About CfGS - The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny

Our purpose

CfGS exists to promote better governance and scrutiny, both in policy and in practice. We support local government, the public, corporate and voluntary sectors in ensuring transparency, accountability and greater involvement in their governance processes.

Governance and scrutiny are essential for the successful working of any organisation. Now, more than ever, trusted decisions are needed. We believe that decisions are better made when they are open to challenge and involve others – whether that’s democratically elected representatives, those affected by decisions, or other key stakeholders.

At the heart of better governance and scrutiny are the right behaviours and culture. Our work champions these relational aspects and designs the structures to support them, leading to more effective decision-making and improved outcomes for organisations and people.

Research

Through our research and policy development we have built a strong evidence base for the impact, value and broader benefits of good governance and effective scrutiny.

Our research forms a library of free to access guidance and best practice across a range of sectors. Our thought leadership seeks to learn from our experience and provide insight into new and potential challenges facing leaders and the governance community.

We use this evidence to campaign nationally, setting out scenarios for how governance could develop, advocating for the meaningful involvement of stakeholders and the benefits of collective accountability.

You can find out more about our research and publications here.

Consultancy

We work directly with organisational leaders, boards and teams to analyse the particular governance challenge they face and deliver creative solutions to overcome them.

Across all sectors, we support transformation projects, ensuring that decision making is robust and providing assurance that new systems will improve resilience.

Whether its corporate social responsibility, or environmental, social, and governance standards – we promote principles based governance that seeks to make a wider impact on society.

You can find out more about our consultancy here.

Training

Governance and scrutiny is ultimately about people – we give people the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to deliver good governance and effective scrutiny.

Each year our experts train hundreds of leaders, politicians, public servants and employees through ‘in-house’ training and through our open courses.

We run national conferences and events bringing together governance and scrutiny practitioners to learn about the latest developments, provide networking opportunities and help raise professional standards.

You can find out more about our training here.

Talk to us

We provide a range of services to identify governance challenges, design interventions and support ongoing improvement.

We are defined by our proven track-record and our ability to navigate difficult and sensitive organisational and political contexts. We have a broad range of expertise to draw upon through our associates.

If you would like to find out how we can help you, just get in touch.

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 read the latest CfGS 2021-2022 Annual Report and also our latest Strategy Delivery Plan 2021-23.

CfGS will achieve its purpose by:

Working with policy and decision-makers nationally and locally to raise governance standards, provide guidance and practical support to aid decision-making and improve outcomes.
Supporting organisations and individuals to create a culture which supports good governance, raises governance standards, responds to challenges and risks and provide innovative solutions.
Innovating in new areas to develop practical support and guidance which helps improve governance and scrutiny policy and practice.
Creating an environment in which our CfGS team (Trustees, staff and associates) can do their best work and establish effective partnerships to help achieve our purpose.
Continuing to grow CfGS’ reach, offer and profile in order to achieve our purpose, diversify funding and remain sustainable.

Trustee Board

The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny is a charity (charity number 1136243) and company limited by guarantee (company number 5133443). The organisation changed its name from the Centre for Public Scrutiny Limited on 22 September 2020.

CfGS is governed by a Board of Trustees and supported by an Advisory Board. The Board is chaired by Lord Bob Kerslake. Our Board of Trustees was set up when we became a charity in 2010. Since then, we have published Annual Trustees Reports on our work.

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).

You can read more about our trustees and our staff team in Our Team pages.

CfGS has a range of income streams that funds the work that we do, they include:

Funding from the Local Government Association to support local authority overview and scrutiny functions in improving their capacity and practices to hold local decision-makers to account.
Funding from individual organisations to provide specific support to review and improve their governance and scrutiny functions. In the past few years these have included local authorities, government departments, regulators, housing associations, membership organisations, private sector organisations operating in the public sector and others.
We receive funding from a range of organisations to undertake research, produce practical guides and publications.
CfGS runs regular national training courses for local government councillors and officers aimed at improving knowledge and skills in overview and scrutiny, and on key topics such as questioning skills, performance management and chairing meetings.
We run a national conference which brings together key experts from local and national government, and governance and scrutiny practitioners with the aim of sharing best practice and focusing on the challenges ahead.
As a charity any surplus from our work is re-invested back into the organisation’s activities which supports our charitable aims.

Contact and find us

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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