bassac welcomes minister's support for community influence over services

bassac welcomes the decision by Communities secretary John Denham to back a private member's bill which would see service providers held to account by local people.

The new Overview and Scrutiny Bill would give councils the power to hold service providers to account about local issues on behalf of communities. It would also force local service providers to attend public scrutiny hearings to justify their actions and respond to recommendations to resolve problems highlighted by local residents.

bassac strongly believes that citizens and local organisations must be able to influence change in their neighbourhoods. Some of our members have first-hand experience of what happens when local authorities to fulfill their roles. For example in the area of youth services for 16-25 year olds many of our members find themselves picking up the pieces.

With a mechanism in place to hold the performance of these agencies to account, community organizations and citizens would have the opportunity to influence the way services are delivered in the future.