Each year the Audit Commission is required to report on the
Council’s overall performance in one document, the Annual Audit and
Inspection Letter.
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The letter summarises the outcomes from a number of individual
reports, and includes a review of how well the Council has
progressed its 'direction of travel' and an assessment of how well
the Council has managed its finances, its 'use of resources' score.
These include the:
- findings during the audit on the Council's accounting
statements;
- how the Council manages its use of resources, the protocols and
systems it has in place to secure value for money;
- outcome of the review of the Council's 'direction of travel';
and
- other performance or inspection work undertaken throughout the
year.
The systems and processes the Council has in place are measured
against pre-determined standards of performance and compliance to
derive a 'use of resources' score. These standards are covered
within five categories to derive an overall judgement of
performance which can be compared nationally. The five categories
are:
- financial reporting;
- financial management;
- financial standing;
- internal control; and
- value for money.
Structure of the Annual Audit and Inspection Letter
As a consequence of the many interlinked aspects covered within
the report outlined above, it necessarily has to look backwards at
performance during 2006/07 and also to take account of trends and
evidence gathered till November 2007, the end of the
inspection period, as well as judging the Council’s capacity to
sustain future improvement.
The time periods addressed by the different sections of the
report are summarised below:
Improvement since last year, the Council's 'direction of
travel' - primarily covering the period 2006/07 but is
also influenced by evidence of progress gathered in the review
period to November 2007. Identifying any changes since the
last Annual Audit and Inspection Letter was reported.
Other performance work - looking back at the
2006/07 accounting period.
Service inspections - any reviews that have
been undertaken as a result of inspection planning since the last
Annual Audit and Inspection Letter was reported.
Financial management - looking back at the
2006/07 accounting period.
Use of resources judgement 2007 - reviewing the
processes and systems in place from 1 April 2006 to 31
March 2007.
Outcomes in the report
Each year the Audit Commission has been consistently 'raising
the bar' as to what is deemed 'adequate performance'. It has
achieved this by making achievement of additional aspects of the
performance assessment within each of the categories mandatory in
order to satisfy that level of performance.
The Council has performed well against this tougher test,
building on and consolidating its performance across all areas
since the previous assessment. As a consequence the Council has
been judged as performing well in all of the individual performance
areas in its most recent
use of resources report (new window PDF
109KB), receiving an overall judgement score of 3
(performing well) with a ranking of the best of any Council
in Suffolk and Norfolk.
The Council has also received a positive 'direction of travel'
assessment, recognising improvements made across a range of
services.
You can view Suffolk Coastal's
performance assessment scorecard (new
window) on the Audit Commission website.
Details of all of
the Audit Commission's inspection reports (new
window) for Suffolk Coastal are available on the Audit
Commission website.