PSAA has today published on our website an independent review of our delivery of the Appointing Person programme and auditor procurement. PSAA commissioned the review from Cardiff Business School (CBS) to help inform future procurements, and also to help us to set our priorities for action over the next few years.
CBS’s headline message is very positive, concluding that,
In summary we believe the Appointing Person programme is an outstanding example of ‘sector led improvement’. It was a well thought through, organised, and governed programme which delivered substantively on its objectives to the benefit of local bodies. There are inevitably ‘lessons learned’ for PSAA to consider in its future planning.
The report therefore gives a very encouraging verdict on PSAA’s work to this point and provides a basis for confidence going forward.
CBS highlight the challenge of supporting a long term competitive, sustainable market for local public audit services. Inevitably our work to date has placed particular emphasis on the first five year term for which contracts have been let. But we accept that there is a critical longer term challenge which needs to be addressed to future-proof local audit and we look forward to working with our local government clients, audit providers and the other stakeholders to develop solutions.
Tony Crawley, PSAA’s Chief Executive, said
“We are very grateful for the work which Cardiff Business School have conducted and for the insightful contributions that many of our partners and stakeholders have made to their research. As well as endorsing a variety of aspects of our work to establish an effective appointing person scheme, the CBS report has provided a number of pointers to the next phases of both the scheme and PSAA’s development. We are committed to addressing the report’s recommendations so that the scheme continues to meet sector and stakeholder needs for the long term.”
PSAA Appointing Person evaluation final report
PSAA action plan – Cardiff Business School
PSAA action plan – Cardiff Business School (updated April 2023)