Minutes:
The Interim Assistant Director (Policy, Performance and Scrutiny) and the Scrutiny Officer made a presentation to the Committee outlining the current Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) framework introduced by the Audit Commission in 2002, explaining that it measured how well the Borough Council delivered services to local people and its community. However, from April 2009 onwards, the CPA would be replaced by the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) which would look at the local area in totality, focusing on local issues, partnership working and the challenges faced by an area such as crime, community cohesion and sustainability. The aim of the CAA was to create a more joined-up approach so that service delivery was more relevant to local people. The key principles of the CAA were:-
· Relevance to the quality of life so that local targets and priorities sat alongside national ones.
· Area and outcome focus so that outcomes in an area were assessed as opposed to just the processes.
· Constructive and forward looking so that there was an overall assessment of risk and not just a reliance on past performance.
· Joint participation by all key sector representatives to draw on the views of local people and not just how the Borough Council was performing in its own right.
Officers explained the way in which the CAA would be assessed and commented that whilst the government had consulted on its proposals, its final framework had not been published and it was therefore as yet unclear exactly how the CAA would operate in practice. However, it was clear that one of the key evidence bases would be in respect of Scrutiny and, in particular, how Scrutiny worked within the area and the resulting Scrutiny reports. Ultimately, the more robust the approach to Scrutiny and the better the practice, the better this would contribute to the CAA rating. The first CAA results would be published in November, 2009 but it was yet unknown as to when Slough’s assessment would take place.
On completion of the presentation, Members raised the following issues in the subsequent debate:-
· A Member commented that it would be essential for Scrutiny to engage further with the public in Slough and asked how this would be achieved. Officers responded that it would be up to the Committee and Panels to take the opportunity to become more involved in community issues and a number of initiatives were already under way to heighten the profile of Scrutiny in the town including articles in the Slough Citizen and the establishment of a Scrutiny e-mail address for resident participation and special scrutiny engagement meetings. Further ways were being examined of heightening Scrutiny’s profile.
· The current star rating system would not be retained although it was understood that there would in the future continue to be a grading of between 1 and 4.
· Members expressed concern that, as the CAA provided an overall assessment of the town rather than simply the Council’s performance, there was a danger that poor performance by one or more partners would bring down the overall score and there may be little the authority could do to rectify this. Accordingly, unlike with the CPA, the outcome of the CAA would not be entirely within the Borough Council’s own hands and some of the individual indicators would relate specifically to other agencies. The comment was made that there would be a strong reliance on the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), Slough Focus, to lead the various partners in ensuring that, through the Local Area Agreement, all partner agencies were working towards a common goal to ensure that the CAA indicators were as positive as possible.
· A Member asked whether the IT that had been put in place by the government in respect of the new CAA was working satisfactorily. Officers commented that they understood that there were some current concerns in respect of loading data. In addition, the Borough Council was having to look at its own performance management systems to ensure that they were ready for the new assessment regime.
· In response to a question, it was confirmed that a number of discussions had already taken place with partner agencies in the town to ensure that they were fully aware of the new requirements and had taken them into account in respect of their own performance management systems.
· It was also noted that monthly update meetings were taking place between the LSP and the Government Office for the South-East who were actively involved in the preparation for the CAA.
· A Member asked whether the government was providing briefings and workshops for local authorities on the CAA and whether any funding was being provided for training of Officers and Members. It was noted that a number of events were being organised for Officers who would then be expected to brief their Members but that no additional funding was being provided.
· Concern was expressed by Members at the way in which the new arrangements would work in practice, given the strong focus on collaborative working across a number of agencies. Officers commented that it would presumably be one of the roles of the LSP to provide the local lead in this area although further clarification would hopefully be forthcoming when the government published the final framework documentation.
· A Member present under Procedure Rule 30 expressed very serious concern at the validity of the inspection regime generally, particularly in view of the recent ‘Baby P’ case where the agencies involved in his care had all received excellent inspection reports. He expressed the view that the current inspection regime was largely a paper-based exercise and failed to give a true reflection of the situation on the ground and that the results could be too easily manipulated by authorities. It was to be hoped that the CAA would be a more robust procedure.
· Members referred to the situation with the CPA whereby one poor score in a key area could bring down the overall score and asked whether this anomaly would be rectified under the CAA. Officers responded that a great deal of lobbying on this issue had taken place but it was yet to be seen whether this would be successful.
Resolved - That the presentation and the current position be noted and that a further update on the CAA be presented to the Committee at its meeting on 16th April, 2009.