Resources and training opportunities for building personal skills and developing effective organisations
The recent inquiry by MIND, while commending examples of good practice, found a number of areas in which service users are being let down during periods of crisis. These include bad practice in relation to restraint and control, but also overly medicalised responses and a lack of both humanity and urgency in responding to people…
“He is a powerful figure and his control of money is absolute” – C’llr Magazine on Councillor Maurice Heaster, winner of the CCLA Award, 2011 CCLA co-sponsor the C’llr Awards as a whole, but they also support a specific award that looks to recognise and reward effective and strategic treasury management. The CCLA Award for…
In addition to recognising and rewarding the great work of councillors, the C’llr Awards provide a unique opportunity for the voices of ordinary people to be heard. This is because, unlike many other awards, the LGiU and CCLA encourage members of the public to come forward and nominate local councillors for an award. In particular,…
This briefing considers how social, economic and cultural rights can be the basis of fairness in Big Society initiatives
In the last post in this series we showed how the seemingly bureaucratic task of scrutinising government decisions can be a hugely effective way of delivering efficient outcomes. Similarly, creating an environment that is conducive to new partnerships between the public, private and voluntary sectors is a quiet, yet incredibly effective way of driving efficiencies…
As the judges of last year’s Scrutineer of the Year award observed, it can be hard to pin-down exactly what we mean when we talk about ‘effective scrutiny’. On the one hand, we might view scrutiny as a purely process-oriented endeavour, at its most effective when ensuring that rules and conventions are meticulously followed at…
(Guest blog post by Age UK, first appeared at http://ageukblog.org.uk/2011/11/07/do-you-know-a-councillor-who-deserves-an-award/#more-1320.) Recent research for Age UK showed that more than half of people over the age of 60 say they have never had contact with their local councillor. Yet despite this lack of contact, nearly twice as many over 60s can name their councillor as can younger…
Climate change is one of the biggest threats to face our generation, and how we tackle this issue over the next few years will have a deep impact upon the lives of future generations across the globe. Scientific research into climate change continually reminds us of the huge risks we run by carrying on with…
It is easy to latch onto the argument that, in an attractive democracy, our elected representatives ought to come from all walks of life. In fact, the demographic make-up of political institutions is arguably one of the most important indicators of a healthy social order. As such, with the average age of councillors currently standing…
It is easy to think of political progress in terms of sweeping legislation, dramatic landslide elections, or grassroots movements building an unstoppable momentum on their brave journeys towards seemingly immovable barriers. The rolling out of universal suffrage, the creation of the NHS, and the various successes of civil rights campaigns show that, undoubtedly, some of…
