Notes of the North West Scrutiny Support Officers' Network Meeting

Blackpool Borough Council - 26th January 2006

Present:

• AGMA - David Fletcher
• Blackpool Borough Council - Georgina Atkinson, Peter Baines and Mark Towers (Chair)
• Chester City Council - Sabeena Domun and Brian Reed
• Cumbria County Council - Doug Scott
• Halton Borough Council - Martin Loughna and Alex Villiers
• Hyndburn Borough Council - Paul Preston
• Lancashire County Council - Sarah Palmer
• Lancaster City Council - Liz Bateson
• Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council - Nicola Hine
• Pendle Borough Council - Kath Haydock
• Preston City Council - Julie Grundy
• Rossendale Borough Council - Pat Couch and Julian Joinson
• South Ribble Borough Council - Leanne Hare
• Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council - Katy Spencer
• Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council - Howard Boots and Diana Paver
• West Lancs, District Council - Jacky Denning
• Wyre Borough Council - Roy Saunders

Apologies for Absence:

• Allerdale Borough Council - Tracey Graham
• Eden District Council - Gillian Kartach
• Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council - Joanne Griffiths
• Liverpool City Council - Joan Leonard
• Macclesfield Borough Council - Katie Smith
• Oldham MBC - Matthew Drogan
• South Lakeland District Council - Steve Richards
• Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council - Peter Jones
• Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council - Andrew Burridge
• Sefton Borough Council - All the Team

Introduction

Mark Towers welcomed everyone to Blackpool and outlined the structure of scrutiny at Blackpool. Scrutiny Support has been transferred from Audit to Democratic Services and is considered by both elected members and officers to work more satisfactorily.

Currently, there is a Scrutiny Management Committee plus five Overview and Scrutiny Committees including a Health Committee. There is also an Audit Committee. Members of the opposition chair the Audit Committee and four Overview and Scrutiny Committees and this seems to reinvigorate the scrutiny process.

Overview and Scrutiny Committees currently meet on a five-weekly cycle, this has changed from a twelve-weekly cycle that has operated during the period of the Licensing Act 2003 applications. Prior to that period they operated on a 6 weekly cycle.

Notes of the Last Meeting

The notes of the last meeting of the Network held on 15th September 2005 were approved as a correct record.

Update of the Website for the Network

Howard Boots reported that there is already an embryonic page for the Network on the North West Employers' Organisation's website. A new website is being prepared and should be live by April. Staff at Tameside were liaising with NWEO with regard to the design of the Network webpage.

Suggestions were made for links to local authority scrutiny websites, development around Children's Services and a notice board. There is a database for the network which would enable members to communicate with other scrutiny officers.

Reorganisation of Health Authorities in the North West

Doug Scott reported on proposals for a revised structure for health trusts in the region, commencing with a new strategic health authority (SHA) for the North West, which would be established later this year. The new SHA would be more remote than at present, although it would still be required to manage primary care trusts. This might include some trusts with new boundaries. How scrutiny arrangements would operate with the new health authorities and ambulance trust is yet to be determined.

It is unclear how the scrutiny of much larger trusts would be administered as there are no regional bodies suitable for this purpose. It might be possible to consider the ambulance service on a regional control centre basis.

Consultations are currently being undertaken by the health organisations whilst the major changes are ongoing. It was suggested that a collective view from this network would be helpful.

Independent Complaints and Advocacy Service

It was noted that the contract for the organisation of the Independent Complaints and Advocacy Service (ICAS) would no longer be with the Citizens' Advice Bureaux. The new organisation has not yet been identified.

Currently however, the general consensus is that the information provided by ICAS is of limited use although it has started to identify trends in complaints.

Progress on a Scrutiny Qualification - Chester University

A briefing note from Jon Talbot, Chester University, was circulated and this gave an update on the progress on the provision of a scrutiny qualification course.

A small number of students had enrolled for a higher education certificate in work based studies (overview and scrutiny).

The course commences with an introduction to scrutiny module that reviews the varieties of overview and scrutiny practice and enables a review of the practice in students' own authorities.

The certificate would include an introduction to overview and scrutiny and applied research methods in the workplace as the core, with the following options :

• self review
• developing best practice in overview and scrutiny
• dealing with people
• health overview and scrutiny
• modernising local government
• engaging with communities

As the programme develops, it is possible that amendments would be made.

This is a unique course and although it has commenced in the North West, it is hoped to extend it on a national basis and to scrutiny functions outside local government.

Reference was also made to an NVQ for Democratic Services that includes aspects of scrutiny and other subjects, such as health and safety, customer services, implementing legislation, working in a political context and research.

Blackpool are current assessors for the NVQ and other authorities are encouraged to consider training staff to assess their own staff for the NVQ.

Survey of Network

Diana Paver presented the outcome of a survey that had been conducted with members of the network.

Questionnaires had been emailed to all 45 authorities comprising the network and 36 questionnaires had been received, representing only 26 local authorities.

The questionnaire covered the following areas :

• attendance at meetings
• primary aims of the network
• ways of working
• how useful the network was in members' roles
• issues for future meetings
• frequency of meetings

Sixty nine percent of people who answered the questionnaire had attended meetings, but of those who had not attended, the reasons included :

• attended by other colleagues
• new to post
• workload pressures
• distance

Almost all respondents felt that the network was partly achieving its aim of establishing a professional network but not achieving the aims of joint training and benchmarking.

The majority of respondents felt that group discussion, presentations and rotating venues have worked in the past. The majority of respondents also wanted to see a variety of ways of working in the future with the use of groups to deal with specific issues.

The majority of respondents also felt that the network was useful to them and details were given on the subjects that they would like to have discussed at future meetings (see appendix for details).

Finally, the majority of respondents felt that the network should meet quarterly.

In discussing the outcome of the questionnaire, members indicated that there were also scrutiny partnership meetings between the County and District Councils in both Lancashire and Cumbria and there was some duplication with this network.

It was agreed that the network should continue as at present and that it should go on sharing best practice and training, that people should be invited from appropriate regional agencies, that best practice on review work should be highlighted, that venues should be more central and that the network should meet three times per year.

Future meetings should consider :

• the progress of the scrutiny qualification
• monitoring and utilising scrutiny committee recommendations
• good practice
• scrutiny partnerships
• performance monitoring
• self evaluation
• Centre for Public Scrutiny

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be hosted by the City of Preston in June 2006 on a date and venue to be arranged.

Addendum

The date has since been confirmed to be Thursday 15th June 2006. Full details will be circulated in due course.