About the Council
Political arrangements
Southwark Council has 63 councillors, who represent the 21 wards that make up the borough of Southwark. The council assembly is the monthly meeting of all 63 elected representatives, and is chaired by the Mayor of Southwark. The council has an executive which works in a similar way to the government’s cabinet.
Following the election results, the newly formed Executive comprises eight members of the Liberal Democrat party, and two Conservative members. The Executive is led by Cllr Nick Stanton, with Cllr Kim Humphreys as deputy leader. Each executive member holds a portfolio of responsibilities for a particular area of the council's activity.
Strategic and corporate management
On January 16 2007, the council executive agreed to reshape the council's management structure. This was designed to realise our ambition of making the borough one of the best in the country, and creating quality homes for people in neighbourhoods they are proud to be part of.
The changes meant that there was a strengthening of the senior management capacity in regeneration, with project delivery and housing management integrated into the environment department.
For the regeneration department, this meant the creation of a director level post for major projects encompassing Elephant and Castle, the Aylesbury Estate, Canada Water, Bermondsey Spa and Building Schools for the Future.
The council's staff
At the beginning of 2007, the council employed about 5,500 staff (excluding those who are school-based). 48% were women, 43% were from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities and 4.5% had a declared disability. Of the top 5% of earners, 38.5% are women and 16.7% are from BME communities.
We are currently undertaking reviews of strategic management options for delivering the large expansion of regeneration activity planned by the council, and options for developing an integrated corporate support service (HR, IT, finance etc) for the combined health, children's and education services.