Cabinet

Meetings of Cabinet are held at end of every month (bar August), 12 times per year, which includes the Budget meeting in February. Extraordinary meetings can also be called on an ad hoc basis when business needs to be transacted in a timely manner. Its role is to consider all executive decisions identified within legislation, in addition to any key decisions that need to be taken.   A key decision is an executive decision which is likely:   1) To result in the local authority incurring expenditure which is, or the making of savings which are, significant having regard to the local authority's budget for the service or function to which the decision relates. The Council has decided that the relevant threshold at or above which the decision is significant will be £500,000 for capital expenditure and £500,000 for revenue expenditure. A budget heading is, for the purposes of this Article, the budget head set out each year in the annual budget book in the Service Summary.   Money delegated to schools as part of the Scheme of Financial Management of Schools exercise is exempt from these thresholds, once it is delegated to the school. The financial amounts given above will be reviewed each year.    2) To be significant in terms of its effects on communities living or working in an area comprising two or more wards in the area of the local authority.   Key Decisions that shall be made at Cabinet meetings must be added to the Cabinet’s Forward Plan at least 28 days before the decision is due to be taken. This is updated regularly & published by the 15th  day of every month - Cabinet Forward Plan   This meeting comprises of up to 10 Councillors who form the Cabinet, including the Leader of the Council, who chooses who to appoint to their role of Cabinet Member. Each one has their own portfolio, which covers all areas of the Council.   The Cabinet is the main Executive decision-making body of the Council. Once a decision has been made by Cabinet and the record of the decision has been published via a Decision Sheet, the call-in period shall commence and be valid for 5 working days after the meeting, concluding at 5pm. Once this time period has elapsed, the decision can be implemented. For more information on what the call-in period is, please refer to the Terms of Reference for the Council’s 3 Overview & Scrutiny Panels.   More information about the role of the Cabinet can be found within Part 3 of the Council’s Constitution.