The Audit of Best Value and Community Planning of Fife Council Podcast:

What did you find?

•	We found that Fife Council has clear strategic direction and has many of the building blocks in place for achieving best value.
•	The leadership of the council now needs to maintain the momentum towards further improvement.

What is the council doing well?
•	Fife Council has clear strategic direction and the council’s leadership communicates its priorities effectively. 
•	There is a strong culture of partnership working in place throughout the council.
•	The council manages its finances effectively.
•	There has been a recent increase in the pace of change at the council and some recent improvements in education and social work services. 

What needs to improve?
•	Councillors should take more of a leadership role in driving forward the best value agenda at a strategic level and should participate fully in training and development opportunities. 
•	There is room for improvement in the council’s approach to workforce planning and to managing performance information.
•	The council needs to keep better track of the results of the partnership work it does with other organisations and the Accounts Commission is encouraging the Council to make progress with shared services.
•	Also Fife is a unitary police authority and fire and rescue authority, one of only two such councils in Scotland. Councillors’ roles in relation to these services need to be clearer and the council should review how it carries out its best value responsibilities with regard to police and fire and rescue services.

You comment on the quality of performance information particularly, saying it is essential improvements are made. What more can you tell us about this?
•	It is essential that effective performance information and reporting is in place so that the council knows how it is performing and can use this information to improve service delivery.  
•	The reports to elected members on Performance Indicators are difficult to understand. Indicators which are demonstrating a decline in service performance are not immediately evident. Reports do not make it clear why under-performance has occurred. Targets have not always been set for areas where the council is monitoring performance.

What happens next?
•	As with all BV audits, the council needs to produce an improvement plan, and we'll be monitoring progress through the annual audits.