“Living in the real world”, Councils can do a good job as shown by the Vale of Glamorgan.

‘In the real world’, is a phrase heard so often, a pejorative accusation of incompetence usually levelled at people and organisations in the public sector. The private sector naturally does everything so much better, but if you look at the evidence its clear that Councils can do a good job.

All Local Authority’s are subject to scrutiny and evaluation of their performance and the results are available online. The Vale of Glamorgan has recently had some very positive feedback.

The Local Government Data Unit Assessment of the Vale of Glamorgan names it as Wales’ top performing council. No shaming to be done there then!

The Auditor General for Wales has said that, ‘The Vale of Glamorgan Council continues to perform well and manage its finances effectively and its forward planning arrangements and track record suggest that it is well placed to secure improvement in 2015-16’.

The Chief Inspector of Social Services highlighted the good leadership and clear direction of the Vale of Glamorgan Council in the annual report, “a significant programme of service reform is now delivering joined up, community-based social care and health services in the Vale of Glamorgan”.

The recent Estyn inspection found that the Vale of Glamorgan Council has made the highest levels of progress possible towards achieving their recommendations made by Estyn three years ago, receiving the top two grades – either ‘strong’ or ‘very good’ – for their work towards each of the six.

So contrary to the beliefs of one local ‘independent online newspaper, Councils can do a good job.