Agenda item

Report attached.

Members considered a joint report of Councillors Stephen Button, Stewart Eaves and Clare Yates, Chairs of the Resources, Communities and Wellbeing and Special Overview and Scrutiny Committees respectively, requesting that Cabinet gave consideration to and provided comments on the work programmes for Overview and Scrutiny for 2026/27.

Councillor Button provided a brief introduction to the report and the draft work programmes, commenting on the reasons for narrowing down the full list of suggested topics and highlighting the final proposed items for consideration and the meeting date at which these would be considered.  Councillor Dad asked if the work programme would be flexible.. This was confirmed by Councillor Button.

Councillor Khan commented that none of the four public suggestions had been taken up, which was disappointing given that residents had engaged in the consultation exercise.  He also noted that suggestions regarding Digital Transformation/AI Usage and HMOs had been rejected, but that both topics could potentially have a significant impact on the Borough.  He expressed the view that individual overview and scrutiny meetings could potentially deal with more items of business without being overburdened, particularly as some reviews, such as Skip Days, might only require a light touch.  Councillor Jordan Fox also supported the inclusion of AI in the work programme, given its potential to create efficiencies within the organisation.  Councillor Button undertook to give the matter of additional topics in the work programme some further consideration in discussion with the other Chairs.  The Leader reminded all that the question of flexibility within the programme had already been answered.

The Leader indicated that it was proposed to seek an amendment to the terms of reference of the three overview and scrutiny committees at the Council meeting on 16^th July 2026.  The proposed changes would include Local Government Reorganisation within the remit of Resources OSC and Pride in Place/Neighbourhood Board within the remit of Communities and Wellbeing OSC (both functions currently being included within the remit of the Special Scrutiny Committee).

Approval of the report was not deemed a key decision.

Reasons for Decision

At the beginning of each municipal year, the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committees each agreed a work programme for the year.

The process for agreeing the work programme was set out in Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule C6(a) as follows;

“The chair and vice chair of each overview and scrutiny committee will meet with the Cabinet within four weeks of each Annual Meeting to discuss the Cabinet’s policy priorities for the coming year. The chairs and vice chairs will propose a draft work programme for their committee within two weeks of that meeting. The draft work programmes will be submitted to the next following meeting of the Cabinet for comment and the draft work programme for each overview and scrutiny committee will then be submitted to the next following meeting of that committee (together with any comments or recommendations from the Cabinet) for approval.”

Any comments received from Cabinet would be considered at the next meetings of the Committees.

The work programmes had been developed following consideration of the Council’s guide for selecting items for scrutiny and consultation including:

• Emails to all Councillors;
• Suggestions sought from all service managers;
• Social media coverage for public suggestions; and
• Informal meetings with the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the Scrutiny Committees

There had been 40 suggested items received for consideration for Scrutiny from Service Heads, Councillors and members of the public.  Items of a similar nature had been merged.  These items had been discussed in depth between the Scrutiny Chairs and Vice-Chairs before producing the work programmes.  It should be noted that there were too many suggested items to be included in the work programmes and therefore, some items had to be rejected on this basis.

Several items, including statutory items and previously agreed standing items (as listed at the end of the appended Work Programmes) had been included in the work programme.

Items which were not deemed suitable for Scrutiny had not been included in the programmes.

Members and officers had sought to provisionally allocate items to specific meetings.  These might be subject to change during the year.

As in previous years, additional items could be added to the work programmes as the year progressed following scrutiny procedure rules.

The three Overview and Scrutiny Work Programmes were set out in the report at Appendix 1.  All suggested items (including those rejected and reasons for rejection) could be seen in Appendix 2 of the report.

There were no alternative options for consideration or reasons.

Resolved                                    -    That Cabinet notes, without formal comment, the attached Work Programmes for the Overview and Scrutiny Committees for 2026/27.