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Decision making

A guide to the Council’s decision-making structure

• Introduction
• Diagram showing the democratic structure of the Council (21kb pdf file)
• Executive and non-executive decision-making
• Meetings of the Council
• Executive decision-making 
  • The Cabinet
  • Cabinet Members
  • Key decisions and the Forward Plan
  • Urgent decisions
  • Overview and Scrutiny
  • Policy Overview Committee
  • Performance Scrutiny Committee
  • Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee
• Non-executive decision-making
  • Regulatory Committee
  • Employment Committee
  • Appointment and Disciplinary Committees
  • Appeals Committee
  • Licensing Committee and Sub-Committees
  • Audit Committee 
• Township Committees
• Standards Committee 
• Substitute Members
• Declarations of Interest
• The Constitution

Introduction

The way in which the Council makes decisions was introduced during 2001 in response to the Local Government Act 2000 and the Government's wish to give voters a choice of ways for their local areas to be managed, looking to make the decision-making process more efficient, accountable, transparent, open and inclusive. A review of the decision making structure was undertaken by Professor Stephen Leach of INLOGOV during 2006, and a number of changes to that structure are currently being implemented.

The Council has a Cabinet comprising the Leader of the Council and nine other elected members, those nine members each having a responsibility for a particular area of the Council’s work.

There are three Overview and Scrutiny Committees. Two of these enable Councillors not involved in Cabinet decision-making to keep a check on what is being decided, how services are run and how resources allocated. The third Committee scrutinises the work of local health bodies.

The Council retains its four Township Committees, which continue to make a wide range of decisions at a local level, and work is on-going to increase the amount of decision-making devolved to the local level.

Several ordinary Committees have been established to deal with regulatory or quasi-judicial issues and a Standards Committee has been introduced. Other 'ad hoc' Committees are established from time to time to deal with specific matters.

Executive and non-executive decision-making

The decision-making roles of the Council are, by law, split into two elements – executive and non-executive.

The executive role covers the development of the Council’s Budget and Policy Framework for approval by the full Council, and the responsibility for implementing the approved budget and policies on an in-year basis. This role is undertaken mainly by the Cabinet, but some decisions are taken by individual Cabinet Members and by the Township Committees.

The non-executive role relates to making decisions on regulatory, constitutional and personnel-related matters. This role is undertaken by the Regulatory, Licensing, Appeals, Appointments, Disciplinary and Employment Committees, and also by the Township Committees and Planning Sub-Committees.

Meetings of the Council

The full Council – all 60 Councillors making decisions together – is the overall decision-making body.

The Council is responsible for appointing the Leader and the Cabinet, and the various Committees of the Council.

The Council sets the budget and policy framework for how the Borough is run. This includes agreeing the Council's annual budget and the level of Council Tax, and overall plans for:

• How services will be provided (e.g. the Children and Young People's Plan),
• How the Council will work with other partner organisations to achieve their joint aims (e.g. the Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy),
• How the Council will monitor and improve its services (e.g. the Best Value Performance Plan),
• How development of the physical environment will be controlled (e.g. the approval of individual Development Plan Documents).

The Council also agrees the Constitution, the document which governs how the Council's decision making operates.

The Council debates and determines recommendations from the Cabinet and Committees.

The Council also receives reports from the members of the Cabinet and from the Chairs of the Township Committees and the Overview and Scrutiny Committees.

There are six meetings of the Council per year. The first meeting is Annual Council, usually held in mid-May, when all the appointments to Committees and outside bodies are made and the new Mayor is installed. There are four ordinary meetings of Council – meeting towards the end of each quarter. There is also a meeting of the Council in late February specifically to approve the Budget and set the Council Tax for the following financial year.

Executive decision-making

The Cabinet

Membership

The Cabinet is appointed by the whole Council. It is made up of the Leader of the Council and nine other Councillors. The Cabinet may comprise members from one political group only, or may comprise Members from two or more groups.

Role of the Cabinet

The role of the Cabinet is to develop the Council’s Budget and Policies for adoption by the Council. This entails the initial proposals for policies and the budget being prepared by Council Officers, often in liaison with the appropriate Cabinet member. The proposals are then submitted to the Cabinet for approval as the basis for consultation including with the Policy Overview and Scrutiny Committee – to assess how the proposals will impact at a corporate level – and, where appropriate, the Township Committees – to ascertain how proposals will impact at a local level; the public and partner agencies are also consulted as part of the process.

