The Administration Committee for Kensington and Chelsea Council met on 17 November 2025 to discuss preparations for the May 2026 local elections, the Business Efficiency and Voluntary Redundancy Scheme 2025-26, and a review of the Charter for Public Participation.

The committee was also scheduled to confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2025.

Review of the Charter for Public Participation

The committee was scheduled to discuss a report on the review of the Charter for Public Participation, which was adopted by the Full Council on 22 January 2020. The charter describes how people can influence council services, get involved in decision-making and make a difference in their area.

The report summarised the outcome of the review of the charter and recommended a revised document, 'Our Public Participation Commitments', for adoption by the Full Council and incorporation into the Council Constitution.

The review was undertaken between January and October 2025, and the methodology is contained in appendix 2 to the Review of the Charter for Public Participation.

The report stated that the council's new 'Our Public Participation Commitments' marks a clear change in how the council works with its residents. It was reviewed and co-created with over 600 local people this year, and the new commitments move beyond traditional consultation to embed accessibility, proactive outreach, and transparency at the heart of all council engagement.

The new commitments set out when the council will consult, engage, co-design, and co-produce, and what residents can expect from councillors and officers in return. The new commitments give a greater breadth to how the council will involve local people - from informing to co-producing with them - and allows the council to be clearer on the type of engagement required.

The new public participation commitments will be accompanied by a new accountability framework, resident oversight panel, and clear feedback loops to ensure openness about how resident views shape decisions. The new rewards and recognition guidance will ensure everyone, who so wishes, can afford to take part in involvement with the council.

To ensure the new commitments are properly embedded, in 2026 there will be:

• a resident oversight group recruited to review the progress of the new commitments' implementation against an evaluation framework, with a progress report published on the website annually.
• a programme of staff training focused on ensuring the expectations and requirements in the new commitments are understood and upheld, building on existing good practice.
• publication of a suite of case studies showing the positive, restorative approach already being taken in some of the services to public participation, which the council wants to build on and encourage more of as a result of this review.
• an updated Consultation and Engagement Toolkit, and Good Practice Guide on the Consultation and Engagement Hub.
• work with Scrutiny to look at the biggest council decisions coming up annually, so the council can check if the organisation's participation levels are sufficiently inclusive and fulfil the public participation commitments.
• sharing the resident oversight group's draft annual report with Scrutiny, so together the council can review and assess whether participation is at the right level and properly adjusted for different situations and needs.

All of this will be reflected in online and in-person communications to residents under the 'Your Community, Your Voice' campaign throughout 2026-27.

Preparations for the May 2026 Local Elections

The committee was scheduled to discuss a report which aimed to provide assurance that the council was properly prepared to deliver the borough elections on 7 May 2026.

The 2026 elections will be the first local elections under the Elections Act 2022's voter identification requirements¹. The council delivered two elections in 2024, the Greater London Authority elections in May and the UK Parliamentary General Election in July, both of which provided valuable operational lessons.

Internal Audit awarded substantial assurance to the Electoral Services team in August 2025, finding that controls across all ten areas reviewed were either substantial or satisfactory. An Elections Board, chaired by Maxine Holdsworth, Chief Executive as Returning Officer, has met monthly since September 2025 and will increase meeting frequency as polling day approaches.

The Preparations for the May 2026 Borough Elections report noted that local elections are governed by various pieces of primary and secondary legislation. The Representation of the People Act 1983 (as amended) sets out the core electoral framework - who can vote, how they register, nomination procedures, polling arrangements, and the count. This Act is supplemented by the Representation of the People Act 2000, which modernised registration processes and introduced postal voting on demand.

The Chief Executive is appointed as Returning Officer under the Representation of the People Act 1983. This is a personal statutory office, not a council function. The Returning Officer's decisions on operational delivery are made independently of the council, and councillors cannot direct the Returning Officer on these matters. The Returning Officer is personally responsible for delivering the election in accordance with the law. While the Returning Officer acts independently, the council has a statutory duty to provide adequate resources to enable delivery.

The Electoral Services Team have experience delivering elections in Kensington and Chelsea. The core team of eight is supported by approximately 500 election day staff: 300 polling officers (Presiding Officers and Poll Clerks) across 55 polling stations and 200 count staff for verification and counting at Kensington Town Hall.

The elections project plan divides delivery into workstreams, each with designated lead officers, task lists, and deadlines. The workstreams include:

• Staffing recruitment and appointment of some five hundred staff
• Training in-person and online training for all polling and count staff.
• Absent voting processing postal and proxy vote applications; arranging postal vote issue, opening and scanning sessions.
• Polling places and accommodation securing 55 polling stations; booking rooms for training, postal vote processing, and the count.
• Agents and candidates liaison with election agents; provision of electoral registers and absent voter lists; briefing meetings.
• Equipment and stationery ballot boxes, booths, polling station supplies; inventory management.
• ICT electoral management software system, backup arrangements, postal vote scanning equipment, technical support.
• Communications and PR public awareness campaigns (voter ID, registration deadlines, polling arrangements); media liaison; social media.
• Risk management maintaining and reviewing risk register; implementing mitigation measures.
• Policing and Security liaison with Metropolitan Police; security arrangements at count venue; contingency for public order incidents.
• Polling Day inspection arrangements, helpline staffing, emergency support, final postal vote opening.
• Count verification and counting arrangements at Kensington Town Hall; declaration of results.
• Post-election statutory returns, payment of invoices, document retention, lessons learned review.
• Contractors Management of external suppliers (printing, distribution, equipment delivery).

Business Efficiency and Voluntary Redundancy Scheme 2025-26

The committee was scheduled to note the outcomes of the council's Business Efficiency and Voluntary Redundancy Scheme (BEVR) 2025-26 ('the Scheme'), which has been in line with the terms and conditions reported in the 11 September 2025 report to the committee.

The scheme was introduced to help the council address its financial pressures and mitigate the need for compulsory redundancies. As part of the council-wide Savings and Transformation Programme, the scheme set out to achieve c. £4.5m of savings via staff voluntary redundancies.

Following communications and guidance, the application window opened on 17 July and closed on 4 September 2025. After departmental consideration, a total of 171 applications were considered by the Corporate Panel, the second-tier decision-making Panel under the Scheme, chaired by the Chief Executive and consisting of the council's EMT², the Director of Financial Management, and the Director of HR and OD³.

A total of 116 voluntary redundancies were agreed. Employees whose applications were approved will have been made a formal offer of voluntary redundancy on 6 November 2025. If they accept, these employees will exit the council up until March 2026 the latest.

At the time of producing the Business Efficiency and Voluntary Redundancy Scheme 2025-26 - Update report, the total staff cost saving has been calculated as £4,795,641, of this £3,906,478 is attributable to general fund, as a proportion of posts are funded from different sources.