Welsh assembly debates inspections

Welsh assembly debates inspections The Welsh assembly has rejected
proposals to instruct local authorities on how to spend money to
address problems highlighted by inspections.

Sue Essex, public services minister, said it was up to councils how
to spend money and that making improvements to services did not
necessarily mean spending more.

“Improvements can be made by adjustments to working practices or by
following examples of good practice,” she told assembly members.

Essex was responding to the assembly’s local government and public
services committee’s report into public services’ inspection
regimes. The report, published in May, made 21 recommendations for
improving the inspection process.

She also disagreed with the committee’s recommendations for the
introduction of more unannounced inspections at the expense of
planned ones. She said unannounced inspections were good at
highlighting service delivery deficiencies, but were less useful
when carrying out department-wide inspections because of the
planning required.

But the assembly accepted recommendations to focus inspections on
councils with poor results.

• Report from www.wales.gov.uk