Cllr. Paul Hartshorn to raise the following question to Cllr. Terry Richardson – Leader of the Council:
"What steps are the Executive taking to ensure it is delivering Best Value for residents based on the new May 24 framework. How is Best Value measured and reported at Blaby District Council?"
Minutes:
Cllr. Paul Hartshorn raised the following question,- to Cllr. Terry Richardson – Leader of the Council:
"What steps are the Executive taking to ensure it is delivering Best Value for residents based on the new May 24 framework. How is Best Value measured and reported at Blaby District Council?"
Cllr. Terry Richardson – Leader of the Council responded:
“Can I thank Cllr Hartshorn for the question as it gives me the opportunity to explain to Members and the public all of the fantastic work that we do to ensure Best Value.
The statutory guidance on Best Value was issued by the Secretary of State for Levelling up, Housing and Communities in May 2024 and we take great care to ensure we follow the good practice within that guidance.
Best Value requires authorities to “make arrangements to secure continuous improvements in the way in which its functions are exercised, having regards to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness”. In practice this covers how authorities set a balanced budget, provide its statutory services and how it secures value for money on all spending decisions.
The statutory guidance provides greater clarity to the local government sector in England on how to fulfil the Best Value Duty by describing what constitutes best value, the standards expected and the models of intervention at the Secretary of State’s disposal in the event of failure to uphold these standards.
The Best Value Guidance sets out 7 overlapping themes of good practice which if followed should show that an authority is meeting and delivering its obligations.
· Continuous Improvement
· Leadership
· Governance
· Culture
· Use of Resources
· Service Delivery
· Partnership and Community Engagement
Below each of these themes are examples of good and bad behaviours which local authorities can assess themselves against.
We continuously assess ourselves against this tool, to identify any gaps in governance we need to address. As I am sure Members are aware, the LGA has also published a new improvement and assurance framework, designed to help councils check that they have the right controls in place and identify where they need to become more effective.
The framework promotes transparency and being open to external challenge such as a corporate peer challenge, and having political and managerial leadership which visibly prioritises ‘doing the right thing’. At Blaby District Council we invited a Corporate Peer Challenge in 2023, took action to address the issues raised and welcomed a subsequent six-month review which considered our progress.
Examples of our additional assurance activities include:
· An annual review of the effectiveness of the council’s controls and governance in the production of the Annual Governance Statement.
· Regularly reviewing performance, finance and risk information, through the Senior Leadership Team, Council, Cabinet Executive, Audit and Corporate Governance Committee and the Scrutiny Commission.
· Ensuring that both members and officers have the skills they need for their roles by offering comprehensive training programmes utilising internal and external resources
· Focused and constructive challenge by Scrutiny Commission and the Working Groups of decisions and policy development
· Oversight and challenge of arrangements for risk, internal and external audit by the Audit and Governance Committee
The external auditors Report on Value for Money as part of their Audit which is one of the ways we might measure and report on Best Value generally and not just in reaction to the 2024 Framework. Our outgoing external auditors (Ernst & Young) have provided their commentary on the three outstanding audit years only recently (2021,2022 and 2023) and this report has been shared publicly through reports presented to the Audit and Governance Committee. No concerns were raised by Ernst & Young regarding the three areas that are reported on within the VFM report which are:
· Financial sustainability: How the Council plans and manages its resources to ensure it can continue to deliver its services
· Governance: How the Council ensures that it makes informed decisions and properly manages its risks
· Improving economy, efficiency and effectiveness: How the Council uses information about its costs and performance to improve the way it manages and delivers its services
· Azets, our current external auditors have provided an interim view on VFM reporting for the financial year 2023/2024 and reported no concerns to the Audit and Governance Committee held on the 5th February. A more in-depth commentary will be provided in their Auditor Annual Report due at the end of March 2025.
· Ongoing Self Assessment utilising the LGA tool.”
The Chairman, Cllr. Nick Chapman adjourned the meeting at 18:53 to allow a comfort break. The meeting reconvened at 19:05