The Audit Commission, the Association of Directors of Social Services, the Department of Health (DH) and the former Social Services Inspectorate (now the Commission for Social Care Inspection) collaborated in the development of an audit tool to examine in detail the data underlying a key group of seven social services PAF indicators.
The audit tested:
- the robustness of social services departments' (SSDs) processes for recording data;
- the presence and effectiveness of data quality assurance;
- the extent to which data collection matched the DH's definitions and guidance;
- the adequacy of the management arrangements for compiling good performance information; and
- the effectiveness of the use of the information for business and planning decisions to improve services and for monitoring performance.
Key conclusions of the audit were:
- councils need to give significantly more attention to ensuring data accuracy
- data reporting is inconsistent
- performance management processes are too variable
- operational staff and managers too frequently lack the training and guidance necessary to make good use of data.