Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 13 August 2018.

The Minutes (copies of which had been circulated) of the meeting held on 13 August 2018 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Councillors and officers were invited to declare any interests they had in any of the items on the agenda for the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made.

There were no call in items to consider.

The Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee agreed at the August 2018 meeting to undertake a piece of work in respect to in relation to best practice and other possible models of scrutiny, seeking input from external partners such as the Centre for Public Scrutiny and the Local Government Association.

A number of organisations have been approached with a view to attending a future meeting of the Scrutiny Committee and an update will be provided at the meeting.

In order to assist Councillors in identifying areas of interest that they wish to explore further, the following documents are attached for the Committee to consider:-

·         Overview and Scrutiny in Local Government: Briefing Paper – Dec 2017

·         Government Response to the Communities and Local Government First Report of Session 2017-2019 on the Effectiveness of Local Authority Overview and Scrutiny Committees – March 2018

·         Local Government Association: Scrutiny for Councillors (Councillor Workbook)

·         Council Constitution: Article 6 – Scrutiny Committees

·         Council Constitution: PR4 – Scrutiny Committee Procedure Rules

The Scrutiny Committee is invited to comment on the documents circulated and identify areas of interest which they wish to explore further.

Officer Contact: Stephen Fox on Tel: 0161 474 3206 or email: stephen.fox@stockport.gov.uk

A representative of the Head and Legal and Governance submitted a number of background papers (copies of which had been circulated) relating to best practice for undertaking Overview and Scrutiny in local government which included the latest advice from the Local Government Association and an outline of the current Scrutiny arrangements within the Council.

The Committee discussed a number of issues and identified a number of themes and questions which they wished to explore in greater detail as follows:-

Business Programme

·         Does the current cycle of Scrutiny meetings best fit with the Council’s decision making process?

·         Is there a need for as many cycles?

·         If there were fewer meetings of the full Committee, would this provide the opportunity for additional reviews or one off task and finish meetings?

Scrutiny Work Programme

·         Do we have the best balance between ‘overview’ and ‘scrutiny’ or does one take precedent over the other?

·         Are Committee’s making the best use of officer time and the resources allocated to it? Are Committee’s being sufficiently proactive or are they too reactive.

·         Is there sufficient focus on forward thinking and positive change?

·         Interaction with both the Council Plan and the Forward Plan – are officers engaging with scrutiny at the earliest opportunity using the Committee as a ‘critical friend’?

·         Is there sufficient programming of targeted work?

·         Further consideration to be given to the Scrutiny of Stockport Homes, Life Leisure and TLC.

Culture

·         ‘High Challenge, High support’ – is scrutiny a ‘bolt on’ in Stockport?

·         Do we sufficiently engage with the public as part of the Scrutiny process?

Training

·         Recommend bespoke training for Scrutiny Chairs – recognise that the skills required and challenges are different from that of Ordinary and Area Committees.

·         Important to offer training for newly elected Councillors on Scrutiny and the offer of refresher training for all Councillors on an annual basis.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted and that the representative of the Head of Legal and Governance be requested to invite a representative of North West Employers to attend the next meeting to discuss in further detail the issues raised by the Committee.

To consider a presentation by the Deputy Chief Executive in respect to the Medium Term Financial Plan Implementation Plans and the programme for consulting with Scrutiny.

The Committee is invited to consider and comment on the presentation.

Officer Contact: Holly Rae on Tel: 0161 474 3014 or email: holly.rae@stockport.gov.uk

A representative of the Deputy Chief Executive submitted a report (copies of which were circulated) detailing how it was proposed to report to Scrutiny Committees on the Medium Term Financial Plan, the papers for which would be considered at the Cabinet Meeting on 2 October 2018.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.