Category: Blog
Child poverty: Good Scrutiny in Sunderland
What are the big issues of the day? Europe, for sure. The economy for another. The scourge of ISIS. What can local government scrutiny say to these? Very little, you would think – after all, the crucial levers that determine economic and foreign policy are not in the hands of any ordinary member in a […]
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 […]
Good Scrutiny in Gloucester: Scrutiny can be proactive and forward-looking
The next entry in the Good Scrutiny blog came about simply because of a question asked to Cabinet by an Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Gloucester City Council had been aware for quite some time that there were unlicensed Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in the City, and many other HMOs that provided poor health and […]
Dr Diana Stirbu joins CfGS Trustee Board
Devolution expert takes up new role The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Diana Stirbu to its Trustee Board. Dr Stirbu is Senior Lecturer in Public Administration at London Metropolitan University and a leading academic in the field governance, devolution and public administration. Having worked in the public […]
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, […]
Migrant Looked After Children: Scrutiny’s role
As you will have read in my last blog, being a corporate parent is a really important role that all councillors have – ensuring that children in their care are looked after and achieve. With the Government’s recent announcement to support a further 3,000 ‘at risk’ child refugees, Tom Redfearn at the Children’s Society explores […]
“Proper scrutiny” and the Panama Papers
I run an organisation that promotes scrutiny. I’m also a communications professional by trade. It is therefore little surprise that the leaked Panama Papers have been high of my radar. It has been fascinating to see how often the words ‘scrutiny’ and ‘transparency’ feature in the reporting of the fall out. Whilst watching the media […]
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 […]
For England, see Wales. Three reasons why Welsh devolution is important for England
It used to be that one referred to the infamous Encyclopedia Britannica entry For Wales, see England, to highlight the degree of English hegemony within Britain. Yet, the degree of self-determination within Britain’s Celtic periphery post devolution is challenging that view. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland devolution has been highly political and constitutional, was […]
CfGS is getting a new website…
Our current site dates back to 2011. It’s been a pretty good shop window for us, but it has its shortcomings – not least, the fact that it is groaning under the accumulated weight of thirteen years of pages, publications and other data, which were all transferred over wholesale from previous websites. The site’s design […]