Follow the Money: A History of the Audit Commission
Duncan Campbell-Smith
Language: English
Pages: 768
ISBN: B002TJLF2W
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Most books on politics and government take a view from the top down. They focus on the individuals and institutions that set policies in place and make the laws. But how are these policies and laws translated into action on the ground, where their success or failure helps determine the day to day running of schools and hospitals, police forces and councils? This is the much less familiar territory explored by Follow The Money. It tells the story of the men and women responsible for keeping track of the money spent locally on public services since the early 1980s. What emerges is a rare behind-the-scenes account of the political world in which central government edicts come up against the reality of how things are made to happen at the grass roots.
Follow The Money shows how the Commission has helped over 25 years to transform the management of public services, including the NHS, while mediating in an often tense relationship between central and local government from the Thatcher era to the years of New Labour. The result, encompassing a string of scandals and battles between town hall and Whitehall, is a compelling narrative for which an accounting qualification is most certainly not required.
A baptism offire CHAPTER 15 Leading the Way Again, 2003–05 Bringing aboardacandid friend Tackling the management agenda New directions for regulation Reaffirming old skills, in fire services and housing Adjusting to changed demands in the NHS A second model of the CPA Making friends and making waves CHAPTER 16 An Even Keel, 2006–08 The Commission’s sixth chairman A steady improvement in morale An expanding franchise Striking the right balance At the forefront of a general rethink
dismissed — as some have been, in recent years. Then there are those bodies operating outside ministerial departments, such as Ofsted, the education inspectorate. They are free of ministerial control, but they are nonetheless a part of the government machine and must function within government conventions. Much more truly independent are most ‘non-departmental public bodies’, such as the Healthcare Commission launched in 2004. But even they are subject to policy directives, and the government
to the capital accounting conundrum. Nothing was included in the code, because Wilkinson came up with a technically brilliant model that most people thought at first would simply pose too many practical problems. As CIPFA later noted, ‘it was not possible [in the code] to address and resolve the intractable problem in any meaningful way’. Instead, Wilkinson was asked to head a working party dedicated solely to refining his solution. On the day of the code’s publication, a young recruit arrived
legislation of 1992, auditors now had to consider for local government and the NHS alike whether or not the management letter at the conclusion of each audit year should include specific recommendations for future action. Like Public Interest Reports, any such recommendations had to be openly disclosed. And a public response was obligatory. By 1995, the local government and health audit franchises had been neatly and effectively stitchedtogether. At a macro-level, the outcome was impressive.
one process. Davies called it ‘the integrated audit’. Where the process was successfully completed, the auditor’s opinion and certificate could be read in conjunction with the management letter and the three together would give a balanced view of an authority’s performance. To some extent, it was just a matter of ‘back to basics’: reports of the chief inspectors of audit in the late 1970s had spelt out the same message about regularity and VFM work being two sides of the same coin. The only