Having gone through the consultation process, the Cabinet will then finalise its proposals, taking account of the comments raised as appropriate and present the proposals to full Council for approval.

Once the Budget and various policies have been approved the Cabinet, and increasingly the Township Committees, is then responsible for taking the day-to-day decisions relating to the Budget and Policy Framework

Decisions

The executive decisions of the Cabinet (and Township Committees, where appropriate) taken to implementation the Budget and Policy Framework cannot take effect immediately. Within five working days of a meeting of the Cabinet (and of Township Committees, some Township Sub-Committees, and a small number of other Committees), the minutes of the meeting are circulated to all Councillors as a Notice of Executive Decisions. Councillors then have a period of five working days to "call-in" any of the executive decisions where two or more Councillors think that a decision has been made improperly or should receive further consideration. (More information about call in is provided later in this Guide).

Any decision that is “called-in” will not take effect until the Performance Scrutiny Committee has considered the matter and decided whether the decision should stand or whether it should be referred back to the Cabinet or onto full Council for re-consideration.

Decision-making by Cabinet Members

The Council has introduced a system permitting individual Cabinet Members to make certain decisions. These decisions are also subject to scrutiny through the call-in process.

Responsibilities of Cabinet Members

Members of the Cabinet have responsibility for overseeing particular areas of the Council’s activities. The current Cabinet Member titles and the respective areas of responsibility, in relation to the Council’s Service areas, are as follows:

• Health and Social Care, covering Adult Care, Partnerships and Regeneration (in part) and health issues.
• Children, Schools and Families, covering Schools, Learners and Young People, and Child Care.
• Environment and Sustainability, covering Environmental Management, and Planning and Regulation.
• Community Cohesion and Housing, covering Strategic Housing.
• Finance, covering Finance, Highways and Engineering, Property, Revenues and Benefits, and Business Partnerships.
• Townships and Corporate Management, covering People Management, Legal and Democratic, Townships, Information and Libraries (part), and Performance and Development.
• Community Safety and Leisure, covering Leisure and Culture, Partnerships and Regeneration (part), and Information and Libraries (part).
• Regeneration, covering Partnerships and Regeneration (part).
• Older People, operates across all services.

The Cabinet Members report to the full Council on developments in their areas of responsibility and answer questions from other Councillors.

The Cabinet meets in public approximately every two months. The agendas for the Cabinet meetings can be accessed via the Council’s website or can be inspected in the Council’s main libraries and Customer Service Centres.

Key decisions and the Forward Plan

Some executive decisions are known as "Key Decisions". A Key Decision is one that is likely to lead to significant expenditure or savings within a service area, or one that is likely to have a significant impact on the life of a community within the Borough.

All key decisions which are to be taken have to be published in what is known as the "Forward Plan". The Forward Plan contains details of all Key Decisions to be taken over the next four months and is published prior to the fifteenth of each month.

For each Key Decision to be taken, the following information has to be provided:

• The service area
• The date on which the decision is to be taken
• The decision taker
• The subject area for decision
• The anticipated outcome of the decision
• Details of who has been/will be consulted
• How, when and to whom to make representations about the issue

The Forward Plan is accessible via the Council's website.

Urgent decisions

• Exemption from call-in

On occasion, it may be necessary to implement an executive decision sooner than would be possible if that decision was to go through the call-in process. In that event, the agreement of the Chair or Vice Chair of the relevant Overview and/or Scrutiny Committee to that urgency and the exemption of the item from call-in would be sought.

• Omissions from the Forward Plan

Occasionally it may be necessary for a Key Decision, which has not been included on the Forward Plan, to be taken urgently. If this is the case, then the Procedure Rules in relation to “General Exception” and “Special Urgency” come into play. These provide for consultation by the Chief Executive with the Chair or Vice Chair of the relevant Overview and/or Scrutiny Committee (or the Mayor or Deputy Mayor) in respect of the consideration of the item.

Township Committees may also exercise executive decision making powers - see the later section on Township Committees.

Overview and Scrutiny Committees

Overview and Scrutiny is the process whereby executive decision-makers are held to account. Overview and Scrutiny Committees also have an important role to play in the Council’s policy and budget development process. Overview and Scrutiny Committees must be made up of Councillors who are not members of the Cabinet and must reflect the political balance of the Council.

