Scrutiny

Scrutiny helps the council develop new policies and plays an important role in monitoring council performance. By holding the council's Cabinet to account it ensures that services respond to the needs of the local community and are efficient, cost effective and easy to use.

Why do we have scrutiny?

Under the current system of local government, most council decisions are taken by the council's Cabinet. This concentrates a lot of responsibility into the hands of a relatively small number of councillors.

Scrutiny acts as a check and balance to the Cabinet and seeks to involve the public to ensure that decisions are made in line with council policy and in the public interest.

Brent's scrutiny function has two scrutiny committees:

• the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee
• the Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee.

Each is composed of 11 elected members (nine from the Labour Group and one member from each opposition group which is consistent with current political balance arrangements). There are a total of 12 scrutiny meetings held during the municipal year, six per committee. This enables an integrated approach within each committee to scrutinise thematic and related policy and service issues. It also gives the opportunity for members to develop expertise across services and hold detailed discussions.

The Chair of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee also participates in the North West London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee as chair. It is composed of eight voting members from across North West London and one non-voting co-opted member. There are four North West London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings held during each municipal year.

Scrutiny provides councillors with the opportunity to question Cabinet members, officers and other council partners in order to gain further knowledge around an issue and make effective, evidenced-based recommendations. It also enables members to capture the views of their constituents to provide community leadership.

The principles of effective scrutiny are:

Being Member-led

The Scrutiny Committees determine their own work programme and decide what evidence to seek. Members take an active role in the scrutiny process, for example by going on visits, taking part in consultation activities with service users, residents and discussions with local organisations.

Taking a consensual approach

Effective scrutiny works towards developing a consensus-based view of the service or issue under consideration, focused on the needs of service users and residents.

Being evidence based

Scrutiny should take evidence from a wide and balanced range of sources in order to develop a rounded view of the issues under consideration. Recommendations made by scrutiny should be firmly supported by the evidence gathered.

Providing constructive challenges

Good scrutiny should foster a style of constructive challenge with officers and other witnesses, enabling sharing of views in an open and positive manner.

Scrutiny Committees cannot make decisions, their influence comes from recommendations made to the council's Cabinet and external organisations.

Scrutiny committees have the power to investigate any issue within its remit and require witnesses to attend meetings to inform them of their views. It can also hold its own consultation groups to help it understand how affected parties may feel.

Evidence based recommendations give additional weight to the influence of scrutiny.

There are steps scrutiny committees can take if it disagrees with a decision made by the Cabinet. A decision can be called in to the relevant Scrutiny Committee and be referred back to the Cabinet with recommendations for change.

Who can be scrutinised?

The Cabinet - All decisions made by the Cabinet and by officers acting under delegated powers from the Cabinet are subject to scrutiny by non-executive councillors.

Scrutiny can look at any issue that affects people in Brent. This could include reviewing the performance of local external organisations e.g. water companies, train operators etc.

Some external organisations, such as the Metropolitan Police, Transport for London and the London Development Agency, have a duty to respond to scrutiny enquiries.

Scrutiny has legal powers to scrutinise a range of local health organisations on any matter relating to the planning, provision and operation of health services in Brent.

What Scrutiny won't do

Scrutiny is not an alternative to usual appeals procedures such as planning, development control and licensing appeals.

Scrutiny will not review decisions on individual applications, such as a planning application. However, scrutiny could review planning policy which would influence individual decisions.

Additionally, scrutiny isn't an alternative way to make a complaint against the council and it won't investigate a complaint on behalf of an individual or organisation.

Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee

This committee is made up of 11 Brent Councillors, 4 co-opted members from faith education settings (who may vote), and 2 non-voting education co-opted members.

This committee has the following remit: Adult social care; Safeguarding; Children’s services; Cultural services; Education; Health; Housing; Public Health and Wellbeing.

Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee

This committee is made up of 12 Brent Councillors.

This committee has the following remit: Corporate policy, partnerships and resources; Budget; Customer services; Commercial services; Planning policy; Environmental policy; Public realm; Employment and skills; IT; Recycling; Regeneration; Transport and highways; Community safety; Property; Emergency planning and business continuity.

Our Scrutiny Committees:

• hold the Cabinet to account for its decisions
• support policy development through commissioning member-led investigations into issues affecting the borough
• provide scrutiny of external public bodies and services, including education, health and other partners as specified by the Localism Act, 2011 and other relevant legislation
• coordinate scrutiny activities with other local partners such as Brent Healthwatch, tenant scrutiny and Brent's Safer Neighbourhood Board
• review and monitor performance to ensure continuous improvement of council services for the benefit of residents
• receive call-in of Cabinet decisions, public petitions and community calls to action.

Our Scrutiny Committees throughout a municipal year will:

• develop an annual work programme which details the issues the committee will review over the municipal year
• monitor and challenge the council’s performance
• monitor how the council uses its resources
• make evidence-based recommendations to improve the work of the council and other partner organisations
• scrutinise executive decisions and develop policy both in respect of the council and external organisations
• scrutinise the council's budget and its budget setting process
• deal with call ins of Cabinet decisions where appropriate
• commission in-depth reviews to be carried out by task and finish groups that are brought back to the committee for consideration.
  
