Audit Scotland: Publications
Argyll and Bute Council · 16 June 2026
Back to Argyll and Bute HSCP Audit and Risk Committee — 16 June 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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1 Audit & Risk Committee Date of Meeting: 16 June 2026 Title of Report: Audit Scotland: Publications Presented by: James Gow, Head of Finance The Audit & Risk Committee is asked to: • Note the Audit Scotland publications highlighted. 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Audit Scotland regularly publish reports which are relevant to public bodies. This report highlights five reports published in recently that may be of interest to the Committee. 2. RECOMMENDATION 2.1 The Audit & Risk Committee is recommended to: • Note the contents of the publications highlighted. 3. DETAIL OF REPORT 3.1 Audit Scotland publish their reports on their web-site: https://www.audit- scotland.gov.uk/publications. This report highlights five recent publications: • Annual Assurance and Risks Report – 2024/25 Local Government audits • The 2024/25 audit of Clackmannanshire and Stirling IJB • Delivering for the Future – Transformation and how councils are redesigning and delivering more efficient services • Transforming the approach to climate change • Annual Audit report – Argyll & Bute Council 2024/25 3.2 Annual Assurance and Risks Report (Appendix 1) The report provides an analysis of key themes arising from local authority audits, including IJBs. The key areas of concern and risk identified by auditors are summarised below: - Many councils and IJBs (and their auditors) are failing to meet the statutory deadline for completion of audited accounts (17 councils and 13 IJBs). 4 councils failed to publish their un-audited accounts for public inspection by 1 July. The report suggests that, in the main, councils and IJBs have appropriate capacity in finance teams.
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2 - Financial sustainability is flagged as a concern across all councils. Delivery of savings, use of reserves and one-off measures to achieve financial balance, increased borrowing and breaches of reserves policy are all noted. - Financial management and reporting processes are generally effective. Overspends generally found to be as a result of inflation and demand factors rather than arising from financial mis-management. Social Care and Education are noted as specific pressures with capital budgets generally underspending. - IFRS 16 implementation, equal pay claims, contract management, elected member behaviour, workforce restructuring, IT systems (and assurance where externally hosted) were other common risk threads highlighted in council audits. - IJBs are discussed, financial arrangements are broadly considered to be effective but issues such as financial sustainability, delivery of savings, use of reserves, overspending, realistic budgeting and lack of transparency are flagged up as concerns. Turnover of senior staff is a further issue with specific problems noted at some IJBs. Many of the issues referred to have been picked up several times in the past by Audit Scotland. IJBs are considered a risk to partner bodies in respect of sustainability. The report states: ‘the sustained and recurring pressures facing councils and IJBs must be addressed to secure financial sustainability in the medium term. Decisive action and difficult decisions about services will be required’. Appendix 2 of the report lists a number of other publications that are relevant, many of these have been considered by the Committee. 3.3 Clacks and Stirling IJB – Securing a section 95 officer (Appendix 2) This report describes the failure of the IJB to comply with section 95 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. This was primarily due to there being a period of time whereby there was no formally designated Chief Finance Officer in place. The situation is presented as a governance failure as the statutory requirement to have a named person in place was not met but advice given to the IJB was that sharing the responsibilities between the chief finance officers of the three partner bodies did meet the legal requirement. The report indicates that proper financial management was maintained and not adversely impacted by the gap. Whilst there are specific issues at the Clackmannanshire and Stirling IJB raised, Audit Scotland suggest all IJBs could learn lessons as reproduced below: ‘There is a notable turnover of CFOs and COs in IJBs and there is a limited pool of candidates with the skills, experience and appetite to take on these challenging roles. The circumstances at Clackmannanshire and Stirling IJB are not unique and it is important that all IJBs consider their arrangements to manage the duties and responsibilities of these posts if there is a period when they may become vacant. The duties of statutory roles such as s95 and COs must be formally assigned to an appropriate individual or individuals. These arrangements should be considered by the IJB’s legal advisor to ensure they are appropriate and reflect the requirement of the role. The proposed arrangements should be agreed by the IJB. Informal agreements do not meet the legal requirement and do not provide satisfactory accountability for the significant responsibilities held by these posts.
