OK, so it might not be the most exciting thing you have ever read but I was working on the stats for our Annual Report 2010-11 and thought I might as well share them.
Whilst we don’t want to go overboard on this, it is important to be able to show the level of activity and the extent of the work that takes place. It’s part of being accountable. If nothing else it gives a sense of what the Boards and Committees actually do over 12 months.
Having said that, measuring the effectiveness and the impact of overview and scrutiny is no easy task. We do not have any simple performance indicators that can tell us how well we are doing as most other council servcies do. However, we hope that by collecting a range of figures we can generate a reasonable picture of how scrutiny is doing and where improvement might be needed. (If you know a good indicator please let us know!)
Below you can see the two types of statistic we collect. The first list shows levels of activity. It is worth noting that nearly all of them show an increase from the previous year. The second list is perhaps more important as it shows people’s perceptions of scrutiny. We collected this information through our stakeholder survey and had responses from 42 councillors and 138 members of staff. We are really keen to get the views of the public as well but, so far, we haven’t been able to get nearly enough to make it meaningful – definitely an area for improvement.
Of most significance for us is that a higher proportion of councillors and staff than ever before think that scrutiny is making a difference – after all, that’s what we are here for!
Overview and Scrutiny Activity 2010-11
- 7 – In-depth review reports published
- 10 – In-depth review reports presented to Cabinet
- 6 – Action plans, following in-depth reviews, presented to the boards by cabinet members
- 8 – Follow up reports, charting progress with action plans, presented to the boards by cabinet members
- 36 – Research activities
- 77 – Formal meetings held
- 65 – Additional task and finish group meetings held
- 68% – Councillor attendance at board meetings (70% last year)
- 1026 – Members of public involved through consultation and participation (702 through Swansea Voices, 278 through our recycling survey and 46 through the consultation for the literacy review)
- 17% – Board meetings attended by a Cabinet Member
Overview and Scruting Stakeholder Survey 2010-11
- 88% – Councillors who agree that O&S has a positive impact on the business of the Council (85% last year)
- 67% – Staff who agree that O&S has a positive impact on the business of the Council (55% last year)
- 93% – Councillors who agree that they have a good understanding of the work of overview and scrutiny (90% last year)
- 70% – Staff who agree that they have a good understanding of the work of overview and scrutiny = (52% last year)
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