Best Value or CPA - performance information
Generic Processes
The Council's performance is measured against nationally agreed targets.
Best Value
The government requires each local authority to collect and publish a range of performance indicators reflecting the services the authority provides. The indicators are verified by an external auditor from the District Audit service.
The performance indicators are set by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM).
Each year every local authority has to return to the Audit Commission details of all the performance indicators (PIs) they are responsible for collecting. The Audit Commission analyses this data by taking the performance of all authorities and ranking performance from best to worst. The resultant 'league table' is then divided into quartiles e.g if 200 authorities report a particular PI, the best performing 50 authorities are classed as being the 'top quartile' and worst performing 50 authorities classed as the 'bottom quartile'. The Commission also gives details of the median figure for each PI (the median being the value of the item in the middle of a range of figures).
Best Value Information Relating to This Council
Last updated: 17 May 05
Next update due: 17 June 05
The CPA Inspection and the Poor Rating
All principal local authorities in England have undergone Comprehensive Performance Assessment. The term principal local authorities includes all councils except parish and town councils.
Comprehensive Performance Assessment measures the Council's performance in delivering its core services and its ability to improve. It does not rely solely on the visit of Audit Commission inspectors but on also data collected by the Council, a report by the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate and a self-assessment by the Council.
In July 2004, the Audit Commission published its report on North Shropshire District Council. The full report runs to 51 pages and contains a great deal of information and analysis. The report was critical though it did highlight some areas where the Council was doing well.
The Audit Commission assessed us overall as Poor. All Councils are given a one-word assessment on the scale Poor\Weak\Fair\Good\Excellent.
On the day that the Comprehensive Performance Assessment was made public, the Council accepted the Poor rating and committed itself to improving.
Engagement
When the Audit Commission assesses a Council as Poor, that Council is obliged to enter a process of engagement with central government. The government department with a particular interest in local government is the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister sometimes known as ODPM.
Under engagement, we work closely with the Government, keep them informed about what we are planning and doing and listen to their comments and suggestions. The Council continues to make its own decisions and is responsible for improving its own performance.
Ministers have the power to intervene directly in the working of the Council and to instruct us to take particular actions. They have not exercised this power with this Council, though they could choose to at any time.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister appointed a civil servant to work with us. She is known as the Lead Official. Our Lead Official is called Leo Castledine. She is able to assist us in several ways, including co-ordinating the demands that various parts of government place upon us, advising us on sources of government help for specific projects and challenging us to do better.
The Government has also set up a Monitoring Board which meets monthly and which helps and advises the Council on its improvement. The Board is chaired by our Lead Official and its members include a number of civil servants, the Chief Executive of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and a representative of the Community Task Force. We present reports on our progress to the monitoring board each month and take heed of their suggestions and comments. The monitoring board also asks for focussed updates on specific issues.
Recovery Plan
The first job of the Lead Official was to meet councillors and managers and report to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister where Phil Hope MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State is taking the lead on North Shropshire District Council. The Lead Official reported on whether the Council was capable of designing and implementing its own recovery plan. The recovery plan is, as it sounds, the plan the Local Authority will follow to improve its performance.
The Lead Official took the view that the Council is capable of designing and implementing its own recovery plan. The Council has drafted a plan in consultation with the Lead Official and we have begun to implement some of the key recommendations.
The Council needs to take action on a wide range of fronts. The recovery plan covers 5 broad areas that we will be addressing as we move forward. These areas are:
Communications and consultation
We need to become much better at engaging staff the public and partners in the decisions of the Council and we need to work more effectively with partners to ensure the very best services possible are delivered to the people of the district.
Officer and member structures
We are changing the way the Council takes decisions and the way our staff are managed to enable the Council to become more customer focussed, more streamlined in its decision making and better able to involve the public and partners in planning and delivering services.
Officer and member development
We are training and developing Councillors and staff as part of our move to becoming a leaner, more focussed organisation providing the very best services to the people in the district.
Building blocks and investment
We are reviewing our planning and monitoring processes so that we can be sure that we can deliver effective services and will be able to mobilise the right resources at the right time to deliver our plans.
