The Scrutiny Panel heard from Fiona Kordiak, Audit Scotland, the Council s auditors and the Director of Finance.

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1 + ED I N BVRG H + THE CITY OF EDINBURGH COUNCIL Item no \8 External Audit Reports Received Executive of the Council 16 December 2003 Purpose of report 1 To refer a recommendation arising from consideration of External Audit reports to the Executive of the Council for consideration. Main report The Resource Management and Audit Scrutiny Panel s audit responsibilities inch Jde the review of all matters relating to external audit, including action points and reports, and to monitor implementation of external audit recommendations. On 4 December 2003 the Scrutiny Panel considered the attached report by the Director of Finance which reviewed final reports received from the External Auditor and action agreed with management on the implementation of the External Auditor s recommendations. Arising from discussions on the Auditor s report relating to Community Equipment and Adaptations Service, the Panel highlighted the need, in a wider context, to share management information between Social Work Departments and other relevant agencies. The Scrutiny Panel heard from Fiona Kordiak, Audit Scotland, the Council s auditors and the Director of Finance. Scrutiny Panel Decision 6 To note the reports received and the action agreed with management to implement the External Auditor s recommendations. 1

2 7 That, in order to enhance partnership working, to recommend to the Executive of the Council that COSLA be asked to initiate discussions amongst all Scottish Local Authorities on the development of a strategy and systems to enable the sharing of management information between Social Work Departments and other relevant agencies. Councillor Allan Jackson Convener, Resource Management and Audit Scrutiny Panel Appendices Report no. RMA/O16/03-04/F by the Director of Finance and Appendix 4 relating to Management of Community Equipment and Adaptations Contactltel Donald Kennedy Tel: donald. kennedv@edinburah.aov.uk Wards affected Background Papers City-wide None 2

3 +EDINBVRGH+ THE CITY OF EDINBURGH COUNCIL External Audit Reports Received Item no Report no RMNO 16/03-04/F Resource Management and Audit Scrutiny Panel 4 December Purpose of report To review the reports received from the External Auditor and the action agreed with management on the implementation of recommendations Summary The External Auditor has issued 5 final reports, together with agreed action plans to implement the recommendations contained in the reports Main report The Panel has agreed that their remit will include the review of all matters relating to external audit, including action points and reports and to monitor implementation of external audit recommendations. The Panel also agreed to receive annually a Report by the Chief Executive and Director of Finance on implementation of external audit recommendations. The following final reports covering work carried out in the period I July 2003 to 30 September 2003, have been received and the Executive Summaries and Action Plans are detailed in the attached Appendices. Reports Follow-up of the Management of Early Retirement This audit has been carried out as a part of the national follow-up of the 1997 national review "Bye Now, Pay Later". The Auditor has identified a reduction in early retirement between 1998 and 2002, that the Council has approved policies in place and requests for early retirement are supported by a costlsaving analysis. The Auditor also identified areas for further improvement, which are detailed in the attached Executive Summary and Action plan at Appendix 1.

