About scrutiny

All scrutiny services involve a committee or a number of committees made up of councillors. These committees hold the council's decision-makers, including external partners such as Primary Care Trusts, to account publicly.

Our Scrutiny service seeks to improve the council's services by focusing on the issues that matter most to our residents. It reviews the key services and policies - both of the council and external providers - to make sure they work in the community's best interests. It does this by:

• engaging with local people and taking on their needs and views
• making recommendations for improvement on future policy options, to the Cabinet, Full Council, council officers and our partners.

About scrutiny committees

• Cabinet members are not allowed to sit on scrutiny committees, as it is their decisions and policies that are likely to be reviewed.
• Each committee reflects the political balance of the council, and some of the committees are chaired by members of the opposition.
• Each committee has a chair and a vice chair. Councillors in these posts can change yearly at the Annual General meeting of the council
• Scrutiny committees meet five times per year, and additional meetings are scheduled in when a commission or review is taking place.
• Scrutiny members are supported by a small team of officers within Lambeth Council. The team provides advice and support to members to undertake their work. This includes research, analysing data, report preparation and preparing information for scrutiny members (such as committee reports).
• Each year the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and sub-committees identify areas for consideration and review. For in-depth, single issue reviews, we establish scrutiny commissions. These commissions are made up of between three and five non-Cabinet, cross-party councillors.
• Scrutiny commissions can look into any part of the council services, and in the past they have looked at topics such as respite care, improving housing benefit service, parking, provision for children with special needs, equalities and diversity and creation of primary school places.

Find out more about our scrutiny committees

Find out how you can get involved in the scrutiny process