Midlothian podcast transcript – 13/06/08

Fiona: Hi, I’m Fiona Deans and I’m here to talk to Mark McCabe about our Best Value audit on Midlothian Council. Mark, briefly, to start of, how is the council doing?

Mark: Midlothian Council has an ambitious vision based on its understanding of local needs and issues. We recognise the work the council is doing in building affordable homes and improving the quality of the school estate.  However, the council has some way to go before it is in a position fully to demonstrate Best Value and continuous improvement. While many of the necessary processes are in place they need to be more effectively implemented and there should be clearer priorities.  The council generally knows where it needs to improve and has work underway in most of these areas.

Fiona:  What is the council doing well in?
Mark: The council engages well with Midlothian residents, its financial management is generally sound,  it is investing heavily in improving the quality of its school estate and has been the first Scottish council in recent years to build new council housing to tackle identified housing need.

Fiona:  What does it need to improve?
Mark: As well as addressing areas of weaker performance in its services, for example, aspects of social work and housing and homelessness services, the council needs ensure the its services are competitive, improve its standards of customer care and address important people management issues. It is important that elected members and senior officers provide a clear focus on Best Value and support for continuous improvement and ensure that priorities are delivered within the agreed timescales. It also needs to consider how to best build managerial and professional capacity.  Attention also needs to be given to making sure scrutiny arrangements consistently provide members with timely information about service performance and initiatives should be driven through to completion.

Fiona: You mentioned services – can you be more specific? What needs more work?

Mark: Performance amongst the council’s services is mixed. A number of aspects of adult social services have improved and the council has made progress in tackling fundamental weaknesses highlighted by Education inspectors in child protection services.  However, an inspection in May this year from the Scottish Housing Regulator found weaknesses in the council’s housing management and homelessness services.  It found recommended improvement actions haven’t been put in place well enough and complaints aren’t monitored or used to make services better.

Fiona: The council seems to have had problems with scrutiny.  Have these been fixed?

Mark: There have been examples, such as child protection, where serious weaknesses in key services have not been picked up through the council’s scrutiny arrangements.  The council has responded by setting up two subcommittees to the existing scrutiny committee which deal specifically with social work and child protection.  This change does increase the opportunities elected members have to scrutinise performance – but it’s important they’re given consistent support and timely information to make sure they can carry out their scrutiny role effectively.
Fiona:  What happens next?

The next steps are that the council will agree a detailed improvement plan with the Accounts Commission. Following this the local auditor will monitor the council’s progress in delivering the plan.