How you can participate in Scrutiny

We welcome public participation in the work of Scrutiny committees. 

Croydon residents, business and organisations can help by participating in Local Action Mini Reviews, attending scrutiny committee meetings to provide information or by suggesting future topics for scrutiny committees to look at. You can also contact your local councillor who can raise an issue on your behalf (such as through a Local Action Mini Review).

If you have an area of expertise or information which the committee would find useful to hear about, do contact the Scrutiny team.  This year we received contributions from adults and young people with knowledge on a range of issues.

Coming to a meeting

All Scrutiny committee meetings are open to the public, except on rare occasions when confidential information is discussed.  

If you've already been invited to along to a Scrutiny committee meeting as a contributor or co-opted committee member - have a look at our document Guidance for contributors in the 'Downloads' section at the bottom of this page. 

The agendas, reports and minutes of all Scrutiny meetings can be accessed via our meetings, minutes and agendas page. Meeting papers are also available from Croydon's central library. 

Speaking at a Scrutiny committee meeting 

Committee meetings are opened to the public. When attending, you must sit in the public gallery to observe the meeting. Public participation is at the discretion of the Chair. If you would like to ask a question to the committee, please forward your question to the clerk(s) named on the agenda papers. You can also contact the Scrutiny team using the details below. We will forwarded your proposed question to the committee chair for consideration.

Suggesting a topic for Scrutiny 

Are there any services, run by the Council or other local statutory bodies, that you think could be delivered more efficiently or effectively? Are there services that could be improved by better partnership working? Are there ways in which you think local decision-making could be improved? 

If you have some ideas, you can also get involved by making suggestions for a topic for a committee to discuss.  The best time to do this is in March or April, before the initial scrutiny work programme for the year is developed in May or June. You can also have a look at our annual reports and investigation reports.  

If you would like to suggest a topic for a scrutiny committee, please send us the following information:

• your topic suggestion  
• why you think Scrutiny should consider this topic 
• your contact details (optional but if you provide your contact details, you will be given feedback on whether your suggestion has been included in the work programme and, if so, when it is expected to be considered)
• any background information you have about the topic. 

Scrutiny cannot consider complaints but may consider any policies, practices or procedures that are giving cause for concern. Scrutiny does not consider matters within the remit of the Planning and Licensing Committees and rarely considers issues that affect just one locality in the borough.