Making a difference

One of my objectives as chairman of the LGA improvement board has been to ensure that the role of councillors – as leaders of their communities and the driving force behind sustained improvement – is properly recognised.

Unfortunately this is not always obvious to those we deal with at national level – but I am pleased that the inspectorates at least, have been more receptive.

Throughout the development of comprehensive area assessment (CAA) we have been arguing for a greater recognition for the role of councillors. It is our role as elected members, working with local partners, to lead and shape our communities and to strike an appropriate balance between competing pressures of customer and citizen expectations, financial constraints and capacity.

But this is also the territory within which CAA operates and it is therefore essential that – if CAA is to be effective – the inspectorates fully understand these complexities and work with locally elected politicians. The quality of judgment required under CAA makes direct engagement with members essential.

Given the nature of CAA, we did not want to be prescriptive about how this should be achieved – other than to say that it must happen. We proposed – and the inspectorates have agreed – that, in each area, the CAA lead will agree with the council how they will involve members in the assessment process. This is now written into the detailed guidance on CAA.

Councillors should make sure that their CAA lead official understands their ambitions for the area and how they are working locally to deliver them.

There will also be specific times in the year when the inspectorates will feed back their initial findings. This is likely to happen for the first time around the end of June. It will be important that councillors hear what they have to say and have a chance to respond – so make sure you are involved.

Member peers

The other area where councillors can make a real contribution to assessment is as member peers and this is another area where we have had to mount sustained pressure. While we were pleased that the inspectorates had agreed to involve peers in quality assurance this is still very much at the ‘back end’ of the assessment process.

Our experience of the comprehensive performance assessment (CPA) has been that peers can also play a vital role helping the inspectorates make the judgements – interpreting performance, understanding the context within which it takes place and adding credibility to the assessment.

The challenge for us was to find a way of securing similar levels of involvement but in an on-going assessment process (the short twoweek corporate assessment inspections have gone) and to persuade the other inspectorates, who don’t have a history of involving member peers, that peers can add value.

So working with member peers and colleagues from the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) we have proposed that the inspectorates appoint member peers to work alongside each of the 41 CAA lead officials and other inspectorate staff attached to a particular area.

This would enable peers to develop a full understanding of the area and the challenges it faces, build up a strong working relationship with inspectorate staff, and offer a unique input to joint inspectorate discussions helping them interpret the evidence and the conclusions that can be drawn from it.

Driving improvement

I am pleased to say that the inspectorates have now agreed to our proposals. In his response Michael O’Higgins, chairman of the Audit Commission said, on behalf of the inspectorates: “I am confident we now have a workable model that will make efficient use of the skills of high calibre peer members and enhance the credibility and value of the assessments.

” We are now working with the inspectorates to put this commitment into practice.

We want CAA to help councils continue to drive improvement in their areas and I am confident that the significant member involvement in CAA that we have secured will help to achieve this. Let’s make sure we all take advantage of it.

Cllr David Parsons CBE

Here member peers offer their views about the value of peers in assessment and how peers should be involved in CAA

Cllr Frank Rosamond (Ind) Mid Devon DC and IDeA regional lead member peer

Some time ago, it was my privilege to take part in the Audit Commission’s pilot review for the revised comprehensive performance assessment for district councils.

I found the process edifying on a number of accounts. The first was the degree of detail and triangulation to ensure the integrity of the process; the second was the dedicated professionalism of the Audit Commission officers to ascertain a true and fair picture; the third was a recognition of the potential contribution that a member peer could bring to the process in terms of building relations with other members and providing a reality check in interpreting findings; the fourth was the opportunity it offered to extend learning and thus encouraging development across the sector.

The association of a member in the review helped to strengthen the ‘buy-in’ of fellow members to ensure the recommendations carried weight and enhanced their longer term significance and impact.

While the CAA is a rather different animal, I would hope that the above considerations are retained. The involvement of member peers has made a crucial contribution to the improvement of local government, which has been recognised as the most improving service within the public sector.

 Acknowledging that the CAA is an examination of the work of all the community partners, it is only the members who enjoy democratic endorsement and who therefore are central to community leadership and community engagement. Member peers – accredited by a rigorous process and subsequently trained – bring a wealth of experience and expertise from both within and without local government.

They are thus well-equipped to face up to and challenge (as well as support) other members and partners. They bring a pragmatic view to the review of the evidence – not least an understanding of the complexities of partnership working – while retaining a degree of detachment and independence.

Finally, the contribution of member peers gives an additional degree of legitimacy and confidence. Some 200 years ago, the question “who will guard the guardians themselves?” (“quis custodiet ipsos custodes”?) was first articulated by the Roman satirist Juvenal. It remains as pertinent today, and it is the contribution of member peers to the CAA that can offer comfort and assurance.

Cllr Peter Britcliffe (Con) Hyndburn BC
I was interested by the local strategic partnership (LSP) focus of my most recent work as a member peer. The CAA process invites all partners to examine their roles within their LSP and provides them with a strategic view of their performance.

My experience emphasised to me the importance of all key partners engaging in the process and showed the clear benefits of a rounded approach to the delivery of services to our communities.

Working as a peer gives me the opportunity to share learning with people from other organisations and while this can be a quite demanding role I find that acting as an IDeA peer is a rewarding experience, both from my own perspective and hopefully for colleagues that I visit.