Anger over new assessment guides

The Audit Commission’s proposals for reviewing councils’
performance this year have been criticised by the Local Government
Association for potentially failing to reflect improvements.

Last year, the commission graded each of the 150 single tier and
county councils between “poor” and “excellent” under the
comprehensive performance assessment. But the LGA argues that the
commission’s approach to reviewing the CPA results this year will
limit the opportunity to recognise improvement.

“The proposals to raise scoring thresholds from those used last
year will mask the true extent of improvement, leaving many
councils running to stand still,” said LGA chairperson Jeremy
Beecham. He warned that the new system would demotivate councils.

“Even though they may have improved significantly since their last
inspection, the raising of the threshold could mean some local
authorities not being eligible for the better grade they deserve,”
he added.