Angus Council - Decentralisation Scheme
Contents
- Legislative Requirements
- Background
- Decentralisation Principles
- Consultation Exercise
- Physical Decentralisation
- Managerial Decentralisation
- Political Decentralisation
- Community Councils
- Timetable
- Evaluation and Review
1. Legislative Requirements
Section 23 of the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 places a duty on Angus Council to prepare and adopt a decentralisation scheme for their area.
The Act provides that:
"a draft decentralisation scheme shall contain a council's proposals for the administration of their functions within the whole area of the council and shall specify the date or dates by which such a draft scheme shall be implemented and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, may include provision as to:
(a) arrangements for the holding of meetings of the council (or any committee or sub-committee of the council) at particular places within the area of the council;
(b) the establishment of committees for particular areas and the delegation to those committees of specified functions of the council;
(c) the location of offices of the council within the council's area, the staffing of such offices and the delegation to members of staff of specified functions;
(d) the provision of facilities at particular places within the area of the council where advice may be obtained on services provided by the council."
The Act further provides that the council is required to give public notice of the fact that they have prepared a draft decentralisation scheme and of the places within the council area where copies of the draft scheme may be inspected. This notice is to invite the public, within a period of not less than 8 weeks from the date of the notice, to make representations to the council regarding the draft scheme. The Council is also required to consult Community Councils within their area during the same period.
After considering representations received, the council may amend the draft scheme. Once the scheme has been adopted the council is required to send a copy of the scheme in its adopted form to the Secretary of State and to give public notice of the scheme. It will then be the duty of the council to implement the scheme by the date or dates specified in the scheme.
This decentralisation scheme has accordingly been made by Angus Council in terms of Section 23 of the 1994 Act and in accordance with the legislative procedure outlined above.
2. Background
Angus Council is committed to a strategic planning approach and has translated its political vision into a Strategic Statement which comprises the following 7 Key Themes:
- To promote the identity of and represent the interests of Angus locally, nationally and internationally.
- To aim to provide excellent public services, maximising the use of available resources to meet local needs.
- To improve economic prosperity in Angus.
- To improve the environment and the quality of life in Angus, with an emphasis on sustainability.
- To promote equal opportunities/reduce inequalities in Angus.
- To value staff as the council's most important asset, and seek to ensure long-term employment prospects for a locally based and directly employed workforce.
- To develop partnerships.
3. Decentralisation Principles
3.1 The key principles influencing the council's thinking about decentralisation are:
- Subsidiarity - Devolving decision making to the lowest practical level
- Accountability - Making decisions visible locally
- Consistency - Ensuring similar basic standards of service across the council area
- Access - Ensuring all clients have access to information and services at levels
- Choice - Allowing influence and choice over priorities at local level
- Responsiveness - In delivering services, meeting standards and dealing with complaints
- Continuity - By building on current arrangements for service delivery and local decision making
3.2 The main objectives of the council's Decentralisation Scheme are as follows:
- to encourage the public to take a greater interest in and to identify more closely with the council;
- to seek to provide an integrated "one stop" approach to service and information provision and thereby to promote a clear corporate image;
- to enable the public to be involved in influencing and shaping the design of services which meet their needs;
- to promote community identity and public participation in the life and work of the council within individual communities;
- to provide more accountable, efficient, and responsive local government by devolving decision-making to the lowest practicable level i.e. closer to the point of service delivery;
- to avoid fragmentation of service delivery by ensuring that services delivered locally are managed consistently within the context of a clearly understood strategic framework.
The Council has also been influenced by the geographical compactness of Angus, with a population of 111,000, 7 burghs and travel distances making for easy communication.
3.3 The Scottish Office Guide to decentralisation identifies three broad aspects of decentralisation:
- physical decentralisation
- managerial decentralisation
- political decentralisation
The Guide makes the point that "decentralisation schemes will include elements of each of these aspects, which should not be regarded as mutually exclusive." This scheme takes account of the guidance and is in line with the approach set out therein.
3.4 Strategic Role of the council
The Council will maintain a strong strategic role which will include:
- the setting of policy objectives
- strategic policy formulation
- setting minimum service standards
- programming of strategic infrastructure projects
- overall budget levels
- service resource allocation
- Council Tax levels
- overall staffing levels
- performance monitoring
- corporate affairs
- external relations with Europe, Government and its agencies and other strategic organisations.
4. Consultation
"Roadshow" presentations dealing with ACCESS Offices, Burgh Information Points, Factbank and Area Forums, as well as giving information on general aspects of Decentralisation, were carried out in all of the Angus burghs over the months of May/June 1996. Overall the Roadshows attracted an audience of some 500-600 involving Community Councillors, local organisations and individual members of the public.
The contents of this document take into account points raised at the "Roadshow" presentations.
5. Physical Decentralisation
5.1 In order to improve and simplify access to the council and increase awareness of the council and the services it provides, Angus Council will:
- set up, in appropriate phases, an Angus Council information network, an essential part of which will be an Angus Council Factbank, held both in loose leaf binder form and on a computer database
- make provision within this for a mobile unit to cover rural areas
- establish pilot ACCESS Offices in Monifieth and Montrose and extend ACCESS Offices to all burghs as finance allows in the light of the pilot experience
- establish Burgh Information Points in Libraries and Housing Offices pending the availability of ACCESS Offices.
