Comprehensive performance assessment

In 2004 Tandridge District Council was rated as good by the Audit Commission, following the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA).

The CPA process has since been modified and instead the Council receives an Annual Audit and Inspection Letter (AAIL) which builds on the initial full assessment. Click on the following link for a copy of the latest AAIL.

2004 CPA information

Tandridge, along with all the other district and borough councils in Surrey, was inspected as part of CPA, which rates councils as either excellent, good, fair, weak or poor.

A summary of the Audit Commission's report is set out below:

• Tandridge District Council is a good council that provides strong internal and external leadership and is clear in its overriding short-term priority to deliver high quality services cost effectively. Service priorities are determined annually by committees and are based on effective consultation with residents. These service priorities are fed into the annual budget setting process and resources are allocated to reflect community priorities. In this way the council maintains focus on what matters to local people and service delivery meets customer expectations.
  
  
• The council is less clear on what its long-term ambitions for the district are. It has adopted seven value statements, but these are vague and do not represent longterm ambitions for the district and are neither challenging nor measurable.
  
  
• Building upon its established track record of working in partnership, for example with the parish councils, the council has played a leading role in the development of the local strategic partnership (LSP). A community strategy was adopted in June 2003 with an initial three-year life. The council intends to build on this work with the LSP to develop clear ambitions for what the community would like to see over the next five to ten years.
  
  
• The council is well managed and effective with a well established medium term financial planning process. Councillors and staff are committed to providing good quality public services and have a good understanding of their respective roles. Councillors monitor service delivery through formal reports to committees and also informally by regular meetings with officers. In this way councillors and staff are able to identify where service standards are falling short of community expectations and where corrective action is necessary. The council works well with a range of partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors and council services are supported by good computer systems.
  
  
• The council delivers good services and has demonstrated a sustained focus on delivering priorities that matter to local people. It has achieved recent improvements in a number of key service areas. Historically the council has achieved high levels of recycling. In 2002/03, the council recycled 21 per cent of waste. This performance places in among the best 25 per cent of councils nationally. Since then it has introduced a kerbside recycling service to improve this service even further. The council has made good progress towards achieving the decent homes standard and is confident of achieving and maintaining this for all its homes by 2010. Currently 95 per cent of council dwellings have central heating and over 90 per cent benefit from double glazing. The council enjoys high overall customer satisfaction levels.
  
  
• Service managers are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their services and seek to learn from other organisations, but this understanding is often retained in service areas with few mechanisms to ensure it is shared corporately. Service managers encourage feedback from customers and use this information to improve service delivery. Recent examples include improvements to the street sweeping service and housing repairs. Similarly service improvements have been identified after visits to other councils. In contrast there has not been universal acceptance of the high level improvement plan produced by the council as part of its self-assessment.
  
  
• The quality of the council's future plans is variable. The council considers that it has limited staff capacity and places emphasis on service delivery at the expense of producing future plans. Weaknesses in future plans do not support or assist the council in delivering ambitions and priorities.
  

Click on the following link for the full report Tandridge final report.pdf for 2004.

Click on the following link for more information about the Audit Commission and CPA: Audit Commission - CPA