Four star council status continues for Blackburn with Darwen

Independent inspection scorecards released today (Thursday, March 5) show Blackburn with Darwen is among the country’s top performing four star councils.

The Audit Commission says the Council is ‘improving well’. The overall four star rating is based on:

- what progress has been made in the last year
- how well finances are managed and the value for money
- how the main services perform
- how the council is run

The impressive rating – including a ‘performing well’ for use of resources - comes the same week the Council agreed the lowest council tax in Lancashire and the overall lowest increase in the county for the second year running.

The inspectors confirmed that the Council is providing some of the best services in local government. They praised the speed of processing new benefit claims, the access provided to public libraries and their stock, the way people in the areas valued and used waste recycling and how it works with partners and also the quality of community housing.

Their report said ‘effective partnership and neighbourhood working is helping to improve quality of life’, ‘services provide good value for money and financial management is strong’, and ‘educational performance continues to improve’, ‘social care and services for children and young people are achieving positive outcomes’.

Councillor Michael Lee, leader of the Council, said it was a ‘great achievement’ for the Council to have maintained four star status, as well as improving on service scores during the seven years that Corporate Performance Assessment (CPA) system was used, including meeting the criteria of the ‘harder test’ introduced in 2004. The Audit Commission is replacing CPA with a new inspection framework -Comprehensive Area Assessment - in April.

“I hope everybody will share and celebrate the prestige and benefits this rating brings. It will continue to improve our borough’s local, regional and national standing and also help us attract funding, attract and keep high quality staff, ” he added.

“The assessment has been extremely rigorous. We certainly have a lot to be proud of but there is always room for improvement and we take any indications of areas where we could do better very seriously. The inspectors said one of our strengths is that we are aware of the challenges we still face. With that in mind, we are working hard to find ways further ways to meet our own high expectations and those of our residents.”

Chief executive Graham Burgess said he was particularly pleased that the Council had met the criteria of the ‘harder test’ unlike some other high profile Councils who had lost their long standing four star status following its introduction.

He explained the CAA will have a new focus. "For the first time the Council will be held collectively to account for performance with other public bodies in the area. Partnership working is one of our key strengths. We look forward to meeting the challenges this will bring. We are not complacent so are using the opportunity it provides to assess how we can provide even better services to local people , ” he said.

Full details of the CPA inspection are available at www.blackburn.gov.uk