Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) is simply a national framework for scoring every local Council and coming to a judgement about how well it is performing.
It isn't a mechanism which delivers improvements in performance per se, although the desire to score better in the annual assessment process does provide the incentive to improve.
Duty of best value
The duty of best value to deliver continuous improvement in Council services remains on the statute books. The Government has stated its firm intention that best value should continue to provide the statutory underpinning of performance management in local government.
Government committment
The Government has gone further and has stated that it intends to strengthen the role of the Four Cs of Challenge, Compare, Consult and Competitiveness by making them an intrinsic part of the way that best value is achieved day in and day out (and not just as part of the best value review process).
This means that the Government is committed to seeing the best value duty as something which is part of the day to day way in which Councils are run and services are managed, and not just something that happens through a series of best value reviews.