A number of different government bodies are involved in monitoring and assessing our performance. Their judgments feed into the annual rating we receive under the Audit Commission’s Comprehensive Performance Assessment.
In 2008 we underwent a reassessment of Comprehensive Performance Assessment, and were given a rating of 'good'. This was an improvement on the 'fair' rating we received in 2004. The categories are excellent (the highest category), good, fair, weak and poor (the lowest category). 41% of District Councils in England are rated as 'good' compared to 20% who are excellent, 32% who are fair and the remainder classed as poor or weak. As part of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment, we had to provide a self assessment which stated how we thought we were performing, based on feedback from residents, partners and local and national performance data.
The Comprehensive Performance Assessment report has highlighted a number of areas for improvement, and this along with the results of other reviews of the Council and its services. The recommendations will be fed into a Consolidated Action Plan, which will track progress on recommendations ahead of the new Comprehensive Area Assessment to start in 2009/10.
The St Albans District Local Strategic Partnership has developed a self assessment against the Comprehensive Area Assessment criteria, which details how it has used some of the feedback from the Comprehensive Performance Assessment to develop itself further, as well as what it is delivering for the community.