How are Councils structured?
Councils are made up of electoral wards or
divisions. In some authorities one councillor represents each ward
and in others there are multi-member wards. In the London Assembly
there are additional seats allocated according to the proportion of
votes gained by the political parties (the list system). From time
to time the independent Boundary Commission reviews the boundaries
to try to ensure every area is fairly represented on the
council.
The full council meeting, where all elected
councillors attend and have the right to exercise their
representative role through, for example, speaking, asking
questions, putting forward motions and presenting petitions, is the
sovereign body of the local authority.
Following local government reforms, introduced
by the Labour government since 1997, there is a split between the
executive and scrutiny functions. In simple terms this means the
council is run by a committee of portfolio holders responsible for
specific areas of the council’s services (the executive) and its
decisions are scrutinised by committees of backbench councillors.
The way councils implement this in detail will vary from council to
council.
Most councils are led by a leader who is
usually the leader of the majority political group on the council.
The leader will normally chair the executive committee. Where there
is no overall control the council will be led by a joint
administration of the two largest political groups or, in some
cases, one political party takes minority control. In a limited
number of councils in the UK there is an elected Mayor who forms a
Cabinet which takes on the executive role.
The council’s committees perform a scrutiny
role in the sense of critically examining the decisions of the
executive. These scrutiny committees also conduct their own
investigations and enquiries to produce reports for the full
council proposing new policies and ways of operating.
Council services are run and administered on a
day to day basis by full time council officers and staff. The
Council Executive has an overview of how these services are run.
The range of services provided will vary according to the type of
council. Some services are provided by the council itself – the ‘in
house’ operation. Others are contracted out to private companies
and voluntary sector organisations. All council services are
required to deliver the best value for money for local residents
and are regularly inspected to make sure they do.
Unite has a particular interest in the
delivery of local services for it is here where our members are
employed. The contracting out of services began under the
Conservatives and has continued under the Labour government. Unite
has campaigned against contracting out, or, put more simply,
privatisation. The main concern of the union is that employees
whose work is contracted out do not lose their jobs and do not
suffer in terms of worse pay, terms and conditions and pensions.
Various campaigns to end differences in these, which created a
two-tier workforce, have been undertaken.
More information on how councils work in
general can be found at the various websites run by the Local
Government Association (http://www.lga.gov.uk/),
the Local Government Information Unit (http://www.lgiu.gov.uk/),
the Improvement and Development Agency for local government (IDeA)
(http://www.idea.gov.uk/)
and the Department for Communities and Local Government (www.communities.gov.uk/localgovernment)
or by logging on to the website of the local authorities(s) where
you live.
