CfGS is a national centre of expertise on governance and scrutiny. We passionately believe that better governance and scrutiny leads to more effective decision-making, reduced risk and ultimately improved outcomes. Our work spans corporate decisions impacting on the public, to how tax payers’ money is spent. We focus on behaviours and culture, as well as design and delivery.
Our work championing governance and scrutiny in public, private and voluntary sector organisations is for everyone’s benefit. The challenges facing businesses and organisations now and in the future, require collaborative approaches.
We do this through research, policy development, campaigning, consultancy and training.
Since its launch fifteen years ago, CfGS has supported hundreds of organisations and people. through leading research, policy and practical support. With a long-track record helping local councils, we also work with a wide range of others including health bodies, housing organisations, membership organisations, government agencies, regulators and private sector businesses. We deliver large improvement programmes on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government (through the Local Government Association) and the NHS.
Through our research and policy development we have built a strong evidence base for impact, value and broader benefits of good governance. Our research forms a national library of scrutiny best practice across a range of sectors. Reports and guides are published online and are available free to download. We use this evidence to campaign nationally, advocating the benefits of transparency and accountability.
Central to our work is promoting organisational cultures which are open to challenge and scrutiny – this forms an essential bedrock on which governance behaviours, structures and processes become effective.
We work directly with organisational leaders, boards and teams through our consultancy service. Our support is tailored to each client, analysing the particular governance and scrutiny challenge they face and designing creative solutions to overcome them.
Our expertise is relied on to provide intensive support for councils experiencing high profile systemic failures. Organisations commission us to provide comprehensive governance audits and help the implementation of new decision-making systems. Frequently we help resolve governance or scrutiny failures caused by political tensions, following poor inspection results or to manage reputational risk.
In both public and private sectors, we support transformation projects, ensuring that decision making is robust and providing assurance that new systems will improve resilience, raise standards and reduce waste.
Governance and scrutiny is ultimately about people. CfGS is the leading provider of scrutiny and governance training in the country. Each year we train hundreds of leaders, politicians, public servants and employees through both ‘in-house’ training and through our open courses. Delivered by expert facilitators, our training is tailored to meet our clients’ needs, improving skills, knowledge and understanding.
We run national conferences and events bringing together governance and scrutiny experts and practitioners to learn about the latest developments in governance, provide networking opportunities and help raise professional standards. You can find out more about our training and events here.
Click here to view our current Training and Consultancy Brochure
Good governance and scrutiny helps reduce risk, increases resilience, improves decision making and delivers value for money. The consequences of poor governance, inadequate scrutiny and a lack of transparency and accountability are regularly reported and becoming more high profile as public trust in institutions diminishes.
CfGS is a charity (1136243) and a limited company (5133443) governed by a board of trustees which is Chaired by Lord Bob Kerslake. You can also read the latest CfGS 2020 Annual Report.
CfGS will achieve its purpose by:
The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny’s (CfGS) purpose is to improve lives and places through effective governance and public scrutiny.
We are a national, independent charity with a long history of providing governance and scrutiny support to local government, alongside other public services and sectors.
CfGS exists to promote and support organisations to be more open to scrutiny and involve others in decision-making. To achieve this, governance frameworks need to work from an external, as well as internal, perspective.
Now, more than ever, we need trusted decisions. We believe that decisions are better made when they involve others, whether that’s democratically elected representatives, those affected by the decisions or other key stakeholders, including employees and partners.
We work with a wide range of organisations, people and places to support them in developing a culture and ways of working which incorporate challenge, scrutiny and involvement. We also provide consultancy, training and policy support which gives people the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to design and deliver good governance.
The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny is a charity (charity number 1136243) and company limited by guarantee (company number 5133443), governed by a Board of Trustees and supported by an Advisory Board. Since becoming a charity in 2010, we have published Annual Trustees Reports on our work.
The organisation changed its name from the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny Limited on 22 September 2020.
Our Board of Trustees was set up when we became a charity in 2010. The Trustee Board powers and responsibilities are set out in our current Articles of Association. In brief, our Trustee Board agrees strategic direction of the organisation and its financial sustainability by approving the business plan and annual budget. It meets quarterly where it monitors performance and financial information, as well as key policies. The Board is made up of seven members and meets four times a year. Currently there are four independent trustees and three trustees from our founding members (the LGA, CIPFA and LGiU). The Board is chaired by Lord Bob Kerslake.
You can read more about our trustees and our staff team in Our Team pages.
The CfGS Advisory Board was formally established in 2003 to advise on our set up and development. When we became an incorporated company, the Advisory Board continued, alongside the Trustee Board, to ensure stakeholder involvement and engagement in our strategic direction. All members attend by invitation of the Chair of Trustees, who also chairs the Advisory Board. No fewer than two Trustees always attend the Advisory Board meetings to hear the views of the Advisory Board first hand. The Advisory Board meets four times a year. We try and maintain as broad a membership as possible to represent all areas of our work. Our current membership includes:
As a charity any surplus from our work is re-invested back into the organisation’s activities which supports our charitable aims and delivers more effective decision-making and improved outcomes for people.
Centre for Governance and Scrutiny
77 Mansell Street, London E1 8AN
Tel: 0207 543 5627 | Email: info@cfgs.org.uk | Follow us on Twitter: @cfpscrutiny
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© 2021 Centre for Governance and Scrutiny | CfGS is a charity registered in England and Wales (charity no: 1136243)