What is CPA?
CPA was introduced for all Local Authorities in the country in
2002, following the White Paper 'Strong Local Government - Quality
Public Services.' It is a key part of the Government's drive to
improve public services.
All councils are subject to inspection and accountability
regimes. CPA is a way of bringing together these regimes in order
to provide an overall 'comprehensive' assessment of the performance
of the council. The assessment focuses on both current performance
and the likelihood of improvement. It looks at how well the council
delivers their services as well as how well they are run. The
assessment is carried out, on behalf of the government, by the
Audit Commission .
What does it mean?
Each council will be placed in a category based on the findings of
their assessment. The five categories are:
- Excellent
- Good
- Fair
- Weak
- Poor
Better performing councils will be given greater freedom from
central government in the delivery of their services, whereas
councils that perform less well receive more support and
intervention.
The future of CPA
From 2009 CPA will be
replaced by a new inspection regime called Comprehensive Area
Assessment (CAA). More information about CAA can be found on the
Audit Commission website at:
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/caa
Self Assessment
A key part of the CPA process is the Council's Self Assessment. The
Self Assessment consists of a number of parts, the main one
being:
A Corporate Assessment which seeks to answer
the four questions:
- What is the Council trying to achieve?
- How has the Council set about delivering its priorities?
- What has the Council achieved to date?
- What has the Council learned, and what does it plan to do
next?
Other assessments which are used to test how the Council is
delivering its services include:
Inspection
The Audit Commission Inspection took place during the week
commencing 6 September 2004. The inspection final report was
published in December 2004.The result of the inspection was that
Waveney has been categorised as a "weak" council.
The Audit Commission CPA Inspection Report is
available here .
High Level Improvement Plan
One of the actions from the inspection was to produce a High
Level Improvement Plan. This has been agreed with the Audit
Commission. It details the improvements we will put in place and
will be monitored closely by both ourselves and our external
auditors. Click for more details of the
High Level
Improvement Plan
Progress Assessment
As a "weak" council Waveney was re-visited by the Audit
Commission during October 2005. The purpose of this was to decide
how we have progressed against our High Level Improvement Plan.
You can view the Audit Commission progress
report by clicking here .
Useful Links
For enquiries regarding the Comprehensive Performance Assessment
please use the contacts below:
Policy Officer
Tel: 01502 523623
Tel: 01502 523306
Corporate Development Manager
Tel: 01502
523271