Major changes Sheffield City Council will make after local election

Sheffield City Council is looking to make a number of changes to its constitution as it seeks to make sure it is "up to date".

Next week's annual council meeting, held in Sheffield Town Hall, will see members of the council asked to approve a number of changes to the constitution. This includes a number of recommendations from the governance committee and the council's monitoring officer "in respect of complaints".

A report, published ahead of the meeting, says "the council’s constitution sets out how the council operates, how decisions are made and the procedures that are followed to ensure that these are efficient, transparent and accountable to local people".

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The report also states the council has a duty to keep this constitution up to date. As a result, there are a few changes being proposed.

First, the role of the deputy leader on the council would be amended so they would have extra responsibilities as they work as the lead member of customer experience to handle complaints. The strategy and resources policy committee terms of reference would also be amended to include "lead responsibility for complaints including monitoring of complaint handling performance".

Meanwhile, the role of the policy committee chair will be updated, with the statutory health scrutiny powers amended. The local authority had the power of referral to the secretary of state previously and from now on the "secretary of state must be notified of proposals by the health body and has the power to intervene".

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A small amendment to how the finance committee works has also been added as previously, the committee monitored the council budget each month. Now, if approved, the committee will monitor the budget each quarter.

Amendments to the public questions procedure have also been introduce, with the ability for members of the public to make statements added and the removing of the pre-meeting procedural elements.

The report also says: “Questions concerning the remit of the strategy and resources policy committee should be addressed to the chair of that committee, not the leader of the council. Questions should be addressed to the leader only if they concern matters which are not within the remit of any committee and fall within his/her role.”

At a council meeting next week, the councillors will elect a new Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor, a leader and deputy leader of the council and the committees and members will be established. They will also be asked to approve the changes to the constitution.