Agenda item

The Chair introduced the item and highlighted that previously the Overview and Scrutiny Board had received the Executive Forward Work Programme at each meeting for noting and proposed that the Board should look at each item on the Programme in greater detail, going forward.

The Overview and Scrutiny Board had delegated powers to manage the work of scrutiny and was able to undertake investigations itself or delegate the work to individual scrutiny panels.

A key duty of OSB was to hold the Executive to account by considering forthcoming decisions of the Executive and to decide whether scrutiny could add value by considering any matter in advance of decisions being made.  Greater involvement in pre-decision scrutiny would help to negate a non-executive member’s ability to call-in a decision after it had been made.

Suggestions were sought from the Board regarding the possible ways in which to have involvement in pre-decision scrutiny and the following issues were raised:-

·         A Member commented that some of the items contained on the Forward Work Programme had been made in May and, therefore, it was too late for OSB to have any input into, whilst other items were due to be decided upon in July so it was unlikely that a report had yet been compiled for submission to Executive and it was queried at what stage OSB could become involved.  It was acknowledged that it was difficult in terms of timing and background to the Forward Work Programme was provided.

·         It was explained that any decisions which involved spending £250,000 or more and/or affected two or more wards in Middlesbrough was a key decision and must be placed on the Forward Work Programme at least 28 days prior to a decision being made by the Executive.  It was considered best practice to also add non-key decisions to the Programme, as was the case in Middlesbrough.  In terms of the report creation process, there should be a 46-day lead in period prior to the report being submitted for decision, so it would be possible to speak to Executive Members (and/or relevant officers) prior to the decision being made.  Once the Executive had made a decision, it would become live within five days of the decision being made but remained on the Forward Work Programme, therefore, there would always be items on the programme where decisions had already taken place.

·         It was also highlighted that the Forward Work Programme was available to view on the Council’s website, so Members could view it at any time.  Where the Board wished to find out more about a particular item, the further ahead the decision was due to be made, the better it would be in terms of having the opportunity to have input.

·         In addition, it was suggested that the Chair and Members may wish to agree to set up their own small task and finish groups to look at specific issues and report back to the following meeting of OSB.

·         In summary, the Forward Work Programme could be examined at any time by any Member but the format in which information was requested and received may need to be tailored to each item depending on timescales.  Members would not necessarily need to see a written report but may receive information about the content of the report and a description of what the decision was about.  

·         It was acknowledged that any dialogue between the scrutiny and executive functions would require mutual trust and that whilst scrutiny could have an input in terms of making recommendations, decisions were ultimately made by the Executive.

·         A Member suggested recording the issues that the Board looked at from the Forward Work Programme, including what information was received, what the outcome of the decision was, whether the Board’s intervention (if any) was affective, etc.  This could be reported to OSB on a twice-yearly basis to monitor progress as monitoring progress of recommendations was something that needed to be strengthened.

·         It was queried whether there was any way of knowing when a written report was expected in relation to an item on the Forward Work Programme.  It was explained that the Forward Work Programme was constantly being updated by the service areas and that some decisions were moved back to later dates but generally a final version of the report would be published five clear working days before the date of the decision-making meeting.

AGREED that the content of the Forward Work Programme be noted and that for future meetings, each item on the programme would be considered to determine whether any further information was needed and what format this should take.