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Nine local councils and health organisations in England and Wales are testing a new style of audit that will involve local people, according to public services watchdog the Audit Commission.

The commission is keen to develop a greater user-focus in its work of inspecting and auditing public bodies, and has pointed to Mori research showing a strong local interest in how councils and health authorities are audited, allowing user input into the process and publicising findings so that they can be more easily understood.

The nine "pathfinder" sites from which national lessons will be learned include Birmingham, Lewisham, Lancashire, Hampshire and Kirklees councils, and four NHS organisations.

In future, all local audits will have a degree of citizen-focus, said the commission, adding that the areas auditors must examine are set in law, but local people will help define priorities. The sites are running different initiatives - for example, audit staff will be talking to students in Lewisham about what public audit aims to achieve in the council's education programme.