Author: Ed Hammond
Working on local democracy
Sometimes it’s tempting to think that the phrase “local democracy” is an oxymoron. Lots of it isn’t especially local in nature – so much of what local government can and can’t do being prescribed by government, even with the onset of English devolution. And lots of it doesn’t feel especially democratic either. Most people’s interaction […]
A devo update: reflections on research from CURDS and NAVCA
May seems to be the month for publishing major reports on devolution. There is our own, launched recently (https://www.cfgs.org.uk/cards-on-the-table-devolution/), there is the imminent paper from Phil Swann of Shared Intelligence, going down into the legal detail of the establishment and operation of combined authority – and in the last week, two major and thought-provoking pieces […]
Thoughts on devolution governance: our new report and the support we can offer
Today (12th May) we are launching a major paper on devolution governance. It aims to explore all aspects of the preparation, negotiation and implementation of devolution deals – at every stage highlighting the key governance decisions to be made, and issues to be resolved. The devolution debate so far has raised plenty of opportunities […]
And the award goes to…
On 16 June, the winners of this year’s MJ Awards will be announced. For 2016, we have sponsored an award, for “Excellence in Governance and Scrutiny”. We want to bring excellent scrutiny work to a far wider audience than holding our own awards programme has allowed in the past, and sponsoring an award in this […]
Devolving accountability – a riposte to the Public Accounts Committee
Jacqui comments and Ed blogs on the new Public Accounts Committee report. Jacqui McKinlay, Chief Executive of CfGS, commenting on the release of the Public Accounts Committee’s report, Accountability to Parliament for taxpayers’ money, said: “The Public Account Committee must accept devolution of scrutiny is part of the package. Parliament will need to share accountability […]
Do councils really understand risk?
With which of these statements about risk do you agree? “Councils are risk averse.” “Councils are cautious and prudent.” Give up? Of course, this is a ludicrous question. It all comes down to how you use language around risk – how you understand it, how you tackle it, how you mitigate it. More than anything, […]
Getting the sequence right
This is the fifth in a series of blogs being produced by CfGS as part of the support work we are carrying out over 2015/16 on devolution. A report setting out our findings and recommendations in full will be published shortly. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Devolution reported last week. Its Chair, Lord Kerslake (he is […]
Devolution blog – managing relationships, the dynamics of partnership working and the need for clarity and leadership in decision-making
This is the third in a series of blogposts on governance and devolution. CfGS has been funded by the LGA to provide practical support to five areas in England which are going through the process of negotiating and agreeing devolution deals. We are exploring how accountability and governance will work in relation to matters […]
Returning to return on investment
Ensuring that public money delivers clear, positive outcomes to those who use public services is at the heart of good decision-making. Unless we have a clear idea of what the projected outcomes are from the decisions we take, and a sense of whether those outcomes are worth the monetary investment needed to make them happen, […]
#notwestminster and recreating local democracy
In a couple of Saturdays’ time an event called #notwestminster is happening. A group of people who are interested in local democracy will be getting together to talk about how it might be made more local and more democratic. I didn’t attend the inaugural #notwestminster last year, but I heard jolly good things about […]