Comprehensive Area Assessment
Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) was an independent assessment of how well local public services were working together to improve the quality of life for local people.
CAA replaced the previous Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) with the major difference being that it looked at how local organisations were working together towards delivering local priorities and not just at how individual organisations were performing.
CAA had two main elements:
Area Assessment
This looked at how well public services were delivering better results for local people and how they are likely to improve in the future. It drew on the work of six inspectorates: the Care Quality Commission, HMI Constabulary, HMI Prisons, HMI Probation, Ofsted and the Audit Commission. The area assessment was reported as a narrative without a numerical score or other overall rating.
Organisational Assessments
Organisational assessments for councils and fire and rescue authorities focussed on organisational effectiveness by looking for evidence of how well each council/authority:
- Managed its finances to deliver value for money,
- Governed its business and commissions services,
- Managed resources, and
- Managed performance, delivers services, outcomes and improvements to important local priorities.
The Audit Commission reported an overall organisational assessment score for each individual council/authority in the area. Organisational assessments for the other main public service organisations, police, and health services were described in their own frameworks.
Timescale
Assessments were made publicly available and provided a snapshot of quality of life in the area. The results appear on the Oneplace website which can be accessed via the link on the right.
A summary and a full version of the 2009 organisational assessment of Huntingdonshire District Council can be found in the linked documents section on the right.
Abolition of Comprehensive Area Assessment
In May 2010 the new government announced that they would abolish CAA as part of a wider proposal to cut local government inspection set out in the coalition agreement. To avoid confusion on when CAA should end, all work on the joint assessments was ceased immediately.