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Auditors say Caerphilly County Borough Council should improve how it commissions services, to ensure value for money for taxpayers.

A new report shows Audit Wales inspected the council in late 2024 to test arrangements for commissioning – or how the council “designs services it intends to deliver”.

Generally, effective commissioning can lead to services being delivered “economically” and “efficiently”, while weaker arrangements “can reduce both the impact and value for money of services”, the auditors explained.

In their time at Caerphilly Council, the Audit Wales team analysed arrangements for “floating support and financial capacity”, its framework for out-of-school education (EOTAS), and cost-cutting proposals for Meals Direct and the Hive Cafe at the council’s headquarters.

Overall, the team found “weaknesses in the council’s commissioning arrangements that potentially risk it not securing value for money in the use of its resources”.

The team found the council “does not routinely consider a broad range of information to inform its choice of commissioning options”, which “risks developing services that may not provide value for money or meet the needs of services users”.

The auditors’ findings also included a view the council “does not consistently consider what long term means when planning its approach to commissioning services, or how it will balance longer-term and short-term needs”.

Caerphilly Council “does not routinely set out how it will monitor and assess the value for money of commissioned services”, the auditors said.

Another point found the council “does not consistently understand who will be directly and indirectly affected by commissioned services”.

As an example, Audit Wales said, following stakeholder engagement on the meals on wheels service Meals Direct, it was “not clear how this engagement informed the commissioning process”.

More positive findings included the council setting out “a clear definition and explanation of the need for commissioned services, together with their intended outcomes”.

The auditors also accepted the council was “refining its approach” to the commissioning of services at the time of the inspection, between September 2024 and January 2025.

Recommendations to the council urged a more consistent approach to commissioning, to ensure compliance with its arrangements, and to keep those policies under regular review.

A Caerphilly Council spokesman said: “We are in receipt of the Audit Wales report and the findings will be carefully considered as part of our governance process over the coming months.

“We would like to assure residents that work is already underway to address the recommendations highlighted in the report, so that we commission our services in the most efficient and effective way possible.”