Decision Taking in Sutton

Overview

The Council is committed to making changes to its governance arrangements and the ways in which it takes decisions. Below is a summary of the main changes.

The purpose of this consultation is to receive feedback and comments on any issues that relate to the practical implementation of these changes and the ways in which our residents and partners work with the Council.  In particular we are interested in: 

Ways in which we can increase public involvement in meetings

Ways in which partners and other stakeholders can be more involved 

Currently The Executive, which consists of ten Councillors from the majority group (Liberal Democrat) on the Council are responsible for taking all the decisions on items of policy and strategy.  They either take those decisions themselves or make a recommendation to the Council meeting to adopt a specific policy or course of action.  This means that a small group of Councillors carry a large responsibility for the performance and actions of the Council. 

The Council is now considering proposals to change this method of decision making to enable more Councillors to have greater responsibility.  The proposal is to replace The Executive and the five Advisory Groups that carry out background work on proposals before they are considered by The Executive with the following five cross cutting Committees 

Strategy and Resources,

Environment and Neighbourhood,

Adult Social Services and Health,

Children, Family and Education and

Housing, Economy and Business 

These Committees will consist of 10 members from both political parties in the proportions that they hold seats on the Council, (Strategy and Resources Committee will have 15 members) and will be responsible for taking all decisions within their areas of responsibility that are within the policy and budget framework previously agreed by the Council. 

The current four Scrutiny Committees will also be replaced by one Scrutiny Committee to carry out statutory scrutiny functions and, in exceptional circumstances, requests for a scrutiny investigation into a specific topic from one of the new Committees.  This Committee would have ten members drawn from all political parties. 

The current arrangements for the six Local Committees, Development Control Licensing, Audit and Pension Committees will remain. 

If adopted, these proposals would involve almost all Councillors in policy formulation, introduction and assessment over a wider range of responsibilities than at present. 

The report which sets out these proposals in further detail can be read by clicking on this link.http://sutton.moderngov.co.uk/mgConvert2Pdf.aspx?ID=4062&T=9 and scrolling through the document.

Why your views matter

The Council is looking to introduce these proposals at its annual council meeting in May 2012 and will be considering recommemdations from The Executive to adopt these proposals at its meeting on 30 April 2012.  Councillors would be keen to receive any comments on the proposals in time for that meeting. 

What happens next

The views will be reported to the Council meeting on 30 April 2012.