03 August 2007
Audit Scotland is to draw up an improvement plan for its Best Value audits, following an independent review. That highlighted inconsistencies in approach, the need to link better with other inspectorates and a requirement to strengthen audit teams.
The review, undertaken by a team from Cardiff and Edinburgh universities, was commissioned to assess the progress of Best Value audits – the system which requires councils to demonstrate continuous improvement in performance.
The results of the review came as Audit Scotland issued
a follow-up assessment of progress made by Moray Council, which was criticised in 2006 as having a long way to go to deliver Best Value to its community.
This report, published on August 2, says the council has made progress but stresses that 'there are still areas of concern'.
Best Value audits, affecting all of Scotland's 32 councils, were launched in 2004. In a report of the review, entitled Decisive moment, the researchers say their assessment is that the approach is now established, has gained credibility and, in broad terms, has been effective.
However, the exercise highlighted a number of areas that needed improvement.
These include a lack of clarity about the criteria used by Best Value audit teams to reach their judgements. Some of those interviewed thought this was because the criteria did not exist.
Others believed auditors were working with an implicit set of criteria about what made a 'good' council, but were unwilling to share this with councils.
According to the report, officers, councillors and representatives of other bodies interviewed for the study complained of a lack of consistency in the conduct of Best Value audits and the tone of reports for different councils.
'There was a widespread feeling that some authorities had “got off more lightly than they should have done”, while others had been treated harshly…' the review team state.
The report suggests that the link between the various inspectorates needs to be improved, as some councils strongly believe they are currently 'over-inspected and over-audited'.
The study found that while there were positive comments about the skills of audit teams, the general view was that that there was a need for more input from senior staff.
Those interviewed complained that audit teams lacked people with experience of tackling large, cross-cutting issues. They also believed that the teams should have experience of running large, complex organisations and managing corporate processes.
The Accounts Commission, the body that oversees local government audits, this week welcomed the report and said it would draw up an improvement plan. This will include making
PFaug2007
