Decision details

The Cabinet Member considered the report of the Assistant Chief Executive (Management) updating on the current position in relation to the Governance Review and providing a summary update to ensure that progress was reported through the Cabinet Structure and explain how the review would progress in the coming months.

The Governance Review Working Group continued to meet to provide a steer to the workstreams identified in the Governance Review Baseline document produced and consulted on at the end of the last calendar year.  There were a number of workstreams which were linked and had interrelated dependencies.  An example of this was the Area Management Workstream and the Sefton Borough Partnership Workstream. The development of the Governance arrangements of the two would now be dependent on each other.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Management) spoke to the report, giving details of the Area Management workstream, which were to go to Area Committees and would be reported back to the Joint Chairs’ meeting in January 2010.  Cabinet Members were to be consulted and comments brought back to the Governance Review Group on the constitution of the board and changes to executive arrangements. 

The Cabinet Member asked that details be brought back to him before going to Cabinet. He further stated that the Area Management was now a key workstream and that the conventions needed to be made public at the appropriate time.

The Spokesperson expressed the view that the model for consultation was key, as the review group appeared to be different to what was envisaged and that there was a need to engage with the community, although the definition of community was not precise. He was concerned that there was a need for effective monitoring, otherwise there was a danger of Members being by passed.

The Cabinet Member expressed concerns that there had been a number of significant issues which had been reported but that officers had not fully consulted Members prior to this, which was embarrassing for Members.  He further stated that there was a need for clarity and that a report back to this meeting was required prior to the Cabinet Meeting

The Assistant Chief Executive (Management) indicated that there was no agenda for the Borough Partnership to extend its role and that the best model to use would need to engage at both strategic and local levels but that the model could not be decided without bringing the policy before Members – an early meeting was suggested.

RESOLVED:

That progress in relation to the Governance Review be noted