Focussing on improving services
We want to deliver excellent services to everyone in the district. In particular, we will use new technology and new procurement systems to increase efficiency and develop new ways of working. We will build on the success of our Waste Management and Recycling services, facilitate more affordable , improve our planning services and complete a options appraisal by May 2005.
We have set up a team of Councillors and officers to co-ordinate and manage the various strands of the recovery plan.
Government Involvement
Representatives of the District Council met Phil Hope MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State. Councillor Barbara Bate, Chairman of the Council described the meeting as 'positive'. The Council issued a news release at the time.
Next steps
It is very clear that things have to change and North Shropshire District Council is committed to achieve that change.
The government will want to be assured that recovery will be sustained and not just a short term improvement. The Council will therefore remain in engagement until the Council and the Government agree that recovery is sustained. We may go through a period of light touch engagement where we meet the Monitoring Board less frequently and have less support from the Lead Official.
If things go well, we would expect to be in engagement for around 12-18 months.
The Audit Commission will conduct an inspection of the Council at the end of April 2005. Because this is a shorter version of the original CPA process, we call it a 'mini-CPA'. The mini CPA will not re-grade the Council but will indicate our direction of travel (whether we are improving, getting worse or staying the same).
Comprehensive Performance Assessment
Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) is the latest in a long line of Government initiatives to improve local government. You will have seen the inspections of schools and hospitals, and the league tables that follow. Well, CPA is much the same, but for Councils. All councils are inspected by a team from the Audit Commission, often described in the media as government watchdogs.
They talk to councillors and members of staff at all levels, as well as to the public and the Council's partners, to get a view of the Vouncil from as wide a perspective as possible. They see how the Council delivers its services, what improvements the Council could make, what difficulties they face, before they make a judgement and award a rating. The ratings are excellent, good, fair, weak and poor. Their rating is accompanied by a report, which is made public, explaining why they reached that conclusion.
Councils achieving good or excellent ratings will enjoy certain freedoms, which include relaxation of financial controls and a holiday from inspections. The main parts of the CPA are:
A Self-Assessment Document
The Council has to produce a report for the inspection team which looks at its achievements, strengths and weaknesses
A Peer Challenge
A kind of dummy run for the real inspection. A team of Peers (colleagues from other authorities) visit the Council. Their job is to speak to representatives, groups and individuals, study evidence and the Council's draft self assessment (see above) and compile a report which, amongst other things, suggest improvements to the self-assessment. Their report is sent to the Audit Commission Inspectors as part of the evidence.
A Corporate Assessment
An official check on how the Council operates. Linked to the Self-Assessment and the Peer Challenge, this looks at the Council's performance against four questions:
- What is the Council trying to achieve?
- How has the Council set about delivering the most important improvements?
- What has the Council achieved/not achieved to date?
- In the light of what the Council has achieved so far, what do the Council plan to do next?
The answers to these questions are scored between 1 - 4 as follows:
1 = weak;
2 = weaknesses exceed strengths;
3 = strengths exceed weaknesses;
4 = strong
Documentation
Key documents, such as strategies, policies, and reports are sent to the Inspection Team before they arrive. They also receive long lists of contacts in community groups and the Council's partners, many of who will be asked to speak to them during the inspection.
Public Space and Reports
The Council has to supply considerably detailed reports relating to how they deal with public open space and in the area. These so-called diagnostic assessments measure the council against set standards. Councils are also asked to demonstrate how they are performing on things that they consider to be important and how/where improvements can be made. These will be scored according to the level of improvement required and the results fed into the main CPA assessment.
Self Assessment
This is the final version of the Self Assessment document which is sent to the Audit Commission. In preparing it, the Council incorporates comments made by external partners, councillors and staff.
Included in the document is a self scoring matrix (the Council is asked to score themselves against the same set of criteria as the Inspectors), and the reports on public space and (see above).
Related Documents
Related Websites
| email: | ldale@northshropshiredc.gov.uk |
|---|---|
| telephone: | 01939 232771 |
| fax: | 01939 238444 |
