When respondents were asked who was responsible for driving good governance at their organisation, the most common responses were the chief executive and the finance director (both 25%).
The head of legal/monitoring officer was named by 19% of respondents (up from 14% in 2012/13).
Other key findings from the report included:
46% of respondents said they considered backbench members had no real influence over decisions;
84% said their organisations were now using or considering alternative delivery models;
59% said the transition to police and crime commissioners had not had a positive impact on local partnership working arrangements;
42% saw no difference in local healthcare governance as a result of councils’ new public health role;
The annual accounts and annual governance statement continued to expand in length, “making them even more challenging for people to read and understand, impacting on local transparency and accountability”;
Only 30% of cabinet positions in local authorities were held by women, while over half the survey said members did not adequately reflect the demographic profile of the local population;
Most survey respondents named external audit as their main source of assurance on the governance framework, rather than internal audit. “This raises concerns that some internal audit functions are not sufficiently strategic and are not providing the broader assurance required in a complex and challenging environment.”
Paul Dossett, Partner and Head of Local Government at Grant Thornton UK LLP, said: “Though 15 years have passed since the introduction of scrutiny committees it’s clear that the system has been a mixed success. Nearly one in five of the councils surveyed said that they had returned, or were considering returning, to the traditional committee structure. This could turn out to be a backwards step for effective scrutiny.
“Scrutiny committees can offer a valuable ‘check’ to the executive. Potentially, they can also offer a fresh perspective by taking both a long-term view of strategic issues and ‘deep dives’ into vital areas of council operations. We know that some councils are doing this with great success so it’s important that those who are struggling receive support to improve their processes so that they are not tempted to fall back in to outdated methods of scrutiny.”
The Grant Thornton report is here:
Click to access Local-government-governance-review-2015-All-aboard.pdf
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