| Administrative History | Aberdeenshire Council was formed in 1996 under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, from three of the five districts of the Grampian Regional Council: Banff and Buchan, Gordon and Kincardine and Deeside. It shares a name with the historic county of Aberdeen, which had different boundaries. The Council inherited most of the functions of the Regional and District councils. Water and sewerage were transferred to water and sewerage authorities, the children's reporter system was transferred to the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration, and provision for tourism was transferred to area tourist boards.
The Council was originally administered by the Council and five main committees (Police & Resources, Education & Leisure, Infrastructure Services, Social Work and Housing and Scrutiny and Audit). There were also six area committees: Banff and Buchan, Buchan, Formartine, Garioch, Kincardine and Mearns, and Marr.
In March 2015 Aberdeenshire Council established a Future Governance Working Group to review the Council’s governance structure in light of the integration of health and social care and local government funding changes. This Group reported to Council in June 2016 with proposals including changes to the remits of the Council's committees and the transfer to the Full Council of the primacy role in respect of financial and other matters from the Policy & Resources Committee. A new Scheme of Governance for the Council was agreed in November 2016, and the new committees came into operation on the 27th January 2017.
The Council is organised into four service areas: Infrastructure Services, Business Services, Education and Children's Services and the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership (position in 2020). |