Introduction
This online learning event brought together officers and members to explore how to carry out effective scrutiny of the local government reorganisation (LGR) process. Attendees heard practical advice from those with first-hand experience, covering the full journey from early proposals to Government, through shadow authority setup, to vesting day and onwards.
Host Ed Hammond, Deputy Chief Executive for CFGS, was joined by panel members:
- Sara Turnbull – Service Director, Strategy Improvement & Governance, Adults & Health at Buckinghamshire Council
- Lindsay Marshall – Overview and Scrutiny Specialist at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council
Sara has worked in Buckinghamshire local government for the past 15 years having joined the former county council as a scrutiny manager. She has been involved in the unitary journey for 9 years in the county from working on the county council submission, to being seconded into the unitary programme team pre-vesting day to lead the localism and communities workstream. She has been a director in the new Buckinghamshire Council for the past five years, and now works in the Adults and Health Directorate as Director for Strategy, Improvement and Governance.
Lindsay previously worked for Bournemouth Borough Council, leading the scrutiny work through the LGR transition of Bournemouth, along with other preceding councils, as they formed BCP Council in 2019. Lindsay has experience of establishing scrutiny arrangements in a Shadow Authority and designing the scrutiny function for a brand new authority and will share her insights of working in complex and changing political environments, through the LGR process and beyond.
In their presentations, they shared detailed experiences and highlighted the importance of early, well-resourced scrutiny, clear governance, and local engagement in navigating the complexities of local government reorganisation, from shaping new structures to managing risks and maintaining public accountability.
Buckinghamshire Council
Sarah talked about the work to create robust locality arrangements for the new council – ensuring that it felt meaningfully connected to local people. Central to this was the establishment of community boards, which provide an opportunity for councillors and local people to come together to have their say at the most local level. This work was built on significant, cross-area collaboration to develop a blueprint for locality working that was central to the new council’s operating model, and that put councillors at the centre of the design process.
Sarah’s slides
Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) Council
Lindsay talked about her experience first supporting Bournemouth Borough Council’s own scrutiny of LGR, leading into the scrutiny arrangements established for the shadow authority, into the design of permanent scrutiny for the new authority. The shadow authority scrutiny function used the lens of risk to maintain a tight focus on the robustness of plans for the “safe and legal” transition of services. Real challenges emerged after vesting day, when the scale and pace of post-LGR service transformation (associated with the aggregation and disaggregation of services) led to complex decisions about what of a range of high-profile, competing priorities scrutiny would need to review. Lindsay stressed the necessity of resourcing scrutiny properly and balancing comprehensive oversight with practical member workloads.
Lindsay’s slides
Breakout summary points
This popular event attracted 98 people, from a range of councils, National Institute for Health and Care Research and Association of Police & Crime Commissioners.
Participants explored the challenges and opportunities for scrutiny during Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), drawing on lived experience and practical insight.
Key themes included:
Scrutiny’s evolving role: Scrutiny should play a central role in tracking the LGR process, testing assumptions, and ensuring decisions are lawful, transparent, and in residents’ best interests. This includes understanding risks, impacts, timelines, and how services will be reshaped.
Balancing business-as-usual: Participants highlighted the tension between scrutinising LGR and continuing to oversee day-to-day services. There was agreement that scrutiny must not lose sight of core service delivery during transition.
Early preparation and collaboration: There was strong appetite for early engagement, shared learning across authorities, and robust briefing to support members and officers. Some authorities have already held dedicated O&S sessions to review the process and provide input.
Enablers and constraints: Effective scrutiny depends on political will, officer capacity, clear governance, and logistical support. Constraints include venue space, member workloads, and cultural barriers to transparency.
Clarity and communication: Members stressed the need for clarity around financial implications, asset management, and local governance models—particularly in relation to Community Boards and parishing. Transparency and public engagement were viewed as essential.
Scrutiny as connector and challenger: Scrutiny was seen as the “glue” that can hold the process together—bringing different voices to the table, surfacing assumptions behind proposals, and ensuring local accountability remains strong throughout transformation.
Open questions raised included:
- What training and support do members need to scrutinise LGR effectively?
- How can scrutiny be genuinely collaborative across councils?
- What does good practice look like in community-level governance post-LGR?
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