Nottinghamshire County Council is to return to a leader and cabinet model of decision-making away from its current committee system in May. A meeting of the full council voted unanimously to make the switch after a 90-minute debate.
The council has operated a committee-style model since 2012. But it announced proposals last year to work towards a stronger model of decision making used in local government, which is driven by a cabinet rather than multiple smaller committees.
The county council is making the move in anticipation of a devolution deal, linking up with councils in Derbyshire, Derby and Nottingham, to move to a directly-elected mayor and combined authority set-up in the East Midlands. A template as to how that will work went to the Government last week.
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Under government terms for devolution deals, councils can only be considered for devolved powers if they operate a ‘strong and accountable’ leader and cabinet system. The move to a cabinet system will see council leader Councillor Ben Bradley MP supported by nine cabinet members covering business management, adult social care and health, children and families, communities, economic development, finance, personnel and transport and environment, making decisions.
The authority will continue to operate its planning and rights of way, pension fund and governance and ethics committees and health and wellbeing board. A vital part of the cabinet system is the process of scrutiny of decisions made by the executive.
The county council proposals include the creation of a main overview committee responsible for scrutinising the operation of the chief executive’s department, cross cutting issues such as finance and for hearing any decisions which are called-in for review before their implementation. In addition, three service-related select committees would cover the scrutiny of departmental service delivery as well as some statutory scrutiny requirements relating to crime and disorder and flood management.
The council’s statutory health scrutiny committee with responsibility for scrutinising the operation of the health systems across Nottinghamshire will continue. The report on the constitutional change was brought to the meeting by Councillor Philip Owen (Nuthall and Kimberley) who likened the significance of the document to the issuing of the Ten Commandments to Moses, 3,000 years ago, and suggested it would last as long again.
He said: "It's still work in process but it is a constitution for devolution." Mr Owen countered concerns from opposition councillors about being able to scrutinise executive decisions. He said: "Opposition councillors are going to be vice-chairs of the select committees and overview committee and I think that is a very important step. Far from Conservatives occupying all the positions, from those positions you are able to drive processes of scrutiny and that is particularly important."
Mr Owen also responded to a comment that he had offended every Christian in the chamber with his earlier biblical reference and said: "I have not offended myself. When I go to church on Sunday, I will ask the congregation to pray for me if I am offended any good Christian souls."
Concerns were also expressed during the debate that during public consultation on the constitutional change, only 402 people responded, despite a county population of 825,000 voters. Of those, 28.36% agreed with a change from committee to cabinet system, 11.69% had no firm view and 59.95% disagreed with the proposal. Councillor Lee Waters (Hucknall North) said the figures showed "apathy" and that "residents couldn't care less".
The change to governance will take place at the council's annual meeting on May 12 and will be accompanied by a programme of training and development for councillors and officers. Additionally, a new post of senior scrutiny officer will be needed.
Approval of the council’s budget and policy framework, which comprises the annual budget and a number of key policies and strategies, remain the responsibility of the full council.
It will bring the authority broadly in line with the majority of other authorities in Nottinghamshire, with only Broxtowe and Newark and Sherwood councils not currently operating in this format but both are due to to move to a cabinet system this year.
