NNDC continues to improve says Annual Audit and Inspection Letter

The Audit Commission’s latest report, for the year 2007/08, concludes that NNDC’s overall performance has continued to improve despite its limited capacity. In other words, the Council is making good use of the resources available.

The Audit Commission’s Annual Audit and Inspection Letter noted that the Council is making a difference to the local community by being ‘increasingly supportive to vulnerable people and those impacted by the downturn in the economy’, and pointed to the assessment of NNDC’s ‘use of resources’ at level 3 (‘performing well’). This, according to the Commission, is ‘the first time an unqualified value for money opinion has been achieved by the Council’.

The report does comment that the rate of improvement has slowed to below average for English district councils, but observes that NNDC has an above-average number of performance areas in which it rates among the top 25 per cent of councils. The Audit Commission also commented that the Council should continue to drive forward the programme to improve its disability and equality performance.

Overall NNDC’s performance is still assessed as ‘Fair’, a Comprehensive Performance Assessment rating that is now nearly six years out of date, despite the Council being assessed as ‘improving’ every year. The CPA is being replaced by a new performance measure, the Comprehensive Area Assessment, for which the Council is currently compiling evidence.

• For more information, see: www.audit-commission.gov.uk

ENDS