Following a special meeting of Moray Council today (Weds 7 Oct) debating three critical reports on the council’s performance, the Conservative group on Moray Council say change must come fast. The reports, one from the Accounts Commission and two from the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, raised ‘serious concerns’ over the council’s performance.
Conservative group leader on Moray Council, Cllr Tim Eagle, said that councillors need to have a closer scrutiny of how senior managers are progressing a recovery plan.
“Moray council needs a fundamental change in culture, alongside change in how it uses performance data to drive improvement,” he said.
“I was surprised that some in the meeting passed these highly critical reports report off as OK, which indicates to me a complete lack of awareness of some of the issues we face.”
“There are some improvements being made but there is a lot of concern amongst staff about the vision and leadership at the highest levels of the council.”
“Councillors are bound by a code of conduct which forbids us from raising publicly any concerns over senior management, and this stymies open and transparent debate over such important matters.
“I will be writing to the standards commission to highlight that this clause is effectively stifling proper public scrutiny.”
“The Accounts Commission state that between 2015 and their recent Best Value report little has improved, yet over that time we as councillors have agreed the implementation of many strategies to improve the lives of our communities. I see little evidence that the majority of these strategies have been implemented with any great impact.
“This is not a purely political issue; senior management and councillors are duty-bound to work cohesively for the benefit of the community they serve. The added scrutiny we secured agreement to today, despite the SNP voting against our proposals, will go some way to maintain proper oversight of how the council’s management team are performing against the recovery plan.”
“It is the least our electorate would expect of us.”
Commenting on the SPSO reports Cllr Frank Brown (Elgin City North) said: “Following a career in social work spanning many years and councils I recognise some of the issues in the two SPSO reports debated today only too well.
“It is one thing to put in place actions based on the specifics of these reports but what is often missed is the high level themes that stem from them."
“Two of those themes for me were missed in the action plans. The first is ensuring our policies such as young people have a clear voice during casework are not just embedded with management but are actively monitored at all times. The second is ensuring that their is clear learning from the failures of the complaints handling process."
“I am delighted that other councillors also recognised these concerns and backed those calls today”
