– Leader, Oxfordshire County Council
Our county of Oxfordshire is a rich tapestry of diverse communities, from our thriving market towns and picturesque rural villages to our urban centres of learning, innovation and business – all represented by over 300 local councils.
Our vision is that this charter enhances partnership working across councils to empower a vibrant democracy across Oxfordshire. Working in partnership with our local councils is essential for responding to the needs of our residents, understanding our diverse communities, and providing effective services.
This charter recognises the importance of Oxfordshire’s town councils, parish councils and parish meetings in representing and delivering for the residents of Oxfordshire. We have developed the charter in consultation with town and parish councils from across the county together with the Oxfordshire Association of Local Councils (OALC) and our district and city council partners. We have listened carefully to the many councillors and clerks, who have helped identify the opportunities we can explore through the commitments in this charter and we are very grateful for their contributions.
I am excited about the ambitions of this charter and the changes that are already underway to improve how we work and communicate with our local councils. I invite all Oxfordshire councils to become signatories to the charter to demonstrate our mutual ambition to working better together through shared principles and commitments. I hope you will want to join us in this endeavour.
– County Officer, Oxfordshire Association of Local Councils (OALC)
As representatives of Oxfordshire’s town and parish councils we are delighted to welcome this charter, which is a positive step to achieving better partnership working between Oxfordshire councils.
Since OALC instigated the idea of a charter, we have ensured local councils have been consulted directly and we have advocated for councils’ needs and concerns throughout its development. We are proud to have created this charter in collaboration with Oxfordshire County Council and our city and district council partners.
It has been extremely positive to see so many councils engaging enthusiastically with this process and we want to thank every councillor, clerk and officer who has contributed.
This work does not end with the launching of the charter – we will remain involved as this work moves forward, and the real and impactful changes needed for partnership working to reach its full potential. Councils will also continue to have the opportunity to feed in to how the charter is implemented. We hope individual councils will want to become signatories too in demonstrating their commitment to better partnership working and enhancing local democracy for their communities.
This charter has been developed by a cross-council working group in collaboration with Oxfordshire Association of Local Councils (OALC), to set out a framework for better partnership working in Oxfordshire. The contents of the charter have been shaped by feedback from town and parish councils across the county through a number of consultation and engagement activities.
The intention for the charter is that it is a voluntary framework that will help shape how Oxfordshire councils can work together in partnership to support better service delivery and outcomes, and to work together to ensure thriving local democracy across the county. This charter is not designed to replace or override existing frameworks, such as codes of conduct or councils’ individual ways of working, but to enhance them, with a particular focus on cross-council working and recognising the role of local councils in supporting a thriving local democracy.
These aims represent our shared long-term goals as signatories to the charter. The charter’s performance will be measured against these aims over time.
Taking a cooperative, collaborative and collective approach when working together for the wellbeing of our diverse communities, improving service delivery and supporting the needs of our residents.
Success looks like:
Working to empower resident and community participation in local democracy at all levels, recognising that local democracy goes wider than the election cycle.
Success looks like:
Our shared principles are the ‘golden thread’ of values that underpin how we aim to meet the charter’s commitments and achieve the charter’s strategic aims. These principles guide how we implement and integrate the charter, how we work together and how we treat each other as partners.
These are our shared commitments that will help to achieve our strategic aims: stronger partnership working and enhance local democracy. The commitments are purposely kept at a high-level to enable each council to apply them to their own priorities and ways of working, providing a framework for councils to shape how they work together.
Councils will:
Councils will:
Councils will:
Councils will:
All Oxfordshire councils will be invited to be a signatory of the charter. The intention is that this charter remains a ‘living’ document, with the charter being the beginning and not the end of this work to improve partnership working.
Once the charter has been agreed by councils, each council will be responsible for their own implementation of the charter’s principles and commitments. The working group will support councils to capture the progress and successes of the charter to enable sharing best practice and positive communications (e.g ‘you said, we did’ pieces).