Archive news & events

Before I went off on paternity leave I saw an interesting blog about how New Orleans is using “big data” to improve performance and...

We can all tell stories about times when we have been in meetings and large amounts of time have been expended by those present...

More complex governance arrangements are now common place in local government including external delivery vehicles, arms-length management organisations, local partnerships, and internal commissioning and...

The latest news on the NHS health scrutiny programme Success in delivering Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) and Accountability Care Systems (ACSs) in England depends...

Some more detail about the workshops at Governance of Complexity - #cfps2017 We know from your feedback that the workshops at the CfGS local government...

Westminster probing the effectiveness of local government scrutiny. The first formal evidence gathering session of the Communities and Local Government Committee investigation in to local...

Workshop investigating local government scrutiny seeking evidence from officers and councillors is now fully booked. Workshop event: 30 October, Westminster - full Thanks for your interest in...

Life’s complicated. So are public services. Once upon a time, we tell ourselves, things were simpler. Councils, organised into easy-to-understand departments, delivered things –...

Today, people who make decisions about public services face a common challenge: how to spend taxpayers’ money effectively and efficiently in ways that meet...

The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) has been asked to undertake an independent review of governance and scrutiny at the Royal Borough of...

New CfGS research, commissioned by APSE, has been published which highlights that local scrutiny and the way it holds councils to account is still...

New Business Development Manager appointed Councillor Ian Parry has resigned his role as Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Matters at Staffordshire...

CfGS is delighted to confirm the appointment of Dr Catherine Howe, Digital Innovation Director, Capita and Cllr Nick Chard, Kent County Council to the...

Anatomy of Accountability - national health scrutiny conference - 27 June 2017 [caption id="attachment_2133" align="alignleft" width="213"] Izzi Seccombe OBE, Conference Chair[/caption] The Centre for Governance and...

There was another election not so long ago; the one for combined authority mayors. While the Westminster result was a broadly positive one for...

We recently published the results of our scrutiny perceptions survey in the form of an infographic (here). However, given the amount of data we...

Like many scrutiny teams, in January 2016 we were contemplating entering the MJ Award for Excellence in Governance and Scrutiny. A classic trait of...

What is the main reason for the reduction in the number of officer posts dedicated to overview and scrutiny in English councils? Usually, it’s...