October 23: Is KCC poised to take on Audit Commission over ratings?
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IT is not only parents awaiting 11-plus results who may
have been a touch anxious this week.
I imagine there may have been a few furrowed
brows at County Hall as officers and politicians pour over a
letter from the Audit Commission, delivering its
verdict on the council’s performance.
We won’t know what this end-of-term report
will say until just before Christmas, when the league tables for
authorities are officially published.
But it could just be that KCC’s exemplary
record in being rated as one of the best-performing authorities
over several years might be in danger.
If it does lose its top-of-the-form spot, it
won’t necessarily be because it has done less well.
The regime for assessing how good or bad
councils are has changed from something called Comprehensive
Performance Assessment to Comprehensive Area Assessment. I know –
another piece of bureaucratic jargon.
Basically, what it means is that assessments
will be made on the basis of how public services over an area
perform, rather than how individual elements – like councils –
do.
KCC has not been at all happy about the way
the Audit Commission has gone about this work and the new regime. A
recent cabinet report was deeply hostile to the AC’s approach,
saying the “potential reputational damage to local government
is huge” and questioned if inspectors had “the necessary
skills to undertake meaningful assessments at either the
organisational or area level.”
The report also expressed “serious
concerns about the level of subjectivity required for inspectors to
make a judgement on Kent’s performance” and said “this
remains a flawed and expensive process which risks the credibility
of the inspectorates and may be as serious as to jeopardise
future working relations.”
Strong stuff.
The council even threatened to withdraw
co-operation from the entire inspection process but has, for the
time, kept its powder dry.
Of course, if County Hall retains its top
rating within the new regime, we may not hear quite as much about
these misgivings.
But I can’t help thinking the Audit Commission
is about to get a letter from KCC challenging its findings.
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I don't know about you but I have a rather traditional view
of libraries - namely, they are primarily there to lend
books.
But that is not the way of the world these days and libraries
are now things like "discovery centres" or - as is the case with a
new library planned for Ashford "Gateway Plus" - a place bringing
together all kinds of different services.
Still, such developments provide ample opportunity for council
officers to talk up their plans. In the case of Ashford, a report
says the new library will “provide an inspirational setting
capable of drawing in the diverse local community by supporting
lifelong learning and social inclusion...[and] be a user-friendly
place serving as a beacon for discovery, investigation and learning
which by its very nature seeks to generate a sense of uplift, of
pleasure and possibilities of life-enhancement.”
I need a sit down.
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Here's an odd thing. Sir Terry Farrell,
renowned architect andurban designer, is on Boris Johnson's
working group examining plans for a floating
airport in the Thames Estuary.
That would be the same Sir Terry that has been appointed by
KCC "to help produce a masterplan for Kent for
the next 20 years, taking into account the broad issues of housing,
transport, skills and economic development."
I can't help thinking KCC - which loathes Boris' plan -
may not be best pleased.
Friday, October 23 2009
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