How to use the Community Right to Challenge

If you are an eligible community body and you wish to use the 'Community Right to Challenge', please follow the steps below.

How to use the Community Right to Challenge

  • If you wish to 'challenge' the Council, you should submit a written Expression of Interest (EOI) stating the service/s you wish to challenge and the reasons why. Please send any EOIs to the Community Team
  • The Council's window to accept Challenges runs from 1st January to the 1st April each year
  • EOIs must include the information set out in paragraph 4.2 of the Community Right to Challenge: Statutory Guidance. 
  • The Council will acknowledge all EOIs received within 30 days
  • We will make a decision on whether to 'accept' the EOI and notify the 'challenging body' of our decision within 12 weeks of receipt
  • If an EOI is accepted an open procurement process will be triggered on the delivery of that service in no less than six weeks and no more than three months following acceptance. This will enable the 'challenging body' to bid to run the service alongside other bidders, including private sector companies
  • The Council will consider all bids to run the service, with the successful bidder taking on the running of that service

What are the implications of using the Right to Challenge

  • If local community groups choose to use the Right to Challenge, there is no guarantee that this will result in improved local service delivery
  • Using the Right to Challenge will trigger an open procurement process, where competition to win the bid to run a service can legitimately come from national private sector companies 

Our commitment to Localism

As a Council we are committed to implementing localism that works for our communities - seeing real empowerment at the local level. We have adopted our own unique approach to localising services through our Localisation Model. We are keen to explore localised services with our communities. To find out more please visit our Localisation of Services page or download our Localisation Model.

Want to submit an Expression of Interest?

If you are thinking about submitting an expression of interest we would welcome an informal approach in the first instance, please contact the Community Team: community@swdevon.gov.uk.