By David Williams
13 January 2010
The chair of the Audit Commission is to launch a defence of the regulator’s new local government inspection regime, arguing it is an essential tool in making services more accountable.
In a speech to be delivered next week, Michael O’Higgins is expected to argue that the Comprehensive Area Assessment system is one of three emerging ‘pillars of accountability’ for locally delivered services.
O’Higgins will laud proposals from Communities Secretary John Denham to give councils more powers of scrutiny over local services and utilities.
He will also position Oneplace, the website aimed at making CAA results accessible to the public, alongside Total Place, the pilot scheme promising to save money by analysing all spending across agencies in a region. The scheme, being trialled in 13 areas across England, has cross-party support.
In a speech planned for a London conference on CAA on January 19, O’Higgins will argue that Oneplace, Total Place and scrutiny are ‘mutually reinforcing’.
‘Oneplace doesn’t exist in a vacuum,’ he will say. ‘It is not the only tool for accountability... say you want to increase local accountability, you need effective leadership and scrutiny. You also need to know what resources there are in an area.
‘Finally, you need an assessment of local outcomes.’
Oneplace went live on December 9, and had a peak of 11,000 unique users on its first day. By the end of its first week, 54,000 people had visited the site.
Audit Commission chief executive Steve Bundred said the site would become a ‘powerful tool’ to improve local services.
But the Conservatives are still unimpressed, and have renewed their pledges to scrap the system if elected this year. A spokeswoman said that although ‘there are facets of Oneplace that are of interest, such as being able to share information locally, we would abolish CAA’.
13 January 2010
The chair of the Audit Commission is to launch a defence of the regulator’s new local government inspection regime, arguing it is an essential tool in making services more accountable.
In a speech to be delivered next week, Michael O’Higgins is expected to argue that the Comprehensive Area Assessment system is one of three emerging ‘pillars of accountability’ for locally delivered services.
O’Higgins will laud proposals from Communities Secretary John Denham to give councils more powers of scrutiny over local services and utilities.
He will also position Oneplace, the website aimed at making CAA results accessible to the public, alongside Total Place, the pilot scheme promising to save money by analysing all spending across agencies in a region. The scheme, being trialled in 13 areas across England, has cross-party support.
In a speech planned for a London conference on CAA on January 19, O’Higgins will argue that Oneplace, Total Place and scrutiny are ‘mutually reinforcing’.
‘Oneplace doesn’t exist in a vacuum,’ he will say. ‘It is not the only tool for accountability... say you want to increase local accountability, you need effective leadership and scrutiny. You also need to know what resources there are in an area.
‘Finally, you need an assessment of local outcomes.’
Oneplace went live on December 9, and had a peak of 11,000 unique users on its first day. By the end of its first week, 54,000 people had visited the site.
Audit Commission chief executive Steve Bundred said the site would become a ‘powerful tool’ to improve local services.
But the Conservatives are still unimpressed, and have renewed their pledges to scrap the system if elected this year. A spokeswoman said that although ‘there are facets of Oneplace that are of interest, such as being able to share information locally, we would abolish CAA’.
