Strong performance and leadership at South Lanarkshire Council, but scope for greater openness

The Accounts Commission says South Lanarkshire Council performs very well. However it needs to review and amend its arrangements to accord with best practice in openness and transparency.

The report and findings are the first on Best Value and Community Planning at South Lanarkshire Council.

Chairman of the Accounts Commission, John Baillie, said:

“South Lanarkshire Council performs very well. The council displays many of the characteristics of best value. It benefits from strong leadership and clear direction. Services perform strongly and there are high customer satisfaction rates.”

The Commission is also pleased by the council’s clear strategic direction and priorities and its leadership on community planning, with many examples of partnership working showing positive results.

However, whilst recognising the council’s achievements, the Commission is keen to see further improvements. John Baillie continued:

“Given the strong performance of South Lanarkshire Council in many areas, the lack of scrutiny taking place in public is surprising and disappointing. Openness and transparency are cornerstones of good governance and the council needs to review and amend its arrangements to accord with best practice.”

Giving an example of where openness and transparency could be improved, the Commission says the council’s audit committee arrangements fall well short of established best practice.

The council needs to determine the role it wants area committees to fulfil as this is currently unclear. In addition the Commission is concerned by the extent to which vacancies in senior posts have been filled by internal appointment, it believes that all recruitment to senior posts should be open to external competition in order to be able to demonstrate that the best candidate has been appointed.

John Baillie concluded:

“South Lanarkshire Council has many elements of a culture of effective continuous improvement and we consider it to be well placed to enhance its current good performance by addressing the issues highlighted in the best value report as needing to improve.”

The council’s improvement work will be monitored through the routine annual audits.