Feature: Inspections: Ready for inspection

The forthcoming Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) is "less about ticking boxes and more about how organisations are working together to improve outcomes," according to the Audit Commission's Gareth Davies.

Davies, who is managing director for local government, housing and community safety at the commission, which is leading on the introduction of the new framework, is optimistic the CAA will dramatically improve the way local services are inspected.

Coming in across England from this April, the CAA is an inspection process that involves seven inspectorates, including Ofsted. As the name suggests it has an area-wide emphasis rather than simply monitoring individual organisations.

The Audit Commission will gather evidence from the inspectors and produce a final report, which will include red flags for failing services and green flags to highlight good practice.

Cutting bureaucracy

New targets called national performance indicators have also been developed, the bulk of which are set locally. "Child obesity is a case in point," says Davies. "This is an issue that goes across a number of organisations, not just health, but leisure, education and housing. It makes much more sense to look at how collectively organisations are working to reduce child obesity."

Ten council areas have already piloted the CAA. Peter Parish, head of planning, commissioning and quality assurance for children's services at North Tyneside Council, one of the pilot sites, is positive about the CAA's emphasis on working together to improve outcomes. "This gave the process a focus not just on what we were doing, but how those actions have an impact on lives.

"They spent a lot of time looking at our not in education, employment or training figures and work by us and local colleges in addressing that," he says.

A reduction in red tape is another positive change the CAA should bring in, according to the Audit Commission. There is a greater use of self-assessment in the CAA process and having seven inspectorates working together reduces paperwork, says Davies.

However, the experiences of the pilot areas shows that the jury is still out as to whether the CAA will actually cut red tape or have a lighter touch, one of the other changes being promised.

But because the trials were "artificial" and made use of existing data from previous inspections, "it is probably too early to say with any assurance that the burden will be reduced in practice," the evaluation report added.

More work not less

The Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) is concerned that the CAA may actually lead to more work for those in children's services. It points out that the CAA still has an organisational inspection as well as an area-wide focus and the CAA does not replace Ofsted inspections, which will carry on.

The Baby P case has also had an effect on inspections and is likely to lead to greater scrutiny of children's services, says Marion Davis, director of children, young people and families at Warwickshire County Council and chair of the ADCS's standards, performance, inspection policy committee. "What concerns us is that by the looks of it there is no lighter touch and no reduction in bureaucracy. If anything there will be a heightened focus on social care," she says.

She is also concerned that tick-box inspecting will continue. "For example, the CAA or Ofsted inspections will not change the way they look at something like initial assessments of children," she says. "We are measured on those completed within seven days. But that doesn't take into account the quality of the assessments or the level of involvement from partners."

How well Ofsted joins up with the CAA is another concern, especially with the CAA's promised lighter touch seemingly at odds with Ofsted's heightened emphasis on safeguarding children and more frequent checking following the Baby P case.

Joined-up inspections

An Ofsted spokeswoman offers an assurance that the inspectorate will link up well with the CAA process. She explains the inspectorate will develop performance profiles, which will be updated quarterly, of all children's services in an area.

"We welcome the new CAA," she says. "It is designed to make sure that people know how well their local public services are performing, for them and also compared with other local areas. As well as providing assurance about the standards of services and the way resources are being used, it will also help to pinpoint those areas where outcomes are not being met and further improvements are needed," the spokeswoman says.

Another area of concern is the introduction of a flag system. Under the new framework, services that are doing well will be awarded a green flag while those that need to make improvements will be given a red flag. The Audit Commission's Davies says that the experiences of the pilots show that "they provide a good incentive to make organisations want to work better together".

Red flags will also be handed out rarely, he adds. "It is not just for any problem, it is a significant issue. After a year, if progress is made it can be removed."

But because there was no requirement in the pilots to publish how many red or green flags were received, the councils involved are still largely in the dark as to how the public will react.

Divided opinion

Opinion in local government is divided on the flag system. Adam Jacob, policy analyst at the Local Government Information Unit's (LGIU) children's services network, believes they are "a good way of drawing people in and showing how well services are performing".

But he concedes that the Audit Commission and councils need to work hard to ensure people can look beyond the flag and understand the reasons behind it.

The ADCS's Davis has grave concerns about the way the public will interpret the flags. She says: "If one council has more red flags than a neighbouring one that only tells part of the story and could be misleading."

Despite the Audit Commission's insistence that the CAA will be a change for the better, the children's sector remains far from convinced. The LGIU's children's services network recently carried out a survey of children services directors into the CAA's performance framework.

Full results will be revealed next month and this is expected to show that directors believe the new system could be marred by initial teething problems.

"In theory it should be less of a burden for frontline staff and managers. But whether it is remains to be seen," adds Jacob.

HOW NOTTINGHAMSHIRE HAS FOUND THE CAA EXPERIENCE

"There's only so much you can learn from a pilot like this," admits Peter Elderton, head of policy, partnerships and performance at Nottinghamshire County Council, one of 10 areas to trial the new Comprehensive Area Assessment.

While Elderton says staff gained a valuable insight into the new inspection regime, he concedes the local authority is as much in the dark as the rest of the country regarding some of the details.

The pilot told the council nothing about the way the public will react to the new CAA's flag system of marking. Elderton admits that the area gained some red flags, but the council will not make the details public. Under the actual CAA, such secrecy will not be allowed.

The bureaucratic burden on the council's frontline staff and management is also unknown. Inspectors carried out area-wide inspections and organisational assessments of the county council for the review. But this was based largely on existing data from the council's recent Joint Area Reviews and corporate assessment.

"We still don't know whether it will be more or less work. The work was already done because we had just been inspected. There was very little involvement from our frontline staff," says Elderton.

Despite these gaps in the council's knowledge, Elderton is pleased it took part. He was particularly impressed with the way inspectors concentrated on how councils can improve performance rather than on current problems. "Our GCSE results are not good," he says. "We could have got a red flag but that didn't happen as the inspectors were happy that we have the ability to turn it around."

Elderton says the CAA also encourages closer working between inspectors and organisations. "We have a local lead from the Audit Commission who worked with us on the CAA trial and will continue to do so."

WHAT IS THE CAA?

Comprehensive Area Assessments (CAA) will replace Comprehensive Performance Assessments (CPA) from April 2009. While the CPA focused on services provided by local authorities, the CAA will look at the public services in an area delivered by councils and their partners.

The CAA is intended to provide assurance about how well-run local public services are and how effectively they use taxpayers' money. But it also aims to be more relevant to local people by focusing on issues that are important to their community.

Source: Audit Commission.