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Best Value and Biodiversity in Scotland: A HANDBOOK OF GOOD PRACTICE FOR PUBLIC BODIES
APPENDIX 1
BEST VALUE PROCESS
Providing improved and cost-effective services
Since 1997 the Scottish Executive and local government have been working in partnership to develop a new comprehensive framework which better suits the needs of both central and local government: Best Value. The McIntosh Commission, reporting in June 1999, set a challenge "for local government to be more open, efficient and accountable", with statutory duty legislation being introduced through the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 (January) on local authorities.
For the purposes of this best value duty, "local authority" includes all Scottish councils and the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority. Section 14 of the Act provides that the duty to secure best value will apply to other bodies to which Part VII of the Local Government Act 1973 applies. These bodies are: Argyll, Bute and Dunbartonshire Criminal Justice Social Work Partnership Joint Committee; Authorities Buying Consortium; Ayrshire Valuation Joint Board; Central Scotland Fire Board; Central Scotland Joint Police Board; Central Scotland Valuation Joint Board; Clyde Muirshiel Park Authority Joint Committee; Dunbartonshire and Argyll & Bute Valuation Joint Board; Forth Estuary Transport Authority; Glasgow and Clyde Valley Joint Structure Plan Committee; Grampian Fire Board; Grampian Joint Police Board; Grampian Valuation Joint Board; Highland and Islands Fire Board; Highland and Western Isles Valuation Joint Board; Lanarkshire Valuation Joint Board; Lothian and Borders Fire Board; Lothian and Borders Police Board; Lothian Valuation Joint Board; Mudgdock Country Park Joint Committee; Northern Joint Police Board; Orkney and Shetland Valuation Joint Board; Renfrewshire Valuation Joint Board; Scottish Local Government Information Unit; Strathclyde Concessionary Travel Scheme Joint Committee; Strathclyde Fire Board; Strathclyde Joint Police Board; Tay Road Bridge Joint Board; Tayside Contracts Joint Committee; Tayside Fire Board; Tayside Joint Police Board; Tayside Valuation Joint Board.
These are committees, joint committees and joint boards where the members are appointed by local authorities, and charities for which the trustees are local authorities or their members. Ministers have given a commitment that legislation will be introduced at the earliest opportunity to ensure that all public bodies, including the Scottish Executive, are governed by a duty of best value. Until these statutory arrangements are in place, a duty of best value has been placed on Accountable Officers, though guidance (Scottish Executive (2003)
28). The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 also provides the necessary statutory guidance
29 for Community Planning and the authority to Advance the Power of Well-being.
30 Advice Notes
31 for Community Planning have also been published.
The Best Value Task Force (representatives from the Scottish Executive, CoSLA, and the Accounts Commission) set out the attributes of a 'Best Value Local Authority', which have now been fully accepted by Scottish Ministers.
From this, the essential attributes are agreed to be:
commitment to the approach and acceptance of the four key principles:
accountability
ownership
continuous improvement
transparency;
political and senior management leadership;
Performance Management and Planning Framework;
programme of reviews;
framework for Public Performance Reporting (PPR); and
commitment to equality issues.
The Scottish Executive states that:
"Our views on the need for greater competition do not mean that we expect to see every service being tendered, outsourced, or privatised. Our preference is for a 'mixed economy' where possible, by which we mean services being obtained/delivered in various ways: directly, in partnership, outsourced, or contracted. Each council must find
and justify the mix appropriate to its area for each service."
Public Performance Reporting (PPR)
PPR is a key aspect of best value, underpinning the customer-orientated culture that best value promotes and encouraging continuous improvement. The objective of PPR is to give the right people the right information at the right time, and in the right way. This affords stakeholders an opportunity to influence local authority priorities, resource allocation and performance.
Scrutiny
External independent scrutiny and communication between local authorities is crucial to the success of best value, ensuring progress is being made to identify and disseminate good practice. To avoid unnecessary levels of duplication a Joint Scrutiny Forum was set up to promote the co-ordination of the scrutiny process involved in best value in Scotland, and to provide a mechanism to share examples of good practice and effective methodologies identified in the course of the scrutiny. The development of best value has encouraged local authorities and other bodies to share experiences and develop effective approaches for dealing with common problems. It has also led to improved communication within a local authority as departments seek to build on the experience they are developing internally (BVTF, 1999).
