Liverpool City Council - Comprehensive performance assessment (CPA)

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Comprehensive performance assessment

What is comprehensive performance assessment?

Comprehensive performance assessment (CPA) is the process which the Audit Commission uses to give overall performance ratings for councils. They base the rating on the quality and costs of council services.

Why do it?

Local councils are regulated in a number of ways, with services being made accountable through various performance management and inspection regimes. These can be quite complicated so CPA was devised to bring all of the key judgements together and make easier for people to understand how their council was working.

2007 CPA scores

The Audit Commission published the 2007 CPA results on 7 February 2008

Each council is rated from 0 (worst) to 4 (best) stars and also judged on its rate of improvement or 'rate of travel'. 

For 2007, Liverpool City Council has been given a rating of 1 star - improving adequately. This is worse that our 2006 scor of '2 stars - improving adequately'. The reduction is score is due to the 'use of resources' score declining from 2 in 2006 to 1 in 2007. The CPA rules (MS Word [332.5Kb] opens in new window) dictate that councils awarded a 1 for use of resources can only score a 1 star rating overall.   

View the '2007 scorecard analysis' page for further information. 

The Audit Commission will publish the report on our corporate assessment, carried out in October 2007, on 19 February.

The CPA framework

The Audit Commissioned strengthened its CPA framework, the method it uses to assess councils, in 2005. Called 'the Harder Test (PDF [178.1Kb] opens in new window)', the framework is a more robust examination of the:

  • way councils work with others
  • outcomes they achieve
  • value for money of services
  • progress against national priorities and targets        

The Audit Commission uses 'key lines of enquiry' (KLOEs) to help them determine their judgements. These allow them to look at what the council is trying to achieve, how it is going about delivering this and what it has achieved. Each service is scored from level 1 (lowest) to level 4 (highest).

Use the links below to go to the Audit Commission's web pages on the key lines of enquiry for: