West Berkshire is a 3-star council that has improved in a number of areas since the first CPA in 2002. In that year it received a corporate assessment score of 2 and an environment service assessment score of 1, but by 2007 both of these scores had increased to 3.
West Berkshire Council was formed in 1998 as part of the local government review in Berkshire, and CPA was introduced just as the council came to maturity. Although the council felt its first corporate assessment in 2002 did not fully recognise its potential, it did help it set out an improvement agenda. The CA report identified that the council needed to improve its corporate working, as services tended to operate independently of one another. The report also recommended that the council should focus on performance management and ensure that it became integrated into its day-to-day operations.
The chief executive and management team introduced an improvement planning group of the chief executive and corporate directors that met at least monthly and focused specifically on improvement and service planning. Key building blocks in the process of improvement included:
- learning from best practice in other councils
- the introduction of a wide range of benchmarking networks
- a better understanding of customer needs and priorities, particularly through engagement with local parishes
- improved internal communications
- more uniform performance management systems, which helped staff to better understand the impact that their jobs had on improving performance indicators.
The council's progress was recognised in the follow-up corporate assessment score of 3 in 2006. The council felt that much of this improvement was part of its natural development and progression but recognises that the CPA framework helped provide a useful barometer and reference point for improvement.
In 2002 the council's planning service was one of the worst in the country, and this was reflected in a CPA service assessment score of 1. The CPA score caused the council to reassess its priorities and allocate additional resources to the planning service. This led to the appointment of a new head of planning and a number of additional planners. The council also invested in new IT systems and procured professional consultancy advice. It used this opportunity to redesign its operations, for example by making its delegated decision-making processes more streamlined. The service was also able to generate a level of internal challenge that it has continued to build on, by strengthening its performance management arrangements.
These investments led to an improved CPA service score of 2 in 2004 and then 3 in 2007. By 2008, West Berkshire's planning department was comparable with those in the best-performing councils nationally, particularly in terms of the time taken to determine planning applications against targets. Other council environmental services were also improving during this period, albeit at different rates.
The council used a range of CPA-related tools and support mechanisms to help it improve, including the published key lines of enquiry, performance indicator and score comparisons, and examples of good practice on the Audit Commission website. It also takes full advantage of ongoing support and advice from local audit teams, and has used the IDeA to help provide a ‘critical friend' challenge. However, the council feels that the time is right for the assessment framework to increase its focus on the services that local partners are delivering together and, in view of this, welcomes the new CAA, which it feels will be more relevant to local people.