Scrutiny Conference 3 June 2015 Officer engagement Discussion regarding how to engage with fellow Officers across organisations, especially focus on coordinating joint scrutiny at a regional level and how best to share good practice/learning.

• Online network monthly Newsletter • Action learning sessions (ask members of group to identify topics) • Email circulation. Someone maintains the list and is point of contact to send out information

requests • Get buy in of participation .

o what do they want online? Different needs online compared to face to face • Is Knowledge Hub effective? • Is the geographic area too large? • Minutes from discussions? • Scrutiny search engine to find common theme reports. Basic form to record who to contact

o Used to be available on CfPS library – possible to have this reinstated in future. • Annual region meet up

o More focus locally e.g. just Norfolk and Suffolk • Allow access from other authorities who are similar political make up. Similar statistics and

demographics, not necessarily geographic neighbours o Have already opened group to anyone can join. Market the group?

• Coffee and a chat method instead of formal meeting? • How does your work transcend into council services? How does it complement? • What does scrutiny look like in different authorities? • Promote national scrutiny network.

o One officer and one Councillor representative per region. o Quarterly meetings. o Links from CfPS website – the link should be promoted more at the Council

• Share work programmes via email with occasional meet ups. • Sharing reports and best practice could be shared nationally... But where? Where is it hosted

by what? • Promote the CfPS forum a lot more within the online network, on social media and internally

amongst Councillors. • Sharing when things go wrong. Not just good practice.

Considering wider regional networks the discussion looked at a corporate membership type body:

• Challenge of pay per event. • Could nominal annual fee more acceptable? • Annual membership but what extras do you get? • Can you sell it as income generation to the Council? Paying for coordinator bringing people

and information into organisation.

Citizen/Public engagement Group discussed experiences of how to engage the public in reviews – how to gain public interest in scrutiny – how Councillors are proactive in engaging citizens in reviews. • Where do you start? Who do you identify to engage?

o These should be asked at the beginning of every review. Establish the answers and then map out the how

o Start with those who have submitted petitions. Already engaged. o Still need to manage participation. Speaking time at meetings. inviting witnesses early in

reviews. o Target audiences and manage expectation. Clear on what outcomes to expect. o No restrictions. Public can raise hand to speak same as Counicllors o Bottom up decision making

• Encourage engagement through topic subject • Chairman emails key community influencers personal invitation • Cannot expect people to be interested and just publish notice of intent to review. Committees

must be more proactive to engage partners, community groups, residents and officers, encouraging those to assist them – therefore making recommendations/actions more meaningful

EXAMPLE CASE: CAMS review.

o Identified issues. o Used national forum to advertise review and how to engage. o Went to youth forum and asked questions. o Pizza night with scouts club to get viewpoint. o Formal meeting format too intimidating. Soft approach, public friendly format. o Going to them or provide transport to come in.

o Use your scrutiny budgets effectively o o

Other example included: Co-opting members of the public onto the committee to specifically lead on scrutiny of finance reviews. No voting rights. Interviewed by Chairman and Scrutiny Officer before joining the Committee. Remuneration for them. Important to feedback to community about what has changed as a consequence of scrutiny review.

o Demonstrate how public feedback has changed a service – show them how their involvement has led to something, encourage future participation.

o Glossary in reports highlights who has been engaged and how. o Give examples of what their engagement lead to within the report itself.

Participation Compass. Free resource on how and who to engage

Political issues. Including managing a majority OSC Spent some time networking with others to discuss the change in Council representation and establishing how to ensure good scrutiny continues with such a large majority administration. How has scrutiny remained effective and challenging? How has a party split been avoided? How have they managed/limited the use of party whipping? How has scrutiny remained transparent to the public?

o Building trust between group members o Identify topics that the Cabinet don't have time or capacity to investigate o Helps to have a strong leader who keeps the group working together and prevents split in

the group o Consider having shadow cabinet members. o Collaborate with Cabinet, involving Cabinet members in reviews (no voting rights) o Avoid the phrase – Critical Friend. Scrutiny isn’t friendly, it should be holding to account in

the interest of Council residents/service users. Just don’t get pissy with each other! Future scrutiny Officers discussed what hot agenda topics are coming up and could be relevant across Councils (possible joint scrutiny opportunities): • Poverty • Death of high streets • Economic boosting (how to improve economy) • Parks and open spaces, what do people want? • More public consultation with local groups finding out what is important to them? • Need to undertaking investigations that makes a profound difference. Not Councillor pet projects

or what they perceive to be important to their residents – ask the residents for their input! • Devolution Future of CfPS The CfPS asked a workshop for their input into what Officers want from the CfPS – what support is required, how do we want them to develop, what services do we want available, how can the CfPS adapt and improve:

• There is a threat to funding for the CfPS so their services will need to change accordingly – what can be dropped, what needs to be kept

• Be more sustainable • Cross party spectrum learning all views and aspects (don’t forget about district/low level

councils amongst the unitaries and counties) • Desire for library resource of shared reports and publications • Desire for signposting from website on where to find best practice • Sharing buttons on forum to promote discussions on other platforms • Brain pickings. Networking with other scrutiny officers • Specialist advice • Coordinated training events

What is good scrutiny? Plenary session at the end of the day involving all attendees – round table discussion on what is good scrutiny:

• A lot of challenge involved • Challenge whether something is necessary • Find out what Councillors want and how do they see that being achieved. • Identify outcomes at start of review. Ultimately you want the public to feel heard (and quality

of life in Broadland improved) • Scrutiny to consider how services can be delivered with budget cuts • Be transparent about the changes we face • Peer review other authority committees. What can we learn from their approach? • More policy development. OSC pull the groups and Officers together and write it with them

and not just get presented a policy document to critique

Effective styles/approaches shared:

• Scrutiny cafe o Everyone takes part o All relevant senior staff are collectively questioned by Committee on a specific theme.

E.g. budget debate. Finance Scrutiny is ineffective when only accepting proposed budget as final and only questioning it. A more effective review is when Committee co-opt an external accountant to assess the thoroughness and effectiveness of the budget and challenge the proposed budget to improve it in the interest of residents. What do residents get out of that financial plan? What impact does that budget have on communities? Finding balance between public priorities and maximising scrutiny capacity that may include a non-public priority review but still benefits the public. Good scrutiny minimises risk Scrutiny is the impartial voice Get administration to agree what is good governance and then if scrutiny fall short they embarrass themselves. From administration leadership the pressure is on scrutiny to perform well (for example, Hammersmith Administration established that good governance involved the public in a bottom up approach, established practice that a Committee should invite community groups to get involved from the start of reviews, also outlining their expectations on how a Committee reports back to communities on the outcomes from reviews). Once you achieve good scrutiny method get senior officer buy in and it becomes embedded culture Keep the style fresh and up to date but relevant.