The Council has two Committees to oversee Council services and one Committee overseeing local health services, undertaking roles as outlined below -

Policy Overview Committee

Consultation on the Budget and Policy Framework

As part of the Council’s Budget and Policy Framework, the Cabinet consults with the Policy Overview Committee on its budget proposals for the following financial year, before making a final recommendation to the full Council for approval and adoption.

The process for consulting the Overview Committee on both the Budget Preparation Process and the Policy Framework is set out earlier in this Guide.

The Overview Committee may also be consulted from time to time on other matters which fall outside the Budget and Policy Framework in order to get the views of Members on as wide a range of issues as possible.

Studies and Reviews

The Overview Committee will identify a number of topics for study and review to be undertaken by Members of the Council who do not serve on the Cabinet. These studies or reviews can consider activities and policies of the Council, or indeed activities and policies which cut across other public service providers such as the Primary Care Trusts or the Council's Partners.

The Committee will determine the Terms of Reference, together with the timetable and study methodology, for each study exercise. Individual studies are generally carried out by small Member Working Groups. The Committee will approve the final report and recommendations for submission to the Cabinet.

Annual Service Plans

The Overview Committee will consider the annual Service Plans produced for each of the Council’s Service Groups and which are approved by the respective Cabinet Members. This will provide Members of the Committee with the opportunity to identify local performance indicators to be reported as part of the performance management framework.

Performance Scrutiny Committee

Scrutiny of executive decisions - the "call-in" process

In the event that two or more Councillors do not agree with an executive decision made by the Cabinet, a Cabinet Member, a Township Committee/ Sub-Committee or other executive Committee they can, within a certain time-scale, “call in” the decision for scrutiny by submitting a formal notice with reasons and a supporting statement to the Chief Executive.

The Chief Executive determines whether the request is in order and, if in order, the item will be referred to the first available meeting of the Performance Scrutiny Committee. The Committee considers the decision made and the report which led to that decision, the reasons why the decision has been called in, and the response of the decision maker and the relevant Officer. At least one of the Members who called-in the item and a representative of the decision making body are required to attend the Scrutiny Committee meeting.

On the basis of the evidence provided, the Committee then has three options, namely:

a) to accept the decision, in which case the decision takes immediate effect;

b) to refer the decision back to the decision maker (or to Cabinet if the decision was that of an individual Cabinet Member) for re-consideration, providing reasons as to why they feel it should be re-considered;

c) if it is considered the decision may be contrary to the Council's budget or an agreed policy, to refer the matter to full Council for determination as to whether the original decision should be upheld or whether it should be referred back for reconsideration.

A called-in decision can only be referred back to the decision maker once. The decision maker should take into account the views of the Scrutiny Committee and/or full Council in re-considering the decision, but will be within its rights to re-affirm the original decision.

Performance Management

The Committee monitors the in-year performance of all Council services, together with that of the Impact Partnership, the Cultural Trust, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and the Safer Communities Partnership.

Basic performance data will be made available to the Committee on a quarterly basis, with the Committee also able to call for more specific reports.

Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Committee scrutinises the services provided by the Heywood, Middleton and the Rochdale Primary Care Trust by considering various performance reports and by being consulted on proposals for significant change to local services. The Committee also oversees the health and wellbeing of the Borough's population generally, and links in to the Greater Manchester Health Scrutiny Committee, the Pennine Acute NHS Trust Joint Scrutiny Committee and the Pennine Care (Mental Health) NHS Trust Joint Scrutiny Committee.

Non-executive decision-making

Some Council functions cannot, by law, be dealt with under the Council's executive decision making arrangements. These functions must be carried out by ordinary, politically balanced Committees or, as the Council has chosen in some instances, by local Committees - see also the section on Township Committees.

These functions are quasi-judicial or regulatory in nature, or relate to the Council's Constitution or to the Council's employees. As non-executive Committees, membership can be drawn from both Cabinet and non-Cabinet Members. Non-executive Committees are established as follows:-

Regulatory Committee

This Committee deals with a range of issues, such as:

• Determining those planning applications which cannot be determined at a Township level
• Proposing amendments to the Constitution and the Council’s Procedure Rules
• Dealing with electoral matters
• Dealing with issues relating to Member's allowances

The Regulatory Committee is scheduled to meet six times per year, though ad hoc meetings are arranged as required.

Employment Committee

The Committee considers staffing issues, changes to corporate conditions of service for all employees, and certain industrial relations matters.

