Main purpose of Job:

To provide professional advice, guidance and support to the Council's overview and scrutiny function and contribute to the effective delivery of democratic governance within the Democratic Services Team.

The postholder will support the Statutory Scrutiny Officer in fulfilling the Council's statutory scrutiny responsibilities through the provision of governance advice, committee support, research and review management to enable effective member-led scrutiny, accountability and continuous improvement.

Main Accountabilities:

• To work closely with members of Overview and Scrutiny to support the development of an effective scrutiny function, providing advice and research support, managing projects and promoting overview and scrutiny across the council and to outside organisations and the public.
• To provide advice on statutory, constitutional and procedural matters on the Overview and Scrutiny function and how it relates to the wider governance and decision-making process.
• To establish and maintain effective working relationships with Members, senior officers and external stakeholders to support effective scrutiny, governance and organisational improvement.
• To be the primary adviser on and co-ordinate the work of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee(s) both at scheduled public meetings and any other scrutiny activity included in or supporting the work programme, including:
• • working with the chair and vice chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee(s), or task and finish groups to determine the content of meeting agendas;
• • supporting Members to review and analyse performance information making full use of available data;
• • advising Members on forthcoming items suitable for pre-decision scrutiny, policy review or other inclusion in the work programme;
• • producing short briefing papers for Members drawing out key issues that members may wish to pick up on during their scrutiny activities; and
• • facilitating and managing the work of the task and finish groups.
• To prepare high-quality reports, briefing papers, presentations and minutes that enable effective scrutiny, governance and decision-making.
• To monitor and report on the implementation and impact of scrutiny recommendations and ensure agreed actions are appropriately tracked and reported to Members.

Mandatory experience and nice to have skills for the role

• Minimum 5 years experience supporting scrutiny committee's/panels and review work
• Experience of supporting Children's scrutiny panels or review groups is desirable
• Must be able to build relationships quickly with members and senior officers and be prepared to champion the role of scrutiny within the organisation