Corporate Assessment

We are a four star council improving strongly

People living in Gateshead are receiving some of the highest quality council services in the country - and that's official!

Gateshead Council has been rated amongst the top 13 local authorities in England and Wales, and the highest performing council north of Manchester, according to new star ratings released by independent watchdog The Audit Commission. You can download the report on the right of the page.

The Audit Commission uses a star rating to show how well councils are doing as part of its Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA ). Gateshead Council - along with other councils up and down the country - has now been assessed and the results are in.

Comprehensive Performance Assessment

Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) is the means by which the Audit Commission fulfils its statutory duty under Section 99 of the Local Government Act 2003 to make an assessment, and report on the performance, of local authorities. Corporate assessment is one element in the overall assessment that leads to a CPA score and category.

The purpose of the corporate assessment is to assess how well the Council engages with and leads its communities, delivers community priorities in partnership with others, and ensures continuous improvement across the range of Council activities. It seeks to answer three headline questions which are underpinned by five specific themes.

What is the Council, together with its partners, trying to achieve?

Ambition;
Prioritisation.

What is the capacity of the Council, including its work with partners, to deliver what it is trying to achieve?

Capacity;
Performance management.

What has been achieved?

Achievement.

Considered against the shared priorities of:

sustainable communities and transport;
safer and stronger communities;
healthier communities;
older people; and
children and young people.

Corporate assessments are normally aligned with a joint area review of services for children and young people (JAR ). In practice this means that the Council’s achievements in relation to children and young people are assessed using the evidence provided from the JAR. In addition, examples of outcomes and activity, which are relevant to the other themes and which are identified through the JAR, are considered within the corporate assessment.

The JAR covers all services for children and young people that are directly managed or commissioned by the Council, as well as health and youth justice services provided by other bodies. It focuses on the contributions made by services to improving outcomes. The separate JAR report covers the leadership and management of services for children and young people and, in particular, the way that such services work together to improve outcomes. The description and judgement in respect of children and young people in this report is summarised from the JAR report.