Issue - meetings

(a)     That four recommendations made by the Wales Audit Office in their Overview & Scrutiny – Fit for the Future?  Study report be received; and

(b)     That the officers be tasked with examining how the proposals could inform future Overview & Scrutiny work, including the circulation of the centre for Public scrutiny self-assessment template.

            The Democratic Services Manager explained that the Wales audit office (WAO) had conducted their study by conducting interviews of both individuals and groups and by observing at a number of committee meetings between October and December last year. He identified a number of the councillors who had been involved. This had included a group of Members who were newly elected, as well as ‘established’ Members whose service went back to the previous council.

 In addition, the Chief Executive, Chief Office (Governance), the Corporate Business and Communications Executive Officer   and the Democratic Services Manager had all been interviewed individually.  

The Wales Audit Office had made four recommendations which were:-

P1     The Council should undertake regular self-assessment of its overview and scrutiny function, to consider its impact, and identify areas for improvement.

P2     Further develop scrutiny forward work programing to:

•        ensure that the method of scrutiny is best suited to the topic area and the outcome desired, and consider more innovative methods for undertaking scrutiny activity.

P3     Overview and scrutiny committees should further improve their arrangements for promoting the engagement of the public and other stakeholders in scrutiny activity.

P4     The Council should review the support arrangements for overview and      scrutiny in light of current and future challenges.

            The Democratic Services Manager invited Members of the Committee to consider and comment on these recommendations.

            Councillor Dave Healey said that he was unable to agree with the recommendations, as he believed that they did not provide a true picture of how Overview & Scrutiny was now working.   He referred to his role as Chair of the Education & Youth Overview & Scrutiny Committee and commented this committee was not ‘officer led’ and referred to examples where Members had challenged officers on the following:-

·         Impact of the internet on young people – what was Flintshire doing to highlight the dangers?

·         Initiating a report on the Youth Service and how it operated – this issue was a Member request ;

·         GwE – when they attended the  committee, Members requested updates on diverse issues such as period poverty and school transport;

·         Questions had also been asked about the impact of the cash flat budgets on schools. Head Teachers had attended and their representatives had spoken to Members and officers outlining their concerns.

            Councillor Healey concluded by saying that these were just a few examples of how proactive scrutiny had been over the last year.

            In response the Democratic Services Manager clarified the study had been carried out last autumn. He said that he, and other heads of democratic services had made the point to WAO that conducting such a study in local authorities which had recently undergone elections was not likely to provide an accurate reflection of scrutiny practice. As the new councils had ‘bedded in in’ it was likely that there would have been a number of changes. In addition, observations from a small number of meetings should not be extrapolated to provide a picture of the whole.

            Councillor Paul Shotton referred to the meetings held outside  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11