This afternoon, I attended the first meeting of the newly "revised" scrutiny committee - this now includes the roles of audit and efficiency, previously covered in separate committees. This is a significant improvement (less committees=greater efficiency) and something I proposed a full year before it was implemented.The agenda was comprehensive and I asked questions on many items - the substantive matters including the lack of consistency in HMIe follow-up reports in that they do not update quality indicators when undertaking the follow up report. This was obvious in relation to the follow up report about the Whitfield Community Early Years Centre - a really good report but with a lack of consistency by HMIe in terms of updating quality indicators.
The committee agreed to my suggestion that HMIe is contacted in relation to this.