Corporate Assessment
In this section you can find out more about the Council's 2006 Corporate Assessment (CA), which involves an on-site inspection of the Council's overall management and partnership working.
All councils will have a Corporate Assessment over the next three years. Rotherham Council's will take place this year (June 2006).
This assessment consists of two parts. The first part, a 
self-assessment (752kb), will have to be submitted to the Audit Commission at the beginning of May 2006.
The submission of the self-assessment will be followed by an on-site inspection by the Audit Commission which will take place over a 2 weeks period, commencing 12 June 2006.
During the inspection, the Audit Commission will 'reality-check' the claims made in the self-assessment. As part of the on-site inspection the Audit Commission will request to talk to a selection of staff, Members, partners and also the general public. The Council needs to provide an honest, self-aware assessment of its recent performance and improvement challenges. All claims made will also need to be backed up by evidence.
Why is the Corporate Assessment important?
The Corporate Assessment forms a major part of the overall Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) process.
Success in the CA is essential to the delivery of a Winning Council. The CA will allow inspectors to see just how well we are progressing as an organisation, how well the Council is delivering its services and leading the transformation of the Borough. Without a positive Corporate Assessment this year the Council will not have the potential to move to a 4 star 'Excellent' rating in CPA by 2008.
What does the Corporate Assessment process include?
The first part of the process requires the Council to complete a self-assessment, setting out its achievements and areas for improvement for each of the following Headline Questions and Themes:
Question 1: What is the council, together with its partners, trying to achieve? This measures:
- ambitions for the community
- prioritisation
Question 2: What is the capacity of the council, including its work with partners, to deliver what it is trying to achieve? This measures:
- capacity
- performance management
Question 3: What has been achieved in terms of the following shared priorities:
- Sustainable Communities and Transport
- Safer and stronger communities
- Healthier communities
- Older people
- Children and Young People
The Audit Commission has published the 'Key Lines of Enquiry' for each of these themes which will need to be addressed in the self-assessment. A copy of a summary of these key questions is available on their website.
The assessment will place a great emphasis on the councils' community leadership role, partnership working, customer focus, how it takes account of local diversity and equality issues, and how it provides value for money.
What is the link to the Joint Area Review?
The CPA inspection will be conducted at the same time as Rotherham's first Joint Area Review (JAR) inspection. The JAR which will look at the range of children's services provided by the Council and its partners across the Borough. The JAR will produce the score for the Children and Young People CPA theme.
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