The Comprehensive Area Assessment looks set to scrap star ratings, which will place greater onus on performance frameworks at the local level. Paul O’Brien examines the implications
‘Earned autonomy’ is a well-worn ministerial mantra which is finally becoming a reality, as national star ratings are set to go and councils gain more freedom to determine local priorities under Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA).
And this autonomy has certainly been earned. CPA has shown year-on-year improvement, with 77% of councils ending up in the ‘improving strongly’ or ‘improving well’ categories. The Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) has been collecting data on frontline services for the past decade, and our performance networks service is now the largest voluntary public sector benchmarking model in the UK. Performance networks has fed data into CPA, and our indicators show performance has improved across individual services – recycling rates are up, streets are cleaner, and roads are repaired more quickly.
CPA was never supposed to be an end in itself, but a means to encourage councils on an improvement journey – and, by that measure, it has succeeded. Star ratings were of use at the time, but that era has passed.
Councils now have a chance to reflect local wishes. The reduction in national targets, emphasis on local priorities and development of local performance frameworks is something APSE has campaigned for and welcomes. The shift down to 198 national indicators and 35 local ones is positive.
The focus placed in CAA proposals on good management of the workforce and environmental sustainability, added to the ‘use of resources’ element of assessment, is also positive. Both these areas were neglected in earlier processes but have a huge part to play in council performance.
The Government finally seems to understand that value for money is about a lot more than finance. And the value of public sector workers in delivering high-quality services appears to have finally gained recognition. As APSE’s recent report Towards a future for public employment showed, public sector workers provide a vital interface with local service-users and will be crucial to the success of local government’s growing place-shaping role.
While broadly welcoming CAA proposals, APSE does, however, share LGA concerns that local authorities could have responsibility for the performance of local partners without clear control over their willingness to engage with the process. It’s a bit like a ringmaster being asked to control a circus without the stool or whip. Questions such as, who will police the collective performance of agencies?, need to be addressed.
As they are freed from a strict national performance regime, councils will also need to be asking themselves tough questions about how they set and maintain their own performance standards locally. That is why APSE, in partnership with the LGA and Encams, is developing a new neighbourhood management performance model.
The model, currently being piloted in four authorities, is one way to bring together performance measurements on street cleaning, highways and lighting, refuse collection and parks and open spaces at a neighbourhood level. These are high-profile services and it is at this neighbourhood level where residents can be most easily engaged in establishing local priorities.
It is impossible to truly assess the impact of CAA without looking at the broader changes which are happening within local government. The reform of the best value regime, with the emphasis in draft statutory guidance on stakeholder involvement in decisions, is a deliberate and calculated piece of the jigsaw to reform the way in which local government relates not only to partner organisations but to local people. The reforms dovetail with the CAA requirements on partnership-based shared visions and outcomes and joined-up approaches to the inspection. A new ‘place survey’ will track the citizenship perspective on 20 of the local indicators set, replacing the previous best value user satisfaction surveys, and of the 198 national indicators, 64 are new indicators, for which there is no existing baseline measures.
The real test of CAA will surely be if councils can rise to the challenge in improving communities through the local service they provide.
Residents might not know or care what national star rating their council has, but they will be undoubtedly be aware if the neighbourhood in which they live is getting better. And having a solid local performance framework in place is one way to ensure that happens.
Paul O’Brien is chief executive of APSE
And this autonomy has certainly been earned. CPA has shown year-on-year improvement, with 77% of councils ending up in the ‘improving strongly’ or ‘improving well’ categories. The Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) has been collecting data on frontline services for the past decade, and our performance networks service is now the largest voluntary public sector benchmarking model in the UK. Performance networks has fed data into CPA, and our indicators show performance has improved across individual services – recycling rates are up, streets are cleaner, and roads are repaired more quickly.
CPA was never supposed to be an end in itself, but a means to encourage councils on an improvement journey – and, by that measure, it has succeeded. Star ratings were of use at the time, but that era has passed.
Councils now have a chance to reflect local wishes. The reduction in national targets, emphasis on local priorities and development of local performance frameworks is something APSE has campaigned for and welcomes. The shift down to 198 national indicators and 35 local ones is positive.
The focus placed in CAA proposals on good management of the workforce and environmental sustainability, added to the ‘use of resources’ element of assessment, is also positive. Both these areas were neglected in earlier processes but have a huge part to play in council performance.
The Government finally seems to understand that value for money is about a lot more than finance. And the value of public sector workers in delivering high-quality services appears to have finally gained recognition. As APSE’s recent report Towards a future for public employment showed, public sector workers provide a vital interface with local service-users and will be crucial to the success of local government’s growing place-shaping role.
While broadly welcoming CAA proposals, APSE does, however, share LGA concerns that local authorities could have responsibility for the performance of local partners without clear control over their willingness to engage with the process. It’s a bit like a ringmaster being asked to control a circus without the stool or whip. Questions such as, who will police the collective performance of agencies?, need to be addressed.
As they are freed from a strict national performance regime, councils will also need to be asking themselves tough questions about how they set and maintain their own performance standards locally. That is why APSE, in partnership with the LGA and Encams, is developing a new neighbourhood management performance model.
The model, currently being piloted in four authorities, is one way to bring together performance measurements on street cleaning, highways and lighting, refuse collection and parks and open spaces at a neighbourhood level. These are high-profile services and it is at this neighbourhood level where residents can be most easily engaged in establishing local priorities.
It is impossible to truly assess the impact of CAA without looking at the broader changes which are happening within local government. The reform of the best value regime, with the emphasis in draft statutory guidance on stakeholder involvement in decisions, is a deliberate and calculated piece of the jigsaw to reform the way in which local government relates not only to partner organisations but to local people. The reforms dovetail with the CAA requirements on partnership-based shared visions and outcomes and joined-up approaches to the inspection. A new ‘place survey’ will track the citizenship perspective on 20 of the local indicators set, replacing the previous best value user satisfaction surveys, and of the 198 national indicators, 64 are new indicators, for which there is no existing baseline measures.
The real test of CAA will surely be if councils can rise to the challenge in improving communities through the local service they provide.
Residents might not know or care what national star rating their council has, but they will be undoubtedly be aware if the neighbourhood in which they live is getting better. And having a solid local performance framework in place is one way to ensure that happens.
Paul O’Brien is chief executive of APSE
