Watchdog praise for progress at council

Report hails improvement

“It was a bit like getting a doing,” said South Ayrshire Council leader Bill McIntosh, when looking back to the authority’s damning Accounts Commission report in 2014.

The local government spending watchdog published a damning audit report on the way the council was run.

But things could not be more different today.

The Accounts Commission praised South Ayrshire Council’s progress, strong culture of improvement, leadership and improved governance and scrutiny in a new report published last week.

The commission’s findings feature in the council’s best value report, which the commission considered earlier last month.

The report says: “A strong culture of improvement is in place, built upon shared leadership by members and officers and improved relationships between elected members, demonstrated by the effectiveness of the best value working group and better scrutiny arrangements.

“The development of the senior management team has also been a significant contributory factor and there have been encouraging efforts by the council to learn from other organisations in finding new ideas and fresh thinking.

“It is imperative for the council to sustain its momentum so that it can meet its duty of best value and, in particular, address difficult decisions that lie ahead in reshaping council services in response to reducing resources.”

A previous report described “significant weaknesses” in strategic direction, leadership, performance management and scrutiny.

And the commission expressed serious concern about the authority’s ability to fulfil best value responsibilities and achieve continuous improvement.

Council leader Bill McIntosh and chief executive Eileen Howat met the Ayrshire Post last week to discuss the latest report.

Bill said: “The report made the point that everyone has worked together on this across the political divide to get the best value.”

Eileen pointed out: “In the original report we were criticised for the relationships between members and the relationships between members and officers.

“Things have improved to the point now that Douglas Sinclair, the chairman of the commission, is saying that other councils should look at what South Ayrshire Council have done.”

Turning back the clock to 2014, Eileen recalled: “There were suggestions before the report was published that maybe things weren’t quite as they should be.

“This council had a history of previously being given an audit report, reacting to it then letting things slip. There was a feeling that we had done the job and ticked the box and that was it, rather than keeping the positive momentum going.”

Bill came in for a lot of personal criticism at the time and he conceded: “It wasn’t pleasant at all. It was a bit like getting a doing.

“Back then there were good things being done but the joined- up culture which we have now just wasn’t there.

“People were doing good work and they were doing it well but it wasn’t being linked up to serve the people we are providing services for.

” Eileen and her team have worked that through and it’s now working really well, as the new report shows.”

Eileen pointed out: “Everybody has now seen how they fit into the process, how we deliver things and how we evaluate.

“The good thing is that everyone has bought into this. That’s made it so much easier and the people deserve praise for that.

“I wasn’t long in the post when the report was published and that was probably a good opportunity for me to see things.

“We had to change and we couldn’t go back to the way we were.

“We had to move forward and we commited to doing it.”

Bill said: “The management team brought in the right people. It was a tough time for Eileen, but she did that. We had to get on and address it.”

The commission reports the momentum of improvements at South Ayrshire will be helped by:

continuity in the stability of its leadership arrangements,

embedding its improvement culture further at all levels in the council,