Overview and Scrutiny - What's New?
Latest News - September 2007
All of the scrutiny projects for the 2006/7 municipal year are now completed and have been considered by Cabinet The projects for 2006/7 were:
- Worklessness (Building a Strong Economy Sub-Committee)
- Community Buildings (Corporate Management Sub-Committee)
- Alcohol, Drugs and Young People (Health Sub-Committee)
- Key Stage 4 (Lifelong Learning Sub-Committee)
- Footways in Better Condition (Looking After the Environment Sub-Committee
- Domestic Violence (Promoting Strong, Healthy and Safe Communities Sub-Committee)
Copies of the reports can be accessed via the relevant Scrutiny Sub-Committee web pages.
Work on the new projects for 2007/08 is now beginning. These include areas such as:
- Making Assets Work (the County Council "Estate" including libraries for the future)
- Young people not in education, employment or training
- The future of residential care
- Transport (this is a joint project involving Councillors from the County Council and all of the District Councils)
- The Budget
- Stress
A number of smaller "light touch" reviews of areas, including bullying, teenage pregnancy, etc. are also proposed.
Enhanced Powers for Scrutiny
A number of new developments promise greater powers for overview and scrutiny. The Police and Justice Act 2006 introduces opportunities for local people to raise issues of concern with their local councillor(s) about crime and disorder issues in the areas in which they live ("Community Calls for Action"). The aim of the new process is to deal with such issues at the lowest possible level, but if a local councillor decides that an issue is a community call for action and it cannot be resolved directly with the agencies concerned (i.e. the police), the process allows for a more detailed scrutiny investigation to be undertaken. In two tier local government areas, the District/Borough Councils will be the relevant bodies for community calls for action under the Police and Justice Act. The process is currently paused and is not likely to be introduced until 2008.
The Local Government White Paper, "Strong and Prosperous Communites" and Local Government Bill also introduce the concept of community calls for action across a wider range of local services and those provided by partner agencies, although this is likely to re-titled "councillors calls for action". There will be a duty on bodies being scrutinised (including the Environment Agency, Learning and Skills Councils and other partners within the Local Area Agreement arrangements) to provide information and to respond to scrutiny recommendations. The new powers are expected to come into force in 2008.
Health Service provision across County Durham is already subject to scrutiny (but not currently community calls to action). See the Health Scrutiny web page for details by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.
Previous Overview and Scrutiny Annual Reports
At the end of each municipal year (generally April), we publish an Annual Report which provides details of all of the projects undertaken by Overview and Scrutiny over the preceding 12 month period. The Annual Reports provide an opportunity not only to look back, but also to assess whether Overview and Scrutiny is making a difference and playing its key role of helping to drive up improvements in services. The first Annual Report was produced in 2003. All of the Annual Reports to date are listed below and can be accessed by clicking on the relevant link.Copies of the Annual Report in large print and other languages can be obtained on request to the Overview and Scrutiny team: Tel: 0191 3833149.
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Annual Report for 2002/2003 (20 pages, 426kb)
Annual Report for 2003/2004 (33 pages, 711kb)
Annual Report for 2004/2005 (34 pages, 456kb)
Annual Report for 2005/2006 (34 pages, 2146kb)
Annual report for 2006/2007 (2 pages, 1101kb)
Committee/Sub-Committee Pages
Overview and Scrutiny CommitteeScrutiny Sub-Committee for Building a Strong Economy
Scrutiny Sub-Committee for Corporate Management Issues
Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee
Scrutiny Sub-Committee for Developing Lifelong Learning
Scrutiny Sub-Committee for Looking After the Environment
Scrutiny Sub-Committee for Promoting Strong Healthy and Safe Communities
