News & events

One Coventry Response to Supporting Our Communities with the Cost of Living Crisis – Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee, a blog by Gennie Holmes, Scrutiny Co-ordinator...

Chief executive’s update: W/C 25 November 2022 With apologies for the slight delay since I last wrote to update you on CfGS’s work, here’s some...

Chief executive’s update: W/C 25 November 2022 With apologies for the slight delay since I last wrote to update you on CfGS’s work, here’s some...

As practitioners, we are always keen to develop and improve scrutiny here at Essex County Council, whilst also being mindful to ensure that we...

Look After Yourselves People I write this blog a few short weeks after World Mental Health Day – a day to advocate for, and signpost...

It feels like a different world in which the Department formally known as MHCLG published the statutory guidance for councils and combined authorities on...

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion By Annette Aiken & Natalie Rotherham Recent worldwide events and campaigns have shone a light onto the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and...

Although the cost of living crisis is dominating political conversation this week – especially in light of the rise of the energy price cap...

With national politics restarting this week after the Queen’s funeral, there is plenty in the new PM’s inbox – and plenty for those of...

[UPDATE: the guide referred to in this blog was published in late 2022 and can be found here]. A bit later in the autumn we...

Before the pandemic, we and the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) embarked on a project looking at the way that councils (and...

A few weeks ago we published a paper exploring how scrutiny in local authorities can play an active part in helping councils to learn...

In March last year (2021) we published the “Governance risk and resilience” framework – a set of material designed to support people working in...

We have now published our annual survey of overview and scrutiny in local government – the definitive picture of scrutiny’s effectiveness in the first...

The use of surveys to gather and triangulate evidence for scrutiny reviews is easier, now that we can be more confident that a majority...

Horizon scanning is often said to be a key part of the contribution that Scrutiny can make. But how far into the future is...

It’s been a busy summer – although nobody really expects August to be a period of “downtime” any more. We head into the autumn...

For the first time on record, temperatures in the UK exceeded 40°C, though this isn’t the only record broken this year; inflation hit a...