4 3.3.2 ICT Partnership Arrangements The Auditor as apart of the 2002/2003 audit reviewed the arrangements in place to manage the ICT partnership with BT Syntegra. The Auditor concluded that the partnership had developed positively over the last year. In particular the Smart City delivery plan has been revised to incorporate the linkage to discrete projects over the next seven years, a major projects board and service and enhancement board have been added to deal with detail and aid communication and a new E-government division has been set up. The Auditor has also identified some opportunities to improve current practices and these are detailed in the attached Executive Summary and Action Plan at Appendix ICT Pathfinder Review of the Trent Payroll System The Council is currently implementing a new payroll system and as part of their 2002/3 audit the auditor has carried out a high level review of the system. The main aim of the review is to gather information to allow the ICT audit team to prioritise and plan future work. The review has also highlighted some good practices that include the fixing of cost prior to implementation and thereby reducing the risk to the Council, and having performance delivery targets, which are monitored monthly. The Auditor has also indicated areas where the opportunity to improve current practice exists and these are detailed in the executive Summary and Action Plans attached at Appendix Management of Community Equipment and Adaptations The Auditor has reviewed, as part a national study in local authorities and relevant NHS boards across Scotland, the management of community equipment and adaptations within the Council. The review covered the work of both the Social Work and Housing Departments and the progress being made in joint working with neighbouring authorities and the Lothian NHS. The Auditor has identified a number of areas that would enhance partnership working and these are detailed in the Executive Summary and detailed Action Plan attached at Appendix Review of Information Systems Migrations The Auditor has conducted a review of the migrations of revenues & benefits, housing and payroll systems to new Information and Communications Technology (ICT) applications and platforms. Review also covered the implementation of previously agreed recommendations. The auditor found that the migration projects all suffered considerable slippage because of technical and project management difficulties. However, they also were pleased to report that all the projects achieved substantial progress this year and many of the major data migrations have now taken place. The auditor has also taken

5 the opportunity to suggest improvements in the documentation and retention of skills gained in the migration process and these are detailed in the attached Executive Summary and Action plan at Appendix Ms Fiona Kordiak of Audit Scotland will attend the panel for this agenda item. 4 Recommendations It is recommended that the Resource Management and Audit Scrutiny Panel notes the report received and the action agreed with management to implement the recommend at i o n s. dir'ector of Finance. Appendices: Appendix 1 : Follow-up management of early retirement Appendix 2 :ICT Partnership Management Appendix 3: ICT Pathfinder Review of the Trent Payroll System Appendix 4: Community Equipment and Adaptations Appendix 5: Review of Information System Migration Contact: Wards Affected: Background Papers: Ian Stirton (0131) None As per Appendices

6 City of Edinburgh Council 2002/03Audit Pevfomance Audit: Community Equipment & Adaptations Sewice Pn vate & Confidential Executive Summary Executive Summary APPENDIX 4 Introduction 1.1 As part of our 2002/03 performance audrt activity we have undertaken a review of the management of community equipment and adaptation services at City of Edinburgb Council. This report summarises the findings from our review and, where appropriate, makes recommendations to address identified weaknesses. It also identifies specific areas of good practice and joint working in relation to the provision of community equipment and adaptations. 1.2 The review was developed by Audit Scotland and undertaken in local authorities and relevant NHS bodies across Scotland. Audit Scotland s central Project Team will follow-up the survey work with some case studies in selected local authorities and NHS trusts. The Team will also consider how the Scottish Executive is monitoring the implementation of joint working in relation to this service. The findings of this work will be provided in a national report, together with the findings from the local survey work. The national report will be published during winter 2003/2004. Scope and objectives 1.3 This review focuses on community equipment and adaptations that provide help towards daily living and/or meet a home nursing need for individuals living in the community in their own homes. It does not include equipment provided for care homes, schools, places of employment and day-care centres. 1.4 The overall aims of this audit were to examine: how joint working is progressing at a local level to result in improved service provision; how well community equipment and adaptation services are being managed at the local level; and, the quality of service provided. Summary of main findings Partnership working 1.5 Our review highlighted that the Social Work and Housing Departments of City of Edinburgh Council are making progress towards joint working through their involvement with East Lothian Council, Midlothian Council and Lothian NHS in a joint store. However, there is not a joint IT strategy or information systems compatibility between the partners, which would enhance partnership working. 1.6 A draft report on implementing Joint Future working between the Council and Lothian NHS Board was presented to the City of Edinburgh Council s Executive Committee and the Lothian NHS Board on 29 July 2003 and 23 July 2003 respectively. Ths document sets out the progress to date towards fmalising the full Local Partnership Agreement for health and community care services for the citizens of Edmburgh. As a result a network link has been established to enable data sharing and partnership working in a secure environment. In addition, the four Lothian local authorities and Lothian NHS, as part of Joint Future planning, have now agreed a data sharing protocol. However, as we received the draft policy on the 16 July 2003, we were unable to undertake a detailed review of the document within the timeframe allowed for by the study. 11 November Page I Audit Services -Audit Scotland

