Agenda item

(Assistant to the Chief Executive) To consider the attached report (AGC-018-2013/14).

The Assistant to the Chief Executive presented a report from the Overview and Scrutiny Task & Finish Panel on its review of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny arrangements, with particular emphasis on the working relationship with the Cabinet.

The Assistant to the Chief Executive advised the Committee that, overall, the report had concluded Overview & Scrutiny within the Council was constitutionally well established, but the full opportunities it offered to Councillors and the local community to influence the way in which the Council and other organisations worked had not yet been fully understood. The report, which had 28 recommendations in total, was approved by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee at its last meeting for submission to the Council with some minor adjustments.

The Assistant to the Chief Executive highlighted some of the key points from the report. The Review Panel felt that there was a lot of duplication between the work of the Finance & Performance Management Scrutiny Panel and the Finance & Performance Management Cabinet Committee. It was thought that the Scrutiny Panel should concentrate on a broader overview of the budget in future, not the detailed analysis of budget figures as at present. Similarly, the Scrutiny Panel should concentrate its efforts on Key Performance Indicators that were rated as either ‘Red’ (below target) or ‘Amber’ (within target tolerance), rather than ‘Green’ (on target); and the review of individual Indicators should be referred to another Scrutiny Panel if it was considered to be more appropriate.

The Assistant to the Chief Executive stated that there would be better planning of the Overview & Scrutiny Work Programme and monitoring of the Cabinet’s Key Decision List. Proposals had also been made to reform the Council’s Call-in process, to include a new process of discussion between the Lead Councillor for a Call-In and the relevant Portfolio Holder. The object of this would be to attempt to reach a compromise and avoid the need for a formal meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee to consider the Call-In. Other proposals included the procedure for choosing the Chairman of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee, better liaison between Overview & Scrutiny and the Cabinet, the scrutiny of external organisations, raising the public profile of Overview & Scrutiny, and the training of Councillors in Overview & Scrutiny techniques.

The Vice-Chairman commented that the review had been thorough and welcomed both the problem-solving approach being adopted for Overview & Scrutiny as well as the emphasis on Member training. Overall, this review would lead to an improvement in Governance procedures. The Chairman agreed that the review would give Overview & Scrutiny a more pro-active role within the Council, and provide better scrutiny of Cabinet decisions. It was felt that the Key Performance Indicators required a thorough review to ensure that the outcomes agreed by the Cabinet were being implemented.

The Assistant to the Chief Executive reassured the Committee that the review had recognised the importance of Member training, and a review of Key Performance Indicators would be undertaken.

The Chairman commented that there appeared to be a potential problem with Member Training, and that this was a Governance issue. To this end, Officers were requested to produce a report detailing the Committees where training was required, the courses available for those Committees and the attendance statistics for those courses. This would allow the Committee to ascertain whether there was a widespread problem or just in certain areas. The Vice-Chairman added that it was appropriate for the Committee to examine whether the effectiveness of Committees was being undermined by a lack of training. The cancellation of the Risk Management training for this Committee was highlighted as a case in point.

The Assistant to the Chief Executive reported that the recent Member Training Day had been very well attended, however other important courses had not been so successful. Some thought had been given recently to ‘kick-starting’ a Member Training initiative to encourage Members to attend training sessions. One proposal being considered was for the Council to agree that certain courses were to be mandatory for Councillors, whilst another idea was to undertake a skills audit of all Councillors. It was highlighted by the Committee that any mandatory courses would have to be repeated throughout the year to secure the attendance of as many Councillors as possible.

The Housing Portfolio Holder informed the Committee that training on the Council’s Planning Protocol had been organised for the week following the next round of Local Elections for any new Members elected to the Council. It was also suggested that the Committee could review previous reports on this subject as background information; the Assistant to the Chief Executive undertook to provide this information to the Committee. It was highlighted that the Council’s website listed the training courses attended by each Councillor.

Resolved:

(1)        That the report of the Overview & Scrutiny Review Task & Finish Panel be noted; and

(2)        That a report be submitted to the next scheduled meeting of the Audit & Governance Committee regarding Member Training, and detailing:

            (a)        the Committees where training for Members was required;

            (b)        the courses available for Members to undertake training for their role;         and

            (c)        the attendance statistics for the Member training courses organised by      the Council.