How does a council work?

Council work

Councils undertake their work through elected councillors and employ staff to provide the services they have decided upon directly to the public. There are also other staff whose job is to support the direct service providers such as accountants and lawyers.

Staff can be apppointed as required but there are certain posts which the council must have by law, such as:

• Head of Paid Service
• Monitoring Officer
• Financial Officer

Code of conduct

The way councillors act in office, particularly over matters where they have a personal of financial interest, is governed both by the law and by a Code of Conduct which every council has adopted. The law also requires the council to have a Standards Committee under an independent chairman. This committee has the job of advising the council on the updating and operation of the Code of Conduct for members, training and of overseeing the council's policy on the proper conduct of business.

Standards Committee

The Standards Committee is also responsible for considering reports following investigations by Ethical Standards Officers appointed by the Standards Board for England. The council has a Monitoring Officer whose job it is to advise the council and individual councillors on questions of conduct and ethics. In the end however, each individual is responsible for the propriety of his or her actions.

All 54 Taunton Deane councillors meet together as the council and these meetings are open to the public. Here councillors decide the council's overall policies and set the budget each year. The full council appoint the leader and that person is held to account for the way those policies have been implemented and how our services are being provided to the community.

How decisions are made

The Executive is the part of the council which is responsible for most day-to-day decisions. The Executive is made up of a leader (elected by the full council) and a cabinet of eight councillors whom the leader appoints. The Executive publishes a forward plan each month giving early warning of major decisions which are to be discussed over the following months.

Meetings of the Executive are open for the public to attend - except in a few rare cases where personal or confidential matters are being discussed.

The Executive does not have complete freedom of action but must act 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, then this must be referred to the council as a whole for it to decide.
Decisions are also made by individual Executive councillors and officers under delegated powers.

Overview and scrutiny

Whilst the Executive is responsible for carrying through the council's services and for most of its decision-making, this "overview and scrutiny" role (or "Review") is equally important in supporting the work of the Executive and of the council as a whole and in counterbalancing the Executive's powers.