It’s been a busy summer – although nobody really expects August to be a period of “downtime” any more. We head into the autumn with a new Prime Minister and hence some uncertainty over the future of some key national policies with an impact on local government and, by extension, scrutiny. Health scrutiny The first big issue is around health scrutiny. Many of you will have shared our disappointment that, despite attempts to persuade on the part of us and colleagues at the LGA, NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, Government have still gone ahead and removed the long-standing power that ...