Advertising and sponsorship

The Advertising and Sponsorship Board is established to provide strategic oversight, robust governance, and consistent decision making in line with the council’s Advertising and Sponsorship Policy.  The board acts as the guardian of the policy, ensuring that all advertising and sponsorship activity undertaken by the council:

• Aligns with the borough’s priorities of creating safer, greener and cleaner communities with opportunity for all.
• Protects the council’s reputation, brand, and public trust and supports transparency, compliance, value for money and good corporate governance.
• Provides opportunities to co-ordinate proposals and maximise opportunities to generate value for the council and to put the council on a strong financial footing.

The board provides recommendations to the relevant decision-maker within the council’s constitution and ensures all activity is carried out consistently across services.

The board will:

1. Oversee implementation of the Advertising and Sponsorship Policy and maintain consistent interpretation across the organisation.
2. Ensure compliance with the policy and ensure appropriate processes are in place to monitor.
3. Monitor and review proposals to provide support to services in particular for high value, sensitive or high-risk opportunities and set thresholds for officer level decision making.
4. Protect the council from reputational, legal, operational or strategic risks, including conflicts of interest and ensure due diligence is carried out for all proposed advertisers and sponsors.
5. Support consistency and transparency, including maintenance of a public register of sponsorship and advertising agreements.

The board is responsible for:

Reviewing and co-ordinating proposals

• Developing the council-wide approach to advertising and sponsorship, social value and corporate social responsibility to maximise income and value to the council and support the overall council plan priorities.
• Identifying new opportunities for advertising and sponsorship and steering projects to realise those opportunities.
• Providing early-stage input to advertising and sponsorship, social value and corporate social responsibility proposals, where bringing together proposals into broader opportunities might increase the value to the council.
• Reviewing proposals against the policy’s required ethical, legal, commercial and reputational criteria.

Governance and oversight

• Acting as the central point of expertise on advertising and sponsorship arrangements.
• Ensuring conflicts of interest (personal, organisational, operational or strategic) are properly considered and assessed.
• Overseeing due diligence processes and ensuring transparency and accountability.
• Monitoring compliance with the council’s statutory and legal obligations.

Monitoring and reporting

• Receiving updates on pipeline proposals and opportunities.
• Overseeing the maintenance of the public register of agreements, sponsorship and donations.
• Recommending updates to the Advertising and Sponsorship Policy and other associated policies as required.
   

Membership

As set out in the policy, the membership will include as a minimum:

• Executive Director of Resources (Section 151 Officer).
• Assistant Chief Executive.
• Deputy Director of Law and Governance.
• Assistant Director of Placemaking, Partnerships and Sustainability (Chair).
• Strategic Lead – Contract and Service Improvement.
• Procurement Manager.
• Service Lead – Business and Commercial Partnerships.
• Library and Resident Contact Lead.

Frequency of meetings

• The board will meet as required but a minimum of quarterly unless otherwise agreed.
• Additional meetings may be convened to consider urgent proposal, and decisions may be taken via written agreement when appropriate.

Reporting and transparency

The board will:

• Ensure the public register of advertising and sponsorship agreements is accurate and up to date.
• Support open, transparent and accountable public reporting in line with council commitments.

Review of the Terms of Reference

These Terms of Reference will be reviewed annually or sooner if:

• the policy is updated.
• legislative or regulatory changes occur.
• organisational or governance changes require it.