News & events

Today (29th September 2020) sees the Centre for Public Scrutiny change our name to the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny.   This change reflects the wider scope of our...

We are in the eye of this storm – there is no telling how or when it might recede. For the optimists, the New...

As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the law which brought in scrutiny, CfGS is saying farewell to its longest serving team member, Tim...

One of the first things that the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny did when it was established in 2003 was to try to articulate...

Since the late spring there have been increased rumblings that the expected Devolution White Paper will bring with it plans for structural reorganisation in...

Throughout the past ten years we and others in the sector have spoken extensively about the pressing financial challenges facing local authorities. These have...

We have recently recorded our 'Finance Scrutiny' webinar for you to watch below. We will also be uploading further webinars for member and officers in...

We are, to be honest, not great as a country when it comes to learning lessons after terrible things happen. Nationally, the model we...

The Public Accounts Committee’s report on council commercial activity makes for uncomfortable reading – for Government as well as for councils. The Committee is excoriating...

We have today (25 June 2020) published a comprehensive practice guide on financial scrutiny, with our colleagues at CIPFA.  You can read a piece in...

In part one I kicked off with a brief introduction to the world of council logos, this part sets out what I've learnt. Council logos...

Whilst we still face many months of uncertainty and many institutions continue to be focused on the operational response to the pandemic, there is...

A lot of councils fairly regularly conduct reviews of their constitution. Your council may be one of them. You might do them in-house (your Monitoring...

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many councils were engaged in serious conversations about how they needed to rethink local democracy and local governance. For...

It’s impossible to look across the Atlantic and experience anything but horror at the unfolding protests – and the police violence accompanying them. Seeing...

Free scrutiny webinars focussing on key areas of the COVID-19 crisis As scrutiny committees are now operating through virtual means, we need to think about...

Whilst our recent content has focused on COVID-19 and the associated fallout, I thought this lockdown side-project of mine might serve as a welcome...

Remote meetings are now up and running everywhere; scrutiny meetings are beginning again in many places and council AGMs are taking place too. It’s...