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Suggest a topic for a scrutiny review 2024

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This engagement has now closed.

Background

The council moved to a new Executive system of Governance in May 2023, which established Overview and Scrutiny Committees and Task and Finish Groups.

The role of Overview and Scrutiny is to review performance and examine the decisions of the Executive from a non party-political perspective, and to conduct in–depth investigations into areas of underperformance and those that matter to the community. Overview and Scrutiny has powers to scrutinise the services not only provided by the council but also by partner public service organisations e.g. the NHS, police or housing associations, as they too have a significant impact on

Background

The council moved to a new Executive system of Governance in May 2023, which established Overview and Scrutiny Committees and Task and Finish Groups.

The role of Overview and Scrutiny is to review performance and examine the decisions of the Executive from a non party-political perspective, and to conduct in–depth investigations into areas of underperformance and those that matter to the community. Overview and Scrutiny has powers to scrutinise the services not only provided by the council but also by partner public service organisations e.g. the NHS, police or housing associations, as they too have a significant impact on the wellbeing of the population. Input from local people and organisations is a crucial part of the scrutiny review process, so we want to hear from you.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committees are seeking suggestions from residents and other local stakeholders on topics that would benefit from scrutiny involvement. All suggestions are considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at the beginning of the municipal year (May to June) and those agreed form part of the work programme for the year ahead.


What are we seeking your views on?

In this consultation we want to hear from you, our local residents and businesses. If you live, work or study in Barnet, Overview and Scrutiny would really like to hear your suggestions which can be considered for inclusion in this year's Scrutiny Committees' work programme.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committees welcome suggestions for scrutiny on:

  • local issues which are important to you and the wider local community
  • local services which really matter to you, your family or the wider community which you think could/ should be improved.

Overview and Scrutiny is able to investigate a wide range of local issues and your feedback will give the councillors insight into the views of the local community and other stakeholders and will help to identify areas of concern. The work the committees carry out each year then helps shape local services and contributes to the policy objectives of the council.


How to have your say:

Complete our online questionnaire.

We are keen to hear your views on topics that Overview and Scrutiny should review. We encourage you to have your say by completing our online questionnaire.

If you would like to request a paper questionnaire or another format please email scrutiny@barnet.gov.uk

If you would like someone to help you complete the questionnaire or need more information, please contact us using the above method.


What happens after the consultation closes?

The council will review the consultation findings and the topics that are agreed will form part of the work programme for the year ahead.

We will publish the topics that are agreed on this web page and the Scrutiny web page in June 2024.

This engagement has now closed.

  • We asked, you said, we did

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    We asked

    Barnet Councillors asked the local community to put forward suggestions for topics that could be considered in scrutiny committees and by task and finish groups over the year ahead.

    You said

    We received a total of 51 responses.

    There were a wide range of topics suggested including environmental issues, health services, and road and traffic concerns.

    We did

    The topics were collated by the Scrutiny Team who undertook further research to determine if they were suitable for a report to a committee or a task and finish group review, and if outcomes and improvements to services were likely to be achieved by scrutinising the issue.

    A long list of all the topics were considered by scrutiny councillors at a special session on work programming with a trainer from the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny. This enabled the long list of topics to be shortlisted.

    A further meeting to refine the suggested topics held with the Chair and Vice Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

    The committee/sub-committee work programmes and task and finish group topics were agreed at the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 4th June 2024 Details of the shortlisting process and agreed subjects can be reviewed here: Agenda item - Overview and Scrutiny Work Programmes 2024-25 (moderngov.co.uk) At this meeting local councillors expressed their thanks to all local residents and community groups who had responded to their request for topics.

    The work programmes 2024-25 for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and the Adults and Health and Children and Education Sub-Committees can be here: Browse Committee Work Programmes (moderngov.co.uk)