Audit Commission Assessment of Brent Council

Audit Commission Comprehensive Performance Assessments of Brent available at http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk

In 2002 - 2003 and 2003- 2004 the Audit Commission's overall rating for Brent was "Fair". In the last year 17% of local authorities were rated "Excellent" and 36% "Good" so Brent is clearly in the bottom half. Under the Comprehensive Assessment Libraries and Leisure are lumped together. Brent's Libraries & Leisure were rated "Weak" for the second year in a row. The year before that they had been rated as "Poor".

The rating for Leisure and Libraries is  made up of sub-ratings. For the last year that Brent was assessed two of these sub-ratings,  including Performance Indicators, are "Poor". It appears that only the sub-rating for the Local Libraries Plan has prevented the overall rating for Libraries and Leisure being "Weak".

Audit Commission Report on Brent Leisure Service 9 July 2002

Available from http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/reports/BVIR.asp? 

Extracts from the Report

"We have assessed the Council as providing a ‘poor’, no-star service that has poor prospects for improvement. Our judgements are based on the evidence obtained during the inspection and are outlined below."

"The sport and leisure service lacks political, financial and managerial commitment and leadership.  Provision of the Service is fragmented across the Council. Although isolated work has been done to improve facilities and address target groups, strategy is not clear and the match of resources to needs has not been assessed.

The Council has established a positive working relationship with the contractor. But the Council’s own planning and performance management is weak. It has failed to identify discrepancies and variations in reported data. Short and long-term planning is hampered by the lack of a good performance management system and by the unreliable performance data.

There is no on-going consultation about the Service with the local community and relationships with local stakeholders are poor."

Brent Council Leisure was due for another inspection in April 2004 and a new report scheduled for June 2004. It appears the inspection has been delayed.