ITEM CC11 Supplement - AppendixCOUNTY COUNCIL – 4 NOVEMBER 2003SCRUTINY CO-ORDINATING GROUPSCRUTINY DEVELOPMENT ACTION PLANExtracts of Scrutiny References from the Audit Commission Corporate Assessment Report (paragraph numbers are those in the CPA report).
30. As yet, the capacity of the scrutiny functions and of the role of the corporate centre is still in development. The final resolution of organisation structures and management functions required to deliver the key changes, are not yet resolved. The council is aware of the need to value and support its staff and various initiatives are being developed without the benefit of an integrated human resource strategy. Weaknesses outweigh strengths in this area. 31. Recent changes in the political administration have resulted in a stronger leadership and willingness to build the capacity of both the executive and scrutiny functions. Power sharing arrangements are working well after an initial period of ‘settling in’ and executive members recognise that their agendas need to be more focused on strategic issues. They have taken steps to remove some lower level agenda items with the use of delegated powers. Councillors also feel that their capacity to influence policy and strategy has been limited in the past and executive members have requested that departments involve them and the scrutiny committees earlier in the formulation of key policy and strategy documents. Council meetings are well run and political relationships are constructive but agenda management and support and advice for the executive and scrutiny groups requires further development. Working relationships between councillors and officers are good and clear written guidance on councillor/officer relationships is contained in the constitution. 32. The scrutiny role has an underdeveloped focus on policy development and performance management, and has not been helped by the poor quality of performance information. There is an apparent confusion of scrutiny roles and responsibilities at both an officer and councillor level. Relationships between scrutiny and the executive have not yet resolved ways of improving co-ordination, although there is a willingness to do so on both sides. 33. There is recognition across the organisation of the need to build corporate and strategic capacity. Raising our Performance acknowledges that new structures are required and progress is being made towards this. New job descriptions have been developed for directors and the recruitment of two posts is underway. A middle managers’ group has been charged with formulating proposals for new heads of service posts intended to free up directors from operational detail and allow them to focus on corporate issues such as managing change, focussing on strategic objectives and implementing area forums. However, more urgency is needed to define and implement the final structure to minimise anxiety amongst those staff most affected by the changes. 64. In
terms of internal challenge, the council’s arrangements for the delivery
of its scrutiny process (which came into effect in November 2001) are
not yet fully understood, embraced and evolved. Whilst officer support
for research and development is adequate and the council has allocated
a £100,000 research fund, scrutiny councillors continue to express concern
over the perceived paucity of committee services’ support and the prioritisation
of scrutiny work. The decision to allocate the chairs of all five scrutiny
committees to the Labour party has created some difficulties. Whilst the
executive has recognised the value of some work that scrutiny has undertaken,
there is still a widely held view that these committees regard themselves
as the principal vehicle to manifest opposition by extensive and inappropriate
resort to the call-in process. This view persists, despite the fact that
only ten call-ins have occurred during the last eight months. Scrutiny
committees have started a programme of reviews as well as responding to
policy consultation requests from the executive. The pro-active aspects
of scrutiny around policy development, performance monitoring, project
appraisal and best value overview, need a clearer focus in work programmes
if the full use of scrutiny powers is to be developed. Further work on
training for councillors and officers is planned.
|