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Overview & Scrutiny at Northamptonshire County
Council
James EdmundsDemocratic Services Assistant
Manager & Statutory Scrutiny Officer
Northamptonshire
• 692,000 population
• 7 district / borough councils; 2 CCGs; 2 acute hospitals; Northamptonshire Police and Fire & Rescue services
• Not just “the county of spires and squires”
• Economy: logistics, food and drink, high-performance engineering
Northamptonshire County Council• 57 councillors (boundary review in 2012)
• Conservative majority (35), with Labour (11), Lib Dems (6), UKIP (3) and independents (2)
• £1,116m revenue budget (£489m DSG)
• 4,695 staff members
• Service partnerships: LGSS, Northamptonshire Highways, Olympus Care
Overview & Scrutiny at NCC (1)• 4 x O&S committees:
- Children, Learning & Communities
- Environment, Development & Transport
- Finance & Resources
- Health, Adult Care & Wellbeing
• 1 x Scrutiny Management Committee made up of Chairs and Deputy Chairs
Overview & Scrutiny at NCC (2)• 10 councillor members per O&S
committee
• Additional voting and non-voting co-optees involved in education and health scrutiny
• Chairs and deputies allocated proportionally
• 4 x meetings of each O&S committee per year
• O&S reports presented to Cabinet
• Supported by Councillor Development activity
Working Methods
• Scrutiny reviews
• Contributing to in-depth work led by Cabinet Members, service officers or partners
• Set-piece scrutiny of policy and performance
• Others: monitoring, off-agenda briefings, visits
• Co-operation: Healthwatch; Young Leaders; joint scrutiny
• Engagement: webcasting and social media
Officer support
• Based in Democratic Services
• Now 2.5 FTE from 5 officers
• NCC support officers have always provided both ‘scrutiny’ and ‘committee’ support
• Good working relationships with directorates
Scrutiny work in 2014/15
• Scrutiny review of apprenticeships in progress
• Scrutiny review of bus services just reported
• Pre-decision scrutiny of key policies and projects: Care Act implementation; future provision of school transport
• Monitoring service performance: children’s social care; podiatry service changes; EMAS; education outcomes
• Budget Scrutiny Review
Call-In
• Requires 8 councillors, from more than one group, including an O&S Chair or Deputy
• Call-ins go to Scrutiny Management Committee
• In numerical terms:
- 1 call-in so far in 2014/15
- Average of 1.5 call-ins per year
- 12 call-ins since 2004/05 resulting in 2 decisions being referred back
O&S over the years (1)
• 2001-2006: 7 x O&S committees, with
thematic remits
• 2006-2008: 4 x O&S committees, with
remits aligned to Local Area
Agreement blocks
• 2007/08: Cross-Party Review of O&S
• 2008-11: 4 x O&S committees, with (different) thematic
remits
• 2011- : Current structure
O&S over the years (2)
Previous areas of debate and change:
• Finance scrutiny
• Central co-ordination
• Lead scrutiny councillor role
• Size of scrutiny committees
No current drive to move to a smaller permanent committee structure.
Current challenges
• May you live in interesting times: more issues meriting scrutiny requires more prioritisation
• Getting a good balance between wholly O&S-led work and joint work with decision-makers
• Looking at how O&S fits in effectively with other local oversight and inspection processes
• How O&S fits in with national developments concerning scrutiny of public services