The Audit Of Best Value And Community Planning For The Highland Council

The Audit of Best Value and Community Planning for The Highland Council, prepared by Audit Scotland for the Accounts Commission for Scotland, will be presented to members of the Council for their consideration at their next meeting on Thursday 4 May.

Convener Councillor Alison Magee noted the positive nature of the report, which commended the Council for its strong community engagement; well-established joint working with the voluntary sector, NHS Highland and other partners; and increasing public satisfaction with service. It also recognised the challenges faced by the Council in delivering services to the largest land mass of any Scottish local authority.

She also noted the recommended action which would form part of an improvement plan to be presented to the Council for approval. Many of the improvements noted in the report were also identified by the Council through its self assessment of performance carried out last year.  Work is in progress already on most of the improvement actions.

She said: "The comprehensive review of our performance has highlighted many examples of good practice and I am very pleased about comments in the report recognising the public’s enhanced satisfaction with our services during the current term of this council. We will endeavour to maintain and build upon this.  We acknowledge the constructive criticism that you would expect to find in an audit and will present an improvement plan to the Council on 4 May."

-Ends