When Swansea Council introduced a single committee for scrutiny in November 2012 the idea was simple – to have a model that was member led, responsive, flexible and able to involve every backbench councillor according to their interests. This idea has since been developed and refined into what we think is an effective and distinctive approach underpinned by five principles.
Of course we are not suggesting that everything is perfect – far from it; we still have improvements that we need to make. Nor are we saying that this is the best or only way to do scrutiny. Practice needs to fit with local circumstances so not everything that we do will work elsewhere. Principles, however, can be applied more generally – we hope that others will find something useful in them.
In developing our agile model we have brought in a number of innovations that have helped to improve accountability, work planning and public engagement. Ultimately good scrutiny should make a difference for citizens and councillors – we believe our model does exactly that.
The benefits of a single rather than multi committee system are well known. Better coordination and prioritisation come from having a single work programme, flexibility and responsiveness come through the use of informal task and finish groups. We have standing panels for performance scrutiny, inquiry panels for in-depth work and working groups for one off activities. You can read more in this post.
What makes the Swansea approach different, however, are the five principles that underpin it. Below is a little about each:
1. The highest priority is holding the whole Cabinet to account through an ongoing public conversation
This principle motivates scrutiny councillors more than any other. Every Cabinet Member appears before the Committee for a formal public Q&A and may attend any number of panels and working groups. Through these sessions, and by monitoring scrutiny letters, the Committee is able to assess not only how individual portfolio holders are performing but how the Cabinet works as a team.
- In the two full years since the new system was set up every cabinet member has attended a Committee Q&A session at least once a year.
- Cabinet members almost always attend scrutiny without officers and provide portfolio headlines when attending their Q&As.
- Cabinet Members take scrutiny seriously and respond promptly. They are required to respond to letters in 21 days and to inquiry reports within two months. As of February 2016 the average response time for a letter was 22 days.
- Letters from the conveners of panels and working groups go directly to Cabinet Members and do not need Committee sign off – issues raised in letters will, however, often be picked up as part of Committee Q&As.
- The Committee invites the public and all scrutiny councillors to contribute questions for cabinet members. This is done via email, the online scrutiny bulletin board and twitter.
- A public question time agenda item at committee meetings gives members of the public the opportunity to ask cabinet members direct questions.
- Summaries of the Q&A sessions, along with any cabinet appearances at panels or working groups, are made public via scrutiny letters. Responses from cabinet members are also captured in public letters. These conversations can easily be followed in one place on the scrutiny publications page.
- Cabinet Q&As are live tweeted via @SwanseaScrutiny
2. Every scrutiny councillor has the opportunity to contribute according to their interests
The flexibility of the single committee model means that councillors can be matched to their interests in a way that is simply not possible in a multi committee system. Councillors are able to build up specialist expertise that the Committee is then able to draw on.
- When a new panel or working group is being set up all scrutiny councillors are asked if they want to participate or act as convener – as long as more than one party group is represented then the work goes ahead.
- Since the new arrangements have been in place around 80% of scrutiny councillors have participated in 331 meetings of panels and groups.
- No panels or working groups have been abandoned due to lack of interest nor have any meetings been cancelled for this reason – typically around 10 sign up.
- Inquiry follow-ups are done by the original panel and pre decision work is often done through these groups. The Committee is also able to identify ‘expert’ councillors to participate in departmental service reviews when required.
- Panels and working groups are, by default, open to the public to observe. The informality of panels gives flexibility when it comes to public involvement.
- Recent examples of public involvement in scrutiny meetings include pre decision of an education inclusion cabinet report, the tethered horses working group and a budget Q&A with the Council leader.
- Informal panels and working groups do not require legal officers or committee clerks to attend meaning that the system provides good value for money.
- Participation in panels and working groups is voluntary and unpaid including for the conveners.
- When panels need to be split, merged or ended they can be – councillors simply make proposals to the Committee.
