The efficient work of Advantage West Midlands has been highlighted again in an independent report by Government spending watchdog the National Audit Office.
A best practice guide produced by the National Audit Office (NAO) following the Independent Supplementary Review of regional development agencies (RDAs), commends Advantage West Midlands (AWM) in a number of areas including continuous improvement and efficiency.
And the NAO says that examples of good practice developed by AWM should be passed on to other public bodies taking on the Agency's work.
The lean and efficient good practices that earned AWM the accolade of being one of two top-performing RDAs will be made available to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) – the joint local authority and business bodies the Government intends to set up to replace RDAs.
The NAO has published a summary report on its assessment of RDAs carried out between October 2009 and April 2010.
Advantage West Midlands achieved the maximum score of performing “strongly” in all three areas scrutinised:
• Prioritising in response to the economic downturn and budget cuts
• Learning lessons to improve effectiveness
• Bringing about continuous improvement in processes
The report says that valuable lessons can be learnt by identifying individual examples of existing good practice - lessons that are particularly relevant to new local administrative arrangements.
It adds: “At a time of public sector retrenchment, when all public bodies will face similar challenges of reprioritising, focusing on what works effectively and bringing about continuous improvement and efficiency in their processes, we expect our findings and the examples of good practice identified to be of wider relevance.”
Advantage West Midlands was one of three RDAs given particular praise for a clear and sophisticated decision-making approach to investment when it was faced with making multi-million pound cutbacks to its budget in 2009.
Importantly, partners and stakeholders were kept informed throughout, enabling some partners to find alternative funding sources.
Other areas of work highlighted by the NAO as examples of good practice in the West Midlands include:
• Collaboration with other regional agencies, local authorities and the private sector to agree shared priorities – in particular, identifying 20 Impact Investment Locations that will be drivers of economic growth in years to come
• Understanding the underlying causes of the region’s £15 billion output gap and shape appropriate interventions
• Collection of intelligence to ensure the region was in touch with business issues and concerns during the economic downturn
Mick Laverty, chief executive at Advantage West Midlands, welcomed the report and said: “This independent report confirms the Agency’s positive impact on the region – and comes on top of recent independent evaluations that show AWM achieves £8.14 in economic benefits for every £1 invested.
“It proves that the hard work and commitment of our staff is clearly recognised by the NAO, an authoritative, independent and respected body with the stated vision to help the nation spend wisely.
"This report pinpoints valuable examples of good practice by AWM and we’re offering our considerable knowledge and expertise to help ensure that the LEP bids that are submitted to Government from the West Midlands on September 6 are as robust and strong as possible.”