Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA)
What is CPA and What does it mean for us?
Carried out by the Audit Commission (an independent body responsible for ensuring that public services deliver value for money), the CPA places all councils within a league table and is the means by which local performance is reported to residents and the wider public.
A corporate assessment looked at the council’s ambitions, its ability to improve services and what it has achieved since our last assessment in 2002.
Westminster achieved excellent scores in nearly all areas, gaining maximum points in four out of five categories.
This took place in parallel to a Joint Area Review (JAR) to judge the outcomes for children and young people, and how local children’s services work together to contribute to their achievements, progress and well-being.
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How did Westminster do?
This year the Audit Commission has rated the council as a improving strongly and demonstrating a 4 star overall performance performance.
The commission particularly noted that:
- Developing and implementing the One City vision.
- Westminster is improving strongly with over 80 per cent of performance indicators improving in the last year, which is well above the national average.
- The Council has a strong track record of securing improvement in priority areas such as education, adult social care, housing, benefits and environmental services.
- The Council is making an effective contribution to wider community outcomes through partnerships, achieving for example a reduction in teenage pregnancy and violent crime.
- The fear of crime has also been reduced in CivicWatch areas. The Council has a robust and successful approach to improving services with some positive initiatives for its diverse communities such as the Faith Exchange.
- The Council provides very good value for money and is achieving significant savings through cross-cutting initiatives, partnership and procurement activities.
- The Council continues to achieve high levels of performance across its core services.
- Plans are based on comprehensive needs analyses and include innovative developments such as the Wireless City Programme.
- The Council is well placed to deliver its future plans through strong strategic leadership and well established and effective financial and performance management frameworks.
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What are the next steps?
Despite the good result, there are still a number of challenges facing us in the year ahead including:
- Developing and implementing the One City vision.
- Delivering the council's agenda against the background of internal and external financial pressures.
- Enhancing our strategic capacity in education.
- Continuing to improve our engagement with BME communities.
- Addressing what it will take to become a fully diverse and representative organisation.
- Developing closer strategic links between the council and the Mayor of London, the Greater London Authority and Transport for London.
- Ensuring that robust client functions are in place to oversee contracted out services.
For more information on our aims and objectives for the coming year, visit the performance plan page to download and read more about One City: our performance plan for 2007-08.
