Oxfordshire County Council is managed by a Cabinet which consists of ten elected councillors. The day-to-day operations are carried out by the County Leadership Team, which consists of the County Director and directors who, between them, manage the hundreds of public services provided.

Our strategic plan 2023 – 2025 sets out our vision to lead positive change by working in partnership to make Oxfordshire a greener, fairer and healthier county.

Political management system

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.

The Cabinet

• Recommends budget and policy framework to the council
• Leads the council
• Makes all the key decisions
• Commissions policy review from scrutiny committees

Find out more about the Cabinet.

Committees

• Take non-cabinet decisions

Find out more about committees.

Scrutiny

• Reviews issues before decisions are made
• Calls-in decisions after they are made
• Does policy development work for the cabinet
• Commissions its own scrutiny reviews

Find out more about scrutiny or browse agendas and membership of scrutiny committees.

What the county council does

The full council has six scheduled public meetings a year. At these meetings the council:

• decides the Council Constitution
• reviews the political management arrangements and how they work
• appoints:
  • the Leader
  • members to the scrutiny and other committees
• approves the budget and policy framework
  • the budget and capital programme
  • specific plans and strategies identified in the constitution
• delegates powers to the council committees
• debates issues raised by individual members
• receives public petitions or addresses

Find out more about meetings or browse agendas and membership for county council meetings.