A report by a committee of MSPs said that benchmarking had the potential to improve how local authorities delivered their services.
Source: Report on Public Services Reform and Local Government: Strand 2 – Benchmarking and Performance Measurement, 10th Report 2012, SP Paper 222, Scottish Parliament Local Government and Regeneration Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release
Date: 2012-Nov
An audit report in Scotland said that information on how local councils spent their £21 billion annual budget was often 'of poor quality, unclear and incomplete'. Reports produced by local authorities suffered from a lack of 'balance', with positive messages taking precedence over areas that needed improvement.
Source: Managing Performance: Are you getting it right?, Audit Scotland
Links: Report | Audit Scotland press release | BBC report | Public Finance report
>Date: 2012-Oct
The equality and human rights watchdog in Scotland published a rapid review of place-based policies and equality, highlighting their relevance for Scotland. Policies that were aimed at tackling poverty in the most deprived areas did not always benefit the poorest people, particularly those in minority communities. Although many of those experiencing the greatest poverty did live in the poorest areas, some did not. This meant that policies that targeted particular areas, or 'place-based policies', did not always benefit everyone equally.
Source: Peter Matthews, Gina Netto, and Kirsten Besemer, 'Hard-to-Reach' or 'Easy-to-Ignore'? A rapid review of place-based policies and equality, Equality and Human Rights Commission Scotland
Links: Report | EHRC press release
Date: 2012-Sep
An article examined the nature of partnerships in local governance in England and Scotland. There was little to suggest that English and Scottish practices were significantly at variance. Partnerships did not represent a growth of autonomous networks and governance arrangements, but rather an extension of bureaucratic controls. State actors remained pre-eminent within increasingly formalized systems of 'partnership'.
Source: John Fenwick, Karen Johnston Miller, and Duncan McTavish, 'Co-governance or meta-bureaucracy? Perspectives of local governance "partnership" in England and Scotland', Policy & Politics, Volume 40 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jul
The Scottish Government began consultation on proposals to give local people a more direct say in what happened in their communities. Responses to the consultation would help shape the proposed Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill. Ideas being explored in the consultation included extending a right to buy similar to the one enjoyed by rural communities in Scotland to larger towns and cities. The consultation also considered whether communities should have a right to ask to take on unused public sector assets such as school and health centres; and how communities could be more involved in making decisions on local budgets, helping public sector organizations identify the needs and priorities in an area and target budgets more effectively.
Source: Consultation on the Proposed Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill, Scottish Government
Links: Consultation document | Scottish Government press release | SNP press release
Date: 2012-Jun
A report by a committee of MSPs said that a 'cultural change' was needed in order for public bodies to work together to deliver vital public services. Many community planning partnerships were working together effectively to deliver services: but there were others that were not, and that were failing to deliver the best outcomes for their communities.
Source: Public Services Reform and Local Government – Strand 1: Partnerships and Outcomes, 8th Report 2012, SP Paper 170, Scottish Parliament Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release
Date: 2012-Jun
A think-tank report said that Scotland's 32 local authorities and 14 health boards should be replaced by a smaller number of local authorities integrating the powers of all these bodies. The new local authorities should have greater fiscal powers to help ensure that they were responsible for a greater proportion of their own expenditure. Local authorities should consider devolving greater responsibilities to community councils in order to better involve the local community and encourage participation.
Source: Ben Thomson, Geoff Mawdsley, and Alison Payne, Renewing Local Government, Reform Scotland
Links: Report | Reform Scotland press release | Cosla press release | BBC report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-May
An audit report in Scotland said that local authorities had been cutting jobs and services without fully understanding the costs of their actions. It urged authorities to make much more use of cost information analysis to ensure that both existing and planned activities fulfilled the statutory duty to provide best value for public money.
Source: Using Cost Information to Improve Performance: Are you getting it right?, Audit Scotland
Links: Report | Audit Scotland press release | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-May
An article drew on a study of older people (aged 68-71) in Edinburgh to show a direct association between neighbourhood deprivation and self-perceived quality of life in physical and environmental domains (though not in psychological or social relationship domains).
Source: Rene Mottus, Catharine Gale, John Starr, and Ian Deary, '"On the street where you live": neighbourhood deprivation and quality of life among community-dwelling older people in Edinburgh, Scotland', Social Science & Medicine, Volume 74 Issue 9
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Apr
An audit report in Scotland said that Scottish local authorities had coped well with financial pressures, but continued to face tough challenges from reducing budgets and growing demands for services.
Source: An Overview of Local Government in Scotland: Challenges and change in 2012, Audit Scotland
Links: Report | Audit Scotland press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2012-Mar
An article examined the association between rurality and health in Scotland. No consistent pattern of better or poorer health in people living in rural areas was found, compared with primary cities. However, individuals living in remote small towns had a lower risk of a hospital admission for coronary heart disease, and those in very remote rural areas had lower mortality, compared with those living in primary cities.
Source: Paulos Teckle, Phil Hannaford, and Matthew Sutton, 'Is the health of people living in rural areas different from those in cities? Evidence from routine data linked with the Scottish Health Survey', BMC Health Services Research, Volume 12
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Feb
An article examined the impacts of living in high-rise housing in Glasgow compared with other dwelling types. Many outcomes were worse for people in high-rise housing, especially related to noise and security issues. Social and psychosocial outcomes were also often worse – particularly frequency of contact with neighbours and a number of aspects of control and recuperation at home. The negative impacts of high-rise living were most wide-ranging among adult-only households rather than families, with older persons least affected.
Source: Ade Kearns, Elise Whitley, Phil Mason, and Lyndal Bond, '"Living the high life"? Residential, social and psychosocial outcomes for high-rise occupants in a deprived context', Housing Studies, Volume 27 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jan
