Governance

We operate as an unincorporated partnership within a framework set out by Government which has been tailored to our local circumstances. Our aim is to work constructively with local and national partners to foster the economic success of Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire. Decision making is focused on our Executive Board. The Partnership is the overarching body which brings together all of the partners across the area who have a shared objective in seeing the local economy prosper.

Our constitution was updated in April 2018 and can be found here: SSLEP Constitution April 2018

Our finances are managed by Staffordshire County Council as the Accountable Body. This ensures that all funding is managed in accordance with good practice and audited each year. We have an Accountable Body Agreement which can be found here: SSLEP_SCC Accountable Body Agreement Annual audits are found under the Audit drop-down menu below. A link to Staffordshire County Council’s Corporate Review Committee, which scrutinises the LEP, can be found here

Each board member is required to sign a code of conduct and complete a Declaration of Interests before they can participate in a board meeting. Members are required to keep these up to date and to advise the secretariat of any changes. Members’ declarations can be found under the Declarations of Interest drop-down menu below. The official record held at the LEP office contains the signatures of all the parties concerned. LEP members of staff are also required to sign a code of conduct.

When considering projects and programmes for funding we do so in accordance with the constitution and our project prioritisation and business case process, which can be found here: Business cases project prioritisation and grant funding agreements

We publish business cases for City Deal and Local Growth Deal funding and their independent assessment under the Business Cases tab in the Publication Library section of Resources.

While we strive to resolve complaints at an early stage, we have an Enquiries and Complaints Procedure which provide an opportunity to address them and where necessary to make them confidential. The procedure can be found here: Enquiries and Complaints Policy

In addition we have a Whistleblowing Policy. This covers situations where an individual who has concerns about a danger, risk, contravention of rules or illegality provides useful information to address this. In doing so they are acting in the wider public interest, usually because it threatens others or impacts on public funds. The policy can be found here: Whistleblowing policy

Our policy on GDPR and information sharing can be found here: SSLEP How We Use Your Information

Each July, we publish annual accounts which set out how the LEP has invested its resources. In addition, each October we publish an annual report which sets out a full picture of the LEP’s activities over the previous year. This publication coincides with our annual conference. Both publications can be found under the Annual Reports tab in Resources.

Working with Local Authorities

All Stoke and Staffordshire local authorities are members of the Local Enterprise Partnership. The Leaders and Chief Executive Officers of Stoke on Trent City Council and Staffordshire County Council along with two Leaders from the Borough / District Councils sit on the LEP’s Executive Board.

The Leaders of the Borough and District Councils are nominated to the LEP Executive Board by their Staffordshire District Council counterparts. All LEP Board papers are circulated to the Leaders and Chief Executive Officers of all Stoke and Staffordshire Councils five days in advance of the meetings. The District and Borough Council partners feed their comments, suggestions and queries into the Executive Board meetings using their nominated counterparts who sit on the Board. The Leaders of the Stoke and Staffordshire local authorities also nominate representatives to serve on other LEP groups as outlined in the LEP’s Constitution.

The partnership has no formal Local Authority Joint Committee with which to engage, however, the local authority Leaders hold bi-monthly joint meetings. Their Directors, with responsibility for the various areas of economic growth, also meet bi-monthly on the alternate month to the Leaders group. LEP and other shared Council matters are discussed at these meetings which are attended by the LEP Chairman and/or the Partnership Manager, depending upon partner requirements. In addition, the Local Authorities hold an annual Joint Scrutiny Committee of Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire County Council Councillors who sit on their own Council Scrutiny Committees. The Joint Scrutiny Committee has a focus on examining and providing challenge and suggestions on the LEP work programme and its operations. Many Staffordshire County Councillors involved in scrutiny are also District Councillors and so all local authority areas are represented in the joint Scrutiny meeting.

The local authority partners work together with other LEP Board members to deliver the work of the partnership through the various LEP programmes including the Growth Deals and in delivering services to businesses through the Growth Hub.