How Good is the Council?
What is Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA)?
CPA is part of the Government's agenda to modernise local
government and to improve its services.
The Audit Commission (the Government agency charged with
making sure local councils and the health service are providing
value for money) carries out a rolling programme of assessments of
all local councils in England and Wales. The assessment is
conducted by a team of inspectors who talk to Councillors and
staff, as well as to the public and the Council's partners, to get
a wide view of the Council. They see how a Council delivers
its services, what improvements the Council could make and what
difficulties it faces. Each council then receives a rating of
excellent, good, fair, weak or poor.
Richmondshire's Comprehensive Performance
Assessment
The Council was assessed in January 2004, with the rating and
final report published in May 2004.
To arrive at their judgement the Audit Commission inspection
team took account of:
- A challenge by peers in local government
- Our own self assessment of our performance overall against 4
key questions:
- What is the Council trying to achieve?
- How has the Council set about delivering its priorities for
improvement?
- What improvements has the Council achieved/not achieved?
- In the light of what the Council has learned what does it plan
to do next?
- Our assessment of our performance in managing and delivering
housing services and how we manage public space
- The view of our auditor about how well we manage the Council's
finances
- The view of the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate about how good our
Housing and Council Tax benefits service is.
To find out the Council's view of our performance you can read
our self assessments, together with a summary and a brief
improvement plan available in pdf format below:
The Final Comprehensive Performance
Report
The Council was assessed as "fair", but with "good prospects
for improvement".
The final report is available for download in pdf format
(see Related documents).
The key strengths of the Council are:
- Some good quality services, such as refuse collection,
recycling and street cleaning, and public satisfaction is high
- It is ambitious and clear about what it wants to achieve for
local people
- It provides good access to services in outlying parts of the
district
- Its Council homes are in good order and tenants are satisfied
with the services they receive
- It manages its finances well.
Areas for improvement are:
- Developing the quality of decision making
- Improving the way it manages its risks through its own checking
processes, as well as procurement systems
- Focusing on the performance of its main services
- Consulting with specific sections of the community, such as
young people
- Identifying long term targets and goals.
The Next Steps
Following the publication of its CPA rating, the Council
reviewed its improvement plan "Improving from Within", to address
the key recommendations made by the inspection team. Progress on
implementing the plan will be reviewed each year and reported in
our
Best Value Performance Plan. The Council will
also receive an annual assessment by the Audit Commission of its
"direction of travel" in implementing improvements and its use of
resources.
If you would like more information about CPA and what it means
for the Council please contact: