Agenda item

A.   Update On The Overview & Scrutiny Review (Recommendation #53)

B.   Update On The Development Of Member Role Profiles (Recommendation #45)

6A. Update On The Overview & Scrutiny Review (Recommendation #53)

RESOLVED: Members of the LDWG approved the following recommendations:

1. Note the results of consultation with councillors

2. Agree a task and finish group approach for in-depth/topical scrutiny, instead of in depth reviews being carried out by select committees

3. Agree that the number of select committees should remain as they are now

4. Agree that a task and finish approach only works if there is a balance between the number of select committee meetings and councillors on those select committees on the one hand, and the number of task and finish groups and their membership on the other

5. Recognise that the establishment of task and finish groups is an Overview & Scrutiny function and ask officers to prepare a report on the options for doing so

6. Agree that officers develop further detail to introduce the other suggested practice changes outlined at 6.8-6.23 in the report to improve the impact and effectiveness of scrutiny

7. Subject to agreement of 1-6 above, to ask officers to refer their further report to the Constitution Working Party for consideration in advance of the 2020/2021 AGM

8. Agree that Council should be recommended to alter the Overview & Scrutiny approach broadly within the parameters of the existing structure around membership and meetings

6B. Update On The Development Of Member Role Profiles (Recommendation #45)

RESOLVED: Members of the LDWG agreed to note the work undertaken to date and proposed next steps. They also agreed to the inclusion of written guidance for all active councillor appointments to outside bodies as an appendix to the final set of role profiles.

RESOLVED: Rosalind Jeffrey agreed to circulate the draft role profiles to members of the LDWG once feedback from specific members/lead officers had been captured and incorporated (February 2020).

6A. Update On The Overview & Scrutiny Review (Recommendation #53)

Prior to introducing the report, Salena Mulhere read a message from Cllr Sheikh:

‘Cllr Sheikh wanted to send her apologies for not being able to report back tonight on the extensive work taken place over the past few months. She wanted to acknowledge the important work done by many councillors in Lewisham who have engaged in the consultation around restructuring our Overview and Scrutiny. Their diligence and commitment to achieving more effective structures has made working with councillors a pleasure on this. She would also like to acknowledge and thank our Chair of Overview and Scrutiny, Cllr Bill Brown, who has been consistently working with myself and Cllr Juliet Campbell on this work and whose input has been invaluable. And of course, she would like to thank the officers, particularly Salena, for their fantastic work on supporting this area of work. It’s been a huge amount of work and commitment; all of which has felt manageable and enjoyable because of their support. And finally thank you as always to the Chair of the Democracy Review, Cllr Kevin Bonavia, for so supportively enabling members to spearhead this exciting work. It has felt privileged to be able to undertake his work. Cllr Sheikh.’

Salena Mulhere then introduced the report and summarised its key points, including:

§  Outputs from the five consultation events held with members

§  Overview of the three options for a new Overview & Scrutiny structure

§  Next steps for the review

The following points were highlighted in the subsequent discussion:

§  The LDWG were advised that if they agreed the recommendations in the report, then this would be the last time they received a report on the Overview & Scrutiny review (as it would be referred to the Constitution Working Party)

§  Officers clarified that Full Council is currently responsible for establishing task and finish groups, but that the review’s recommendation is that this should be the responsibility of an appropriate Overview & Scrutiny body in the future. None of the changes proposed would limit the ability of Full Council to set up time-limited working groups like the LDWG

§  Members welcomed the proposed changes as a positive step forward, although some felt that opportunities for more radical change in future should not be ignored

RESOLVED: Members of the LDWG approved the following recommendations:

1. Note the results of consultation with councillors

2. Agree a task and finish group approach for in-depth/topical scrutiny, instead of in depth reviews being carried out by select committees

3. Agree that the number of select committees should remain as they are now

4. Agree that a task and finish approach only works if there is a balance between the number of select committee meetings and councillors on those select committees on the one hand, and the number of task and finish groups and their membership on the other

5. Recognise that the establishment of task and finish groups is an Overview & Scrutiny function and ask officers to prepare a report on the options for doing so

6. Agree that officers develop further detail to introduce the other suggested practice changes outlined at 6.8-6.23 in the report to improve the impact and effectiveness of scrutiny

7. Subject to agreement of 1-6 above, to ask officers to refer their further report to the Constitution Working Party for consideration in advance of the 2020/2021 AGM

8. Agree that Council should be recommended to alter the Overview & Scrutiny approach broadly within the parameters of the existing structure around membership and meetings

6B. Update On The Development Of Member Role Profiles (Recommendation #45)

Rosalind Jeffrey introduced the report and the key points to note:

§  The implementation of recommendation #45 was divided into three phases, with phase 1 (develop and populate a role profile template for each member position) completed in late November 2019

§  Feedback will now be gathered from members and appropriate lead officers to further refine the draft role profiles (phase 2). A review of how councillor champions can be further utilised (recommendation #55) will also be undertaken during this phase, which will inform the development of a specific role profile

§  A final set of role profiles will be presented to the LDWG in March 2020 (phase 3). It is intended that they will contain written guidance for all active councillor appointments to outside bodies as an appendix

§  The main purpose of the role profiles will be to provide clarity for councillors, officers and the wider public about what is expected of each position

The following points were highlighted in the subsequent discussion:

§  The role profile for an Elected Member includes information about the likely time commitment, drawing on the LGA’s census of councillors (2018) and reports by Rodney Brooke

§  The role profiles can also be used by councillors to assess their skills and identifying areas for development

§  Options for other role profiles were discussed e.g. co-optees (although may not be required as school governors already have a recruitment process), and faith representatives

RESOLVED: Members of the LDWG agreed to note the work undertaken to date and proposed next steps. They also agreed to the inclusion of written guidance for all active councillor appointments to outside bodies as an appendix to the final set of role profiles.

RESOLVED: Rosalind Jeffrey agreed to circulate the draft role profiles to members of the LDWG once feedback from specific members/lead officers had been captured and incorporated (February 2020).