Author: Ed Hammond
HCLG Committee publishes report on progress on English devolution
On 1 October, the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee of the House of Commons published its long-awaited report on the progress of English devolution (long-awaited because the inquiry began in July 2019, and was then delayed first by the General Election and then by the pandemic). The report is generally positive about the […]
Health and Care Bill update
The Health and Care Bill is now making its way through Parliament. We are at the stage in the Commons where the real meat of scrutiny – committee stage. At a Public Bill Committee, MPs go through the Bill line by line, with the Minister present. Opposition MPs, and the Government, can suggest amendments. This […]
Lessons from scrutiny improvement reviews
In 2018, CfGS carried out its first evaluations of local authority scrutiny functions using a new method, and under a new title. We brought together our wealth of research, policy and practical experience and developed the “scrutiny improvement review” (SIR) as a consistent and comprehensive way to evaluate scrutiny arrangements, to diagnose problems and to […]
Post-pandemic recovery: the importance of debriefing
We are currently drawing together evidence to support some guidance for councils on how they can use scrutiny to look back on their experiences during the pandemic – as well as to look forward to today and tomorrow’s new policy challenges. Both tasks will involve fundamentally new ways of working for scrutiny. Scrutiny has reflected […]
Scrutiny, governance and “levelling up”
Perhaps surprisingly, the Prime Minister’s speech on “levelling up” last week provided less, rather than more, certainty about what the Government flagpole policy agenda actually means for local councils and the communities they serve. A helpful intervention from Robert Jenrick served to anchor some of the changes in the context of the devolution agenda, but […]
An update on the Health and Care Bill
Happening parallel with England’s run of success at the Euros (and ongoing covid rolling news), the introduction into the Commons of the long-awaited Health and Care Bill received less media coverage than it perhaps ought to have done. Here is the second fundamental reorganisation of the NHS in less than a decade – at once […]
Bolstering governance
This week (w/c 5 July 2021), we are starting work to highlight the need for councils to support and bolster their commitments to good governance, as we continue to emerge from the pandemic. The pandemic has been exceptionally tough. Restrictions are being removed in the coming weeks but we are far from through this emergency. […]
2021 annual survey: main findings
Our annual survey of overview and scrutiny in local government is published today (7 July). It’s been the first opportunity to fully assess the impact of the pandemic on councils’ scrutiny functions, and to think about the role that scrutiny might play as we set about the task of recovery. Councils’ approaches on, and successes […]
Financial scrutiny
New municipal year, new financial year – same pressures. We move into quarter 2 of 2021/22 still struggling to shake off the pandemic, and still facing unprecedented uncertainty about fundamental aspects of the way we do business. In our recent annual survey – full findings of which will published in the coming days – 78% […]
An update on the forthcoming Health and Care Bill
Last week we held a webinar for councillors and officers on the subject of the forthcoming Health and Care Bill. We were joined by colleagues in the Bill team at the Department for Health and Social Care, who heard the views of scrutiny practitioners about the likely changes which the Bill will bring about. There […]