Older People’s* Partnership Board (“The Board”)

Terms of Reference (“ToR”)

* Older people refers to adults aged 65+

Purpose
To bring together older people, their representatives, public and voluntary and community
sector (VCS) sector organisations to work together to ensure the highest quality and best
value services for older people in Cambridgeshire.

Reporting/Governance
The Chair of the Board, or Vice Chair, will attend meetings of the Adult Social Care Forum
(ASCF) to raise awareness of issues and influence strategic decision-making. The Chair
will in turn report back to the Board. The Board will feedback to the Council on any local
initiatives affecting Older People.

Tasks
1. Ensure that older people are continually involved in the creation and delivery of
Cambridgeshire County Council’s (“the Council”) policies and strategies
2. Champion older people’s views and needs with the Council
3. Provide a link between service providers, encouraging joint working and communication
4. Provide a focal point for the Council to give an overview of older people’s services.
5. Support service providers (statutory and voluntary and community sectors) to tackle
issues successfully by raising concerns via the Council’s Adult Social Care Forum (the
‘ASCF’)
6. Work with the Council and service providers to celebrate success and share good
practice
7. Provide a structure for producing service user case studies and stories, with the aim to
improve practice.
8. To work closely with the other Council Participation Bodies to identify and problem solve
common areas of concern to avoid wasteful duplication across partners.
9. To act as a critical friend to the Council and other providers to ensure that older people
are treated with respect and dignity.
10. To support work on any relevant Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNA).
11. To carry out an annual review and provide an annual report of activities for
stakeholders.

Board Members

The Board will operate a two tier membership comprising:

1. Full members who attend and participate fully in Board meetings
2. Corresponding members who do not attend (all) meetings but receive all information
and minutes and are invited to participate and contribute via email / telephone etc.
The Board will be made up of the following:
 At least 50% (of Full members) will be Independent Older People
 Appropriate voluntary and community sector (VCS) representatives
 Appropriate Statutory Services representatives
Additionally, a member of the Adults Committee will be nominated to, and expected to
attend.

Furthermore, the membership of the Board should aim to be representative of the diversity
of Cambridgeshire.

Members will remain on the board for a minimum period of 1 year with the opportunity to
extend up to 3 years at the discretion of the board.

Chair
The role of the Chair is to facilitate the smooth running of meetings and to ensure that the
views of all members are duly considered. Elected Chairs will remain in office for a
minimum of two years and may be elected for a further one year. Except in exceptional
circumstances, two meetings’ notice is required of resignation from the position of Chair or
Vice Chair. In addition the Chair will be available to attend meetings with Senior Council
Executives, as required, to represent the Board.

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Vice Chair
The Vice Chair will be elected by the Board and will remain in office for a minimum of two
years and may be elected for a further one year. The Vice Chair will provide support and
back up to the Chair and will take on the role and responsibilities above in the absence of
the Chair.

Independent Older People

Independent Older People on the Board play a crucial role in delivering lived experience
expertise and bring their own awareness of relevant issues to the Board. Whilst they may
have links with other local networks they are not invited as formal representatives of those
groups and are not expected to represent the views of others.

Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations and Statutory Service Representatives

These representatives are required to take responsibility to use their networks and links to
older people to support voice and consultation activities when required.

Prospective new Board members

Prospective new members will meet with the Chair and Cambridgeshire Alliance for
Independent Living (CAIL) who will give an overview of the work of the Board. Any member
can introduce a prospective new member by putting them in contact with the Chair or CAIL.

Frequency and agendas

 Meetings will be held every three months.

 A pre-meeting for independent members is held for half an hour before the main Board
meeting

 Extraordinary meetings can be called by any of the group members, in consultation with
all other members and to be agreed by the Chair

 Any member of the group may suggest agenda items to the Chair or CAIL at least 3
weeks before each meeting to be agreed by the Chair.

 Agendas will be sent out to members at least 1 week before each meeting; these will
also be available on the CAIL website www.cail.org.uk

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Referral Onwards

 Where relevant issues are raised at the Board which require detailed scrutiny, a Task
and Finish group will be convened, which will feed back to the Board on completion of
the task.

 Where individual issues arise, which would more appropriately be referred on for
individual resolution through the Complaints Process, or through presentation at
another specialist forum, members will be encouraged and supported to do so.

Communications

Minutes and other relevant information will be published on CAIL’s website, on which there
is a dedicated Older People’s Partnership Board page.

Lifespan of the Group

 The Terms of Reference of the Partnership Board will be reviewed on a three yearly
basis.

 Any developments or changes to the Board will be reflected in the amended Terms of
Reference.

These Terms of Reference were adopted by the Board on: 13 Nov 2017

They will be due for review on: November 2020