| Date -01 Aug 2007 | Return to previous page |
Accounts Commission reports on Moray Council performance
The follow-up report on Best Value practices and Community Planning in Moray Council by Audit Scotland for the Accounts Commission has been released.
The Moray Council was audited by the Accounts Commission in February 2006 on these two areas of activity, and an improvement plan devised by the council.
The report focuses only on Best Value practices and issues surrounding the Community Plan. It is not an audit of the council’s service delivery as a whole and should not be seen as such.
In today’s report the Commission recognises the strong progress made by Moray Council following the audit, in particular the strengthening of the corporate leadership and strategic direction of the authority.
The Commission highlights the progress made on flood prevention schemes and the council’s pioneering agreement on Single Status as examples of good practice on key strategic priorities. Moray Council were the fist authority in Scotland to fully implement the Single Status agreement.
Our improvements to performance management and training programmes have been applauded. The development programmes were attended by more than 60 managers from third tier level and above, and a quarter of these are carrying on the training by working towards certification.
The performance management framework introduced on the back of the audit has identified pounds 2.375 million in savings for the 2007/08 budget. The Commission has praised the council’s performance management procedures, which is being increasingly used by managers and Councillors to scrutinise, improve and monitor services to the community.
Some of our competitive processes are seen as requiring some further improvement, as does the need for managing our strategic priorities.
However, much of the areas flagged up for improvements were already being tackled by the council. One of these, the publication of our new Community Plan, took place shortly after the Best Value audit in 2006.
Moray Council Convener, Cllr George McIntyre, said that the Commission’s view that Moray Council’s rate of improvement is below that of 32 other Scottish local authorities should be seen in the context of the council’s elevated position in the league.
“Over the past 3 years Moray has consistently had the highest or second highest number of Statutory Performance Indicators in the top quarter of the chart, and during the same 3 year period has reduced the number of these SPIs in the bottom quarter of the league,” he said.
“These indicators are used by councils and the Scottish Executive to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of any service.
“In many areas of performance, such as housing, road maintenance and leisure facilities, we are consistently at the top of the chart.
“On balance, the report shows that the Moray Council has responded well to the challenges set down by the Commission, and we look forward to the next audit in June 2008 to clearly demonstrate the further improvements in the services we offer Moray.”
To see a copy of the full report log on to www.audit-scotland.gov.uk, or contact Peter Jones at Moray Council for a copy to be sent to you.