It might have been trashed by the Tories and lambasted by local government leaders, but the Audit Commission’s new inspection regime could still be here to stay.
Comprehensive Area Assessments were given a rough ride when the first results were published in December. The Conservatives said that, if elected, they would abolish the CAA, while high-performing councils threatened to cap the staff time involved.
But there is a glimmer of hope for the commission. The CAA results are published on a new user-friendly website, Oneplace, which provides a huge amount of data on English local services.
Traffic on the site has been brisk and, having made Oneplace available, it will be tough to take it away.
Steve Bundred, the commission’s outgoing chief executive, certainly thinks so. He tells PF this week that ‘it is hard to imagine Conservative ministers would want to deny the public access to the wealth of information’ on the site.
Meanwhile, the commission’s chair, Michael O’Higgins, is pitching Oneplace as part of a ‘triangle’ of local initiatives that will hold public services to account. The ‘three pillars of accountability’ are: Oneplace, Total Place and area scrutiny.
The logic is clear. Total Place, which analyses all public spending over a region, will identify resources and Oneplace will assess outcomes. Accountability is then reinforced through councils’ enhanced scrutiny powers.
However, there are still a few hurdles to climb before the commission can be guaranteed that its Big Idea will survive.
With public services facing unprecedented cuts, the zeitgeist is for proportionate inspection. The commission argues that CAA does exactly that, but Bundred will have to convince those at the sharp end in his last few months in charge.
Both other pillars are also under pressure. Total Place, for one, is an unevaluated pilot scheme. Many previous attempts at joined-up government have fallen by the wayside.
Similarly, enhanced scrutiny powers have yet to see the light of day. Last July, Communities Secretary John Denham promised the ‘biggest single transfer of power to local government in a generation’. Little has happened since, and the only hope for this apparently flagship policy now seems to be a Private Members’ Bill.
So, the pillars might not be as secure as the commission would like. But there’s still a fighting chance that Bundred will leave behind a legacy of successful light-touch inspection – an example of regulatory ‘triangulation’ that actually works.
Mike Thatcher is the editor of Public Finance
