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Agenda item

Annual Report

For Members to receive the Scrutiny and Overview Annual Report for 2019 – 2020.

Minutes:

The meeting received the Scrutiny & Overview Annual Report for 2019 - 2020. Madame Mayor invited Councillor Fitzsimons in his capacity as the Chair of the Scrutiny and Overview Committee to provide an introduction to the report.

 

Councillor Fitzsimons thanked Council for having the opportunity to speak on the Scrutiny & Overview Annual Report for 2019 – 2020. It was highlighted that the world had gone through a challenge that had fundamentally reshaped Croydon and it was therefore right to rethink how scrutiny would operate. The Government’s new guidance on the operation of the scrutiny function had informed the Governance Review and a dedicated review of scrutiny had been commissioned. Croydon was described as an authority that welcomed challenge and would reap the benefits of a governance review of its finances. It was highlighted that chairing scrutiny was shared with the Opposition and that for the most part scrutiny avoided party politics. Councillor Fitzsimons thanked those Councillors who were the scrutiny Vice Chairs as well as the Democratic Services Officers who supported scrutiny: Simon Trevaskis and Stephanie Davis. The variety of subjects covered by scrutiny during 2019 – 2020 was rehearsed; there had been call-ins on the decision to close St Andrew High School and emissions based parking charges. From March 2020, scrutiny had turned its focus to Covid. Unlike the Government, scrutiny at Croydon had identified the risk to care homes. The pandemic had an impact on the Council’s finances as well as the scrutiny work programme. The Medium Term Financial Strategy and the Croydon Renewal Plan would both be a focus for scrutiny going forward. It was emphasised that with both needing to be comprehensive and deliverable at pace, Scrutiny had a role in ensuring that the voice of the local community was heard in delivering services that were needed and valued.

 

Madam Mayor invited Councillor Ward, in his capacity as Chair of the Children & Young People Sub-Committee to provide his introduction to the report.

 

Councillor Ward described how he felt encouraged to read the report and gave his thanks to all the Members and officers involved in the scrutiny process with special mention going to the support provided by Democratic Services. The ground covered by scrutiny during 2019/20 was described as pleasing with effectiveness having improved and the non-partisan approach welcomed. The other scrutiny chairs were thanked for their contribution. The Children’s Improvement Plan had been a feature of the work of the Children & Young People Sub-Committee with thanks being given to Rob Henderson, the previous Executive Director for Children, Families and Education, and his team. In the face of the Council’s financial challenges it needed to be ensured that the gains made by the service were not lost.  The Task and Finish group on exclusions being led by Councillor Fitzpatrick was focusing on getting its conclusions right and would be delivered before the end of Council year. More needed to be done to involve front line service users in the scrutiny process. This was even more important because of the potential risk to standards that may result from the Council’s financial challenges.

 

Madam Mayor invited Councillor Ben-Hassel, in her capacity as Chair of the Streets, Environment and Homes Sub-Committee to provide her introduction to the report.

 

Councillor Ben-Hassel described how she had been newly appointed as the Chair of the Streets, Environment and Homes Sub-Committee at the beginning of the 2019/20 municipal year. Thanks was given to officers for their support including those from Democratic Services; Stephanie Davis and Simon Trevaskis were thanked for their patience and for being prepared to go above and beyond.  It was described how services had been held to account through question and answer sessions with a focus on the financial challenges. A flexible approach had been taken allowing the sub-committee to respond to issues as they evolved. Data was paramount to scrutiny to enable it to do its job. However, much of this was held in silos such that Councillor Ben-Hassel appealed for a corporate overview to be provided that would enable a monitoring framework to be established. Decision-making should be informed by data with the public and voluntary sector needing to be more involved in the work of scrutiny.  There was a call for more attention to be given to corporate risk management and to the issues of individual service users. The new Members joining scrutiny were welcomed with Councillor Ben-Hassel looking forward to all working effectively together to achieve a forensic approach to their work. 

 

Councillor Chatterjee was invited to put his question to all three Chairs of the scrutiny committees. Councillor Chatterjee asked all three chairs what they had learned from their scrutiny of the Council’s finances about how they might do things differently in the future.

 

In his response, Councillor Ward focused specifically on the experience of the call-in that had been conducted and was mindful of the tone of communication and how this needed to be different from that used at Council or Cabinet. Councillor Ward thought he might ask different questions than he had at the time and highlighted that there was a need for these to be asked simply and straight forwardly. The issue of whether the information requested was provided was also stressed with it being noted that in some instances this was not provided or only supplied when it had lost its relevance. For those in new roles, this was something that they also needed to think about with openness and access to information being stressed as paramount.

 

Councillor Ben-Hassel agreed with Councillor Ward that scrutiny was an area where there was cross-party agreement. Councillor Ben-Hassel described that what she had learned from the call-in process was the need for a shift in the political culture, and for the Council to improve transparency and communication. The challenges faced by the Council needed to be better explained to residents in order to take them on the improvement journey.  Councillor Ben-Hassel again emphasised the need for data to be collected at a corporate level in order that scrutiny could be more effective.

 

Councillor Fitzsimons endorsed the comments made by the other scrutiny chairs. Timely access to data including on performance was required. It had been learnt from the Governance Review that that the introduction of the strong leader model had been a negative constitutional change shifting the focus away from 70 Councillors with responsibility and access to be replaced by information being drip fed to Councillors. Councillor Fitzsimons called for cultural change with scrutiny roles being seen as framed by the guidance provided by CIPFA and the Centre for Public Scrutiny.  Scrutiny had two potential roles; budget and performance. But scrutiny did not go far enough with more focus needed on the in-year budget performance. It was stressed that scrutiny could only succeed if support was provided by the political leadership. Parity of esteem and legitimacy was needed to enable a culture of respect to benefit all 70 Councillor and not just those in the Cabinet and senior positions.

 

Councillor Audsley noted that there had been a gap of eight months between scrutiny’s review of the budget in February and September 2020 and asked if this should have been consider with more frequency.

 

In response, Councillor Fitzsimons noted the limitations of the resources available and that scrutiny would take different actions in retrospect. It was acknowledged that budget setting needed to substantially change. Recommendations had been made about how financial governance needed to change with scrutiny’s role included in these new processes.

 

Madam Mayor explained that no further questions had been submitted regarding the report and that therefore, this concluded Council’s consideration of the report’s contents.

 

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