AGENDA ITEM NO. REPORT TO: Corporate Governance and Policy Scrutiny Committee REPORT NO: CLDSO/132/09S DATE: 4 November 2009 REPORTING OFFICER: Chief Legal and Democratic Services Officer CONTACT OFFICER: Peter Mullen (Tel: 292235) SUBJECT: The Report of the Councillor Commission Expert Panel Wales ‘Are We Being Served’ WARD: N/A 1 PURPOSE OF THE REPORT To consider a proposed response to the recommendations contained in the report of The Councillor Commission Expert Panel Wales, ‘Are We Being Served’, for referral to the Executive Board for consideration. 2 SUMMARY 2.1 Following the report of the Councillors Commission in December 2007 – ‘Representing the Future’, an Expert Panel was established in Wales to consider which of the recommendations made by the Commission could be implemented in Wales and also to consider other issues in local government examined by the Commission which could affect the recruitment, retention and development of councillors in Wales. 2.2 The Minister for Social Justice and Local Government, Mr Brian Gibbons, AC/AM, is consulting primarily on the recommendations of the Panel that are aimed at the Welsh Assembly Government, but would welcome views on any of the recommendations. 2.3 The closing date for the submission of comments is Friday, 27 November 2009. 2.4 All 35 recommendations, together with Officers’ suggested responses, can be found in Annex A to this report. 1 3 RECOMMENDATION 3.1 To consider Officers’ suggested responses to the Expert Panel’s recommendations prior to referral to the Executive Board. 4 INFORMATION 4.1 Following the report of the Councillors Commission in December 2007 – “Representing the Future”, an Expert Panel was established in Wales to consider the implications for Wales of the recommendations made by the Commission and also to consider other issues in local government not examined by the Commission which could affect the recruitment, retention and development of councillors in Wales. 4.2 The terms of reference for the Expert Panel were as follows • to consider the recommendations of the Councillors Commission and their appropriateness for implementation in Wales; • to consider whether there are any other issues relevant to widening participation in local government in Wales, which have not been considered by the Councillors Commission ; and • to make recommendations to the Minister by November 2008. 4.3 Members of the Panel were invited to participate on the basis of their expertise in particular areas. 4.4 The Panel membership was as follows:- Sophie Howe (Chair) Political Adviser, Equality and Human Rights (Seconded to Welsh Assembly Government) Angharad Davies Head, Public Affairs BT Wales Karl Davies Head of Governance and Accountability in Wales, BBC Wales Trust Councillor Meryl Gravell OBE Independent Councillor and Leader Carmarthenshire County Council Councillor Gwenllian Lansdown Chief Executive, Plaid Cymru and Cardiff County Councillor Phi Nifield Former Political Editor South Wales Echo Councillor Ramesh Patel Councillor, Canton Electoral Division Richard Penn Chair, Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales Chris Roberts General Secretary Welsh Labour Catherine Thomas Wales Women’s National Coalition Derek Walker Wales TUC Owen Watkin, OBE Former Chief Executive Ceredigion County Council Simon White Chief Executive, One Voice Wales Advisors to the Panel Derek Hurford Welsh Local Government Association Raine Larcher Welsh Local Government Association Frank Cuthbert Welsh Assembly Government 2 Secretariat Margaret Adams Welsh Assembly Government 4.5 The Panel met on eight occasions, with five of these meetings considering specific themes which were linked to the themes considered by the Councillors Commission. The meetings were themed as follows: • the role of councillors; • public perception and understanding of councillors and the role of the media; • balancing working and family life with being a councillor; • supporting, recognising and rewarding councillors; and • recruiting and retaining a diverse range of councillors. 4.6 The report of the Panel ‘Are we being served’? has now been published. It is a comprehensive report which has fully considered all the issues of how to promote more and varied involvement in local democracy by a wider range of people than currently is the case. The report can be viewed electronically via the website referred to at the end of this report. 