Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) Results 2004
South Shropshire District Council rated 'Good Council' by Audit Commission
The Audit Commission has rated SSDC a 'Good Council' following the independent Comprehensive Performance Assessment it conducted in 2004.
The Council was awarded an overall score of 42 points - only six points short of an 'Excellent' rating - and was found to have a 'clear vision for the area that it serves'.
South Shropshire District Council passed its Comprehensive Performance Assessment with flying colours.
South Shropshire's delivery of services to council tax payers was judged to be first rate, but the Council fell slightly short of the Audit Commission's standards for some aspects of internal processes, and as a result didn't achieve a score that would have secured an 'Excellent' rating.
Summarising its 45-page report, the Audit Commission concluded: 'South Shropshire is a good council. It provides leadership to its far flung communities from a small and limited resource base.'
The Audit Commission congratulated The Council for setting and working to clear priorities that focus on local issues, deeming the Council's statutory plans for issues, such as waste management and the Local Plan, to be 'good'. 'These plans are sustainable and plan to secure real community benefits in the long term,' the report says.
SSDC was also commended for 'levering in considerable external funds for a small outlay of resources', which has brought external money into the District and allowed council tax payers' money to go much further.
'The Audit Commission recognises that the Council has a good track record of delivering services and community leadership,' said Chief Executive, Graham Biggs.
'This reflects well on the Council's own focus on service delivery rather than putting disproportionate levels of resources into bureaucracy. Indeed, the main areas in which we scored less well in the Performance Assessment involved our 'limited capacity', and this related primarily to our capacity for delivering all aspects of corporate management processes. We don't have the level of internal systems in place that the Audit Commission would like to see.'
Heather Kidd, Leader of the Council said: 'We simply don't have the staff we need to do all the paperwork that would satisfy the Audit Commission - some of our priorities, given our limited resources, are clearly different to those of the Audit Commission'.
'The Audit Commission gives more weight to 'back office' activities and less weight to service delivery than we do,' she continued. 'To my mind, a ranking of 'Good' in our first Audit Commission inspection reflects well on the attitude and application of officers and members of this Council. It gives us a very firm base on which to build for the future, and some excellent pointers towards improvement that have been verified by external, independent assessors.'
'We do have the capacity, given time, to meet the Audit Commission's standards and plan to make slow and steady progress over the next three years,' said Graham Biggs. 'But not at the expense of service delivery. We have come out of the inspection process with flying colours and a clear plan for moving towards that 'Excellent' rating. Based on this assessment we are already amongst the best performing District Councils in England. That is a great credit to our staff, to councillors and to the wide range of partners who work with us.'
All local authorities, other than town and parish councils, are subject to the Comprehensive Performance Assessment. It is a detailed performance review beginning with a process of self-assessment that is then evaluated in an inspection process conducted by external assessors. The assessment involves input from a wide range of local bodies, and takes full account of feedback and comment from individual council tax payers.
For further information visit the Audit Commission website.
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Subscribe to changes to this page here.Author: Eric Williams. Last Updated: 11/5/2007.
