In Wakefield there are five Overview and Scrutiny Committees made up of Councillors from all political parties. Overview and Scrutiny Committees also have Co-opted Members from outside of the Council for example school governors, representatives from trade unions and faith groups and members of the general public. The Overview and Scrutiny Committees broadly reflect the challenges in the district’s Community Strategy ‘Knowledge Communities’ as indicated in italics.

The Committees are:

• Crime and Community Safety Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Safer and Stronger Communities.
  
• Lifelong Learning Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Skills, Enterprise and Work.
  
• Liveability Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Safer and Stronger Communities.
  
• Local Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Skills, Enterprise and Work.
  
• Social Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Healthier Communities.

In addition to the five formal committees there is a Scrutiny Cross-Committee Working Group, which comprises of members from across the five committees and looks at issues of a corporate and/or customer-focused nature.

The Chairs’ Liaison Group is made up of the five Chairs. The group meets on a monthly basis and has overall responsibility for delivering the work programme and the development and continuous improvement of the service. The group’s role also involves dealing with crosscutting issues and responding to key consultations such as the budget on behalf of the committees.

Wakefield also has representatives on the West Yorkshire Health Scrutiny Joint Committee. Wakefield has led on developing partnership arrangements over the last few years for responding to statutory consultations and other regional or cross boundary health scrutiny work.