Corporate governance is the foundation of how the Council operates, how decisions are made and the procedures which are followed to ensure that decisions are efficient, transparent and accountable to residents.
The Council’s governance arrangements, including the roles of the Council, the Cabinet, Scrutiny Committees, Audit Committee, Regulatory Committees, and other committees, are described in the Constitution.
An elected member-led Governance Working Group undertook a root and branch review of the Council’s governance arrangements during 2023/24. As a result, changes were made to the Council’s Constitution in relation to:
- financial regulations
- key decisions
- policy framework
- decision making
- public participation and consultation
- partnership
The Governance Review addressed issues and made improvements in areas such as member engagement, decision making protocols, and scrutiny as well as the Constitution. The Review continues to consider improvements to consultation, engagement and public participation – improving the approach the authority has to engaging residents to ensure their views are satisfactorily included in the decision-making process, the members’ code of conduct, and corporate governance.
The Council’s Constitution now includes a local member protocol – ‘Think Local Councillor’. This encourages officers to ensure local members are more fully engaged throughout all decision making and local activities.
Care-experienced young people are helping to improve services
The Council has given children and young people who have experienced care protected characteristic status, which means that it will do as much as it possibly can to better support the young people in its care.
Care-experienced young people are working with the Council to help influence the way that elected members and staff think, behave, and provide support to children and young people in care or leaving care.
The nationally recognised ‘Total Respect’ programme enables participants to understand the experiences of young people who use their services. It is practical training, led and delivered by care-experienced young people.
A group of 11 young people delivered training to frontline staff across the council. The training reminds staff and councillors that they need to be put the voice of children and young people and their experience into all that the council does.
As a result of the Governance Review, the Constitution includes a clearer definition of ’key decision’ – a decision that must be taken by the Cabinet because of its financial, political, or strategic significance.
The Council’s formal policy framework has been reviewed and the plans and strategies that require Council approval are now more explicit.
The Council’s financial regulations have been updated to reflect current legislation, best practice guidance and current practice. The detailed standards that were previously incorporated now form part of internal process documents. Scrutiny procedure rules have been amended to remove outdated practices and ensure alignment with other areas of the Constitution.
The section of the Constitution on public participation has been amended to reflect modern meetings and working practices. Members of the public are now able to attend some meetings virtually and better provision is made for members or officers (or both) to respond to any points made by the public, particularly if clarification is required.