Getting a decision made

​The council has rules about who can make decisions and when. This page will help you find out about these processes.

The guidance relates to 'executive functions' decisions, which are decisions that can be made by the cabinet, indivi​dual cabinet members or by officers acting on their behalf.

All executive decisions need to follow the correct procedures and be documented properly, so it is important that you are familiar with this information.​

Guidance on executive decisions

For guidance on executive decisions:

• see the formal decision making guide (PDF, 188 KB) which includes examples
• use our online decision-making tool that asks a series of questions and will advise which process should be followed
• watch a training session​ delivered by the Monitoring Officer in July 2022
• read our guidance on cabinet reports (PDF, 63 KB)

Templates from briefings and reports

You can use our:

• briefings and decisions templat​e (DOC, 46 KB) for all procurement Cabinet Member Actions (CMAs), cabinet reports, reports to internal boards and cabinet member briefings. This report should also be used for all decisions taken by the chief executive and executive directors with a value over £500,000​
• draw down from reserve report template (DOC, 47 KB)​ if your report only seeks approval to a drawdown of funding from the transformation reserve
• small grant report templa​te (DOC, 46 KB) if your report is seeking to award grant funding under the value of £100k
• blank confidential appendix (DOC, 64 KB) if your report has confidential information that we cannot publish

Cabinet members and portfolios 

The structure chart details the portfolio responsibilities of each Essex County Council Cabinet Member, their Deputies and the names of the Cabinet Advisers and Assistants who advise and support them.

Cabinet members and portfolios - September 2024 (DOCX, 39KB)

Documents​

For the types of information that are deemed confidential, see the categories of exempt informatio​n list (PDF, 174 KB).

Complete the forward plan submission form and send to the cabinet office. Key decisions and reports to the cabinet must be published on the fo​rward plan 28 days before the cabinet are to review.

Complete the officer decision form (DOC, 80 KB) within your function to record a list of significant decisions taken by officers. See the form itself for what needs to be published. The decisions taken during the course of a month should be published by emailing it to the executive decisions email address which can be found in the Democratic Services contact details (PDF, 124 KB).​

See the Committee Management Information System (CMIS) to find out about committees, decisions, the forward plan, members and other information.​ 

Reference the​ cabinet report deadlines for September 2024 to December 2025 (PDF, 142 KB) setting out when reports need to be submitted to the cabinet.

Complete the equalities​ comprehensive impact assessment prior to the decision being made.

Reference the monitoring officer – section 151 officer clearance list (PDF, 60 KB) of report categories that do not need approval from a monitoring officer or section 151 officer.

Read the cabinet report approval process (PDF, 156 KB)​ for guidance relating to important deadlines and your responsibilities when developing cabinet reports.

All executive decisions are first reviewed by the cabinet office then emailed to the executive decisions email address which can be found in the Democratic Services contact details (PDF, 124 KB). T​his is to ensure that they have cabinet member approval before they are published.

Contact us

Contact Democratic Services (PDF, 124 KB).