Corporate governance

Both Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council recognise the importance of effective corporate governance. It helps to ensure that local communities can place trust in the way we carry out our duties.

Corporate governance enables the councils to get things right in a timely, inclusive, open, honest and accountable manner. We have a number of systems and documents in place to ensure we act effectively. These include a Constitution, Council Plan, Medium Term Financial Strategy, Whistle blowing policy and Performance Management Framework.

We review our corporate governance arrangements against national best practice. This helps each council to produce a Local Code of Corporate Governance. The councils are currently reviewing their codes against the latest guidance.

The local codes bring together each council's corporate governance arrangements in one place and have six core principles:

• The purpose of the council and a vision for the local area
• Members and officers working together with clear functions and roles 
• Demonstrating good governance through upholding high standards of conduct 
• Taking informed and transparent decisions which are subject to effective scrutiny and managing risk 
• Developing the capacity and capability of members and officers to be effective 

Under each core principle there are a number of supporting principles which in turn have a range of specific requirements.

The local codes of corporate governance for each council are identified as follows: