Scrutiny Committees are supposed to be the one part of the Council that can hold the Salford City Mayor and his Cabinet and senior officers to account. Yet, during some of the biggest upheavals local government has ever seen, Salford's Scrutiny Committees have failed to hold anyone to account in public for over three months.
For instance, last week, the NHS devolution deal was done between the ConDem Government and the ten local councils of Greater Manchester* yet Salford Council's Health and Wellbeing Strategic Scrutiny Committee hasn't met since 5th November 2014.
Indeed, Scrutiny Committees covering services for children, adults, community, finance, resources and regeneration haven't met since the end of last year. In January, Salford Council voted to reduce its accountability committees from seven to five, but the public has only been notified of one meeting by the new Overview and Scrutiny Board which discussed the budget in January.
According to the Council, there are four other Scrutiny Panels - Children's, Community and Neighbourhoods, Growth and Prosperity, and Health and Adults. Three of these committees have, apparently, been meeting during January and February yet no agendas, reports or minutes have been posted on the official meetings section of the Council's website.
Salford Council describes the role of scrutiny panels as "about listening to the concerns of local people and to check how the council and other organisations are performing and where necessary seek improvement...They allow the community, via their ward councillors and community committees to have a greater say in council matters by making enquiries into matters of local concern."
All meetings, it adds "are held in public and you are welcome to attend as an observer". There's even supposed to be a fifteen minute `public question time' at the start of each meeting. Yet, so far, the meetings have happened without the public actually being notified of what is being discussed.
The Salford Star contacted Salford Council's Monitoring Officer who stated "All of the new Scrutiny Panels have met to go through some training on the revised arrangements, terms of reference, and introduction for new members (and new Chairs) who have joined the Panels. The full public meetings will be start during the next cycle and will be summoned in the usual way..."
The `next cycle' appears to be nowhere in sight, and may not start until after the local election in May. By which time it will be almost six months since Salford Council was held to account and by which time there might be almost nothing left to hold to account, as the Council's housing will have been transferred to Salix, services will have been outsourced and privatised due to massive cuts, and Greater Manchester might have gobbled up many of the Council's functions via devolution.
Back in September 2012, Salford City Mayor Ian Stewart promised new national government style `Select Committees', following a Council report which basically concluded that accountability in the city had failed miserably....with "the majority of issues considered by the Scrutiny function being noted rather than leading to specific direct actions" it stated (see here)
Instead, Stewart introduced seven new panels which, a report explained, "will enhance the effective governance of the organisation and lead potentially in the future to Scrutiny adopting a more proactive role in future governance matters". Two years later, these have been abolished and yet another new system installed.
To say it's got off to a pathetic start would be an understatement...
* See NHS Devolution Silence from Salford's Civic Leaders - click here
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