This is a revised version of a previous list that you can find here. What are the things that effective scrutineers do that help to make them effective? What are the habits and behaviours that help them to make a difference? Well, taking inspiration from Stephen R Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective …
In this post I set out six leadership roles for scrutiny chairs: facilitator, host, committee representative, team leader, strategist and scrutiny champion. I hope they will be useful for anyone thinking about and developing as a scrutiny chair. Scrutiny chair is an important and challenging role. Every chair of a scrutiny committee is different, …
This list of seven ‘scrutiny essentials’ is for anyone new (or newish) to scrutiny. Whether councillors on their first scrutiny committee, senior managers who haven’t had much to do with it before or perhaps anyone thinking about a scrutiny support role. So, I thought it would be helpful to set out some ‘need to knows’ …
***UPDATE: We are closing the survey midday on Friday 8th October 2021*** We are doing some research into whether virtual meetings have improved the governance quality of local government committees and looking for your help. So, if you are familiar with a committee, before and during the pandemic, we are hoping you can spend 10-15 …
Effective scrutiny needs the right structure and the right processes but, perhaps most important of all, it needs the right conditions (sometimes called culture). I’ve looked into the research and summarised six conditions that you can find below. Perhaps you could use them as check list to help you think about where your council does …
As I write this, many new councillors are finding out about scrutiny for the first time. More experienced councillors are also thinking about the year ahead and reflecting on how they work. I thought it would be a good time, therefore, to write something about being an effective scrutineer. So, taking inspiration from Stephen R …
In this post I sketch out some of the ideas and findings from recently published research I was involved with. I hope it will be useful for anyone thinking about how their committee seating arrangements might be improved and perhaps encourage more of a ‘scenic design’ approach. If you know me, then you might have …
Yes, it’s good to make lists. In our meetings we like to make action points and sometimes we like to record debates. But making lists can also be really helpful. I don’t necessarily mean to-do lists (although they can be helpful as well). I mean things-we-might-do lists, things-that-helped-before lists and things-we-do-well lists, for example. Lists like these work …
Like many other facilitators, I’ve been running meetings online for the last twelve months. In particular I’ve been looking to ensure people are able to participate in a way that’s productive and enjoyable. I have to say I’ve learnt a lot. From people I’ve worked with, from trying things out and by accident, of course. …
In my work there are a number of books I’ve found helpful and I thought it would be useful to share them. In general, these books are not aimed at public board and committee meetings but they all contain helpful ideas that you might be able to use or they might provide some inspiration or …