Accounts Commission Annual Report 2022/23
Chair's foreword
Local government is operating in the most challenging landscape we’ve ever seen.
In this context, our work in providing independent assurance and scrutiny to communities, the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government, is more important than ever. Throughout our reporting we highlight examples of good practice, identify areas of under-performance, highlighting how improvements can be made.
On behalf of all members of the Accounts Commission I would like to thank colleagues from across Audit Scotland, alongside staff from our appointed auditors, for their professionalism and ongoing commitment to supporting our work.
Tim McKay, Deputy Chair of the Accounts Commission
Download our report for full statement and Audit Scotland's Annual Report for financial statements.
Who we are
The Accounts Commission reports in public on how your council and other local government bodies are performing, helping improve the services we all use. We are independent from councils and the Scottish Government.
Our work includes:
- securing and acting upon the external audit of Scotland's councils, Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) and other joint boards and committees
- assessing the performance of councils in relation to Best Value and community planning
- carrying out national performance audits and related work to help councils and IJBs improve their services
- requiring councils to publish information to help the public assess their performance.
Our impact
This year's reporting on Best Value showed progress councils have made against our four priorities.
Both our annual audit work and Best Value reporting is helping deliver improvements across councils.
You can find our reports and related outputs on our website.
In September 2021 we published our Strategy for 2021-26, setting out our priorities for the next five years, alongside the principles used to shape our reporting. We will continue to use our statutory powers to shine a spotlight on inequalities, funding and the financial sustainability of local government, recovery from the pandemic and local government's relationship with its communities.
Reporting on individual bodies
Councils have a duty to demonstrate Best Value - essentially continuous improvement in how they deliver services and use public money. Over the past six years the Commission has received a BVAR on all 32 councils.
In our final year of Best Value reporting, we reported on three individual councils:
Local government overview reports
Last year we published a shorter, sharper financial bulletin to help inform councils' budget setting. This supported our wider Local Government Overview published in Spring. Through these reports, we looked ahead to longer-term impacts on the finances for councils as well as the economy, communities and public services.
National reports
We published six reports on national thematic issues.
Blogs
Alongside our reporting during 2022/23, we published eight blogs to support discussion, raise awareness and support improvement.
- Our Strategic Alliance - one year on
- Additional support for learning – the gap between ambition and reality for our children
- Local bodies continue to face a challenging and uncertain future
- Inequalities in Scotland: A growing crisis of harms
- Why Best Value matters, now more than ever
- Assurance and scrutiny - reporting on the vital role of Scotland's housing benefit services
- Encouraging progress on education data but still a long way to go
- Learning the lessons of Covid-19 has never been more important
Read more about our year in the Accounts Commission Annual Report, June 2023 bulletin.