Agenda item

The Overview and Scrutiny Coordinating Group to consider the remits for the three Scrutiny Committees:

Corporate

Place

People

At the Chair’s invitation, the Democratic Services Assistant Manager presented the report and clarified that as detailed in section 2.1 of the report, the West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) constitution stipulated that the Council would have three Overview and Scrutiny Committees: Corporate, People and Place Scrutiny Committees. He highlighted the finalised remits in section 5.1 of the report which set out the parameters and areas for inclusion for the Corporate, People and Place Scrutiny Committees, which also cross-referenced the statutory functions of the Council. The Democratic Services Assistant Manager concluded his report and invited the Overview and Scrutiny Coordinating Group to ask questions and discuss the report.

The Coordinating Group discussed their role and how the Coordinating Group could be used as a sounding board for ideas and manage the work program and task and finish projects of the Committees, as well as maintaining regular communication between the Chairs and Vice Chairs of the Corporate, People and Place Scrutiny Committees with an email group. They also discussed how Overview and Scrutiny would manage the scrutiny of shared services and contracts across WNC and North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) as well as services delivered by the NHS. In the discussion it was suggested that the Committee read the terms of reference for the Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (NHFT) which also cover some hospitals in Oxford so that they can understand the different legislation that affects the health service area before undertaking scrutiny.

The Monitoring Officer advised that the aim of the group was for the coordinating group to inform how work was carried out across the three Committees. She encouraged the Coordinating Group to determine the scope of their scrutiny and if a topic such as contracts would be a corporate issue or a service area issue and how this would inform their scrutiny work. The Monitoring Officer informed the Coordinating Group that they could invite portfolio holders and officers to present information or answer questions if they found it useful. She emphasised the role of the Overview and Scrutiny and their position to advise service areas and provide their expertise on matters before decisions took place in the wider Council.

The Coordinating Group deliberated the remits of the three Overview and Scrutiny Committees and felt that some topics would require a collaborative approach as it may cross-reference the remits of more than one Scrutiny groups. The Chair commended this approach and highlighted the need for scrutiny to be carried out flexibly and transparently and to be inclusive of everyone, involving the public and officers across the Council. Considering the discussion and emphasis on collaborative working, it was proposed that the second recommendation be amended to read ‘which Scrutiny Committee(s)’ with the inclusion of ‘(s)’ in case topics may include the involvement of more than one Scrutiny Committee.

The Coordinating Group agreed the amended recommendations.

RESOLVED: It is recommended that the Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordinating Group:

a) Agrees the proposed remits for the Corporate, People and Place Scrutiny Committees set out at paragraph 5.1 of this report;

b) Agrees that the Co-ordinating Group may consider and recommend which Scrutiny Committee(s) is best-placed to deal with any cross-cutting matters that may arise.