How scrutiny works

Scrutiny committees

There are six scrutiny committees which meet four times a year. They have the power to make recommendations on any matter affecting people in East Sussex. Scrutiny committees are made up of councillors from different political parties. The political balance of these committees reflects the political balance of the county council.

Five committees scrutinise different areas of East Sussex County Council services:

• Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee – which scrutinises care services for residents over 16, including residential care and sensory care services.
• Audit and Best Value Scrutiny Committee – which scrutinises budgeting, audit, finances, information technology and e-government. It also manages the best value review programme.
• Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee – scrutinises social care for people under 16, state education and other childcare services.
• Community Services Scrutiny Committee – scrutinises trading standards, register offices, libraries, economic regeneration activities.
• Transport and Environment Scrutiny Committee – scrutinises road maintenance, public transport and management of the local environment.

A sixth committee, the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) scrutinises local health services provided and commissioned through the NHS as well as those provided by local authorities. HOSC is different from the other committees in that its reports do not need to be submitted to Cabinet or County Council. Any report produced by the committee goes directly to the NHS organisations concerned. Further details are available from the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) website.

The importance of scrutiny committees

Scrutiny committees are important in demonstrating the County Council's accountability. They can require Cabinet members to attend their meetings to account for and justify their decisions and how they are implemented.

The committees can require the Cabinet or a Cabinet member to reconsider a decision not yet implemented, through a process called call-in.

The committees can also invite outside organisations and representative groups to attend meetings to give their views on service or policy issues. This can be to a meeting of the full committee or of a task group, a smaller group of councillors who are scrutinising a particular subject.

How we decide what to review

The services reviewed are chosen by scrutiny committee members. Factors that affect the services they choose to review may include:

• councillors’ concerns about particular services
• services highlighted as priorities in the Council Plan
• services that affect our Comprehensive Performance Assessment
• the future direction of the council
• services that may have generated a large number of complaints from residents or users.

How we carry out our reviews

Scrutiny and best value reviews are undertaken by project boards which are usually made up of three councillors nominated by the scrutiny committee. Subjects are looked at in-depth and evidence can be taken from:

• service users
• the public
• staff
• other councils
• voluntary or other organisations.

Councillors analyse the evidence, draw out the findings and make recommendations on service improvement to Cabinet and the Council.

Scrutiny reviews provide practical opportunities for councillors to:

• put detailed questions to experts
• gain the perspective of users and providers of a service
• influence council policy
• make recommendations to improve services.