Author: Ed Hammond
Further thoughts on the Government’s position on remote council meetings
In February we published a detailed position paper setting out views on the continuation of remote meetings in local government in England. Luke Hall MP, Minister of State for Local Government, has in a letter to the Leaders of principal councils confirmed that Government has no plans to legislate to make these temporary arrangements permanent. […]
Health scrutiny and the forthcoming Bill
The health white paper was published a few weeks ago – you can read our full response, and position, here. We do have concerns about the White Paper – in particular, what it means for health scrutiny. In setting these out, it’s worth bearing in mind that legislation never tells the whole story. There’s a […]
Pandemic recovery: scrutiny’s role in looking back and looking forward
It feels premature to admit it but it feels as though we are moving towards the end of the pandemic. We have a “roadmap” which we are told is “irreversible”, spring is coming, the local elections are on. As the crisis recedes, it’s time to begin talking about reflection and recovery. In truth we almost […]
Our governance risk and resilience framework
Last week we, along with our colleagues at Localis, published the governance risk and resilience framework – a set of material designed to assist councillors and officers to understand and act on risks to governance in local areas. You can find the framework and a range of supporting material at www.cfgs.org.uk/governancerisk. When we talk about […]
The governance risk and resilience framework
Introduction What is the governance risk and resilience framework? This material is designed to support individual council officers and councillors to play their part in identifying, understanding, and acting on, risks to good governance. The basics of our framework is based on three stages – The seven characteristics which will help you to anticipate governance […]
An update on changes in the NHS
With the effects of the pandemic still acute, it’s easy to forget that the NHS is in the middle of a change programme. For the last few years NHS England has been putting efforts into the design of healthcare using a larger footprint – originally framed around sustainability and transformation plans (STP) and now integrated […]
Remote meetings: planning for permanence
We have spoken extensively to scrutiny and democratic services practitioners in recent months about how action to make the Regulations on remote meetings permanent would help to ensure that governance could be supported in a way that is more dynamic and flexible in future. Once the pandemic is over, being able to convene formal meetings […]
Reflections on the publication of the Ockenden report
The final report of the review carried out by Donna Ockenden into maternity care at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital (SaTH) has just been published. It can be found here – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ockenden-review-of-maternity-services-at-shrewsbury-and-telford-hospital-nhs-trust. The report makes for grim reading. There are implications here for maternity services across England – and for health and care services more […]
A scrutiny team’s perspective on the impact of lockdown and experiences of restarting
In the latest in our series from scrutiny practitioners reflecting on their experiences during the pandemic, Merton’s scrutiny team provide some insights on how they have changed the way they work in response to 2020’s very challenging circumstances. When lockdown was announced, our first priority was to transfer the function to an online platform. […]
Under the spotlight – Dudley Council’s Covid-19 scrutiny process
In this guest blog, Kevin O’Keefe and Steve Griffiths (respectively Dudley Council’s Chief Executive and Democratic Services Manager) explain the council’s approach to scrutiny during the pandemic. At the start of lockdown in March, the Council recognised the key importance of maintaining proper levels of openness, transparency, democratic oversight and scrutiny during the Pandemic. […]