Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s over-arching “watchdog” has presented its annual report to the authority.
Cllr Roger Turner, chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, presented a detailed report that set out the issues and priorities that the Authority’s scrutiny committees have been monitoring and evaluating in the last year.
Overview and Scrutiny is considered a vital function of the Council and, thanks to the work of the committees, important issues have been scrutinised and evaluated, with recommendations made, that have led to important changes and improvements being made.
The most recent addition to the Overview and Scrutiny function is the power to scrutinise the Community Safety Partnership
The Police, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council, as well as other public sector and voluntary organisations, have a legal responsibility to tackle Crime and Disorder.
As such, the County Borough has a proactive Community Safety Partnership that brings together all agencies that can make a difference and ensures they work in an effective, professional manner.
A key interest for the Partnership is the need for independent evaluation and scrutiny of the work it is delivering. The Overview and Scrutiny function has established a crime and disorder committee which will consider issues of concern to residents of Rhondda Cynon Taf through Partnership working.
A key success in the last year was funding secured from the Welsh Assembly Government’s Scrutiny Development Fund, which will enable additional resource for concentrated scrutiny of the key agencies collective response to domestic violence.
The Council’s scrutiny of Child Poverty has been recognised by the Centre for Public Scrutiny and this project has been short-listed for a Good Scrutiny Award the winners of which will be announced at their Annual Conference on 30 June 2010.
Some of the other issues considered by the Scrutiny Committees during the year include::
- Home to School Transport
- Strengthening relations between the Council and its foster carers
- Teenage Pregnancy
- The Disabled Facilities Grant
- Promoting youth participation in elections
- Adult Education
Cllr Roger Turner, Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said: “I have seen the scrutiny function in Rhondda Cynon Taf develop and mature into what I believe is a good, robust scrutiny process which acts as a critical friend to monitor performance and deliver continued improvement.”
“It is vital that local authorities look within and provide open, honest feedback on how they are performing against key issues.
“That is why I am so pleased that I, along with my colleagues who work so hard on the individual scrutiny committees are given the opportunity to lead this important process.”