4.7 In her foreword to The Report of the Councillor Commission Expert Panel Wales, Sophie Howe, Chair of the Expert Panel, concludes as follows: ‘The Expert Panel was established by the Welsh Assembly Government to consider the report of the Councillor Commission. We have considered carefully the evidence presented to the Councillors Commission, have taken our own evidence and have drawn on the expertise of the Panel’s membership. In short, it has been the task of this Panel to consider, “are we being served?” In considering this we have considered ‘we’ to be both 21st century councillor for whom the support to enable their job to be done properly is often lacking and ‘we’ the public who, despite the dedication and commitment of current elected members, are, in reality, mainly being served by people who are representative of only a small section of society. Our report examines how we can ensure that the role of a councillor is recognised, supported and made accessible to ordinary people – this, we conclude, goes hand in hand with encouraging a more diverse range of people to consider becoming councillors. We believe that there is a role for central government, local government itself, political parties, the media and employers in renewing local democracy, in providing councillors with the support that they need to do their jobs – enabling them to communicate better and engage more effectively with their communities and helping them to shape the future of our public services and local democracy. I hope that those organisations who have recommendations directed towards them in this report will work towards ensuring that our community champions are supported in doing this and in meeting the challenge so eloquently described by Professor Stephen Coleman of being “ordinary enough to be representative and extraordinary enough to be representatives”. 4.8 The recommendations made by the Panel cover the areas of councillor development, campaigning with others to raise awareness of local government and increasing 3 interest in candidacy, and linking up with employers to promote community involvement including council service. 4.9 The Minister for Social Inclusion and Local Government, Mr Brian Gibbons, AC/AM, is consulting primarily on the recommendations of the Panel that are aimed at the Welsh Assembly Government, but would welcome views on any of the recommendations. 4.10 Attached at Annex A is a summary of the recommendations contained in the Panel’s report, together with Officers’ suggested responses thereto. In presenting this matter to Members, Officers consider it necessary to make the point that, in their view, although the recommendations appear to have been considered at length by the Panel they are extremely aspirational with little or no challenge given to cost/benefit. 5 EQUALITIES IMPACT ASSESSMENT The report sets out a proposed response to a consultation exercise and, therefore, an equalities impact assessment is not required. 6 RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS The consultation exercise itself poses no resource implications. However, if implemented, some of the recommendations made by the Expert Panel could pose significant resource implications for local authorities. 7 LEAD MEMBER COMMENT This report has been drawn to the attention of the relevant Lead Member. BACKGROUND PAPERS LOCATION WEBSITE INFO. Letter dated 4 September 2009 Legal and Democratic http://www.adjudicationp from Brian Gibbons AC/AM, Services Department anelwales.com/consultati Minister for Social Justice and Local ons/localgovernment/bei Government, enclosing a copy of ngserved/;jsessionid=T3 The Report of the Councillor vzK1DMpXnTg4Lny0MC Commission Expert Panel Wales, 1s3SLgXyp1f6dTqJJgs6 “Are we being served?” kHh1VbQ2pBhG!- 1833824413?cr=5&lang= en&ts=1&status=closed. CLJ/REP2009/CLDSO-132-09 4 ANNEXE A Recommendation 1 As part of their statutory duties, local authorities should undertake equality monitoring amongst candidates standing for election and all newly-elected councillors. The same should be done for community and town councillors and in the meantime the census of county councillors should also be extended to community and town councillors. It is considered that any equality monitoring at candidacy stage would have to be done by the Returning Officer as the information on candidates is held by the Returning Officer, not the local authority and would therefore add an extra burden to the Returning Officer’s duties. From an equalities perspective, the proposed monitoring would be welcome. Recommendation 2 Consideration should be given to introducing a legal separation of the executive and non-executive functions of the council with separate funding streams that would protect the central provision of members’ services. The Council rejects this proposal. Accounting regulations are already in place to ensure that Member support costs are identified but the fact that such costs are identified does not mean that they can be protected. This proposal could lead to a doubling of support costs were there to be two separate structures for the Executive and Scrutiny functions. Without clearly established benefits,