Overview and Scrutiny Public Consultation

Overview

Every May at the start of each municipal year the Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) function asks local residents, partner organisations, council officers, and stakeholders to highlight areas of concern or make suggestions for a scrutiny review or smaller investigation.

Overview and Scrutiny is a function within Hackney Council that holds the decision makers (called the Executive) to account for the services the Council delivers. The Cabinet, led by the Mayor of Hackney, is responsible for making sure that people receive the services that the Council has agreed and Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) is responsible for ensuring that Cabinet and the Mayor do their job.  O&S is made up of back-bench councillors i.e those not in Cabinet and is the local government equivalent of Select Committees in Parliament. 

The role of Overview and Scrutiny is to review performance and examine the decisions of the Executive from a non party-political perspective, and to conduct in–depth investigations into key issues when necessary.  Overview and Scrutiny has powers to scrutinise the services not only provided by the Council but also by partner public service organisations e.g. the NHS, police or housing associations, as they too have a significant impact on the wellbeing of the population.

In Overview and Scrutiny we look at how the Council and its partner organisations might improve their services and to do this we divide the work across 4 themed Commissions as follows:

• Health in Hackney - covering adult health services (NHS community and hospital health care including mental health) and social care services for adults

• Living in Hackney - covering housing, public realm (highways, waste, energy etc), community safety as well as leisure and parks

• Children and Young People - covering education & schools, children's social care, youth services

• Skills, Economy and Growth - covering adult employment, economy, transport infrastructure, planning and licensing.

Why your views matter

In this consultation we want to hear from YOU, our local residents and businesses.  If you live or work in Hackney, Overview & Scrutiny would really like to hear your suggestions which can be considered for inclusion in this year's scrutiny commissions work programme.  The Overview and Scrutiny Commissions welcome suggestions for scrutiny on;

• Local issues which are important to you and the wider local community
• Local services which really matter to you, your family or the wider community which you think could/ should be improved.

Overview & Scrutiny is able to investigate a wide range of local issues - please look at our most recent annual report here as this will help give you an idea of the range of topics you might consider suggesting. 

Your feedback will give the councillors insight into the views of the local community and other stakeholders and will help to identify areas of concern. The work the Commissions carry out each year then helps shape local services and contributes to the policy objectives of the Council.

What happens next

Your views will be collated and reviewed by each Scrutiny Commission at their first meeting of the year and it will feed into how they agree their work programme for the year i.e. what subjects they will focus on. 

Here you can find our past annual reports which provide more in-depth information about the work of Commissions and will give you a sense of the breadth and depth of the work.