Annual Improvement Report City and County of Swansea Issued: July 2013 Document reference: 241A2013 About the Auditor General for Wales The Auditor General is independent of government and is appointed by Her Majesty the Queen. He leads the Wales Audit Offi ce and is held accountable by the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly for the Wales Audit Offi ce’s work. The Auditor General is the external auditor of the Welsh Government and its sponsored and related public bodies, the Assembly Commission and National Health Service bodies in Wales. He also appoints the external auditors of Welsh local government bodies, including unitary authorities, police, probation, fi re and rescue authorities, national parks and community councils. The Auditor General’s appointed auditors are responsible for the annual audit of nearly £5.5 billion of funding that is passed by the Welsh Government to local government in the form of general and specifi c grants. Local government, in turn, raises a further £2.1 billion through council tax and business rates. As well as carrying out fi nancial audit, the Auditor General’s role is to examine how public bodies manage and spend public money, including achieving value in the delivery of public services. The Wales Audit Offi ce aims to make public money count, by promoting improvement, so that people in Wales benefi t from accountable, well-managed public services that offer the best possible value for money. It is also committed to identifying and spreading good practice across the Welsh public sector. This Annual Improvement Report has been prepared on behalf of the Auditor General for Wales by Steve Barry and Samantha Spruce under the direction of Group Director, Jane Holownia. 2 Annual Improvement Report - City and County of Swansea Contents Summary report and proposal for improvement 4 Detailed report Introduction 7 The Council is improving performance whilst taking steps to improve the culture of self-evaluation and is going through a period of change in senior management and scrutiny arrangements 8 The Council is making steady progress in delivering improvements in many of its priority areas but signifi cant challenges remain, notably to improve recycling levels and maintain quality of care for both children’s and adult services 8 The Council’s approach to self-evaluation is improving and it is taking positive steps to report an accurate picture of performance to citizens 20 The Council’s arrangements for planning and supporting improvement are generally sound and it is managing a period of change in senior management and scrutiny arrangements 25 Appendices Appendix 1 Status of this report 31 Appendix 2 Useful information about the City and County of Swansea 32 Appendix 3 Appointed Auditor’s Annual Audit Letter 34 Appendix 4 City and County of Swansea’s improvement objectives and self-assessment 37 3 Annual Improvement Report - City and County of Swansea Summary report 1 Each year, the Auditor General must • The Council is continuing to improve report on how well Welsh councils, fi re and children’s services and has made rescue authorities, and national parks are good progress in some key areas, but planning for improvement and delivering the number of looked-after children their services. Drawing on the work of remains comparatively high and poses a the relevant Welsh inspectorates, as well signifi cant challenge. as work undertaken on his behalf by the Wales Audit Offi ce, this report presents a • The Council met all of its targets and picture of improvement over the last year. improved in all of the measures it uses to The report is in three main sections, which determine progress to improve learning cover the City and County of Swansea’s (the outcomes. Council) delivery and evaluation of services • Whilst the Council has improved the in relation to 2011-12, and its planning of amount of waste being recycled, the improvement for 2012-13. rate of improvement is slow. The Council 2 Overall the Auditor General has concluded will struggle to meet future Welsh that: The Council is improving performance Government targets and may incur whilst taking steps to improve the culture signifi cant fi nancial penalties as a result. of self-evaluation and is going through a • The Council has had some success in period of change in senior management and engaging people in its projects to improve scrutiny arrangements. people’s employability but their impact 3 In part one of our report we conclude that has been limited and unemployment the Council is making steady progress in levels remain higher than the Welsh and delivering improvements in many of its UK averages. priority areas but signifi cant challenges • The Council’s arrangements for remain, notably to improve recycling administering housing benefi t are levels and maintain quality of care for both supporting improvement; current children’s and adult services. We came to processes should ensure that timely and this conclusion because: accurate payments are made to the right • The Council is progressing with people, and the service is effective and transforming the way it delivers adult responsive. social services, and whilst there has • The Council has made good progress to been improvement in many areas, some ensure all its web pages and signage are key challenges remain as the level and bilingual but there have been delays in complexity of demand increases. fi nalising the Linguistic Skills Framework. 4 Annual Improvement Report - City and County of Swansea 4 In part two, we conclude that the Council’s 5 Finally, in part three of the report, we approach to self-evaluation is improving concluded that the Council’s arrangements and it is taking positive steps to report an for planning and supporting improvement accurate picture of performance to citizens are generally sound and it is managing a We came to this conclusion because we period of change in senior management found that: and scrutiny arrangments. We came to this conclusion because we found that: • The Council has discharged its improvement reporting duties under the • The Council is likely to comply with the Local Government (Wales) Measure requirement to make arrangements to 2009 (the Measure). However, it should secure continuous improvement during ensure that it acts more in accordance this fi nancial year. with Welsh Government guidance. • The Council is managing changes to • The Council is improving the breadth its senior management structures and of information used to evaluate its scrutiny arrangements. performance, which once embedded, will enable the Council to better illustrate • The Council has taken steps to outcomes for citizens and communities. address issues in the governance of its planning service that led to a statutory • The Council’s performance management recommendation in 2011. arrangements are well-embedded but further work is needed to better align • The Council has developed a Human business plans and improvement Resources (HR) and workforce objectives. strategy but progress to address our recommendations following our HR • The Council has effective arrangements review two years ago has been slow in place to collect, record and monitor as the Council still needs to focus its performance information. resources on implementing a new pay and grading structure. • The Council continues to manage its fi nancial challenges effectively. However, councillors face some tough decisions to address the forecast funding gap over the next four years. 5 Annual Improvement Report - City and County of Swansea Proposal for improvement Proposals for improvement P1 Improve performance reporting as required by the Measure by: • comparing performance with previous years, with other comparable bodies and including greater use of qualitative information such as benchmarking data; • including details of whether a collaborative activity has achieved its intended outcomes in addition to an account of the ways in which the Council has exercised its powers of collaboration; and • explaining the Council’s views on its success in achieving each of its improvement objectives. 6 Annual Improvement Report - City and County of Swansea Detailed report HeadingIntroduction 1 6 Under the Measure, the Auditor General 8 Given the wide range of services provided must report each year on how well Welsh and the challenges facing the Council, it councils, fi re and rescue authorities, would be unusual if we did not fi nd things and national parks are planning for that can be improved. The Auditor General is improvement and delivering their services. able to: Appendix 1 provides more information about the Auditor General’s powers and duties • recommend to Ministers of the Welsh under the Measure. With help from Welsh Government that they intervene in some inspectorates, Estyn (for education) and way; the Care and Social Services Inspectorate • conduct a special inspection and for Wales (the CSSIW), we have brought publish the report with detailed together a picture of what each council or recommendations; authority in Wales is trying to achieve and how it is going about it. This report also • make formal recommendations sets out the progress the Council has made for improvement – if a formal since the Auditor General published his last recommendation is made the Council annual improvement report, drawing on the must respond to that recommendation Council’s own self-assessment. publicly within 30 days; and 7 We do not undertake a comprehensive • make proposals for improvement – if we annual review of all Council arrangements make proposals to the Council, we would or services. The conclusions in this report expect it to do something about them and are based on our cumulative and shared we will follow up what happens. knowledge, and the fi ndings of prioritised work undertaken this year. 9 We want to fi nd out if this report gives you the information you need and whether it is easy to understand.