CAN SCRUTINY COPE WITHOUT A SCOPE ?? Ian Mortimer - Resident Involvement Manager

Aims of the workshop  What is a scope  The importance of effective scoping within a scrutiny review  How to avoid the perils of scope creep  Good scope, bad scope

Identify area to scrutinise Scope your review Collect information Compare and challenge Recommendations – evidence based So what – evaluate, monitor and review

General points Scoping occurs after a review area has been determined It informs what the reviews aims and objectives will be It determines how the review should be organised and tackled It helps a group agree what methods should be used It helps you to focus on your work It helps you meet deadlines It helps you plan your work activities It prevents you from going down blind alleys that lead nowhere or to very little effect In short... It outlines what needs to be achieved and how it will be achieved

Scope Creep  Occurs when a change to the review is undertaken when the review is already underway  Causes the project to drift away from its original purpose – can end up derailing a review  It has a negative impact on the review as it impacts on the work, resources and timescales already allocated to the review  What was excluded initially, is now included therefore making the review larger and longer to complete  It is becoming increasingly a common failure of completing reviews  Is all scope creep negative though ??

How to avoid scope creep  Fully analyse and gather requirements at the start of the review  Have measures in place for scrutiny members to discuss and agree the risks of amending the original scope – what impact will it have in the long term ?  Is the additional work, necessary, will it really add value ?  Learn to say no.  In extreme cases, stop the review so that additional requirements can be integrated rather than tacked on ( this should be avoided as much as possible though)

True or false ? – Good scope/bad scope CommentTrue/False 1You can carry out a scrutiny review without the need for a scope 2A scope helps a review to stay on track 3You can change the scope during the review as many times as you want 4A scope doesn’t need to be agreed by all members of the group 5Scoping is a fundamental part off any scrutiny review 6Scope “creep” is generally regarded as a good thing within a scrutiny review 7Having a scope helps you cope 82 reviews in 5 don’t get completed on time because of scoping issues 9The lack of a robust scope is one of the 2 main reasons as to why scrutiny reviews fail

Group discussion We are the scrutiny panel for EMTPF housing organisation and for our next review we have decided to investigate... HOW WE LET EMPTY HOMES/VOID PROPERTIES Provide examples of what areas of the above the review should focus on as part of our initial scoping work (i.e. What to include, what to exclude)

Group discussion We are the scrutiny panel for EMTPF housing organisation and for our next review we have decided to investigate... GROUNDS MAINTENANCE SERVICES Provide examples of what areas of the above the review should focus on as part of our initial scoping work (i.e. What to include, what to exclude)

Any Questions