HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
RESOURCES SCRUTINY COMMITTEETHURSDAY 20 OCTOBER 2005 AT 10.30 AM / Agenda Item No.
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REMIT OF THE RESOURCES SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
Report of the Head of Scrutiny
Author: Adrian Service, Democratic Services Officer telephone : 01992 555564
Executive Members: David Beatty and Robert Ellis
1Purpose of report
To advise Members of the remit of the Resources Scrutiny Committee.
2Summary
2.1At its meeting on 24 May 2005, the County Council agreed new arrangements for the scrutiny function and remits for each of the Committees.
In light of this, the Resources Scrutiny Committee’s remit is now as follows:
[Leader of the Council’s portfolio]
a) Communications and consultation
b) Cultural Services (libraries, museums and the arts)
c) Culture (including tourism, sport and recreation)
[Executive Member for Resources portfolio]
d) Finance
e) Personnel
f) Property
g) Rural Estates
h) Best Value Performance Plan and Review Programme
i) The Efficiency Programme
j) IT Management and Development
k) E-Government
l)Securing unified access to services
2.2Members’ attention is drawn to Guidelines for Scrutiny Committees, Annex 9a of the County Council’s Constitution, which is attached as Appendix A.
This sets out the arrangements for the operation of the Committees including development of the work programme, processes for adding to it, the types of reports which will be submitted to Scrutiny Committees and procedures at the meetings.
2.3The County Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee has also established a number of principles relating to the operation of Scrutiny Committees. These are as follows:
- Committees will consider fewer items than in the past but these will be investigated at greater depth. It would, therefore, not be usual to hold a single meeting to discuss a one-off report on an issue
- Before embarking on a piece of scrutiny it should be clear that it will add value to the service(s) being examined
- Most scrutiny work will be undertaken in small groups and meetings will take place in local areas when they are discussing local issues
- If an item is being considered by a Cabinet Panel, then work should not be duplicated by the relevant service Scrutiny Committee.
- Conclusion
The Committee are asked to note the remit of the Resources Scrutiny Committee and the principles of operation.
Appendix A
ANNEX 9A - GUIDELINES FOR SCRUTINY COMMITTEES
1. Introduction
These Guidelines are designed to help members and officers operate Scrutiny Committees effectively. They cover:
- Role of Scrutiny Committees
- Preparation of agendas
- Preparation of reports
- Briefings before meetings
- Procedure at meetings
- Involvement of the public
2. Role of Scrutiny Committees
2.1 The Scrutiny Committees have a number of roles:
- to scrutinise any decisions made by, or on behalf of, the Council or Cabinet;
-to scrutinise any operational or policy aspect of the Council’s business;
- to scrutinise any issue which affects the County and its inhabitants,
which may be outside the Council’s control.
2.2 Having scrutinised a particular decision, policy or issue a Committee may make recommendations through the Overview & Scrutiny Committee to the appropriate body or person – the Council, Cabinet, Chief Officer or outside organisation. A Committee also has power to require a decision to be reconsidered if it has not yet been implemented.
2.3 Each Scrutiny Committee is politically proportionate. Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen are appointed by the Council.
2.4Each Scrutiny Committee has allocated to it:
- one or more service Chief Officers
- the Head of Scrutiny
- a Democratic Services Officer
3.Developing the Annual Work Programme
3.1The Overview and Scrutiny Committee shall determine the scrutiny programme to be carried out by all committees and allocate items appropriately. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee may itself undertake a particular scrutiny. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee will meet at such times as it considers necessary and will regulate its own proceedings.
3.2The work programme for each Committee will be reviewed by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee on an annual basis. Members will be encouraged to contribute to this process as the most effective way of developing a balanced work programme. The work programme for each committee will be published on
4.Process for adding to the work programme
4.1 The preferred process for adding to the work programme (see diagram at the end of this Annex) is for the matter to be discussed with one of the following:
- the Chairman, Vice-Chairman or other group spokesman of the appropriate Service Scrutiny Committee,
- the Chairman or Vice-Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee,
who in turn will consult with the other persons listed above.
Such requests will be submitted in the form of a scoping document to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for consideration, taking into account the programme of scrutiny items already agreed. The Committee may:
a)decide not to include the requested item in the programme, in which case a reason for the decision will be given
b)place the item in the current work programme
c)place the item in the work programme for action at a later date
4.2Any Member may put forward an item to be added to the annual scrutiny work programme by requesting the item to be added to the agenda of the next meeting of the appropriate committee. They should notify Committee Services at least 3 weeks before the meeting of any item they wish to put on the agenda. Committee Services will notify
- the Head of Scrutiny
- the Service Chief Officer,
- other group representatives on the Scrutiny Committee
- the Chairman and Vice-chairman of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee
- the relevant Executive Member.
