Agenda item

(1)       Mr King introduced this discussion report.  He stated that it was clear that the whole process of overview and scrutiny was evolving rapidly and would continue to do so for some time to come and that it was also part of the localism agenda.   

(2)       Mr Chrysostomou emphasised that this was a discussion paper and Members views were sought on how to go forward and make the public more aware of scrutiny.  He stated that it was the big local issues that excited people and that not everything that the county council did was of interest. It was important to look at how we engage the public, the public should also have the opportunity to put forward subjects as part of the localism agenda

(3)       Members emphasised the importance of there being greater clarity for the pubic around which tier of local government was responsible for services.  The way in which “local boards” and other pilot models of community engagement could be used to bring together the separate tiers of local government at a local level to engage with the public and address issues of local concern was highlighted. 

(4)       Mr Smith emphasised the need to make Overview and Scrutiny meetings exciting and of interest to the public.  He gave the example of the last meeting of the Learning and Development POSC where beforehand he had sought advice from Mr Chrysostomou as to what elements of the meeting would be of interest to the press and public and how best to translate the story.  

(5)       Mrs Tweed stated that the public only took an interest in the work of local government when it directly affected them.   More use should be made of the press to publicise that it was possible for the public to “let the County Council know how you feel and to ask for an item to be place on the agenda for an POSC Committee”. 

(6)       Mr Wickenden stated that the main area of Overview and Scrutiny which got interest and engagement were Select Committees, which had a protocol for engaging with the press approved by the County Council.  There was a tendency for others to take the credit for the work of Overview and Scrutiny.  There was the lack of a link between Overview and Scrutiny and the press and media.  There needed to be engagement with corporate communications as part of the agenda setting process so that potential areas of interest for the media could be highlighted at an early stage and the best way of engaging with the press and media established.  In future there would be more scrutiny at a local level which would have a community focus and should generate public and press interest.

(7)  Mr Hibberd expressed the view that in order to have more pubic interest meetings of POSC’s could be held in the evenings rather then during the day.  He stated that an officer from Corporate Communications attended the agenda meetings for Environment, Highways and Waste POSC and was able to suggest which items would be of public interest. 

(8)       Mr Chrysostomou referred to the need to take scrutiny to the media to ensure that editors had an understand of overview and scrutiny. Therefore there was an education issue for the media as well as the public. 

(9)       Mr Horne referred to the letters page of the local press which was a good indication of the publics views in the local area.  As the local press were under pressure there was a need to look at other ways of engaging with the public such as Twitter.  Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee tended to get attention from the media.  It was important that if items were to be of interest to the media and public Members must not be frighten of controversy and of issues that were holding them to account. 

(10)     A couple of Members expressed the view that there should be an item on each agenda to enable the public to ask questions, or the public could be asked to send in questions to be asked at the meeting.  Mrs Allen referred to Dartford Borough Council where the Leader and Cabinet had a public question time once a year.   Similar events were held by Maidstone Borough Council. 

(11)     In response to a question Mr Chrysostomou stated that although he had not consulted the local media before he prepared the discussion report, it was intended that the Board should have a discussion with the local media at a future meeting. 

(12)     Mrs Dean stated that the press and public only tended to come along to meetings when they were controversial, this was not something to be frightened of, she expressed the view that officers did not see scrutiny as an opportunity to explain and involve.  She referred to the difficultly of getting officers from certain areas of the authority to attend local meetings. Although Cabinet Scrutiny considered key issues and had a good quality of debate she was not aware of anyone from Corporate Communications attending their meeting.  It was important that KCC’s press office engaged with Overview and Scrutiny.  She referred to the pro-forma used by Corporate Communications to advise the press of a Cabinet Scrutiny Committee and felt that this could be improved to make it more engaging.  At the next meeting of the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee they were considering a decision relating to Community Wardens but Corporate Communications did not seem to be promoting the story.  She stated that the public did not want to be told about issues once the decision was made but before when their views could make a difference.  She referred to the last meeting of the Board where it was noted that there would be no further work at the present time to establish a facility for questions and texts from the public to be feed directly into Overview and Scrutiny meetings.

(13)  Mr Christie stated that it was important that the pubic believed that their involvement might make a difference. As Kent was geographically such a large county it was unrealistic to expect people to travel to a central point to listen to a meeting, if we want the public to be involved in scrutiny we need to take the meetings to them. 

(14)  The importance of encouraging the press to pick up on the positive aspects of stories rather than the negative. 

(15)     RESOLVED that

(a)       the Public relations protocols for Select Committees be expanded to include the work of Overview and Scrutiny suite Committees and brought back to the Board for endorsement before it was submitted to the County Council, via Selection and Member Services Committee, for approval.

(b)       editors from the local press be invited to meet with Members of the Board and give their views on the best way for Overview and Scrutiny to engage with the press.