The Scrutiny Coordinating Committee was scheduled to meet to review action and recommendation trackers, discuss the draft summary of committee activity, and consider items for the 2025/26 work programme. Councillors were also expected to review the draft summary of committee activity and suggest any amendments or additions.

Corporate Peer Challenge Action Plan Update

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the progress of recommendations from the Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC). In June 2024, Waltham Forest Council undertook a Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) coordinated by the Local Government Association (LGA). The peer team included local government officers and councillors from Brent, Cornwall, Greenwich, Southwark, and Warwickshire, as well as representatives from the LGA. Following the visit, the peer team shared a report including 10 recommendations for how the council could develop and improve across various areas of corporate and resident priority.

A Corporate Peer Challenge Action Plan was developed in response to the report and approved by the cabinet on 27 November. The action plan grouped the 10 recommendations into four actionable themes:

• Investing in our people so they can deliver on our ambitions (member development, organisational development)
• Strengthening partnerships to maximise our impact around shared challenges (reset strategic borough leadership arrangements, strengthen relationships with schools)
• Building a strong culture of assurance and measuring impact (strengthening revenue management, culture of assurance, develop impact framework)
• Setting up Mission Waltham Forest for success (better sequencing of delivery, develop a clear narrative that tells story of success)

As part of the Corporate Peer Challenge process, some members of the peer team were scheduled to revisit the council on 7 April for a progress review. The returning members of the peer team were:

• Councillor Kieron Williams, Leader of Southwark Council
• Kate Kennally, Chief Executive of Cornwall Council
• Florence Kroll, Director of Children's Services at the Royal Borough of Greenwich

Prior to the visit, the council shared a progress review position statement with the peer team. According to the progress review position statement, verbal feedback during the wrap-up session indicated that the peer team were impressed with the progress made since their visit. A report outlining the peer team’s findings was expected to be shared with the council in May, and the council is required to publish the report no later than 23 June.

Scrutiny Annual Report

The committee was scheduled to review the draft summaries of committee activity that will form a section in the Scrutiny Annual Report 2024-25. The annual report outlines the work of all the scrutiny committees, as well as themed reviews and collaborative working. The draft summaries of activity included summaries from the following committees:

• Budget
• Children and Families
• Climate
• Communities and Public Protection
• Health and Adult Social Care
• Housing and Inclusive Economy
• Whipps Cross Joint Health and Overview Scrutiny Committee
• Inner Northeast London Joint Health and Overview Scrutiny
• Coordinating Scrutiny

The Scrutiny Report

The committee was scheduled to review the action and recommendation trackers. The action tracker captures all actions required of officers by the committee at the previous scrutiny meeting and provides an update on progress. The recommendation tracker captures all recommendations made by the committee at the previous scrutiny meeting.

Members were also invited to review the Scrutiny Coordinating Committee Forward Plan for the remainder of the municipal year. The forward plan is a working document, and members can add items to the work programme. The remit for the Scrutiny Coordinating Committee is:

• The scrutiny of:
  • The corporate framework
  • Corporate performance
  • Central or ‘corporate’ services (customer strategy and libraries, digital inclusion, ICT, HR, governance and law, procurement)
• Oversight of scrutiny committee work plans
• Coordinate the annual report to Council on the activity, impact and effectiveness of scrutiny against its terms of reference and Council objectives.
• Monitor the Cabinet forward plan and recommend scrutiny of up-coming decisions to individual committees where not already included in work plans.
• Commission time-limited informal groups to undertake scrutiny of cross-cutting issues in a similar manner to themed reviews, receive recommendations or reports from those groups and make recommendations to Cabinet or Council.

The committee was scheduled to receive all Scrutiny Committee draft forward plans and the Cabinet forward plan to monitor and recommend items to individual committees if not already on the forward plan.