Agenda and draft minutes
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Contact: Julie Timbrell Email Julie.Timbrell@southwark.gov.uk 0207 525 0514
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Introduction and welcome by the Chair
Minutes: 1.1 The chair welcomed everyone to the meeting, introduced himself and asked everyone present to introduce themselves.
RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 6 July 2010 be circulated to members for agreement at the next meeting.
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Apologies
Minutes: 2.1 Apologies for lateness were received from Councillors Anood Al-Samerai and Mark Glover.
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Terms of reference
Supporting documents: Minutes: 3.1 The chair informed members that the report from this body would be received at the October 2010 meeting of the Council Assembly.
3.2 Mr Les Alden stated that he hoped the committee would be open to new ideas regarding public participation with the council.
RESOLVED: That the terms of reference for the Democracy Commission were agreed.
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Council Assembly's role and scope for change
Presentation and question and answer session with :
Ian Marks - Senior Lawyer , Governance Team Ian Millichap - Constitutional Manager Supporting documents: Minutes: 4.1 The Constitutional Manager presented this item concerning background information on the council assembly’s role and scope for change. The Senior Lawyer was also present to address any legal issues which may arise from members’ questions.
4.2 The officer pointed out that the key aspects of council assembly were contained under paragraph 5 of the report, which included budget setting and the policy framework.
4.3 It was pointed out to members that over the last few years the number of meetings have been reduced, but this year one extra meeting has been called for October 2010 so there are now currently a total of 7 meetings scheduled for this year.
4.4 It should be noted that if changes were made to council assembly, it should also recognise that for each meeting there is only a limited amount of time (3 hours).
4.5 The current forms of public participation include:
4.6 Members then heard from the Senior Lawyer (Governance Team) who explained decisions were in fact driven by the council’s executive. This had replaced the previous style under the local government act 1972, where members carried out council business through committees and sub-committees.
4.7 The local government act 2000 has allowed the executive/cabinet decision making powers. Part of the idea had been to reduce the number of meetings. The system was made to be more efficient, and more clear to the public, with a small number of members making decisions.
4.8 Scrutiny was set up to monitor and check executive decisions. Any item decision made by the executive/cabinet can be called in under the call-in process.
4.9 Members were informed that council assembly was not the only decision making body. The others were:
· Individual member decision · Cabinet · Planning committee · Licensing committee · Community council
4.10 In response to questions regarding empowering community councils, the officer reported that central government wants to give more decision making powers to community councils and would allow councils to go back to the old committees if they wish or retain cabinet arrangements. The authority has to operate legally and essentially council assembly and cabinet ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
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Learning from Scrutiny elsewhere - how other councils have improved their Council Assembly
Presentation by : Shelly Burke – Head of Scrutiny. Minutes: 5.1 The Head of Overview & Scrutiny presented a review of other councils; reporting that in particular four other councils (South Tyneside, Nottingham City Council, Birmingham City Council and Bath & North East Somerset) had reviewed their assemblies through scrutiny reviews.
5.2 The three roles for full council meeting were policy framework decisions, holding the executive to account and demonstrating community leadership.
5.3 The four common themes were :
5.4 The officer reported that Southwark was the first to undertake executive/cabinet member interviews in its scrutiny committees. Executive members were willing to open up and debate issues with backbenchers in a dialogue that was more manageable in a relatively small committee than it might be at council assembly.
5.5 Members discussed how the council could engage with the community and those groups which do not normally attend council meetings. It was suggested that other councils have done this through webcam on the council website, one council received 3,500 hits regularly. Another suggestion was to stop public questions at meetings, instead public questions along with the answer should be posted on the council website or through webcasting. It was reported that the GLA and Camden had provided webcasting successfully.
5.6 The officer stated that there were different models used by other authorities for public questions.
5.7 Members discussed having themed meetings and agreed that this would be a good way forward and arranging a meeting later in the year, it was felt that this would attract people to attend, it was also felt that new initiatives were needed to be taken on by the council and this would be explored. |
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Workplan
The workplan attached is a draft document for discussion Supporting documents: Minutes: 6.1 The Head of Community Engagement introduced the work-plan for the Democracy Commission and stated that this was a draft document outlining dates which needed to be firmed up for future action.
6.2 Members were informed that the commission is to participate in Southwark Youth Council and Youth Community Councils Summer Event on Monday 23rd August 2010.
It was reported that Saturday 4th September 2010 would consist of two parts :
6.3 The programme highlighted the months July – October 2010, members expressed concern that some dates may clash with conference dates for the policitcal groups.
6.4 Members also expressed a wish to engage all 8 community councils views into the report to council assembly, which is scheduled for 20th October 2010
6.5 The commission was informed that a group of residents (12-20) who have never attended council assembly will be attending the focus group workshop on Wednesday 14 July 2010 .
6.6 Member discussed the short timescale to cover all aspects of the work-plan and decided there was a need to meet as many deadlines as possible.
This report was noted. |
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Questionnaire
Developing a questionnaire for use with members of the public and councillors Minutes: 7.1 Members viewed the draft questionnaire and stated that people attending meetings will have seen the document and it will also be included at workshop meetings.
7.2 Members discussed that the questionaire needed to generate data to produce both quantifiable and qualifiedly data that can be collated and used in the report to council assembly. The officer informed members that this was the start of the process and more details would be included as the process picked up. Members stated that generic branding with the right level of questions were required.
7.3 It was reported that the commission web page is up and running and the questionnaire can be loaded onto it for the public to access the document. Members wanted the public to access the document and feed their thoughts back to the council.
The document was noted.
7.4 Councillor Columba Blango gave his apologies for the meeting of the 4th September 2010
The meeting ended at 8.10 pm |
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Supporting documents: |