Issue - meetings

Governance Review

Meeting: 14/10/2019 - Council (Item 75)

75 Governance Review pdf icon PDF 86 KB

With reference to the Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee, 26 September 2019 (Minute 14 refers). The Council be recommended to agree to the following:

 

Having considered:

 

(a)  the materials presented to the Governance Review Working Group; and

 

(b)  the discussions held at the Working Group’s meetings and subsequent Member sessions.

 

This Committee is of the view that Wirral’s residents will now be better served by the introduction of a more accountable and transparent way of conducting the Council’s business, policy formulation and decision-making. 

 

It is the opinion of this Committee that the Council should now move to a Committee based structure to be designed, finalised and in place for the next Municipal Year.

 

  The Committee notes that a range of costs have been put forward that apply to the revised arrangements.  It is recognised however, that revisions to the existing Constitution have been under discussion for some time and that costs would have been incurred in that process. 

 

The Committee considers that the operational costs of the new system of governance should be the subject of regular reports and that in practice these costs should be minimised.

 

The Committee:

 

(1)  recommends to the Council: That

 

(a)  there be a move from Leader and Cabinet Executive arrangements to a Committee System form of governance arrangements to take effect from the Annual Council Meeting in 2020; and

 

(b)  the Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee accordingly prepare a draft revised Constitution to propose to the Council meeting of 16 March 2020.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Council considered an item from the Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee meeting held on 26th September 2019 concerning the review of the governance arrangements of the Council which had been requested by the meeting of Council held on 14 May 2019.

 

The Committee had established a Governance Review Working Group and, with the assistance of the Local Government Association (LGA), conducted interviews and hosted an all Member workshop. The findings of the Working Group, and its implications, were presented in the report.

 

Councillor Pat Hackett moved an amendment to delay implementation until 2021. This was seconded by Councillor Leech. After discussion this amendment was voted on (27 in favour, 33 against, 1 abstention) and declared lost.

 

Resolved (59:0 with one abstention) - that

(1)   having considered:

(a)   the materials presented to the Governance Review Working Group; and

(b)   the discussions held at the Working Group’s meetings and subsequent Member sessions.

Council is of the view that Wirral’s residents will now be better served by the introduction of a more accountable and transparent way of conducting the Council’s business, policy formulation and decision-making.  Council should now move to a Committee based structure to be designed, finalised and in place for the next Municipal Year.

Council notes that a range of costs have been put forward that apply to the revised arrangements.  It is recognised however, that revisions to the existing Constitution have been under discussion for some time and that costs would have been incurred in that process. Council considers that the operational costs of the new system of governance should be the subject of regular reports and that in practice these costs should be minimised.

(2)   there be a move from Leader and Cabinet Executive arrangements to a Committee System form of governance arrangements to take effect from the Annual Council Meeting in 2020; and

(3)   the Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee accordingly prepare a draft revised Constitution to propose to the Council meeting of 16 March 2020.


Meeting: 26/09/2019 - Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee (Item 14)

14 Governance Review pdf icon PDF 490 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

At the Annual Meeting of the Council the Committee had been charged with carrying out a review of the Council’s governance arrangements.  Consequently, Councillor Tony Cox introduced a report by the Governance Review Working Group that had undertaken this work.  The Working Group had met during the summer and, with the assistance of the Local Government Association (LGA), had conducted interviews and had hosted an all Member workshop. The findings of the Working Group, and its implications, were set out in the report.

 

The Governance Review Working Group had considered that the recommended move to a Streamlined Committee System form of governance best met its objectives for governance arrangements of:

 

·  Accountability – responsibilities and accountability should be clear, within the Council and to residents;

·  Credibility – governance should assist good decision making, which involved proper and early scrutiny;

·  Transparency – the decision making process should be open and transparent to Members and to the public;

·  Collaboration - decision making should be collaborative across parties and less combative;

·  Timeliness – decision making should be both quick and effective and, when necessary, allow for urgent decision making.

 

Members noted that the recommendations, if adopted, set in train a number of pieces of work to be completed to allow for the change of form of governance within the desired timeframe.

 

The Committee was informed that varying alternative governance arrangements had been considered by the Working Group. This had included a particular emphasis on a more inclusive and open version of a Leader and Cabinet form of executive arrangements, as well as ‘Hybrid’ and other forms of governance arrangements.

 

However, these other governance options had been rejected as it was considered that they would not achieve the objectives to the same high degree or as conclusively as a Streamlined Committee System.

 

The Working Group had considered delaying the implementation date of the change of governance arrangements to the Annual Meeting of 2021 to allow for more time to draw up a satisfactory working structure.  However, it was satisfied that any advantages were more than outweighed by the view that such a delay would be counter-productive and that a workable revised Constitution could be produced in the given time period.

 

Appended to the report was:

 

·  Appendix A – The Presentation slides for the Governance Review Workshop; and

·  Appendix B – The Governance Review Working Group’s Chair’s Report.

 

Councillor Cox reported that accountability, credibility and transparency were paramount and it was important not just to keep governance arrangements the same but about improving them so that the electors could hold Members to account.  Also, collaborative working was very important and the current form of governance did not actually endear people to work in collaboration. If the Council was to move forward with an improved form of governance there was now an opportunity to make a genuine change to how the Council was actually run and the oversight that Members had.

 

Councillor Cox also reported that it was important that information was made available because in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14