Improvement Planning

Following Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA), councils set about identifying and clarifying their priorities for improvement. Auditors and inspectors liaise with councils to ensure their resources are also targeted to deliver improvement where it is needed most.

Improvement planning and the resulting audit and inspection programmes are a key vehicle for delivering Strategic Regulation and the Commission's Strategic Plan.

The outcomes of improvement planning include:

• clear improvement priorities for each council, drawing on the findings from CPA, direction of travel assessments/statements, use of resources assessments and service inspections; and
• audit and inspection programmes that offer Strategic Regulation.

Strategic Regulation is:

• focused on improvement of public services;
• as seen from the perspective of users;
• while providing value for money for taxpayers;
• targeted and risk proportionate; and
• delivered in partnership.

Strategic Regulation means:

• targeting inspection and audit to ensure greatest impact where it is needed most
• reducing the amount of regulation, particularly for high-performing authorities;
• delivering co-ordinated and proportionate audit and inspection that focuses on the experiences of people who need and use public services;
• carrying out audit and inspection that supports councils' improvement work and takes account of the views of the bodies we audit and inspect; and
• minimising duplication, bureaucracy and the burdens of regulation.

Auditors and inspectors work together to ensure their activity in authorities is co-ordinated. The organisations involved include:

• Audit Commission
• Ofsted
• Commission for Social Care Inspection
• Benefit Fraud Inspectorate
• Adult Learning Inspectorate
• HM Inspectorate of Probation
• Private audit firms

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), Audit Commission and the LGA are determined that improvement should continue and recognise that the primary responsibility for delivering improvement must be with the local government sector. A document Supporting Improvement in Local Authorities (Word, 57kb), summarising the support which is provided to authorities by the DCLG, LGA and the Audit Commission is available.

More information about councils' improvement planning is included in their best value performance plans. These can be found on their websites.

LSIF inspection programmes 2000/01 – 2006/07

The database launched by the Local Services Inspectorate Forum (LSIF) brings together in one place the inspection programmes for the Audit Commission, Commission for Social Care Inspection, Benefit Fraud Inspectorate, Ofsted, HM Inspectorate of Probation for Youth Offending Team inspection and the Adult Learning Inspectorate. It provides direct links to most inspection reports or the relevant websites on which these can be found.

Co-ordinated audit and inspection programmes 2006/07

Detailed programmes of audit and inspection are available for 2006/07. This database places inspection and audit within the broader improvement planning context.

The programmes show:

• links between planned audit and inspection activity and councils' priorities for improvements;
• the scope of planned audit and inspection activity;
• timing of planned audit and inspection activity;
• planned outputs (for example an inspection report or an audit report);
• organisations involved in delivering the activity;
• planned ongoing engagement to support improvement; and
• planned activity designed to enable CPA scores to be updated.