The Scottish Executive must fundamentally change its way of working
if community planning partnerships are to become significantly more
effective, according to the Scottish Parliament's Audit Committee.
In a report out today, the Committee criticises Executive
departments for failing to work together. The Committee found that this
lack of co-ordination between departments is leading to a lack of
clarity about policy priorities and creating significant bureaucracy.
Community planning is the process through which public sector
organisations work together, with local communities, business and
voluntary sectors to identify and solve local problems, improve
services and share resources. Councils are required to establish
community planning partnerships to aid public services work together.
Convener Brian Monteith - who has just been suspended from the
Parliament for five days over another matter - said: "During this
inquiry the Committee saw how community planning can benefit
communities, helping to deliver better, more streamlined services that
meet people's needs."
"Obstacles to effective community planning can be overcome locally,
through creating a culture of trust, openness and commitment. However,
the potential of the community planning process is being undermined by
the failure of Executive departments to work together."
"This lack of collaboration means that community planning
partnerships are set too many priorities that are not effectively
linked. There are also too many different funding streams and
monitoring arrangements are overly complex."
"All this creates a burden for the agencies involved in community
planning. As a result too much effort and resource can be tied up in
managing community planning structures, rather than delivering the real
improvements needed by local communities."
The committee concluded that the Executive must improve joint working between departments.
The report recommends that the Executive ensure that policies are "joined up" and effectively prioritised; streamline funding; reduce the
monitoring and reporting burden on community planning partnerships; and
ensure that best practice from existing successful projects is rolled
out across Scotland.
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