Contact: Gary Smith, ext 7691 Email: [email protected]

1. Introduction

1.1 As part of the CPA 2005 changes the Council is required to produce two annual self-assessments; value for money (submitted end July) and direction of travel. These two self-assessments are linked, both outlining the Council's assessment of performance (quality against cost) and improvement, with the direction of travel self-assessment having a greater focus on progression in improvement areas and external audit and inspection recommendations.

1.2 The auditors will use the direction of travel self-assessment (DoT) to judge the Council's direction and rate of improvement using one of six labels - these are a welcomed extra dimension to the Audit Commission's judgement of the Council. It will also result in an `executive summary' reported publicly in the CPA scorecard and provide a significant proportion of the Annual Audit and Inspection Letter.

1.3 It has been agreed with the auditors that the DoT will be considered as a sister document to the value for money self-assessment meaning their combined evidence will be considered and avoiding the need to duplicate content.

2. New direction of travel requirements

2.1 This year the DoT self-assessment has to be submitted to the Audit Commission by 30 September. A draft of the self-assessment which outlines the skeleton of the Council's response can be found in appendix one - timeframes have been tight in this first year and at this stage evidence is still being collected from departments. The self-assessment is expected to cover three main broad areas:

· Local context - key issues that inform and shape local priorities and improvement agendas

· Priority services & wider outcomes - are they improving, staying the same or deteriorating

· Robustness of improvement planning - and the extent to which improvements are being delivered as planned (do we set challenging targets)

2.2 Overall the DoT will need to cover what has changed over the last year in terms of outcomes for the community and service users and the difference the Council is making to local places and local people.

2.3 There are four main judgement labels - two of these have further splits. These labels are:

1. Significant improvement - strong record of improvement and robust plans for further improvement

2a. Some improvement - reasonable record of improvement and relatively robust plans for further improvement

2b. Some improvement - reasonable record of improvement but ineffective plans for further improvement

3a. No improvement - few improvements but reasonably robust plans for further improvement

3b. No improvement - few improvements and ineffective plans for further improvement

4. Weakening - failing to improve, some areas deteriorating and a poor plan for improvement

2.4 The guidance requires the final DoT to be signed off by the Chief Executive.

3. Our approach

3.1 The Corporate Performance Team (CPT), with it's experience collating, consulting and writing self-assessments and building on the recent work on the value for money self-assessment, will take the lead on producing the DoT.

3.2 CPT, using it's performance links across the Council, will compile the evidence needed and use this to draft the DoT. Senior and cross-cutting lead officers will be consulted as well as relevant performance and service managers.

3.3 The primary sources of evidence are identified as:

· Progress with audit recommendations

· Progress with inspection recommendations

· National and local performance indicator results and trends

· Progress on reviews (on an exception basis)

· Achievement of external accreditation

Recommendations

1 That Cabinet note the requirements for submission of a direction of travel self-assessment and support the collection of evidence and the overall approach being taken.

2 That Cabinet authorise the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader, to submit the self-assessment by the 30 September deadline.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

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

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works.

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

None.