Audit Commission issues new inspection framework

The Audit Commission has published details of the new inspection framework it will apply to the performance of Local Authorities and their major partners with effect from 1 April this year.

This is a particularly significant for Rochdale Borough as it is anticipated that Inspection under this new framework will take place this year.

The document states that the judgement will include both an Area Assessment and Organisational Assessment.

The Area Assessment will consider three key overarching questions:

• How well do local priorities express community needs and aspirations?
• How well are outcomes and improvements needed being delivered?
• What are the prospects for future improvement?

The aim will be to establish how well local public services are delivering better results for local people across the whole area focusing on agreed priorities such as health, economic prospects and community safety and how likely they are to improve in the future.

The organisational assessments will focus on the performance of the Council and its major partner Agencies. Specifically it will look at how they manage finances, the governance arrangements in place, how effectively resources are managed and how well it managed performance in delivering its priority services that are important to local people.