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June news

Inspectors pay a visit to Portsmouth

Services provided by Portsmouth City Council will come under the spotlight when inspectors from independent watchdogs the Audit Commission and Ofsted arrive on 30 June.

The inspectors will be in the city until 11 July as part of the council's Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) and Joint Area Review (JAR).

The CPA examines council services in general, and the JAR looks at children's services.

All councils are inspected by the Audit Commission and are given a rating of 1 (poor), 2 (fair), 3 (good) or 4 (excellent). Portsmouth is currently a classed as a 'good' authority.

Leader of the council Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson said: "We look forward to showing the inspectors the range of work the council delivers and the successes we and our partners have achieved.

"For a relatively small island city our size doesn't restrict our aspirations and we have plenty to show the inspection team.

"Portsmouth has shown it can handle tough briefs from campaigning to save the naval base to proposals that will transform the city centre.

"Our residents deserve a city which is a great place to live and work and we are proud to show the inspectors what Portsmouth has to offer."

There are five areas the Audit Commission will be looking at:

• our ambitions for the community
• our priorities for achieving those ambitions
• our capacity to deliver our priorities
• how we manage and monitor our performance
• what our achievements have been for improving life for local people

Inspectors will talk to the council's partners, such as the police, the NHS, navy and voluntary organisations, to find out what they think about council services.

The Audit Commission's findings will be released in October.

Date : 25 June 2008

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