Making Place-Shaping a Reality: How to measure performance across areas
Publication Date: February 15th, 2008
Authored by: NLGN
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NLGN believes that the Audit Commission’s proposed Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) is an ambitious attempt to fit a performance framework around an unfinished local democratic structure. We applaud their attempt to move towards a more holistic ‘place-shaping’ approach.

However, the inconsistencies apparent within the initial CAA proposals expose the confused environment within which councils have to operate currently. Local authorities have insufficient influence over the actions and performance of partner organisations to make assessment of area outcomes a reasonable expectation. Accordingly, councils may feel reluctant to be assessed on outcomes across their area.

Although local authorities have been encouraged to place-shape, the functional changes to enable a new model of locally-determined services have not been followed through to their logical conclusion.

Therefore, in seeking to design a detailed framework around the ideals embodied in the Local Government White Paper it is apparent that the Audit Commission has struggled to marry the expectations of a localised system with those of a continued centralised and bureaucratic state system. There are limits to the power of the Audit Commission on this point – clearly there is a need for deeper reform across Whitehall.

The New Local Government Network recommends that Government reform local democracy to empower councils to offer a multi-functional democratic oversight of public services across the local place.The Among other changes to the framework, NLGN believes that the CAA should include provision to pilot multi-functional management of police and health services through local authorities.


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Subject Index: Publications, Accountability and governance, Citizenship and democracy, Regulation, Inspection and Audit, Transformation, management and commissioning.