Results 2002

County Council is good and getting better

Worcestershire County Council has been ranked as a good council according to the new Corporate Performance Assessment (CPA) table.

All county and unitary authorities have been given a rating and placed in a league table by the Audit Commission, the independent watchdog.  Worcestershire is in the second best banding out of five (Excellent, Good, Fair, Weak and Poor).

CPA draws together for the first time a council’s performance in all areas of service provision.  Authorities were asked to honestly assess their performance before a team of inspectors made an external examination.  Service Assessments were then added to the equation to give the County Council its final score.

Councillor George Lord, Leader of the Council, said: The whole process has confirmed what we already knew about ourselves in that we have come a long way in a short space of time and this is a tribute to the hard work of all our staff.  It also supports our aims and ambitions to help older people live independent lives, raise standards in schools and provide improved roads and transport options all of which are captured in our Corporate plan.

Our service assessments all show promising prospects for improvement  so we are well-placed to continue improving service delivery in the year ahead.

According to Worcestershire’s Audit Commission scorecard, ratings for the six areas of service provision were as follows (1 is the lowest, 4 is the highest): Education 3; Social Care, Children 2; Social Care, Adults 2; Environment 2; Libraries and Leisure 4; Use of Resources 4.

Rob Sykes, Chief Executive, said: We were very pleased with the overall assessment and that we achieved maximum points in two service blocks, one of them being use of resources.  It is good that the process has acknowledged that we manage resources as effectively as we can.

The County Council will now use the assessment to continue improving public services by delivering on our Corporate plan targets and working together with all  partners to break down any barriers identified as hindering progress during the self-assessment process.