CfGS Conference 2025

How do we want local democracy to look in a decade’s time? And how do we realise that vision today?

The government has asked local authorities in much of England to form plans for creating strategic authorities and larger councils. But while this vision will take years to unfold, for many it will start in the next few months. And for others, they are already on their way to completing the journey.

So how do we manage place, connect citizens to democracy at the right levels, and create the right governance and scrutiny arrangements? And how do we do this in a timeline of days, weeks, months, years and decades?

These questions – over how governance and scrutiny can rise to new challenges while continuing to meet the highest standards – are pertinent for all.

A range of panels and workshops on three different themes:

The role of communities in governance and scrutiny

• Hyper-local governance
  Exploring and agreeing the critical elements for a thriving hyperlocal governance across England
  
• Stories of transformation
  Engaging citizens in the changing state
• Moving beyond traditional consultation models to more meaningful engagement
  Creating a paper prototype of a model of engagement and participation for a scrutiny function
• Who owns scrutiny?
  Exploring the role of community scrutiny in the scrutiny system

Making governance and scrutiny work

• Assurance: How do you know what you don’t know?
  How councillors can give themselves assurance that services are being delivered properly for local people
• How councils’ financial context should inform scrutiny’s governance role
  Creating a playbook and practical tools
• Building a courageous scrutiny culture: Scrutiny cake making
  Identifying the essential ingredients for great scrutiny
• The roadmap for scrutiny in combined authorities
  What are the opportunities to evolve O&S, what challenges might we face and how might we overcome them?

Place governance

• Not just the council: Making governance work across the whole place
  How can councils retool their governance systems to place partnership, and relationships, at the centre? 
• Life after referral: How can scrutiny work with health?
  How are different areas working together to get better outcomes on health for local people?
• Five steps to reorganisation: Explaining the mechanics of LGR and how scrutiny fits in
  Exploring how local government reorganisation ‘happens’ and the experiences of authorities in designing scrutiny arrangements
• New accountability and governance systems for strategic authorities: Making things work
  As integrated settlements are rolled out, do we prepare to take a more radical approach?

See the comprehensive programme, including workshop hosts and panel speakers

Click for full programme            Read the bios

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