Evaluating The Performance Of Local Government

Compared with most other industrialised nations, the UK government places greatest weight on performance assessments of local authorities as a tool to ensure high levels of public service standards and efficiency of public spending in areas such as education, social services, housing, culture, and benefits administration. Annual comprehensive performance assessments (CPA), published by the Audit Commission for England, are now an integral part of the central–local government nexus. By contrast, Wales and Scotland have embarked on different routes in the post-devolution era and have developed assessment frameworks that are much less prescriptive, less intrusive, and more reliant on self-assessment. Drawing on 20 semi-structured elite interviews with auditors, auditees, and other stakeholders in the three nations, this article evaluates the lessons learned from the respective assessment regimes. It also assesses critically the plans to replace the English CPA system from 2008 onwards with a regime that emulates Wales and Scotland-style self-assessments carried out by auditees themselves.