Contact: Jenny Heath, ext 7402

1 Summary

1.1 The following decisions are sought:

· That Cabinet approve the corporate self-assessment, which is based on evidence taken from the 2004 Performance Plan and the 2004/05 half-year performance report.

· That Cabinet note the timetable for publication of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) 2004 refresh judgement.

· That Cabinet note progress with audit and inspection recommendations.

2 Reasons for the recommendations

2.1 The qualitative assessment is a key and public element of the CPA annual refresh. It is based on a summary of the Council's self-assessment of current performance and progress with its corporate goals and targets.

2.2 The content of this report is directly related to Aim 5 of the Corporate Strategy: Improving services - improving our performance.

3 Other options considered and rejected

3.1 None

4 Conflicts of interest declared by the decision maker, or member or officer consulted

4.1 None

5 Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee

5.1 Not applicable

6 Reason for matter being dealt with, if urgent

6.1 Not applicable

Approved by: Date:

7 Purpose of the report

7.1 This report updates the report to Cabinet on 26 July this year, which provided a summary of progress with the Hampshire Improvement (CPA) Programme during 2003/04.

7.2 While it is clear that the Council's performance should be judged on its capacity and track record for delivering its key aims and priorities, it would be naïve to exclude its progress in responding to external recommendations. Therefore, this report also advises Cabinet on progress made in response to current audit and inspection recommendations.

7.3 In addition, the report summarises the Council's position in relation to this year's refresh of the CPA judgement. As in previous year's this comprises 2 main elements:

· A voluntary qualitative assessment - based on the Council's own self-assessment of its overall performance and achievements in relation to its corporate goals and targets. This element is unscored but features in public audit statements about the Council's direction of travel.

· A set of service judgements - based on a assessments, which combine performance results and inspector judgements.

8 The Hampshire Improvement Programme

8.1 Since the previous report, the goals and targets for the Hampshire Improvement Programme have all been integrated within the revision of the Corporate Strategy and are no longer a stand-alone set of targets. From this time forward, it is planned to report progress with these targets or goals as part of the routine performance reporting which will provide information on progress with all the goals and targets contained in the Corporate Strategy.

9 Responses to audit and inspection recommendations

9.1 In addition to the goals and targets contained in the Corporate Strategy, the Council responds to recommendations made by external audit or inspection agencies, which aim to improve the Council's overall efficiency, economy and effectiveness. The overall assessment of progress is made via the Annual Audit Letter to Members. The current letter relates to the financial year 2002/03 and was presented to Cabinet on 15 December 2003. There were no new recommendations made at the strategic level of the audit letter.

9.2 There are four other current audit or inspection reports which have generated recommendations which the Council is responding to:

· The CPA Corporate Assessment

· The inspection of Support to the Voluntary and Community Sector

· The inspection of the Economic Prosperity function

· The re-inspection of the Library Service

9.3 Appendices 1 - 4 provide summaries of progress against the recommendations and give further evidence in support of the corporate self-assessment of performance

9.4 The Council's progress with audit and inspection recommendations shows an emerging pattern of integrating key financial, strategic and operational planning, performance management and communication activities. While the current focus has been on developing and improving the underlying infrastructure, it is anticipated that the publication of the Performance Management Framework will in due course provide a route map for this activity, that will enable members, managers and staff to be clear about how it joins up. As important, it will also provide evidence of corporate ability for the next revision of the CPA framework in 200506.

10 Qualitative Assessment

10.1 The qualitative assessment is based on the Council's own self-assessment of progress over the last year (Appendix 5). Because of the CPA refresh timetable, the self-assessment is drafted in a number of stages, taking account of the latest information as it comes on stream.

10.2 Initially based on the statements made in the 2004 Performance Plan, the first draft reflects progress during the financial year 2003/04. This draft version was passed to the local auditor on 30 September 2004.

10.3 The statement is updated with reference to the information gathered from the half-year performance report, which will be considered at the informal cabinet meeting on 9 November 2004. This means that the self-assessment can reflect progress with the Council's corporate goals during 2004/05, increasing its relevance and usefulness.

10.4 Frequent liaison with the local auditors during October enables the first draft to be updated and minimises the chance of significant, unexpected discrepancies between the Council's self-assessment and the auditor's qualitative assessment.

10.5 The final version must be agreed by 30 October 2004. In the unlikely event that significant information comes to light during the latter stages of this process, it is proposed that the Leader approves any substantive changes to the self-assessment.

11 Service assessments

11.1 The final Audit Commission scorecard will include judgements on the following service blocks:

· Education

· Social Care - adults and children services receive separate scores

· Environment

· Libraries

· Use of resources, incorporating the financial audit, the performance audit and corporate health measures.

12 Timetable for CPA refresh

12.1 Appendix 6 provides the key milestones for this year's refresh.

Recommendations

1 That Cabinet approve the corporate self-assessment, which is based on evidence taken from the 2004 Performance Plan and information being collected for the 2004/05 half-year performance monitoring report and that the Leader approves any substantive changes to the final version made following this meeting.

2 That Cabinet note the timetable for publication of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) 2004 refresh judgement.

3 That Cabinet note progress with audit and inspection recommendations.

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

None

N.B. The list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.