Audit Inspection Letter

Speech by Cllr Zoe Patrick delivered to Cabinet on Tue 21st Apr 2009

I have already mentioned many of the issues in the report already in previous meetings. The GSCE results next year will show us if measure have worked to improve educational attainment amongst our young people.

However, I was concerned to read about the aspects on community safety which need to improve in relation to deaths and serious injuries on the roads, violent crime and public perceptions around the fear of crime and anti-social behaviour, all of which increased to above average levels in 2007/08.

Certainly as one of this authority's members of the Thames Valley Police Authority I see the efforts which are being made by the police on some of these issues, and one would hope that good partnership working will help this to improve. However, I could not help thinking that surely some of the community safety schemes which have been taken out of the transport budget may not have helped some of this. Certainly in the section "Action Needed by the Council" says that 'road safety initiatives have an impact on reducing accidents on Oxfordshire's roads.'

Indeed one would hope that the introduction of 20 mph limits on some of Oxford city's roads which is coming up for decision on Thursday may help this, and it would certainly be helpful to know if there are any plans to extend this to other parts of the county?

I would like to query the proportion of staff from BME communities and people with disabilities in the workforce. It would be good if there were some measures in place to deal with this.

Reference is made to working with some of our district council Local Strategic Partnerships and I hope that progress on this will be effective, especially around resolving some of the differences.

The Annual Performance Assessment identified a number of key improvements to services for children and young people - and I certainly welcome this. However, there had been reference to the contribution being made to economic well being as inadequate; let us hope this will also improve.

Of course, the new regime will be Comprehensive Area Assessment which is supposed to result in reduced levels of inspection and better coordination of inspection activity. It will also include the performance data from the new National Indicator Set of the Local Area Agreement. Let us wait and see!