Scotland’s councils need radical change, says spending watchdog

Here’s an intersting piece of news have copied from this morning’s BBC news that you mind find of interest.

Scotland’s councils have “gone beyond the point” where making savings is enough to balance their books, a spending watchdog has warned.
The Accounts Commission said local authorities must radically change how they operate in order to maintain and improve the services they offer.
Auditors warn budget constraints and cost pressures are putting councils’ finances under “severe strain”.
Adult social care and housing are among areas of concern. These areas, along with environmental services and culture and leisure, are where a new Accounts Commission report concludes service performance was “at risk or declining”.
A “new deal” between the Scottish government and councils, which is aimed at allowing more long-term planning and could allow new local taxes, is “long overdue”, the report adds.

Council services across Scotland have been impacted by financial pressures in the last year.
In Aberdeen, campaigners have been fighting the closure of libraries and a swimming pool, while in West Lothian a number of leisure centres are earmarked for closure.
Tim McKay, acting chairman of the Accounts Commission, said local authorities need to have “open and honest conversations” with their communities and staff about how they will operate in the future.
He added:
“Councils have gone beyond the point where making savings is enough.
“If the change needed doesn’t happen now, some services will continue to get worse or deeper cuts will be made”.
“This will impact communities and individuals that are already at crisis point with the effects of inequality and persistently high poverty.”
The Audit Scotland report highlights how 23% of council budgets were ringfenced or directed for national policy initiatives in 2021/22 – up from 18% in the previous year.
This type of funding supports the delivery of key Scottish government policies but “it prevents councils from making decisions about how funds can be used at a local level, to meet local need”, the report adds.
Analysis by Audit Scotland shows spending on children’s services and adult social care has been protected and increased because of Scottish government policy directives over the last decade.
However, the remaining “unprotected” services have borne a “disproportionate level of spending reductions”, according to auditors.

The Scottish government has said it will review all ring-fenced funding as part of the delayed “new deal” for local government.
The Audit Scotland report calls for councils to be more transparent with the public about scale of demand, the extent of backlogs and the need to ration access to services.

Real terms changes in council expenditure over the last decade. . .

‘Increased cost pressures’

It also calls for a more collaborative approach between public bodies.
Shona Morrison, president of council umbrella body Cosla, said this was demonstrated during the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
She added: “The report also recognises the huge challenges councils face due to budget constraints, increased cost pressures and demand, and increases in directed and ring-fenced funding.
“As we have all seen, increasingly difficult choices are required about spending priorities and service provision, given reducing budgets coupled with growing demographic and workforce pressures.”
The Scottish Conservatives said urgent action was needed to avoid cuts to local services that would have a “devastating impact on our most deprived communities and the most vulnerable people living in them”.
The party called on the first minister to “come good on his promise of a New Deal for local government as soon as possible”.
Scottish Labour said the report “lays bare the scale of the crisis facing local government after years of cuts and centralisation by the SNPSNP The Scottish National Party is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence or secession from the United Kingdom and for Scotland's membership of the European Union, with a platform based on civic nationalism. and the Greens” and said the government should stop “robbing funding from communities”.
Local government minister Joe FitzPatrick said: “We recognise that the work of both local and national government is vital in delivering sustainable public services our communities rely upon.
“That is why the Scottish government is committed to working with Cosla to agree a ‘new deal’ for local government that promotes empowerment and provides greater flexibility over local funding with clear accountability for delivery of shared priorities and outcomes.”