Council Submission on Council Size to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England
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DATA & INFORMATION PACK Doncaster Council Submission on Council Size to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England July 2013 Version 1.2 1 Contents Section Page 1 Introduction 3 2 Council Governance Structure 4 3 Doncaster Wards & Population 10 4 Electoral Representation 14 5 Council & Committees 16 6 Outside Bodies 37 7 Overview & Scrutiny 47 8 Public Questionnaire 62 2 1. Introduction The Local Government Boundary Commission is carrying out an electoral review of Doncaster. This is with a view to determining the number of Councillors needed to deliver “effective and convenient local government”. The Council size, the number of Councillors, is the starting point for the electoral review. The next stage of the review will be to establish the number and size of Wards. This document details the data and information the Commission requires to reach a decision on Council size. It has also been used to support the development of an initial submission from Doncaster Councillors. 3 2. Council Governance Structure Doncaster Council has a directly elected Mayor and Cabinet governance structure. The table below summarises the Council’s governance arrangements since 2001. Pre-2001 Traditional Committee system 20.09.01 Mayoral Referendum resulting in an Elected Mayoral system of local government being adopted. Result of vote was: Yes 35,453 No 19,398 01.10.01 Interim Cabinet style decision making structure implemented. 02.05.02 First Mayoral Election, won by Martin Winter (Labour), who took office on 06.05.02. First term of 3 years under transitional arrangements to allow the Mayoral Elections to be brought into line with the normal electoral cycle. 05.05.05 Mayoral Election Martin Winter (Labour) was re-elected. Became an Independent Mayor in 2008. 04.06.09 Mayoral Election won by Peter Davies (English Democrat). Became an Independent Mayor in 2013 03.05.12 Referendum on change in governance arrangements The result was for the Council to continue to be run by a directly elected Mayor. 02.05.13 Mayoral Election won by Ros Jones (Labour) Doncaster has 63 councillors, representing 21 Wards, plus the directly elected Mayor. Councillors are elected by thirds, with the Mayoral elections held in the fourth, fallow, year. The map at Figure 1 illustrates the current warding scheme and polling districts with the borough. 4 Figure 1 Current Doncaster Warding Scheme & Polling Districts 5 Mayor & Cabinet The directly elected Mayor has executive powers and is responsible for the effective implementation of council policy and delivering services. She has appointed 9 other Cabinet members, who are Labour Councillors, each of which has a specific portfolio of responsibility. Each portfolio role is considered to be full time. NB: Due to ill health, one Cabinet Member has temporarily stood down from Cabinet duties and their portfolio has been redistributed. Cabinet Member Portfolio Chair: Mayor of Doncaster Ros Finance & Corporate Services, Community Jones Safety Deputy Chair: Councillor Glyn Jones, Housing, Equalities and Cohesion Deputy Mayor Councillor Chris Mills Environment and Waste Councillor Tony Children's Safeguarding and Services to Corden Families (and support to Lead Member for Children’s Services) Councillor Nuala Fennelly Education and Skills and Lead Member for Children’s Services Councillor Bob Johnson Regeneration & Growth, Tourism, Culture, Leisure & Veteran's Champion Councillor Bill Mordue Highways Councillor Joe Blackham Neighbourhoods, Enforcement and Trading Services Councillor Pat Knight Health and Adult Social Care Figure 2 Cabinet Portfolios The Mayor is to propose the appointment of, unpaid, Assistant Cabinet Members due to the workload and in depth knowledge required for each portfolio. Doncaster Council’s Constitution details the Scheme of Delegation and the roles of the Mayor and Cabinet Members (Part 6). Please see Doncaster's Constitution 1 for more information. A new scheme of delegation will be published shortly to reflect the new Cabinet portfolios and Directorate functions. 