Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Corporate Services

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services introduced the report which set out the background to the scrutiny review and its findings. He commended the workshops run by Democratic Services which had drawn out a number of issues that members had wanted to raise. The report set out the key principles for the new scrutiny arrangements which were centred on a single overview and scrutiny committee supported by task and finish groups.  In his view overview and scrutiny was greatly underutilised in the council and he stressed that if there was all-party support for a particular way forward on an issue, any Cabinet would find it difficult not to take that into account.  He hoped that the new arrangements would be the starting point for change and members would enjoy the focus and independence of the task and finish groups. He acknowledged that there was much further work to be done before the new arrangements were implemented in May 2012.  The constitutional changes would be supported by the Constitution Working Group and in terms of defining protocols and procedures for the new arrangements, he proposed an open invitation for any member to participate in the scrutiny workshops which would be arranged to seek members views.

A member considered the new arrangements were change for change’s sake and their implementation would take up a lot of officer time unnecessarily.  He considered the system worked well at the moment and the current committee structure facilitated the setting up of working groups. He was concerned that if the task groups met in private, the public accountability and transparency of the current arrangements would disappear.

Another member felt that the business of the council was too varied to be dealt with by a single committee and the current arrangements allowed members to build up specialist knowledge for their particular committee.  She was also concerned that the scrutiny management committee at the County Council had a tendency to get too involved in particular issues and the ruling group was able to veto what items went on to the scrutiny workplan.

Other members spoke in support of the new arrangements and experience at the County did not mean the structure was wrong but purely the way it was operated.  They considered that task and finish groups had the potential to make much better use of members’ expertise but questioned whether a suggested limit of four task groups would be sufficient.  One member was concerned that members should not be disenfranchised by the timing of working groups, particularly those who were not available before 6 p.m. in the evening.  It was important that when a working group was constituted, the members agreed the optimum time when the greatest number of members could attend. Other members spoke of the importance of Cabinet Member involvement and participation in the scrutiny process. There was a concern that it would always be the same group of members that were putting themselves forward for working groups. Members should be encouraged to participate in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12