Training on Value for Money
Minutes:
The Board were advised by the Executive Director (Finance & Corporate Resources) that the Council was currently looking at the integration of the Financial Plan, efficiencies and transactional measures and explained what Value Form Money (VFM) meant to the Council, residents’ expectations and the need for residents to see that the Council was providing VFM.
The Executive Director (Finance & Corporate Resources) gave background information on the Audit Commission rating system for VFM and advised that the Council was currently rated 2 out of 4, the highest rating being 4 and was hoping to progress to 3 at the next inspection. Examples were given of other authorities who had received high ratings, including authorities who were also moving towards Shared Services. The Executive Director (Finance & Corporate Resources) confirmed that this rating was based on information provided for 2008/09 and therefore many of the issues raised had already been addressed.
The Executive Director (Finance & Corporate Resources) gave information on, and Members discussed, the following items which had been raised by the Audit Commission:
Members discussed how the Council was not good at publishing success stories and the Director of Policy, Performance and Partnerships agreed that the Council could make better, more positive use of the media. This could be done by reviewing the current Communications Planner and planning further ahead what the Council was able to communicate to the public and what opportunities the Council had available to promote these. It was confirmed that this was being considered as part of the Scrutiny Task Group, Improving Residents’ Satisfaction, as a recommendation.
The Executive Director (Finance & Corporate Resources) advised that a trend analysis would be prepared to measure a number of areas per department with red, amber and green indictors to pick up key issues to enable the Council to monitor these.
Members then discussed residents’ negative perception of the Council and how it would be possible to turn this view around. The Director of Policy, Performance and Partnerships advised that the Council needed to continue the promotion of services through such schemes as the Budget Jury and U Decide and also more positive publicity through the local media about what the Council were doing, either by articles in the press or via “wrap rounds” providing information on specific topics. The Council had already begun to work towards this by producing the Older Peoples Directory and Members discussed the possibility of using the Council website to reach a wider audience for the Budget Jury. Members shared the view that this would be a continual process year on year in order to show residents that the Council Tax they paid was well spent and value for money.