Category: News
Working with CIPFA to transform scrutiny of local finances
We have today (25 June 2020) published a comprehensive practice guide on financial scrutiny, with our colleagues at CIPFA. You can read a piece in the LGC by CIPFA’s Diana Melville (paywall) on the importance of effective scrutiny of council finances. Even before the pandemic hit, local government finances were in a fragile state. Now, […]
Council Logos, Part Two
In part one I kicked off with a brief introduction to the world of council logos, this part sets out what I’ve learnt. Council logos – the insights. My methodical process initially entailed scrutinising the contents of each logo, in order to identify the presence of various design components in hope of producing a typology. […]
Where do we go from here? Reflecting and learning from this experience
Whilst we still face many months of uncertainty and many institutions continue to be focused on the operational response to the pandemic, there is a responsibility to consider what the world will look and feel like after the COVID-19 crisis has receded. We can agree that, when we do finally emerge, things won’t be the […]
Reviewing governance, reviewing the constitution
A lot of councils fairly regularly conduct reviews of their constitution. Your council may be one of them. You might do them in-house (your Monitoring Officer or Head of Governance may lead) or you may bring in an external provider – a law firm for example. Getting qualified legal support on something like this is […]
Democracy and governance model reviews: supporting council’s review of democratic ways of working
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many councils were engaged in serious conversations about how they needed to rethink local democracy and local governance. For some, this has been about re-engaging with their local population. For others, it has been about being clearer on the role of councillors, when some feels that executive arrangements concentrate […]
Race, England and local government
It’s impossible to look across the Atlantic and experience anything but horror at the unfolding protests – and the police violence accompanying them. Seeing footage of running battles, the deployment of tear gas and rubber bullets, it’s quite easy to breathe a sigh of relief and assume that the deep-set racial divide and huge structural […]
Free scrutiny webinars focussing on key areas of the COVID-19 crisis
Free scrutiny webinars focussing on key areas of the COVID-19 crisis As scrutiny committees are now operating through virtual means, we need to think about how to focus agendas to reflect both the impact and response of the COVID-19 crisis on communities and on the sustainability of the council itself to ensure that it is […]
Council Logos, Part One
Whilst our recent content has focused on COVID-19 and the associated fallout, I thought this lockdown side-project of mine might serve as a welcome interruption from the more serious content out there. Plus, it’s all about raising the profile of local government and appreciating its presence and impact in our daily lives. Council logos – […]
Hybrid systems for meetings: a cause for concern?
Remote meetings are now up and running everywhere; scrutiny meetings are beginning again in many places and council AGMs are taking place too. It’s something like normality, although we are all still getting used to meeting by video. We know that this is going to be the way that we will all have to meet […]
Scrutiny Improvement Reviews: a reflection on the first year
A year ago – it seems much longer – Government finally published the long-awaited statutory guidance on overview and scrutiny in local government. We followed that up a couple of weeks later with our “good scrutiny guide” and, shortly afterwards, by launching what we called our “scrutiny improvement review” product – a healthcheck for local authority scrutiny. […]