At the annual council meeting held today (23 May), councillors voted to approve plans to modernise and simplify the council’s governance arrangements.
Following a review of the council’s governance and decision-making process by the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) in 2022 – which recommended we modernise and simplify our governance arrangements and make decision making more transparent – a cross party Governance Reference Group of councillors was set up in August 2023 to develop a new approach.
The current model was described by the CfGS as a ‘hybrid-hybrid’ model of governance which is unique to Cambridge and isn’t in use by any other local authority. It involves key decisions being presented to a Scrutiny Committee for discussion, before the relevant executive councillor ultimately takes the decision. The CfGS report summarised the current governance model and approach as being ‘resource heavy (officer and member time)’ and ’opaque’, and that ‘activity does not always result in improved outcomes’.
The recommendation to design and implement a move to a revised ‘Leader and Cabinet’ model was approved today. This would see more decisions made collectively by Cabinet members, rather than by individual executive councillors, with scrutiny provided by an Overview and Scrutiny Committee. This is a much more common model, used by 90% of councils up and down the country, and is expected to be more cost effective and efficient for officers and councillors, ensuring the council is more agile at a time when proposals for Cambridge are in the national and international spotlight.
Now that the recommendation to move to a new model has been approved, the next step is for a new councillor-led working group to be established, involving councillors from all parties, to design the new decision-making model for Cambridge.
The Governance Reference Group came up with four principles for good governance and highlighted the below:
- Decision making is timely / prompt, focused and efficient
- Decision making is accountable
- Our governance system and decision-making processes are transparent
- Our governance system encourages collaboration
Before any changes are made, final proposals from the councillor-led working group will be presented to the council’s Civic Affairs Committee in 2025 before being presented for agreement at a meeting of Full Council, before full implementation of the new model goes live at the Annual Council meeting in May 2025.
