Council welcomes local involvement in Scrutiny
Telford & Wrekin Council has launched a campaign to find members of the public who are interested in joining one of the Council’s Scrutiny Committees.
The Council has four cross-party Scrutiny Committees which carry out reviews of Council policies and services to look at how they meet the needs of local people. Scrutiny can also look at the work of other organisations such as local NHS services.
This means that Scrutiny plays a vital role in ensuring local government remains effective and accountable.
The Scrutiny Committees are made up of Councillors who are not on the Council’s Cabinet who work alongside co-opted members of the public to carry out their work.
It’s these co-opted members that the Council is now looking for.
Co-opted scrutiny members play an important role in scrutiny. The skills and experience brought from outside of the organisation bring a new perspective which enriches the scrutiny process and makes it more transparent for members of the public.
Over the next year co-optees could be involved in a range of interesting subjects, including:
Multi-agency working against Child Sexual Exploitation
Council Tax Support
Traffic signals
Customer Services
Budget proposals
Hospital services
Co-optees are volunteers but would receive an annual taxable allowance of £260 to cover expenses, and would be expected to attend six to eight meetings over the year.
Councillor Shirley Reynolds, chair of the Scrutiny Management Board and the Finance and Enterprise Scrutiny Committee, said: “Scrutiny is about improving services for local people.
“By asking Questions and carrying out in-depth inquiries scrutiny is able to dig beneath the surface of an issue and if we find something we think will make things better for local people we make a recommendation to Cabinet, or sometimes to other organisations.
“Being a co-optee can be challenging and hard work, but it can offer real satisfaction from knowing you have made a contribution to improving the lives of people in the borough.”
People who have an interest in local services, feel they have something to offer and would like to get involved in scrutiny should get in touch.
More information and an application form is available on the webshttp://www.telford.gov.uk/coopteesef="/cooptees">www.telford.gov.uk/cooptees or call the Scrutiny Team on 01952 383114.
The closing date for applications is Friday 2 October.
