Overview and scrutiny committees hold the Council to account and enables members who are not in decision-making roles to publicly hold Cabinet to account.
There are three scrutiny committees providing critical friend challenge to policymakers and decision makers, and ensuring the voice and concerns of the public are heard.
The scrutiny committees undertake:
- policy review and development – helping to shape the way public services are delivered
- scrutinising decisions – is the right action being taken? Are services working effectively?
- external scrutiny – examining services that impact upon the local community
The Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee also has the power to look into the provision of health services.
Each of the three scrutiny committees meet about five times a year in public. They also conduct spotlight reviews and establish task groups to carry out in–depth consideration of a service or issue, reporting back to the relevant committee.
They have the power to challenge, or call in, decisions made by the Cabinet and having examined a decision, may ask Cabinet to reconsider it.
Impact of scrutiny committees 2023/24
The Children and Young People’s Futures Recruitment and Retention Strategy embedded many of the recommendations and research put forward by the Children’s Services Recruitment and Retention Spotlight Review. This included recommendations on the induction programme, supervision, caseloads, reviewing the Council’s offer to staff, celebrating staff achievements and career progression pathways.
The SEND Improvement Partnership Board agreed to widen its improvement plans to create a ‘system wide transformation’ of services, as recommended in November 2022 by the SEND Task Group.
To support communities to partake in the trials of Community Self-Delivery of Highways Improvement, Corporate Infrastructure, and
Regulatory Services (CIRS) Scrutiny recommended a step-by-step guide or checklist for town and parish councils. This has been included in the guidance documents.
CIRS also recommended member locality budget expenditure be published on the Council’s website, improving transparency.
Health and Adult Care Scrutiny responded to the concerns of local people and produced a series of recommendations to Cabinet on the future of the North Devon Link Service to try to assure a smooth transition process as possible for those affected by the closure. Members recommended the development of community-based solutions to meet identified needs and the emerging long-term pattern of community based mental health support.
As a result of the 2023 Community Pharmacy Spotlight Review and recommendation to establish a pharmacy school in the county, a partnership model had been set up between Plymouth and Bath universities with a first student intake in 2024. This will help fulfil members’ aim that Devon and the far South West develops its own pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
In the budget process, Scrutiny successfully recommended that Cabinet:
- increase spending on highways drainage; an extra £1.5 million was committed to regular drainage works to help reduce the number of potholes
- add to the budget book risk register that improvements to Children’s Services are dependent on partnership working across the whole system, including health, police, district councils and schools