Any relevant body can approach East Cambridgeshire District Council to run or help to run a service it provides.
A 'relevant body' includes:
Detailed definitions of these terms can be found in the council's Community Right to Challenge Protocol and within the Localism Act 2011.
We will consider a request to run or help run any 'relevant service' we currently deliver or is delivered by another party on our behalf.
This applies whether you wish to do this alone or in partnership with other relevant authorities or bodies.
The Community Right to Challenge only applies to the provision of services.
It does not provide for delegation of the functions of the council.
For example, Section 70(1) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 gives powers to local planning authorities to grant or refuse planning permission where a planning application is made to the authority.
The right does not allow for the function of determining planning applications to be provided by a third party, but it would allow for the processing of the application (not the decision) to be carried out by a third party.
Submit an Expression of Interest
You may submit an Expression of Interest in partnership with other relevant bodies and non-relevant bodies.
There is no requirement for the relevant body to have a local connection.
We accept Expressions of Interest under the Community Right to Challenge between 1 September and 30 November every year.
We will require a sufficient level of information to ensure the Expression of Interest meets requirements specified in section 81(1) of the Localism Act 2011.
Detailed, considered answers will help us decide whether the application meets the requirements.
We will request additional information if we feel there is not enough detail to enable us to make a decision.
The provision of the additional information is optional and if not provided does not mean the Expression of Interest will not be considered. In this case we will consider the Expression of Interest on the information provided.
It should be noted that we have the right to refuse applications where we consider information contained within the Expression of Interest is inadequate or inaccurate.
Our Community Right to Challenge Protocol contains a list of the Expression of Interest requirements.
When we receive an Expression of Interest for service delegation we will acknowledge receipt and then follow the steps outlined in our process chart.
This gives us the option to:
Determination of the Expression of Interest will under normal circumstances take no more than 10 months.
If the Expression of Interest has the potential to be accepted you will be provided with a 'Service Specification’. This is likely to include details such as current staffing levels, the service standards and the cost of providing the service.
Upon receipt of the 'Service Specification', you have 6 weeks to consider whether you still wish your Expression of Interest to be considered.
During this time, you may wish to contact us for further clarification regarding the Expression of Interest, for example, whether TUPE legislation applies or if there are any pension implications of transfer.
By the end of the 6 weeks you must confirm in writing if you have a continued interest in exercising your Community Right to Challenge. Failure to do so will be regarded as a withdrawal of the Expression of Interest.
Any future Expression of Interest submissions will then be considered during the next window of opportunity, for example the following September to November.
If you wish to continue with the application, the council may consult with service users and the wider community. This is to ensure that the potential changes to service provision would have the support of those most likely to be affected and to assess the level of impact that the changes could have on differential groups, as per the Equality Act 2010 and the Equality Standard for Local Government.
Any consultation process is expected to last no more than 6 weeks.
Before 31 December, we will notify you in writing of the time it will take to make a decision on the Expression of Interest to be made.
The Expression of Interest will also be considered by the council committee which the service reports to, with a final decision being made by our Finance and Assets Committee.
If the decision is to refuse the application, we will specify the reasons why and publish the decision on our website.
The grounds for an Expression of Interest to be rejected are set out in our protocol and in The Community Right to Challenge Regulations.
If we accept the Expression of Interest, we will carry out a procurement exercise relating to the provision of that service in accordance with our Constitution and Contract Procedure Rules.
Doing business with the council
The body expressing the interest is not guaranteed to take over the service and whilst only 'not for profit' bodies can be the lead body to submit an Expression of Interest, any subsequent procurement process is open to all, including private companies and/or existing contractors.