Agenda item

The Service Lead – Strategy and Performance introduced the draft Annual Scrutiny Report for Members’ consideration.

The Annual Scrutiny Report presented the work that had been undertaken by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the three scrutiny panels, and demonstrated the impact of scrutiny on the Council’s policy making.

It was highlighted that the report included reference to the recent Local Government Association (LGA) Governance Peer Review and its recommendations to strengthen the scrutiny function.  A key recommendation arising from the review was that scrutiny should be given greater status and support to enable it to focus on the key strategic issues facing the authority.

The need for scrutiny to have a greater impact was acknowledged and this would be the ambition for future years.

The Chair invited Members to comment and ask questions.

During the course of the discussion, the following points were raised:

·  Concerns were raised that the draft report was unclear and did not represent a true reflection of the work scrutiny had undertaken over the past year.  It was noted that the report listed the items which had been considered; however there was little reference to the impact and outcomes scrutiny had achieved.  Members were keen to embrace the LGA recommendations to improve the demonstrable impact of scrutiny.

·  A Member commented that scrutiny often considered reports that were ‘out of date’ or had already been presented to the Cabinet; consequently, there was no opportunity for scrutiny to feed into the decision-making process or have any influence.  It was felt that there should be a greater focus on pre-decision scrutiny in future.

·  The importance of Member training was highlighted.  It was agreed that a scrutiny training session would be arranged at the earliest opportunity.  The session would present the final LGA Governance Peer Review Report recommendations, examples of best practice and effective scrutiny, and consider how scrutiny could support the Council’s Covid-19 response. 

Resolved – That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee endorsed the Annual Scrutiny Report for submission to Council.