Councillor Call for Action - Councillors Guide
Background
The Councillor Call for Action (CCfA) was established under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. CCfA is a mechanism through which councillors can raise issues relating to the ward they represent that are of significant community concern and where the usual channels for resolving such issues have been exhausted or unsuccessful.
A CCfA must:-
- Relate to the discharge of a function of the Council
- Have a direct affect on all or part of the ward for which the Councillor is responsible
- Not relate to any matter on which the Secretary of State by order has excluded (Statutory processes such as planning and licensing)
What is a Councillor Call for Action?
Councillors receive many representations and complaints from the people they represent regarding their contact with the local authority and its partners. The majority will be dealt with as ward issues and it is not the intention of the CCfA process to change this.
A CCfA issue should relate to:-
- A neighbourhood or locality issue
- The quality of public service provision
- A matter of genuine local community concern
- A persistent problem which has not been resolved
A CCfA issue should not relate to:-
- An individual complaint for which established complaints procedures should be used
- The questioning of decisions taken but not yet implemented by the Council for which the call-in mechanism (as set out in the Council’s Constitution) should be used
- The questioning and scrutinising of wider policy issues which should more properly be addressed as part of the formal Scrutiny Work Programme
- Resolving urgent issues as the investigative and committee processes involved may not be conducive to making a quick decision on a matter.
CCfA will need to be used responsibly by Councillors and not as a means of diverting persistent complainers away from individual councillors. Care will need to be taken to ensure that the process is operated efficiently and consistently. To support this, the checklist attached at Appendix A (download below) provides guidance to both Elected members and Officers on identifying relevant issues for CCfA.
Receiving and Recording CCfAs
It is not the intention that the CCfA process should be made overly bureaucratic. However, it is important that CCfA requests are monitored and properly recorded particularly as Councillors are now under a legal duty to respond to CCfA and also to ensure that the District Council is responding to CCfA in an appropriate manner.
Therefore you may wish to inform the Scrutiny Office about a request for a potential CCFA at an early stage. A CCfA summary form should be completed by the local councillor and returned to the Scrutiny Team. The Scrutiny Team will be able to provide advice on completing the forms and the CCfA process in general. If the request is not logged at an early stage you should ensure it is logged at the point you agree to champion a CCFA.
If any request come to the Scrutiny Office directly, it will be logged and the information will be forwarded to the appropriate ward councillors for consideration.
To what bodies does CCfA apply to?
In general terms, CCfA applies to any matters which are a function of the District Council and it has the power to make recommendations to Cabinet. Scrutiny also has the power to scrutinise and make recommendations to LAA partners in respect of local improvement targets. A CCfA can relate therefore to these bodies and if unsure, you can contact the Scrutiny team for advice.
How will CCfA work in practice?
A Councillor receives a request for action and gathers information and evidence on the background to the issue to enable an informed decision to be taken as to whether to proceed with a CCfA. If the Councillor decides the matter is a ward issue and does not constitute a CCfA he must explain the reasons for his decision. These may include:
- it is an individual complaint or personal issue
- It is a quasi-judicial matter such as planning or licensing
- It is not an issue of genuine local concern
If the Councillor decides having investigated the matter further and taken any relevant advice, that a CCfA is the correct course of action, he/she should request that the Council (or partner organisation) look into the matter and if necessary, take action. The Scrutiny office will be able to provide advice on who to contact. In the first instance an attempt will be made to resolve the issue before it is submitted to a Scrutiny Committee.
An Officer will be identified who will act as the lead officer and contact point and who will be responsible for reporting back to the Councillor on action taken. (If this step has already been undertaken without success the matter would be referred straight to Chair and Vice Chair of Scrutiny). If after referral to a lead officer, the Councillor decides that the matter has been satisfactorily resolved or dealt with, the matter should be closed. If however, the Councillor is still not satisfied with the response, the matter should be referred to the Chair and Vice Chair of Scrutiny who will, provided the request is a valid CCFA (see CCFA checklist), refer it to the next appropriate Scrutiny Committee.
The Scrutiny Committee will then decide based on an assessment of the nature of the original issue and the action taken to date to resolve the problem, whether or not to investigate more fully. The CCFA form completed by the councillor should give the councillors name, ward and summary of the matter being raised. This CCFA form should provide information on action the ward member has taken already to resolve the issue. These could include:
- That relevant complaints procedures have been complied with
- That the local service manager has been approached
- That any relevant partnership body or local group has been approached
- That the relevant Cabinet Member has been approached
The CCFA checklist will ensure that it is
- A local government matter
- Not an excluded matter
- Not a vexatious complaint
- Not prejudicial to community cohesion
- Relates to more than one individual
- Provides evidence of local concern e.g. from residents, parish council, community group
The Scrutiny Committee will discuss the issue and can decide to:
- make immediate recommendations to Cabinet
- Request further information or evidence from ward councillor
- Ask officers to look at the issue and report back
- Invite and talk to other stakeholders
- Set up a task group to carry out a more detailed investigation and report back
If the Scrutiny Committee decides the issue should not proceed further, the Councillor will be provided with a full explanation as to why this is the case. If however, the Committee determines that the matter warrants further investigation, a review may be the action taken and a report including recommendations will be produced. The report will be presented to Cabinet (or the governing body of a partner organisation). Cabinet must respond within two months to the report either accepting or rejecting the recommendations wholly or in part. The public/community group and councillor who lodged the CCFA request will be advised of this response.
The flow chart in Appendix C (download below) sets out the CCfA process.
Downloads
This document is a checklist to guide councillors and the public through the Councillor Call for Action procedure. (23.5 KB)
Appendix B is a request form to be download so that a councillor can request support and investigation of the Scrutiny Committee. (13.8 KB)
This document outlines the process of a Councillor call for Action (14.3 KB)
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