Category: Blog
New Board appointments for CfGS: Dr Catherine Howe and Nick Chard
CfGS is delighted to confirm the appointment of Dr Catherine Howe, Digital Innovation Director, Capita and Cllr Nick Chard, Kent County Council to the CfGS trustee board. Jacqui McKinlay, Chief Executive, CfGS, commenting on the appointments said: “We are delighted to have Catherine and Nick join the CfGS Board, which is growing in depth and […]
CfGS health scrutiny conference – a great success
Anatomy of Accountability – national health scrutiny conference – 27 June 2017 The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny, in partnership with the NHS, hosted a well attended and engaging national conference focusing on the most important issues facing health, social care and accountability. With more than 100 attendees the event saw a range of high […]
Combined authority scrutiny and gender balance
There was another election not so long ago; the one for combined authority mayors. While the Westminster result was a broadly positive one for gender balance (the number of female MPs breaking the 200 barrier for the first time), the Mayoral election was less inspiring. No female metro Mayors – and Mayoral Cabinets predominantly (in […]
Scrutiny: divided opinions
We recently published the results of our scrutiny perceptions survey in the form of an infographic (here). However, given the amount of data we got we also wanted to explore the results in some more detail through a series of blogs. Among the many findings there is a particularly interesting one: opinions on scrutiny heavily […]
Durham County Council – what winning a MJ Award meant for us
Like many scrutiny teams, in January 2016 we were contemplating entering the MJ Award for Excellence in Governance and Scrutiny. A classic trait of a scrutiny officer is then to ask many questions – what should the focus of our submission be, which reviews should we feature in our submission, what other areas of good […]
Scrutiny – cost and control
What is the main reason for the reduction in the number of officer posts dedicated to overview and scrutiny in English councils? Usually, it’s explained as an issue to do with resources – senior officers often tell us that in an ideal world it would make sense for there to be a specific policy resource […]
The election – implications for local government
That was a surprise. As our minds turn with weary inevitability towards another General Election in the autumn, it’s a good time to see if we can read the runes and understand what – if anything – this result means for local government. Our Chair, Bob Kerslake, has told the LGC that he thinks that […]
City of Wolverhampton Council cleans up at MJ Awards
Authority wins four awards – including Excellence in Governance and Scrutiny Impressive efforts in setting up governance of West Midlands Combined Authority recognised At a glittering ceremony at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane in London, the City of Wolverhampton Council won four awards of the fourteen on offer, including Local Authority of the Year, […]
A year in review
CfGS’s performance in 2016/17 Finding the time to step back and review a year’s worth of activity is never easy but it’s important to reflect on what went well, not so well and recognise the hard work and commitment of everyone involved. The last year or so has been challenging on so many fronts, however […]
Local Government Scrutiny in 2016/17
A summary of the findings from CfGS’s scrutiny perceptions survey 2017. This graphic summarises some of the top-line findings from this year’s survey. We will share further analysis and statistics from the survey through a series of blogs which will be posted on the website over the coming weeks.