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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Scrutinising the Welsh Housing Quality Standard
March 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Scrutiny Councillors recently set up a working group to meet with Councillor Andrea Lewis, the Cabinet Member for New Generation Services, who has responsibility for Council Housing, in order to discuss the Council’s progress towards achieving the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS). The Standard requires all social landlords to improve their housing stock to an acceptable […]
Budget Scrutiny Outcomes
March 1, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The Service Improvement and Finance Scrutiny Performance Panel held its annual budget scrutiny meeting on 10 February, which was attended by Councillor Rob Stewart, Cabinet Member for Finance and Strategy (Leader), along with Ben Smith, the Chief Accountant. The purpose of the meeting was for the Panel to consider the Budget report before the Cabinet […]