Trees are an essential part of the urban landscape and scrutiny councillors in Swansea recently heard about the important work that the Council carries out to ensure that trees are protected and preserved. Councillors heard from the Cabinet Member for Enterprise, Development & Regeneration, and officers from the Council’s Landscaping and Parks Services. Councillors discussed the […]
Archives for May 2016
Scrutiny Shortlisted for Top National Award
May 25, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Swansea Council has been shortlisted for an MJ Award, otherwise known as the local government Oscars, in the category of ‘Excellence in Governance and Scrutiny’. The shortlisting reflects the Council’s ‘agile’ approach to scrutiny work – less of the work is done in formal committees and more by flexible working groups. This allows councillors to […]
Choosing our priorities for 2016/17
May 20, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last week scrutiny councillors held their 5th annual Work Planning Conference. This is an event open to all scrutiny councillors, co-optees and lay members from the Audit and Standards Committees. The purpose was to think about what topics scrutiny should focus on next year. Councillors considered a range of inputs including: Review of last year’s […]
What education issues will Scrutiny Councillors look at this year?
May 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The schools Performance Scrutiny Panel recently met to discuss and agree their work programme for the coming year. Prior to this meeting the Panel contacted Headteachers, fellow Councillors, the public and council officers asking ‘what they think are the key topics in education at the moment’ and ‘what they believe the panel should be concentrating […]
Speaking to Communities about Community Action
May 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Councillors met with 15 representatives from different Community Centres across Swansea on the 18 May in order to gain their views and knowledge about running a community asset. Councillors from the Building Sustainable Communities Scrutiny Panel are carrying out an inquiry into Community Action including how we can assist communities to take on services and […]
Five principles for agile scrutiny
May 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment
When Swansea Council introduced a single committee for scrutiny in November 2012 the idea was simple – to have a model that was member led, responsive, flexible and able to involve every backbench councillor according to their interests. This idea has since been developed and refined into what we think is an effective and distinctive […]