Post

Overview and Scrutiny Committee Chairman

Description

Purpose of Role:

 

To chair the Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee ensuring effective consideration and scrutiny by the committee of decisions, proposals and reports of the Executive.

 

Duties and responsibilities (in addition to those of a Chairman of a committee):

 

(a)  At all times to use their own discretion and act in the interests of the Council and not of their political group.

(b)  To lead the committee on scrutiny of the Council's policies, budget, strategies and service delivery as appropriate to the remit of their committee.

(c)   To set the agenda for committee meetings, with assistance from officers.

(d)  To programme and manage reviews relevant to their committee within the agreed work programme.

(e)  To lead on the decisions, responses or recommendations, post scrutiny, to the Executive or relevant officers.

(f)    To represent the committee's views and present its resolutions to meetings of the Cabinet, Council or other committees.

(g)  To promote the role of overview and scrutiny within and outside the Council.

(h)  To meet regularly with relevant officers to ensure the receipt of appropriate independent advice.

(i)    To determine whether a key questions meeting is necessary prior to a meeting of the committee and, if so, to attend it together with the Controlling Group Spokesperson and other Members in accordance with the approved procedure.

(j)    To be fully aware of the Council's Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions and to ensure that the committee is able to consider all relevant issues within the timescale set out in the work programme.

(k)   To provide agreement where appropriate for special urgency decisions to be implemented if not in the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions, in accordance with relevant guidelines.

(l)    To provide agreement where appropriate for private meetings of the Executive where 28 days' notice has not been given for an exempt item of business.

(m) To fully involve external stakeholders such as service users, expert witnesses and partners in overview and scrutiny activities.

(n)  To lead on the provision of advice to the Executive on major issues or policies before final decisions are made by the Executive.

(o)  To call in a decision of the Executive or to receive and action requests for an Executive decision to be called in, in accordance with the agreed procedure.

(p)  To ensure regular contact with non-executive Members, community representatives and local stakeholders to inform effective scrutiny of performance management.

(q)  To contribute effectively to the Council's scrutiny process by ensuring the questioning of the relevant officers on performance management.

 

Specific skills required (in addition to those of a Chairman of a committee):

 

·         Confidence in bringing together elected Members, officers, representatives of external bodies and members of the public in order to obtain and evaluate information.

·         Questioning and summarising skills.

·         Ability to focus on essential issues as a basis for key questions.

·         Clear understanding of Council's budget and policies

·         Clear understanding of Council's call-in procedure

Post is held by