  

A call in request must be submitted within five days of the relevant decision being made (or, in the case of a key decision made by officers, within 5 days of the date on which the record of the decision is made publicly available). When submitting the call in request, members should complete a a call-in form. This must include why they are calling in the decision, and a suggested alternative course of action.

Call-in requests are will not be considered valid if they:

• are being used as a means of gaining information /understanding or discussing general concerns with Members and officers which could be achieved through the general overview and scrutiny process or by talking to the relevant officer or lead member informally
• duplicate a call-in on the same issue made within the previous 6 months
• reasons for calling in the decision have been discussed by the relevant Scrutiny Committee prior to the decision being made
• pertain to a decision of the Cabinet referring a matter to Full Council for consideration
• pertain to operational management decisions taken by officers
• are considered by the Chief Executive to be frivolous, vexatious or clearly outside the call-in provisions.

A scrutiny committee can establish task and finish groups. A scrutiny task and finish group will conduct an extended review on a particular topic or issue of local concern.  

These scrutiny reviews will create opportunities for a broad range of organisations, stakeholders and the public in Brent to get involved in the work of scrutiny.

Members can investigate any issue that is affecting local communities or the borough that is within its committee’s remit. Task Groups are an area where value can be added through scrutiny by enabling Members to explore issues of public concern and take the lead on behalf of their community.

Before a task group begins work, it will agree the following:

• the rationale for choosing the topic
• its Terms of Reference
• what it hopes to achieve
• potential sources of evidence that will assist the task group in its work
• officer support and timescales for the work.

Task groups meetings are conducted in private so meetings can be conducted in a robust and candid manner. Evidence is obtained from a variety of sources, including council officers, academics, service users, partner organisations and other local authorities.

Evidence can be gathered in a number of ways including:

• written evidence
• verbal evidence / presentations followed by questions
• consultation events
• best practice visits to other local authorities or service providers.

Once the task group has gathered its evidence then it will prepare a report setting out its findings and recommendations. The report and recommendations reflect the consensual view of all the members of the task group.

The report will then be agreed by the scrutiny committee before being put before the Cabinet or other relevant executive for consideration.  If the Cabinet or other relevant executive accepts the recommendations from a task group report, the committee that set up the task group will be responsible for monitoring the outcomes and impacts of the agreed recommendations.

Each Scrutiny Committee will set its work programme for the year, usually at its first meeting of the year. It is important that the committee has a focused work programme that makes best use of the resources available to it.

The work programme should reflect the committee's aims and objectives as well as add value to the work of the council. It is up to the committee to select the items for inclusion in its work programme, but ideas are brought together from a number of sources to assist members in their choices.

Suggestions may come from the following:

• the Cabinet
• corporate strategy priorities
• Corporate Directors with suggestions from service areas
• individual councillors
• suggestions from the public via consultation, or by emailing scrutiny@brent.gov.uk  
• suggestions from partner organisations
• external inspections
• performance or budget monitoring information in the Forward Plan
• suggestions from the NHS

Once the committees have decided what they want to include in their work programmes, meeting agendas for the coming year are produced.

The work programmes of scrutiny committees are designed to be flexible and are subject to change so that the committee can react and adapt to important issues as they arise.

• View the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee 2023-24 Work Programme
• View the Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee 2023-24 Work Programme

Scrutiny committees can request data and information during committee meetings to assist them in understanding the detail of items being scrutinised. This data or information is not always available to hand and is subsequently provided at an agreed date after the committee meeting.

View the published minutes of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee.
View the published minutes of the Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee.

Attend a meeting

Scrutiny Committee meetings are open to the public. Please check our meetings calendar or specific committee or sub-committee pages for more information about meeting dates and locations. Members will be assisted in their scrutiny work by senior scrutiny officers from the Strategy & Partnerships team.

Contribute your views

If you have a particular interest or expertise in an issue that is being investigated by a scrutiny committee, you may submit written evidence or share your views with the committee.

You can do this by emailing scrutiny@brent.gov.uk where our scrutiny team can advise you on your options.

Ask a public question

Public notice questions Public notice questions provide an opportunity for local people to get involved in the democratic process through the submission of questions which will be considered either by officers, or at a formal committee meeting.

If you would like to do this, you should contact us at scrutiny@brent.gov.uk 24 hours before the committee meeting. Your question should also relate to an item on the committee agenda.

Co-option

The council's constitution allows for the Community and Wellbeing scrutiny committee to appoint up to three people as non-voting co-optees. Co-optees may also be appointed to task groups.

Petitions

The council's petition scheme includes provisions whereby a petitioner can call for a senior officer to be held to account at a scrutiny meeting (providing the petition is supported by at least 1500 petitioners). Furthermore, if a petitioner is not satisfied with the council's response to a petition they can request that a scrutiny committee review the council's response.

Councillor Call for Action

The Councillor Call for Action (CCfA) provides a mechanism for a Councillor to seek to resolve a local problem or an issue of local concern by referring the matter to the Scrutiny Committees.

CCfA is intended as a measure of 'last resort', with issues being raised at committee only after all other avenues for resolution have been exhausted. In submitting a CCfA the Councillor will be required to demonstrate that all reasonable efforts have been taken to resolve the matter.

If you would like to learn more about how residents can get involved in scrutiny you can contact scrutiny@brent.gov.uk with any questions.