[Emyr Williams]

Hi everyone

This is my first post on here so would be really grateful if anyone could help.

I have recently been appointed scrutiny officer for Cardiff’s partnership board and the scrutiny panel have requested some information on topics that other authorities have scrutinised with regards local service boards, local strategic partnerships and general partnership scrutiny.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of this form of scrutiny and can give some advice on which topic areas were effective, and any points of learning from overall partnership scrutiny.

Thanks in anticipation and I hope to become much more involved in the general discussions as I get more experienced myself.

[Ed Hammond]

Hi Emyr - two approaches really - 1) scrutiny of partnerships (ie looking at the partnership itself) or 2) scrutiny of the services those partners provide, jointly and severally.

It's a slight distinction but a crucial one.

Could you also advise whether you are looking principally at informal partnership working or at more formal contracting / commissioning arrangements? Obviously, that affects how scrutiny should be carried out.

[Emyr Williams]

Hi Ed, thanks for your swift response.

In answer to your question, the partnership is a formal one which is responsible for delivering a large number of projects under several themes. It involves a number of partners including Fire, Health, Police, Probation, the Council and Voluntary sector etc.

I don’t think there would be much value in scrutinising the projects as this is the role of the board so I imagine much of the scrutiny will be of the actions of the board itself to avoid duplication in performance monitoring. I imagine there will also be some scrutiny of the partnership itself but this is obviously dependant on the views of the members of the scrutiny panel (non executives from the partners on the board).

Any examples that anyone knows of similar kinds of scrutiny and points of learning from such scrutiny would be very gratefully received.

Thanks
Emyr

(25-04-2012 03:01 PM)Ed Hammond Wrote:  Hi Emyr - two approaches really - 1) scrutiny of partnerships (ie looking at the partnership itself) or 2) scrutiny of the services those partners provide, jointly and severally.

It's a slight distinction but a crucial one.

Could you also advise whether you are looking principally at informal partnership working or at more formal contracting / commissioning arrangements? Obviously, that affects how scrutiny should be carried out.