Transcript Slide 1

Comprehensive Area
Assessment Framework
Martin Genge
Performance Improvement
Manager
30th March 2009
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What is CAA?
New approach to independently assess
how well people are being served by
their local public services
 It will focus on how well councils and
partners are delivering better
outcomes and improving the quality of
life for local people

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Why is CAA different?
 CAA is about areas as much as organisations, future rather
than past performance, outcomes rather than ways of
working, and local priorities as much as national targets.
 Its span is broader than CPA and what individual
inspectorates had been assessing.
 It is an assessment of those things that contribute to
quality of life in an area, such as quality of healthcare,
levels of affordable housing, crime and fear of crime,
educational achievement, attracting investment or an area's
carbon footprint.
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Key differences between CPA and CAA
CPA
CAA
Assesses the council
Assesses the area
Assesses councils on the same thing in every place
Focuses on what matters most in each area
Focus on national priorities
Balanced focus on local and national priorities
Retrospective
Forward-looking
More weight given to processes
Greater focus on outcomes and achievements
Looks at council performance against hundreds of standard PIs
Looks at performance against 198 national indicators
Rigid annual process
Ongoing engagement
Competing performance frameworks (CPA, JAR, APA)
Aligned / integrated framework under aegis of single regulator
Based on rolling inspection
Risk-based inspection
Judgments and ratings internally focussed
Accessible to local people
Overall star rating
No overall rating
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CAA Framework
Two main elements that will inform each other:
 An area assessment will assess the extent to which
councils and their partners are delivering
improvements on the issues that matter to people
within the local area
 An organisational assessment will assess the
effectiveness of the council by combining the
external auditor’s assessment of value for money in
the use of resources with a joint inspectorate
assessment of council service performance.
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Area Assessment (1)
“Under CPA we tried to show how good we are – under CAA we score
points for demonstrating how able we are in pointing to our
weaknesses and what we are doing about it”
 The area assessment will flush out how well an area knows
itself and whether it has effectively targeted what the
community wants by focusing on the following questions:
 How well do our local priorities express community needs and
aspirations?
 How well are the outcomes and improvements that we need to
achieve being delivered?
 What are our prospects for future improvements?
 The main focus for performance will be on the LSP
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Organisational Assessment (1)
 The organisational assessment is based on a set of 12
Key Lines of Enquiry across four themes – three for Use
of Resources and one for Managing Performance.
 The KLOE’s are more broadly based than under CPA
and will embrace wider resource issues such as:
 people and workforce planning
 how the Council uses natural resources
 The focus will be more on our value for money
achievements, outputs and outcomes rather than on
internal processes
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Organisational
Assessment
Use of Resources
 Managing finances: How effectively does
the organisation manage its finances to
deliver value for money?
 Governing the business: How well does
the organisation govern itself and
commission services that provide value
for money and deliver better outcomes
for local people?
 Managing resources: How well does the
organisation manage its natural
resources, physical assets and people to
meet current and future needs and
deliver value for money?
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Organisational Assessment
Managing Performance
 There is no longer a separate DoT assessment.
The elements of DoT that are relevant to CAA
have been incorporated into the fourth theme,
Managing Performance.
 In assessing this theme, auditors will focus on
how effective the organisation is at managing its
people, natural resources and physical assets, to
meet current and future needs and deliver VfM.
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CAA Reporting – Area Assessment
 Annual qualitative narrative with no numerical score or
overall rating using evidence such as LSE and performance
against NIS
 Exceptional under or over performance may be 'flagged':
 Red flags represent significant concerns about outcomes
and future prospects for outcomes, which are not being
tackled adequately – something different needs to
happen to improve outcomes
 Green flags represent exceptional performance or
improvement of outcomes for local people, or promising
prospects for improvement through innovation that
others can learn from
 The flags will be the means to manage the links between the
area and organisational assessment
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CAA Reporting – Organisational Assessment
 Annual report based on the four themes to provide an
overall organisational effectiveness judgement
 Comment directly on the performance of key council
services, for example, C&YP and adult social care
 Theme scores for managing performance and VfM will be
combined into a single score between 1 and 4
Overall ‘organisation x’ performs poorly / adequately / well /excellently
1 An organisation that does not meet minimum requirements
2 An organisation that meets only minimum requirements
3 An organisation that exceeds minimum requirements
4 An organisation that significantly exceeds minimum requirements
Performs poorly
Performs adequately
Performs well
Performs excellently
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Timeline & Current Status
» Use of Resources Assessment –
» Final Report to Council - October
» Managing Performance & Organisational Assessment –
» Final Report to Council - October
» Area Assessment –
» Final Report to Council – October
» Whole Assessment Published in Public Domain - December
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Audit Committee Involvement
» Governance Reports – End of September September Committee
» Audit & Inspection Letter – End of November February Committee
» Overall Area and Organisational Assessment –
Reported to Cabinet
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