National Assembly for Wales:
Evaluation of Second Round of Joint Reviews
Background to Joint Reviews
A Joint Review is a review undertaken by the Social Services Inspectorate, Wales (SSIW) and the Wales Audit Office (WAO) of each local authority in Wales. Reviews set out to answer two key questions: -
- How good are the services that people in the area receive?
- How well placed is the council to sustain and improve services?
- tell the public how well people are being served;
- help those services improve;
- safeguard the interests of service users and carers;
- secure better value for money in the provision of social services.
More information is available at the Joint Review web site.
The National Assembly for Wales decided in 2004 that a second round of Joint Reviews should be undertaken. The decision was taken by the minister in the light of the benefits from the first round of reviews and with recognition of concerns raised and criticisms made of the first round reviews.
Perceived benefits from first round reviews
The profile of social services activities had been raised: local authorities as a whole (Chief Executives, chief officers and councillors) paid far more attention to the performance of social services; the Welsh Local Government Association rated the improvement of social services as the most important task for local government. This was judged of particular importance in a field where the public do not make the same demands for services of the highest quality as they do with education.
Ministers wanted to be kept informed about the performance of social services within local authorities.
Information had been gleaned - and made public - as to the quality of social services.
Such information could be used in developing policies in Wales, and in supporting local government.
Concerns raised/criticisms made
The summarising of the criticisms made is not meant to imply that they are valid. From different comments made we list central concerns:
- They were over burdensome
- They were too costly
- They had insufficient involvement of service users and carers
- The Social Services Inspectorate Wales (SSIW) and the Wales Audit Office (WAO) gave too little time to supporting authorities and following up reviews
- There was insufficient consistency between reviews
- Reports took too long to be published
Planning for second round Joint Reviews
Considerable planning has gone into the organisation of the second round of reviews: -
- Meetings have been held with senior managers from local authorities and local government organisations
- A new working relationship has been created between SSIW and the Wales Audit Office (WAO)
- Users are more involved in the reviews and lay assessors have been introduced into the review teams
- A new methodology for undertaking the reviews has been created
- Moderation of reviews has been written into the process
- Tighter project planning has been developed
- There is early feed back to authorities during the life of a review in an individual authority
- An external evaluation of the second round reviews was to be commissioned early in the cycle of second round reviews (this project)