Best Value Assurance Report North Lanarkshire Council Prepared by Audit Scotland May 2019 The Accounts Commission The Accounts Commission is the public spending watchdog for local government. We hold councils in Scotland to account and help them improve. We operate impartially and independently of councils and of the Scottish Government, and we meet and report in public. We expect councils to achieve the highest standards of governance and financial stewardship, and value for money in how they use their resources and provide their services. Our work includes: • securing and acting upon the external audit of Scotland’s councils and various joint boards and committees • assessing the performance of councils in relation to Best Value and community planning • carrying out national performance audits to help councils improve their services • requiring councils to publish information to help the public assess their performance. You can find out more about the work of the Accounts Commission on our website: www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/about-us/accounts-commission Audit Scotland is a statutory body set up in April 2000 under the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000. We help the Auditor General for Scotland and the Accounts Commission check that organisations spending public money use it properly, efficiently and effectively. Best Value Assurance Report: North Lanarkshire Council | 3 Contents Key facts 4 Commission findings 5 Audit approach 6 Key messages 8 Part 1. Does the council have clear strategic direction? 9 Part 2. How well is the council performing? 15 Part 3. Is the council using its resources effectively? 25 Part 4. Is the council working well with its partners? 30 Part 5. Is the council demonstrating continuous improvement? 36 Recommendations 42 Endnotes 43 Appendix. Best Value audit timeline 44 Links PDF download Web link Exhibit data When viewing this report online, you can access background data by clicking on the graph icon. The data file will open in a new window. 4 | Key facts Cumbernauld Stepps Airdrie Coatbridge Bellshill Shotts Motherwell Wishaw 181 square 340,000 12,300 77 miles Area Population Council Elected members workforce 33 Scottish Labour (number of full-time 31 Scottish National Party equivalent employees) 8 Conservative and Unionist 5 Independent £781 £209 £67 36,000 million million million Council houses 2019/20 2019/20 Budget gap revenue budget1 capital budget2 2019–24 1. Revenue budget covers day-to-day costs like wages, property repairs and maintenance and payments for goods and services. 2. Capital budget covers the cost of major projects such as schools, housing and town centre regeneration. Commission findings | 5 Commission findings 1 The Commission accepts the Controller of Audit’s report on Best Value in North Lanarkshire Council. We endorse the recommendations set out by the Controller of Audit in his report and expect the council to act upon them. 2 We are pleased that the council has progressed since the previous Best Value report in 2008. We commend the ambitious and well-articulated vision of the council and its partners in their ‘Plan for North Lanarkshire’. Realising this vision would lead to significant regeneration and change in North Lanarkshire, an area with some acute socio-economic challenges. 3 Good leadership, governance and planning will be crucial for the council in such delivery, and so we encourage continued effective working between elected members and officers. We underline the Controller’s recommendation that the council needs fully to implement its recently approved performance management framework, aligned to the plan for North Lanarkshire. We also expect to see progress in integrating workforce planning across the organisation and developing workforce plans for all services, involving working with its own staff, to reflect the expected scale and pace of change inherent in the council’s objectives. 4 We are pleased that the council is well placed to meet the financial challenges that it faces, with good financial planning and record of delivering savings. 5 We will maintain a particular interest in the benefits to North Lanarkshire of the council’s investment in its ‘DigitalNL’ ambition. 6 We are pleased that services across the council’s priority service areas are largely improving but we note the need for the council to maintain focus on underperforming areas. Housing services and educational attainment are two areas where we note particularly good progress. The council needs to understand better and learn from service user satisfaction information, particularly for care services. Ensuring good service performance information that is readily available and communicated well to citizens is also important. 7 A new community engagement strategy across North Lanarkshire Partnership will be an essential element for partners to take forward the ambitions of their vision. We also expect to see locality plans completed, especially given the emphasis placed by the council and its partners to a locality-based approach to their vision. This will help partners fulfil their obligations under the Community Empowerment Act. 8 The recent appointment of a new Chief Executive and changes to the corporate management team can help build the pace of improvement and change. Progress will be reported in the annual audit, and the Controller of Audit will update the Commission as appropriate. 6 | Audit approach 1. The statutory duty of Best Value was introduced in the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003. The audit of Best Value is a continuous process forming part of a council’s annual audit. Audit conclusions are reported through the Annual Audit Report, addressed to the Controller of Audit and the elected members. The Controller of Audit will also present a Best Value Assurance Report (BVAR) to the Accounts Commission at least once during the five-year audit appointment for each council. This is the first BVAR on North Lanarkshire Council. 2. This report seeks to provide the Accounts Commission with assurance on the council’s statutory duty to deliver Best Value. Councils should demonstrate Best Value by showing continuous improvement in how they deliver services. The pace and depth of this improvement indicates how well councils will meet their priorities in the future. Our work does not attempt to cover all the Best Value areas in the statutory guidance. The audit approach is proportionate and risk-based, that is, it reflects the context, risks and performance of the individual council. It also draws on information from previous years’ audit and scrutiny work. 3. In this report, we show how we assessed North Lanarkshire Council’s improvement over time and our conclusions are reflected in the Key messages (page 8). We did some initial work to identify risks and council initiatives to build into the scope of our audit. This included a scoping session with council officers, elected members and partner representatives. We also considered previous audit and inspection reports and intelligence, key council documents and our wider public sector knowledge and experience. 4. Exhibit 1 (page 7) shows the areas on which we decided to focus. Our detailed audit work was undertaken between November 2018 and January 2019 and included: • interviews with elected members, senior officers and partners • focus groups with elected members and staff from across the council • observing council and committee meetings and attending community events • document review and data analysis. 5. We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation and assistance provided to the audit team by elected members, officers and the council’s partner organisations. As part of the annual audit of the council, our future work will follow up the findings and recommendations in this report. It will also include more detailed audit work on other Best Value areas as appropriate. Audit approach | 7 Exhibit 1 Key areas of focus for our audit The audit considered a broad range of issues. Vision and strategic direction (Part 1, page 9) • North Lanarkshire Council’s vision and how this fits with the North Lanarkshire Partnership’s Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP) • Economic regeneration • Plans and potential impact of DigitalNL • Governance and scrutiny arrangements, including elected member and officer relations Performance (Part 2, page 15) • Overall progress on performance and outcomes • Developing performance reporting arrangements, including public performance reporting Use of resources (Part 3, page 25) • Financial position and future planning • Housing development plans • Workforce planning including the creation of ‘A Workforce for the Future’ Partnership working (Part 4, page 30) • Partnership working arrangements • Adult care services • Community engagement and empowerment Continuous improvement (Part 5, page 36) • Transformation Programme 2020 and key change projects • Arm’s-length external organisations service review • Progress against key judgements in 2008 Best Value report Source: Audit Scotland 8 | Key messages 1 The council has demonstrated improvement in most areas from the 2008 Best Value report. The council is currently in a period of change following the appointment of a new chief executive in September 2018 and has a new vision for the area. This has presented an opportunity to increase the pace of change. 2 The vision for the area, The Plan for North Lanarkshire, is ambitious and incorporates significant digital, town centre and housing transformation over the long term. A place-based planning approach underpins the vision, and this is reflected in the Local Development Plan for the area. The vision is supported by staff and partners, and detailed plans are being developed. 3 The council has improved performance across three of its five priority areas, but more than a quarter of service indicators are below target. Improvements in education attainment follow national trends. This is supported by initiatives such as ‘Club 365’ and investment through the Scottish Attainment Fund. Performance reporting has improved recently and a Strategic Performance Framework and reporting schedule is now in place. 4 Satisfaction levels have declined across some services, but they are very good in housing.