156 The Audit Commission supports the principles set out in the Good Governance Standard for Public Services (Ref. 22). If corporate bodies adopt these principles, it will strengthen their ability to govern their partnership work effectively. Partnerships will also find this document useful when they review their governance arrangements.
157 The Commission's Area Profiles initiative is considering how best to map the monies that central and local public agencies direct into local areas and to track how organisations spend this money. This should help to make partnership costs transparent and contribute to better value for money in partnerships. We plan to publish a revised set of quality of life indicators in the near future.
158 We have collaborated with the Improvement and Development Agency, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and the Employers' Organisation to develop the Improvement Network. This website contains toolkits, guidance and case study examples that show how local authorities have improved services. Partnership working is one of the five key themes, and we will update this on a regular basis. Although the website focuses on local government, it contains much information about collaboration that applies across the public sector. Visit the website at: http://www.improvementnetwork.gov.uk/
159 The Commission plans to develop a web-based self-assessment tool for audited and inspected bodies. It will include interactive, modular tools and guidance on partnership governance, value for money and user focus. We will place this on the Improvement Network website in due course. We have devised some basic questions to help local public bodies grapple with complexity and risk in governing their partnerships (Appendix 5).