By Isle of Wight Observer
In his column two weeks ago, council leader Phil Jordan put forward a gloomy view of the committee system that has replaced the cabinet-scrutiny system.
I hope to offer a bit of Christmas cheer about a return to a system that had served local government well for over a century till its abolition in the early 2000s.
Till May this year, Cabinet made key decisions. Although corporate scrutiny committee and three policy and scrutiny committees could investigate issues and question cabinet members, their recommendations to the Cabinet were non-binding.
In May, these five bodies were replaced by five decision-making service committees.
In the Cabinet system, eight councillors from the overall 39 made key decisions. Instead, each service committee now has nine members broadly in proportion to the council’s political composition. With the workload spread across these committees, a collective 29 councillors are now decision-makers.
Since returning to a committee system there have been 21 service committee meetings – if I’ve counted correctly! In a like-for-life period last year, Cabinet and scrutiny committees met 18 times. Excluding minutes and workplans and the like, service committees considered about 70 items; cabinet and scrutiny covered a similar number in the equivalent period.
So, broadly, there have been the same number of meetings considering the same amount of business.
Importantly, with membership reflecting the political balance of the council, the committees make decisions which benefit from a wider range of perspectives and local insights.
And, unlike the committee system where scrutiny is embedded in decision-making, the Cabinet-scrutiny model often ‘double-dipped’ – the same items being considered by scrutiny committees, but without decision, and then discussed again at Cabinet for decision.
Recently, government was saying all councils should run a Cabinet-scrutiny model. But they have now amended their plans to allow councils to have ‘protected’ committee status. For the Isle of Wight that could give us time to show the committee system works best for us.
It is still early days with ways of working still bedding in. But already I see a system achieving its aim: many more councillors are involved in important council decisions – and consequently accountable for them to Island residents.