Particularly relevant to us were some of the ways in which they seek to undertake the scrutiny function. Useful points made included the following:-
- Scrutiny is extremely important to hold those with power to account. The point was made that they could think of no examples where any person or body with unbridled power had not “gone wrong”. They operate a 12 month rolling work programme.
- They spend a considerable amount of time (up to three months) and effort on their scoping documents which includes
- arranging meetings in advance of the review with those likely to be involved,
- finding out from members where they want to get to by the end of the review – but don’t necessarily have an outcome in mind?
- undertaking research into the topic before any meetings are arranged,
- engaging with key stakeholders where relevant
- using outside bodies to help with research without any attendant fee – for example politics students are often interested in undertaking research as it will be useful for their CVs or for their dissertations – or interest/focus groups within the community
- galvanising their equivalent of corporate communications into providing publicity about what will be done so that the community can become involved and ensuring that publicity continues throughout the review,
- Specifically targeting those sections of the community who may be interested in the topic to be reviewed
- Ensuring that all involved have reasonable expectations of what can be achieved
- Scrutiny topics for review are gathered from various sources including
- Assembly Members themselves, or through their postbags (letters from constituents)
- Meetings with third sector organisations
- Looking at the pledges given before politicians take office and scrutinising how well they are doing against these
- Looking at surveys undertaken which highlight local concerns
- Asking service users
- Janet Hughes, Scrutiny Manager, commented that the Scrutiny reports had to be of a very high standard and that it was extremely important to publicise through the a wide range of media outlets, all the reports that were produced - particularly where there were good outcomes. She also said that it was important that achievements following scrutiny reviews should be prominently captured on the websites of the organisation producing the report, and other local websites where the outcomes are especially relevant.
- The scrutiny team are exceptionally well resourced with an annual budget of £1m and have 15 staff, (6 managers and 4 assistant managers), 5 committee services staff, 4 admin officers and 5 communications officers, to cover 6 scrutiny committees.
- The Mayor is held to account through a question and answer session which last 2 ½ hours and is held monthly 10 times throughout the year (excluding April and August)
- All debates within the GLA chamber are webcast live
Vicki Plytas
Tony Quinn
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