There is a lot of information available that councillors can access and apply to their work. The task lies in understanding what evidence does and doesn’t tell us about how local people experience the support that councils and their partners provide; it is about teasing truths out of these perspectives and building policy solutions to match.

There are two main challenges attached to accessing and using information:

• The challenge in getting hold of information in the first place. Councillors sitting on scrutiny committees have enhanced information rights, under Regulations – including some rights to access information which might be classified as commercially confidential.
  
• The challenge of scrutiny being treated as an information clearing house that has to look at everything. Being buried in masses of information and having to navigate and make sense of this.

This free online webinar will provide assistance with both of these challenges. We’ll cover your rights to access information, how to enact this in a proportionate way, key sources of information, as well as triangulating evidence effectively – to conduct robust scrutiny.

We’ll also provide the opportunity to share experiences from your own council in a supportive environment.

Access to good evidence is the backbone of good scrutiny. Without it, making effective recommendations and improving policy outcomes is impossible. Recent public interest reports and best value inspection reports have consistently cited the importance of quality and timely information for councillors to effectively make and challenge decisions – and to avoid governance failures.

Space is limited; the session will take place via Zoom and is open to all councillors. We advise signing up immediately to avoid disappointment.