Overview & Scrutiny at Waveney aims to enhance the quality of
life for all who live and work in the District by ensuring the
provision of a safe, clean, attractive and prosperous environment
for our communities. Scrutiny aims to be objective, evidence-based,
transparent, constructive and to reflect the interests and concerns
of local communities.
What do we mean by Overview & Scrutiny?
Overview & Scrutiny is central to the Council’s decision-making
process and has two main strands: the development and review of
policies for a wide range of subjects and services and the critical
examination of the Council’s performance and effectiveness of its
decisions.
Scrutiny work is divided up between an over-arching Committee of
thirteen Members and four Scrutiny Panels made up of 7
Non-Executive members each, linked to the seven key priorities that
underpin the Council’s
Strategic
Direction . The names of the four Scrutiny Panels are:
- Community Safety, Health & Wellbeing
- Environment & Regeneration
- Housing
- Performance & Customer Access
Role and Functions
The functions and responsibilities for scrutiny are set out in
detail in the
Council’s Constitution but are summarised
below:
- Developing new policies and reviewing the effectiveness of
existing policies
- Holding the Executive, Individual Portfolio Holders and
Officers to account for the decisions they make
- Ensuring best value in the provision of services
- Critical examination, monitoring and challenging the
performance of services
- Considering any matter affecting the District Council or its
inhabitants
- Review and scrutinise the performance of other public bodies in
the area and invite reports from them regarding their activities
and performance
- Encourage public involvement and engagement in the scrutiny
process
Call-in
Scrutiny Members have the ability to ‘call-in’ decisions of the
Executive, a Portfolio Holder or a key decision by an officer
before they are actioned or to retrospectively ‘call-in’ decisions
that have been carried out to examine the appropriateness and / or
effectiveness of the decisions made.
Any five members of the Council (cross party) are able to call an
item in. The Council is keen to increase the level of public
involvement in the scrutiny process and so has recently extended
this facility to enable any five members of the public to call an
item in. The grounds for calling an item in are:
- The decision was not taken in accordance with the principals of
good decision-making
- The decision may be contrary to the Council’s agreed policy
framework and / or budget
- Further information is needed from the decision-taker to
explain why the decision was made.
Councillor Call for Action
The Councillor Call for Action will allow all Councillors in
England to refer matters to Overview and Scrutiny Committees for
consideration.
The aim of this new measure is to help frontline Councillors raise
matters on an authority's agenda on behalf of their
constituents.
It has always been the role of the Councillor to help members of
the public reach satisfactory outcomes with the Council. By
assisting the public to navigate routes through the Council's
decision-making structures, Councillors can help citizens to
participate in local democracy.
The Government proposes to use the Community Empowerment, Housing
and Regeneration Bill to place a duty on local authorities to
respond to all local petitions, including electronic petitions. The
Government will bring the Councillor Call for Action into force by
the end of 2008.
Meeting Dates
Meetings of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee and the
four Scrutiny Panels are held in the Council Chamber, Town Hall,
High Street, Lowestoft and are open to the public, except when they
are dealing with confidential or exempt information. The meetings
schedule, can be viewed in our
Councillor
and Committee section as well as
agendas
for all Council meetings .
Further Information
How to contact us
If you are interested in the work of Overview & Scrutiny at
Waveney and would like more information, please contact us using
the contact details.
Donna Offord
Principal Service Manager (Democratic Services)
Waveney District Council
Town Hall
High Street
Lowestoft NR32 1HS
Telephone: 01502 523212
Email:
scrutiny@waveney.gov.uk