ITEM BV11BEST VALUE COMMITTEE - 10 DECEMBER 2003AUDIT COMMISSION WHOLE SERVICE INSPECTION OF CULTURAL SERVICESReport of
Head of Cultural Services Purpose of Report1. To inform Members of the outcome of the Audit Commission’s whole service inspection (WSI) of Cultural Services in Oxfordshire, and to seek approval for an improvement plan based on the findings of the inspection. Background 2. In April 2003 the Audit Commission approached the Director of Learning & Culture with a view to piloting a “whole service inspection” for cultural services. This was to be one of four national pilots to assist the Commission in improving their method of assessing the contribution made by local authorities’ cultural provision to people’s lives, and specifically to derive a more meaningful “cultural score” for Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) purposes. 3. The Audit Commission did not prescribe the scope of the inspection, other than that they wanted to go beyond the existing “libraries and leisure” score which, for a County Council, relied heavily on the grading of the Annual Library Plan and inspection of Best Value Reviews (BVRs). They were more interested in the overall impact of cultural provision in the county and the quality of vision, rather than in the specific efficiency of individual services. The scope proposed by County Council officers and accepted by the Commission was to consider the impact (in decreasing order of weighting) of · services directly provided by Cultural Services (libraries, heritage, music service); · other County Council services contributing to the quality of cultural life (e.g. countryside, community learning, tourism); · activities carried out by partners influenced by the County Council (e.g. arts organisations, District Council museums, village halls). 4. The basis for judging the quality of vision was the Local Cultural Strategy, and the relationship to it of our own service plans, the Oxford Inspires bid for Capital of Culture, and partners’ plans. 5. The starting point for the inspection was the completion of a self-assessment. This was an intensive piece of work involving all Cultural Services senior managers, colleagues in other County Council services, and partners who were asked for their views. Evidence for the self-assessment was gathered from more than sixty different sources including service plans, performance data, results of public consultation and BVRs. 6. The self-assessment was used by the inspectors to establish their agenda for the inspection. They made a one-day pre-inspection visit at which they toured a number of facilities and activities provided by the Council and its partners. The on-site inspection itself lasted eight working days during which the three inspectors conducted one-to-one interviews and focus groups with Members, officers, partners and users. 7. The inspection judgement was in two parts: · How good is the service? · What are the prospects for improvement in the service? The latter was subdivided: · How good are the service’s plans for improvement? · Can the Council deliver its plans? Outcome of the inspection 8. The Audit Commission published their findings at the end of September. They judged that “Oxfordshire County Council provides good cultural services which have promising prospects for improvement.” This reflects a score of 3 (on an ascending scale of 1 to 4) on each of the three areas of judgement (current quality of service, quality of plans, and capacity to deliver). No aspect looked at scored less than 2 (adequate) and a score of 4 (excellent) was achieved for the Council’s capacity for and investment in improving services. A summary of the judgements is appended at Annex 1a (download as .rtf file). 9. The inspectors make a number of recommendations for improvement (Annex 1b) (download as .rtf file). One striking aspect of the inspection report is a strong similarity between its findings and the judgements included in our initial self-assessment. This is not to say the inspectors took our word for anything unchallenged – far from it – but it does suggest that the self-assessment benefited from a good deal of rigour and honesty, and that the inspection process allowed for proper testing of the self-assessment against relevant supporting evidence. Corporate implications 10. The inspectors’ judgements which relate to the organisational capacity of the County Council to support improvement in cultural services give some indication of “direction of travel” since the Council’s CPA inspection in 2002. The more detailed feedback given in the report will assist in identifying areas where performance – and supporting evidence – will need to be strengthened in preparation for the next CPA inspection. 11. Although the exact process whereby Oxfordshire’s score in this inspection will be fed into the next CPA scoring is not yet clear, it is expected that the outcome of the WSI can only enhance corporate prospects. 12. The method of whole service inspection is expected to be applied by the Audit Commission to other service areas in future, and the experience gained in the cultural services WSI will be of value in preparing for those. Implications for Cultural Services 13. The experience of participating in the WSI has already been of value in developing understanding and skills in self-assessment in Cultural Services and is also informing thinking more widely in Learning & Culture. A greater emphasis on the need to evaluate longer-term impacts of services on people’s lives, in addition to simply measuring the immediate performance of individual services has also emerged from the inspection. This is a complex and problematic area, in which easy measures and methods of recognising causal links between provision and long-term impacts are not readily devised. During and after the inspection this has been a matter of discussion with the Audit Commission, who freely acknowledge that there are few national role models to learn from. 14. The recommendations of the inspectors’ report (Annex 1b)(download as .rtf file). identify a number of areas for improving the organisational performance of Cultural Services. On the basis of these recommendations, an improvement action plan has been drafted, which identifies five key areas to be worked on during 2004/05. (See Annex 2 (download as .rtf file)). Under each key area a number of specific actions are proposed. 15. The Cultural Services improvement plan will complement the Cultural Services medium term plan, which is currently being updated in line with corporate guidance, the Oxfordshire Plan, the Learning & Culture medium term plan, and constituent service plans. Whilst the improvement plan focuses primarily on the organisational development of Cultural Services, the medium term plan will set out priorities for service delivery. Both plans will be regularly monitored by Cultural Services Management Team and progress reported as part of the performance management process. Financial implications 16. Actions in the draft improvement plan mostly require action by Cultural Services managers and are achievable within existing resources. The amount or frequency of some of the activities planned is constrained by available budgets. For example, effective public consultation is relatively expensive and Cultural Services has very limited budgets for this activity. Enhancements to the public experience of Cultural Services buildings depend significantly upon the level of capital funding available for minor works and other projects. RECOMMENDATIONS 17. The Committee is RECOMMENDED to: (a) note the outcomes of the whole service inspection of Cultural Services; and (b)
approve the draft improvement action plan at Annex 2 (download
as .rtf file). RICHARD
MUNRO Background
documents: http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/reports/BVIR.asp?CategoryID=ENGLISH^576^SUBJECT^115^REPORTS-AND-DATA^283&ProdID=502BB3B0-CB13-44ed-AAA7-64F3653E6B85&prodType=BVIR.) Annex
1a: Analysis of strengths and weaknesses from Whole Service Inspection
report. December 2003
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