Agenda item

Report of the Principal Auditor

The Panel received the report of the Corporate Director (Finance & Performance), which informed Members of progress in a ‘mapping’ exercise to determine the number, type and purpose of partnerships that the Council was involved in, and the ongoing development of a framework for evaluating and monitoring partnership performance and effectiveness.

The Principal Auditor reported that he was Project Manager for the Project Team, which had been established in October 2008 to undertake partnership mapping and evaluation work.  This had been in response to the recommendations made by the Panel at its meeting on 15^th July 2008.

The Project Manager and other members of the Project Team had met with Service Heads and lead officers involved in partnership working in December 2008.  The mapping exercise had successfully produced an up-to-date list of Council partnerships, which met the adopted definition, and were categorised into relevant types of partnership.

A scoring mechanism called the Partnership Assessment Scorecard (PAS) had been used to score the partnerships.  Scoring was based on the partnerships’ achievement in meeting corporate objectives and priorities.  The scoring would facilitate an appropriate level of treatment for each partnership, which reflected its impact on the Council’s overall service planning and delivery arrangements.

It was reported that 59 ‘significant’ partnerships had been identified, of which 23 had been scored as being of ‘major’ significance to the Council, 21 as ‘moderate’ and 15 with a ‘limited’ significance.  A table of the ‘significant’ Council partnerships was attached as Appendix A to the report.

Members were advised that the Community Safety and Museums partnerships had undertaken a pilot study of the Partnership Development and Evaluation Toolkit, which had been running concurrently with the mapping exercise.  The toolkit was aimed at testing the mapping exercise’s robustness and effectiveness in practice and informing the ongoing development of the performance framework.  There had been positive initial feedback from the pilot study, and the toolkit had enabled the partnerships to assess the effectiveness of current working arrangements and where improvements could be made.

It was reported that the Project Team would be undertaking a number of tasks over the coming months, which would include compilation of a register/database of all partnerships identified, and provide a central point of reference about their activities, purpose, governance and overall performance.  The register would help inform future decision making with regard to the Council’s continued involvement in individual partnerships and provide a method of ensuring that major partnerships reported annually on their overall effectiveness by means of assurance statements in support of the Council’s Governance Statement

The Project Team had identified a possible eight partnerships, which were highlighted in Appendix A to the report, which would be evaluated during 2009/10.  These had been endorsed by the Performance Management Group and Corporate Management Team.  It was suggested that the outcomes/action plans arising from the completed evaluations be considered by the Performance Management Group, and then scrutinized by the Budget and Performance Panel.  It was also requested that, as far as possible, the financial risks associated with the various partnerships be provided.

Resolved:

(1)        That progress on the mapping and evaluation of partnerships be noted.

(2)        That the evaluation during 2009/10 of the eight significant partnerships identified in the report be endorsed.

(3)        That the results and outcomes arising from the completed evaluations be reported to the Budget and Performance Panel for consideration and scrutiny.

(4)        That, in future, specific information regarding the financial risks associated with various partnerships be provided.