Newcastle City Council: reinforcing health scrutiny skills
CfGS can: help develop members’ skills in all key areas of local government policy.
Who: CfGS’ Regional Advisor Brenda Cook ran a development session in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, helping primarily experienced members of the Council develop their skills and reinforce their understanding of health scrutiny. Based off the requests of the scrutiny officer, Brenda tailored her session towards filling in the gaps – for example, how members should pick topics based on what would be the best usage of their time as opposed to what they might have seen on the news. There was an extended Q&A session where members were able to ask questions and they would receive an in-depth, specialist answer back.
Outcome: “Brenda did exactly what I asked of her”. The officer stated that if she had the money, she would run it every year.
About the Author: Tim Gilling
Tim is a Director at the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny, leads on health and social care and oversees our work in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
