Sheffield councillors complain decision-making is too complex with FIVE different boards that make decisions about our health

There are a range of partnerships across the city but councillors say people get confused about who is making decisions.

Health alone has a joint commissioning committee, accountable care partnership, integrated care system, statutory scrutiny committee and a health and wellbeing board.

Councillors have spent a month listening to evidence ahead of a referendum next May which will ask people how they want the council to be run.

The overview and scrutiny board says in a report: “The policy making environment has become increasingly complex over recent years.

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“Sheffield Council has a modern and responsive approach to governance which reflects the increasingly complex policy making environment

“We need to improve the information we provide about how decision making happens across the city as a whole.

“We need to be clear about how these structures interconnect, and improve the information that we provide about decision making in the city as a whole.”

Councillors say people want openness and transparency and the council needs to be “more creative” when communicating about how decisions are made, what those decisions are, and what they mean for the city.

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The report adds: “People want to understand how decisions have been made, the evidence that has been used to develop them, and how they can be challenged.

“It was also made clear to us that it is important to let people know what decisions are planned over the medium and long term so that organisations and individuals can engage with decisions that affect them.

The board’s recommendations will go to full council in January. The full report can be read here.

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