[Dave Mckenna]

We have been doing quite a bit in this area but we haven't evaluated it yet so I would hesitate to offer any advice. We learnt a lot from Cardiff - they have some very good practice around social services.

[Ed Hammond]

Potentially scrutiny could play a valuable role in assisting the executive-side improvement process and providing an additional layer of assurance to any proposals that come out of it. Scrutiny can also handle the public-facing elements of what can sometimes be painful improvement processes - consulting the public as an independent arbiter and so giving the process an element of objectivity.

That said, political realities may make this difficult. The council and its partners may well want to like their wounds in private and getting scrutiny involved may well not be something they'll be keen on. It very much depends on how defensive the intervention process has left everyone.