Podcast transcript

This is Anne McCubbin talking with Fraser McKinlay about our Best Value & Community Planning report on East Dunbartonshire Council. 
Fraser, what were the main findings?

The council’s made some good progress on Best Value, but we think there is still more to do.

The council’s services have improved, there are good working relationships between elected members and officers and there’s a positive culture within the organisation. 

What’s the council doing particularly well?

The council has made some real improvements in important service areas such as education, social work and housing. There’s positive leadership from elected members and officers.

The council also works really well with partners. 

And what needs to improve?

The council has made slower progress in important areas such as performance management, the extent to which they know services are competitive and customer services. And also councillors need to identify what their priorities for improvement are, and monitor these more closely. 

So what happens next with the audit?

The next step is for the council to develop an improvement plan. We recognise that East Dunbartonshire Council itself recognises where improvements are required. Once that improvement plan has been approved by the council our local audit team will be monitoring into the future.