The Management Board takes responsibility, under the aegis of the Members, for all of the Council's activities. They lead, direct and manage the London Borough of Redbridge and help others to do so.

The Management Board works closely with the Cabinet cycle and meets every Thursday.

The work programme of the Management Board closely mirrors that of the Cabinet with many of the items discussed at Board eventually becoming Cabinet Reports.  The officer parts of Cabinet reports are signed off by the Management Board. The Board meets the full Cabinet on a regular basis, and meets the Leader and Deputy Leader weekly. 

All the key strategies and plans of the Council are initially discussed at the Board. Inevitably the Board also deals with major or difficult operational issues, particularly where more than one department is involved; although the aim is to leave Directors, and through them Heads of Service, as free as possible to manage the day-to-day business of the Council.

The Management Board are:

Directors nominate a senior officer in their Management Team to represent them at the Management Board if they are not able to attend.

The Chief Executive, or the person he delegates as his Deputy if he is on leave, chairs the Management Board.  Ultimately the authority of the Management Board arises from the authority of the Chief Executive, as Head of the Paid Service, to give reasonable instructions to any member of staff, senior or junior, within the framework of policies agreed by the Cabinet and Council, and subject to the law and best practice.  Decisions are of course normally reached by discussion and consensus, taking into account the professional views of the heads of department.  The statutory chief finance officer (the Director of Finance and Resources) and the Council’s chief lawyer and statutory Monitoring Officer (the Borough Solicitor and Secretary) are key members of the team, as are the statutory Director of Children’s Services and the statutory Director of Adult Social Services (the Director of Housing and Community Services).