Two London councils quit 'costly' CAA

Wandsworth and Hammersmith and Fulham councils are to cap the amount of staff time spent supporting the Audit Commission’s new Comprehensive Area Assessment regime (CAA) for public sector bodies, which they say has proved costly and ineffective.

In a joint statement, both councils say a mix of simple performance indicators and costs data – supported by customer satisfaction scores - provide a more objective guide to service quality and value for money.

The councils estimate this year’s assessment cost local taxpayers more than £200,000 and tied up hours of senior management time. This is in addition to the costs incurred by the other public sector agencies involved.

The leader of Wandsworth Council, Edward Lister, said that the effort that went into meeting the assessors’ demands was a huge distraction:

“This new regime is too bland and too superficial to provide any meaningful insights. In attempting to cover just about every aspect of public life in the area the reports simply descend into generalities. Despite the huge effort in cost and time there is nothing here that provides any added value for our tax payers. Wandsworth has repeatedly called for smarter assessments that concentrate on known risk areas and pick out under-performing organisations. People need to know that vital services like child protection are being thoroughly examined.”

“It’s absolutely right that the way children are educated, older people looked after and public money spent should be simply assessed and reported. We will continue to give these key areas our full cooperation. But in other areas where the wider process has become muddled, subjective and hopelessly over-complicated we are going to call a halt to the paper chase.”

Hammersmith and Fulham leader Stephen Greenhalgh said:

"In all my years as council leader I can count on one hand the number of times I have been asked what rating the Audit Commission has given the council. I am a passionate localist and believe all councils should be cut free from the centralised bureaucracy and inefficiency of the gargantuan inspection industry if we are going to be able to deliver even better services at lower cost to our tax payers."