Agenda item

8.1  The Chair introduced this item and asked for an update from the Head of Scrutiny and Ward Forums about the budget scrutiny task groups’ process for this area of work.

8.2  The Head of Scrutiny and Ward Forums explained the budget scrutiny task groups commenced in October 2018.  The budget task groups were established as sub groups under the Scrutiny Panel and these have concluded and provided recommendations to the relevant Cabinet Member for the topic area reviewed.

8.2.1  The officer pointed out the majority of the task groups had to develop the area for review at the first session.  In some cases this extended the number of meetings originally planned.  The recommendations made were to feed into the budget decision for 2020/21-2021/22.Some saving proposals, if implemented, have moved to the relevant scrutiny commission for monitoring and update if required.

8.2.2  The process for some task groups morphed into a scrutiny review, conducting a number of site visits and bringing in external witnesses.  The process was larger than originally planned and impacted on the work programme of the 4 main scrutiny commissions. 

8.2.3  The budget task groups were Member led and each group had an independently selected chair.  Each task group was supported by the Chair from one of the main scrutiny commissions.  This process was viewed as very useful for Councillors (not part of the executive decision making structure) to understand the financial context to budget decisions.

8.2.4  The Head of Scrutiny and Ward Forums recommend Councillors continue with some form of working group to review budget savings proposals.  However conducting this process in tandem to a full scrutiny commission’s work programme had significant impact on the scrutiny work programmes for municipal year 2018/19. 

8.2.5  In discussions about the process Members made the following key points.

a) Setting up a process that operates outside of the scrutiny function.  It could be a working group led by the Cabinet Member with a membership of interested Councillors who work with the Cabinet Member to challenge and review proposals put forward.

b) There needed to be more structure coming from officers in relation to the proposed area for review.  Particular if the topic area was broad and they needed to decide on the focus.  In the current process this was left to the working group to decide and it was challenging.

c) This process should continue to be led by non-executive Councillors.  Members commented having the process led by the decision maker may not provide strong independent challenge to the proposals put forward.

8.3  The Chair of Scrutiny Panel moved to the work programme and provided the following updates:

8.3.1  As a result of the pending GLA elections purdah is due to commence on 23^rd March 2020.  Therefore the next SP meeting was moved from 27^th April 2020 to 13^th May 2020.  Members were asked to note the date and the Scrutiny Officer will send out notifications.

8.3.2  The items for the next SP meeting are:

1.  Quarterly Finance Update

2.  Chief Executive Question Time

3.  Scrutiny and Communications

4.  Learning from complaints.

8.3.1  In discussion about the work programme Members agreed to have a more in-depth look at how a directorate uses the complaints data to make service improvements.  Members agreed they would look at one directorate at a time and the first should be the directorate responsible for housing services.  Members agreed this should not duplicate the work of the Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission (LiH) but focus on how the service area uses the complaints data and how they learn from complaints with the provision of examples.

8.3.2  In relation to item 3 for the next SP meeting Members suggested they make a list of the previous requests and actions from their previous discussion with the Director Communications, Culture and Engagement to enable SP to monitor the progress. 

8.3.3  The Head of Scrutiny and Ward Forums informed Members the Chair of SP and the scrutiny officer had reviewed the last discussion Members had with the Director and requested for information about communications support for scrutiny in other boroughs to use as a bench mark for comparison to the support provided in Hackney.  The Director will also discuss with the Chairs having more autonomy with the communications to promote the work of scrutiny. 

8.3.4  As a result of the next SP meeting date moving to the 13^th May 2020 so officers are unavailable to attend.  The following work programme items will be moved to the next municipal year’s work programme.

8.4  The Chair proposed developing a survey to obtain all Councillors views about how scrutiny works and the impact of scrutiny’s work in Hackney.  The Chair informed Members a draft of the proposed questions would be circulated following the meeting.