In July 2015, the NHS England Board agreed on new standards and service specifications for congenital heart disease services and developed a three tier model with split levels of treatment options and responsibilities. The model divides all centres into the following: Specialist Surgical Centres (Level 1) that provide the most highly specialised diagnostics and care including all surgery and most interventional cardiology Specialist Cardiology Centres (Level 2) that provide specialist medical care, but no surgeries or interventional cardiology Local Cardiology Centres (Level 3) that provide initial diagnostics and ongoing monitoring and care, and services run by general paediatricians/cardiologists with a ...
Combined authorities – and areas aspiring to establish combined authorities in the near future – are taking the first steps towards introducing the concept of devolution to local residents, and inviting their views.Devolution is complicated. It’s no Schleswig-Holstein Question, but its twists and turns still baffle even those of us whose jobs it is to keep track of what is going on. In this context, it might be too much to expect that the public will be able to get a handle on it.In an ideal world we wouldn’t be in this space. The public would have been ...
It’s over five years now since the abolition of Standards for England (formerly known as the Standards Board). My first encounter with it was the faintly surreal training video which the Board produced way back in its early days. Connoisseurs will recall that it starred the actor Andrew Hall (he played one of Wendy Craig's sons in the Carla Lane sitcom "Butterflies") in an incidental role as a particularly difficult councillor.As depicted in that video, in some councils heated political debate could often lead to threats that behaviour and activity would be referred to the Standards Board for action. Perhaps it ...
We often talk about scrutiny’s role in handling and mitigating major systemic failure. Our publication “Hiding in plain sight” highlighted the critical responsibility for scrutiny in recognising and acting on this kind of (often catastrophic) failure for public authorities.But where does the intelligence come from to allow scrutiny to look at these systemic issues? The answer lies in the way it deals with and oversees councils’ (and other public bodies’) complaints processes.Dr Jane Martin, the Local Government Ombudsman, has just published her Review of Local Government Complaints 2015-16. (Old lags will recall that Jane was our first Executive ...
The Public Accounts Committee has been interested in the Government’s policies on English devolution for some time now. Earlier this year, they put out a report on accountability and devolution which we critiqued here.It’s safe to say that the PAC view on scrutiny has undertaken something of a pivot since that report. More recently, they've published their thoughts again, and it's interesting to see how things have changed. The relentless focus on national accountability hasn’t disappeared, but it is far less strident. And there is some far more nuanced discussion on local scrutiny.This is to be warmly welcomed. ...
This is the third in a series of blogposts reflecting on how the work of scrutiny might be evaluated. In the first two posts (here and here), we reflected on recent evaluations of the work of select committees by the Constitution Unit and the Institute for Government. In this post, we’ll develop some of those ideas a bit further and explain more about the way we are rethinking our own framework for evaluating scrutiny in local government.Just as we have seen in our last couple of blogposts, demonstrating “influence and impact” is difficult. Study inevitably leads to more questions; ...
A #notwestminster and CfGS initiativeWhat is this?#notwestminster brings (or bring, if you consider them to be a plural) people together to create and share new ideas for doing local democracy. You can find out more about it, or them, here .The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny is a charity which does work on public sector governance, mainly in local government. We get an annual grant from the Local Government Association for providing advice, guidance and support to local councils. This year, following discussion from the LGA, we are focusing our efforts on helping to promote and deliver on the ...
This is the second of three blogposts about scrutiny’s impact. In the first post of this series, I introduced two recent pieces of research carried out into the impact of select committee work – “Selective Influence”, a detailed study published in 2011 by Meg Russell and Meghan Benton at UCL’s Constitution Unit, and a more recent paper, “Select committees under scrutiny”, written by Hannah White at the Institute for Government.These pieces of research identified respectively a number of sources for select committees’ influence, and ways to measure that influence. Those sources and measures are, I’d suggest, relevant to local ...
This is the first of three blogposts about scrutiny’s impact and how scrutiny might be improved. It anticipates the publication by us at the end of the summer of a revised methodology for local areas to use both to evaluate their existing scrutiny arrangements and to review and design new ones – joint systems and systems covering combined authorities. These practical tools will be based, in part, on the kinds of research to which this post refers. Good scrutiny must be shown to have value, and to make a real difference to people’s lives. But given that scrutineers are by ...
Today (12th May) we are launching a major paper on devolution governance. It aims to explore all aspects of the preparation, negotiation and implementation of devolution deals - at every stage highlighting the key governance decisions to be made, and issues to be resolved. The devolution debate so far has raised plenty of opportunities and issues, this paper now starts to move the debate on with possible answers. Devolution must be accompanied by good governance, otherwise it is destined to fail. Good governance is about more than just the presence of a Mayor. It is about having a range of ...