3. Be flexible with the work plan in the best interests of citizens
Being agile means being able to respond to issues as they arise and the single committee system makes this easy to manage. Overarching priorities are shaped by an annual work planning conference that hears a range of perspectives on what should be included. The Committee reviews the work plan every four weeks and adapts it when needed.
- All scrutiny councillors are invited to take part in the annual scrutiny workplan conference. This year 18 took part along with one co-opted member and the lay Chair of the Audit Committee.
- Input into the work planning conference comes from a range of sources including Cabinet, the councillor survey, partners and public. Directors also attend to advise on the Council’s priorities.
- The Council’s Forward Look document is discussed every four weeks by the Committee so that opportunities for pre decision scrutiny can be identified.
- The work plan is reviewed and debated in public.
- Clear mechanisms are in place for both citizens and councillors to raise topics for the Committee to consider.
- Scrutiny activity can be matched to the available support – new work is only started when resources become available.
- A peer review undertaken by the Welsh Local Government Association in 2014 suggested that scrutiny should focus more on the Council’s five corporate priorities. This issue was debated at the annual work planning conference and, as a result, a new in depth inquiry has commenced looking at the ‘Building Sustainable Communities’ priority and another, looking at the ‘Tackling Poverty’ priority will start shortly.
4. Simplicity is essential for engagement
Scrutiny councillors care about the visibility of their scrutiny work and want the public to be both aware and involved in the work. The single committee model provides an opportunity to ensure that communication and engagement is consistent and coordinated and, most of all, tailored to the needs of both citizens and councillors.
- The Committee formally adopted the National Principles of Public Engagement in 2014 and implemented an action plan as a result.
- The user stories research method was used to inform a redesign of the scrutiny pages on the council website.
- To make scrutiny more user friendly we have added a publications page to the Council website where all agenda packs, reports and letters can be found in a searchable single stream. This makes it simple for people to find all of the publications about a particular topic in one place.
- To give people a simple regular digest of what is happening in scrutiny we have introduced an email service: Your Monthly Scrutiny Headlines. This offers a simple summary of live topics and upcoming meetings for councillors, officers, public and partners.
- The committee has developed Scrutiny Dispatches as a method of raising awareness of scrutiny work by highlighting a small number of newsworthy scrutiny stories intended to be more accessible to the public.
- Every agenda pack and letter comes with a short, simple public summary. This innovation came from a workshop at the Notwestminster 2015 event.
- Feedback reports are a new innovation – they provide a simple summary of each scrutiny inquiry including the difference that was made.
- Evidence gathering for inquiries focuses on who the councillors want to hear from and how they want to hear from them. This method, adapted from the National Assembly for Wales, assumes that councillors will always be ‘in the room’ whenever evidence is gathered.
5. Regular reflection on how to be more effective followed by improvements
The process of producing the scrutiny annual report provides a structure for an improvement conversation that includes all scrutiny councillors. The single committee model allows new approaches to be introduced consistently across the whole scrutiny function.
- Information for the annual report is collected between February and April each year including through a survey. The Committee is then able to discuss the results and their implications at their meeting in April.
- A results scorecard approach is used to capture how well the model is working. A set of 19 indicators capture different dimensions of the scrutiny function. Data for many of the indicators has been collected since 2011/12 so it is possible to see trends over four years. The quantitative indicators are complemented by qualitative data that draws on feedback and relevant reports.
- The Committee has identified six improvement outcomes – these are used by the Committee and panels to identify improvements.
- The ‘user story’ research and the scrutiny publications page and monthly email service that were introduced as a result, followed a suggestion in the 2015 Corporate Assessment that better information about panels and working groups was needed.
- In 2014 scrutiny councillors and officers spent a day learning from the National Assembly for Wales about their approach to involving the public and other stakeholders in depth inquiries. As a result new approaches to collecting and analysing evidence have been adopted across all inquiry work.
- The Scrutiny Schools Performance Panel have used the flexibility they have to develop a new approach to the scrutiny of school performance.
- In October 2015 councillors took part in a training session on how scrutiny councillors can apply the United Nations Charter on the Rights of Children.
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