Communities Scrutiny Committee
Our Current Investigations
Over the next couple of months we're planning to look at the following topics:
- Reoffending
- Young People's perceptions of how well people in their area get on with each other
- Adult Drug Services
Latest News
18/05/2012 - New year, new committee On Wednesday 23 May, the first meeting of the new Communities Scrutiny Committee will take place. The Communities Scrutiny Committee replaces the Citizenship and Inclusion Overview and Scrutiny Committee. After this meeting, members of the Committee will discuss what issues that they want to look at over the next year and these will be added to our work programme.
05/04/2012 - End of Year Summary
March meeting was the last in this year's municipal calendar. Over the last year we have looked into some key issues about how different communities are treated in society. Our main investigation has been into how young people are treated in the criminal justice system. As part of this we visited to Styal Prison, which has opened our eyes about the treatment of women in prison, particularly those with mental health problems. Our investigations have been reported in the local media and have contributed to a national debate about this issue.
Next year brings some changes to scrutiny at Manchester Council. From May, all the scrutiny committees will have new names which are shorter and simpler. The Citizenship and Inclusion Overview and Scrutiny Committee will become the Communities Scrutiny Committee.
01/03/2012 - Manchester Pride
John Stewart has recently been appointed as Chief Executive of Manchester Pride, and will carry on the good work of Jackie Crozier who was leading the fesival before him. We invited John to our last meeting and discussed the success of Manchester Pride, how it could be built upon and how it helps combat discrimination. We were concerned that some people still go to the festival and spread homophobic messages; we are writing to the police to ask them what they can do about this, particularly where people are inciting homophobic hatred. arch meeting was the last in this year's municipal calendar.
09/02/2012 - Homophobic Bullying
October we recommended that the regular reports that Headteachers submit to their school governing body, which includes information about racial bullying, should include incidents of homophobic bullying and how they have been handled. Letters have been sent to all Headteachers requesting that they include homophobic bullying in these reports and including the Council's Anti-bullying policy guide for schools. Homophobic bullying will be a recommended agenda item for governing body meetings from the spring term.
09/02/2012 - Women's Treatment in the Criminal Justice System
Following on from our visits to Styal Prison we are writing to the Secretary of State for Justice, Kenneth Clarke QC MP, to inform him of our concerns about how are women are treated in the criminal justice system. We are concerned about the high numbers of custodial sentences for women as well as the large number of women with mental health conditions receiving custodial sentences. We will invite a representative of the Ministry of Justice to one of our meetings later in the year to discuss this.
Get Involved
To find out more information have a look at our full work programme. This includes what topics we will be looking at, what specific issues we will be considering and who we will be hearing from. Please bear in mind that the programme is continually updated, and so dates and agenda items may change from those listed in the programme.
If there's an issue you want to contribute to, let us know. You can either send a written contribution to scrutiny@manchester.gov.uk or you can attend a meeting and ask the Chair if you can speak. You can also suggest a topic for us to look into by filling in our 'suggestions form.'
If you want to speak to somebody about contributing to the committee, please call our scrutiny support officer on 0161 234 3011 or e mail scrutiny@manchester.gov.uk.
Role of the Committee
"As members of the Communities Scrutiny Committee, we 
challenge public services to work together to make Manchester a safe city. We also test how the Council and its partners are making sure their services are equally easy for all Manchester's diverse residents to access. We have discussions with these organisations and use our experience of representing residents from a wide range of backgrounds to recommend to them how they can ensure their services meet the needs of all Manchester residents.
Our areas of interest include cohesion, respect, equality and inclusion, services for older people, advice services, young offenders, domestic violence and crime and policing.
Through this page you'll be be able to keep in touch with what we've been doing and find out what we'll be investigating over the next few months and how you can get involved."- Councillor Victor Chamberlain, Chair of Communities Scrutiny Committee.
Find out more
- You can read our agenda, minutes and reports here, as well as find future meeting dates.
- You can find out who's a member of the Committee here.
