Scrutiny

A comprehensive work programme is fundamental to the effectiveness of the Scrutiny Committees as it enables them to plan and manage their workloads to make best use of the available time and resources, ensure a focus on the borough's priorities and add the most value to the performance of the council and outcomes for residents.

Work programme sessions are held at the beginning of each municipal year to outline the work of each committee. Within each work programme, there exists flexibility so that as the year progresses, items can be added to the programme of each committee if the chair and committee members are in agreement.

Scrutiny has a very broad scope for the topics it can address and the approaches it can take to an enquiry: a single issue or decision might be dealt with over one meeting, whereas a review of council policy or a cross-cutting issue that involves external partners might take a number of months to conclude. There is no limit to the nature of an issue that scrutiny committees can choose to investigate.

Carrying out effective scrutiny takes a lot of time, commitment and effort so it is simply not possible to look at every issue. When choosing issues, scrutiny will consider whether it can make a real difference (e.g. would the recommendation result in improved services).

Details of topics for 2024/25 will be provided following the first meetings of the Committees in July 2024.

The Scrutiny Team welcomes your views, suggestions and comments on potential topics to be reviewed by Scrutiny. Please use this Work Programme Suggestion Form to submit your ideas about what the Scrutiny Committees should be considering as part of their work programmes for 2024/25. Please contact the Scrutiny team if you wish to speak to a member of the Scrutiny Team about completing the form.