The Audit of Best Value and Community Planning
Details
This report is made by the Controller of Audit to the Accounts Commission under section 102(1) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. After considering it the Commission may do any or all of the following:
- direct the Controller to carry out further investigations
- hold a hearing
- state its findings.
The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 introduced new statutory duties relating to Best Value and Community Planning. The scope of Best Value and Community Planning is very broad but in general terms a successful council will:
- work with its partners to identify a clear set of priorities that respond to the needs of the community in both the short and the longer term
- be organised to deliver those priorities
- meet and clearly demonstrate that it is meeting the community's needs
- operate in a way that drives continuous improvement in all its activities.
The challenge for local government is to find new ways of working across services and with other bodies to achieve the best results for citizens and service users. The key objectives of this audit were to:
- assess the extent to which Aberdeen City Council is meeting its duties under the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003
- agree planned improvements with the council. These will be reviewed by the council’s external auditor over the next three years.
As Best Value and Community Planning encompass all the activities of a council it is not realistic to audit everything in depth, so we plan our detailed work in two ways:
- Where possible, we draw on the findings of other scrutiny processes, such as the work carried out by the council’s external auditors and by inspectorates. These are incorporated into our report.
- We select certain aspects of the council’s performance for detailed audit investigation. A wide range of sources, including the council’s own assessment of its performance, reports issued by external audit and inspections, and national Statutory Performance Indicators, informs this selection.
The report reflects this selective approach, with detailed commentary on some areas and limited or no coverage in others. While we have made some comparisons with other councils, our overall approach has focused on performance trends and improvement within Aberdeen City Council.
At the Local Government elections in May 2007 the Liberal Democrats formed a new coalition with the Scottish National Party (SNP), replacing the previous Liberal Democrat/Conservative coalition that had been in place from May 2003 until May 2007. Councillor Kate Dean (Liberal Democrat) remained Council Leader, with Councillor Kevin Stewart (SNP) becoming deputy Council Leader.
We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation and assistance provided to the audit team by Councillor Dean (Leader of the council), Douglas Paterson (Chief Executive), Martin Murchie (Head of Performance Management and Quality Assurance) and all other members, officers and partners contacted during the audit.
The audit visit took place between November 2006 and January 2007, but completion of the audit and submission of the report was delayed by ill health of key audit personnel and the 2007 elections. Since the elections there have been significant changes in the political leadership of the council and the council’s committee structure. There have also been important organisational developments relating to the council’s transformation programme and performance management arrangements. Given the interval since the audit visit we invited the council to submit further information about relevant changes that have taken place in the intervening period. We have taken account of that information in our report.
To download a copy of the report, please see the links on the right hand side.
