Glossary
Below you will find a glossary of frequently used Scrutiny related terms.
Agenda
A list of reports and other items to be dealt with at a meeting
Backbench Councillor
A Councillor who is not a Member of the Cabinet. These councillors are also known as Frontline Members or Non-Executive Members.
Cabinet
The Councillors responsible for advising the Mayor when making decisions, within the policy and budget framework decided by the council. More information can be found on the Cabinet page.
Call-In
This is a formal procedure to allow the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to review a decision of the Executive before it is implemented. Further information is available on the Call-In page.
Co-Opted Member
Local Authorities have general powers to include Co-opted Members on their Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Scrutiny Commissions. On Education matters there are statutory Co-optees who represent the Church of England and Catholic Dioceses, and there are Parent Governor representatives. These members are not elected members of the Authority but are members of the community with specific expertise and knowledge. A Co-opted Member, with the exception of Statutory Education Co-optees, has no voting rights.
Councillor
An elected representative on the council. Councillors represent the interests of the constituents who live in their ward and Hackney as a whole.
Directorate Question Time (DQT)
An approach taken by the Overview & Scrutiny Board to considering key thematic concerns in a whole-Council approach. This entails each Directorate presenting on a specified topic (in 2008/09 the topic is Climate Change), so that OSB can understand how each area is working to finding solutions and learn from good practice.
Executive
The executive is responsible for decisions, within the framework decided by the full Council. In Hackney the Executive takes the form of a directly elected Mayor with an advisory Cabinet.
Forward Plan
The Council is required by law to publish on a regular basis a schedule of the significant, key decisions that the executive will take. This can be found on the Forward Plan page of the Council’s website.
Joint Overview & Scrutiny Committee (JOSC)
For certain topics it is necessary to bring together scrutiny councillors from a variety of boroughs (usually neighbouring) to address shared concerns. Until recently there have only been legislative powers for Health Committees to form a JOSC, but this has recently been widened to all other areas with scrutiny’s remit.
Hackney have been involved in several of these, from the Pan-London JOSC which considered the original Healthcare for London proposals, to the recently completed Inner Northeast London JOSC which looked at stroke and trauma services.
Local Government Act 2000
This Act set out new governance arrangements which included the establishment of a Scrutiny function. The Act also gave us a new power to promote the economic, social and environmental well being of their local communities.
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007
This Act strengthens leadership roles for local authorities to bring local services closer to communities, making them better co-ordinated and offering better value for money. Local Area Agreements (LAAs) and the accompanying duty to cooperate should further incentivise local agencies to work with their communities in a joined up way to improve services and the quality of life.
It is also aimed to empower citizens and promote greater engagement in shaping public policies and services. A new duty will require local authorities to inform, consult and involve local people in running local services; and councillors will be empowered to resolve issues of concern to the communities they represent (if necessary by requiring consideration by Overview and Scrutiny Committees).
Local Area Agreement (LAA)
A set of performance indicators and associated targets agreed between the Council and central government departments, coordinated through the DCLG. These are usually designed to address a specific area of concern. The achievement of the targets can attract additional resources. Hackney’s “refreshed” LAA targets (and the preformance against them) can be found in the Local Area Agreement section of the Team Hackney website.
Local Strategic Partnership ("Team Hackney")
The Government requires all local authorities to develop a Local Strategic Partnership involving other local agencies (e.g. the NHS and the Police), local communities and the private sector to co-ordinate effective working at a local level. Further information is available on the Team Hackney website.
Mayor
In Hackney, the Executive is led by a directly elected member of the council (the Mayor) who makes decisions, within the framework decided by the full Council.
Minutes
A record of decisions taken, the background papers received and reasons for the decision at all formal meetings of the council.
National Indicator (NIs)
A way of measuring how a service is performing against its objectives. Performance Indicators may be collected for local or national purposes.
Overview & Scrutiny Board (OSB)
The overarching management committee for the Scrutiny function. Made up of the Chairs and Vice Chairs of the five Scrutiny Commissions, OSB receives performance information, agrees scrutiny final reports and commends them to Cabinet (or council in some cases), considers Call-ins and receives Councillor Calls for Action. From 2009 OSB also completed the Partnership Question Time, which investigates how well other organisations are working in partnership to achieved the Sustainable Community Stratgey outcomes.
Partnership Question Time (PQT)
Partnership Question Time is an innovative approach to gathering evidence and engaging the Scrutiny function in the Comprehensive Area Assessment. Over six sessions (themed around the six prioirities of Hackney’s Sustainable Community Strategy) the Overview & Scrutiny Board invited partners to attend and explain how they were working to achieve shared outcomes. Each session had one area of work selected to provide a focus to discussions, and relevant organisations explained how they had changed their approaches to realise goals.
Scrutiny Commissions
Theme-based bodies coordinated by the Overview and Scrutiny Board to review our services, to develop policies and scrutinise other local organisations, including the health service. These are politically balanced and are made up of a selection of non-Executive Councillors.
Sustainable Community Strategy
The Sustainable Community Strategy is a shared vision for the local area for the next 10 years. It sets out the aims, priorities and a set of outcomes around which all partners will be organising their business plans in the coming years.
All councils set out their long-term plans, to take into account the unique characteristics of each place and shape the locality they govern. View Hackney’s 
Sustainable Community Strategy.
Page updated: 15 Jun 2010
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