Category: Blog
New beginnings for scrutiny
Guest post from Councillor Mary Jones, Swansea Council We are delighted to share the experience of our first remote scrutiny meeting at Swansea Council, which I chaired, and hope that if you are about to embark on yours it gives you confidence, and something useful to take away. The last few months have been a […]
Watch our recorded webinar: Online Scrutiny Meetings for Councillors
We have recently recorded our ‘Online Scrutiny Meetings for Councillors’ webinar for you to watch below. We will also be uploading recorded webinars for members and officers in the coming weeks. Take a look at our YouTube channel here for the content we have recorded so far. If you have any questions about the content, […]
Scrutiny locked out during lockdown?
Should we begin to get worried that nine weeks since the lock-down started and seven weeks since the Coronavirus Act offered councils the means to reinstate council meetings through online, remote communication platforms, some councils still have no scrutiny function, with some declaring plans to put scrutiny on hiatus until later in the year? It […]
Government and intervention
A few people in the sector noted with raised eyebrows that Government chose last week to publish a paper setting out its approach to future interventions in failing councils. As a reminder, Government has the power under the Local Government Act 1999 to initiate what is known as a “best value” inspection. In the context of […]
Scrutiny in action
Guest post from Councillor Philip Broadhead, BCP Council If we had tried to imagine only 6-7 weeks ago how very different the world would look today, I would be surprised if we were even able to get close. Lockdown, social distancing and the vast changes to every part of our lives and working practices have […]
Scrutiny, finance and the COVID-19 crisis
One of many emerging risks arising from the COVID-19 crisis is that of council finances. This is not as immediate and high profile as the threat to human health and life – but in the medium term it could come to cast doubt on the sector’s ability to provide the basic services that local people […]
COVID-19 helpdesk support
The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny provides a helpdesk service on matters relating to governance and scrutiny. We are available on the phone, by e-mail and on Twitter to answer any governance-related question from councillors or officers, in confidence. This is part of our standard support to the sector. However, given the current crisis, we […]
Blog: COVID-19: webinars, workshops and other events
Our training and development offer is changing in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. You can find out more about our overall offer here. From now until September we will be offering a programme of short webinars on the key skills that councillors are likely to need in order to understand and oversee their councils’ response to the crisis, […]
Remote working regulations published
The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) (Regulations) 2020 have now been published. They come into force on 4 April. A full breakdown of the Regulations, their contents and implications will shortly be available in material produced by LGA, ADSO and the LLG, which we will link to when it […]
What will scrutiny look like?
UPDATE: since this post was published, Regulations on remote meetings have been published, and we have published a more detailed guide on scrutiny during the COVID-19 which you can find here. With arrangements for remote meetings expected to be in place within days what are the kinds of approaches to scrutiny that will make sense […]