Category: News
Why trust in government matters
Elena Konopelko, CfGS Reseach and Policy Coordinator, explains why government should take action on building trust with the public. Edelman has published its annual trust barometer report for 2018, and the results indicate that the overall levels of trust continue to be stable but quite low for most of British institutions. The reported trust levels […]
Local Public Accounts Committees
Why is it needed? What will it deliver? How will it work? The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny believes that current accountability arrangements are not strong enough for the increasingly complex landscape that characterises public service delivery in many localities. CfGS believes that local Public Accounts Committees (PACs) should be created which would help secure […]
Local scrutiny arrangements for children’s services are under the spotlight
Local scrutiny arrangements for children’s services are under the spotlight following the Children and Social Work Act 2017. The Act sets out provisions which will: Replace Local Safeguarding Children Boards with new flexible local safeguarding arrangements led by three safeguarding partners (local authorities, chief officers of police, and clinical commissioning groups), and place a duty on […]
Governing complexity – survey results analysed
Last year we held our national annual scrutiny conference which looked at the governance of complexity. Prior to the conference we ran a short survey to get views from councillors and officers about their practical experiences on managing scrutiny and governance in increasingly complex environment. The responses were illuminating, if not entirely surprising. Over half […]
Combined authority scrutiny (a little over) six months on
It’s now been around eight months since the elections for metro Mayors took place. We at the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny naturally have an interest in how Mayors and Combined Authorities are held to account. CAs all have overview and scrutiny committees. We wanted, as the end of the year approached, to think about […]
What are the sanctions when you cannot get hold of information – or when you can’t get someone to attend a meeting
Increasingly, I am asked by exasperated councillors what the sanctions are when they are met with obstructions as they carry out their work. This can be senior officers dragging their feet when asked to provide information, Cabinet Members or senior officers not turning up to meetings having been requested to do so, Cabinet failing to […]
Devolution scrutiny: eight months on – free event
In March 2017, CfGS convened an event bringing together scrutiny practitioners from around the country to talk about the establishment of scrutiny arrangements for combined authorities. Nearly a year on, a lot has changed. Government’s commitment to the devolution agenda may have wavered, but Mayors have been in place in six areas for a few […]
Big data and accountability
Before I went off on paternity leave I saw an interesting blog about how New Orleans is using “big data” to improve performance and accountability. A few years ago, big data was the big thing in public services – the idea that professionals gathering information from a wide range of sources to give them as […]
Bikeshedding and the challenge of amateurs scrutinising experts
We can all tell stories about times when we have been in meetings and large amounts of time have been expended by those present arguing volubly about something comparatively insignificant, only to neglect something extremely important. My own personal example is from a scrutiny committee which I was observing about five years ago, where members […]
Take part in our survey on complexity of governance
More complex governance arrangements are now common place in local government including external delivery vehicles, arms-length management organisations, local partnerships, and internal commissioning and delivery arrangements. They can bring challenges in relation to democratic accountability, scrutiny and involvement and we are keen to find out more. CfGS is undertaking a survey to understand councillor and […]