Best Value Overview

Following completion of the Best Value pilot (in Procurement) last summer, plans were developed to begin recruitment of a Best Value (BV) team of 5.

As members will be aware, a recruitment pause was introduced in August 2023 for police staff and consequently plans to recruit were put on hold.

In consultation with the Deputy Chief Officer and the Chief Finance Officer, opportunities to source resource from the redeployment pool and from secondments were explored, but ultimately did not yield any candidates.

Consequently and following the departure of the one Finance colleague who was on loan to BV for 1-2 days per week, there has been something of a hiatus.

During this time, the main focus of work has been on the provision of documentation to Internal Audit and responding to the audit / readiness review, which commenced on 5 February.

The readiness review has been a valuable exercise, and it has been helpful to have all BV preparatory documentation scrutinised objectively and independently. In addition, the review considered the pilot undertaken in the Procurement area and made useful observations on how the experiences gained from that exercise can best be leveraged.

The final report has raised a number of points that help focus the work, as we look to re-start recruitment and move into a business-as-usual phase for the Best Value team.

Apart from the one high level finding, which recognises the consequences of the recruitment pause, other points regarding: the governance around reporting on progress; the monitoring of time and resources expended on BV reviews; and the importance of the BV themes in guiding our work, are all well made and will help shape the development of procedures, for when we roll out Best Value assessments in business-as-usual.