Cabinet received and considered Minute OSC21/60 arising from the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) held on 25 April 2022 regarding the review of the Constitution and recommendations of the Constitution Review Steering Group.  The Steering Group was established in January 2021, had met frequently during 2021 and made a total of nine recommendations. 

The cross-party Group had worked well together and undertaken a very thorough review by comparing the Council’s Constitution against other models as well as neighbouring authorities and other good practice.  The scope of the work undertaken by the Steering Group was shown at Appendix 1 to the report.  It was noted that Parts 3, Responsibility for Functions and 8, Delegations to Officers were still to be completed and would follow later this year.

Attached at Appendix 2 to the report was a full list of all the main proposals which were either a deviation to current custom and practice and represented a change to the way the Council currently operated, or new provisions which were not within the Council’s existing Constitution.  Those that were considered worthy of special note had been highlighted. 

Comparing different models to the Council’s Constitution had identified several easy, quick improvements that could be made throughout the document ranging from layout changes, minor clarifications, gender neutral terminology, the use of Chair and Vice-Chair and improved use of plain English; a number of these amendments had been made throughout.

Whilst looking at the various parts of the Constitution that related to the scrutiny function, the Steering Group considered the role of scrutiny and whether it added value to the work of the Council, was as effective as it could be and clearly understood by Members.  As a result, there was a proposal from the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) to undertake a scrutiny improvement review, with full details attached at Appendix 3 to the report.  The cost of the review would be £4,850+VAT which could be funded from the 2022/23 Member Training Budget. 

Cabinet were supportive of all the recommendations, in particular that general awareness training on the Constitution, as this dictated how the Council operated, be offered to all Councillors.  It was noted that the Constitution would be reviewed more regularly by each in-coming administration, which was one of the recommendations.    

RECOMMENDED: That:

1)    all proposed amendments to the Council’s Constitution highlighted within Appendix 2, and contained within Appendices 2A-2K be approved and adopted;

2)    the current governance model (executive / scrutiny split with no individual Cabinet Member decision making) be maintained;

3)    a new stand-alone advisory Human Resources Committee comprising seven Members, to meet twice per year and assigned all functions relating to staffing matters that currently come under the remit of the Licensing and General Purposes Committee be created (the Licensing and General Purposes Committee to remain as currently constituted without HR related functions);

4)    the Leader of the Council be requested to add Human Resources to their Cabinet Portfolio;

5)    a review be undertaken by the incoming administration at the start of each new 4-year Council term, within its first year, to consider the decision-making structure and any proposals for change;

6)    in each “normal” subsequent year following an election year, the Annual Council meeting to receive a report highlighting any changes that have been made to the Constitution in the preceding 12 months, under officer delegations or otherwise;

7)    the Planning Advisory Services’ latest Probity in Planning Guidance be automatically adopted and incorporated into the Constitution;

8)    that general awareness / training on the Constitution be offered to all Councillors; and

9)    the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny be commissioned to undertake a scrutiny improvement review during 2022/23, and be funded from the Member Training Budget, subject to the approval of the Member Development Task Group / Member Training Champion.