It is scheduled to meet four times per year, though ad hoc meetings would be arranged as required.

Appointment and Disciplinary Committees

These Committees are established on an ad hoc basis to deal with recruitment and discipline of senior managers within the Council.

Appeals Committee

Appeals Committees comprising at least three Members on a politically balanced basis, are set up as and when required to deal with a range of appeals, including staffing appeals.

Licensing Committee and Sub-Committees

The Council is now responsible for the whole liquor licensing regime, including the licensing of premises and individuals. The Committee will also become responsible for further matters under the Gambling Act 2005 during the course of 2007. Licence applications that are the subject of objection, or requests for reviews, are considered by ad hoc Licensing Sub-Committees. There is no requirement for the Licensing Sub-Committees to be politically balanced.

Audit Committee

The Committee is responsible for oversight of the Council's internal and external audit functions and for consideration of the Council's annual Statement of Accounts.

Township Committees

First established in 1992, the Council’s four Township Committees have become an integral part of the Council's decision-making process.

The four Township Committees are Heywood, Rochdale, Middleton and Pennines, and they each comprise all the Members of the Wards that fall within the boundaries of each Township. The Township Committees meet six times per year, at venues within their area. Each Township Committee meeting commences with an Open Forum session, which gives local residents the opportunity to ask questions of their local Members or to raise issues of local concern.

In February 2007 the Council approved an approach for developing the role of Township Committees, giving increasing responsibility for budgets and day-to-day delivery of services. The Township Committees now hold responsibility for the delivery of the following Council services:–

• Environmental Management (excluding Refuse Collection and Recycling and Bereavement Services)
• Highways and Engineering
• Community Centres
• Libraries
• Development Control
• Township Funds
• Leisure Projects - commissioning

while ensuring that such services and facilities are managed in a manner consistent with Borough-wide policies.  As part of this process the township committees have each produced their own 'Township Plan' highlighting the priorities within each Township.

Township Committees also deal with a further range of issues which impact locally, such as:

• Determining Traffic Regulation Orders to which there have been objections
• Creation of Footpath Orders
• Compulsory Purchase Orders of land/dwellings
• Appointments to School Governing Body vacancies
• Approving changes of names of schools

Each Township Committee has a Township Planning Sub-Committee. These Sub-Committees determine most of the planning applications considered by elected Members. 

Each Township Committee has a Township Fund equivalent to £2 per head of population per Township area.  The Townships have each also been allocated a capital budget.  Examples of purposes to which these funds and budgets can be put include grants schemes; funding community and environmental projects; funding priorities identified in the Township Plan etc.  The Township Committees have each established their own Sub-Committee arrangements for dealing with devolved services and the expenditure of devolved funds and budgets.  

Township Committees are not required to be politically balanced provided that the geographical area covered by the Township does not exceed two-fifths of the total geographical area of the Borough or the electorate of the Township does not exceed two-fifths of the total electorate of the Borough.

Standards Committee

All Councils are now required to appoint a Standards Committee, to deal with issues relating to the conduct of councillors. It must include independent people as part of its membership – which means people who have not been Councillors or Council officers and who have never been members of a political party. Rochdale’s Standards Committee comprises four Councillors and five independent Members. It meets once per quarter, though ad hoc meetings would be arranged as required.

Substitute Members

Each Political Group is able to appoint up to three named substitute Members in respect of the following Committees:

• Overview and/or Scrutiny Committees
• Regulatory Committee
• Employment Committee

The Township Committees have some discretion with regard to the substiution arrangements they may make for their respective Sub-Committees.

Substitute members can only sit on a Committee when the substantive Member is going to be absent for the duration of the meeting in question. Where a substantive Member knows they are going to be absent, they must select a Substitute from the list of named Substitutes for the Committee in question and inform the Committee Services Section of the substitution arrangements by noon on the working day prior to the date of the meeting. Members who act as a substitute Member have the same rights as the permanent Member in terms of receiving papers and speaking and voting at the meeting.

Declarations of Interest

All Members of the Council are required by the Code of Conduct for Councillors and Voting Co-opted Members to declare any interest they have in any matter under discussion at the meeting they are attending. In some circumstances they will be required to leave the room during consideration of an item. Specific guidance is available to Members of the Council on the declaration of personal and prejudicial interests and the issues to be considered.

The Constitution

The detailed rules and procedures governing the Council's decision making process are contained in a document called the "Constitution".

• Constitution of the Council