An inspector’s step by step guide

Residents are simultaneously patients, parents, householders, passengers, carers, employees, claimants and service users.

They see the connections and the gaps between the agencies that help them and the place in which they live.

So, if you want to know how well an area’s public services are working, it is essential to look at all its different agencies and examine the connections between them.

Comprehensive area assessment is a way of doing just that. It replaced council-specific comprehensive performance assessment in April as the method for assessing local public services in England.

CAA examines how well councils and other public bodies work together to meet the needs of the people they serve. It aims to give citizens, service users and taxpayers a clear view of the places in which they live.

So how does it work?

1. Three big questions

CAA is based on a continuous, live assessment of service provision in an area rather than a pre-determined, cyclical programme of inspections.

This method reflects on what matters most to local people, with a particular focus on sustainability, inequality, those that are vulnerable and value for money. It concentrates on the outcomes achieved for local communities. To this end the assessments ask three big questions:

• How well do local agencies’ priorities express local needs and aspirations?
• How well are the required outcomes and improvements being delivered?
• What are the prospects for improvement?

2. What about housing?

As part of the CAAs, we will ask how well housing need is met in each area; how safe and well-kept the neighbourhoods are; how well families are supported; the strength and cohesion of the local community; and the strength of the local economy.

An area is a success when it provides good housing that meets the needs and aspirations of local people. But housing does not stand alone; it is integral to the shape and nature of the local economy. The quality of housing has an impact on personal health and can affect, and be affected by, local educational attainment. Community cohesion will revolve around the access that different communities have to housing in a wide range of neighbourhoods.

In understanding local housing provision we are looking at what intelligence is being gathered and used covering the local housing market, the condition of the stock and assessments of need.
We are also looking at what arrangements are in place to deliver housing outcomes agreed on by local agencies. We are considering how agencies are dealing with those that are vulnerable, and how homelessness is prevented where possible and responded to when unavoidable.

We are particularly interested in neighbourhoods that have high levels of deprivation - which often have a significant proportion of social housing - and which are not showing signs of improvement.

3. The bigger picture

National bodies are also interested in what CAAs can reveal.

The work of both the Homes and Communities Agency and the Tenant Services Authority has links with CAA. For example, the HCA’s ‘single conversation’ approach to dealing with local authorities will provide an important bridge between local housing requirements and HCA investment.

Although CAA will, rightly, not assess the performance of social housing providers, we are working to make sure that they are clearly linked. For example, the TSA’s assessment of landlords could be connected, in future, to the CAA report on that area.

4. What next?

The first results from the ongoing CAAs will be available online for all to see from 10 December. Members of the public will be able to log on to a new website called Onespace to get the full measure of local services in their area.

Green flags will signal exceptional performance or outstanding improvement leading to sustainably better outcomes. Red flags will highlight significant concerns about outcomes and future prospects, where more needs to be done.

We believe that by bringing all this together we will be able to support public services to deliver better outcomes for people, to improve prosperity, to improve places.

Roy Irwin is chief inspector of housing at the Audit Commission

For a preview of Oneplace, visit www.audit-commission.gov.uk/oneplace

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