Oxfordshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the county of Oxfordshire. It is responsible for a wide range of public services, including adult and children’s social services, schools, public health, major public infrastructure, highways maintenance, waste disposal, emergency planning, trading standards, fire and rescue, and libraries and museums.
Political and operational management
The council comprises 63 members and is managed by a cabinet of ten elected councillors, led by Cllr Liz Leffman. Day-to-day operations are managed by the senior leadership team, which consists of the chief executive and directors who, between them, manage the hundreds of public services provided.
The political management system is based on the leader and cabinet model, with a separation between decision-making and scrutiny. A written constitution governs relationships between council, cabinet and scrutiny.
Delivering the Future Together
Our organisational development programme – Delivering the Future Together – is enabling us to evolve and adapt, develop new skills and new ways of working, and become the organisation we want to be. Central to this are our five values and behaviours:
- Always learning – We create an environment that enables people to grow and develop; we seek feedback, we act on it; we always look to be even better; learning from our mistakes
- Be kind and care – We value our staff; we respect and treat everyone with understanding and compassion; we care not just for our customers but each other. We take care of our own and others mental health
- Equality and integrity in all we do – We embrace equality, diversity and inclusion; valuing the difference in others. We always act with integrity, working in honest, ethical and supportive ways, building effective relationships; we trust each other to do what we promise
- Taking responsibility – We hold ourselves accountable, take responsibility for delivering and for what we deliver; we give and seek to be empowered to deliver; we contribute and participate to delivering the best
- Daring to do it differently – We innovate, we look to do things differently and improve the way we do things every day; we’re not satisfied with the status quo and work creatively to solve problems