Issue - meetings

(Democratic Services Manager) To consider the attached report, following the statutory guidance recently issued by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.

The Democratic Services Manager presented a report on the Statutory Guidance on Overview & Scrutiny in Local & Combined Authorities, that had been issued by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in May 2019.

The Committee was informed that Local Authorities ‘must have regard to the guidance when exercising overview and scrutiny functions’ which meant that the guidance should be followed unless there was good reason not to. There were six themes running throughout the guidance, which were: Culture; Resourcing; Selecting Committee Members; Power to Access Information; Planning Work; and Evidence Sessions. The Democratic Services Manager then proceeded to highlight the key points for each theme within the guidance.

Culture

Organisational culture within local authorities was recognised as one of the key measures of success for Overview & Scrutiny, with an emphasis placed on the importance of Overview & Scrutiny being owned and led by Members.

Resourcing

The guidance did not prescribe a specific level of Officer support to be allocated to Overview & Scrutiny, other than an appropriate level of support to enable Overview & Scrutiny to function effectively. Any support should also include the way that the wider Council engaged with Overview & Scrutiny.

Selecting Committee Members

When selecting Members to serve on Overview & Scrutiny Committees, consideration should be given to experience, expertise, interests, ability to act impartially, ability to work as part of a group, and capacity to serve. The importance of the role of Chairman for Overview & Scrutiny Committees was recognised, with a suggestion that they should be selected by means of a secret ballot. The guidance also emphasised the value of outside expertise that could be obtained by co-opted members onto a Committee or the use of technical advisors.

Power to Access Information

The guidance highlighted the legal powers which already existed for Overview & Scrutiny to access information to enable it to carry out its work. This included access to data on finance, performance and risk.

Planning Work

The guidance stressed the importance of work programming to the success of Overview & Scrutiny, with a focus on items which could make a tangible difference. A variety of sources should be used to inform the work programme, and the use of shortlisting was recommended in deciding which topics should be included in the work programme. There also needed to be co-ordination across the work programmes of individual Scrutiny Committees, to ensure that the best use was made of the available support.

Evidence Sessions

Evidence Sessions were highlighted as a key means for Overview & Scrutiny Committees to inform their work, but they required effective planning. In developing recommendations from Evidence Sessions, a maximum of six to eight recommendations was suggested as being sufficient to ensure a focused response was received.

The Democratic Services Manager requested the Committee to consider the statutory guidance and to identify whether any changes to current processes were required as a result.

Councillor Mohindra stated that the guidance on Evidence Sessions sounded interesting, and inquired whether there had been any benchmarking or peer reviews of the Council’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20