Thursday 16 May 2019
An independent 'good governance' review of the Committee for Health & Social Care has recognised a high level trust and confidence in the Committee and its members, and their strong relationship with staff.
The review is the first of several that the Policy & Resources Committee is intending to commission for Principal Committees as part of the programme of Public Sector Reform. A review of the Committee forHome Affairs has also recently been carried out and is being finalised ahead of its release in the coming weeks. The Policy & Resources Committee will be the next committee in respect of which a review will be undertaken.
Each review will be released into the public domain, in accordance with the States of Guernsey's commitment to publishing commissioned reports under the Code of Practice for Access to Public Information. While the Policy & Resources Committee is responsible for commissioning the reviews, they are independent reviews undertaken by third parties and are intended to support and inform all committees, individual Deputies and the wider States of Guernsey.
The reviews build on the restructuring of political committees which came into effect in 2016. They give the States of Guernsey and the public an independent assessment of how well understood 'good governance' is within political committees and between politicians and the civil service who support them, and if good governance is being undertaken.
The reviews look at several principles that underpin good governance:
- - Independence
- - Openness and transparency
- - Accountability
- - Integrity
- - Clarity of purpose
- - Effectiveness
Deputy Gavin St Pier, President, Policy & Resources Committee said:
"We are grateful to the Committee forHealth & Social Care for agreeing to be the first committee to engage with this process. The report is clearly positive and recognises that good governance practices exist within Health & Social Care. Such reports will always have recommendations for further improvement and the Policy & Resources Committee will help support the Committee forHealth & Social Care in their adoption."