Scrutiny training

I'm now on the Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee - this is one of the two Scrutiny Committees: basically their function is to scrutinise the Council’s business to ensure that the decisions made and actions taken meet the objectives set through the budget and policies and if not so, suggest ways in which the Council may achieve this. You can see minutes of those public meetings here.

Photo: View across to Morehall Convent (on right) before meeting today

This afternoon was an opportunity to learn more about how Scrutiny works - part of the role on the committee I sit on will be to discuss a particular area of service - for example Regeneration, Planning, Environmental Health, Housing or Customer Services. There are many others and 2 councillors each take two areas and quarterly quiz the Officers in that area - a series of questions to see if they are meeting targets etc etc. If they don't respond they can be called to the Scrutiny committee to answer questions publicly.

Clearly this is a great opportunity to work on key areas - and allows us to some extent to hold the executive to account, review policy and improve performance of the Council. I'll let you know how it goes in this blog....

We also learn about the Eco-Management & Audit Scheme (EMAS) - this is a voluntary environmental management system to help local authorities manage their environmental impacts in a systematic and considered way. To gain registration under the scheme an authority must demonstrate "continuous improvements in environmental performance" by following a whole set of requirements. Stroud began developing an EMAS accreditable system in May 1996 and achieved formal registration on 31 March 1999. We are still signed up and it is annually verified to ensure we have maintained the required standards. It has bought many advantages but it is clear there is also work still to be done....but bedtime now for me...