Fife Council welcomes Accounts Commission Best Value report

Chief Executive of Fife Council Ken Gourlay has welcomed the Accounts Commission's Best Value report and confirmed that work is well underway to transform services in Fife.

"The findings highlight a number of challenges that are not unique to Fife,” he said.

“We are operating in difficult financial times – difficult both for public services and the residents we serve. Poverty is entrenched in parts of our society leading to widening inequality gaps, pressure on health and social care services is escalating as our population ages, and there’s an ongoing housing emergency.

“These are issues across Scotland and tackling them in Fife is at the heart of our plans as a council and with partners.

“Over the past few years, we’ve been working under the same funding constraints as other councils. However, good financial management, combined with new ways of working and service efficiencies have enabled us to avoid major cuts in services. Through last year’s budget process, councillors agreed to use some of our reserves to invest in projects that were one off in nature.

“The Council approved a revised medium term financial strategy earlier this month and the decisions taken at last week's budget meeting reduced significantly the challenge in 2027/8 from £46 m to £16m.  There are clear plans to reinstate general fund balances to our 2% target, and this is based on Directors taking action in year. Looking forward we’re advancing work to deliver on change programmes that will lead to more efficient ways of working, while improving services at the same time.

“We have a strong record of delivering change with 2 large scale programmes being delivered in the last 10 years. That said, we recognise that the pace and scale of change must ramp up to meet the challenges ahead. We will continue to develop and implement our transformation plans and I welcome the fact that the Commission recognises the strong foundations we have in place for this work.”

To support its priorities of tackling poverty, building community wealth and addressing climate change, the council is focussing on some key aspects of service transformation:

• A new approach to crisis prevention and wellbeing that will help individuals and families access all the services and support they need at the right time, and proactively target those showing early signs of need.
• Digital transformation that will make use of modern technology to improve services, including learning in schools, and help staff work more productively.
• A place focus to help services join up and co-ordinate resources more effectively in local areas.