05 September 2003
Audit Scotland is developing a new system of auditing Best Value in Scottish councils which will bring a 'significant change' in approach and put the emphasis on performance results.
Individual councils are now responding to a consultation paper. Assurances have been given that there will be no league tables or labels attached to a council's performance.
The Accounts Commission, which will have the main responsibility for overseeing the new arrangements, will require the preparation of agreed improvement schemes and will also have the power to hold councils to account and take action where necessary.
Scotland has so far operated the Best Value regime on a voluntary basis, unlike England and Wales. However, the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 makes it a statutory duty.
In the consultation paper, Audit Scotland says it has chosen to build on existing audit arrangements as far as possible, but points out that the new audit also includes significant changes in approach.
These include a greater emphasis on performance results and on the circumstances in which each individual council is operating.
According to the document, the main focus of the reports will be the council's own performance rather than comparisons between councils. It states: 'The reports will not use league tables, scores or overall labels to rank councils.
'Instead, the focus will be on the evidence to show that each council is meeting its Best Value and community planning requirements and is achieving continuous improvement.'
An Audit Scotland spokeswoman said this week that some councils were particularly keen for the commission to look at working with other scrutiny agencies and inspectorates to co-ordinate inspections. Some councils were also concerned about how the Best Value process would take in community planning and partnership agreements.
Four consultation meetings across Scotland have already taken place and council representatives had been broadly supportive of the revised approach, the spokeswoman said.
A spokesman for CIPFA Scotland said the new scheme built on the auditing arrangements for performance management and CIPFA would be monitoring the development of the proposals.
Jon Harris, strategic director for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, said the proposals were viewed as being positive since they represented a change from the previous 'tick the box' approach.
However, they presented a huge challenge to Audit Scotland in terms of having the capacity to administer it.
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