Devon County Council

The County Council intends to build on its successes and the lessons learned from the past two years. The Audit Commission’s rigorous Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) rated Devon a "good" local authority - now the County Council’s aim is to become an excellent one. That will only be achieved through innovation and an ambitious programme of modernisation that focuses money and effort where they are needed most.

Social Services has a major contribution to make to the overall CPA rating for Devon County Council via the Social Services Inspectorate Delivery and Improvement Statement (DIS) process. This process occurs twice a year (Spring and Autumn) and provides the basis for the annual assessment and rating of Social Services performance based on national priorities. This Update to the Social Services Strategic Programme is aligned with the Government’s National Priorities for 2003-2006 and a summary of national targets and associated performance indicators for Personal Social Services can be found in Appendix 3.

The revised Devon County Council Strategic Plan maps out the goals the County Council has set to direct its work to 2008. It will be reviewed every two years to ensure its focus remains sharp. Social Services will contribute to this process by regularly monitoring the implementation and impact of its evolving Service and Performance Plans. It will refresh its Strategic Programme in line with the County Council review process. An integrated element of this quality management system is the European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence model (EFQM.) Its implementation within the Directorate is a requirement of Devon County Council.

Figure 4 shows how the partnership arrangements for strategic planning are being configured across the main user groups at the beginning of 2004. Once fully established, these arrangements will drive increased integration of planning and service delivery between the agencies and stakeholders involved.

next >Figure 4.

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