The full Council comprises of 62 members. Full Council meetings are held at least six times a year and the public are usually able to attend. One of its functions is to agree the major policies, which govern the way services are provided or set down the Council's general approach to do things.
Find out more about the role of the Chairman.
The Cabinet system makes the major decisions about Council services and many others that you use on a day-to-day basis. The cabinet normally meets monthly. Its role is to lead in the preparation of the council's policies and budget, to lead the community planning process and the attainment of best value. The cabinet is made up of the Leader who is chosen by the county council from the majority party, currently Conservative and up to nine other councillors chosen by the Leader. Each cabinet member has an individual area of responsibility also known as his/her portfolio. Find out more about the individual portfolios.
All items discussed by Cabinet have to be published in a Forward Plan which is a document that sets out information about key decisions that the council will make in the next four months. The Forward Plan is published every month.
If a matter which is likely to be a key decision has not been included in the Forward Plan then it can be dealt with under General Exception or Special Urgency. When this happens a notice is published on the County Council’s website.
General Exception (GE) and Special Urgency (SU) Notices are published in the Cabinet link below.
Cabinet meetings will also be webcast.
Overview and Scrutiny Committees consist of Elected Members who undertake annual work programmes which focus on:
· the delivery of the County Council's and partners main aims, as set out in their business plans;
· areas where their involvement could help improve performance;
· and/or priorities and concerns raised by the public.
The Overview and Scrutiny Committees that carry out this work for Staffordshire County Council are listed below (previous Scrutiny Committee meetings can be accessed from the list of meetings here).