The Head of Scrutiny will clarify the remit of the item with the member(s) concerned and liaise with the Service Chief Officer to ensure an appropriate person is present at the meeting to speak to the item. If the Committee supports the item a scoping document will then be prepared for the next meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee.
4.3.For those items the Overview & Scrutiny Committee has decided should be placed in the current work programme, the scoping document would then be placed on the agenda of the committee to which the item had been allocated for it to decide how best to undertake the scrutiny.
Usually this will be in the form of an investigation by a small topic group although it may decide to hold a public hearing of the full committee.
4.4If an item is in urgent need of scrutiny the Chairman of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee (or in his absence the Vice-chairman) may, in consultation with the Chairman and Vice-chairman of the appropriate Committee, agree to the scrutiny to avoid delay.
4.5Added members of ChildrenSchools and Families Scrutiny Committee or the Health Scrutiny Committee may request items for scrutiny through their Committee as in paragraphs 4.1 and 4.2 above.
4.6 The Scrutiny process needs to be open and objective if it is to be beneficial to the Council. There should be a presumption in favour of scrutiny where there is value to be added by the scrutiny process although there will be a need for the Overview & Scrutiny Committee to prioritise the work programmes of each committee.
4.7Standing Order SC.3 (4) allows any three CountyCouncillor members of a committee to call a special meeting of that committee but it is anticipated that this power should only be used after the above process has been exhausted.
5.Preparation of Reports
5.1 There will be three main types of reports submitted to scrutiny committees
a)scoping documents which will be in an agreed format set out by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee
b)reports prepared to assist any public hearing
c)reports prepared by topic groups
5.2Reports in respect of items a) & b) above in draft must be sent, in good time, to:
-Chairman & Vice-chairman of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee
-Scrutiny Committee Chairman and Spokesmen
-the Executive Member
-the Head of Scrutiny
-the Democratic Services Officer
-any other relevant officers for comment.
5.3Reports of topic groups will be circulated in draft to
-all members of the topic group
-the Chairman and spokesperson of the committee
-Chairman & Vice-chairman of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee
-The Head of Scrutiny
-The Democratic Services Officer
-Any other relevant officers
6.Briefings
6.1The Head of Scrutiny will arrange pre-meeting briefings for the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of their Scrutiny Committee. Where in exceptional circumstances it is decided that all members of a Scrutiny Committee should have a pre meeting briefing, these briefings will be cross-party.
6.2When it is felt appropriate members of a Scrutiny Committee may meet informally thirty minutes before the formal start of the committee with the Head of Scrutiny and Democratic Services Officer to agree their approach to items on the agenda and in particular how they propose to deal with evidence to be presented to the Committee. The objective is to improve the conduct of the meeting and make best use of the time of those invited to contribute.
6.3 The Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee must ensure that the work programme of scrutiny items is properly organised. They are responsible with the aid of Head of Scrutiny for agenda planning for all scrutiny committees.
7.Procedure at Meetings
7.1Organisation
- The Chairman (if present) presides; otherwise the Vice-Chairman; otherwise a member of the Committee chosen by the other members.
- The Head of Scrutiny sits on the Chairman’s right; the Democratic Services Officer sits on the Chairman’s left.
- The Executive Members and Service Chief Officers sit together. Executive Members are not members of the Committee. They are expected to attend in order to answer questions and to contribute to the debate at the discretion of the Chairman.
- “Specialist” officers (legal/financial/personnel/property) only attend if required.
- A senior officer may represent the Service Chief Officer. The Head of Scrutiny may ask another support officer to substitute.
- At the end of any discussion, the Chairman will ask the Head of Scrutiny to sum up the Committee’s views. The Chairman will aim for a consensus; if that is not possible, a vote may be taken.
7.2The Scrutiny Committee may scrutinise the issue in any way they think fit, e.g.
-setting up a time-limited Topic Group (i.e. a small ad hoc group of Members that can hold its meetings in public and can receive evidence from witnesses, including members of the public). The Committee will set the size and terms of reference. Members may be appointed there and then or by the CountySecretary after the meeting
- requesting one or more Members to carry out visits/investigations on their behalf and report back
- requesting an independent consultant, partner organisation or interest group to investigate the matter on their behalf and report back
- holding one or more public hearings which are specifically designed to enable members of the public, interest groups, etc. to give their views. Public hearings will be particularly useful where the Committee is scrutinising an issue of general importance to the County but which is outside the direct control of the Council.
