Category: Blog
Governance and Scrutiny MJ Award winner announced
Durham County Council pick up Excellence in Governance and Scrutiny MJ Award At an exciting evening, celebrating some of the great achievements of Local Government, Durham County Council, were presented with the Excellence in Governance and Scrutiny MJ Award, which CfGS sponsored this year, for their commitment to public participation in local decision making. Presented with […]
Scrutinising select committees
This is the first of three blogposts about scrutiny’s impact and how scrutiny might be improved. It anticipates the publication by us at the end of the summer of a revised methodology for local areas to use both to evaluate their existing scrutiny arrangements and to review and design new ones – joint systems and […]
Working on local democracy
Sometimes it’s tempting to think that the phrase “local democracy” is an oxymoron. Lots of it isn’t especially local in nature – so much of what local government can and can’t do being prescribed by government, even with the onset of English devolution. And lots of it doesn’t feel especially democratic either. Most people’s interaction […]
Scrutinising immunisation services – two new guides published
Immunisation is a critical component in the public health armoury. It prevents death and disease and has a significant impact on health services, reducing infections and making hospital stays less likely – especially during critical period of ‘winter pressure’. These two new connected reports, which we are publishing today, will help local areas in scrutinising immunisation services. […]
A devo update: reflections on research from CURDS and NAVCA
May seems to be the month for publishing major reports on devolution. There is our own, launched recently (https://www.cfgs.org.uk/cards-on-the-table-devolution/), there is the imminent paper from Phil Swann of Shared Intelligence, going down into the legal detail of the establishment and operation of combined authority – and in the last week, two major and thought-provoking pieces […]
Thoughts on devolution governance: our new report and the support we can offer
Today (12th May) we are launching a major paper on devolution governance. It aims to explore all aspects of the preparation, negotiation and implementation of devolution deals – at every stage highlighting the key governance decisions to be made, and issues to be resolved. The devolution debate so far has raised plenty of opportunities […]
And the award goes to…
On 16 June, the winners of this year’s MJ Awards will be announced. For 2016, we have sponsored an award, for “Excellence in Governance and Scrutiny”. We want to bring excellent scrutiny work to a far wider audience than holding our own awards programme has allowed in the past, and sponsoring an award in this […]
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 […]