Comprehensive Performance Assessment

What the grading means for Hampshire County Council

Response from Councillor Ken Thornber, Leader of the County Council

Picture of Cllr Ken Thornber, Leader of Hampshire County Council

This four star rating is an excellent achievement for all of us and I am extremely grateful for the hard work and professionalism of all the County Council’s staff.  It is a great testament to the dedication of staff and members that this top rating has been achieved against a background of decreasing resources and increasing demand for services. Quite rightly residents have rising expectations that the services they want will be delivered and we will be continuing to work hard to provide the people of Hampshire with the best possible services and good value for money.

Response from Andrew Smith, Chief Executive of the County Council

Photo of the Chief Executive

Every year the independent Audit Commission rates all authorities in England on how well they are doing.  This is the sixth consecutive year we’ve achieved the highest (previously Excellent, now Four Star) CPA rating.

Significantly though, we’ve also received better scores and higher judgements for some of the key service area blocks which form part of the assessment process, proving that, although a top performing council, we are always striving to do better.

Our direction of travel

Continuous improvement is paramount to a good CPA result.  Alongside our four star rating we have also given a ‘direction of travel’ statement. We’ve been rated as ‘improving well’ and the Auditor said: “The Council continues to improve well in it’s priority areas.  It has strong leadership, effective plans, clear priorities and good capacity to delivery further improvement.”  The Auditor also singled out key services and departments for the achievements and changes they’ve made in the last year.

Changing the assessment process

It is worth noting now, that we will only receive one more CPA judgment before we move to a new Comprehensive Area Assessment process in 2009. In the future we will be assessed against a whole different set of criteria which will focus more on how we work with partners to deliver good value public services for the people of Hampshire, not just those provided by the County Council.

We have done extremely well to, not only maintain our overall score but, improve our performance in key service areas.

Specific benefits

In practical terms achieving Four Stars means:

  • Influence – Four Star authorities are granted membership of the Innovation Forum allowing us to influence the national, regional and local agenda with privileged access to Ministers.

  • Freedoms – Through inspection holidays the Council can enjoy reduced inspection and assessment of plans allowing us to focus on the delivery of local services.

  • Flexibilities – Removal of ring fencing from some government funding allows us to cater better to local circumstances.