The Scrutiny Management Board of North Northamptonshire Council met on Monday 16 March 2026 to approve a new tool for assessing and prioritising scrutiny items and to adopt the latest iteration of the Scrutiny Work Programme for 2025-26. The Board also agreed to the creation of a joint scrutiny panel to examine the Highways Contract.

Scrutiny Assessment and Prioritisation Tool

The Board approved the Scrutiny Assessment and Prioritisation Tool, which will be used to manage the flow of items onto the Scrutiny Work Programme. This tool has been developed in response to feedback from committee chairs indicating that there were sometimes too many items for consideration, some of which were more operational than strategic, and others that could have been dealt with elsewhere. The tool features a four-stage assessment to determine if scrutiny will add value, criteria for rejecting requests, and a prioritisation matrix to determine the method and timing of scrutiny. The tool will be implemented following a six-month trial period, during which periodic updates will be provided to the Board.

Mrs Lyn Buckingham addressed the Board regarding the Scrutiny Assessment and Prioritisation Tool, suggesting that to achieve the ambition of North Northamptonshire becoming an exemplar council, governance frameworks, performance information, and a culture of challenge are essential. She highlighted the Local Government Association's Corporate Peer Challenge framework and the National Audit Office's outcomes framework, emphasizing the need for scrutiny to examine not only policies but also the link between resources, delivery, and outcomes.

Scrutiny Work Programme 2025-26

The Board reviewed and approved the latest iteration of the Scrutiny Work Programme for 2025-26. This programme guides the work of the four Scrutiny Committees throughout the year. The Board also considered the Executive Forward Plan for March to June 2026, identifying potential items for pre-scrutiny to influence Executive decisions in advance.

A key decision within the Work Programme was the approval of a request from the Corporate Scrutiny Committee and the Place and Environment Scrutiny Committee to establish a joint scrutiny panel to examine the Highways Contract. The Board noted that the membership for this panel was still to be confirmed. Additionally, the Board was informed that the Corporate Scrutiny Committee would hold an extraordinary meeting to approve the monitoring arrangements for recommendations arising from the Budget Scrutiny Panel. The Board also noted that there were no new items generated by Scrutiny that were not already part of the 2025-26 Work Programme.