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Swindon's 3rd Corporate Performance Assessment Inspection says improvement is not happening
December 17, 2004 12:01 AM
Swindon Borough Council: "WEAK"
Swindon Borough Council's government inspection of services is announced on Thursday 16th December. The report says the pace of improvement has been too slow and overall results are mixed.
Cllr Chris Shepherd, Lib Dem leader (Freshbrook & Grange Park) said:
"It is disappointing that the ruling Tories have been found wanting in this important and crucial judgement of Swindon Council's performance."
"The councillors running Tory Towers are still criticised by Auditors for the third year in a row as taking a slow pace on the road to improvement. Of course with this being pantomime season, the Tories will cry: "Oh no it isn't" my reply would have to be "Oh yes it is!
"Liberal Democrat-run Islington London Borough has improved by two grades to 'GOOD', whilst Liberal Democrat-run Torbay has improved two grades to 'FAIR'.
Swindon Borough Council was graded as one of the worst councils in the Country in 2001 when Labour ran the Council. But when the Tories took control of the Cabinet in 2002 they promised improvement - but once again the Council was graded a poor local authority. In 2003 the Tory leader, Mike Bawden pledged that 2004 would be the year of delivery.
Cllr Shepherd continued:
"2003 and 2004 were pledged as the years of delivery by the Conservative-run Council. Well they have certainly delivered continued failure and incompetence.
"It is very clear that the only service which has improved is Education. But the Tories cannot take credit for this, as the service was privatised and is run by an external partner called Tribal.
"Both Social Care for Adults and Environment reduced in service quality in 2003, but have now returned to exactly the same place as they were in 2002,i.e. 'Satisfactory'.
"There is only one obvious conclusion from these statistics, and that is the Audit Commission have been very generous in awarding the Council a label of WEAK.
Comment from the Audit Commission:
- The pace of improvement has been too slow and, overall, results are mixed. It still has weaknesses in its corporate systems such as how it buys goods and services and manages its performance.
- Services for elderly, mentally infirm people and care services for people at home have improved, but child protection is still an area of concern. The benefits service is still poor and the council needs to tackle this urgently.
- Education for younger children (key stage 2) continues to improve but results for 14-16 year olds are still insecure.
*Swindon Borough Council needs to continue to focus on developing effective management and planning systems before there can be any real improvement in the services it provides to local people.
In December 2004 Swindon Borough Council received a measurement of 2 out of 4 for the way it is run.
Swindon Borough Council Service breakdown:
* Education service that was privatised, has improved.
* Social Care for adults dropped a scoring scale in 2003, but has now returned to its satisfactory standing of average.
* Social Care for Children has become worse
* Environment dropped as well in 2003, but has recovered to average again in 2004 - the same standing as 2002.
* Housing, Libraries & Leisure, Benefits and the uses of Resources are exactly the same grading as 2002.
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