5.2 ACCESS Offices (Angus Council Community Enquiry Services) will, as far as possible in individual circumstances, meet the following specification:
- open six days per week
- a reception area with lounge seating
- desks for three staff
- a computerised information point for public use
- an IT terminal for staff use with communications links to a centrally located database and ultimately to departmental IT systems
- telephone and fax facilities
- two consultation rooms
- a small meeting room
- kitchen and toilet facilities
- access for the disabled
- a cash-collection facility, in the absence of other appropriate local arrangements.
The Council intends that ACCESS Offices, as well as assisting with the decentralisation process, will restore some of the civic focus lost with the abolition of town and burgh councils in 1975.
6. Managerial Decentralisation
Most of the council's service departments operate a decentralised management structure, with area offices/delivery points predominantly located in the 7 burghs.
Social Work has area offices, Cultural Services has a library in every burgh, Education has an area structure for Community Education and Educational Support Services, and of course schools by their nature are themselves decentralised units.
The Council will continue to support the local delivery and management of these services.
7. Political Decentralisation
7.1 Because of the geographical compactness of Angus, the council does not intend to set up statutory committees under Section 56 of the 1973 Act with specific area remits and appropriate powers of decision making.
However, the council acknowledges that encouraging an active participatory democracy will encourage greater transparency of the political process and wishes to bring into the local government processes the informed views of its citizens.
7.2 The Council will set up Area Forums, initially on a pilot basis for the Monifieth and Montrose areas, but with the intention of developing the concept across Angus in light of the outcome of the pilots.
The Area Forum will be a consultative body - not a formal committee of the council - which will serve as a sounding board and provide an opportunity for public discussion, exchange of information, policy influence, service delivery influence, and early warning of matters of concern.
The Forums will be public meetings and it is envisaged that elected members, officers (both managers and those involved in local service delivery), representatives of e.g. voluntary organisations, school boards, community councils, community groups and business associations, and members of the public will attend.
7.3 To enable the Area Forums concept to be managed locally the council will put in place the following arrangements:
(i) Access Lead Officer
The Council has allocated responsibility for decentralisation arrangements to the Chief Executive. In terms of fostering a corporate approach to the workings of the council, the Chief Executive is committed to giving Directors experience of leading developments in a corporate context. Each of the following service Directors will therefore be allocated responsibility for oversight of decentralisation arrangements, acting as Lead Officer in one of the 7 areas:
- Director of Cultural Services
- Director of Education
- Director of Environmental & Consumer Protection
- Director of Housing
- Director of Recreation Services
- Director of Roads
- Director of Social Work
(ii) ACCESS Link Officer
A Community Education Officer will be allocated the task of being ACCESS Link Officer, charged with liaising with the community and community groups to ensure that agenda items are brought forward to the Lead Officer and giving appropriate local staff advance notice of the issues being raised. The Lead Officer will finalise the agenda in liaison with the Chairperson, the Chief Executive's Office and the Director of Law and Administration. The Department of Law and Administration will issue the agenda/calling notice and clerk Forum meetings.
7.4 In addition to Area Forums, and in order to aid the process of generating community interest in the work of the council, consideration will be given to holding meetings of the council and of its Committees around the various part of Angus. Rather than doing this on a rolling programme, it is likely that particular agenda items might increase the relevance of a meeting taking place in a particular locality.
8. Community Councils
The Council is well aware of the statutory role of Community Councils in gathering and representing community views as well as carrying out many other tasks of benefit to their areas. The Council seeks to assure Community Councils of its appreciation of the importance of their role, particularly in relation to decentralisation. The Council will consult fully with Community Councils on all aspects of decentralisation.
The Council considers that Community Councils and Area Forums will have a complementary role in the Decentralisation Scheme. By their nature Community Councils relate to their communities, and in Angus this is particularly so in respect of the burghs. The Council is of the view that there is a need to ensure that decentralisation promotes a system which recognises, respects and promotes the important links between the burghs and their surrounding rural areas. The Area Forums will play a vital role in linking Community Councils within forum areas which are centred on the burghs.
9.Timetable
The Council will adopt the following incremental approach to the introduction of the aspects of decentralisation detailed in this scheme:
- The Monifieth ACCESS Office and the Monifieth and Montrose Area Forums will be operational in the 1996/97 financial year.
- The Factbank will be made available on a phased basis in the 1996/97 financial year with further computerised development in financial year 1997/98.
- Further Area Forums will be set up in the financial year 1997/98, in light of the outcome of the pilots in Monifieth and Montrose.
- Further ACCESS Offices, commencing with Montrose, will be opened as finance allows.
10. Evaluation and Review
The decentralisation process set out in this scheme is by its very nature a learning experience. It is important therefore to be clear about how both the individual aspects and the overall scheme will be evaluated and monitored. The indicators used should be both qualitative and quantitative, and should allow an assessment to be made of whether the objectives set out for the scheme are indeed being met.
Officers leading individual aspects of the scheme will be required to identify indicators for each activity against the stated objectives. These indicators should be identified through negotiation/discussion with staff who are responsible for the direct delivery of individual aspects of the decentralisation strategy, should be easily ingathered, and should directly relate to measuring specific objectives.
Whilst there is merit in reviewing all aspects of the decentralisation strategy after a 12-18 month period of operation, the evaluation should be ongoing and it is envisaged that a Review Group already set up to monitor the council's strategic planning approach will monitor the development of the council's decentralisation scheme.
A B Watson
Chief Executive
February 1997