Released: 3 July 2007
Wolverhampton City Council is working well with its partners to improve the quality of life for city residents, according to two major Government inspections.
Reports from the Audit Commission on the authority’s Corporate Performance Assessment (CPA) and the Joint Area Review of Services for Children and Young People both recognise the strength and importance of partnership working in the city. And as a result of these two inspections Wolverhampton City Council retains its overall three star rating.
Council Leader, Councillor Roger Lawrence, welcomed the results of the two inspections which highlight the importance and success of partnership working in the city.
“The Joint Area Review in particular has been crucial in accelerating the rate of partnership working in the city and we must continue to build on these strengths”, said Councillor Lawrence.
“It is right that we should be celebrating the depth and quality of our partnership working with other agencies, our local communities and the voluntary sector, which these reports have demonstrated result in real improvements to the lives of all our citizens, young and old alike”, he added.
The Audit Commissions’ report shows that “the council has worked well with its partners to develop a clear and challenging vision for the future” and that there have been improvements in outcomes in some priority areas such as making Wolverhampton a safer place to live, strengthening communities and improving services for older people.
The report states that “the council and its partners have recognised the challenges that the city faces and have set clear and challenging ambitions to address these and “are successfully reducing crime and anti social behaviour”.
The report recommends that the council should “intensify its work with partners to further address the key issues of unemployment and low life expectancy in Wolverhampton”.
Although the council was judged to be “good” for both the ambition of what it is trying to achieve with its partners and what has actually been achieved, its overall corporate assessment score showed it to be “performing adequately” as there are a number of areas where improvements remain to be made. However, the report recognises that the council already has plans for tackling these.
The Joint Area Review (JAR) of services for children and young people demonstrates improvements in many areas such as social care, educational standards, staying safe and being healthy.
This has produced an overall rating of “good”, with the work of all local services in helping children and young people contribute to society, praised as “outstanding”. Included in this was the “good” judgment made by a team from HMI Probation who inspected the Youth Offending Team services just prior to the main Review.
The nature and range of involvement of children and young people in evaluating the services provided for them was also noted as being “outstanding”.
The JAR report says that “partners are strongly committed to meeting the needs of, and improving the outcomes for, children and young people” and that “partnership working is strong and well established at strategic and local level and with schools”.
It also recognises that agencies are working well together to target health inequalities and that inter-agency work in keeping children and young people safe is good.
In helping children and young people achieve economic well-being, the partnership working amongst schools and local providers, such as City of Wolverhampton College and other key stakeholders is good, as is the planning and coordination of 14-19 educational provision.
The report states that “collaborative working is a very strong feature and relationships between all key stakeholders are excellent”, but the report highlights the need for better relationships with employers to encourage more apprenticeships and work based learning opportunities.
To download the CPA and JAR Ispection Report for 2007, click on the PDF icon below:
Back to top.
Issued by the press office.