Decision Making.

Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is responsible for most of the major public services in the Borough. These include planning, education, housing, roads, social care and transport.

How the Council operates/How Decisions are made?

The Council

The Council is composed of 51 Members with one-third elected three years in four. Councillors are democratically accountable to residents of their ward. The overriding duty of Members is to the whole community, but they have a special duty to their constituents, including those who did not vote for them. Councillors have to agree to follow a local Code of Conduct to ensure high standards in the way they undertake their duties.

All Members meet together as the Council. Meetings of the Council are normally open to the public. Here Members decide the Council's overall policies and set the budget each year. The Council appoints a Leader of the Council who then appoints a Cabinet. The Council appoints Scrutiny Boards to hold the Cabinet to account and to advise the Council on the adoption of the overall Policy Framework of the Council.

The Council also appoints regulatory committees to deal with planning and licensing functions, appeals and other issues.

How Executive Decisions are Made

The Cabinet is the part of the Council which is responsible for most executive decisions. The Cabinet is made up of the Leader of the Council and a Cabinet of 6 other Members appointed by th Leader.  Executive decisions may be made by the whole Cabinet meeting together, by individual Cabinet Portfolio Holders sitting with the relevant spokesmen from the other political groups on the Council, or by officers acting under powers delegated by the Leader.

Key Decisions and Private Reports

When key decisions are to be made by the Cabinet, these are published in the Forward Plan at least 28 days before the date the decision is to be made.  These meetings will be open for the public to attend except where personal or confidential matters are being discussed. If a decision is proposed to be taken in a private the Council must give 28 days notice and set out the reasons for the business to be considered in private.  A further notice will be published a week before the meeting re-stating the reasons for the private meeting.

If this timetable cannot be met the meeting can still go ahead if the relevant Scrutiny Board Chairman agrees a decision must be made urgently and cannot be deferred.

Details of key decisions and matters to be considered in private can be seen in the Forward Plan for Key Decisions and Private Reports.

For more information or to challenge the reason for a report proposed to be considered in private please contact the Democratic Services Team.

The Cabinet has to make decisions in line with the Council's overall policies and budget. If it wishes to make a decision which is outside the budget or Policy Framework, this must be referred to the full Council to decide.

Overview and Scrutiny

There is an Overview and Scrutiny Management Board and four Scrutiny Boards which support the work of the Cabinet and the Council by contributing to the development of the Policy Framework. They allow citizens to have a greater say in Council matters by attending their meetings and giving their views about the Council's policies. They may also hold public inquiries into matters of local concern. These lead to reports and recommendations which advise the Cabinet and the Council on policies, budget and service delivery. Scrutiny Boards also monitor the decisions of the Cabinet. They can call-in a decision which has been made by the Cabinet, an individual Cabinet Member or officer but not yet implemented. This enables them to consider whether the decision has taken into account all appropriate matters and processes.

The Council's Staff

The Council has people working for it (Officers) to give advice, implement decisions and manage the day-to-day delivery of its services. Some officers have a specific duty to ensure that the Council acts within the law and uses its resources wisely.

How you can get involved

The Council’s Procedural Rules allow for Members of the Public to ask a question or make a deputation at the full Council meeting or any of its Committees. For more information see the Council’s Constitution (pages 47 and 48).

You can also make suggestions about what should be looked at by the Overview & Scrutiny Boards. If you believe that one of the Council's services needs to be improved or you see something going wrong, you can contact your local Councillor or a Councillor who is on an Overview and Scrutiny Board. Where appropriate they will ask that the matter be discussed by the relevant Board although, in some cases, there may be a simple answer to the question raised or it may be better dealt with through the Council's complaints system.

Petitions

You can also get involved by creating or signing a petition to the Council about matters of local concern.  For more information see the petitions page.

Contact

If you require any further information then please contact Democratic Services

Telephone: 0121 7046022

Email: democraticservices@solihull.gov.uk

• Decision Making - The Constitution of the Council
  An introduction to the Council's constitution and the Articles of the Constitution, the roles of the full Council, Cabinet, Scrutiny, Committees and information on your rights & responsibilities.
• Decision making - the Cabinet
  The Cabinet system operates in a similar way to the Government's with each member of the Cabinet, who are all members of the political party with overall control of the Council, having specific responsibilities and decision making powers in the same way as ministers do.
• Overview and Scrutiny
  As a result of new legislation, the way that decisions are taken in Local Government has changed. As a part of these changes, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council has appointed an Overview and Scrutiny Management Board and four Scrutiny Boards.
• Petitions