On 16 June, the winners of this year’s MJ Awards will be announced. For 2016, we have sponsored an award, for “Excellence in Governance and Scrutiny”. We want to bring excellent scrutiny work to a far wider audience than holding our own awards programme has allowed in the past, and sponsoring an award in this way provides a good opportunity to do this.Canterbury, Calderdale, Durham, Hackney, Stockton and Swansea councils have all been shortlisted. Over the next couple of weeks, each of these councils will blog for us on the Knowledge Hub about their work and their approach to ...
With which of these statements about risk do you agree?“Councils are risk averse.”“Councils are cautious and prudent.”Give up?Of course, this is a ludicrous question. It all comes down to how you use language around risk – how you understand it, how you tackle it, how you mitigate it. More than anything, it comes down to perspective too. The perspective of what risk is, what “risk-taking” is, and how subjective some of these issues can really be.I am midway through writing a paper on this – a companion-piece to a similar paper produced a little earlier this ...
I run an organisation that promotes scrutiny. I’m also a communications professional by trade. It is therefore little surprise that the leaked Panama Papers have been high of my radar. It has been fascinating to see how often the words ‘scrutiny’ and ‘transparency’ feature in the reporting of the fall out. Whilst watching the media handling of the Prime Minister’s family finances has been like a car crash in slow motion.I’ve been debating whether what we have been witnessing is ‘Proper Scrutiny’ (my term), or not and decided a blog is a good place to share some free-flowing thoughts....
We organise regular national training sessions to provide officers and members with the key skills they need to carry out their roles effectively. We also make these courses available to individual councils, to deliver either as full-day or half-day sessions. Our current range of courses includes:Tackling the scrutiny of transformation and major change;The use of performance management information;Effective questioning skills;The intelligent gathering and use of data and evidence.Call Ed Hammond on 020 7187 7369 to learn more about what we can offer, and how we can help. ...
Providing proper, meaningful induction to scrutiny councillors is critical. The scrutiny role is an important one; the reduction in resources available for officer support to the function means that councillors must increasingly be self-servicing. But this will not happen automatically. Councillors need support to give them the confidence to take charge of the scrutiny function – especially when they are newly elected. Effective induction also promises to end, or curtail, damaging or negative political cultures within a council, that might make proper scrutiny more difficult.We can help to design a deliver comprehensive induction programmes for scrutiny councillors. This can ...
A number of councils in England have, in recent years, sought to review their formal governance arrangements – in particular, evaluating whether they should adopt the committee system form of governance. As the acknowledged national experts on this form of governance transition, we have provided advice and guidance to over twenty councils on this – ranging from speaking at public meetings to explain changes, to providing expert evidence to member panels, all the way through to actively facilitating member discussions and helping to design new systems. A move to a committee system form of governance is a not a “return” ...
For some, reviewing a council’s scrutiny arrangements means rejigging the structure and names of committees. We recognise that it is more complicated than this. With a proven track record of success in helping dozens of councils to review and revise the way they plan and manage scrutiny, we can help in two main ways.Firstly, we can provide desktop support to your review. With our advice, and the help of our Accountability Works for You framework, you can carry out a more proportionate and worthwhile review exercise, in the confidence that you will end up with practical, implementable actions.Secondly, ...
CfGS can: Help the arena of scrutiny become less politicised by teaching members to ask questions in a different, more focussed way.Who: In June 2015, Ed Hammond, CfGS’ Director of Local Accountability, went into North Norfolk District Council, to help members understand the role of the councillor in providing scrutiny. The session was aimed at new members, and in particular focussed on improving members’ questioning skills.Outcome: Officers noticed that the session had the desired long term effect in improving members’ questioning skills. They have started to learn to ask the right questions in order to probe Cabinet members ...
CfGS can: get new members up to speed with the specialist skills and principles underpinning scrutiny. Who: In July 2015, CfGS’ Regional Advocate Brenda Cook ran a development session in Hinckley and Bosworth in order to induct new members into the basics of scrutiny. She taught largely new members how to discuss and interact in a scrutiny committee versus other forums like full council or with their friends and family – thereby making clear the particular nuances to the scrutiny committee arena. The format included an introductory presentation, then discussions in small groups, before bringing the group back together for ...
CfGS can: help identify governance and scrutiny gaps and provide you recommendations to improve the day-to-day running of your council. Who: CfGS’ Chief Executive Jacqui McKinlay conducted a review of Overview and Scrutiny in Sunderland City Council, concentrating on whether the current approach to working is fit for purpose in times of austerity. We conducted interviews with scrutiny chairs, leads and officers in order to glean where there were strengths and where there were gaps that needed to be filled. Outcome: CfGS provided a report outlining several recommendations to make sure that Sunderland’s Overview and Scrutiny function focussed on ...