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3 Each IJB should: • ensure it has appropriate legal support to provide advice on meeting statutory and governance requirements • ensure governance documentation includes contingency arrangements for a gap in a statutory role so that in these circumstances an appropriate individual is identified as responsible and accountable for the specific duties. If there is the potential for a statutory role to become vacant, IJBs should: • seek an immediate interim appointment until the permanent post can be filled to meet the statutory obligations under section 95 and ensure continuity of statutory financial administration • accelerate permanent recruitment • proactively inform the appointed auditors about the vacancy, the interim measures in place, and the recruitment timetable • while interim cover is in place: − strengthen internal controls and monitoring including internal audit scrutiny − reassess financial strategy and risks − introduce safeguards for financial decision-making − maintain transparency with board members, including increasing the frequency of financial monitoring reports.’ 3.4 Delivering for the Future (Appendix 3) This report provides a helpful overview of how service transformation is being developed and implemented across local authorities. The first part of the report summarises the need for transformation. It then provides some analysis and case studies providing positive examples using the framework / headings below: Vision -Strategic Planning Planning -Financial Planning -Transformation Funding -Project Plans -Resourcing -Impacts Governance -Managing projects and prgrammes -Councillor engagement Collaboration -Partnership working -Joint Funding -Community Engagement Innovation The report also summarises the national work and outlines the Solace framework. There are aspects of the HSCP transformation programme that fit well in the framework but there are useful lessons contained within the approach which could strengthen the transformation programme structure within the HSCP. 3.5 Transforming the approach to climate change (Appendix 4)
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4 This report outlines the policy approach put in place by the Scottish Government and the legally binding targets set by the government, noting that one milestone of a 75% reduction by 2030 is no longer credible and has been dropped. Audit Scotland summarises a wide range of issues and barriers associated with the implementation of change across the public sector required to enable the targets to be met. These include lack of finance, resistance to change and lack of management capacity, leadership and prioritisation. A range of issues are identified and described under each of the headings provided below: The report is clear that significant resource is required and delivery of value for money and effective measures are key to making progress. It doesn’t particularly address the issue of where this resource should be reallocated from or what other services should be reduced to fund it. This is particularly challenging in respect of local authorities, health boards and IJBs which are all highlighted as generally not operating on a financially sustainable basis at present with increasing service demands in the future. The HSCP has indicated some of the positive action it is taking in its climate change report considered recently by the IJB. Work is on-going to develop the estates strategy and implement a number of carbon reduction projects. 3.6 Annual Audit Report – Argyll and Bute Council (Appendix 5) Appendix 5 provides the detailed audit report in respect of Argyll & Bute Council. This is brought to the attention of the committee as it: • Provides assurance that the systems, processes and services upon which the IJB places reliance upon are operating effectively. • Highlights areas for improvement which often include HSCP delivered services. • Outlines the financial sustainability risks specific to the Council which incorporates social work and social care.
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5 • Highlights areas for further development around best value, performance management and transformation. 4. RELEVANT DATA AND INDICATORS 4.1 Audit Scotland Reports rely on a wide range of data and information. 5 CONTRIBUTION TO STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 5.1 Audit Scotland Reports are of strategic relevance to public service delivery in Scotland. 6. GOVERNANCE IMPLICATIONS 6.1 Financial Impact – no direct impacts but the nature of the financial challenges facing the public sector is a key theme. 6.2 Staff Governance – Public Sector staffing challenges are highlighted repeatedly by Audit Scotland. It is also clear that the number of Public Sector employees is expected to be managed down, in the coming years, as current arrangements are not financially sustainable. 6.3 Clinical Governance – as above, the reform agenda is likely to have clinical governance implications. 7. PROFESSIONAL ADVISORY 7.1 The report has been circulated for information. 8. EQUALITY & DIVERSITY IMPLICATIONS 8.1 None directly. 9. GENERAL DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES COMPLIANCE 9.1 None. 10. RISK ASSESSMENT 10.1 This report summarises a series of contextual reports which generally support the assessment of risk in the Strategic Risk Register. 11. PUBLIC & USER INVOLVEMENT & ENGAGEMENT 11.1 Audit Scotland reports are publicly available. 12. CONCLUSIONS 12.1 This report seeks to bring key public sector audit reports to the attention of the Committee.
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6 13. DIRECTIONS Directions required to Council, NHS Board, or both. Directions to: tick No Directions required √ Argyll & Bute Council NHS Highland Health Board Argyll & Bute Council and NHS Highland Health Board 14. PREVIOUS REVIEW OF THE REPORT Meeting Title of report Date Output (if relevant) N/A AUTHOR NAME: James Gow, Head of Finance EMAIL: james.gow@argyll-bute.gov.uk Appendix 1 – Annual Assurance and Risks Report Appendix 2 – Clacks and Stirling IJB – Securing a section 95 officer Appendix 3 – Delivering for the Future Appendix 4 – Transforming the approach to climate change Appendix 5 – Annual Audit Report – Argyll and Bute Council