Scrutiny Panel 2 - Update

Scrutiny Panel is where full-time GSU Officers are held accountable for the work they are doing and given advice on how to proceed with their campaigns based on the needs of members. The Panellists are composed of Jason, a student trustee, and four student leaders selected from academic representatives, society leaders and Liberation Chairs.

After each Panel, the Chair provides a report to members. Jason reports:

“The second scrutiny panel of the academic year took place on Thursday 19th October 2023. All except one panel member was present due to unavailability as the panel was rescheduled from the previous week. The president was unable to make the panel due to a period of annual leave, with a request from the panel to provide clear documentation for their campaigns to demonstrate their progress.

The panel were particularly impressed by the quality of some of the documentation provided which demonstrated a clear commitment to the progress of their campaigns and subsequent impact upon students. Several in person sessions have taken place, with Officers utilising their physical presence on all three campuses to make a difference. Officers were able to evidence their progress in the form of meetings, follow up emails, Teams messages, which enabled them to clearly identify risks to their campaigns and identify alternative avenues to pursue.

As a panel, we will continue to monitor the progress of the officers according to the clear expectation and evidence guidance that we initially provided. In the next meeting, we look forward to seeing clear progress in all campaigns as we progress through the academic year, so that tangible impact can be measured and evaluated in the months to come”.

After each sitting of the Panel, Officers are set a series of actions to be achieved either before or by the date of the next sitting, along with an overall rating. You can find the outcomes for each Officer below:

Laziz: Approve

• The Panel were impressed with the breadth and depth of evidence produced by Laziz.
• The Panel feel that Laziz is making good progress on all campaigns, and proactively working around obstacles without prompt from the Panel.
• The Panel ask that all points are updated on at the next sitting.

Aminul: Motivate

• The Panel thought the drop-in sessions and Medway Bus Campaign planning and progress were the highlights of the session.
• The Panel felt that the quality and quantity of evidence given was not quite up to the standard that they expected, and would like to see a more detailed log of meeting information and outcomes. This may include a follow-up email after any campaign meeting to reiterate the points addressed and agreements.
• The Panel would like any jargon or acronyms to be explained in the documents in future to improve their accessibility.

Sodiq: Approve

• The Panel were impressed by the progress made on campaigns and also the quality of the report and evidence produced.
• The Panel would like to see evidence of the marketing campaign for your wellbeing walks in your next documents.
• The Panel would like to see an estimate of costings for improvements to research spaces on the three campuses in your next documents.

Anuj: N/A

Anuj was unavailable for the given Panel time, but the Panel felt his documentation was inadequate, and could not make a fair assessment of the quality of his work from it. Anuj has been invited to resubmit his documents and attend an interim sitting to make a proper judgement of his work.