By David Williams
27 May 2010
Councils and the Audit Commission are holding ‘constructive talks’ to set up a peer review system to replace the Comprehensive Area Assessment inspection regime, Public Finance can reveal.
The negotiations follow the announcement last week by the coalition government that CAA was to be scrapped. One likely replacement under discussion is a yellow card/red card system in which councils would step in to help other struggling local authorities. Only in extreme cases would any central body intervene.
The commission’s role is likely to be stripped back to that of a more traditional auditor, checking for financial mismanagement and fraud.
Rob Whiteman, chief executive of the Improvement & Development Agency, welcomed the move. ‘I think the Audit Commission is fully on board with working with the sector on this,’ he told Public Finance. ‘There is a mutual understanding that we will have a system of self-regulation.’
But Whiteman warned that other inspectorates, such as Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, could seek to fill the regulatory vacuum.
‘We want to see the commission working with us in order that it’s clear that other regulators can’t suddenly increase the burden on local authorities. They must all roll back, to make sure we get genuinely less regulation, as the government intends.’
Another senior source said the negotiations between the commission and local government were the most constructive he had ever seen. The source suggested that the commission was positioning itself as essential to any peer review system as a provider of intelligence on struggling or failing councils.
The demise of CAA has been hailed by the Local Government Association. David Parsons, chair of the LGA’s improvement board, said his own authority, Leicestershire, spent £3.6m a year meeting the demands of inspections.
‘We cannot afford to keep being inspected,’ he said.
Parsons also questioned the future of the Audit Commission’s Oneplace website. It was set up to carry the results of CAA, but was praised in the run-up to the election by then shadow communities secretary Caroline Spelman.
He compared the period before the election to ‘pre-history’ and said Oneplace was ‘of use, but I wouldn’t go overboard about it’.
The Audit Commission would not comment on the negotiations, which are ongoing. But a spokeswoman said: ‘The commission will work with the government and other inspectorates on how to increase accountability for local public services through more transparency, richer data and less inspection.
‘The commission is considering proposals for immediate redeployment of staff into work that will help audited and inspected bodies meet the financial challenge.’
27 May 2010
Councils and the Audit Commission are holding ‘constructive talks’ to set up a peer review system to replace the Comprehensive Area Assessment inspection regime, Public Finance can reveal.
The negotiations follow the announcement last week by the coalition government that CAA was to be scrapped. One likely replacement under discussion is a yellow card/red card system in which councils would step in to help other struggling local authorities. Only in extreme cases would any central body intervene.
The commission’s role is likely to be stripped back to that of a more traditional auditor, checking for financial mismanagement and fraud.
Rob Whiteman, chief executive of the Improvement & Development Agency, welcomed the move. ‘I think the Audit Commission is fully on board with working with the sector on this,’ he told Public Finance. ‘There is a mutual understanding that we will have a system of self-regulation.’
But Whiteman warned that other inspectorates, such as Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, could seek to fill the regulatory vacuum.
‘We want to see the commission working with us in order that it’s clear that other regulators can’t suddenly increase the burden on local authorities. They must all roll back, to make sure we get genuinely less regulation, as the government intends.’
Another senior source said the negotiations between the commission and local government were the most constructive he had ever seen. The source suggested that the commission was positioning itself as essential to any peer review system as a provider of intelligence on struggling or failing councils.
The demise of CAA has been hailed by the Local Government Association. David Parsons, chair of the LGA’s improvement board, said his own authority, Leicestershire, spent £3.6m a year meeting the demands of inspections.
‘We cannot afford to keep being inspected,’ he said.
Parsons also questioned the future of the Audit Commission’s Oneplace website. It was set up to carry the results of CAA, but was praised in the run-up to the election by then shadow communities secretary Caroline Spelman.
He compared the period before the election to ‘pre-history’ and said Oneplace was ‘of use, but I wouldn’t go overboard about it’.
The Audit Commission would not comment on the negotiations, which are ongoing. But a spokeswoman said: ‘The commission will work with the government and other inspectorates on how to increase accountability for local public services through more transparency, richer data and less inspection.
‘The commission is considering proposals for immediate redeployment of staff into work that will help audited and inspected bodies meet the financial challenge.’
