1. Arrangements to Promote Wellbeing
1.1 The Council, in order to take the reasonable action needed ‘for the benefit of the authority, its area or persons resident or present in its area’ may:
(a) Enter into arrangements or agreements with any person or body;
(b) Co-operate with, or facilitate or co-ordinate the activities of, any person or body; and
(c) Exercise on behalf of that person or body any functions of that person or body.
2. Joint Arrangements
2.1 The Council may establish joint arrangements with one or more local authorities to exercise functions and any such arrangements may involve the appointment of a joint committee with these other local authorities.
2.2 Full Council is empowered to establish joint committees together with other local authorities, and to delegate functions to those joint committees.
2.3 The Adults and Health Committee may delegate its functions under Section 7 of the Health and Social Care Act 2001 as amended by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to a joint overview and scrutiny committee when this is required by the Direction issued by the Secretary of State for Health in July 2003 or is conducive to the efficient scrutiny of proposals affecting more than one Social Services local authority area.
2.4 The Adults and Health Committee may appoint members to a joint overview and scrutiny committee established under paragraph 2.3 above. In this case, the political balance requirements will apply to such appointments.
2.5 Details of any joint arrangements which have been established by Full Council, including any delegations to joint committees, along with their composition and purpose will be found in Part E of the constitution. In addition, where there are special procedural rules, these are also listed.
3. Access to Information
3.1 Chapter B3 (Access to Information Procedure Rules) of the constitution applies.
4. Delegation to and from other Local Authorities
4.1 The Council may delegate functions to another local authority. The decision to delegate to another authority shall be reserved to the relevant policy and service committee of Council unless it is of such significance it should remain a decision of the Council. This will be determined by the Service Director: Legal and Governance, in consultation with Group Leaders, with any dissent meaning that it should remain a decision of the Council.
4.2 Other local authorities may delegate functions to the Council and the decision whether or not to accept such a delegation from another local authority shall be reserved to the relevant Policy and Service Committee of Council.
5. Contracting Out
5.1 The Council may contract out to another body or organisation functions which may be exercised by an officer and which are subject to an Order under Section 70 of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994, or under contracting arrangements where the contractor acts as the Council’s agent under usual contracting principles, provided there is no delegation of the Council’s discretionary decision making.
[Chapter E1 (Joint Arrangements) was last amended on 11 February 2025]
A PDF version of this chapter is available to view or download on the CMIS section of the Council’s website, along with a PDF version of the full constitution.