7 City of Edinburgh Council 2002/03Audit Performance Audit: Community Equipment & Adaptations Sewice Private h ConJidential Executive Summaiy Social work community equipment and adaptation services 1.7 A number of weaknesses in existing systems and procedures have been identified, which may result in impaired service efficiency and are likely to impact upon the introduction of joint management and resourcing: the Social Work Department could only provide a breakdown of budget and actual expenditure split between equipment expenditure and adaptations expenditure for two out of the three financial years requested. However, no budget and actual expenditure information was available for recycling, repairs and maintenance; the Social Work Department was unable to provide details of waiting times from assessment to completion of installation because the date of installation is not recorded and the timeliness of information input on to the client infomation System; the service has working policies and procedures however these are not documented and therefore do not provide a means through which to ensure that a consistent service is provided to all clients and that relationships with partners are effectively managed; the Department was unable to identify their total equipment and adaptations recycling rate as the current system was not designed to identify and produce this information; apart from in the Joint Equipment Service there is a general lack of readily available and routinely collected management information with which to inform service planning and ensure appropriate delivery. This is primarily due to the manual nature of many of the IT systems used. In many instances this could be resolved using basic office software packages; 0 the service does not routinely collect, collate and report performance information for either senior management or service users and performance targets are not used. 1.8 The lack of readily available management information meant that we could not adequately benchmark the quality of service provided by the Council against that of other local authorities. Housing major permanent adaptations services 1.9 The Housing Department is one of only 8 Councils that routinely collects information and has targets to measure performance for the time between receipt of a recommendation to completion of an adaptation in Council properties. We noted, however, that there were a number of weaknesses in the methods of service provision which impact upon the service s ability to provide a Best Value service to clients and partners. The main areas for consideration are: delegation of the adaptations budget to a budget holder of appropriate seniority who can monitor progress against determined budgets and promptly implement remedial actions required to redress adverse variances; the service suffers from a lack of readily available and routinely collected management information with which to inform service planning and ensure appropriate delivery (e.g. recycling, number of referrals); the nature of the outdated IT systems currently used - this could be resolved using basic office software packages; a heavy reliance on localised knowledge of the service to answer questionnaire questions. 11 November 2003 Page 2 Audit Services -Audit Scotland

8 City of Edinburgh Council 2002/03Audit Pe$oimance Audit: Community Equipment & Adaptations Service Private & Confidential Executive Summary Management action 1.10 Detailed recommendations on those areas where further improvement could be achieved are included witbin our audit findings and are summarised in the action plan which follows this section. The assistance and co-operation we received during the course of our audit is gratefully acknowledged. 11 November 2003 Page 3 Audit Services - Audit Scotland

9 t City of Edinburgh Council 2002/03Audit Petformance Audit: Community Equipment & Adaptations Service Private & Confidential Action Plan Action Plan Social Work 1. Systems should be in place that enable access to detailed budget and expenditure information regarding equipment and adaptations. The inability to provide basic information of this nature raises the concern as to whether management have access to appropriate management information to effectively monitor and control service expenditure (page 11, paragraph 3. IO). In part We have information available but not necessarily in the format requested by this survey. Work is being done on bringing the information together. 0 n g o i n g 2. To minimise the possibility of duplicated assessments we would recommend the implementation of Joint Future agreement (which will use a shared single assessment programme) as soon as possible. (page 12, paragraph 3.14). Note that some j oint assessment is appropriate but duplication is to be avoided. The single shared assessment process is being rolled out now. Ongoing 3. The Council should record and monitor the time taken to complete each stage of the equipment and adaptations process from initial referral to completion of installation or delivery of equipment. This will enable the Council to measure performance in any given year between receipt of referral and service delivery and record waiting times (page 12, paragraph 3.15). This will be a part of the large IT development exercise currently being done in the Department. Individual actions will take their place within this Noveniber 2003 Page 4 Audit Services - Audit Scotland

