Principles of Good Scrutiny
The Centre for Public Scrutiny in its “Good Scrutiny Guide” says Scrutiny best practice should:
- Provide a “critical friend” challenge to decision-makers as well as external authorities and agencies
- Reflect the voice and concerns of the public and its communities
- Take the lead and own the scrutiny process on behalf of the public
- Make an impact on the delivery of public services.
They go on to suggest that effective Scrutiny should engage the public as active citizens and secure the effective promotion of community well-being at the local level.
A joint report from INLOGOV and the IDeA in April 2001 set out the following requirements for effective scrutiny:
- Member leadership and engagement
- A responsive executive
- Genuine non-partisan working
- Effective direct officer support and management of the scrutiny process
- A supportive senior officer culture
- A high level of awareness and understanding of scrutiny work
(Source: A Hard Nut to Crack? Making Overview and Scrutiny Work)
In addition, we consider the following factors to be consistent with best practice in Scrutiny:
- Accessibility: commission meetings are usually held in the evening so that those with daytime commitments can attend. Venues selected should be accessible to all, and further assistance should be provided where necessary and dependant on circumstance, for example signers or translators
- Chairing style: Scrutiny meetings are open and generally less formal that many other Committees. Members are expected to ask probing questions and delve deeply into the subject material. Witnesses are expected to respond openly and be proactive in offering further relevant information and members of the public are often allowed to ask questions
- Scrutiny Champions: Scrutiny Chairs and Vice-Chairs are the key Scrutiny champions within the authority, both for their Commissions and for the role of Scrutiny within the organisation
- Alternative forms of evidence gathering: Members are not limited to hearing evidence in the meeting room; much Scrutiny work can be carried out through site visits, public consultation, mystery shopping, fact-finding trips to other local authorities, and so on.
In Hackney we have tried to incorporate all the above themes into our Scrutiny work, and we endeavour to provide a high quality, effective Scrutiny service to all. If you have suggestions as to how we can improve our service then please get in touch with us and let us know.
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Page updated: 3 Nov 2008