24th April 2009
By David Williams
Councillors will be involved in evaluating other local authorities under the Comprehensive Area Assessment system, the Audit Commission has announced.
Councillors will be involved in evaluating other local authorities under the Comprehensive Area Assessment system, the Audit Commission has announced.The news was welcomed by the Local Government Association, which has been lobbying for councillors to have a major role in the CAA.
David Parsons, chair of the LGA Improvement Board, said: ‘It’s hugely encouraging that the Audit Commission has listened to us. The change will give inspectors a much better understanding of what’s happening in local areas and lead to much fuller and more comprehensive assessments.
‘It is the role of councillors, working with other organisations, to give leadership and to make tough decisions in the best interests of local people. It was a nonsense to fail to involve them fully.’
The Audit Commission announced on April 20 that ‘peer’ councillors would be brought in to offer advice on questions of local politics and leadership.
A spokeswoman said the inspectorate had been working with the LGA to ensure the experience of elected councillors could feed in to assessments.
Earlier in April, the LGA and its sister body, the Improvement and Development Agency, raised concerns that the CAA, which replaced Comprehensive Performance Assessments at the beginning of this month, was too reliant on performance data.
