This is Anne McCubbin, talking with John Baillie, Chair of the Accounts Commission, about our report ‘Overview of the Audits of Best Value and Community Planning’. We introduced these audits in 2004 and they assess how well councils are meeting their duties to deliver improving services to local people.

John, what are the main findings from the audits, overall?

We’ve now published Best Value findings for all 32 Scottish councils. So for the first time members of the public have an overall view of how well their council is performing. 

The audits have also helped councils change and improve how they are managed and led. However, as councils realise, there is still much to do to ensure that they are operating both efficiently and effectively.

What are councils doing best?

Well, councils do a good job for their communities. They deliver services for all, including some of the most vulnerable in our society, and they are an important part of our everyday lives. On the whole, they also manage their finances well. And we’re increasingly seeing improvements in how councils work with each other and other public bodies, such as the National Health Service. 

On the other hand, what still needs to improve?

There are areas where there is indeed room for improvement, such as the management of performance, the way councillors scrutinise and challenge performance and, finally, knowing whether or not services are providing value for money. They need much more and better information about costs. 

Has the Best Value approach improved council performance?

The introduction of Best Value has encouraged councils to take a closer look at some areas of their activity that really hadn’t been given much attention in the past. 

For example, asset management, workforce management, management of performance, and also leadership.

Now in some specific cases we can see where Best Value audit work has indeed delivered improvement in the performance of councils. This applies particularly to the councils where we commissioned a follow-up report and things then improved at that council. 

So our view is that the introduction of Best Value has acted as a significant catalyst for councils to look at their own performance, evaluate themselves and identify where they think things could be improved.

Is there anything in particular that you’ve identified through the audits as being a main driver for improvement in councils?

Yes, it’s very striking to see in all 32 reports the extent to which the Best Value audits have shone a spotlight on issues of leadership. This was rather difficult for local people to see as clearly in the past. 

There’s no doubt that strong leadership leads to good delivery of Best Value. Contrariwise, weaker leadership means they’re not delivering Best Value as well as they could.

So that’s the first phase of the Best Value audits over with. We’ve audited all 32 councils. Looking ahead, what’s happening now, what next?

Following the first round of Best Value audits we now have a good overall picture of what councils are about. So we can flex our approach going forward to be proportionate, and concentrate on specific issues that exist within particular councils. 

We’re conducting five pathfinder audits to ‘road-test’ the ‘Best Value 2’ approach. These pathfinders will be completed in the Spring of 2010, at which point we’ll sit down and take stock of what we’ve learned.

At the same time we’ll be consulting with our colleagues in local government as we introduce the new approach, as well as working with the other scrutiny agencies to reduce the extent of scrutiny where that is merited.

John, thanks very much.