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

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Exhibit 7<br />

<strong>Renfrewshire</strong> Women <strong>and</strong> Children First<br />

The project was established to address a number <strong>of</strong> issues identified by <strong>the</strong> Scottish Executive about<br />

services for victims <strong>of</strong> abuse including:<br />

• Ad hoc <strong>and</strong> disjointed services.<br />

• Services which were confusing <strong>and</strong> inaccessible to most women.<br />

• Organisations lacking responsiveness to victims <strong>of</strong> abuse when <strong>the</strong>y seek help.<br />

The project <strong>of</strong>fers an accessible ‘one stop shop’ service for women <strong>and</strong> children affected by violence. It<br />

also has a role to raise awareness <strong>and</strong> to encourage a strategic, multi agency response to tackling violence<br />

against women <strong>and</strong> children.<br />

The project is supervised by <strong>the</strong> Social Work department. Glasgow Rape Crisis <strong>and</strong> Children 1 st , health,<br />

education, police <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> voluntary sector, are also involved. Clients are encouraged to provide feedback<br />

on <strong>the</strong> service <strong>the</strong>y have received. The evaluation process runs throughout <strong>the</strong> period <strong>of</strong> support <strong>and</strong> ends<br />

with an evaluation form. Feedback from clients informs policy <strong>and</strong> procedures.<br />

Output <strong>and</strong> outcome targets are set annually. Partners are involved in discussions about <strong>the</strong> outputs <strong>and</strong><br />

outcomes for <strong>the</strong> project. These discussions inform <strong>the</strong> next operational plan. There are no sources <strong>of</strong><br />

baseline information for this type <strong>of</strong> project, however referral data is scrutinised <strong>and</strong> year-on-year uptake<br />

<strong>and</strong> long-term engagement are steadily increasing. Outputs recorded relate to <strong>the</strong> volume <strong>of</strong> activity across<br />

<strong>the</strong> main services provided by <strong>the</strong> project toge<strong>the</strong>r with information on <strong>the</strong> experience <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> service user.<br />

The project has successfully developed systems where output <strong>and</strong> outcome targets can be monitored <strong>and</strong><br />

audited without breaking confidentiality, <strong>and</strong> which can identify that resources are being targeted to priority<br />

areas.<br />

The project is currently working towards achieving a charter mark.<br />

Source: <strong>Renfrewshire</strong> <strong>Council</strong>, <strong>Audit</strong> Scotl<strong>and</strong>.<br />

Reporting to <strong>the</strong> public<br />

The council has well-presented <strong>and</strong> readable performance reports. Like many councils, it could be<br />

more balanced in what it reports to <strong>the</strong> public. Mechanisms for publicly reporting on community<br />

plan progress also need to be established.<br />

58. The council reports its performance to <strong>the</strong> public through a range <strong>of</strong> readable <strong>and</strong> informative<br />

publications. It holds a platinum award from <strong>the</strong> Plain English campaign. This is <strong>the</strong> highest level <strong>of</strong><br />

award <strong>and</strong> signifies that at least 100 documents bear <strong>the</strong> Crystal Mark for clarity. All reports <strong>and</strong><br />

documents examined during <strong>the</strong> audit, including <strong>the</strong> council’s board reports, were well written <strong>and</strong><br />

easy to underst<strong>and</strong>.<br />

59. The most prominent council publication is <strong>the</strong> <strong>Renfrewshire</strong> magazine which is issued quarterly to all<br />

households. It provides useful news on council services <strong>and</strong> initiatives, such as recycling <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

development <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> customer service centre. Each edition also includes <strong>the</strong> ’How are we Doing’<br />

feature which presents performance reports from two departments <strong>and</strong> covers all council services<br />

22

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