Scrutiny
Committees
There are four Scrutiny Committees that support the work of the
Executive and the Council as a whole. They allow Members to
consider Council matters in greater detail leading to reports and
recommendations which advise Executive on its policies, budget and
service delivery. They may also be consulted by the Executive on
forthcoming decisions and the development of policy.
The
Committees monitor the decisions of the Executive or an individual
Member of the Cabinet. It can, in certain circumstances, consider
‘calling-in’ a decision that has been made by the
Executive or an individual member of the Cabinet but not yet
implemented. This enables the Committee to consider whether the
decision is appropriate and ensure that all evidence has been
presented to Executive for it to make the right
decision.
The
Committee reviews the Council’s performance within the
Performance Management Framework and makes recommendations to the
Executive/Service areas as appropriate, to ensure good performance
levels are maintained.
The
Committees also receive requests from Members in respect of
Councillor Calls for Action.
Each
Scrutiny Committee sets a Work Programme of internal scrutiny for
the year and monitors progress against it. The Council’s
Forward Plan of Key Decisions & Items to be Considered in
Private, is considered at every meeting to enable advanced
consideration of proposed key decisions.
Customer
Services Scrutiny Committees
The
Customer Services Scrutiny Committee has the following specific
responsibilities:
-
BDC Housing, including Strategic Housing
-
Emergency Planning
-
Revenues and Benefits
-
Street Scene
-
Grounds maintenance
-
Customer Services and Customer Standards
-
ICT
-
Communications
-
Waste collection
-
Monitoring Corporate Complaints
-
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman – complaints and
annual letter
The
Customer Services Scrutiny Committee may also cover the following
areas:
-
Environment
-
Finance
-
Transformation Programme
-
Environmental Health
-
Governance
-
Legal Requirements
-
Staffing and other resources for projects
-
Elections
-
Performance monitoring of assigned service areas