Overview and Scrutiny Committees
How They Work
The work of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees includes:
The Overview and Scrutiny Committees' own
policy reviews
Overview and Scrutiny Committees can develop their own programme of policy reviews.
This allows them to investigate issues in innovative ways. Much
of this work is undertaken by relatively informal sub-groups of
the Committees. These sub-groups can call on advice from outside
of the Council (including the representatives of community organisations
and "expert witnesses"). Members of the public are normally
allowed to attend sub-group meetings. We have a  Guide to Scrutiny
in Bexley (408KB, PDF file) leaflet describing how scrutiny meetings work and
how witnesses participate.
Because they are informal, the dates of these sub-group meetings
will not be known a year in advance in the same way as full Committee
meetings. However, when meetings of sub-groups are arranged they
will be advertised in the Bexley Bulletin and on notices displayed
in the Council's offices and public libraries. They will also be
included in the calendar of Council meetings.
When the Committees have completed their investigations they can
make recommendations to the Council's decision-takers. The relevant
Cabinet Members are then obliged to consider these recommendations
and report back to the Committee on:
- Their plan for implementing any recommendations they support
- Their reasons for not accepting any of the recommendations
Consultation on future
decisions
The Council's Forward Plan lists the most important decisions that the Cabinet
intends to take over the following months.
Once the Cabinet has developed the programme for taking these decisions
an extract is presented to each meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees
so they can decide which ones are so important that they want to
be formally consulted before any decision is taken. This consultation
is undertaken by sub-groups of the Committees.
Government guidance says that such consultation should normally
happen with decisions that affect the Council's "policy framework"
and that the full Council must take these decisions. The policy
framework relates to the Council's major policy documents such as
the budget, Best Value Performance Plan and Community Plan. It also
includes major service plans such as The Children's Services Plan,
Unitary Development Plan and Education Development Plan.
However, the Overview and Scrutiny Committees usually decide that there are
also other important decisions that they should be consulted upon.
Reality Checking
Overview and Scrutiny Committees can also collect first hand evidence of service
delivery and use this to decide whether to undertake more detailed
investigations. The Committees can set up sub-groups to undertake
visits to premises and services provided directly by the Council,
or by contractors on behalf of the Council. These sub-groups can
interview staff and service users.
Programmes for undertaking reality checking visits are included
in Committee agendas. However, because the visits usually rely on
some degree of organisation alongside the owners of private facilities
or the providers of public services, they are not usually open to
the public.
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Performance Monitoring
Although the Cabinet is responsible for achieving the Council's
performance targets set out in the Council's Best
Value Performance Plan and Community Strategy, Overview and Scrutiny Committees
have a role keeping a watching brief over how the Cabinet is doing.
The
Cabinet monitors performance through quarterly documents known
as:
Quarterly Monitoring Statements - these are written documents that
summarise performance and explain any major variations from the
Council's plans
Quarterly Monitoring Tables - these show performance against every
Council target
Both documents are usually published within 8 weeks of the end
of the quarter that they cover. The documents will be placed on
the agenda of relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committees, and Members of the Committee
can raise any performance issues if they wish.
"Call-in"
When the Cabinet takes decisions with important community or financial
implications, Overview and Scrutiny Committees have up to five working days in
which they can "call-in" those decisions. Call-in has
the effect of suspending that decision until a sub-group of the
Committee has had the chance to debate the issue in public.
This is clearly a significant power and a set of rules has been
developed to govern its use. At least one quarter of the voting
Members of a Committee must request a call-in and the matter must
normally be discussed at a sub-group meeting of the Committee within
ten working days.
Bexley's Constitution gives call-in powers to members of the relevant
scrutiny committee. However, for information, the relevant guidance
notes and call-in form are available below.
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