Denbighshire County Council has welcomed the findings of the annual improvement report published by the Wales Audit Office.
The report’s main conclusion is that: “Overall, the Auditor General has concluded that the Council is improving outcomes for residents through better planning, delivery and reporting although there is further to go to achieve its ambitious objectives.”
It states that: “The Council is continuing to develop its planning and arrangements to deliver improvement. It has streamlined its governance arrangements, further developed collaboration with partners and has made good progress responding to suggestions in previous reports.”
There are no formal recommendations in the report but the Auditor General highlights the Council’s need to establish how it will support the Rhyl Going Forward delivery plan including:
- showing how it fits with the county regeneration programme;
- confirming the staff and financial resources that will be available to support delivery; and
- arrangements for periodic evaluation of progress
The report states that this will need to be in place by September 2012.
Leader of Denbighshire, Councillor Hugh Evans, said: ‘We believe that this report reflects a true picture of the situation in Denbighshire. We are a high performing council that is closer to the community and this report acknowledges the tremendous amount of work that has gone on towards achieving this vision.
‘With less funding coming from the Welsh Assembly Government, the council has faced the challenge of finding efficiencies whilst continuing to deliver a front line service that the residents of Denbighshire want and expect.
‘We are proud of the improvements made in many areas of our work but we also acknowledge there is room for improvement in other areas of our work.
‘We will not become complacent as we continue our efforts towards maintaining our position as a high performing council. We will continue to look at more effective and efficient ways of working as we meet the challenge of change with more confidence, energy and commitment than ever before.”
The full report can be found on the Wales Audit Office’s website: www.wao.gov.uk.
