Agenda and minutes

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Items
No. Item

1.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillors Bowman, Bridgett, Gallacher, Lang,  Murphy, Purvis, Robinson, Taylor, Towns and Waddell. 

2.

DISCLOSURES OF MEMBERS' INTERESTS

Unless already entered in the Council’s Register of Members’ interests, members are required where a matter arises at a meeting;

 

a.       Which directly relates to Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (‘DPI’) as set out in Appendix B, Table 1 of the Code of Conduct, to disclose the interest, not participate in any discussion or vote and not to remain in room. Where members have a DPI or if the matter concerns an executive function and is being considered by a Cabinet Member with a DPI they must notify the Monitoring Officer and arrange for somebody else to deal with the matter.

 

b.       Which directly relates to the financial interest or well being of an Other Registrable Interest as set out in Appendix B, Table 2 of the Code of Conduct to disclose the interest and only speak on the matter if members of the public are also allowed to speak at the meeting but otherwise must not take part in any discussion  or vote on the matter and must not remain the room.

 

c.        Which directly relates to their financial interest or well-being  (and is not  DPI) or the financial well being of a relative or close associate, to declare the interest and members may only speak on the matter if members of the public are also allowed to speak. Otherwise, the member must not take part in discussion or vote on the matter and must leave the room.

 

d.       Which affects the financial well-being of the member, a relative or close associate or a body included under the Other Registrable Interests column in Table 2, to disclose the interest and apply the test set out at paragraph 9 of Appendix B before deciding whether they may remain in the meeting.

 

e.       Where Members have or a Cabinet Member has an Other Registerable Interest or Non Registerable Interest in a matter being considered in exercise of their executive function, they must notify the Monitoring Officer and arrange for somebody else to deal with it.

 

NB Any member needing clarification must contact monitoringofficer@northumberland.gov.uk.  Members are referred to the Code of Conduct which contains the matters above in full. Please refer to the guidance on disclosures at the rear of this agenda letter.

 

 

3.

REPORT OF THE ACTING DEPUTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE pdf icon PDF 113 KB

Report of Governance Review Task and Finish Cross Party Steering Group

 

At its meeting of 8th June 2022, Council considered a report by the Leader and Deputy Leader on the Independent Governance Review (The ‘Caller Review’). Following this, Council agreed to form a Steering Group on a task and finish basis, to consider the Council’s response to the ‘Caller Review’ and its recommendations. It was further agreed that the Steering Group would meet within seven days of 8th June and report back to the County Council on 21 June 2022 (report and appendix enclosed).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Report of the Governance Review Task and Finish Cross Party Steering Group

 

On introducing his report, the Acting Deputy Chief Executive referred to the Council meeting on 8 June 2022, when Max Caller and colleagues from SOLACE presented their Independent Governance Review Report, the content of which he felt came as a shock and surprise to many. Accompanying that report Members had considered a report of the Leader and Deputy Leader on the ‘Caller’ Review and agreed to form a cross-party Steering Group on a task and finish basis to consider the Council’s response to the Review and its recommendations.

 

The Steering Group met within 7 days as agreed on 8 June and Council was today requested to consider their report. A copy of the ‘Caller Report’ was also recirculated.

 

The Acting Deputy CEO referred to the report as ‘forward looking’ and a start to Members and officers working together positively in the future. However, he recognised several issues in the report referring to these as how the Council works: the Constitution, Governance, HR procedures relating to previous cases, Financial Regulations and Delegations, many of which were easy to fix and were in hand already. Issues such as values and culture would take much longer to resolve. He commented that reasonable requests for information from the Leader which were contested, denied or delayed was unacceptable in any Council and should never be repeated in order to have an effective Council going forward. He also referred to the misunderstanding of the legitimate roles of Members and officers and that it should be made clear that the Council is a politically led organisation with Members setting the policy and officers delivering them. The Review was clear that the officer structure should be amended and shaped to meet the council’s priorities.

 

He also stated that there were some appalling practices identified in the report, with inconsistent practices, local government legislation not being followed etc. Past members of staff had claimed this was so but had been ignored. Again, this needed a change in culture rather than just a review of the Constitution and Code of Conduct. A great deal of his time was currently taken up dealing with complaints which did not allow the Council to move on.

Turning to his report and the attached work plan, Members were advised that if agreed, further work would be carried out including identifying resources, timescales etc and reported back to Council at their meeting on 6 July. He then asked if a further recommendation could be added to the report as Recommendation 1 as follows:

 

Council is recommended to formally receive the report of the Independent Governance Review (the ‘Caller’ Report).

 

The Members of the Cross-Party Task and Finish Steering Group were then asked if they had any comments on the report or Work Plan.

 

The Leader stated he had nothing to add but remarked it had been a struggle to instigate the review and that the results were as he expected. He would seek  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.