amended such that both Committees had to agree the policies adopted for the application of the funds.

The Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee observed that the proposed arrangements and terms of reference had already been approved by both of the affected Committees and he was therefore reticent to agree any further changes at this stage. In addition, he noted that the intention of the report was to ensure that management was delegated to one Committee; the proposed amendment would leave this problem unaddressed. He added that the two Committees would, in practice, collaborate in a collegiate manner to set policy and priorities. The Chairman of the Education Board echoed this comment, noting that the membership of the new Education Charity Sub-Committee had been designed to ensure joint working and input from both Grand Committees.

Amendment – That the word “consultation” be replaced with the word “agreeing” in paragraphs 4(d) and 4(e) of the proposed Education Board terms of reference, set out at Appendix 1 to the report.

Upon the Amendment being put, the Lord Mayor declared it not to be carried.

Resolved – that the proposed amendments to the terms of reference of both the Education Board and Community and Children’s Services Committee be approved as set out in Appendix 1 of the report.