2007-2008 - Annual Audit and Inspection Letter - Hampshire CC v1.1
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Annual Audit and Inspection Letter Hampshire County Council Audit 2007/08 March 2009 Contents Key messages 3 Purpose, responsibilities and scope 5 How is Hampshire County Council performing? 6 The audit of the accounts and value for money 16 Looking ahead 20 Closing remarks 21 Status of our reports The Statement of Responsibilities of Auditors and Audited Bodies issued by the Audit Commission explains the respective responsibilities of auditors and of the audited body. Reports prepared by appointed auditors are addressed to non-executive directors/members or officers. They are prepared for the sole use of the audited body. Auditors accept no responsibility to: • any director/member or officer in their individual capacity; or • any third party. Key messages Key messages 1 The Council is performing strongly in the way it uses of its resources. The assessment by your auditor recognised further improvement this year in key areas such as external reporting, financial management and financial standing. The Council was also able to demonstrate that it was achieving good value for money in the delivery of its services. 2 Your auditor issued a positive conclusion on the Council's arrangements for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources for the year ending 31 March 2008 and an unqualified opinion on the Council's accounts for 2007/08. 3 The Council has accelerated its positive direction of travel this year ...
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| Publié par | Vuwyung |
| Nombre de lectures | 15 |
| Langue | English |
Extrait
Annual Audit and Inspection Letter
Hampshire County Council
Audit 2007/08
March 2009
Contents Key messages Purpose, responsibilities and scope How is Hampshire County Council performing? The audit of the accounts and value for money Looking ahead Closing remarks
Status of our reports The Statement of Responsibilities of Auditors and Audited Bodies issued by the Audit Commission explains the respective responsibilities of auditors and of the audited body. Reports prepared by appointed auditors are addressed to non-executive directors/members or officers. They are prepared for the sole use of the audited body. Auditors accept no responsibility to: any director/member or officer in their individual capacity; or • any third party. •
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Key messages
Key messages 1 The Council is performing strongly in the way it uses of its resources. The assessment by your auditor recognised further improvement this year in key areas such as external reporting, financial management and financial standing. The Council was also able to demonstrate that it was achieving good value for money in the delivery of its services. 2 Your auditor issued a positive conclusion on the Council's arrangements for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources for the year ending 31 March 2008 and an unqualified opinion on the Council's accounts for 2007/08. 3 The Council has accelerated its positive direction of travel this year and we have judged it as a 'four-star' council which is 'improving strongly'. It has improved its high quality services both in national priority areas and in the majority of those areas which are of concern to local people. In particular: • Children's Services are making good progress and have been rated by Ofsted as ‘good’ with ‘good’ capacity for further improvement; • the assessment of social care services for adults by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) showed that services have improved and are delivering ‘good outcomes’ with ‘excellent capacity for improvement’; • the Council is a top performer in reducing the amount of waste going to land fill and is effective in improving the environment and public access to the countryside; • crime levels are low in Hampshire and the Council’s contribution to ensuring that Hampshire is a safe place to live is strong and improving; the Council has worked effectively with partners to reduce road accidents; and • • access is improving through the Hants Direct contact centre which is delivering high quality and an improved volume of services across a wide range of social care and other services. 4 Capacity for further improvement is good. The Council has enhanced its corporate capacity and has developed a wide range of plans and strategies. Improvement plans or actions are in place to address identified areas of relative weaker performance and for further improvement, such as: • improving the attainment and attendance at school of looked after children and the numbers not in education, employment and training; • continuing to improve the stability of looked after children placements; and • reducing the number of teenage conceptions.
