Scrutiny Committee

Metropolitan’s customer scrutiny committees meet several times a year to scrutinise the work that Metropolitan does and make sure that it gives a good service to customers.

There are three scrutiny committees: one in the north (Midlands and Cambridgeshire), one in the south (London) and one specifically for the care and support part of Metropolitan, and this covers both north and south. Each scrutiny committee is made up of 12 Metropolitan customers and up to two independent members and is independent of Metropolitan’s governance structure.

Peter Crabtree, Chair of the Scrutiny Committee (south), tells us what they have been working on.

Money matters: Welfare reform is big news and we attended a workshop to learn how the changes are being tested out around the UK to iron out any issues before the launch in April 2013.

One message we felt was important to highlight is how useful it would be to see a money advisor to help people budget better so we are happy Metropolitan has secured lottery funding to work on a project which will do exactly this.

Reviewing risks: We review the Metropolitan risk register where issues which may be of a risk to the business are recorded. One of these concerns the regeneration of Clapham Park in Lambeth.

We visited Clapham Park and spoke to residents, contractors, local councillors and staff. We learned how the economy has affected progress but every aspect is being reviewed to ensure as many affordable homes as possible are provided.

Any resident can apply to become a member of the committee for their region, which, although funded by Metropolitan, remains independent in its purpose. We choose the subjects we wish to examine, usually one subject at a time. To do this, we receive support in the way of specific training, out of pocket expenses and also a grant towards the information technology equipment we need to perform the tasks required of us.

There are currently some vacancies on our committees, so do please get in touch if you can spare a few hours a month to help yourself and your community.”

Anti-social behaviour, customer satisfaction, data and income collection are some of the areas of Metropolitan’s work that the scrutiny committees have recently examined.