While there may be few tears shed for the passing of the CPA, many councils, as they face the great unknown of its successor, the CAA, will be clutching on to nurse for fear of finding something worse. Many council managers, especially those whose scores dropped in the final year, may even regret its passing, having become either adept at playing the system or anxious to improve their star ratings before they are frozen in aspic. All now too late. For, there is no doubt that the CPA had an impact far greater than that of its bureaucratic predecessor, best value, greater perhaps than its own creators ever imagined, but not as great as is suggested in the Audit Commission's own study, out this week, called Final score – the impact of the CPA. In its analysis of the seven years of CPA, the authors suggest improvements took place in every service during that period except children's. While this was true, they are at least in part due to the changed environment of the last decade in which performance issues have become core to the public sector. Nor are the authors able to quite explain why star ratings have improved while public satisfaction with services has headed in the other direction. The greatest achievement of CPA has been in turning the spotlight on the corporate management team and the political leadership. It is this focus which, in turn, has led to changes across authorities such that a former ‘basket-case' like Walsall is now a three-star performer. While weaknesses in political management persist, there is no question that the top team relationship is now seen as vital to the success of a council, and this is in no small part due to the CPA. The regime has also helped local government in its relationship with Whitehall, with improved star ratings enabling the former to lobby more effectively among central Government departments. But with greater emphasis on partnership working, and with the new grant regime likely to demand more partnership working between public sector agencies, it was inevitable the CPA would have to change. Whether the CAA will be the right successor remains to be seen. Michael Burton, Editor, The MJ