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Key messages
Action needed by the Council 5 The Council has strengthened its internal arrangements, has prepared ambitious plans centred on clearly articulated priorities and is well placed to take forward its challenging improvement agenda with confidence. It is therefore in a strong position to move forward. However, some of its plans are as yet unfulfilled and the Council needs to ensure that improvement plans remain on track to deliver the planned outcomes. 6 Key to this is the quality of performance management and information systems. The Council has plans to enhance these to include improved use of corporate value for money indicators and service value for money scorecards as key drivers of value for money improvement. I would urge Councillors to support and prioritise the roll out of these arrangements over the coming months. 7 The Council's plans involve the participation of other bodies, including the voluntary sector and other public sector providers. Successful outcomes will not only depend on the Council's performance alone as a self standing organisation but also on the combined contributions of each of the partnership bodies. Effective partnership working strengthening of engagement with key stakeholders remains a key challenge to the Council to make all partnerships work productively in Hampshire. This includes in community safety and crime and disorder reduction where new county wide partnership arrangements are developing. 8 Your auditor has reported that although the Council's Governance Committee operated effectively during the year as regards its wider governance capacity, there is an underlying risk that tensions could arise between the audit responsibilities of that Committee and the executive function due to the fact that this Committee comprises some Cabinet members.
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Purpose, responsibilities and scope
Purpose, responsibilities and scope 9 This report provides an overall summary of the Audit Commission's assessment of the Council. It draws on the most recent Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA), the findings and conclusions from the audit of the Council for 2007/08 and from any inspections undertaken since the last Annual Audit and Inspection Letter. 10 We have addressed this letter to members as it is the responsibility of the Council to ensure that proper arrangements are in place for the conduct of its business and that it safeguards and properly accounts for public money. We have made recommendations to assist the Council in meeting its responsibilities. 11 This letter also communicates the significant issues to key external stakeholders, including members of the public. We will publish this letter on the Audit Commission website at www.audit-commission.gov.uk. (In addition the Council is planning to publish it on its website). 12 Your appointed auditor is responsible for planning and carrying out an audit that meets the requirements of the Audit Commission’s Code of Audit Practice (the Code). Under the Code, your appointed auditor reviews and reports on: • the Council’s accounts; • whether the Council has made proper arrangements for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources (value for money conclusion); and • whether the Council's best value performance plan has been prepared and published in line with legislation and statutory guidance. 13 This letter includes the latest assessment on the Council’s performance under the CPA framework, including our Direction of Travel report and the results of any inspections carried out by the Audit Commission under section 10 of the Local Government Act 1999. It summarises the key issues arising from the CPA and any such inspections. Inspection reports are issued in accordance with the Audit Commission’s duty under section 13 of the 1999 Act. 14 We have listed the reports issued to the Council relating to 2007/08 audit and inspection work at the end of this letter.
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How is Hampshire County Council performing?
How is Hampshire County Council performing? 15 The Audit Commission’s overall judgement is that Hampshire County Council is improving strongly and we have classified Hampshire County Council as four-star in its current level of performance under the Comprehensive Performance Assessment. These assessments have been completed in all single tier and county councils with the following results. Figure 1 Overall performance of councils in CPA
Source: Audit Commission (percentage figures may not add up to 100 per cent due to rounding)
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How is Hampshire County Council performing?
Our overall assessment - the CPA scorecard Table 1 CPA scorecard
Element Assessment Direction of Travel judgement Improving strongly Overall Corporate assessment/capacity to improve 4 out of 4 Current performance Children and young people* 3 out of 4 Social care (adults)* 3 out of 4 Use of resources* 4 out of 4 Environment 4 out of 4 Culture 4 out of 4 (Note: * these aspects have a greater influence on the overall CPA score) (1 = lowest, 4 = highest)
The improvement since last year - our Direction of Travel report
Overall Performance 16 The Council continues to improve in all of its priority areas and in areas identified as in need of improvement. It has accelerated its improvement this year, particularly in transforming its adult social care services. Along side this it has continued to improve its high quality services both in national priority areas and in those areas which are of concern to local people. It has improved its use of resources and value for money score to the top level and maintained its four star status and ‘performing strongly’ rating. Against this background we have assessed the Direction of Travel since last year as being at the highest level - ‘Improving strongly'.
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How is Hampshire County Council performing?
