Stockport Council’s Children and Young Peoples’ Directorate has the job of helping all young people in Stockport.  Schools, childrens homes, foster carers and other services for young people fall under its remit.

At the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee on 2nd June, councillors from the  three parties have the chance to hold the directorate – and the Executive Member responsible, Cllr Mark Weldon – to account.

Anyone expecting the sort of scenes we get in the council chamber, with parties angrily denouncing each other across the benches, would be surprised.  Yes, there are disagreements from time to time, but there are far more agreements.

It isn’t just about holding the Department to account either.  These scrutiny committees aren’t just about telling the Council off when it underperforms – they’re also about working positively for improvements.

The Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee has done as well on that score.  Some of the councillors worked on a study to see how we could better help young people who find themselves caring for others (it turns out that the big challenge is finding those young carers).

Research was done, an excellent report written and the Executive – the Council’s ruling body – have responded positively and some good things are already done.

The agenda for the meeting comes out a week or two beforehand. This latest one was 131 pages, so we all took a few hours to read it, then – where we had the opportunity – more time going through it with colleagues to tease out the key issues.

All the council’s scrutiny meetings (and nearly all of the other meetings) are open to the public to view. Normally we have a handful of attendees, though last night there was no-one. I’d hesitate to class it as a good night out, but if you’re interested in the work councillors do, you could do worse than come along to one.

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