Policy Development Panels

Policy Development Panels are being established to lead the policy development and implementation process. They will take  their lead from Strategic Leadership Board.

The areas that each Panel will address, which have been linked thematically, are as follows;

• Human Resources and Capacity Building,
• Community Planning and Governance
• Transfer of Functions.
• Finance, Estates and Shared Services
• Central/Local Government Relationships and Performance Management,

Each Panel will be chaired by a political representative, who for continuity will be a member of the Strategic Leadership Board. The membership will also include a further 9 political representatives drawn from the 5 main parties. The remainder of the membership will be tailored to meet the requirements of each Panel. Support to each Panel will be provided jointly by DoE and NILGA.

Subsequent to the DoE Minister's Statement to the Assembly on 31 March 2008 regarding the outcome of the Review of RPA Decisions the Strategic Leadership Board decided to implement three Policy Development Panels. These will be entitled “Governance and Relationships”, “Service Delivery” and “Structural Reform Issues”. They will report directly to the Strategic Leadership Board and it is intended that they will be supported by a number of sub-groups.

NILGA hopes to finalise the political nominations to the PDP's by June 2008 and is working with SoLACE and the Local Government Staff Commission to identify lead Chief Executives for each panel. It is intended that the PDP's will hold their first meetings in June, primarily to agree on their terms of reference, review position papers and agree work programmes. An update from the three PDP's will be provided at each SLB meeting.