News & events

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...

I had always intended to write a blog reflecting on my first 6-months as Chief Executive at CfGS.  However, I must admit to never...

NEW GUIDANCE ON CALL-IN Introduction and objectives As part of its work supporting local authority governance, CfGS is planning to produce a short guide on the...

Terrie’s reflections as the Board publishes its second independent annual report As Chair of the Mears Scrutiny Board, I am pleased to report the main...

Next week, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will cease to be, and in their place new statutory Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) will come into being...

As a former Chief Fire Officer, I was delighted when an invitation arrived from the LGA for me to deliver a series of workshops...

The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny is looking for an experienced governance professional to join the team, on secondment or a fixed term contract,...

In 2019 and 2021 we experienced some comparatively high “councillor turnover” – and we can probably expect similar in local elections this May. The neutral...

We want to know what you think! Do you work as a senior scrutiny officer in an English or Welsh Council? Do you have time...