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Dear scrutineer,

The usual suspects

Published 4 months ago • 2 min read

Here’s conversation I had with Vice Chair Jo last week about involving the public in scrutiny. We started by talking about the ‘usual suspects’ of course.

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Jo “Yes, it really bothers me when people say we have to go beyond the usual suspects in our scrutiny work. I mean, I think that’s all they notice from the outside, those same faces standing up and asking questions at committee meetings. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it can be hard hearing the same points over again, but you have to admire anyone who doesn’t get put off by the bureaucracy of it all, right?

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Me “Yeah, I get that, I’ve heard people being described as ‘experienced activists’ instead* which fits I think. I have a friend Alex, who’s a chair, who always takes time to talk to anyone who comes to ask a question. He tells me he’s learnt a lot about how scrutiny really works that way.

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Jo “Ah, nice. But it isn’t just that. We’ve done so many things over the years to get people involved and some have worked really well. I wish people would focus on that more.

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Me “Like what?

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Jo “Well, we always like to get out and meet people when we do task and finish. We’ve been to youth clubs, carers’ centres, we even went to the high street with clip boards and grabbed people! And folks will always talk to you if it’s an issue they’re already worried about.

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Me “I do wonder if a lot of stuff gets forgotten. You must have done so much over the years?

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Jo “Sure. You’d probably have to ask some of the organisations we work with when we set things up. People like Age Concern and Shelter probably have a better handle on what we’ve done in the past than we have!

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Me “Sounds like working with these outside bodies has helped then?

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Jo “Oh it definitely has. I mean otherwise you are just sending out invitations into the ether. I mean, it helps so much to have organisations on your side that people know and trust, that they have a connection with. I do try and keep those relationships going if I can, even if it’s just grabbing someone after a meeting.

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Me “And do you get any other help?

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Jo “We had a fantastic community engagement team that we were able to work with and youth workers when we had them. You can still usually find someone that has engagement in their role, even if you have to look a bit harder these days.

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Me “Ah, I’m guessing you don’t have everything you need in the support team, so you have to be creative?

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Jo “That’s right. And we try not to forget that our councillors have a lot of ongoing contacts with residents and some of that is really helpful. Although, now I think of it, we could do more to collect that.

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But yeah, it’s not always easy, getting people involved, which is why I’m grateful for those people who will come and talk to us, even if my colleagues don’t always see it exactly the same way. Experienced activist did you say?

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Me “Yes.

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Jo “I think I’ll use that. Thanks. Sorry, I’ve got a meeting…

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*Beresford, P (2013) Beyond the usual suspects. Towards inclusive user involvement https://shapingourlives.org.uk/report/beyond-the-usual-suspects-research-report/​

Dear scrutineer,

Here are some reflections that I hope you will find helpful. They are mainly about local government and parliamentary scrutiny, but I hope that these ideas are useful for the wider scrutiny collective. Yours, Dr Dave Mckenna

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