Overview and Scrutiny at Stroud District Council

Overview and Scrutiny Links:

What is Overview and Scrutiny
Overview and Scrutiny at Stroud
When and where does Overview and Scrutiny meet?
Watch Overview and Scrutiny in Action
How we operate Overview and Scrutiny
Reports and recommendations from Overview and Scrutiny
Reviews/Inquiries
Call-in
What the Overview and Scrutiny Committees do not do
Find out what's happening with Overview and Scrutiny in Stroud
Overview and Scrutiny Support
Please contact us

What is Overview and Scrutiny?

The Local Government Act 2000 has introduced new political structures, and the Council has created a type of administration that is referred to as a Leader and Cabinet executive, or executive as its short form.

The Cabinet currently comprises the Leader of the Council and seven Councillors.

The Council has a scrutiny role where Councillors who are not part of the Cabinet can examine what this Council does by:

looking at our policies, reviewing and developing them;
reviewing and examining decisions made or actions taken by the Council or the executive and to make reports or recommendations on the way forward;
questioning whether we are meeting our objectives set through the budget and policies;
reviewing our services and functions and promoting best practice; and
supporting open and transparent decision making and democratic accountability.

Overview and Scrutiny at Stroud

We have set up two Overview and Scrutiny Committees to carry out the scrutiny functions; these are:

Each Committee has twelve Councillors who are non executive Councillors, i.e. they are not Cabinet Members.

A scrutiny training event for Scrutiny and Cabinet Members has resulted in the production of a Scrutiny Action Plan (PDF) . The Overview and Scrutiny Committees have already made a great deal of progress in developing and implementing some of the actions within the Scrutiny Action Plan, which has been designed to ‘raise the bar’ and develop the Overview and Scrutiny function at Stroud District Council. This has included frequent discussion of the Action Plan with the Leader of the Council and with Cabinet Members.

The areas of work that each Overview and Scrutiny Committee is responsible for, can be found by clicking on the links above. The links will also show you which Councillors are on each Committee and what they have achieved during the past civic year, including their business plans.

When and where does Overview and Scrutiny meet?

The main Overview and Scrutiny Committees meet once every meeting cycle (6 times per year) in the Council Chamber at Ebley Mill, Stroud, starting at 7:00pm . Details of these and other public meetings are set out in the Council's calendar of meetings.

These meetings are open to you, except when confidential items are to be considered. You will be asked to leave the meeting before any discussion of the confidential items takes place.

At meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees, you can ask questions of the Chair of the Committee in line with the procedures set out in our Constitution.

Watch Overview and Scrutiny in Action!

The meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees, together with other Council meetings, are webcast. This means if you have a PC and internet access, you can watch meetings live over the internet or at a later time (for a period of 6 months from the date of the meeting). Associated meeting papers and presentation slides are also available as part of the webcast. See the Council's webcast page for more details.

How we operate Overview and Scrutiny

Each Overview and Scrutiny Committee has its own business plan or work programme, that is agreed at the start of each year. This sets out the areas of work each Committee will look at during the course of the year based on priorities, time and resources available. Each business plan is monitored by the appropriate Committee and adjustments are made as necessary. The business plans form part of the papers for each meeting, together with minutes of the meeting.

Each Overview and Scrutiny Committee will identify in its Business Plan how it will carry out a particular area of work. For example:

a detailed review of a Council policy or service,
a quick one-off review of a topic,
an examination of Council documents, or
in exceptional circumstances, it will ‘call-in' a matter to a meeting. An explanation of ‘call-in' is given later.

Any Councillor on the Overview and Scrutiny Committee can ask for an item to be placed on a Scrutiny agenda if it falls within the scope of that Committee's work.

Any issues that affect both Committees will be addressed in a way agreeable to each Committee.

Reports and recommendations from Overview and Scrutiny

The Overview and Scrutiny Committees examine a number of our documents including the Forward Plan, the Budget and the Corporate Delivery Plan. Any recommendations arising from examination of these documents will be placed on the agenda for the Cabinet or Council as appropriate.

The Forward Plan is a rolling four month programme that sets out the ‘key decisions' that the Cabinet or Council expects to take during that period. The Overview and Scrutiny Committees can look at the Forward Plan and decide if there are any topics that they would like to review before they are considered by the Cabinet and/or Council.

The Forward Plan is reported to each meeting of both Overview and Scrutiny Committees and is published each month on the Council's website.

The Council's vision is to ‘lead a community that is making Stroud District a better place to live, work and visit for everyone'. The Corporate Delivery Plan sets out some of the key actions that we will take to deliver the 5 main priorities that have been identified by local people. It also shows how we will monitor our performance within the areas of focus set out under the main priorities. Details of these can be seen by clicking the link above to access the current Corporate Delivery Plan.

Reviews/Inquiries

If policy or service reviews are to be undertaken, or investigations made into a particular area of work, the Overview and Scrutiny Committees will set up an inquiry team. The teams are usually made up of 3 members from the appropriate Committee, together with officer support. These meetings are member led and are held as required during the course of the review or investigation. They are not open to the public. Once a review or investigation is complete, a report with recommendations will be presented to the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee for approval. Once approved, it will then be presented to the next available Cabinet and/or Council meeting for consideration.

Details of the scrutiny reviews/inquiries that have been undertaken or are ‘in-progress' are set out on the respective Overview and Scrutiny Committee web pages.

Call - in

A ‘call-in' procedure is available to each of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees, and is only used in exceptional circumstances. An explanation of how this procedure operates is set out in our Constitution under Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules.

This procedure is used as a last resort if Overview and Scrutiny Councillors consider that any decision taken by Cabinet or Council is inappropriate or not within our policy framework. The Chair, Vice-Chair or five Councillors from the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee can call in decisions for review. The call-in request must be in writing.

The Minutes of the Cabinet meeting will state the date on which they were published and when the decisions come into force. Once five working days have passed following the publication of the Minutes, decisions can be put into operation, unless they have been called-in by an Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

What the Overview and Scrutiny Committees do not do

The Overview and Scrutiny Committees will not look at:

quasi judicial decisions that are the responsibility of the Development Control Committee or the Licensing and Regulation Committee (quasi judicial is when the Council is acting in a semi judicial capacity and there is a right of appeal against such decisions to the courts or Government);
any matter relating to standards of behaviour, conduct, ethics or probity, directly or indirectly involving any Member or Officer of the Council. This is undertaken by a Standards Committee which is a Committee set up specifically to deal with these areas of work.

Find out what's happening with Overview and Scrutiny in Stroud

All meeting papers for the Overview and Scrutiny Committees can be found on our website

Business plans,
Our Forward Plan,
Each Committees' terms of reference,
Relevant procedures within our Constitution,
Dates of meetings, and
Access to view the meetings ‘live' or at a later date

Annual Reports on the activities and work undertaken during the course of the civic year by each of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees will be presented to the Council and published on the Council's website. This will assist in the measurement of the effectiveness of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees and their value to the work of the Council, based on achievements and on measurable outcomes.