South Ayrshire Council: The audit of Best Value and Community Planning – podcast transcript

Fiona: This is Fiona Deans speaking with Chair of the Accounts Commission, John Baillie, about the Commission’s findings and the Best Value report on South Ayrshire Council.  John, the Commission's findings on the South Ayrshire Council Best Value report are quite hard-hitting.  What does the council need to improve?

John: The council has made limited progress towards delivering Best Value and it faces severe financial pressures which pose it significant risks.  It needs to improve its financial planning; develop a culture of continuous improvement and learn to manage its resources, risks and performance better.

Fiona:  Is there anything else that needs to improve?

John: It’s also important that the council improve its community planning and work more closely with neighbouring councils.  There needs to be better scrutiny of performance by councillors and there’s also a lack of clarity at the moment in the roles of members and officers.

Fiona:  What does the council do well?

John: Some of the council’s services are of good quality including education, many aspects of community care, housing management, waste recycling and community safety.   

Fiona:  The Best Value report says there has been a “lack of effective leadership from both members and officers” and there’s also mention in the report of “political mismanagement”. But the findings say that leadership is now improving?  What's changed?

John: There have been a number of changes.  Following the 2007 elections the council introduced a cabinet style of political management, comprising a leadership panel and a number of scrutiny committees. This has led to better cross-party working.  There have also been some changes at the senior management level including the appointment of a new chief executive in April last year.  The new chief executive is clear about the degree of improvement the council needs to make and he has instigated a number of early improvements.

Fiona:  It sounds like the council's in a pretty bad financial state.  How much of this is down to the current recession and what are its hopes of recovery?

John: The council faces severe financial pressures which are not helped by the current recession.  At the time of our work it had the lowest general fund balance of any Scottish council with just £100,000 not already allocated to meet spending commitments in 2008/09.  It does have a financial recovery strategy in place but it is ambitious given current circumstances and may not be enough to address any unplanned expenditure.  Through its commitment to increasing its reserves the council expects to have made progress towards its target during 2008/09.

Fiona:  There have already been public demonstrations in the area over service cuts - are cuts unavoidable?

John: It’s up to the council to decide how it makes efficiencies.  We believe there is scope for efficiencies from better management of its resources and sharing services with partners and other councils.  It’s clear, though, that the council is going to have to make some difficult decisions over the coming years.

Fiona:  The Best Value report says the council doesn't have a great track record of improvement.  How can you be sure it will implement this latest improvement agenda?

John: While the council doesn’t have a successful track record of improvement, leadership has been improving over the past two years bringing with it a stronger appetite for change and a greater level of self-awareness.  However, the council still faces a number of challenges which is why we will continue to monitor situation and produce a progress report next year.

Fiona: What happens now?

John: We’ll be monitoring progress through the routine audits that we carry out on an ongoing basis however; the Commission has also asked Audit Scotland to carry out a follow-up report.  It will report on any progress in a year’s time.

Fiona: Thanks John.