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Latest News

Government consults on local accountability

14/08/08 The government has just published the first in a series of consultations relating to the policy commitments set out in the Communities in Control White Paper. The consultation, which closes on 30 October, considers three key areas: developing and strengthening overview and scrutiny, increasing the visibility and accountability of local public officers and facilitating the work of councillors. The proposals in this consultation will impact upon all tiers in local government, particularly Overview and Scrutiny.

Maureen Alderson, head of the Centre for Local Democracy said: "There is much in these proposals to be welcomed, particularly the focus on the scrutiny of LAA partners and the delivery of targets. However, the government has not proposed a required response time from partners. This, of course, could dampen the effectiveness of scrutiny and will likely be an area where local authorities will want to comment. " 

Another key area of concern is the proposals allowing remote attendance and voting for members. According to Ms. Alderson "councils will need to consider carefully the impact of these proposals on their local area and weigh the benefits to councillors against the impact on local democracy and transparency of decision-making".

This Month's Events

There are no further events this month. For information on forthcoming seminars and conferences please visit our events calendar.

Latest Analysis

New role for local government in tackling worklessness

29/07/08 Last week, the government set out its proposals for the next stages in its programme for welfare reform in the Green Paper  No-One Written Off: Reforming Welfare to Reward Responsibility. The reforms will have profound impacts across a range of local government services, including adult social care, children's services, and drug action. LGiU policy analyst Andrew Jones said: "Local government, as a multi-service provider, is ideally placed to tackle the multifaceted and complex problems of worklessness."

Four tests to strengthen police accountability

21/07/08 The LGiU has set out four tests for proposals to increase police accountability in the police reform green paper. While welcoming the recent green paper, From the neighbourhood to the national, LGiU chief executive Andy Sawford called for the Home Office to consider bolder progress towards reform.

Flagship policy rocked by launch

26/06/08 The National Challenge programme - set up to help raise GCSE results in all schools - got off to a very shaky start. The media largely ignored the core support package of the programme. Instead they branded schools where fewer than 30 per cent of pupils gain 5 A*-C GCSEs as 'failing' and threatened with closure - damaging the very schools and pupils that the programme is intended to help. Martin Rogers, policy consultant with the LGiU's Children's Services Network looks at what happened.

Latest Publications

Never Too Late for Living: final report of the APPG inquiry into services for older people (LGiU)

 22/7/2008
This is the report of the All Party Parliamentary Local Government Inquiry in to services for older people. The inquiry was chaired by Clive Betts MP and supported by the LGiU. It looked at how the place of older people in society can be improved over the next decade within the context of rapid demographic change, rising expectations and increasing financial constraint.

Getting to the heart of local accountability (LGiU)

23/6/2008
There has never been a better time for local government to articulate a new role for itself in the local governance landscape. All three major political parties have expressed their commitment to redressing the balance of power away from our centralised system of government, down to councils and communities. We believe that local government benefits from ideas - if we are going to see a significant shift in power to the local level, it must be driven by a clear vision of what this could look like.

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CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE

Find out more about the LGiUs four centres of policy excellence.

Centres for:

  • Local democracy Local Democracy
  • Local sustainability Local Sustainability
  • Children's services Children's Services
  • Service transformation Service Transformation