Archived decisions

Delivering CPA for districts 28 May 2003

Consultation on the assessment framework for District Councils

General comments

The Council welcomes the opportunity to comment on the proposed assessment framework for district council CPA, from its position as a county council with strong partnership links to the 11 district, borough and city councils in the Hampshire area.

Recognising the diversity of these councils, the Council endorses the approach taken to fine-tuning the original CPA framework so that it does not place an undue burden on those with limited capacity to respond.

The Council also notes the following lessons which have been learnt from the upper tier programme and which should also be applied to the revision of that framework:

· The acknowledgement that results can be published on a rolling programme

· The acceptance of existing peer reviews, where these are carried out by accredited assessors

· The assessment of partnerships should only measure the effectiveness of the council's contribution, rather than the performance of the partnership itself

· The need to take account of election timetables in the scheduling of assessment programmes

· The need to schedule visits from different inspection teams carefully so they do not place an undue burden on councils

· Issues of inspection team competence, especially in relation to political awareness, and the involvement of chief executives and leading councillors in their training.

Responses to specific questions

The Council agrees with the proposal to reach a single overall judgement covering core service performance and council ability - but with those elements clearly identified within the overall judgement, so that they inform improvement planning.

The Council agrees with the proposal to reach the performance element of the judgement by combining information from various evidence sources. However, the Council does not wish to comment on the weighting of these separate elements.

The Council strongly endorses the use of the same categories of assessment for district councils, on the grounds that to do anything else would undermine the credibility of the scheme and be confusing to the public, who do not generally differentiate between the different tiers of local government.

The Council does not feel it appropriate for a county council to comment on the proposed banding of scores or the application of rules.

The Council strongly endorses the rolling timetable of reporting and proposes this should be applied to upper tier reporting in a similar manner.