1 http://www.doncaster.gov.uk/sections/councilanddemocracy/policiesplansandperformance/ourplans/D oncaster_Council_s_Constitution.aspx 6 Cabinet Meetings The following are invited to attend Cabinet meetings, which are held on a fortnightly basis: The Mayor Members of the Cabinet Directors The meetings are also open to members of the public. There are standing agenda items for Cabinet meetings. These include an opportunity for questions from members of the public, the noting of Decision Record Forms from the previous meeting, and Key/Non-Key decisions for Cabinet’s approval. The table below at, Figure 3, shows the number of decisions taken at Cabinet, and by individual Cabinet Members, between 2008 and 2012. Cabinet Individual Cabinet Decisions Member Decisions 2008 59 11 2009 59 9 2010 71 25 2011 87 23 2012 77 10 Figure 3 Decisions The Role of Council and Non-Executive Councillors It is vital that there is the optimum number of members to ensure that local people are properly represented, and that non-executive functions are carried out as efficiently and effectively as possible. The number of decisions that must be taken to full council has reduced since the introduction of the Mayor and Cabinet system. However there are a variety of roles within the democratic structure for councillors who do not hold executive roles. For full details see Part 6 of the Constitution (Footnote 1). Full details of the various roles are given in the Council’s Constitution, see Footnote 1, and a summary is shown below. Overview and Scrutiny function. It is prohibited by law for executive members to be on any of the committees. This is to ensure that a transparent inspection can be conducted without bias and the Executive can be held to account for the decisions that are made. Participating in Full Council which sets the broad policy and budgetary framework. Involvement in non-executive decision making through membership on the Council’s Regulatory Committees, Licensing or Planning Committees. 7 In total, members sit on approximately 3.7 committees or bodies within the council, excluding any executive committees, see page 34. For more detail on Overview & Scrutiny meetings, see page 47. Membership of outside bodies or organisations benefits the effectiveness of the council. Please see page 37 for a list of these outside bodies and representatives. There are a large number of bodies that members may be involved with. However, by far the most important role of a councillor is that of representational and leadership role in their local community. Civic Mayor The Chair of Council, also known as the Civic Mayor, holds a ceremonial role and is elected by Full Council, along with a deputy, each year. The Civic Mayor chairs all Full Council meetings which take place throughout the year. During 2012-13 the Civic Mayor, Councillor Mills, attended 450 engagements and the Deputy Civic Mayor, Councillor Dobbs, attended 48. Whilst a candidate for the role, the Civic Mayor is advised to ask their Ward colleagues to consider fulfilling their Ward duties as they would be unable to undertake them. This is an added pressure each year on the Civic Mayor’s Ward colleagues. Training & Development A need based Member Development Framework (MDF) is being developed which will build on existing skills based training, policy briefings and workshops. There are mandatory courses for Members on Planning and Licensing Committees. It is intended that the new MDF will ensure a wider range of mandatory courses for example on data protection, equalities, corporate parenting and safeguarding. Attendance by Members at training courses, seminars and workshops is detailed below; o Of the 34 training & development events there were 29 all member events held during 2012/13 municipal year, the average attendance was 17 Members. o Other events held included Induction, Licensing and Planning training which were specific to a group of Councillors. o 34 Councillors attended 17 external training and development events ranging from conferences and regional events to skills training e.g. Chairing Skills for Scrutiny and Social Media. Time commitment A short survey of Councillors was undertaken which asked them to detail the amount of time they spent on various aspects of their roles. A total of 45 questionnaires were returned which detailed activities for the month of June 2013. It should be noted that there were some differences in responses in the activities that were included in the assessment, for example some Councillors did not record time 8 spent preparing for meetings while others did. Approximately five Councillors who provided responses suffered a period of ill health during the survey period. The average amount of time spent each week on Council duties was 22 hours and 43 minutes. The range of time varied from 42 minutes per week to 44 hours 48 minutes. A number of Councillors carry out their duties in addition to their normal employment. As Cabinet Member roles are considered to be full time, a further calculation of the average amount of time was carried out which excluded these Councillors. This gave an average of 19 hours and 56 minutes per week. 9 3. Doncaster Wards & Population The map at Figure 1, page 5, shows the borough of Doncaster and its Wards. Figure 4 gives details of the population of each Ward based on the March 2011 Census, along with the number of social housing properties. These are either St Leger Homes of Doncaster (SLHD) properties or Registered Social Landlords