Forum Brief: Council performance

The government has for the first time set out a performance league table of local authorities.

Its inspectors found 13 councils to be "poor" while 54 councils are rated "good", 39 "fair" and 22 "weak".

Councils in the south east and north east performed best while those in the midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside were found to be the worst.

Forum Response: Local Government Association

Sir Jeremy Beecham, chairman of the Local Government Association said: "We know that many councils do their very best to deliver high quality services to local communities - we should celebrate their success. Many others are doing their best to improve and a small number do need to address their problems.

"Councils will work together to help each other address their difficulties. The LGA is confident that local government is best placed to support itself to improve.

"What should matter to local people is that their council gets the help and support it needs to address its problems. In some cases local councillors have recognised the need to give more commitment to improving services. In others better management has been put in place.

"To turn around a poorly performing authority at the same time as continuing to deliver day to day services and respond to a barrage of new legislation and government guidance is a remarkable achievement.

"We recognise that some local authorities still have concerns about the process and we will continue to work with the Audit Commission to address these issues. The LGA is particularly concerned to ensure the next phase of assessment for district authorities is appropriate to the size and resources of these councils.

"I would like to challenge the National Audit Office to look at the Comprehensive Performance Assessment process and consider conducting a similar independent review of government departments and agencies. The LGA would be happy to nominate councillors and officers to join the inspection teams."

"It has been a challenging time for local authorities, CPA has been a burdensome period of form-filling and inspection.

"But the LGA has lobbied hard for new freedoms for councils to flow from such an independent process and we are pleased that the government has listened to our call for less inspection, less plans' production and more freedom to develop services that really address local people's needs."

Forum Response: Liverpool City Council

Councillor Mike Storey, leader of the Council, said: "I am pleased with this latest, independent assessment of our performance. And I am determined to keep up the pressure for many more improvements that will make our services the best in Britain. Our ranking is as good as most major cities in the country, and in most cases better.

"Our Fair ranking is a considerable improvement. But it's still not good enough - we want to be the best.

"The radical changes we have made in the past three years are beginning to bear fruit. Our ambition is clear. We are well on the way to realising our ambition of becoming a top-flight European city."

David Henshaw, chief executive of the council, said: "A Fair assessment for the city council is a remarkable achievement when you consider where we were just three years ago. There has been a huge effort from the council's workforce to improve the quality of services beyond all recognition. We are no longer a high cost, low quality council.

"Our Comprehensive Performance Assessment is clear evidence we are on the right track. Our transformation is not only delivering much better services that local people need and expect, but is also helping regenerate the entire city."We have reduced the council's workforce by more than 3000, reduced our costs by more than £65 million and cut the council tax. We have eliminated waste, duplication and unnecessary bureaucracy, and improved services at the same time. But everyone recognises the progress we've made is just the start. We are determined to become an excellent authority.

"I think we surprised the inspectors with the pace of change taking place in the city. They were impressed by our strong and determined leadership, and the tough decisions we have taken to bring about high-quality customer services."

Forum Response: Corporation of London

The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Gavyn Arthur, said: "This independent review puts the Corporation of London among the top 15 per cent best providers of local authority services. The Audit Commission results show that, although our history dates back more than 800 years, we are a modern, highly effective authority, serving a great modern business centre."

Tom Simmons, Town Clerk and chief executive officer of the Corporation, said: "Led by the elected members, the Corporation has striven to be among the very best and this grading reflects the success of our joint efforts. Every single one of the Corporation's 3000 staff can take pride in their contribution to this result.

"The job now is to maintain the grade and provide more improvements to our services."

Forum Response: Coventry City Council

A spokesman for Coventry City Council said: "The Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) process aims to assess local authorities' performance and capacity to improve and to place them in one of five categories - excellent, good, fair, weak or poor.

"It is based on scores received for key services such as education, social services, street services and benefits administration, as well as an assessment of the effectiveness of the policies and practices which we use to guide our everyday business.

"Coventry has been placed in the poor category but we do not feel this is a fair reflection of our performance overall. Anyone reading the full corporate assessment may be surprised by the Audit Commission's conclusion.

"It acknowledges that Coventry is very good at some things, such as education. The Audit Commission agrees with this and the fact that we are successful at a wide range of work, such as economic development and regeneration, community safety and community planning.

"We accept that our performance in some other areas is not good enough. This was highlighted in a self-assessment which we produced and published in June 2002. The Audit Commission has recognised that this document correctly identified most of the strengths and weaknesses which they are now reporting. It is also extremely positive about the City Council's future plans to address these issues.

"The City Council views the CPA score as disappointing. It does not intend to challenge the score, as this would be a costly and time-consuming exercise which would do nothing to improve our services. Instead the Council will be concentrating all its efforts on bringing our weaker services up to the standard of the best.

"We are already working hard to improve performance in social services and benefits administration. A comprehensive review of the Council's organisation was completed in June 2002 and this will bring about significant changes. A new Management Board has been appointed to take this work forward. A draft three-year Modernisation and Improvement Plan will be considered by the Cabinet on December 17th and will guide our improvement work over this period.

"The City Council believes that the changes we have identified and are implementing will ensure continuous improvement in efficiency and effectiveness.

"We will build on our many strengths and we are also committed to narrowing the gap in the differing levels of performance in our services."