Scrutiny coordination provides better targeted audit and inspection of councils

The second Local Government National Scrutiny Plan has been published today. Prepared by the main organisations responsible for scrutinising Scotland’s councils, the activity timetable shows strategic scrutiny work for the financial year 2011/12, looking at each council overall and its key services.

The plan is based on risk assessments of each council and agreed local and national priorities. The number of separate pieces of audit or inspection work has dropped by a third compared to last year.

Accounts Commission chair, John Baillie said,

“The time spent on this work is reducing due to improved coordination and sharing of information across the scrutiny bodies, providing a clearer picture of risks. Councils are also doing more to assess their performance and we welcome this.

“Activity within each council is more proportionate and risk-based. Over the past few years, visits and inspections have generally become quicker, more focussed, and involve fewer inspector days on-site in councils.”

A quarter of the work currently planned for 2011/12 is being undertaken at the request of councils themselves, as they see it as a useful tool for improvement. Many provided better information for consideration in drawing up this year’s plan, enabling scrutiny bodies to scale back their workload.

Government ministers have selected child protection and fostering and adoption services as key priority services for scrutiny work. Many councils will experience fieldwork in these areas. This reflects the on-going focus on the national risk priority concerning the protection and welfare of vulnerable people.

The National Scrutiny Plan for Local Government is supported by Assurance and Improvement Plan Updates for each of the 32 councils. These local plans set out in more detail the reasons behind the planned scrutiny activity for each council.