Interested in helping to scrutinise local services and examine what is being done to deal with local issues? Panels will be meeting regularly this year to look into and hear evidence on key subjects ranging from violence against women to local transport. It gives you the chance to give your views on important topics or get involved.

There are four new panels this year examining:

1. Violence Against Women and Girls
   This will be looking at what the council and its partners, such as the police, are doing to prevent violence from happening in the first place, and/or from recurring; what they are doing to make sure victims and family members are suitably supported; and what they are doing to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice and also rehabilitated.
2. Licensing
   This will look at all aspects of local licensing, including gambling, alcohol and the night-time economy.
3. Ealing Council’s Future Ealing programme
   This will review the development of the council’s new Future Ealing programme for shaping its services in the medium-long term.
4. Transport
   This will continue the work of the previous year’s transport panel, and will review developments in: Driving; air pollution in the borough; the local implementation plan; connectivity to Heathrow and Gatwick airports; cycling; community and patient transport; and night connectivity in the borough.

In addition to these four new ‘scrutiny review panels’, there will be two ongoing panels that meet each year:

• Overview and scrutiny committee
  This oversees and manages the scrutiny of the council in general, including checking its performance and its budget strategy. It also looks at certain policies before they go to the council’s cabinet for a decision. It produces an annual report.
• Health and adult social services
  This panel is responsible for scrutinising health services in the borough and the council’s provision of social services for adults. This year, across a number of its meetings, the panel will also undertake a review to consider what is beong done to tackle the issue of social isolation and loneliness in Ealing, which has clear impacts on physical and mental health.  The panel will continue with its scrutiny of the NHS’s Shaping a Healthier Future Programme and the North West London Sustainability and Transformation Programme as well as receive reports reviewing paediatric services in Ealing following the closure of the children’s inpatient services at Ealing Hospital in June 2016.

Want to get involved or make a contribution?

The panels are all keen to hear the views of the local community on all the areas they will be scrutinising over the course of the year. So, if you wish to give your views or want to be involved in the work of any of the panels, get in touch:

• Email scrutiny@ealing.gov.uk
• Call 020 8825 7497

More information

More information about scrutiny in Ealing, including meeting dates, work programmes, agendas and reports is available on the council’s website.