Council performance indicators

The new scoring system for councils, called the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA), began on 1 April 2009. It replaces the old Comprehensive Performance Assessment regime.

The new CAA still takes a look at how well the council provides services and its ability to improve. However, it now looks more closely at neighbourhoods and encourages partnership working between the council and other agencies like the Primary Care Trust, the Police and Fire services.

The new CAA differs from the old system in the following ways:

• provides a rating for both the council and its partners
  
• focuses on the area as a neighbourhood
  
• greater focus on customer satisfaction
  
• is assessed all the time, on a continuous basis

 
The CAA score is important because it forms the basis for how a council is treated by central government. A higher score provides freedom and flexibility to improve services and make more decisions without Government intervention.

To find out more, please see the Audit Commission's website