News & events

Where does scrutiny sit in today’s democratic world?  How is digital democracy shaping the role of local government scrutiny? The conversation about digital in local...

In the past few days we have received a number of queries from councils asking about how they manage the “pre-election period” in the...

A range of national bodies are working together to enhance councils’ understanding of how they can diagnose and reduce the risk of failure in corporate governance,...

Scrutiny and democratic services officers are in a unique position in the council – they deal, day to day, with councillors in a way...

2020 will mark the 20th anniversary of the legislative changes that led to the establishment of the overview and scrutiny function in English and...

We’re hoping to do some work in the coming months on how scrutiny can engage with the climate emergency – engaging with the global challenge to...

If you are at an county or unitary council then structural change in the English NHS won’t have been far from your mind for...

On EU Referendum Day three years ago, a conspiracy theory went viral. It was based on the idea that election officials would rub out...

It’s time to come back to a topic beloved of local authority governance enthusiasts – the committee system. A quick primer for those who were...

The Counties and Unitaries Scrutiny Network at its meeting earlier this month (June 2019) took information from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on some...

In the run up to our annual health scrutiny and assurance conference being held on 18th July at the King’s Fund, I’ve been reflecting...

For a long time, scrutiny professionals and councillors alike were clear that scrutiny was not a place for individual complaints for local people to be aired....

What is culture? How does political and organisational culture influence governance – and vice versa? And what does this mean for local government? By “culture”, we mean...

The statutory guidance on overview and scrutiny in local government has now been published by MHCLG.This guidance has been produced following a commitment that...

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve...

One week in February held the publication of two different think tank reports, with two very different visions of the future for the sector...

The short answer to this question is, of course, “nobody knows”. As I write this a further “meaningful vote” on the Withdrawal Agreement is...

On 15 January the NAO published their report on local governance – the systems in place and the ability of local governance to be...