Scottish Borders Council has made major progress but now needs to focus on service improvement
The Commission has today published its report into Best Value and community planning at the council. Commission chairman Alistair MacNish said: ‘Scottish Borders Council is an ambitious council and it has invested significantly in response to the findings of inspection and audit reports over recent years.
‘It has built its senior management capacity and has developed appropriate and effective political and management systems. Scottish Borders is an ambitious council that is realistic about its strengths and weaknesses.’
The Commission says the council has put in place many of the building blocks of Best Value, including:
- good arrangements for community planning and joint working;
- effective leadership and clear strategic direction by elected members and senior officers;
- leadership development for members and officers;
- effective scrutiny;
- open and transparent decision making.
Mr MacNish said: ‘Many of the improvements have come in recently. The council now needs to build on these to raise the quality of the services it delivers to its people.
‘In doing so, the council needs to focus on its capacity to deliver its own very ambitious improvement programme. There is currently a gap between the council’s current performance and its aspirations.’
The Commission has identified a number of areas where it believes the council should pay particular attention in developing an improvement plan. These are:
- lack of a clear strategy to manage the council’s assets;
- a fragmented approach to customer care;
- the need for its services to be more competitive;
- the need to increase the momentum in strategic procurement;
- prioritisation of roads maintenance and the deteriorating performance of the planning application service.
