Agenda item

To receive an update on the Internal Governance Arrangements of Somerset Council.

The Acting Strategic Manager for Business Change, Alastair Higton, introduced the report which described the new informal corporate governance arrangements and assured the Committee of their purpose and intention.

The Constitution and Governance Committee noted the report and provided feedback and views on the arrangements in order to ensure they remained appropriate, fit for purpose and consistent with the established democratic and constitutional governance.

The Chair of the Constitution and Governance Committee, Cllr Ross Henley, invited Acting Strategic Manager for Business Change, Alastair Higton, to present the report.

Acting Strategic Manager for Business Change, Alastair Higton, proceeded to present the report with the aid of a PowerPoint presentation, highlighting: the new informal corporate (whole Council non democratic, non-constitutional) governance arrangements in place to develop the culture of the organisation, through values and behaviours, to improve and build a new organisation that works across our teams and with Elected Members, to  join up services, systems and partnerships to get better outcomes and succeed together; the arrangements to allow decisions to made in confidence, with transparent democratic governance so that Members are able to see, understand and challenge the plans and work of the Council; the three new Leadership Team forums, all with a different purpose and replacing previous meetings: Executive Leadership Team, Corporate Leadership Team, Service Director Leadership; the three new boards - Transition, Transformation and Change Board, Medium-Term Financial Plan Board, Performance, Risk and Budget Board; that Services will also have arrangements to support their operations; that the arrangements have taken learnings from the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) programme alongside the vision to develop leaders who are empowered and accountable; that the arrangements do not replace or reduce the role of formal Constitutional decision-making and democratic governance; summarised the relationships between informal and formal governance and assured Members that their critical role in governance and leadership of Somerset Council is not undermined.

The Chair of the Constitution and Governance Committee, Cllr Ross Henley, invited comments from other Members present, questions and points raised included:

• The support for the ambition, proposed setups and the breaking down of silos across the organisation.
• How transparency, collaboration and feedback from meetings and Boards would take place in real time, how information and actions to be fed through and communicated to appropriate individuals / groups / channels to deliver ambitions, plans and outcomes from meetings, the process of communicating and referral of information.

Acting Strategic Manager for Business Change, Alastair Higton, described the process of connecting the organisation and increasing the number of networks across the organisation through creating and building relationships through sharing information, with informal decisions recorded and shared with appropriate and relevant groups of people, and the plan to continually review and respond as appropriate.

• The possibility of Council wide / public confusion referring to Executive (administration) and Executive Leadership Team.
• The comparison of resources / officer time with the new meetings / groups / boards with previous Leadership arrangements / meetings.
• The importance of improving the reporting of risk to fully understand where there is risk, where the responsibilities are to protect the organisation and to scan for risk.

Acting Strategic Manager for Business Change, Alastair Higton to report risk reporting comments to the Performance and Risk teams.

• How the new Leadership Team Forums / Boards fit with existing Committee arrangements and the ability to respond to Members with confidence and clarity, while delivering at pace through a challenging period.

The Constitution and Governance Committee noted the report and provided feedback and views on the arrangements in order to ensure they remained appropriate, fit for purpose and consistent with the established democratic and constitutional governance.