The Scrutiny Committee has received a report from the Head of Law and Governance (Monitoring Officer) to update the Committee on the progress and plans to address the increase in Urgent Key Decisions in 2024, and to improve and strengthen governance of the Council.

Emma Jackman, Head of Law and Governance (Monitoring Officer), and Jonathan Malton, Committee and Member Services Manager have been invited to present the report and answer questions.

The Committee is asked to note the report and agree any recommendations.

Emma Jackman, Head of Law and Governance, and Jonathan Malton, Committee and Member Services Manager, were present to answer questions on the report. 

The Head of Law and Governance introduced the report and explained that recently, there have been an increased number of urgent key decisions over the threshold that have not been published within the forward plan 28 days in advance, as is required. Therefore, the decisions have required approval from the Chair of Scrutiny to wave the usual five-day grace period. The Head of Law and Governance noted that several of the decisions related to projects with tight timelines and often linked to external companies. Methods to address the issue are outlined appendix 1.  

The Head of Law and Governance summarised some of the actions being taken, including:  

·       The definition of ‘key decision’ was discussed at the previous Council and updated meeting to remove confusion. Key decisions now refer to any decision involving a spend of more than £750,000. 

·       The Forward Plan template was updated and standing items reviewed.  

·       Templates for officers and councillors were updated and will be available from February to offer more guidance when key decisions are taken.  

·       New training sessions for officers are being developed; some have already taken place and more are planned.  

·       An online training package focused on the Constitution is under development. This will be mandatory for all new starters to the Council, and as a refresh module for existing staff. 

·       Relationships with client companies will be reviewed to understand how their governance requirements impact upon the timing of key decisions. Training will be developed to address this. 

·       A wider piece of work will take place to assess how client companies and contracts are managed, specifically in relation to commissioning.  

·       There will be a constitutional review this year.  

·       Following Cabinet meetings, action lists will be produced to highlight where delegations have been made to officers, and to ensure that guidance exists on the timings of key decisions.  

·       The Annual Governance Statement for 2024/25 will include information on this. 

The Head of Law and Governance invited the Committee to ask questions or express any preferences for topics of future training sessions.  

The Chair thanked the Head of Law and Governance for the presentation and invited the Committee to raise questions on other matters within the report.  

Councillor Rowley expressed concern regarding the training of company officers. He also queried if there was a legal requirement to have a company secretary, to which the Head of Law and Governance confirmed it is not, and explained that due to recent movements in staffing, the vacancy was only short term and that training with the companies on the Council's governance will take place once transitions are complete. Councillor Ottino noted his concern with the issue and highlighted the possible difficulty of training staff due to turnover rates. He also sought clarity on whether the e-learning is already set up and queried whether a two-year cycle for refresher training could be too long. The Head of Law and Governance explained that the platform for the new e-learning is currently being procured. In regards the timescale for refresher training, 2 years was given as an example and the Committee were informed that the new e-learning will align with the timings of existing data protection training which is likely to be annually. Furthermore, group training sessions have already taken place with management, but further discussions with CMT will seek to identify which team meetings should be attended to deliver more in-depth training to officers.  

The Chair referred to the clienting review of the Council’s companies and asked why this will not take place until 2026. The Head of Law and Governance clarified that this will be concluded and embedded by 2026; it is part of a larger piece of work on governance changes and will take some time due to the complexities and need to work with the companies on it also.  

The Chair invited the Committee to discuss recommendations on the report. Councillor Ottino suggested that in future the number of unavoidable key decisions taken should be fedback to the Committee; the Chair agreed. The Chair suggested that the number of urgent key decisions which are both avoidable and unavoidable should be recorded and presented to the Committee. The Head of Law and Governance confirmed that the number of urgent key decisions are currently reported to Council and included within the Annual Governance Statement reported to the Audit and Governance Committee. She also offered for this to be shared with the Scrutiny Committee going forwards but reiterated that she does challenge key decisions which do not adhere to the required timeframe and only permits them when unavoidable. The timing of this report to the Committee was discussed.  

The Chair invited the Committee to consider recommendations. 

The Committee resolved to make the following recommendation(s) on the report to Cabinet:  

1)    That Cabinet supports the continued implementation and embedding of the actions proposed to mitigate the increased number of Urgent Key Decisions taken. 

2)    That Officers ensure an end-of-year report is submitted to the Scrutiny Committee before the end of each municipal year, reporting the number and nature of urgent key decisions taken, including data to track trends and evaluate distinctions between capacity-related and unavoidable issues. 

The Chair thanked the Head of Law and Governance and the Committee and Member Services Manager for their continued work.  

The Head of Law and Governance left the meeting.