| | |
In common with other Councils and as required by the Local Government Act 2000, Gedling Borough Council has provision for overview and scrutiny committees.
The Scrutiny process provides opportunities for Councillors who are not members of the Council’s Cabinet to examine the various functions of the Council, to ask questions about how decisions are made, to consider whether service improvements can be put in place and make recommendations to this effect. Scrutiny also provides the opportunity for Councillors to champion the local concern of residents and participate in the development of new policy.
Gedling Borough Council has two scrutiny Committees made up of Councillors from all political parties. Each Committee has a specific area that they have responsibility for scrutinising.
This Committee has a remit to look at any of the services that the Council provides or could provide and explore these in depth. Typically, Councillors choose an area to review e.g. homelessness, disability access, burial provision etc and then form cross party subgroups (involving Council officers) to look at these topic areas. Typically Policy Scrutiny reviews can last several months and culminate in recommendations being made for service improvement. Any findings from these wide ranging reviews are reported back to the full Committee, and then typically to Cabinet.
A significant part of the work of this Committee consists of monitoring the performance and management of council services. Each time this Committee meets, Councillors scrutinise a report, which shows progress on the Council’s performance against every target it has to meet. Councillors on this Committee look for major variations in meeting these targets and explore these in short meetings outside of the main Committee and then report back. Any report recommendations are then progressed through Cabinet or another strategic forum.
Summer service bin collection – Councillors on this working group are reviewing the rationale, costs, benefits and disadvantages of providing the summer service weekly bin collection of domestic waste. This review is expected to report in the autumn.
Parish council funding – Councillors on this working group are exploring the provision of parks and open spaces, village halls and community centres across the Borough’s urban areas and in particular within the more rural parishes.
Vandalism and anti-social behaviour – Councillors on this working group are looking at the issues associated with vandalism and anti-social behaviour. They are reviewing what measures the Council and its partner agencies are using to reduce its occurance. This review started in June.
Having reviewed the Council’s quarterly budget and performance management report, councillors have reviewed various personnel and finance performance indicators and key improvement tasks. Examples include scrutiny of the Council’s staff recruitment and retention levels, staff sickness, and efficiency savings. Reports from this Committee will include recommendations for service improvements or further performance monitoring.
Fly Tipping – This review explored some of the problems associated with fly tipping and made a variety of recommendations around how fly tipping could be further reduced.
Homelessness – This review sought to identify the reasons for homelessness and to determine what services are available for homeless people within the Gedling Borough. This review has made some recommendations to improve both the provision and services available for homeless people.
Christmas Lights – This review examined the Christmas Lights organised by Gedling Borough Council each year in its various Town Centres and Shopping Areas.
All Policy and Performance Review Scrutiny Committee reports can be accessed by the public at the Council Agendas and Minutes pages. In addition, Gedling Borough Council residents can help contribute to the Scrutiny process by suggesting topics for Scrutiny reviews and/or by contributing their views and opinions to current policy related scrutiny reviews through its consultative mechanisms.
The Scrutiny Committees are keen to ensure that they are investigating the issues that are of concern to the residents and those people who work in the Borough. If you feel that you have something to contribute to the work of a subgroup, you should contact the Chairman of the Committee:
Or contact the Scrutiny Officer Tracy Lack on 0115 901 3627 or tracy.lack@gedling.gov.uk.
Members of the public are free to attend the Scrutiny Committee meetings.
To view future meeting dates please <click here>
| How to complain | Copyright Information |
|
|
|
