What others think of our services

Introduction 

The way in which the Council is monitored and assessed by others is changing.
In the past a number of different government bodies were involved in monitoring and assessing our performance. Their judgements fed into the annual rating we received under the Audit Commission’s Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA). 

CAA looked at how well local public services, working together, were meeting the needs of the people they served. It was a joint assessment made by a group of independent watchdogs about the performance of local public services, and how likely they are to meet local priorities For 2009, we were given the top rating of 4 both for the way in which we manage our performance and for our use of resources which makes us one of the top-rated councils in the country.

In the future the ways in which we will be judged on our performance will be very different but we are aiming for the same excellent outcome.  The Audit Commission is to be disbanded and there will be no further Comprehensive Area Assessments.  Instead the government wants local people to be the audience for assurances that we are spending money wisely, well governed, financially robust, achieving value for money and providing accurate information and data. 

This is a very new approach to local democratic accountability and it is not yet clear exactly how it will operate, but the government has indicated that it wants all local councils to be as transparent as possible about how they spend their money and about their performance.  You can find out more about how Camden is responding to this new approach on our transparency webpage and by visiting the government website data.gov.uk.

Although some inspections will be discontinued, the government has indicated that inspections will carry on for the most vulnerable to protect public welfare, including children's services and adult social care. The main organisations involved in assessing council services are:

• Care Quality Commission - registers, inspects and reports on adult social care services in England 
• Ofsted - which inspects and regulates the care of children and young people, and education and skills provision for learners of all ages
• Local Government Improvement and Development- is a local government body that works with councils to improve their services and areas, its functions include carrying out peer reviews of councils, and we volunteered for one of these in 2006

Page last updated Jul 22, 2011 9:11 AM