Leadership ‘crucial’ to ratings success

Strong local political leadership is crucial to improving councils’
comprehensive performance assessment (CPA) ratings, James Strachan,
Audit Commission chairperson, has said.

Strachan told a Local Government Association conference on using
the CPA to improve public services that there was a close link
between strong political leadership and councils that were rated
“good” or “excellent”.

“It is a crucial obstacle to achieving improvements if political
leadership is not working,” Strachan said. “Getting politician
leadership right is possibly the single most important
thing.”

Steve Bundred, the executive director of the Improvement and
Development Agency who will take up the post of chief executive of
the Audit Commission in September, told delegates there were not
enough good examples of local leadership.

“There are still too many inward-looking councils and dysfunctional
politicians and leaders who are lacking in ambition, both political
and managerial,” Bundred said.