Audit Commitee condemns excess bureaucracy

Scottish Executive not promoting effective community planning partnerships

News, 9 March 2007

The Scottish Executive's departments are not working together effectively, hindering effective community planning, according to a new report.

The Scottish Parliament's Audit Committee says the Executive must fundamentally change the way it works and that the lack of co-ordination between departments has led to lack of clarity about policy priorities and created significant bureaucracy.

Committee convener Brian Monteith MSP said the committee were aware of how community planning could benefit communities and help deliver better, more streamlined serivces. However, its potential was being undermined by the failure of Executive departments to work together.

Mr Monteith said: “This lack of collaboration means that community planning partnerships are set too many priorities that are not effectively linked. There are also too many different funding streams and monitoring arrangements are overly complex.

“All this creates a burden for the agencies involved in community planning. As a result too much effort and resource can be tied up in managing community planning structures, rather than delivering the real improvements needed by local communities.”

The report recommends that the Executive ensure better prioritisation of policies, steamline funding and back on the paperwork needed from community planning partnerships.