Decision details

The Chairman reported that he had taken the following action since the last meeting:

1.        Exemption from Call-in: Transforming Learning Communities -emerging issues from Locality Review for Alsager, Congleton, Sandbach and Holmes Chapel:

Agreement to waiver call-in (under rule 13.1 of the Scrutiny Procedure Rules) of the Cabinet decision offering advice to Cheshire County Council’s Children's Services Executive on 13 October that the proposals should be the subject of formal consultation.

2.        Decision taken under the urgency procedure rules -Top Management Structure:

Consent as required under urgency procedure rules, to enable the recruitment process for four alternative posts to be commenced as soon as possible bearing in mind that there may be a need to recruit externally and the Council has to appoint the two statutory post holders by 31 December at the latest. 

It was noted that the decision taken under the urgency procedure was to alter the top management structure of Cheshire East Council by replacing the post of Director of Performance and Capacity with the posts of:

i)          Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development

ii)        Head of Policy and Performance

iii)      Borough Treasurer and Head of Assets (Section 151 Officer) and

iv)      Borough Solicitor (Monitoring Officer)

and to authorise commencement of the recruitment process to the four posts in accordance with the recommendations of the Staffing Committee on 11 September 2008

3.        Key Decision not included in the Forward Plan: New Model of Social Care 

A Key decision relating to the New Model of Social Care for the new Council had not been included on the Forward Plan. To enable the matter to be considered and determined at the Cabinet meeting on 7 October, action had been taken in accordance with the Constitution, under Rule 12 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules.  This decision had to be taken by such a date that it was impractical to defer the decision until it could be included in the next Forward Plan and until the start of the first month to which the next Forward Plan relates.

The Chairman then referred to the provision in the Procedure Rules that required the Interim Monitoring Officer to inform the Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee in writing by Notice of the matter to which the decision is to be made and to make copies of the Notice available to the public at the offices of the Shadow Council. Hebelieved that copies of the Notice should also be circulated to all members of the Council and had requested that this be done electronically in this case. The Chairman suggested the Constitution should be amended to cover this point.

Other matters: Procedure to handle Call-in of a Cabinet Decision at Scrutiny Committee

The Committee gave consideration to a procedure proposed by the Chairman to deal with any future Cabinet decisions that may be Called in. It was noted that the Procedure would assume that:-

·        background documentation on the issue will have been circulated with the Agenda papers (Call-Ins may occasionally have to be dealt with in Part 2 of the meeting)

·        the (minimum) eight signatories to the Call-In will have agreed beforehand on the one member to appear as a Witness on their behalf and will have produced a short written statement summarising the grounds for Call-In

Handling procedure for Call-ins at Scrutiny Committee:

1.               Scrutiny Officer to brief the Committee (5 mins)

2.               Call-In Lead Member to explain reasons for Call-In (5 mins)

3.               Members of Committee question Call-In Lead Member (10 mins)

4.               Cabinet Member to explain reasons for decision (5 mins)

5.               Members of Committee question Cabinet Member (10 mins)

6.               Opportunity for Call-In Lead Member to respond (2 mins)

7.               Chairman sums up and puts the matter to the Committee

NB: Changes to the above timings will be at the Chairman’s discretion

RESOLVED – that

1        the action taken by the Chairman in respect of the three matters set out above be noted; 

2        the Governance and Constitution Committee be requested to consider amending the Constitution so that the provision in the Procedure Rules requiring the Interim Monitoring Officer to inform the Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee in writing by notice of the matter to which the decision is to be made and to make copies of the Notice available to the public at the offices of the Shadow Council be amended so that copies of the Notice should also be required to be circulated electronically for information to all members of the Council; and

3        the Procedure for handling Call-Ins as set out above be adopted.