CAA comes under fire again

21 Dec 09
Another London borough has criticised the new inspection arrangements for local services, suggesting they are inappropriate in a climate of public sector spending cuts
By Adrian Bennett

21 December 2009

Another London borough has criticised the new inspection arrangements for local services, suggesting they are inappropriate in a climate of public sector spending cuts.

Jon Rouse, the chief executive of the London Borough of Croydon, said the public sector inspection regime had expanded too far and had reached a state of ‘hubris’ with the Comprehensive Area Assessments (CAA).

CAA, also known as Oneplace, brings together the work of inspectorates covering councils, schools, health services and the criminal justice system. It is overseen by the Audit Commission, which published the first-year results earlier this month.

‘Although we had a relatively positive experience in Croydon in terms of the first year, CAA just now looks completely out of kilter in terms of the fiscal situation in which we find ourselves,’ said Rouse.

He was talking part in a video debate organised by PricewaterhouseCoopers (see feature) and chaired by Public Finance editor Mike Thatcher. The other panellists were Richard Reeves, director of think-tank Demos and Jon Sibson, head of government and public sector at PwC.

‘Each local authority is spending a quarter or half a million pounds a year just to support an inspection framework that effectively confirms what you already knew and which few members of the public would care a jot about,’ claimed Rouse.

Two other London authorities, Wandsworth and Hammersmith & Fulham, have already attacked the new regime. Both councils say CAA is costly and ineffective, and they intend to cap the amount of staff time spent to £50,000.

Croydon will not go this far, as it does not have the insurance of a top rating – under Oneplace it received three out of four for both managing performance and use of resources. But Rouse said he was sympathetic to the line taken by the other councils.

‘Hammersmith & Fulham and Wandsworth are four-star authorities and, in a sense, they are at the far end of a journey. Croydon is still within that journey and there are benefits from at least doing the self-assessment.’

In the debate, Reeves agreed that inspection needed to be lighter touch for top-performing public bodies. He predicted a ‘bonfire of the quangos’ should a Conservative government be elected next year.

‘I think, as a basic principle, you could probably abolish any quango with the word “improvement” in its title and there would be no slowing in improvement in the public sector whatsoever,’ he suggested.

Jon Sibson from PwC said there was a need for consolidation rather than abolition. In particular there should be greater use of shared services for back-office functions.

Did you enjoy this article?

AddToAny

Top