How Scrutiny works

The purpose of the Scrutiny Committee is to undertake reviews and make recommendations on services or activities carried out by partner organisations which may affect residents, businesses, as well as the council and its committees. This could involve: Scrutiny provides an opportunity for councillors, partners and members of the public to:

The Scrutiny Committee’s remit is focused on carrying out the council’s statutory scrutiny responsibilities in relation to the provision/commissioning of local health services, flood risk management arrangements in the borough, as well as crime and disorder/community safety matters. Within this remit, the committee can:

• Hold the appropriate and relevant decision makers to account. The Scrutiny Committee can request an officer of a relevant partner organisation to attend it and answer questions in relation to the performance of a service, policy, or effectiveness of a decision taken.
• Consider existing policies or services to evaluate their effectiveness. Depending upon the evidence gathered, it might be concluded that a policy or service is performing well, or that improvements to or a reshape of a policy or service area may be needed.
• Highlight areas of poor performance and investigate methods of improving that performance. Overview and scrutiny has an important role to play in ensuring service performance is monitored.
• Engage in external scrutiny of other providers of public services. The Scrutiny Committee is largely externally focused owing to the nature of its terms of reference and remit. Therefore it will engage in regular external scrutiny of partners, service providers and decision makers relating to local health services, flood risk management, crime and disorder, and community safety.
• Make reports and/or recommendations to responsible authorities. The Scrutiny Committee can submit reports and/or recommendations to responsible authorities (relating to local health services, flood risk management, crime and disorder, and community safety) and require that those authorities provide a response in writing. Reports and recommendations made by overview and scrutiny can be highly influential in ensuring that local people are receiving the services they require and deserve.