The meetings are open to the public, unless confidential, exempt information is being scrutinised; if this is the case, it will be clearly marked on the agenda for the meeting.
Usually, the relevant Cabinet Member will give a statement to the Committee and officers may give a short presentation. The Committee may invite other witnesses to give evidence to the Committee, such as partner organisations, external stakeholders, service user representatives and/ or advocates. Members of the Committee will then have the opportunity to ask questions related to the topic being scrutinised. Committees usually consider 2-4 main items each meeting.
At the close of the meeting, members discuss the ‘way forward' and agree comments, observations and recommendations to be submitted to the Cabinet. The Committee will also consider whether a topic requires further Scrutiny.
Occasionally Committees will also receive a ‘Task and Finish’ inquiry report that members of the Committee have undertaken. The Committee is required to give final approval to the report and its recommendations before it is sent to the cabinet.
When scrutinising an issue or topic,
members will be presented with background information, details of the service
or policy being considered and the key challenges facing the authority in
relation to that service or policy.
The purpose of questioning at a
Committee meeting is to learn from the witnesses, gather information and
validate information that has previously been provided.
Questioning can help to identify how
efficient and effective our services are, how fair they are in providing access
to all citizens, whether our services are performing well, what the key risks
are, and how they could be improved.
Setting the work programme for the Scrutiny Committee is an important stage in the scrutiny process, identfying key topics that will be considered in the coming year. Scrutiny Committee members set the work programme with support from their principal scrutiny officer, early in the municipal year.
Some key principles for setting work programmes are:
- Topics should add value and support corporate priorities
- Where appropriate involve partners, stakeholders and the public
- Allow some flexibility to enable topics to be included as they arise
- Seek improvement in service provision
- Be achievable within available resources
- Sources of information to identify key topics
Topics for the work programme come from a wide range of sources including:
- Suggestions made by council members
- Suggestions made by senior management
- Suggestions made by scrutiny officers
- The council cabinet's forward plan
- Corporate performance monitoring reports
- Suggestions made by partners and stakeholders
- The council's Corporate Plan and service area business plans
- Topics from budget monitoring reports and the Council's Budget Strategy
- Issues from audit and inspection reports
- Outcomes of public consultation
As well as the topics identified by members, Scrutiny Committees have standing items that they regularly consider, such as service area business plans, budget monitoring and performance monitoring.
Once members have assembled the work programme it will be important for them to identify and agree the highest priority topics, those that will add most value through their work. Topics requiring long and detailed examination can be looked at in detail as part of a ‘Task & Finish’ group inquiry and be included in the overall scrutiny work programme.
A Call-In is a process by which a non-Executive Councillor of Cardiff Council can request the reconsideration of a recent official decision made by Cardiff Council’s Cabinet or by a senior officer of Cardiff Council, under delegated authority.
The request for Call-In has to be made within seven clear working days following the publication of the decision. Official decisions are recorded on either the Cabinet decision register or the Officer decision register, as applicable.
View the decision registersExternal link opens in a new window .