The Moray Council: The audit of Best Value and Community Planning – Progress report - podcast transcript

Anne:  This is Anne McCubbin talking with Martin Walker about out Moray Best Value progress report.  Martin, what’s the background to this report?  

Martin: In February 2006 the Commission published a report on the Best Value audit of Moray Council together with its findings.  The report identified a number of areas for the council to action and in particular the Commission found that the council needed to identify clear priorities and concentrate on the steps that were needed to achieve those priorities.  They also found that the council needed to develop its political and corporate leadership skills of councillors and of senior managers and also to implement a comprehensive performance management framework.  At that meeting the Commission asked for a further report by the Controller of Audit on the steps taken by the council to address those issues and this progress report covers the progress that the council has made between February 2006 and May 2007.  

Anne: What are the main findings of this latest report?

Martin:  Well the Commission found that the council has made steady progress in a number of areas though it still has a way to go in delivering Best Value to ensure that these improvements flow through to better services for the people of Moray.  

Anne:  Where has the council made most and least progress?

Martin:  The council’s made more progress on improvements in its corporate leadership and the strategic direction of the council. We can see this in a number of ways, through the publication of its community plan, training programmes that have been run for elected members and senior officers, improvements in the performance management arrangements, new political management arrangements and also the progress that the council’s made on some of its strategic priorities such as flood prevention and an agreement on single status.  The Commission has highlighted, however, that there’s some further progress still needed in certain areas.  It’s identified the need for consistent strategic leadership by the elected members.  The Commission noted that many of the changes that had been introduced have actually been driven by officers with not so much evidence of member commitment to those.  The Council also needs to develop a systematic approach for prioritising and managing its strategic priorities and also for demonstrating competitiveness of its services.  The council also need to accept the value of external support to help it deliver on its improvement agenda.

Anne: What does the council need to do now?

Martin:  A significant proportion of members that were elected in May 2007 are new councillors and this presents a challenge for the council in making progress and the Commission are keen to see elected members demonstrate a commitment to delivering Best Value and developing their corporate role in the council’s affairs.

Anne: How are services doing?

Martin:  The performance indicators show that performance is broadly the same as it was at the time of the first audit and their performance varies across the organisation so this means that the services that were performing well are continuing to do so and housing is an example of that.  Similarly, other services which needed to improve still need to improve further and an example of that is the way that the council deals with its planning applications.  But overall the council’s services compare pretty well to other Scottish local authorities.

Anne: What happens next?

Martin:  The council will consider the Commission’s findings and also consider how it wants to continue making progress on its improvement plan and it also may want to amend that plan in the light of this follow-up report.  The Commission have also asked for a further progress report as at the 30th June 2008.

Anne: Thanks very much, Martin.