centre for public scrutiny

We are a national charity dedicated to promoting accountability, transparency and inclusion in the delivery of public services. Find out more about us and our work.

You can find recent publications linked to on the "news" section of our discussion forum (link on the top right of this page).

Much of our work involves carrying out practical, applied research, which we publish in order to help to improve accountability and governance in the public sector and provide support to those seeking to improve their practice. This work is principally supported by way of funding from:

• the Local Government Association (to provide support, advice and guidance to councillors sitting on local authority overview and scrutiny committees and the officers who support them), and;
• the Department of Health (to carry out work relating to accountability in the National Health Service, about which more information can be found in our health programme pages).

Some of our most popular recent publications include:

• "Accountability Works", a piece of research published in 2010 which kicked off a broader campaign around the values of accountability, transparency and inclusion in modern democracy;
• "Peeling the Onion", the culmination of detailed research on the use of local government accountability structures to tackle health inequalities;
• Our series of Policy Briefings, designed principally to assist those sitting on local government overview and scrutiny committees to better understand major national policy developments and how their own work fits in;
• Unofficial guidance, which we produced in partnership with the LGA, relating to the role and composition of Police and Crime Panels;
• "Joining the dots", a longitudinal analysis of a series of annual surveys of overview and scrutiny in local government which we have carried out between 2004 and the present;
• "Couning the cost, measuring the value", a piece of research examining how accountability can help to make services better value for money.

A full list of all our publications can be found on our publications page (we make a charge for a very small number of them) and detail on some of our current projects can be found here.

We also provide direct consultancy services, both through our own staff and a team of "expert advisers" who we manage. If you need support, training, coaching, development or other improvement support services, we are here to help.

We curate an online discussion forum mostly used by local government overview and scrutiny practitioners but open to anyone interested in the subject, and also host a library of reviews carried out by local government overview and scrutiny committees and task groups. The LGA funds us to provide a "helpdesk" function for those working in overview and scrutiny in local government, through which we can provide advice, guidance and information to those who need it. You can access the helpdesk on 020 7187 7362, which is also the number you should use for any general enquiries.

Centre for Public Scrutiny, 2012