Decision making
A guide to the Council’s decision-making structure
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
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".