17 The Council has improved its already good key services and strengthened its capacity and plans for further improvement. Hampshire’s Children's Services are making good progress and have been rated by Ofsted as ‘good’ with ‘good’ capacity for further improvement. The attainment of Hampshire schools' pupils continues to improve on an already high standard and children’s centres and fostering arrangements are developing well. The assessment of social care services for adults by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) showed that services have improved and are delivering ‘good outcomes’ with ‘excellent capacity for improvement’. The Council is a top performer in reducing the amount of waste going to land fill and is effective in improving the environment and public access to the countryside. The Council uses its resources and assures value for money very effectively; it has strong leadership and management, clear priorities, robust plans and good capacity to deliver further improvement. 18 The Council’s improvement against selected 2007/08 Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPIs) is at the average level when compared to other councils. Of those BVPIs selected for comparison, 61 per cent show improvement from last year. This is positive considering that 32 per cent of the Council’s BVPIs are in the best 25 per cent of all councils. Customer satisfaction with the Council is above average when compared to other councils. 19 The Council’s corporate strategy has three top-level priorities: Hampshire safer and more secure for all; maximising wellbeing; and enhancing quality of place. A brief assessment of the direction of travel against these three priorities follows.
Hampshire safer and more secure for all 20 This is the number one priority for the Council and for local people. Crime levels are low in Hampshire and the Council’s contribution to ensuring that Hampshire is a safe place to live is strong and improving. This contribution and commitment is evident through the Council’s funding (in the region of £1.7m per year), effective management and joint tasking with the police of its 47 Accredited Community Safety Officers (ACSOs). 21 ACSOs are making a positive impact by maintaining a highly visible presence targeted in key locations across the county and local people feel that their area is safer as a result. The impact of the ACSOs is evident from the growing number of incidents and actions that they are involved in, the subsequent reduction in anti social behaviour and importantly the public’s improving perception of crime and anti social behaviour. The Council has also delivered key safety initiatives through the work of its trading standards teams, such as no cold calling zones to protect vulnerable people from rogue and unwanted traders, and has taken positive action to reduce sales of alcohol to under-age people.
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How is Hampshire County Council performing?
22 Hampshire is one of the safest places to live with low crime and low fear of crime. The level of crime is reducing in all main crime types. In Hampshire the number of offences is down 9.1 per cent, the national reduction is 10.9 per cent. The rate of reduction in Hampshire is also less than the national rate in violent crime, burglary and motor vehicle theft. There is also some variation across the county’s districts in crime levels. The Council and partners are well aware of this and partnership working across the county to combat crime is good and strengthening. Additional resources have been used to good effect to reduce burglary. Alcohol related crime and the impact of the night-time economy is well understood and targeted. Innovative tools, developed locally, such as ‘CADDIE’ and ‘Simple2Start’ are being used effectively to analyse and focus resources down to street level. The police and council partners are in a strong position to be able to reduce further the already relatively low levels of crime. 23 The Council has worked effectively with partners to reduce accidents and its performance in improving road safety is strong. The number of people killed or seriously injured, or slightly injured, on Hampshire's roads is falling. In conjunction with the Safer Roads Partnership a ‘Village 30’ initiative is underway and new speed limits have been implemented in 39 villages. Other initiatives include delivering cycling training to an extra 2500 children this year, secondment of an officer from the Hampshire Fire and Rescue service to work in the Council’s road safety team, reprioritising safety engineering programmes through a weighting process to give greater emphasis to serious and fatal accidents and refining surface dressing techniques for improved casualty reduction. The Council has exceeded its LPSA stretch target to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured. Although still relatively high when compared to all county and unitary councils, due to the large size of the County, road casualty levels for fatal and serious casualties in Hampshire have fallen to their lowest level since 2004.
Maximising wellbeing Adult Social care 24 This year’s annual performance assessment of social care services for adults by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) showed that services have improved and are delivering ‘good outcomes’ with ‘excellent capacity for improvement’. Through good leadership and commitment from elected members the Council has been highly successful in delivering set objectives within budget. This is against a background of a significant overspend in 2006/07. Improving these services at the same time as saving money is an excellent example of the Council’s ability to improve services and value for money.
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How is Hampshire County Council performing?
