Category: Blog
Culture, governance and collaboration
What is culture? How does political and organisational culture influence governance – and vice versa? And what does this mean for local government? By “culture”, we mean the shared attitudes, behaviours and values that define how organisations work. “Organisational culture” is a familiar concept – it can be a barrier or enabler when organisations try […]
Scrutiny statutory guidance published
The statutory guidance on overview and scrutiny in local government has now been published by MHCLG.This guidance has been produced following a commitment that Government made in early 2018, following on from the Communities and Local Government Select Committee’s inquiry into O&S. We participated in the drafting process – producing material to support MHCLG in […]
Guest blog by Rob Whiteman, CIPFA CEO: The Future of Financial Resilience in the Public Sector
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama If you were to go by the headlines that have dominated the news for the past decade, the […]
Public services and the “community paradigm”
One week in February held the publication of two different think tank reports, with two very different visions of the future for the sector and interesting to compare their takes on how we should be adapting our systems to meet future demands. The first report is “Spending fairly, spending well: time for a radical overhaul […]
Brexit: what’s happening?
The short answer to this question is, of course, “nobody knows”. As I write this a further “meaningful vote” on the Withdrawal Agreement is scheduled for 14 February. A win for the Government – both in Parliament and then in securing EU amendments to the WA – still seems a remote prospect. A defeat seems […]
NAO report on local governance: the CfGS view
On 15 January the NAO published their report on local governance – the systems in place and the ability of local governance to be effective in the context of the need to deliver services that are “value for money”. The NAO’s focus is, and always has been, on finances and VfM – its work in […]
Scrutiny guidance update
Happy New Year! Well, 2018 came and went and you will have noticed that the scrutiny guidance is still conspicuous by its absence. Government undertook to the Select Committee that guidance would be published by the end of the calendar year. I’m afraid I can’t provide any certainty about the likely publication date – we […]
Accounting for Social Value in Scrutiny
Social value is a concept that has gained significant awareness in recent years. Legislation in the UK has increased its prominence, and research shows that many local authorities are considering it when they make their commissioning and procurement decisions. This is really great news – and also aligns with an increasing global recognition and convergence […]
Scrutiny as a friend to chaos
Is there a role for scrutiny when a council faces big and scary challenges? Does scrutiny step forward or slip back when the task becomes complex and risky? CfGS argue that there is no place for ‘shy scrutiny’. There has never been a topsy-turvier time in local government. Finances continue to decline, the pressures get […]
Resources for finance scrutiny
Resources for finance scrutiny We think that scrutiny of council finances (and of budget development) should be year-round – a continued, sustained conversation between scrutiny and the executive. In fact, I’ve blogged about it before. However, we recognise that for many, budget scrutiny is something that involves activity clustering around the back end of the […]