How we do it
How does a review work?
A suggestion for a review topic can originate from a number of sources, such as a councillor, officer of the council, or a member of the public who can lobby their councillor with an issue that is of concern to them. These suggestions are then evaluated against a fixed set of criteria.
Councillors on the Overview and Scrutiny Committee will choose up to five of their colleagues to sit on the review panel, and if appropriate will choose to co-opt an external expert onto the panel (this was the case with the Parish contributions review where a representative of the Kent Association of Parish Councils was co-opted onto the panel).
Councillors will take evidence from a range of sources including the views of expert witnesses, community groups, officers working at the council, and consultation with the public. Councillors working on the review, staff and co-optees will draw together their conclusions at the end of a review and produce a report outlining what is good about a service or policy together with suggested improvements.
Monitoring of Reviews
Monitoring is essential to ensure that reviews are not just a paper exercise.
Once a review is completed, and the recommendations are accepted by the full council an action plan is drawn up, and officers selected to implement the actions. Six months after this process the Scrutiny Review and Management Sub-Committee receive updates on the progress towards achieving these targets, and where necessary ask questions as to why progress has not materialised. The diagram below shows the monitoring process.
Report and Action Plan produced with actions assigned to relevant council officer
Report and action plan accepted by Executive
After six months the action plan is updated with progress against each action noted
Updated action plan is reviewed by Scrutiny Management and Review Sub-Committee who comment on progress and request further action where necessary
Call-in of an Executive Decision
Where members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee feel that a decision has been taken incorrectly they have the power to ‘call-in’ that decision. The decision cannot be implemented until the call-in has been considered. If, after considering the issue the committee still have concerns, they can refer the matter back to the Executive, setting out in writing the nature of their concerns.
Since the introduction of Overview & Scrutiny, decisions have been called-in on a range of subjects including Student Impact, Taxi Operations, and Community Safety. Of these call-ins, three have been referred back to the Executive. On all three occasions the Executive have accepted the recommendations made and have adjusted their decisions accordingly.
If you want more information about how the Scrutiny function works, you can access the Scrutiny Guide from our downloads page.
Related Links: What we do | Structure | Getting involved
