The Scrutiny Committee will be setting out its aims as well as a draft work programme at its meeting on Tuesday July 14th.
This extract from the report to be considered at the meeting gives details of the Committee's approach:
3.1 Scrutiny
activities will be led and co-ordinated by the Scrutiny Committee. This
Committee will meet up to 10 times during the year. The Committee consists of fourteen members
comprising eight Councillors, four voting education co-opted members and two
non-voting co-opted members. The voting co-opted members only have voting
rights in relation to education functions.
3.2 The Scrutiny Committee will:
•
hold the Cabinet to account for its decisions.
•contribute
to strategy development through scrutiny of key policy documents and make
comments on these to the Cabinet.
•support
policy development through commissioning Member-led investigations of issues
affecting the community or borough.
•
provide scrutiny of external public bodies and services, including
education,
health and other partners as specified by the Localism Act,
2011
•
coordinate activities with other local bodies charged with scrutiny
functions , for example, Healthwatch, tenant scrutiny, Brent’s Safe r
Neighbourhood Board and the regional Joint Health and Overview Scrutiny
Committee.
•
review and monitor performance to ensure continuous improvement.
•
receive call-in of Cabinet decisions, public petitions and community
calls to action.
3.3 The Council has
a number of statutory responsibilities with regard to scrutiny of local bodies
which will be built into the work programme of the committee during the year,
particularly concerning health and police services.
Appendix A sets out the terms of reference for the
Scrutiny Committee, these are set out in the constitution of the council.
3.4 The
Committee will be able to establish time limited task and finish groups which
will focus on particular topics or issues of local concern. Through these
time-limited reviews of local issues and services, scrutiny activities will not
be limited to the members of the Committee. Rather all non-cabinet M embers can
and should participate. These scrutiny reviews will also create opportunities
for a broad range of organisations, stakeholders and the public in Brent to get
involved in the work of scrutiny.
3.5 The
Scrutiny Committee may undertake external scrutiny of other organisations that
provide local services such as education. The council has a statutory power to
scrutinise local health provision and also crime and disorder functions. This
can be achieved by requesting information from other public agencies or by asking them to attend a meeting
of the Committee for questions. M embers can also investigate any issue that is
affecting local communities or the borough. External scrutiny is an area in
which real value can be added, enabling Members to explore issues of public
concern and take the lead on behalf of their community.
3.6 The
Scrutiny Committee will therefore:
•
develop an annual work programme based on genuine public participation
and feed back from elected Members on local priorities.
•
work closely with other local bodies and groups charged with scrutiny
functions
•
monitor and challenge performance and the use of resources both
internally and externally
•
make evidence-based recommendations to improve the work of the Council
and other partner organisations
•scrutinise
decisions and develop policy both in respect of the Council and external
organisations
•
scrutinise the Council’s budget, particularly at the pre-decision stage
•
deal with call-in and pre-decision scrutiny
•commission
in-depth reviews to be carried out by task and finish groups and to be brought
back to the Committee for consideration
•
produce an annual report on its work showing, in particular, the impact
of the work of the Committee in improving outcomes for local people
•
bring different agencies together to broker solutions to seemingly
intractable problems.
Effective
scrutiny
3.7 Scrutiny
provides councillors with the opportunity to question Cabinet Members, officers
and others in order to gain knowledge around an issue and make effective,
evidenced-based recommendations. It also enables Members to capture the views
of their constituents to provide community leadership.
The principles of effective scrutiny are:
• being
Member-led
The Scrutiny Committee determines its own work programme
and decides what evidence to seek. Members take an active role in t he scrutiny
process, for example by going on visits, taking part in consultation activities
with service users, residents and discussions with local organisations.
•
a consensual approach
Effective scrutiny works towards developing a consensus-based
view of the service or issue under consideration, focused on the needs of
service users and residents.
• it is evidence based
Scrutiny should take evidence from a wide and balanced
range of sources in order to develop a rounded view of the issues under consideration.
Recommendations made by scrutiny should be firmly
supported by the evidence gathered.
• provide constructive challenge
Good scrutiny should foster a style of constructive
challenge with officers and other witnesses, enabling sharing of views in an open and positive manner.
2015-16 Work Programme LINK
2014-15 Key Comments, Recommendations and Actions LINK