10 City of Edinbur-gh Council 2002/03Audit Performance Audit: Community Equipment & Adaptations Sewice Private & Conjidential Action Plan The draft agency agreement for operating the Joint Store should be finalised and distributed to staff as soon as possible. In addition, the informal arrangements between the Social Work and Housing departments should be formalised in a written agreement (Page 13, paragraph 3.23). City of Edinburgh Council in conjunction with its partners should give consideration to implementing a joint IT strategy and ensuring information systems compatibility as soon as 23 & 20, paragraphs 3.24 & 4.22). Much of this work is nearly finalised but the Housing part has yet to be started. This is part of the larger agenda of IT development and joint working. April The Social Work Department should review its service provision policies with the aim of producing formal documented policies and procedures which can be made available to all staff and partners (as 14, paragraph 3.28). Management should determine key performance indicators and identify targets with which to demonstrate recycling performance. An updated electronic register of items issued and returned (for recycling) should be maintained to identify those that can be recycled. It appears that the current CIS system was not designed to provide this information (page 14, paragraph 3.30). The JES system can be configured to do this. The CIS was neither designed nor intended to do this. It will have to be considered within the IT developments mentioned above. April November 2003 Page 5 Audit Services - Audit Scotland

11 City ojedinbui.gh Council 2002/03Audit Perfoi-mance Audit: Community Equiyment 8 Adaptations Service Private & ConJdential Action Plan The current CIS system is unable to report on and provide monitoring information (e.g. provision by client group, waiting times and recycling). The current CIS system should be reviewed for its adequacy with regard to obtaining relevant management information and consideration given to replacing the system with one which can provide more meaningful 15, paragraph 3.33). As above Management should define a range of key performance indicators that distinguish between the two elements of the service: equipment and adaptations. Setting appropriate targets with which to measure and demonstrate performance and drive continuous improvement in order to achieve Best Value within the 16, paragraph 3.37). Defining the performance indicators can be done fairly easily but building them into the IT collection system will take longer -as it will be a part of the larger IT development Housing Consideration should be given to formalising and documenting the delegation of responsibility for community equipment and adaptations budgets to officers of sufficient seniority but more involved in the routine provision of the 17, paragraph 4.6). It is the opinion of the City of Edinburgh Council that our practice already involves appropriate delegation to officers responsible for service delivery. However, in light of this comment, we will take action to extend the formality around this. November 2003 I1 November 2003 Page 6 Audit Services - Audit Scotland

12 City of Edinburgh Council 2002/03Audit Performance Audit: Community Equipment & Adaptations Service Private & Conjidential Action Plan Consideration should be given to reviewing the current IT systems with a view to replacing or upgrading them to a system that enables management to improve the collection, monitoring and extraction of information for measuring and monitoring the service. There is a risk that reliance on too much localised knowledge will impact on the operation of a genuine efficient and effective 18 & 19, paragraphs 4.9, 4.15 & 4.18). The City of Edinburgh Council is aware of the strengths and shortcomings of the information technology systems in use for it's public and private sector adaptations services. A recent change in legislation affecting private sector adaptations has already prompted discussion about replacement. This discussion goes hand in hand with our policy aim of bringing public and private sector adaptations more closely in line. Ongoing Waiting times for all public sector adaptations and performance against service standards are routinely collected. This information should additionally be used to calculate average waiting times and to' ascertain any trend in this. There is a need for this approach to be introduced for private sector adaptations (page 19, paragraph 4. I3). In anticipation of a possible national standard being developed, the City of Edinburgh Council will ensure that any new information technology will be able to provide this management information. Ongoing I I November 2003 Page 7 Audit Services -Audit Scotland