Bolton Council and its partners have been praised for performing well by the new Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA), which aims to assess how well local public services are performing and working together to meet the needs of the people they serve.
Comprehensive Area Assessment is a new way of assessing local public services in England. It looks at improving outcomes for local people, and is made up of two parts:
- an area assessment, about the performance of the Bolton Vision partnership
- an organisational assessment, about the performance of Bolton Council
Bolton’s first area assessment praised the Bolton Vision partnership for delivering a string of improvements, including:
- delivering economic prosperity and the bold plans to regenerate Bolton town centre over the next 10 years
- responding to unemployment
- making Bolton a cleaner, greener and safer place to live
- reducing homelessness and improving housing provision
- improving the health of people in Bolton – although this remains a major challenge
Chris Hopkinson, Chair of Bolton Vision, commented: “The Bolton Vision partnership is committed to improving life for local people. We are pleased that the area assessment recognises the good work that is being done by partners across Bolton and we are determined to continue to work to promote economic prosperity for Bolton and to narrow the gap between different areas of the borough.”
Bolton Council’s organisational assessment stated that the council ‘performs well’. It celebrated achievements, including:
- excellent social care provision, which continues to be amongst the best in the country
- the quality of our services for children and young people
- the way in which the council manages its performance
- the way in which the council uses its resources and delivers value for money
Council Leader Cliff Morris commented: “We are pleased that we have been assessed as performing well by this new type of assessment. We are committed to delivering better services and real improvements to the quality of life for local people and plan to work with our partners to make Bolton more prosperous, achieving, healthy, cleaner, greener, safer, stronger and more confident in the years to come.”
Full details of Bolton’s performance can be found in our area assessment and organisational assessment (see link).