a) Report from ‘Scrutiny and Effective Challenge’ Training Session – Councillor Sarvent
b) Report on Questioning Skills and Procurement Training plans – Policy and Scrutiny Officer
c) Sheffield City Region Overview and Scrutiny Committee Progress Report – Councillor P Gilby
6:05 pm
Minutes:
a) Report from ‘Scrutiny and Effective Challenge’ Training Session
Councillor Sarvent provided a report following a training session called “Raising the Bar in Scrutiny and Effective Challenge” run by East Midlands Councils and facilitated by Dr Stephanie Snape. The session sought to explore the relevance of scrutiny, discuss new opportunities for scrutiny and review the pivotal influencing role of scrutiny.
The attendees were asked to consider how scrutiny had reacted to changes, how many of these changes scrutiny had examined and did scrutiny add value. Councillor Sarvent shared with the group the work that scrutiny members at Chesterfield Borough Council (CBC) had undertaken for the scrutiny review on concessions on fees and charges which had resulted in a policy being created and adopted.
The relevance of scrutiny was discussed, particularly which topics were trending and how scrutiny decided which topics it would review. Councillor Sarvent explained the work programme planning sessions CBC held and received positive comments from attendees from other authorities who were keen to promote this approach.
Due to the reductions in levels of funding from the government, the group discussed commercialisation and financial drivers. With Councils looking to maximise income, the group shared examples of how scrutiny had impacted on managing the budget and discussed the commercialisation work being undertaken by other councils.
Finally, the session looked at the influencing role of scrutiny and how different influencing styles helped with the scrutiny function. The group discussed how teams that included different styles of person had a greater capacity to influence.
Councillor Sarvent reported that she felt reassured that CBC was moving in the right direction and scrutiny was having a positive impact. Members agreed that pre-decision scrutiny was successful and had reduced the need for call-ins.
The Chair noted that Councillor Sarvent’s report would be received at the next Member Development Working Group to discuss the potential to convert it into a short induction session on scrutiny for all councillors. Members thanked Councillor Sarvent for the report.
b) Report on Questioning Skills and Procurement Training Plans
The Policy and Scrutiny Officer updated members on the status of training in relation to questioning skills and procurement included in the member development plan. A local external provider had been approached to provide questioning skills training and it was proposed to hold the training in January or February 2017.
A conversation had taken place with the Customers, Commissioning and Change Manager to discuss whether the procurement team would facilitate training for scrutiny members on procurement. Members felt that they would benefit from a more in-depth training session though this would not be available straight away.
c) Sheffield City Region Overview and Scrutiny Committee Progress Report
The Chair reported back as a member of the Sheffield City Region (SCR) Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC). As a non-constituent member of SCR, CBC has 1 place on the OSC. The committee had received reports from the SCR Executive Team including from CBC’s Chief Executive, Huw Bowen as the SCR Lead on Housing Strategy, and the Mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones on a range of topics including devolution deals, large projects that SCR are involved in and the SCR infrastructure fund.
The OSC have discussed how they would like to operate; currently there is no resource to carry out any project group work but it is hoped that this would change if the next devolution deal is granted. The Chair added that it would be beneficial to look at how to align SCR scrutiny work with the scrutiny work carried out at CBC. Members acknowledged that it would be useful to know how other councils operated their scrutiny function.
RESOLVED –
1. That the report provided by Councillor Sarvent from the Raising the Bar in Scrutiny and Effective Challenge training be noted.
2. That Councillor Sarvent’s report be taken to the next meeting of the Member Development Working Group.
3. That an update be taken by the Policy and Scrutiny Officer to the next meeting of the Member Development Working Group on the plans for questioning skills and procurement training.
4. That a link to the Sheffield City Region Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting papers website be shared with members of the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum.