Agenda item

The Committee considered the report of the Monitoring Officer in relation to the arrangements in place for exercising delegation to officers.

Eastbourne Borough Council was currently undergoing a change programme called Future Model in order to improve efficiency and customer service in response to the significant ongoing financial pressures on local authorities. Now in its second phase, Future Model had created new officer roles and flatter structures of accountability which increased the need to ensure that officers fully understood the extent of the powers delegated to them. This was important to ensure that the authorities’ actions were not open to challenge.

Full Council delegate a raft of powers to chief and other officers on an annual basis via the Scheme of Delegations to Officers, which is part of the Council’s Constitution. The delegations help the authority to discharge its day to day functions effectively and with clarity.

The Scheme of Delegations was last revised and approved at Annual Council on 7 May 2014 to reflect a change to the Council’s senior management team’s responsibilities which occurred as part of phase 1 of the Future Model.

In addition, the Deputy Chief Executive maintained a central register of sub-delegations and the current list of sub-delegations was available on the Council’s Intranet to Members and Officers. Officers regularly update the list of sub-delegations to reflect the delegations in force at any given time.

In response to a question from Councillor Taylor, the Monitoring Officer clarified that the sub-delegations given to officers reflected those officers’ duties and responsibilities. They inhered throughout the Council’s structure and varied depending on the different services such as Customer First.

The Committee sought assurance that those officers who held delegated powers were aware of the extent of their powers. Councillor Mattock addressed the Committee and assured that the number of officers she dealt with on a regular basis were aware of the powers that they have.

Councillor Cooke enquired about the timescale for reviewing the Scheme of Delegation document to see if it might be made more user-friendly to view. The Monitoring Officer responded that major reviews of the document would be made annually at Annual Council in May, although minor updates may on occasion occur during the year. The Monitoring Officer referenced the complexity of the delegations which need to be in place to ensure the effective running of the organisation and stated that the scheme needed to reflect that accurately. She acknowledged that it would assist in ensuring clarity if it were possible to create a representation of the Scheme of Delegations in diagram form and agreed to take these comments on-board when the next major review was carried out.

The Committee requested that the Delegations to Officers be part of the Member Development Plan for the forthcoming year and Staff Induction for new members of staff to ensure maximum awareness.

RESOLVED: (1) That the report be noted.

(2) That the Delegations to Officers be part of both the Member Development Plan for the forthcoming year and Staff Inductions for new officers.