Frequently Asked Questions

What is Self Assessment?
The self assessment consists of the following sections:

Setting the scene: this outlines the general context in which the council operates, the key challenges and opportunities it faces and the impact of these.

Corporate assessment: focuses on four key questions, which provide the opportunity to describe progress in the planning and delivery of key priorities to improve services for local people.

Self-scoring summary: The Council scores itself against the ten corporate assessment's themes and summarises key strengths and weaknesses.

Diagnostic assessments: a brief statement of how the Council performs in the key areas below:

1. Meeting the decent homes standard.
2. Balancing housing markets.
3. Public space.

Action plan summary: describes the actions that the Council is planning to take over the next three years around its key priorities and the outcomes it is seeking to achieve.

Click here for a copy of our preparatory letter to the Inspectors dated 9th February 2004 (PDF 35KB)

What is Peer Challenge?
The self assessment was examined in November 2003 by an independent peer review team of managers and members from other local authorities across the country. This team visited South Bedfordshire District Council, and analysed our performance and made their views known on what they considered to be our strengths and weaknesses. Our self assessment was then updated and changed to include these peer review comments.

What do the Inspectors look for?
These are the first two stages before a week long inspection by the audit commission, in March 2004. The inspectors will look at how the Council is doing in relation to the following:

What is the council trying to achieve?

• Ambition.
• Prioritisation.
• Focus.

How has the council set about delivering its priorities?

• Capacity.
• Performance management.

What has the council achieved/not achieved to date?

• Achievement in quality of service.
• Achievement of improvement.
• Investment.

In the light of what the council has learned to date, what does it plan to do next?

• Learning.
• Future plans.

What do the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) look for?
The Benefit Fraud Inspectorate is also involved in CPA. In assessing district councils the BFI uses a questionnaire followed by an on-site visit, the length of which is determined by a risk assessment. The assessment made by the BFI is on the council's administration of the benefit service. It is based on the extent to which the authority's benefit service meets performance standards. A summary of the report together with the BFI's assessment will be available on their website

What does the rating mean?
The new scoring system for councils, called the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA), takes an overall look at how well each council provides services and its ability to improve. The result is a scorecard that rates each council as either excellent, good, fair, weak or poor and enables local people to see how their council is performing. The CPA score is important because it forms the basis for how a council is treated by Government.