Scrutiny
What is Scrutiny?
Scrutiny is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "a careful look or examination" and this is essentially what the work of Scrutiny at this Council is all about.
Scrutiny also takes an overview role so as to maintain an overall picture of the way the work of the Council and its partners is heading and to be satisfied that this is in the best interest of our local communities.
The Local Government Act 2000 required local authorities to establish new decision-making arrangements from a set of options. Harborough District Council developed and established an Executive for decision-making and an independent Scrutiny function, made up of non-executive councillors, that monitors and, where necessary, challenges the work of the Executive and the Council as an organisation.
The ultimate aim is to improve services provided to the local community through positive challenge. To do this the Scrutiny Panels are involved in:
- Policy review and development - helping to shape the way Council services are delivered.
- Scrutinising decisions - Is the action being taken the right action? Are services working effectively?
- Performance management - Assessing how services are performing to identify areas for improvement.
- External scrutiny - Examining services that impact on the local community.
Scrutiny does not get involved in individual complaints but may pick up issues where there is evidence of wider community concerns, potentially using the Councillor Call for Action process. It will also seek not to duplicate work already being carried out elsewhere within the council.
View the Scrutiny Work-plan for November 2011 - May 2012
