Malcolm Bell

The quality of our public services, alongside value for money judgements, are key areas for the Accounts Commission’s work and reporting. Through our work, we spotlight areas of concern and underperformance, highlighting good practice that helps drive and deliver improvement.

We recently refocused our approach to auditing Best Value. As part of this, in the six months following the 2022 local government elections, we asked auditors to report on each council’s approach to delivering effective leadership in the development of their strategic priorities.

We found leadership had a clear vision, supported by revised priorities. Importantly, these priorities were informed by the views of citizens and communities. Most set out priorities for the next five years, with some looking to the next ten years. But setting a vision is the easier side of leadership – implementation is the challenge.

While councils have short-, medium- and long-term financial strategies and capital plans in place, the extent to which these are clearly aligned to priorities is mixed. As financial pressures tighten, this is of increasing importance.

It’s clear that councils need to drive transformation in how they deliver services. Financial pressures and increasing demand mean continuing as we are is not sustainable, and therefore not an option. Given how vital this is, over the next two years we will be reporting on workforce innovation, followed by transformation and change across Scotland’s councils.

In this context, the need for members and officers to work collaboratively is critical. As budgets tighten and ever harder decisions are needed about where to allocate resources, working relationships need to be constructive and productive to ensure difficult decisions are made.

Alongside this, and as we recently emphasised, we’ve encouraged councils to ensure that engagement with communities is meaningful, that they’re open about the financial pressures they face and reasons for low take up in engagement opportunities are explored. Meaningful community empowerment has been a long-standing focus for the Accounts Commission. Principles for community empowerment and Community empowerment: Covid-19 update

As we’ve been reporting in our Best Value reports, ongoing training and support for councillors is vital. This is needed now more than ever, given the often-challenging decisions needing to be made. Councillors need to take personal responsibility for their development, taking full advantage of training opportunities available to ensure they have the skills required for effective scrutiny and decision making.

There has been significant change among senior officers, with some councils facing concerning levels of recruitment and turnover challenges in leadership and financial posts. Effective workforce planning, together with training, is needed to address capacity and capability challenges. We highlighted this in our 2023 Local Government Overview report, making clear that workforce planning must improve so that councils have the staff, skills and leaders needed to bring about change and create a resilient workforce for the future. And our thematic report in 2025 will focus on workforce innovation.

With escalating challenges facing councils, it makes more urgent the need for those in charge to take determined decisions and deliver on the fundamental changes needed. Failing to do so, risks the ability of councils to realise the fundamental changes needed to protect services.

Malcolm Bell is member of the Accounts Commission