Critical friends
Effective Scrutiny in local government.
Three and a half hours on scrutiny as a critical friend: running the process well, asking questions that get to the point and bringing residents' voices into the work.
- Level
- Focus
- Learning time
- 3 hours 30 minutes
- Where
- Effective Scrutiny
- Price
- £69
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Councillors, scrutiny officers and council leaders who want scrutiny to add value
Overview
This Focus brings together the whole Effective Scrutiny topic. It opens with what scrutiny is for, from the Local Government Act 2000 and the Beecham Review to the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny's four principles and Swansea's critical friend model. It then follows the process, from ways of working and referrals to building a work programme. The skills module explores evidence based questioning, Schein's four inquiry approaches and Huish and Milliner's six stage staged interview. Next it turns to the public, the networked councillor and the proposed Local Scrutiny Committees for mayors. It closes by contrasting Newham, where questioning changed a library budget, with Warrington, where a Best Value inspection found weak member oversight.
Aims
This programme aims to develop councillors and officers who can run scrutiny that genuinely improves decisions: choosing the right topics, questioning with purpose rather than point scoring, involving residents along the way and holding the right people to account as a critical friend.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Plan a scrutiny work programme that draws on public priorities, uses a scoring matrix and focuses committee time where it adds most value.
- Use structured inquiry and careful preparation to question witnesses in a way that tests the evidence rather than scoring political points.
- Assess whether scrutiny in your council actually holds decision makers to account, drawing on the contrast between the Newham and Warrington cases.
What you'll develop
Through this Focus course, you will build the ability to:
- Apply the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny's four principles of good scrutiny to assess a committee session, report or line of questioning.
- Plan a work programme that draws on public priorities, uses a scoring matrix and asks whether scrutiny adds value, following current CfGS guidance.
- Use Schein's four inquiry approaches, careful preparation and the six stage staged interview to plan and sequence the questioning of a witness.
- Assess a scrutiny session through listening, follow up and the four evaluation questions, and identify improvements for the next session.
- Identify the points in a scrutiny cycle where the public can take part, and explain why advocacy, evidence and accountability make public involvement necessary.
- Compare the Newham and Warrington cases to explain why the same statutory tools produced opposite outcomes.
Built from 3 parts.
3 hours 30 minutes of learning.
- 01The critical friendOverview and scrutiny in local governmentBitesize1 module
- 02Asking the questions that matterScrutiny committees and questioning skillsBitesize2 modules
- 03Scrutiny residents can seePublic engagement in scrutiny and case studiesBitesize2 modules
You have reached the top of this topic
- You are hereFocus, 3 hours 30 minutes, £69
It is also part of these programmes:
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