Meeting documents

Policy and Resources Scrutiny Committee
Thursday, 10th October, 2013 6.30 pm

Chairmen's scrutiny Forum Minutes

Date:
Monday, 15th July, 2013
Time:
18.00
Place:
Committee Room, Civic Centre, Southend-on-Sea
 

Attendance Details

ItemDescriptionResolution
Part I
1 Apologies and substitutions.
 Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Burdett, Flewitt, Holland, D Garston and Kaye.

The reasons given for the apologies were noted although concern was raised about the level of attendance at the meeting.
2 Declarations of interest.
 None.
3 Minutes of the Meeting held on Monday, 11th February, 2013
  • Minutes
Resolved:

That the Minutes of the meeting held on Monday, 11th February, 2013 be received and confirmed as a correct record.
4 Members briefings / pre Cabinet Scrutiny - format of meetings
 The Forum discussed the different methods of pre Cabinet scrutiny which have been employed over the last year:

(a) Sending a report to a Scrutiny Committee, which brings with it the formality of an officer report, the normal rules of debate and a Minute to record the outcome;
(b) Task & Finish groups, which have the same rigour and formality as (a);
(c) Member briefings, which involve more Members in the process, but often lack formality in terms of reports and recording views - and raise questions over Chairing.

Resolved:

1. That the extensive pre Cabinet scrutiny arrangements over the last year have been of considerable benefit.
2. While Member briefings provide a useful means of disseminating information, they should not be used as a method of pre Cabinet Scrutiny.
5 Review and learning from previous scrutiny project - independence and wellbeing of older people
As requested at the meeting in February 2013, the Forum considered a report from the Corporate Director for Corporate Services which concerned the review of the previous in depth scrutiny project - 'Independence and well being of older people'. This project had the strap line ‘our own future selves'.

Resolved:

1. That the report be noted.
2. That this report be forwarded to the Health & Wellbeing Board to decide whether any further follow up work is required.
6 In depth projects selected for 2013 / 14
 The Forum noted the following projects have been selected for in depth study in 2013 / 14:

• Promoting a positive image for the town - Place Scrutiny Committee;
• Southend primary schools' falling grammar school entry figures - People Scrutiny Committee;
• Impact of welfare changes - Policy & Resources Scrutiny Committee.
7 Information Items
 The Forum noted the following:

(a) Papers circulated and the evaluation from the scrutiny training session held on 17th June 2013; and
(b) Information about some recent publications available from the Centre for Public Scrutiny www.cfps.org.uk

The Head of Legal & Democratic Services said that if Members identified a need for different forms of scrutiny training, officers will try to arrange this.
8 Any Items from Forum Members
 (a) It was important that the relevant Executive Councillor (or substitute) should attend the Scrutiny Committee when a relevant item was on the agenda.

(b) New Scrutiny Committees - the Forum discussed how the 3 new Scrutiny Committees were working and the distribution of functions. The Head of Legal & Democratic Services said the titles of the Committees was not very significant. What mattered was that each Committee had responsibility for a group of functions with some synergy and that the workloads of the 3 Committees were as equal as possible. Genuine cross-cutting issues could go to more than one Scrutiny Committee.

It was agreed that the changes to the Scrutiny Committees should be reviewed after 9 months to enable any amendments to be made for the 2014 / 2015 Municipal Year.
9 Date of next meeting
 The next meeting will be held in early 2014.
18.00 / 19.15

Attendance Details

Present:
Councillor Terry (Chairman),
Councillor Gilbert (Vice Chairman), Councillors Assenheim, Longley and Woodley
In attendance:
J K Williams and F Abbott

 

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