7.3 Where members of the Committee wish to question officers, Executive
Members or others extensively on a particular subject they may find it helpful to meet in private in advance (with the Head of Scrutiny) to prepare their questions.
7.4 Where a Scrutiny Committee (or Topic Group) makes recommendations those recommendations will be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee as part of the relevant scrutiny report and the minutes of that scrutiny committee. The report will be submitted to Council as part of the quarterly report and to the Executive. Press reports will be issued by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee. Where there is an urgent need for a press release, the Chairman of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee (or in his absence the Vice-chairman) may, in consultation with the Chairman and Vice-chairman of the appropriate Scrutiny Committee, agree to this.
8.The Role of the Head of Scrutiny
-to advise the Committee on handling of business
- to ensure that reports include sufficient information for the Committee to arrive at a conclusion to advise how an issue could be scrutinised
- to sum up the discussion, significant issues raised and conclusions reached by the Committee.
- to support the Committee’s scrutiny by ensuring that subsequent reports fully address questions raised and that they present a balanced picture of the issue under scrutiny
-to advise on the selection of any independent support.
- to monitor the outcomes and report back.
It is important to remember that all officers of the Council have a responsibility to support all members. The Head of Scrutiny, however, has a specific role to help the Committee achieve effective scrutiny. The service Chief Officer’s specific role is to ensure that the Committee has available to it the detailed and technical information it requires and that members are able to understand the service-related issues involved. The roles of these officers are complementary and they must ensure throughout that the advice members receive is clear and consistent.
9. Involvement of the Public and Interested Groups
9.1 Scrutiny Committees and their topic groups are one of the prime public faces of the Council and members of the public should be both encouraged and enabled to attend and where appropriate to contribute. Public involvement can often strengthen the effectiveness, impact and profile of the scrutiny process.The public only have a right to speak at Committee when they are presenting a petition. However, the Chairman has discretion to allow anyone whom he or she wishes to speak at the Committee to do so. In order to make the contribution of the public most useful the following guidelines should be observed:
- When agendas for Scrutiny Committees are prepared this should be done with contributions from interested stakeholders in mind. Experience has shown that well managed contributions from interested people considerably enhance the debate. When considering the approach to any item the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and officers involved in preparing the item should consider whether any interest groups or individuals need to be involved and how their contribution can be managed.
- Wherever possible people who are to contribute to the debate should be briefed in advance and given a structure for the contribution.
- In the past it has proved helpful for the person introducing the item to also introduce interested people who have come at the request of the Committee to contribute to the debate. Each of these people is then asked to give a short (five minutes maximum) input immediately after the officer presentation of the item. They can then also contribute to following debate by indicating that they wish to speak and being askedby the Chairman to do so.
- The contributors to any item need to be limited to five or six as a maximum. They should therefore be people who are able to represent groups of interest if at all possible. Whilst any number of representatives of a particular interest group are welcome to attend any Scrutiny Committee, they should be asked to channel their contribution through one person.
- Members of the public who arrive at the meeting without prior arrangement can nevertheless be allowed to contribute at the Chairman’s discretion if this seems appropriate. As before, groups should be requested to channel their contributions through one person.
- Where interest groups or members of the public are expected to attend for an item, this item should, where possible, be put at the beginning of the agenda or where there are multiple items so this is not possible, a start time for the item should be given for those invited to attend and every attempt made to stick to it.
- If there are a large number of members of the public attending a meeting it is helpful if the Head of Scrutiny or the Chairman if they prefer, gives a brief introduction at the beginning of the meeting explaining who the various people are, what their role is and how the meeting will proceed.
- Ad hoc contributions from the public are difficult to manage and should not be allowed. The Head of Scrutiny’s explanation at the beginning of the meeting can include regret that it is not possible for everyone present to contribute and ask people who have not been nominated as speakers for a particular group or interest to approach their representative or one of the officers if they feel that they have an important point that has been missed.
These guidelines apply to ordinary meetings of the Committee. If theCommittee decides to hold a public hearing (see 6.3 above) it will arrange the format so as to encourage the most effective input from the public.
10.Outcomes
The outcome of effective scrutiny should be improvement to the Council’s services to the public or, in the case of issues outside the Council’s direct control, clear recommendations to other agencies for improvement.
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09A Constitution Annex 9A