Renfrewshire Council: the Audit of Best Value and ... - Audit Scotland

Responding to the needs of Renfrewshire
The council has in place effective consultation arrangements. It consults extensively and has in
place a corporate consultation strategy. The council has however acknowledged that the growth in
its consultation activities, particularly as a consequence of the implementation of Charter Mark and
other quality mechanisms, would benefit from a more strategic corporate review. There also
remains further scope to strengthen and build its relationship with the voluntary sector.
45. The council has a consultation strategy in place and uses a number of methods to consult and involve
citizens and communities. The council’s strategy mainly comprises guidance on using different types
of consultation and there is potential for the strategy to set out more explicitly how these various
consultation exercises, with different communities, are intended to contribute to the council’s policy
and decision-making processes.
46. The Public Services Panel, established in 1998, gauges views from over 2,000 local residents on a
range of high level policy issues. The panel is balanced and refreshed on a regular basis to ensure it
is representative of the local community. The panel has a high profile, both within the council and in its
dialogue with its citizens through, for example, the municipal magazine Renfrewshire.
47. Services consult users both in setting priorities and in designing services. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate
of Education (HMIE) has commented favourably on the wide range of approaches to seeking and
responding to the views of different interest groups on the education service. Other examples of
effective consultation include involving service users in redesigning mental health and learning
disability services in social work and well developed approaches to tenant participation in developing
housing services, such as regular tenant forum meetings.
48. The council recognises that the volume of its consultation activity has continued to grow and that a
key factor in this has been the use of the charter mark mechanism to support the development of the
council’s continuous improvement culture. A more corporate and strategic mechanism to help the
council assess the value that it gains from such a wide range of activities would help to better focus its
future consultation initiatives. The council has recently established a corporate consultation database
with the aim of maximising the effectiveness of its consultation activity in the future.
49. The council, with the community planning partnership, is developing local community planning forums
to help take forward a structured approach to involving local communities in decision-making. There
are six forums based on local areas. The council intends that these will play an increasing role in its
efforts to engage with communities. Results from a survey of people participating in community
planning, conducted as part of the audit, suggest that the council could do more to engage with
communities. In light of this the council should consider how it can better publicise and develop the
role of the area forums. Work is underway to develop the skills and capacity within the community and
18