Agenda item

6.1

The Committee received a report of the Director of Legal and Governance which outlined different Councillors’ experiences of Co-Chairing Committees.

6.2

A Member of the Committee asked a question and the following response were provided-

6.3

The Assistant Director (Governance) explained that the purpose of the report was for the Committee to consider whether implementing Co-Chairs into the new system should occur across all Committees, or if the option would be more flexible and decided on a committee-by-committee basis. The Director of Legal and Governance highlighted the difference between Co-Chairing and job sharing. Each Elected Member would have a full job if they were to Co-Chair a Committee. Alternatively, if there was an Elected Member job share, the Director of Legal and Governance believed both Members would be put forward together to Co-Chair a Committee doing part of the role each.

6.4

Concerns were raised around the continuity and consistency of Co-Chairs. It was mentioned that Members may wish to carry out tasks differently therefore there needed to be clear division of workload to not complicate the role.

6.5

Members of the Committee discussed the potential for having more than two Co-Chairs. Also, whether a Member could step into the Chair/Co-Chair role, if a current Chair was away from work for some time.

6.6

RESOLVED: That the Committee agreed to (1) Build the opportunity for job shares into the Committee’s plans when it recommends a governance structure to Council;

(2) Ensure that any job sharing arrangement is supported by a job-share protocol in or with the constitution, potentially modelled on Brighton and Hove’s; and

(3) Evaluate the effectiveness of any job shared roles within the first 12 months, alongside the evaluation of the effectiveness of the new governance model as a whole, and adjust the council’s approach accordingly.