Agenda item

To consider the detailed review work that has been undertaken; To consider the Scrutiny Forum's recommendation, namely, Option 1 - keeping to the current scrutiny arrangements and to make a recommendation to present to the Full Council on 07/03/2024. 

DECISION:

·         To accept the report

·         To welcome the review of the current scrutiny arrangements carried out following Audit Wales's report

·         To recommend that the Full Council approves Option 1 subject to work being carried out to improve the effectiveness and operations of the Scrutiny Committees

Ian Jones (Head of Corporate Services Department), Vera Jones (Democracy and Language Services Manager), Bethan Adams (Scrutiny Advisor) and Iwan Evans (Monitoring Officer) were welcomed to the meeting. ⁠ ⁠

A report was presented that highlighted the work made to review the current scrutiny arrangements following Audit Wales' report. The information included all the discussions held (in workshops for Councillors, discussions with the Leadership Team and Heads of Department), presenting observations / findings through four options to a joint meeting of the Scrutiny Forum and the Cabinet Members. The joint meeting was asked to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each option and draw a conclusion on the recommendation for the way forward. The joint meeting's perspective was presented to the Management Team that agreed with the recommendation to present option 1 - keeping to the current arrangements.

Members were reminded that the Governing Committee had a responsibility to ensure that the appropriate governing arrangements had been implemented when undertaking the review on the scrutiny arrangements.

During the ensuing discussion, the following observations were made by members:

·         It was disappointing that the current arrangement continued - the current arrangement did not allow to look at matters in detail.

·         Bulky reports presented to the meetings and the officers' presentations were too lengthy - taking time away from scrutinising the matter.

·         Too many fields were being presented - could not meet the demand.

·         Hard to prioritise.

·         The system does not work - it was not effective. The Scrutiny Committees did not manage to change anything.

·         Scrutiny Investigations have an impact, but not enough of them.

·         That the arrangement offers 'performance of system' giving the impression that good scrutiny existed here.

·         Examples of good scrutiny in the past - need external input and appropriate training to move forward.

·         That there was no political element to Scrutiny - Gwynedd's residents were important here.

·         Need to consider how the Governing Committee intertwined with the arrangement. When the Committee referred matters to the relevant scrutiny Committees, they were too late or had not prioritised them on the relevant scrutiny committee's agenda.

·         Option 1 did not create an impression - option 4 (establishing a fourth Scrutiny Committee) was a balanced one and gave an opportunity to develop the arrangement.

·         The report did not convey / represent the many opinions and workshop's comments - the results of the workshops had not been shared with the attendees.

In response to a question regarding how Scrutiny Committees added value to the Council's work, the Democracy and Language Manager noted that the purpose of Scrutiny was to ensure and challenge the Cabinet's work; act as a Critical Friend, ensuring that attention was given to the voice of the people of Gwynedd; hold the Cabinet and the Cabinet's individual Members accountable for their decisions and scrutinise the impact of the Council's plans, policies and services. She referred to examples of the impact and the service that Scrutiny had done over the past years. She reiterated that steps to improve the arrangement also derived from Audit Wales' recommendations, that included creating stronger recommendations on some items to be able to ensure that the Cabinet Member gave appropriate consideration to the field and reported back on that in a timely manner.

The Head of Corporate Support Department reiterated that the options fairly reflected the discussions in the workshops, because opinion had differed in the workshops. He also noted that the scrutiny arrangement was on 'a journey of improvement' as was noted by Audit Wales, with specific recommendations and action steps to be completed that meant further improvement.

In response to a question regarding announcing an Annual Scrutiny Report, it was noted that there was a statutory demand to announce an annual report across all three Scrutiny Committees that would be presented annually to the Full Council. He reiterated that there was no annual report for the individual committees. He accepted that there was room to adapt the annual report to highlight the impact made to measure satisfaction and highlight further contact between the Scrutiny forward programme and the Council's Plan.

In response to an observation regarding the need to approve option 1 and that the discussion reflected different messages to include the report, the Monitoring Officer noted that the Committee's role was to approve that the review's arrangements were completed appropriately and not to offer an opinion on the scrutiny arrangement. He highlighted that they had a role to consider the Scrutiny Forum's recommendation and whether the engagement / consultation arrangement had been sufficient to lead the Forum towards reaching this option - keep to the current arrangements. If the committee chose not to support this, there would have to be a basis to the rationale, as well as an alternative offer.

The Chair noted that the Committee was happy with the arrangement.

It was proposed and seconded to support option 1 as this was the best option for the need to improve the efficiency of the meetings and operations of the scrutiny committees.

RESOLVED:

·         To accept the report.

·         To welcome the review of the current scrutiny arrangements carried out following Audit Wales's report.

·         To recommend that the Full Council approves Option 1 subject to work being carried out to improve the effectiveness and operations of the Scrutiny Committees.