The Deputy Chief Executive / Director of Corporate Services advised that Comprehensive Area Assessments (CAA) and Organisational Assessments had been published for the first time on 9 December, 2009. Reports for all local areas were available on the One Place website. Green and red flags were part of the area assessment element of CAA; green flags being awarded for exceptional performance or innovation that others could learn from, and red flags for significant concerns where action was needed. Wirral had been awarded no green flags and one red flag for safeguarding vulnerable adults.

In its Organisational Assessment, Wirral Council was scored 2 out of 4 overall. For both the Use of Resources and Managing Performance assessments, Wirral was scored 2.

The report outlined the main findings of CAA, how Wirral compared with other Councils in the Liverpool City Region, and how the local authority, with partners, would seek to respond through its improvement planning processes.

The Leader of the Council commented that the Audit Commission had made the CAA test harder compared to previous years’ CPA in order to improve standards and that a robust action plan for improvement would be put in place.

The Deputy Leader of the Council commented that the narrative within the CAA was superficial and that it did not represent value for money from the Audit Commission.

Resolved - That the report be noted and a more detailed Improvement Plan in response to CAA be presented to a future meeting of Cabinet.