About the council

How the council is structured

Political structure

We have 57 councillors (also known as members) who are elected across 22 wards. Your councillors are responsible for making sure that the services that the council provides meet the needs of residents and those who work in Brent. They do this by setting the overall policies and strategies for the council and by monitoring the way in which these are implemented.

The people who stand for election as councillors may belong to one of the national political parties or to a local political party, or they may be completely independent of a political party.

The current political make-up of Brent is as follows:

Labour: 49 Councillors
Conservatives: 5 Councillors
Liberal Democrat: 3 Councillors

The council has a Leader who comes from the majority party.

The Leader is responsible for forming a Cabinet which is responsible for implementing the council's policies.

The Full Council is responsible for agreeing the main policies and priorities for all services, including the council's budget. They meet eight times a year and meetings are open to the public.

Each year, the members also choose a Mayor for Brent, who promotes Brent locally, nationally and internationally.

Council structure

The council is led by the Chief Executive and supported by four Strategic Directors, who lead the council's departments. The Director of Finance and Director of Legal, HR and Audit also make up the Council management team.

The strategic departments are:

Chief Executive’s Department: which drives the core strategies, policies, financial planning and corporate performance for the whole council, making sure that we’re all pulling in the same direction for our residents.

Children and Young People Department: has the responsibility for improving outcomes and effectiveness of services for all of Brent's children, particularly the most vulnerable.

Community Wellbeing Department: brings together adult social care, housing, public health and cultural services, and will contribute to improve health and well-being outcomes for our residents, particularly better targeting resources towards support for vulnerable people.

Regeneration, Growth and Environmental Services Department: brings together all regeneration and environmental services including: planning, highways, licensing, community safety, employment and skills, public realm and regulatory services.

Customer and Digital Services Department: is responsible for the council’s customer services (including community hubs) and for driving forward digital and transformation programmes, aimed at making life easier for all of our residents to access and utilise our services.

View the council structure chart (updated March 2022). You can request an accessible version of this document by contacting us.

Senior Management team

The Chief Executive and Council Management Team are responsible for ensuring that services are delivered in accordance with strategies and policies agreed by Council and in the best interests of the community.

They also play a fundamental role in determining the strategic direction of the council and to ensure we reach our goals.

The Director of Finance and Director of Legal, HR and Audit also attend CMT meetings.

Chief Executive

Carolyn Downs

Carolyn Downs is Brent Council’s Chief Executive, having taken up the position in September 2015.

Prior to her appointment, Carolyn was Chief Executive at the Local Government Association and has also previously served as chief executive of the Legal Services Commission, chief executive of Shropshire County Council and as deputy permanent secretary and director general at the Ministry of Justice.

At Brent, she is the principal policy advisor to the council and the senior manager with responsibility for running the council on a day-to-day basis, including overseeing the council's annual expenditure of around £1 billion.

Carolyn also has overall responsibility for the work of 6,500 staff (including school staff) in more than 200 workplaces providing hundreds of services to Brent's 325,300 residents.

As the statutory Head of Paid Service, Carolyn works closely with elected councillors to deliver leadership and strategic direction to the whole organisation.

She is also responsible for leading and developing strong partnerships with a wide range of national, regional and local agencies.

You can contact the Chief Executive by:

Writing to:

Chief Executive
Brent Civic Centre
Engineers Way
Wembley
HA9 0FJ

Email:

chief.executive@brent.gov.uk

Strategic Director - Community Wellbeing

Phil Porter

Phil Porter is the Strategic Director of Community Wellbeing and took on these wider responsibilities in January 2015, after being appointed to the previous position of Strategic Director, Adult Social Care in March 2013. Prior to that, he was the head of Reablement and Safeguarding in Adult Social Services.

Community Wellbeing comprises adult social care, housing, public health and cultural services, and will contribute to improving health and well-being outcomes for our residents, particularly better targeting resources towards support for vulnerable people.

Strategic Director - Regeneration and Environment

Alan Lunt

Alan Lunt joined Brent in August 2020 having previously served as Deputy Chief Executive at Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council in the West Midlands.

He has previously held Strategic Director roles across Merseyside and Greater Manchester, delivering a range of physical and economic regeneration initiatives. He has a wealth of experience of managing frontline council services including highways, transport, planning, environmental, housing, arts and heritage.

The Regeneration and Environment Directorate has responsibility for all regeneration and environmental services including planning, licensing, highways, public realm, property, regulatory services, employment and skills, neighbourhood management and community safety.

Strategic Director - Children and Young People

Gail Tolley is the Strategic Director, Children and Families. She is also the statutory director for Children's Services in Brent.

Children and Families provides education services for children, families and schools together with services for the safeguarding and protection of vulnerable children, including those who are in need.

The department has around 900 staff and an annual net budget of approximately £57 million per year. In addition, the department sets and monitors the budget for schools of around £220 million per year.

Gail is also responsible for ensuring that all council services (including housing, environmental, cultural, sports and leisure) and all other public services in Brent, such as health and the police, work together to improve the lives of children.

She leads the work of Brent Children's Partnership which comprises the leaders of services for children across Brent. The partnership produces an annual plan which identifies how services will work together and sets improvement targets to enable children to achieve their best and to be healthier and safer.

The partnership includes schools, the College of North West London, children and family centres, housing, libraries, sport and leisure, police, health services, probation services, employment services and voluntary sector services.

Strategic Director - Customer and Digital Services

Peter Gadsdon

Before taking the role as Strategic Director for Customer and Digital services, Peter Gadsdon was the Assistant Chief Executive at Brent for four years. Peter also has three company directorships in Council owned private companies. As Brent’s Strategic Director Customer and Digital Services, Peter has the lead role in ensuring the council delivers customer focused services. In addition, as the Council’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) Peter has a solid understanding of technology and how this can be deployed to improve services and outcomes for residents whilst increasing productivity and delivering cost efficiencies through implementing the Council’s Digital Strategy.