AGMA Scrutiny

What is Scrutiny?

It is the mechanism by which public accountability is exercised, as executive boards make decisions on behalf of their communities, the powers of scrutiny allow non-executive members to hold them to account for decisions taken on behalf of public interest.

Through the checks and balances made by scrutiny members, the public are able to influence the strategic direction of decision makers and policies.  They are able to assess performance, service delivery and challenge local councils and external public sector organisations to make improvements.

The Centre for Public Scrutiny defines the role of scrutiny as –
1.    providing ‘critical friend’ challenge to executive policy-makers and decision-makers
2.    enabling the voice and concerns of the public and its communities
3.    being carried out by ‘independent minded governors’ who lead and own the scrutiny process
4.    driving improvement in public services

Click the tab below to read more about AGMA Scrutiny

What is AGMA?

AGMA (the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities) was formed after the abolition of the Greater Manchester County Council in 1986. The 1985 Local Government Act devolved power to local areas but also recognised that there were some functions that needed to be co-ordinated at a metropolitan level. AGMA was formed to undertake these functions.

The Association is a partnership between the ten local authorities within the Greater Manchester area (Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Manchester, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan). These ten authorities co-operate on a number of issues, both statutory and non-statutory, where there is the possibility of improving service delivery by working together.

In 2008 AGMA decided to amend its working arrangements and adopt a new constitution this now means that the main decision making body, the AGMA Executive Board, operates as a Joint Committee under Section 101(5) of the |Local Government Act 1972.

Image to go here

The Executive Board

The Executive Board is formed by the Leaders of the 10 AGMA Authorities, plus the following Joint Authorities which operate in Greater Manchester:-
• The Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority
• The Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority
• The Greater Manchester Police Authority
• The Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority

Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool and Warrington Councils are associate members.  Representatives from associate members may attend Board meetings and participate in debates, but not vote.

The Chair of the AGMA Executive Board is elected from amongst the 10 leaders who make up the Executive Board and up to 3 Vice Chairs may be appointed from different political groups.

For more information click here

Commissions

As part of its new Governance arrangements AGMA is in the process of establishing 7 new Commissions with delegated responsibility from the Executive Board for overseeing delivery and the development of more specific strategic work against the aims and objectives set out in the Greater Manchester Strategy.

Seven such Commissions have been or are in the process of being set up and in most cases will be formed from a mix of elected members and other partners.

The Commissions are:-

Commission for the new economy
Environment commission
Health commission
Improvement and Efficiency commission
Planning and Housing commission
Public Protection commission
Transport commission

The purpose of scrutiny at the AGMA level

AGMA scrutiny exists to achieve greater public accountability over decisions made and services delivered for the whole of Greater Manchester.  Its three key functions are -

1. To hold the AGMA Executive Board to account

By using its scrutiny powers to ‘call in’ decisions made by the AGMA Executive Board that could have significant effects on the residents within the AGMA administrative area.

When a decision is made by the Board, it is published to all scrutiny pool members.  If five or more agree to call a decision in, notification to the Board must be made within five working days.  Pool members are then invited to a meeting with the relevant decision makers, to explain their concerns and reasons for the call-in.  A decision can then be referred to the Board to be reconsidered.

Full details of this procedure can be found in the ‘Protocol for joint scrutiny arrangements’ (link to document)

2. To provide a ‘critical friend’ to policy and strategy development

Through regular monitoring of developing policies and strategies of both the AGMA Executive and its Commissions and asking challenging yet constructive questions such as “What is being done?”, “Is this the best way?” and “Can it be improved?”

3. To undertake scrutiny reviews into areas of strategic importance for the people of Greater Manchester

Reviews of the AGMA Scrutiny Pool aim to investigate matters of strategic significance for the Greater Manchester area; they should complement and not duplicate that of the individual local authorities, but review sub-regional issues that are directly linked to the work of the AGMA Executive and its Commissions.

Review panels are similar in approach to Parliamentary Select Committees, panel members collect evidence through a variety of sources including –

• Questioning expert ‘witnesses’
• Receiving reports and other literature
• Undertaking consultation
• Communication with stakeholders

The AGMA review panels work with this information to make suggestions for improvement, acknowledge good practice and make recommendations, they do not deal with individual issues or queries that are more suitably dealt with by a local authority or specific organisation.  The findings of each review will be submitted to the relevant body within AGMA in order to influence the relevant decision makers.

1. Why do we need AGMA scrutiny?

To offer checks and balances on the decisions made by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, ensuring that their policies and strategies meet the needs of the people within the conurbation.

2. Could we not simply use local scrutiny to offer this function?

Local authority scrutiny looks specifically at issues relating to a borough, sub-regional scrutiny can take a wider look at issues that affect a collection of boroughs, such as the administrative area of AGMA.

The Scrutiny Pool is made up of thirty elected representatives, three from each local authority within AGMA.  The political balance of the representatives must echo that of the local authority i.e. (a local authority which has less than ¾ of ruling party seats, should also have a representative from the minority group with the largest amount of seats as one of their AGMA scrutiny pool members)

Currently the Scrutiny Pool has –

• 15 Labour members
• 8 Liberal Democrat members
• 7 Conservative members

Scrutiny is a cross-party function, where members are asked to remain politically neutral and review issues as an equal member of the scrutiny pool.

The role of the AGMA scrutiny member, is highly involved and in some ways different from that of a local authority scrutiny member – the key elements of their role are outlined below -

Please click the link on the right to access meeting papers.

Please click the link on the right to access meeting papers.

Future meeting dates-

12th October 2010

11th January 2011

22nd March 2011

21st June 2011 

Scrutiny is a process by which local residents can have their say on decision made that affect their community.  To have a direct input into the work of the AGMA Scrutiny Pool you can…

a) Email us with ideas for a future review topic and/or any general comments amanda.carbery@stockport.gov.uk
b) Take part in our online consultation (function to upload questions and/or consultation documents)
c) Ask a public question that can be answered by one of our scrutiny members and/or a council officer