Council assessment
This evening I am heading to the Town Hall to take part in a focus group for Councillors as part of Bury Council’s Corporate Assessment. The Corporate Assessment forms part of the overall Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) score, which all Councils receive. The Corporate Assessment only happens once every four years, so this is a really important fortnight for the Council, as its ability to manage and improve services is judged by inspectors from the Audit Commission.
In my days as a Council officer with Oldham MBC, I experienced first hand the stresses of these inspections, and I know that the officers in Bury are probably going through a tough time at the moment. The burden of inspection on Councils may well be slightly less than it once was, but it is still very onerous, and the recent announcement that the Commission are increasing their fees by a huge amount will certainly do nothing to alleviate budgetary pressures as Councils face more of these types of inspections going forward.
Tonight’s focus group will be an all-party affair, with the Lib Dems being represented by me and Cllr Ann Garner from Sedgley. I don’t know quite how it’ll work, or what the focus of enquiry will be. But I will give an honest account of how I see things, and certainly won’t use the event as an opportunity to score political points. It will certainly be interesting to be on the other side of things for once!
Rick
have your say
