MINISTERS are under pressure to overhaul a key policy aimed at improving public services and reducing inequality after it was slammed as a "failure" that had delivered nothing in a decade.

Community Planning Partnerships (CPP), established in 2003, were intended to draw councils, the police, the NHS and a series of other groups together to devise new ways of improving the lives of the people they served.

However, more than a decade on, Audit Scotland has said that many of the 32 organisations - one in each local authority area - still have little understanding of what their purpose is.

Hugh Henry, convenor of Holyrood's Public Audit Committee, called on ministers to intervene in light of the watchdog's highly critical report.

He said: "It's depressing that more than 10 years after the Scottish Parliament legislated for community planning that so little progress has been made.

"What's the point of legislation if it can be so easily ignored?

"The Audit Scotland report says that many CPP's are not clear about what they are expected to achieve. We need to be told 'why not and who is responsible?'"

He added: "We are talking about the delivery of services which affect every man woman and child in Scotland, such as health, housing, education and tackling crime.

"The Scottish Government needs to sort this out."

The Renfrewshire MSP, who is stepping down from his audit committee role after being named as Labour's shadow cabinet secretary for justice, described the finding that CPPs were still not clear about their role as "frankly, outrageous".

The Scottish Government said the CPPs had a critical role in ensuring the effectiveness of public services throughout Scotland.

However, Audit Scotland concluded that leadership and scrutiny were still inconsistent and said CPPs "lack focus" on tackling inequality.

The watchdog set out a series of recommendations.

It said that the Scottish Government and local authority umbrella group COSLA should make it clear what it expected of CPPs and do more to hold them to account.

CPPs, which are largely funded by councils, should also strengthen leadership, agree what their role is and set "relevant, targeted priorities for improvement".

Tavish Scott, a liberal Democrat MSP and Holyrood audit committee member, said that CPPs were part of a "broken institutional landscape" and blamed the Scottish Government for their lack of success.

He added: "This hasn't saved a penny in ten years. We are yet to see anything new or innovative coming out of these talking shops."

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: "Community Planning Partnerships have a critical role to play in ensuring public services meet the needs of local communities throughout Scotland.

"The Scottish Government is working with national partners to ensure the National Community Planning Group provides effective national leadership on community planning where it is needed most.

"We have worked with our partners to shape the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill, which refocuses the statutory purpose of community planning so it is explicitly about how public bodies work together and with the local community to plan for, resource and provide services which improve the lives of people in local communities."