The Council undertook a full Corporate Assessment in 2007
Every year the County Council is rated by the independent Audit Commission on how well it is performing. Just as our partners in the districts, city councils and other public services are monitored by independent bodies on the performance and delivery of their services. The process is called the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) and since 2002, when the CPA process was first introduced, Hampshire County Council has been awarded an excellent, and more recently, 4-star status – which is the highest possible rating an authority can achieve.
A key element of the CPA is the full Corporate Assessment where the Audit Commission takes a detailed look at every aspect of the operation of the council and decides how well it is managed overall. Hampshire got four out of four on this part of the CPA in 2002.
The last full assessment took place in May 2007. It was a major event that happening in parallel with the Joint Area Review of Children’s Services in Hampshire and inspections of the Youth Service and the Youth Offending Team.
This assessment and review – just like future reviews for all public service providers – was not done in isolation. The inspectors looked at how the County Council and its partners work together to provide efficient value for money services to the residents of Hampshire.
The result of the inspection were released on the 14 August 2007 and Hampshire County Council was once again given the highest rating achieving four out of four. This put the Council in a strong position to its retain Four Stars status for its CPA - which it did.
Browse these pages to keep find out about the Corporate Assessment process and what it means for us and our partners.
What is the Corporate Assessment?
What is the Joint Area Review?
What does this mean for our partners?
Key dates
What does this mean for our partners?
Both assessments were to:
• assess the quality of services that the County Council and its partners provide to its community
• emphasise partnership and community leadership
• provide an opportunity for the service providers of Hampshire to assess how well they operate together
It was an unique opportunity to lay the foundations of an outstanding partnership for the future. The recent whitepaper on local government indicates that this is the way assessments will be done in the future – with more and more emphasis on assessing how a community is served by all its partners working together. It was a great opportunity to understand how well we support each other and how we can improve.
What was in the self assessment and what were the auditors looking for?
We were judged on five key themes:
Ambition for the community
Prioritisation
Capacity
Performance management
Achievement
Throughout all five themes, the auditors were particularly looking for evidence of:
• Community leadership
• Working in partnership
• Political and managerial leadership
• User focus and diversity
• Value for money
If you have any questions or comments about the corporate assessment or this web page please use this online form.
Or contact the County Council’s policy unit at policy.unit@hants.gov.uk or call 01962 847691.