How might you describe the role of the scrutiny chair? Could you do it in a word or two for Councillor Davies who, along with many others will be starting as a chair for the first time about now? After all, it’s about much more than simply managing the agenda’ no?

I was reflecting on this after listening to the Governance Matters podcast, hosted by Kirsty Hunt. She was talking to Councillor Neil Knowles at Windsor and Maidenhead Council and he said, about being a chair:

“You should be the ringmaster of the meeting. You should bring everybody into the meeting and make sure everybody's heard.

Now, he wasn’t talking about scrutiny specifically, but I guess he could have been.

And what other metaphors might we use to capture the the role of the scrutiny chair?

Mark Geddes, in his book ‘Dramas at Westminster’, talks about select committee chairs being on a spectrum of styles ranging from ‘committee-orientated catalysts to leadership-orientated chieftains’.

Catalysts see their role as helping the committee to reach a view on what the committee’s priorities should be and are more likely to take a step back during questioning sessions.

Chieftains, on the other hand, lead from the front’ and have strong views about what the committee should be doing and will lead work planning and questioning with their own ideas.

Neither is necessarily better but they are helpful to reflect on I think.

The catalyst style reminds me that chairs might be best described as facilitators - supporting a committee to work together to be as productive as possible and sometimes intervening when needed. I also wonder if scrutiny chairs might get as much from actual facilitation training as they might from traditional chairs training?

Another role to consider for scrutiny chairs is that of a compère (think game show host!). Meetings are in public and so the chair should be talking to the audience - about the purpose of the meeting, about who’s doing what, introducing and summing up each item, introducing guests and helping everyone to feel at ease.

Of course, this doesn’t just help the watching public but everyone around the table as well. Perhaps a sparkly jacket would also help with this?

What else?

Well maybe the chair needs to be a chess player - using strategy to plan the committee’s work several moves ahead, using tactics to deal with immediate issues.

And maybe the chair is an ambassador - representing not just the committee and its work but the whole idea of scrutiny, engaging in diplomacy with executive members, other councillors, the media and the public.

And you might think of the chair as a team leader - encouraging and supporting cross party working, making the best use of everyone’s availability, skills and interests inside and outside meetings and making sure the committee has the resources it needs.

So, which of these roles resonates with you? As a chair or committee member or support officer?

Is it realistic for a chair to perform all of these roles or better to focus on one or two?

I’m not sure but I do know that the role of the scrutiny chair is a challenging one - and I really do admire Councillor Davies and anyone else who takes it on.

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The Governance Matters podcast is here: https://www.seemp.co.uk/governance-matters/​