Issue - meetings

A report had been submitted to update Scrutiny Board on the new Statutory Guidance on Overview and Scrutiny in Local and Combined Authorities issued by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in May 2019.

The Board considered that the Guidance underlined a lot of the work that scrutiny should have been doing from day one and that it was fundamental for scrutiny to have an independent mindset.

It was agreed that it was vital to create a model that suited everyone, and that scrutiny had to continue to provide challenge.

The Board addressed the issue of resources and stated that it was important to ensure that there were adequate resources for scrutiny as there was an ever-increasing workload. These resources had to include training for both councillors and officers and that officers should be invited to scrutiny on a more regular basis so that they could understand the process and how scrutiny worked. 

The Board considered that the Council did carry out good scrutiny but was not great at highlighting it and there has been some poor attendance at meetings.

The Board stated that it was important to understand how we monitored the effectiveness of scrutiny in the Council. It was agreed that this was a role for Scrutiny Board.

The Managing Director stated that there were sufficient resources for scrutiny but that a more cultural shift was required so that scrutiny became more integral within the Council.

The Board also considered that it was important to ensure ownership of recommendations that were made to Cabinet and that these recommendations were monitored with responses from Cabinet made in a timely fashion.

Resolved:     That the update be noted.