25 Adult social care services have been transformed. An above average number of performance indicators are in the ‘best band’ when compared nationally. The Council’s performance in helping adults with a disability to live independently and its services for carers are very good. Community development workers offer a countywide focus on improving access to hard to reach communities and a community innovations team plays a key role in signposting those with low and moderate needs to services and support. The Council continue to maximise an individual’s ability to exercise choice and control by providing pertinent information about eligibility criteria, availability of local services, timely assessments and reviews. Although its performance in the provision of direct payments remains adequate it is below the average of similar councils. Children and Young People 26 Hampshire’s services for children and young people are rated by Ofsted as ‘good’ with ‘good’ capacity for further improvement. Ofsted’s 2008 annual performance assessment states that the Council consistently delivers good services and has made good progress in narrowing the gap between the most vulnerable groups and all children and young people. Outcomes are mostly better than in similar authorities. 27 The Council consistently achieves above average attainment in relation to national figures and good progress being made by the majority of children and young people. Educational attainment and school attendance is among the best in the country and 53.4 per cent of Hampshire pupils achieved five or more GCSEs grade A*-C including English and Maths this year compared with 51 per cent last year. 28 Good progress has been made in establishing children’s centres and locality working network across the county. Sixty children’s centres reaching 42,000 children aged under five are now in place, with work on track to deliver a further 25 centres, ensuring 100 per cent county coverage and reaching all under fives by March 2010. Health promotion work is effectively implemented and targeted. All schools are part of the healthy schools programme and 61 per cent have achieved enhanced healthy schools status. 29 The following areas are not performing as well as the Council would expect, although robust plans are in place to influence and address this: • attendance at school of looked after children and the proportion of looked after children leaving school with five or more GCSE at A*-C is lower than national averages; • the number of primary schools causing concern is higher than national averages and statistical neighbours and it is rising each year; • the number of teenage conceptions remains too high; • the proportion of looked after children not in education, employment and training is above statistical neighbours and the national average; and • the proportion of looked after children experiencing three or more moves is above average.
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How is Hampshire County Council performing?
30 The Council provides good and improving services for 16 to 19 year olds. The proportion of 19 year olds achieving Level 2 has increased and is now above the national average and there are an increasing number of students participating in work based learning. The number of young people including vulnerable groups in education, employment and training is above national averages. This year Connexions services have successfully transferred to the Council and plans to deliver the new 14-19 diplomas are progressing well.
Enhancing quality of place 31 The Council has made good progress in enhancing the local area and community services. Local people’s satisfaction with most services and the area is above average. 32 Hampshire manages its waste well. Performance in increasing recycling and reducing the amount of waste going to landfill continues to increase from an already high base Hampshire is the top performer nationally in landfill diversion with more than 84 per cent of waste recycled, recovered or composted. There has also been an increase in the number of tonnes of material recycled by schools and public sector sites in Hampshire this year from zero to 3,952 tonnes. The Council has delivered high quality development whilst maintaining a good focus on the environment and sustainability. This includes its strong focus on ensuring appropriate mineral extraction and in the delivery of housing in its strategic development areas. 33 Library service improvement is strong. Library visits have increased this year by more than 5 per cent. Mobile services and Discovery Centres at Gosport (opened in 2005) and at Winchester (opened in 2007) continue to deliver high quality services with good levels of user satisfaction. More than half of library buildings have undergone refurbishment in the last five years, including new buildings at Alton and Whitchurch and major works at many others including Romsey and Farnborough. This is part of a broader strategy which is having a positive impact on participation, wider community involvement and visitor numbers. This year a successful Summer Reading Scheme in libraries achieved excellent participation figures. 34 Access to the Hampshire countryside is improving through footpaths and rights of way improvement. A countryside access forum and countryside access plans are in place for the whole of Hampshire along with a countryside grants scheme which is improving local access to countryside in Parishes working in partnership with the local community and with volunteers. New accommodation blocks and facilities have been improved at Calshot, Tilebarn and the Welsh Mountain Centre. This is improving year round access to outdoor facilities and sports. 35 Access is improving through the Hants Direct contact centre which is delivering high quality and an improved volume of services across a wide range of social care and other services. Its performance as evidenced in its own rigorous performance management information is good. Out of hours services are now linked into the contact centre operations and the centre has improved longer open times. The development of refurbished office accommodation at Ashburton Court is providing value for money and is being used effectively by the Council as the catalyst to change how it works in line with its workstyle initiative.
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