New proposals announced by the Audit Commission will strengthen the position of the culture block, including sport, if they are included in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA), the Government's performance measurement tool for local government.

The culture block's inclusion is documented in 'The Harder Test' published by the Audit Commission, that gives details of the revised framework for CPA in single tier and county councils and which will make it a tougher test for councils with less emphasis on inspection and a growing emphasis on performance indicators. The Audit Commission will publish proposals for second tier authorities (District Councils) in due course.

Alongside this new framework there is a seven week consultation process on their proposals for the individual service blocks of which culture is one of five. The really good news emerging from these proposals is the retention and strengthening of the culture block. The Audit Commission propose to include culture alongside environment, housing, benefits and fire as second level services. Children & young people and adult services are the two first level services.

The scoring system proposed means a low rating for any second tier service would reduce the overall assessment by one level. In other words an authority that does not achieve at least level 2 in culture cannot be rated overall as Excellent.

Within the culture service block the Audit Commission is proposing a transition year in 2005 with inspection reports and historical measures that are largely based upon libraries, where the data is already available, and customer satisfaction which is an existing best value performance indicator.

In 2006 a series of additional indicators are proposed. Almost all the new indicators will be measured through a new national participation survey and an expanded national benchmarking service.

The new indicators include:

• % of 5-16 year olds engaged in 2 hours a week minimum on high quality PE and school sport with and beyond the curriculum.
• % of adults participating in at least 30 mins moderate intensity sport and active recreation on 3 or more days a week.
• participation in local authority sport recreation provision.
• a whole series of indicators around participation in recreation/leisure provision by different social groups.
• %of population volunteering in sport and active recreation for at least an hour a week.
• % of population that are within 20 mins travel time of a range of different sport facilities which have achieved a quality assured standard.
• commentaries by Sport England, Museums and Libraries Association and Arts Council on service quality and delivery, and an assessment of LPSA2, LAA, LPI's

For most of the indicators a threshold level is suggested and a method of measurement identified.

Regarding the Audit Commission's proposals Tim Garfield, Regional Director for Sport England East Midlands said:

"These proposals represent a huge challenge for culture professionals. The doom and gloom merchants were predicting culture’s absence from the next round of the CPA and without its inclusion a terminal decline in our fortunes. A massive co-ordinated effort has convinced the Commission the sector is serious about improvement and that it will be able to generate meaningful performance indicators that can provide a robust and reliable measure of local authorities performance.

I hope the sector will rise to this challenge and support these proposals. Having been involved for nearly 3 years in helping persuade Government and the Audit Commission that we are serious about performance improvement there is little chance of alternative proposals being developed that meet the Audit Commission’s requirements in terms of reliability and measurability.

It is my belief these proposals will help us to arrest the spiral of decline our sector has experienced within local government. This is a unique opportunity to drive an agenda of change, improvement and growth. We will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory if we do not unite behind the Commissions proposal and signal, collectively we are ready to rise to this challenge.

Sport England will be playing its full part, starting this week with the secondment of nine local government practitioners to help us provide the support local government will need".

Further information on the consultations and CPA can be found on the Audit Commission web site.