The comprehensive performance assessment (CPA) initiative is part of the Government's drive to modernise local councils. Under the scheme, all English councils are given an annual performance rating. This allows residents to compare performance between councils, and to compare their council's performance year on year.

The CPA initiative is led by the Audit Commission and aims to give a picture of a council's overall performance , as well as a council's performance across key areas of service.  Each year councils are rated under the performance framework. CPA was introduced in 2002.  In 2005, the Audit Commission revised the CPA framework, making it a harder test, and replaced the labels 'poor, weak, fair, good and excellent' with star ratings.

CPA 2008

We underwent a corporate assessment in January/February 2008, our first since 2002. This assessment looks in depth at our central and long term planning and assesses how well we are preparing for the future, especially with others in the city. The assessment rates us between 0 and 4 stars which in turn will influences our overall CPA score. The inspectors' judgements are based on interviews with senior officers, councillors and partners in the city as well as focus groups comprised of staff.

We prepared and submitted a self assessment document, used by the inspectors as their starting point. You can download the self assessment from this page

CPA refresh 2007

The 'direction of travel' statement forms part of the Audit Commission's assessment of our ability to improve services for local people and our leadership of the local community.

The inspectors highlighted the significant improvement we have made in priority services, such as waste recycling, planning, street cleanliness and housing benefits in their report. They also praised the continued high performance of our services for children and young people and adult social care. Highlights also included improvements in the way that people with disabilities, those from an ethnic minority or young people can access our services.

The report also recognised that we need to improve areas of our work, such as the level of staff sickness and our approach to partnership working.

Previous assessments

CPA self-assessment 2002

This stage was completed by the council on the 3 July 2002. It explained local circumstances and told the assessors how we thought we are doing and areas for improvement.

CPA full assessment 2002

In August of 2002 a five-strong team of local government experts visited us for an eight day inspection. This Corporate Assessment Team interviewed staff and a range of city stakeholders like the police, residents' groups, parish councillors and Safer York Partnership. They used this information to judge how their and local people's experience matched up to our self assessment.

The summary assessment was that we were a good council, and in the words of the assessment team, "The effective implementation of the council's own plans and the recommendations included in this report will increase the likelihood of it achieving its objective of becoming a top-performing council."

CPA scores 2002

Results for our CPA 2002 are available on the Audit Commission website.

CPA refresh 2003

On the 18 December 2003 the Audit Commission updated our CPA rating. Our core service rating was recalculated and a 'direction of travel' statement issued that reported on the council's progress on the year. Following the refresh we were still rated a 'good' council. Results for our CPA refresh 2003 are available on the Audit Commission website.

CPA refresh 2004

On 16 December 2004 the Audit Commission updated our CPA rating for a second time. Our core service rating was recalculated and a 'direction of travel' statement issued that reported on our progress on the year.

Following the 2004 refresh we were still rated a 'good' council, but overall in a stronger position within the Commission's 'Good' band. In CPA 2002 we scored 41 core service points, in 2003 we scored 43 core service points. In 2004's CPA refresh we scored 44 core service points. The threshold for a council being judged excellent under CPA is 46 core service points. Results for our CPA refresh 2004 are available on the Audit Commission website.

CPA refresh 2005

On 15 December 2005 the Audit Commission updated our CPA rating for a third time. Our core service rating was recalculated and a 'direction of travel' rating and statement was issued that reported on our progress in the year. In 2005 we were rated as a 3 star council under the new star rating system. 3 stars should be seen as equating to the 'Good' rating that we achieved in the 2004 Refresh. Our scorecard under CPA refresh 2005 is available on the Audit Commission website.

CPA refresh 2006

On 22 February 2007 the Audit Commission updated our CPA rating. The rating for seven key service areas was recalculated, and a 'direction of travel' rating was issued that reported on our progress during 2006. 

In 2006 we were rated as a 3 star council (on a scale from 0 to 4 stars).  We were judged to be 'improving adequately' (on a scale from 'not improving' to 'improving strongly').  This is the same overall rating as in the previous year. Our scorecard under CPA refresh 2006 is available on the Audit Commission website.

Audit Commission annual letters

Each year we receive a letter from the Audit Commission summarising the key findings of the previous year's inspection and audit work. The annual letter provides context for the our CPA result.

You can download the annual letters from this page.