Decision making and corporate governance

Decision making

The Council has many functions and responsibilities which requires decisions to be taken by the right person at the right time in the right way.

The Constitution delegates responsibility for taking decisions to Chief Officers, unless that particular decision is reserved to Council or to Executive.  In turn, Chief Officers have schemes of sub-delegation setting out which officers within their service areas are authorised to make which decisions.  Please check your relevant scheme and if you have any concerns that a particular function is not covered, raise it with your Chief Officer or the Monitoring Officer.

When you need to take a decision, the following must be considered: 

1. All decisions must be made in a transparent, fair way.  Officer decisions should be recorded on an Officer Decision Notice, using the appropriate template, which will set out the background, the options, risks, and will demonstrate that consideration has been given to legal, financial, equality and other implications.
2. The Officer Decision Notice should be sent to democratic services who will publish it on the committee system ModGov.
3. Key Decisions must be published in the forward plan in advance and are subject to call in by Overview and Scrutiny. 
4. For minor decisions, ie routine, low value and low importance decisions, a proportionate written record is still recommended, even if this is an exchange of emails.  If you are in any doubt as to whether a decision is minor, speak to the Monitoring Officer.

We will be putting on training on the new constitution in due course, and we will have new decision-making processes and templates.

Corporate governance

Governance is about how the Council directs, managers and monitors its activities to make sure we achieve the highest standards of ethical conduct, engage effectively with stakeholders and demonstrate effect decision making and accountability. The Governance regime we put in place allows us to evaluate our performance and learn from our experience.

Good governance means that managers are aware of and understand their responsibilities and know where to find information and support. Managers should be confident and empowered to take decisions and actively manage their areas. Good governance is an ongoing and dynamic, evolving process.

The Managers handbook will be updated in due course and will give you the information you need to understand good governance and to identify where you can obtain further information, and support when you need it.