To receive an overview of recent key, delegated and urgent decisions that have been taken since the last meeting of the Executive.

The Chair explained that this item and the one following on the agenda were to discuss how the Committee would conduct pre and post scrutiny at the remainder of their meetings. A guidance note had been circulated to Committee Members which suggested ways that they could undertake both forms of scrutiny.

The Corporate Director of Governance and Community Strategy gave a brief overview of the guidance note. The note built upon the Committee’s terms of reference and the report to Council which created the Committee. Detailed descriptions of pre and post decision scrutiny and suggestions of how the Committee could practice them were contained within the appendix of the guidance note.

For pre-decision scrutiny it was proposed that the Agenda Setting Panel select from a list of upcoming decisions which ones the Committee would consider. This would enable the Committee to have input prior to decisions being made and to add value to the decision making process. Members were told that effective pre-decision scrutiny would reduce the need for post decision scrutiny and enable the Committee to fulfil its role as a critical friend.

Post decision scrutiny would look at key and other relevant decisions made between the Committee’s meetings. This was to include urgent decisions taken in relation to the COVID 19 Pandemic for example the creation of Trafford response hubs. The decisions would be listed and detailed within the agenda for each meeting.  The Agenda Setting Panel would receive the list of decisions in advance of the meeting so that they could ask for an Executive Member or Officer to attend to provide more detail at the meeting.

Additional items relating to COVID 19 were to be suggested and agreed by Committee Members. These items would then be scoped out by the Agenda Setting Panel and the relevant Executive Member or Corporate Director would attend to provide an overview. Due to the regularity of the Committee meetings and taking into account the workload due to COVID 19 reports and/or presentations were to be provided by exception for items where they were deemed necessary by the Agenda Setting Panel.

Following the overview Committee Members were given the opportunity to raise questions. The Vice Chair raised concern that the guidance was weighted towards pre and post decision scrutiny The Vice Chair felt that the meetings should have a greater focus upon the areas that Committee Members were concerned about in relation to COVID 19 rather than pre and post decision scrutiny.

Councillor Barclay noted that the guidance spoke about Executive Members and Officers and hoped that representatives of the Council’s partner organisations would also be able to attend. The Corporate Director responded that the guidance spoke about Executive Members in relation to the pre and post decision scrutiny elements of the Committee’s role. The Corporate Director assured the Committee that they would be able to invite representatives of partner organisations and relevant experts to meetings as they saw fit.  

Councillor Williams asked how the pre decision scrutiny was going to operate. The Corporate Director responded that the agenda would contain decisions which were to be made by the Executive following the Pandemic Scrutiny Committee meeting. The Agenda Setting Panel would review the list of upcoming decisions and select any that were of interest to the Committee. The relevant Executive Member would then attend the meeting to provide an overview of the decision. This would give the Committee an opportunity to provide challenge for example if they felt options had not been considered or key people had not been consulted. The Corporate Director added that the pre decision scrutiny would work in a similar way to the annual budget scrutiny exercise.

The Chair noted the importance of cross party working among the Agenda Setting Panel to ensure that the Committee made the most of the meetings that they had. In addition, it was of key importance that sufficient information was given to the Committee in advance to ensure that they could spend the meeting asking questions and scrutinising rather than receiving information within the meeting.

Councillor Coggins noted the importance of the Agenda Setting Panel and that it only represented the two larger parties in the Council. The Councillor asked that this be taken into consideration in terms of how the Committee functioned. The Chair responded that he noted the difficulty and assured Councillor Coggins that consideration would be taken to the views of two parties not represented on the Panel.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the Guidance note be updated to reflect the suggestions made by the Committee.

2)    That following the revisions an updated version be circulated to Committee Members.