Agenda item

(Director of Governance) to consider the attached report.

The Democratic Services Manager introduced the report on the review of the Select Committee Framework. As the Committee was aware, a new Overview and Scrutiny framework based on a structure of four ‘select committees’, was established with effect from the commencement of the current municipal year, on a basis mirroring the new directorate structure.

As the first year of the select committee arrangements came to an end, it was considered that it would be useful for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to review the operation and management of the select committees, particularly in terms of the allocation of service responsibilities between individual committees and the achievability of their associated work programmes.

The views of the current chairmen and lead officers of the select committees had therefore been sought in connection with the operation and management of the select committees over the last year. An item was also included in the Council Bulletin during February 2016, inviting other members to contribute to the review, and a number of officers have also submitted observations on the current arrangements.

The comments and observations that have been submitted in relation to the operation of the select committee arrangements over the last year were largely focussed on the division of service responsibilities. The main issue raised was the imbalance of workload in the Neighbourhood and Communities Select Committee. They had a heavy workload last year leading to long meetings and overcrowded agenda.

The Technology and Support Services Portfolio Holder, Councillor Lion also submitted comments to the effect that he considered the scrutiny function was still not strong enough and needed to get behind the real issues to improve the functions of the Council. He believed that the work programmes for each select committee needed to be linked  to the corporate objectives, business plans and to the business as opposed to the financial audit. He suggested that portfolio holders could be asked  to present the business plan for their portfolio and  what they were planning to achieve in the year ahead. He also suggested that meetings should be held between the Chairmen of the Overview and Scrutiny and the Select Committees at the start of each year in order to plan the work programme for the year.

Councillor Sartin noted that she had made her comments in the report. Her Select Committee had covered a lot of areas while the Housing Select Committee has had to cancel one meeting. She proposed that the Select Committees be aligned to the directorates for the coming year, to be reviewed at the end of the year.

Councillor Stallan, the Housing Portfolio Holder, noted that there was not total support given by the Management Board, where the Director of Communities had said that the current system had not been detrimental and with the Housing Bill coming out they would have larger agendas in the coming year and asked that the system remained the same.

Councillor Sartin added that the Neighbourhood and Communities Select Committee has not had enough time to scrutinise everything they had to.

Councillor Whitbread said that the Neighbourhood and Communities Select Committee had the Local Plan to look at and should not be distracted from this. It was time to balance up the workloads of the Select Committees.

Councillor Waller said that it was a balanced argument but he sided with Councillor Stallan on this. He noted the comments of the Director of Communities and thought it was too soon to make an assessment and we needed another year to assess the workloads.

Councillor Mohindra commented that Neighbourhoods have had a very busy year and that he supported Councillor Lion’s suggestion for a Chair/Vice-Chairman meeting.

Councillor Lion noted that in his experience there was a lot more information available to the Select Committees, which was why he referred to the business plans and the use of audit functions.

Councillor Philip said that we had a good record at examining what was going on and after a year and this was a good time to consider how we did things. It made a lot of sense to align the Select Committees to the Directorates. The Local Plan was important and he could see no reason why Communities should be different form the other directorates.

Councillor Sartin proposed that the Select Committees should be aligned with the directorates. This was seconded by Councillor Church and agreed by the meeting. The meeting also agreed that there should be a separate Chairman and Vice-chairmen meeting at the start of the year.

RESOLVED:

(1)          That the Committee considered proposed changes to the responsibilities of the four Select Committees and agreed that:

(a)  The four Select Committees be directly aligned with the four directorates of the Council; and

(b)  That a separate meeting be held for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Chairman and Vice-Chairman and the Select Committee Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen at the start of each municipal year.