Over the early part of 2018, the Centre for Public Scrutiny, working with the Democratic Society, led an independent study of governance for Kensington & Chelsea RLBC.
After the Grenfell fire, councillors wanted to understand how the council might need to change and modernise. Our work aimed to take a fundamental look at decision-making, transparency, public involvement and other issues relating to democratic and corporate governance. All of this would take place in the context of the people, community, borough and council continuing to respond to the tragedy.
In this context, it could be argued that it was not a good time to carry out a review of governance. It could have been seen as a technical response at a time when empathy, caring and humility were rightly being demanded on all fronts.
