Governance » Kettleburgh

What is this page for?

Any organisation and its resources, including money and people, need to be managed. How this is done in a controlled and structured way is called governance, a term that many people find mysterious. The Chartered Governance Institute UK and Ireland tells us:

"Governance is a system that provides a framework for managing organisations. It identifies who can make decisions, who has the authority to act on behalf of the organisation and who is accountable for how an organisation and its people behave and perform. Governance enables the management team and the board [councillors sitting as the council in our case] to run organisations legally, ethically, sustainably, and successfully, for the benefit of stakeholders, including shareholders, staff, clients and customers, and for the good of wider society."

It adds:

"There is no one universal system of governance. Instead, governance principles are supported by laws and regulations and are used by organisations to define how the board and management should operate."

It follows that governance can be good and not so good. Look at The Chartered Governance Institute UK and Ireland website for more detail of how it should be done.

Kettleburgh Parish Council is part of the system of UK Government governance. Look at the GOV.UK page on How Government Works and the Wikipedia Government of the United Kingdom page for lots of context and historical information. The GOV.UK page 'Understand how your council works' is a good starting point for more specific information.

There is information about what your local council is and how it works on our 'Parish Council' page. Council meetings are central to council governance as all decisions are taken at those meetings. This is explained on our 'About Parish Council Meetings' page. The key legislation driving Parish Council Governance is the Local Government Act 1972. A key regulation is The Local Government (Parishes and Parish Councils) Regulations 1999. An example of how the council has to manage based on legislation is that every spending decision has to be provided for by a specific legal 'power' and there are many of these.

Find below the key documents that direct or inform how the council works day-to-day. The Standing Orders and Financial Regulations are examples of how the council has to manage based on regulations. The Code of Conduct defines how our 'board' should operate. (Larger councils often have a cabinet of senior councillors, mirroring the way that central governmenent operates, that is more obviously like a commercial board.)

Standing Orders

F inancial Regulations

Code of Conduct

Records Management Policy

Equality and Diversity Policy

Health and Safety Policy

Grant Awarding Policy

Grant Application Form (for members of the public)

Media Policy, Protocol for Reporting at Meetings of the Council and Reporting Protocol Notice (to be displayed at meetings of the council)

Freedom of Information (model publication scheme) and Information available to the public and how to access

Form of Acceptance of Electronic Summons (for Councillors)

Risk Management Plan