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Comprehensive Performance Assessment

Press release 22 July 2004 OSWESTRY BOROUGH COUNCIL IS A 'GOOD AND IMPROVING AUTHORITY'.

It is confirmed that Oswestry Borough Council is a 'good and improving authority'. The Audit Commission published major reports today on its comprehensive performance assessment of the five Shropshire district councils and concluded that Oswestry Borough Council is 'a good and improving authority which has laid robust foundations over the last three years to enhance the quality of service that local people receive' and that the Council is 'financially well positioned to deliver improvements'.

Councillor Arthur Walpole, Leader of the Council, said 'I must take this opportunity to acknowledge and congratulate all the staff for their hard work, particularly over the past three years. As a small authority with limited resources we are extremely pleased with this result. It reflects the commitment and focus of both staff and members in improving services and our good working relationship with partners, user and community groups. We will be building on these strengths in taking the Council forward and will be focusing on making sure that services continue to improve based on customers needs and that they offer even better value in the future.'

The Council scored the highest mark possible for how much it has improved over time. Paul Shevlin, Chief Executive said 'I am very proud, as all members and officers should be, of what we have achieved. This is a clear endorsement of the work we have all put in over the past three years in getting the right building blocks in place. We scored just two points below the top score of excellent and we know what needs to be done to improve. We are currently finalising our improvement plan, based on the findings of this report, and we are aiming towards excellence'.

What is CPA?

Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) is part of a wider Government improvement agenda set out in the Local Government White Paper Strong Local Leadership - Quality Public Services.It is about helping all councils deliver better services to local people by assessing the performance of the whole of an authority, identifying strengths and weaknesses and providing a clear focus on the way forward to address areas for improvement. For those authorities assessed by the Audit Commission as high performing there will be freedoms and flexibilities with regard to planning, spending and decision-making.For poor performing authorities there will be targeted support, capacity building and intervention measures were necessary.

How CPA worked for Oswestry Borough Council

The main elements being:

• Council self-assessment
• Accredited peer challenge of the council's self-assessment
• A corporate assessment, informed by the peer report and the authority's self-assessment
• Diagnostic assessments of the council's
• Management of public space, plus;
• Progress in meeting of the decent homes standard (where the council owns its own housing stock or is still in the process of transferring its stock) or contribution to the management of housing markets (where the council does not own housing stock).
• Benefit Fraud Inspectorate's (BFI) assessment on benefit services
• Appointed auditor assessments of performance on each of the main elements of the code of audit practice and
• Audited performance indicators, inspection reports and plan assessments.

Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) Report  (378.9KB)