Dundee City Council needs to increase the pace of change

Dundee City Council still needs to embed a culture of continuous improvement throughout its business and increase the pace of change. However services are generally getting better and there is evidence that citizens are more satisfied with the council’s overall performance.

The findings follow the Accounts Commission’s consideration of the Best Value 2 pathfinder audit report compiled by Audit Scotland. Dundee City Council is one of five local authorities that are part of the pathfinder process and this is the first of these reports to be published.

The Commission says that, although councillors need to give more leadership in the area of community planning, the council and its community planning partners have a good working relationship. This is having a positive effect on the quality of services and outcomes, such as better educational attainment and reduced crime, and citizens are more satisfied now with service performance than in 2005 when the first Best Value audit report was published. There have been significant concerns about some services such as housing and child protection, but the council and its partners are working to tackle these issues as a priority.

Chair of the Accounts Commission, John Baillie, said:

“We see encouraging signs which we hope result in the council being better placed to improve and ensure best value and we welcome the positive effect that the recently appointed chief executive is having.

“However, there has been over-reliance on inspection to drive improvement and change has been too slow in other areas. We are also concerned to note that there has been little progress in implementing a previous recommendation to stop the practice of having all councillors sit on all committees, because this does not encourage independence and improved scrutiny.”

The report notes that Dundee already faces significant demographic, economic and social challenges and there is a significant risk that the recession and tight public finances will affect the council’s ability to keep improving. The Council’s current approach will not be sufficient to meet future challenges. It needs to look more robustly at other choices of how it delivers services, become more outward looking in comparing its efficiency and effectiveness with other organisations.

Two new judgements have been introduced to the audit, on the direction and pace of change and on the prospects for future improvement. The judgements for Dundee are that it needs to improve more quickly and it has fair prospects for future improvement.

The issues identified in this report will inform the Assurance and Improvement Plan for the scrutiny of Dundee over the next three years. Local audit and inspection teams will continue to monitor progress.