Shake up of scrutiny for North unitary

The council's monitoring officer has suggested changes are needed

By Sarah Ward

“I welcome a thorough review of scrutiny at North Northamptonshire. It is far too tied up with the political leadership.” Cllr Jim Hakewill

The way scrutiny runs at North Northamptonshire Council is heading for a shakeup with a third committee being suggested and more probing of crime and health.

Currently NNC just has one scrutiny commission and a finance scrutiny committee, which only meet a dozen times a year despite the council having an annual budget of £300m and providing important services such as adult social care and children’s social services.

Under the new proposals - which would not come in until next March if approved - a new health scrutiny committee would be introduced and the existing scrutiny commission and finance scrutiny committee would be replaced by a place and economy scrutiny committee and a corporate scrutiny committee.  

There would also be a scrutiny management board made up of the three committee chairs and their vice chairs which would allocate what services are looked at and investigate outcomes.