centre for public scrutiny

CfPS provides training, development and guidance to scrutiny practitioners in a variety of different ways.

Training sessions with scrutiny practitioners – CfPS staff or our expert advisers can go into individual organisations and provide bespoke training, advice or assistance. There is usually a charge for this service. More information on this is provided on the Expert Adviser Team page (link to the left).

Attendance at meetings – where organisations are running their own training sessions, CfPS staff are often able to attend to provide an independent, external view of a current policy issue, or to discuss upcoming policy developments with officers and members.

Seminars and conferences – CfPS runs occasional training sessions for scrutiny members and officers around England and Wales. There is usually a fee for attendance at these events. Specific training and development delivered by the CfPS includes: 

• The CfPS Annual Conference  has been running since 2003. Between 2005 and 2010, the Conference incorporated an Officer Development Day and in 2009 and 2010 a Member Development Day ran in parallel. In 2012 the Conference incorporated Member Academy and Scrutiny Camp for officers.
• Through the regional scrutiny networks (bodies comprised of councillors and officers involved in local government scrutiny functions) we are planning to deliver a range of training and development events during 2012/13.
• Parliamentary Seminars are run in partnership with Parliamentary Outreach, and the Department for Chamber and Committee Services, in the House of Commons. for elected local authority members. These events give councillors the opportunity to share knowledge and expertise with those who carry out scrutiny activities in Parliament. We plan to run three events in early 2012/13.
• Training seminars and events are occasionally run by CfPS as part of other pieces of work, or to spread best practice – for example, in relation to finance scrutiny.

Although the focus of a lot of CfPS work is on local authorities, advice, guidance and assistance is provided to non-executives with scrutiny or “holding to account” roles across other organisations. Our "Accountability Works For You" framework is all about recognising that there is a "web of accountability" at local level, operating between a number of organisations, which needs a culturally positive approach to function effectively.

You may want to visit the "Introduction to Scrutiny"  page for further information.

Individual discussion – CfPS staff are always able to provide answers to scrutiny questions from any organisation, by phone or e-mail. You can call Ed Hammond on 020 7187 7369 for advice, or e-mail info@cfps.org.uk.