This is the first in a series of five blogs on political culture and scrutiny. Over the course of the next couple of months we will explore what political culture is, what its practical implications are and how members and officers at a local level can work together to identify deficiencies in how people act and behave to promote a more positive and productive approach to politics and local democracy at a local level. Some of this work intersects closely with work that the LGA has been doing on civility in public and political life – and it also links ...
The statutory guidance on overview and scrutiny in local government has now been published by MHCLG.This guidance has been produced following a commitment that Government made in early 2018, following on from the Communities and Local Government Select Committee’s inquiry into O&S. We participated in the drafting process – producing material to support MHCLG in pulling together the final document.What are the key components?The most important thing is culture. This is about the whole council, not just scrutiny councillors, scrutiny officers and people working in democratic services. A commitment has to begin with the council’s Chief ...
Happy New Year! Well, 2018 came and went and you will have noticed that the scrutiny guidance is still conspicuous by its absence. Government undertook to the Select Committee that guidance would be published by the end of the calendar year. I’m afraid I can’t provide any certainty about the likely publication date – we aren’t privy to any information from civil servants about the issue. As far as we’re aware the text has been finalised, but all of these kinds of publications have to go through a cross-Government review and signoff process, and we’re not sure whether this has ...
An update on the scrutiny guidance I wanted to share an update with you on our, and MHCLG’s, progress on the drafting of the scrutiny guidance. We have now completed the draft of the sections that MHCLG asked us to write, and I’m waiting for them to send the latest draft back to me so that I can write some case studies to slot in. Publication is still due “by the end of the calendar year”. We still can’t confirm when this is going to be. My gut feeling is that, with the cross-Government signoff process still to be undertaken, ...