Maidstone Borough Council

Scrutiny Coordinating Committee

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Scrutiny Committee Recommendation Action Implementation Plans (SCRAIPs) Update

Report of: Orla Sweeney, Overview and Scrutiny Officer

1.          Introduction

1.1        To ensure outstanding actions are followed up and reviewed the Scrutiny Committee agreed to monitor SCRAIPs

1.2        A report of all SCRAIPs since June 2014 and the responses received to date is attached as Appendix A.

2.          Recommendations

2.1    That the Scrutiny Coordinating Committee note the SCRAIP update report attached as Appendix A.

2.2    That the Scrutiny Coordinating Committee determine how any outstanding actions are followed up and monitored.   

3.          Background

3.1        The issue of making, and monitoring, recommendations is an important part of the scrutiny process.

3.2        The Scrutiny Coordinating Committee, in its report to Council (April, 2013) on the Cabinet and Enhanced Scrutiny Model made the following recommendations:

·         Cabinet Members should attend Committee meetings to present completed Scrutiny Committee Recommendation Action Plans and the action that will be taken following recommendations;

·         The Scrutiny Coordinating Committee should meet quarterly and monitor Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommendations as part of its role.

3.3        SCRAIPs set out recommendations following scrutiny meetings and reviews. Information is sought on the SCRAIP as to whether recommendations are accepted, the action to be taken and by whom.

3.4        SCRAIPs are issued as soon as possible following a scrutiny meeting (once recommendations have been approved by the Scrutiny Chairman) and recommendations should be responded to within 28 days of the date of issue.

3.5        Since the beginning of the municipal year 2014-2015 SCRAIPs have been input onto a database (Covalent) as opposed to previously input onto a table in Microsoft Word and emailed to officers to update.

3.6        Using Microsoft Word made it difficult to maintain version control of the updates for SCRAIPs.  The new system of inputting them onto a database allows just one version to be used centrally and updated by all concerned. It also allows update reports to be generated and reported back to each Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC).

3.7        Responses to SCRAIPs are agreed by the Cabinet member responsible before reporting back to the relevant OSC.

3.8        Since June 2014 OSCs have received monthly SCRAIP update reports as part of the Future Work Programme agenda item.

4.          Relevant Documents

4.1     Appendix A – SCRAIP Update     

5.          Background Documents

5.1     None