Assessing the impact of our decisions

As a council, our decision-making process should be evidence-based, justified and transparent. It should also identify methods for mitigating negative impact. We need to assess the impacts of our decisions at an early stage of any policy development, project or service review. We should ensure decisions are informed by a good understanding of the impact on:

• individuals
• groups
• communities

Cornwall Development and Decision Wheel

In 2021, we introduced a new tool to better understand and assess the impact of our decisions. The Cornwall Development and Decision Wheel is used to help shape and inform work as we develop:

• strategies
• policies
• projects
• programmes

It helps staff look at the decision through different lenses:

• environmental
• social
• equality and inclusion

This ensures that we meet our legal duties under the Equality Act 2010 by not unlawfully discriminating against different communities. It also helps us to deliver on our carbon neutral ambitions.

The Cornwall Development and Decision Wheel should be used for the majority of decisions we make as a council. Agreed exceptions include; 

• Performance/annual reporting
• Changes to financial arrangements and/or reserves
• Retrospective reports
• Reports for certain committees including Audit, Standards, Appeals, Pensions, Licensing, Planning, and Constitution and Governance Committees.  

You can find out more about the impacts of our decisions on our dedicated pages below. You can also see decision wheels for relevant reports on the Committee structure page.