Issue - meetings

2.45

Report by the Director of Law & Governance

Cabinet agreed on 4 June 2018 to approve, in principle, a joint working arrangement with Cherwell District Council.  Cherwell formally made the same decision in July.  These arrangements are governed by a formal “Section 113 Agreement” (see Annex 1).  That Agreement included the appointment of a joint Chief Executive and statutory Head of Paid Service, which was undertaken through the Council’s normal constitutional processes, including a recommendation from the Remuneration Committee and final approval by Full Council on 10 July 2018.

Section 113 of the Local Government Act 1972 enables local authorities to enter into agreements with one another for the placing at the disposal of each other their respective officers for carrying out their respective functions.

The Section 113 Agreement, now in place, establishes a structure to enable proposals for joint working to be approved with the necessary Member oversight.   Each proposal will need approval by each separate Authority. 

These new arrangements clearly have an impact on the way in which the County Council undertakes its business and indeed constitutional changes are required in order to ensure good governance is maintained.

Consequently, this report brings the suite of relevant governance arrangements to this Committee so that it can assure itself of the sufficiency and effectiveness of these governance arrangements underpinning the joint working arrangements.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

a)                  To note the agreed Section 113 Agreement (Annex 1);

b)                 To note the agreed Terms of Reference for the Partnership Working Group (at Annex 2);

c)                  To consider and approve Terms of Reference for the Joint Personnel Committee and the Joint Appeals Committee (at Annex 2);

d)                 To note and endorse the ‘Roles of Members and Officers and Dealing with Conflicts of Interest’ Protocol (including the Ethical Walls Procedure appended to it) (Annex 3);

e)                  To note and endorse the ‘Chief Executive Protocol’ at Annex 3 of this report;

f)                   To agree regularly to monitor the operation of the ‘Roles of Members and Officers and Dealing with Conflicts of Interest’ Protocol (including the Ethical Walls Procedure appended to it) as at Annex 3 of this report;

g)                 To delegate authority to the Monitoring Officer to make any further minor adjustments to these documents and to make the necessary changes to the Council’s Constitution.

RESOLVED:

a)           To note the agreed Section 113 Agreement (Annex 1);

b)           To note the agreed Terms of Reference for the Partnership Working Group (at Annex 2);

d)            To note and endorse the ‘Roles of Members and Officers and Dealing with Conflicts of Interest’ Protocol (including the Ethical Walls Procedure appended to it) (Annex 3);

e)           To note and endorse the ‘Chief Executive Protocol’ at Annex 3 of this report;

f)             To agree regularly to monitor the operation of the ‘Roles of Members and Officers and Dealing with Conflicts of Interest’ Protocol (including the Ethical Walls Procedure appended to it) as at Annex 3 of this report;

g)           To delegate authority to the Monitoring Officer to make any further minor adjustments to the approved documents and to make the necessary changes to the Council’s Constitution.

(point c was deferred)

The report and accompanying documents were introduced by Nick Graham.  The Partnership Working Group (PWG) will look at services that could work together between the Councils.  Cabinet will make the final decisions.  In response to suggestions from the discussion at the July Audit & Governance Committee meeting on the Protocol for Conflicts of Interest, provisions have been introduced for ‘dual hat’ councillors.

Nick Graham along with James Doble and Claire Taylor from Cherwell District Council responded to Members’ questions as follows:

·         A correction was noted in paragraph 14 of the report that the Joint Personnel Committee should have five members from each council.

·         The OCC members of the PWG will not all be from the Cherwell area and the committees will be politically balanced.

·         There will be no changes for shared staff in terms of who pays them but the Councils may share the costs of employment.

·         There will still be two councils.  Sharing services is really a management issue.  There will be a review after 6 months of the joint arrangements.

·         Although the Liberal Democrats have no rights to a voice at Cabinet meetings, they will have a Member on the PWG.  Councillor Ian Corkin, Cabinet Member for the Cherwell Partnership, also offered to work in an open way to draw on the experience of backbenchers.

·         The stipulation of a quorum of 4 for an Appeals Panel meeting will be reviewed as it has been suggested that 3 should be the maximum that an employee should have to face on such a panel.

·         It was agreed that the wording of the first bullet point under Joint Appeals Panel was not clear and needs to be reviewed.

·         It was also agreed that the title of the Joint Personnel Committee could be misleading.

·         The financial split of the costs of the Chief Executive will not be scientific but must have some regard to the respective sizes of the councils.

It was agreed to defer recommendation c) and amend g) to refer only to the documents approved by the Committee.

RESOLVED:

a)           To note the agreed Section 113 Agreement (Annex 1);

b)           To note the agreed Terms of Reference for the Partnership Working Group (at Annex 2);

d)           To note and endorse the ‘Roles of Members and Officers and Dealing with Conflicts of Interest’ Protocol (including the Ethical Walls Procedure appended to it) (Annex 3);

e)           To note and endorse the ‘Chief Executive Protocol’ at Annex 3 of this report;

f)            To agree regularly to monitor the operation of the ‘Roles of Members and Officers and Dealing with Conflicts of Interest’ Protocol (including the Ethical Walls Procedure appended to it) as at Annex 3 of this report;

g)           To delegate authority to the Monitoring Officer to make any further minor adjustments to the approved documents and to make the necessary changes to the Council’s Constitution.