Scrutiny commissions
Every year the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and sub-committees agree on areas for in depth investigation and review. For each of these topics an individual commission (a working group) with between three and five non-cabinet councillors is set up.
A commission can look into any area of council services. In the past commissions have looked at topics such as the provision of respite care and how to improve the housing benefit service. To give further examples, recent commissions have looked at the provision for children with special educational needs and equalities and diversity issues.
The commission will sometimes co-opt other (non-councillor) members, for example representatives from local voluntary organisations, interest groups or specialists in the field. This can be very helpful to inform the commission of the subject area and provide a different perspective on the issues involved.
The commission will start by deciding on the terms of reference ie. identifying the topics they want to look at and will plan a programme of meetings to which they will often invite speakers from interest groups, voluntary organisations, other councils, other organisations who specialise in the field and, most importantly, service users.
When the commission feels that they have gathered sufficient evidence they will put together a report of their findings and make recommendations for improvements in the area they have investigated. This report will be considered by the Executive together with an action plan prepared by the relevant department detailing how recommendations of the commission will be implemented.
Commissions are a very useful part of the scrutiny process allowing for in depth investigation of a particular issue and allowing improvements to be identified and, ultimately, real changes to be made in the way that services are run.
If there is an issue, policy or service area which you believe needs reviewing in this way, you may want to bring this to the attention of the Scrutiny team.
Current scrutiny commissions
Primary School Places
This cross-party commission will seek to examine the issue of primary school places in the London Borough of Lambeth. This is an area that can be overlooked when considering the issue of school places as often the focus can be on a lack of secondary school places. However, primary places in the borough is an important topic and an area of concern for some parents and therefore the issue that this commission wishes to examine in more detail.
The commission has four members: Cllr Pav Akhtar (Labour), Cllr Christina Valcarcel (Labour), Cllr Faye Gray (Liberal Democrat) and Cllr Suzanne Poole (Conservative). The commission agreed its terms of reference at its first meeting in August 2006.
You can contact the Lead Scrutiny Officer for this commission via the Scrutiny team (Tel: 020 7926 2173 or email: scrutiny@lambeth.gov.uk).
Climate Change Commission
This commission has been established in light of Lambeth's participation in the Carbon Trust's 'Local Authority Carbon Management' programme. The commission will examine how Lambeth is currently addressing climate change and how it can explore and promote methods of limiting climate change, comparing with best practice in other authorities.
The commission, which had its first meeting in October 2006, is chaired by Councillor Clare Whelan (Conservative Party) and has three other members during 2006/07: Councillor Diana Braithwaite (Liberal Democrat Party), Councillor Rachel Heywood (Labour Party) and Councillor Rebecca Thackray (Green Party).
The first report of the Climate Change Commission was agreed in August 2007 and was approved by Overview and Scrutiny Committee in September 2007.
Officers across the council have responded with action proposals to the 40-plus recommendations. The commission report and implementation plan were to go before Cabinet for consideration in December 2007.
With ongoing work needed in this area, the commission intends to carry out further investigations in the coming year.
The final implementation plan will be accessible here once adopted by cabinet.
You can contact the Lead Scrutiny Officer for this commission via the Scrutiny team (Tel: 020 7926 2173 or email: scrutiny@lambeth.gov.uk).
Patrolling the Streets Commission
The purpose of this commission is to explore the different roles and relationships between the various individuals and organisations that have a presence on the streets of the borough and how they work to:
- improve community safety and reduce the perception of crime in the borough
- reduce anti-social behaviour
- improve environmental management
- engage with the community and enhance social inclusion.
A large numbers of council employees such as community wardens, street care operatives and traffic wardens are involved in patrolling our streets.
There are also many people who have a street presence who are employed by our partners such as the police and police community support officers. Less obvious are postal workers and our waste management contractor’s staff
The Commission proposes:
- In the first instance to scrutinise the project which is reviewing existing borough warden schemes and the future of such service provision.
- To examine more broadly the roles and relationship of those individuals and organisations patrolling Lambeth’s streets and to suggest ways of improving them.
Further investigations will be carried out over the next few months before the Commission presents its recommendations to Lambeth Council’s Cabinet for consideration, including a special session with the Lambeth Community Policy Consultative Group in mid-January.
The commission, which had its first meeting in October 2006 is, chaired by Councillor Darren Sanders (Liberal Democrat Party) and has two other members; Councillor Clare Whelan (Conservative Party) and Councillor Stephen Morgan (Labour Party)
You can contact the Lead Scrutiny Officer for this commission via the Scrutiny team (Tel: 020 7926 2173 or email: scrutiny@lambeth.gov.uk).
Documents for current commission meetings can be viewed on the committee reports, minutes and agendas page.
Information on previous scrutiny commissions and their final reports can be viewed on the Past Scrutiny Commissions page.