Performance overhaul gets thumbs down
- Published: 02 July 2008 16:14
- Author: James Illman
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- Last Updated: 25 July 2008 11:05
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Questions remain unanswered about the comprehensive area assessment.
At the end of this month, the Audit Commission will kick-start the last stage of consultation on its proposals for the comprehensive area assessment (CAA).
A draft of the consultation is "winding its way through Whitehall", according to a senior commission official.
The CAA will replace the comprehensive performance agreement (CPA) next year. The new system aims to assess all the services offered by public sector partners in any given area, not just those provided by local councils.
When the government outlined the plans for a new performance framework in April last year, it said the CAA would be "a new lighter touch risk-triggered inspection and audit regime".
But LGC research published today reveals local government officers across the country fear the new regime could be too complicated, lead to councils carrying the can for other public agencies and undermine partnership working.
As one county council chief executive put it: "The Audit Commission has bitten off more than it can chew here. Moving from a fairly tight methodology to assessing how an area is administered by a whole group of different organisations — that is pretty sticky stuff."
88% were concerned councils will have all the responsibility and none of the accountability
In a survey of nearly 140 council officers, carried out in association with service company Serco Consulting, a resounding 88% answered "yes" when asked: "Are you concerned that councils will have all of the responsibility and none of the accountability for shared outcomes which can only be delivered by several agencies." A similar number (82%) claimed they were not confident councils would be allowed sufficient freedom to assess themselves.
The results appear to confirm fears first raised by the Local Government Association in its report on CAA in April. "The limited involvement of councils [in drafting CAA]… has meant they have not been able to influence the future direction of CAA to the extent initially hoped."
Amelia Cookson, head of centre for service transformation at the Local Government Information Unit, insisted there is no need to hit the panic button yet. "The scepticism is justified based on past experience, but we have seen the government be true to its word about slimming down the local area indicator set, so it is worth waiting to see the proposals before jumping to conclusions," she said. "As ever, the devil will be in the detail."
Yet even to the most optimistic of onlookers, the magnitude of councils' suspicion will come as a surprise.
Paul Connolly, head of policy and strategy at Serco Consulting , said: "This response to CAA is startling, especially as CAA aims to simplify the local performance framework. Central government, local government and service providers must work together to provide a route map to show how the new framework can foster local flexibility, while promoting service sharing and collaboration."
Perhaps it is worth reacquainting ourselves with the reasons why the CAA was initially greeted with optimism. Few in local government will be sad to see the resource-heavy CPA jettisoned. Moreover, while there is much debate about the practicality of the CAA, there is substantial support for the concept.
The CAA is being constructed to focus on the delivery of front-line services, rather than the performance of individual institutions, and will take into account how councils, statutory partners and private and third sector organisations work together to address the priorities of their community.
"We will be measuring outcomes and not processes, which certainly takes us in the right direction," said Somerset CC chief executive Alan Jones. "We would hope that some of the volatility and spurious categorisation of the current model would go. Overall, I am optimistic about the new model."
The problem is convincing those who work in local government of what their day-to-day experience of working with CAA will be and how their lives will be better for it.
"Some of that uncertainly should be sorted out by the next consultation paper," said Corin Thomson, the LGA's programme director for improvement and performance. "But because the success of CAA will depend on how it works in practice, it will not be completely resolved until we know how it feels on the ground."
The next phase of local authority involvement comes during the consultation and will see 10 councils undertake pilot schemes, which begin in the autumn. The LGA has called for the inspectorates to engage councils and their partners more in both testing emerging methodology and designing solutions to complex issues.
In its report, the LGA said the pilots should demonstrate exactly how the burden of inspection will be reduced. This stipulation is the result of fears that significant elements of the supposedly doomed CPA, particularly the corporate assessment, will be smuggled into the new methodology.
83% thought the proposed framework is more demanding than current arrangements
When posed with the question: "Is the proposed assessment framework more or less demanding than current arrangements", 83% of respondents to LGC's survey replied "more".
Another piece of the jigsaw that remains debated is exactly how councils will be scored. If the Audit Commission gets this wrong, it could undermine the whole venture. Confusion still surrounds the Use of Resources (UoR) assessment.
Originally the CAA comprised of an area assessment, and judgments on UoR and direction of travel. But there appears to be the prospect of an "organisational assessment" score as well as or instead of the latter two.
Moreover, councils will have to wait until the final proposals are unveiled early next year to find out how the organisational assessment will be calculated and how it will relate to UoR — a delay which will only add to the uncertainty surrounding the new system.
Essex CC's head of performance and improvement, Sharon Longworth, said: "If an organisation is scored and the area is not, it may deflect attention away from the area assessment, which would undermine the whole idea behind CAA."
Performance and improvement officers have also expressed concern about the red and green flag system proposed for the 'risk assessment' that will be conducted for each area. The system would see red flags given to service areas which are either failing or in danger of failing and green flags to service areas deemed risk-free.
This dual use of the red flag is seen by many as too crude and could harm councils when recruiting new staff or attempting genuinely innovative work. There is also confusion over what the repercussions of receiving a red flag could be.
Just 38% were confident the needs of more vulnerable groups can be more adequately addressed
The commission is confident the consultation will address these concerns. Its managing director for local government and housing, Gareth Davies, said: "We'll be setting out more detailed proposals at the end of July which we believe will fill in the gaps and address these questions directly."
The potential task ahead will be clearer once the Audit Commission unveils its proposals. And as far as the LGA is concerned, the biggest danger facing local government is for councils to panic in the face of uncertainty.
"We do not want to see this uncertainty resulting in local government asking for more prescription and talking us back into a rigid methodology," the LGA's Ms Thomson warned. "Councils need to be careful about what they wish for."
CPA to CAA
The Audit Commission will unveil its CAA proposals at the end of this month and open up a three-month consultation.
As part of the consultation, 10 local authorities will take part in a pilot, resulting in a final version of the model being published in early 2009.
The first results under the new framework will be announced in autumn 2009.
The methodology for assessing single tier and county councils in the final year of the existing CPA will be published by the Audit Commission in summer 2008.
The final set of CPA results will be published in February 2009. These results will be used as part of the baseline of evidence in the early stages of CAA.
For full survey results click on Resouces link (right)
