Beacon Council Awards

Council Performance

The Council's performance is externally measured in a number of ways, in order to ensure that the Council is focussing on the right priorities for Coventry and is operating effectively and efficiently in order to achieve those priorities. Audit and inspection provides the Council with an external validation of its performance and identification of areas for improvement. It offers a measure for Coventry's citizens of how well the Council and its partners are performing. The Council produces an annual report of its performance and inspection judgements.

Reporting Our Performance - Best Value

Best Value was the Government's way of ensuring that people get the best possible services from their local council. The report, produced by the Council, gives an overview of the Council's financial and service performance against performance indicators set by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and our own management objectives. The final Best Value Performance Plan was the Performance Report 2007/08 (PDF).

Inspection - Comprehensive Performance Assessment

Most recently, the Council's performance was inspected by the Audit Commission, through the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA). The CPA was a Government initiative designed to improve the performance of local authorities and measure how well councils are serving their local community. It combined performance scores for a range of performance measures and inspections, for example Children's Services, Housing and Culture, to produce a star rating for each council. The current system was introduced in 2005 - this is known as CPA - The Harder Test. The name emphasises the fact that the assessments made under this framework have been made more difficult.

The CPA score for Coventry was released on 5th March 2009. The Council's performance was rated as 4 stars (on a scale of 0-4), an improvement on our previous score of 3. This reflects the Council's performance across a range of services measured through inspections and performance indicators. The Audit Commission also assesses how quickly council's are improving (their direction of travel). The Audit Commission judged Coventry to be improving well. The Council's Direction of Travel Self Assessment (PDF) and Corporate Assessment (PDF) helped to inform this judgement. More detail about these judgements is set out in the CPA scorecard (PDF).

Comprehensive Area Assessment

From April 2009, all local authorities and their partners will be inspected under a new regime - the Comprehensive Area Agreement (CAA). The CAA will comprise two elements; an Area Assessment, which will review how effectively the Coventry Partnership, including the Council, is delivering outcomes for the citizens of Coventry; and an Organisational Assessment, which will assess the Council's capacity to support achievement of the city's priorities.

The Council will be assessed under the organisational assessment Key Lines of Enquiry from April 2009 with an overall judgement about performance being made by November 2009.

An important element of the CAA is the introduction of a new National Indicator Set which will be used to assess the progress of all local authority areas. There are 188 national indicators, covering all aspects of service delivery, from the environment, to health, from public safety to education. The national indicator set is the only means through which central government will performance manage outcomes delivered by the council and its partners.

Audit and Inspection Letter

The annual Audit and Inspection letter provides an overall summary of the Audit Commission's assessment of the Council. It draws on audit, inspection and performance assessment work. The most recent Annual Audit and Inspection Letter (PDF) was published in April 2009.

Beacon Scheme

The Beacon Scheme was set up by the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) to recognise examples of excellence in local government service delivery. Each year, there are ten categories of award covering different aspects of local government work. Beacon status is granted for one year, during which, individual councils share their best practice. Learn more about the scheme and to find out about Coventry's awards.