Meeting of the North West Scrutiny Support Officers’ Network

Trafford Town Hall - 17th March 2008

Present

• AGMA - David Fletcher
• Blackpool Council - Bernadette Jarvis and Steve Sienkiewicz
• Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council - John Addison
• Burnley Borough Council - Eric Dickinson
• Cheshire County Council - Robin Roberts
• Cumbria County Council - Dawn Mitchell
• Eden District Council - Gillian Kartach
• Ellesmere Port and Neston - Patrick Sebastian
• Halton Borough Council - Alex Villiers
• Lancashire County Council - Mel Ormesher
• Lancaster City Council - Liz Bateson & Jon Stark
• Manchester City Council - Cartney Brightwell & Kate Brown
• Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council - Robert Haddrell
• Pendle Borough Council - Kate Haydock
• Preston City Council - Steven Dugdale
• Salford Council - Karen Dainty & Linda Sharples
• Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council - Janet Borgerson & Debbie Campbell
• South Ribble Borough Council - Joanne Heron
• St. Helens Metropolitan Borough Council - Ian Blythin & Joseph Org
• Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council - Katy Spencer
• Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council - Howard Boots, Muna Clough & Alison Davies
• Trafford Council - Danielle Lowy & Sam Martin
• Vale Royal Borough Council - David Jones, Peter McKenzie & Sue Wakeford

Apologies for Absence

• Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council - James Dearling
• Bury Council - Andrew Woods
• Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council - Joanne Griffiths
• Liverpool Council - Joan Leonard
• Preston Council - Julie Grundy

1. Notes from Previous Meeting

The notes of the previous meeting of the network, held on 19th October 2007 were agreed as true and accurate.

2. Overview & Scrutiny in Trafford

A presentation was made by Samuel Martin, Senior Research & Policy Officer with Overview & Scrutiny at Trafford Council. Sam described the structure of O&S in Trafford with its four committees representing Children & Young People’s Services, Environment & Community, Health and Management. The staffing is organised to support the committees. Sam highlighted some successes over the past year including:

• Budget scrutiny. Meetings were scheduled in good time to ensure attendance and fitted with the budget process. Some recommendations were accepted by the Executive, including extra money for Trafford Direct and out-of-hours emergency helpline
• LINks. An early stakeholder event was held to inform on tendering for the role of host for LINks and this was supported by the Centre for Public Scrutiny. Interactive voting technology was used.
•  Children & Young People’s Services. Young people’s representatives are on the committee to ensure their voices are heard. For a review of Sexual Health and Relationships Information, young people of the youth service’s Evaluating Service Providers group were used as the agents to consult other young people in the borough. Separately, a road-show was held at Trafford College using the youth service mobile unit – a consultation bus; this was attended by 70 young people over 1 ½ hours. Their input will help to inform next year’s work programme.
• Fly-tipping. Review recommendations were accepted and a clear follow-up created.

Next year’s development plan for Trafford Council’s Overview & Scrutiny work includes:

• Developing a better way of briefing councillors
• Better project management framework 
• Better links with partners

Question: Was any training given on budget scrutiny for members?
SM  We used a document “On the Money” and made a briefing note.

Question: Is the support to committees just from O&S or also from other services?
SM  O&S officers mainly provide policy advice, research and other support  activities to progress the committees’ work programmes. Committees receive additional administrative support from Democratic Services.

Question: How is LINks going?
SM:  The process is underway and there will be a transitional period when LINk-like activities will be undertaken.

Question: How do you set out your work programme?
SM:  Our work programme is set out on an Excel spreadsheet, showing all reviews and activities to be carried out in each committee in the forthcoming year. This allows for agendas to be drafted and meetings planned well in advance.

Question: How are reviews prioritised?
SM:  We have scoring criteria that fit with corporate priorities

3. Update on LINks

Manchester has appointed a provider. A seminar was held for members to look at how to work together. Blackpool has faced challenges in procuring the host. Expressions of interest and applications to tender only resulted in one full application which was not fit for purpose. The procurement process is due to start again in April.

4. Councillor Call for Action

Tameside are waiting to see what the regulations demand.
Trafford are waiting to hear the guidance.
Oldham’s chief executive wanted members’ input to their guidance documents. They need more officer support if CCA is going to work.
Stockport have a big push on Call, piloting it at a local area committee; this had some success with a bridleway in Marple. Councillors will be briefed at Area Committees and processes will be put in place. Support from Democratic Services will be available to establish whether issues are right for Call.

5. Job Evaluation

Authorities have found, depending on the starting point of pay before the evaluation, and to a limited degree on the evaluation criteria and scheme being used, that some officers have been affected by a pay cut of up to 25%. Some are going through an appeals process. There was discussion over whether people are on the national scheme, whether the evaluators understand properly what’s involved in the work of Overview & Scrutiny i.e. it is not committee clerking. Burnley found that lobbying of members helped. The approaches that brought the fairest results included going through the national scheme and producing evidence to show the panel if needed for appeals.

6. Support from the Centre for Public Scrutiny

Support is available form the Centre for Public Scrutiny for scrutiny networks. Jessica Crowe (Executive Director) wants the centre to provide practical support as well as one-off meetings and development sessions.

Cumbria had a training event in October which involved visits from the Centre for Public Scrutiny who undertook one-to-one interviews with councillors and officers and a half day workshop. Members were expecting direct advice but events were more about them being asked what they were doing and how they thought things were going.

Members of the network were asked: Are there any projects we’d like to ask to be supported in the North West? Options given included:

• Support for scrutiny reviews, hiring in staff from Centre for Public Scrutiny if internal capacity is not high enough
• Regional scrutiny, regional improvement strategies.
• Something for the Greater Manchester Health Scrutiny group

7. Regional health scrutiny conference

A health scrutiny conference is being planned for 26 June at the Reebok stadium. Help is needed to publicise the event. More people are invited to join the steering group or help with practicalities on the day, for instance doing workshops. The event is open to scrutiny members and officers as well as NHS and PCT members. More information is available from Karen Dainty at karen.dainty@salford.gov.uk

8. Quality Benchmarking Scheme for Scrutiny

Rob Haddrell (Oldham MBC) had introduced quality benchmarking (QMB) at previous meetings and an agreement had been made on the criteria for assessment. QMB guidance notes had been sent out prior to this meeting. Attendees carried out a quick, QBM exercise for the scrutiny functions in their own authorities, and scores were recorded on a spreadsheet. This will be circulated once some remaining authorities have submitted their scores. Although this document will not show the individual councils’ names, those authorities who contributed their scores will be able to find out which authorities score more highly in certain areas, to help share good practice.

9. Any Other Business

A recommendation was made for a course at the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Local Government Studies. The Postgraduate Module in Oversight and Scrutiny is next being run in May 2008. More information is available at www.inlogov.bham.ac.uk 

A book recommendation on lean management by Professor John Seddon was made. He also offers two hour sessions on the subject. It’s a useful tool for service reviews. More information can be found by doing an internet search on lean management.

10. Next meeting of the North West Scrutiny Support Officers Network

It was provisionally agreed that the next meeting of the Network would to be hosted by Halton Borough Council in July 2008.