External scrutiny - Accounts Commission
The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 establishes audit responsibilities for the Accounts Commission in relation to the provisions it contains. Through the work of Audit Scotland, new arrangements have been developed to audit the way local authorities are responding to the new duties. The Accounts Commission are building on existing audit arrangements although the new audit will have a greater emphasis on performance results and on the circumstances in which each individual local authority is operating. The audit process is now underway. Only a small number of local authorities will be audited in the first year, with their experiences being used to inform process development across Scotland.
Local authority submission
The key element of the audit will be that of self-assessment, where the local authorities will be asked to compile a submission assessing the performance of their services and setting out how they have addressed each of the best value criteria. This performance of main services will be balanced, reflecting the realities of finite resources and competing priorities. As well as successes, it should identify weaker areas in need of improvement. Ideally, measure and evidence will be drawn from existing performance management systems, and could include:
targets and actual performance;
trends;
benchmarking and other comparative information;
performance indicators;
performance against national standard or targets; and
service or business plan achievements.
Guidance supporting the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 will set out broad principles and goals, where the criteria are:
commitment and leadership;
competitiveness and trading;
responsiveness and consultation;
sustainable development;
sound governance and management of resources;
equalities;
review and option appraisal; and
accountability.
For each of the criteria, and for community planning, the local authority should set out its own management arrangements.
The local authority is then expected to set out action that it proposes to take to address any weaknesses that have been identified, which must be SMART. This draft Improvement Plan will be agreed at the end of the best value audit, and used as the basis for follow-up audits in subsequent years.
Reporting
Each best value audit will result in a report presented by the Controller of Audit to the Accounts Commission. The reports will be public documents. The main focus of the audit reports will be the local authority's own performance, not a comparison between authorities; the emphasis will be on trends within the local authority itself, and on the commitments made in the agreed Improvement Plans.
STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a structured and consultative process of appraisal, which focuses on identifying, quantifying and making judgements on the significance of environmental impacts of proposals contained in policies, plans and programmes. There are two strands to the recent development of SEA in Scotland. The European Directive on SEA came into force in Scotland in July 2004. The European Directive sets out a process for SEA for plans and programmes consisting of:
the production of an environmental report on the likely environmental effects of proposed plans and programmes;
consultations with relevant environmental authorities and the public;
taking the two points above into account in decision-making; and
provision of information to consultees on the final decision and how environmental considerations have informed it.
SEA is a matter for the public sector and will not apply to the business or voluntary sector (unless undertaking public duties).
The scope of the European Directive is likely to be restricted to a limited number of plans and programmes. It will certainly apply to development plans, community plans, National Park plans and aspects of the river basin plans required by the Water Framework Directive. In addition, as part of the Partnership Agreement
32 the Scottish Executive committed itself to legislation, which will secure SEA of all new strategies, programmes and plans developed by the public sector. This is a much wider ranging and significant undertaking than the European Directive, and will require all new strategies, plans, and programmes prepared by the Scottish Executive and its agencies (including SNH) to be subject to SEA.
The Scottish Executive will legislate to ensure that, in addition to the terms of the European Directive:
whenever a strategy, plan or programme is to be prepared and is likely to have significant environmental effects, an environmental assessment must be done and an environmental report published with the draft strategy, plan or programme;
the public are given a chance to comment and their views are taken into account when the final version is adopted; and
when the strategy, plan or programme is introduced, it is monitored for unforeseen environmental effects.
The environmental report must identify, describe and evaluate the likely significant effects on the environment of implementing the plan or programme, and any reasonable alternatives, taking into account the objectives and geographical scope of the plan or programme. As well as outlining the main objectives of the plan or programme, the relationship with other plans and programmes must be stated, together with aspects about the current state of the environment and its likely evolution without the plan or programme. When considering the likely significant effects on the environment of the plan or programme, issues such as biodiversity, population, human health, fauna, flora, soil, water, air, climatic factors, material assets, cultural heritage (architectural and archaeological heritage), landscape, and the inter-relationship between all those issues, must be considered. The short, medium and long-term effects, whether permanent or temporary, positive or negative, or secondary cumulative and synergistic, must also be considered.
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